Instead of My Beloved Sister, I Married a Monster - Chapter 3
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 3
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When laid out, it was a simple story.
The Hessen Count’s Family had a loving lord and lady, their beloved daughter, and one unfair contract with harsh conditions passed down from distant ancestors.
A previous family head who owed his life to a monster had promised to offer his descendants as brides in return.
The ancestor who passed the responsibility to his descendants rested peacefully in eternal sleep, but the later generations who had to pay the price lost sleep every night to anxiety.
And on the day his wife gave birth to their adorable daughter, a letter from an unknown sender arrived at the Hessen Count’s Mansion.
[The promised time has come, so fulfill the covenant.]
The nightmare that had tormented the Count his entire life finally overwhelmed reality.
Watching his precious daughter grow up, he despaired at the foretold tragedy.
Meanwhile, he desperately pondered whether there might be a way to save his daughter from the monster.
It was around two years after his daughter’s birth that he devised a plausible scheme.
He conspired with his wife to pretend she was pregnant with a second child and brought home an orphan who resembled them.
It was so that when the time came, he could push her forward to the monster in place of his real daughter.
Several years passed this way, and when the deception had ripened sufficiently, the Count faked the death of his firstborn and secretly moved her to an inconspicuous place.
Then he said to the orphan he had taken in with a grief-stricken face:
“Evnia, my one and only daughter. From now on, you must take your sister’s place.”
Evnia didn’t know this fact.
She literally knew nothing at all.
She was so ignorant that she foolishly and innocently thought that since her sister had died, she should naturally be offered to the monster in her place.
If the truth hadn’t been discovered, she would have closed her eyes willingly, believing until the end that it was a sacrifice for her family.
Her foolish delusion shattered without any warning.
On that particularly sunny day, Evnia had impulsively visited the home of her uncle’s family who lived nearby. She had thought she wanted to personally give them a final farewell before leaving for Litberck.
It was still a time when she never dreamed that such a beautiful farewell would not be permitted to her.
She still remembers it vividly.
The servants who were strangely flustered by her unannounced visit and the atmosphere that became oddly tense, the maid who quietly slipped away as soon as she saw her.
When she secretly followed with a strange premonition, there was her sister, whom she had thought was dead, surrounded by everyone and laughing.
“Everyone, what on earth is going on? How is my sister…?”
“Evnia! Well, actually we found your sister recently. At that time, yes, when your sister disappeared in the ship accident, we couldn’t find the body. Fortunately, Emilia was alive and hadn’t died!”
Before Evnia could finish speaking, Count Hessen urgently jumped up from his seat and explained.
Rather than sharing the joy of finding Evnia and family, he looked like he wanted to cover her mouth right then and there.
“Why didn’t you tell me that my sister was alive, that she had returned?”
“Well, your sister was also in no condition to, uh…”
It wasn’t that she immediately deduced the truth from seeing her father’s expression as he stammered and couldn’t continue his words.
Evnia didn’t understand the situation with her head. She just sensed it.
Evnia tested them with an almost instinctive sense.
“…Since my sister has returned, I won’t need to go to Litberck. Right?”
At that, Emilia, who had been just watching the entire situation, couldn’t stand it and stood up from her seat.
The family members tried to grab Emilia’s arm and pull her back down, but they couldn’t stop her mouth, which was fed up with the long silence.
“Don’t say such ridiculous things! We brought you here from the beginning to feed you to that monster!”
“Emilia! Can’t you be quiet!”
“Why should I? That girl is determined to send me to that monster! Whether her sister miraculously came back alive or not, it worked out well, so go and get eaten by the monster! She has nothing she won’t say to a sister who was thought dead but came back alive!”
Evnia couldn’t give any response to Emilia’s words.
She was just enduring the moment when the family she had known her entire life, the love she had devoted to them, and the world that had composed her was crumbling down.
Seeing Evnia’s face turn pale as a dead person, Emilia shouted even more heatedly:
“Don’t act so pitiful! I had a hard time too! I couldn’t even meet people I knew, lived like a beggar in terrible places, couldn’t say my real name even once, and lived hidden like I was dead the whole time!”
“Emilia, stop, Dad will explain everything properly…!”
