The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 1

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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 1

0. Return

The Raskails were a prestigious and wealthy noble family with a long history.

The Raskail Count and Countess truly loved each other, and their children were kind and intelligent. They were a perfect and happy family.

Until one day, their youngest daughter Lillieta suddenly disappeared.

* * *

A circular flower bed located in one corner of the Raskail Manor’s garden. In the center of that flower bed stood a small tombstone, as if buried among the flowers.

It was a tombstone that had not been made long ago. The name carved on the white marble was clear.

Lillieta del Nisa Raskail

1751~1760

This year was 1770.

It had already been 10 years since the Raskail family’s only daughter had disappeared.

During that time, the Raskail ducal family had used every means at their disposal to search for the young lady.

Despite their efforts spanning the entire continent, they found nothing.

Except for the bloodstained piece of clothing and a few strands of blonde hair found in the nearby forest on the first day the child disappeared.

People said that Lillieta had been devoured by wild beasts, and told them to give up.

The people of the Raskail Family did not give up. For a full 10 years.

Only recently had they acknowledged Lillieta’s death and