“You were originally an orphan girl abandoned on the street. Our mom and dad took you in when you were about to die! A life that would have died on the street long ago – isn’t it enough that we let you live luxuriously this long? What more do you want from us!”
Listening to the cruel truth that Emilia was telling, Evnia was blankly thinking this:
Why weren’t they careful enough?
If they had just waited a little longer, why did they call Emilia back so close too early?
Had the relief that everything was ending made them complacent?
Still, couldn’t they have endured just a little longer?
Letting her remain ignorant of being used until the end would have been the only kindness they could have shown her.
“Evnia, my daughter born from the heart.”
After the commotion had passed, the Countess of Hessen carefully opened her mouth.
Emilia, who had vented all her accumulated grievances, was crying sorrowfully with her face buried in her chest.
“I’m truly sorry to you. But…”
But.
What did she say after that?
Did she ask me to die with a gentle face?
Did she express gratitude for the forced sacrifice?
Did she nobly warn that if her real daughter died, I wouldn’t be safe either?
Perhaps she ended up spitting out all those words after all?
“Bride, excuse me, but are you here?”
At the knock from the doorway, Evnia suddenly raised her head.
She had been sitting blankly in a corner, just killing time, not understanding the intention of being moved to this place. She had wondered if she would be abandoned like this, but fortunately someone came looking for her before it was too late.
Evnia quickly got up from her seat and opened the door.
“Um, what did Lord Ram say? What should I do now…?”
“Today there is a banquet scheduled to commemorate the bride’s arrival. You must be hungry, so please change into indoor clothes and come down to the dining hall.”
To Evnia’s urgent question, Giyermo responded with a smooth smile.
At the answer that didn’t fit the context, Evnia reflexively hesitated.
She had felt it from earlier, but conversations with him never seemed to flow properly. Something always went awry at important points.
“The dining hall is right next to the 1st Floor Central Hall.”
As if that was all he had to say, he finished only what he had to say and then suddenly left.
Evnia, who had been frozen in bewilderment, only spoke the words she hadn’t been able to say after he disappeared beyond the stairs.
“I didn’t bring any clothes to change into…”
He also didn’t tell her when the banquet would start, whether it was a meal she would have alone or a gathering with his master.
If it was food just for her, it wouldn’t matter if she didn’t prepare for it.
Evnia, who had been staring blankly at the empty corridor, left the room as she was.
After all, she had only been forcibly moved there; it wasn’t a space she had been staying in because she liked it.
If she went to the dining hall early and waited, at least she wouldn’t be scolded for being late.
Actually, leaving early was not a bad choice.
Because the manor was so enormously large, Evnia was able to find the central stairs only after wandering here and there.
After diligently walking down to the first floor, she looked around the hall once before entering the dining hall.
Was it because lights were lit so it was no longer dark? The building that had seemed only frightening at first now looked surprisingly ordinary.
Though it was old from not being properly maintained, the decorations and finishes were quite excellent. Though she didn’t know for sure, it seemed like it would have boasted quite impressive grandeur during its active days.
‘In those days, wasn’t that person also not a monster?’
Leaving meaningless thoughts behind, Evnia entered the dining hall.
That was actually an unnecessary question. If there was an important problem for Evnia right now, it was whether he was still human even now.
This question could also be rephrased like this:
Was this banquet for her, or for the master of this manor?
Come to think of it, he only told her to leave because he was naked, but he didn’t say he wouldn’t eat her.
There was no guarantee that a banquet commemorating her arrival would necessarily go into her mouth.
The ‘hungry’ person Giyermo referred to might have been his master, not her.
Looking at the huge table spread before her, Evnia climbed onto it after a moment’s consideration.
As she lay on the dining table wondering whether her fiancé would eventually devour her or not, she suddenly thought this was a very bad omen.
‘This isn’t right.’
She had thought that if she died, this suffocating feeling would soon end, but why was she still alive and breathing so soundly?
It was when Evnia was looking up at the old chandelier, blinking her eyes weakly. Against the white ceiling background, someone’s face suddenly appeared.
The man who had appeared before Evnia in an instant chided her with a displeased expression.
“This isn’t your bedroom, little one.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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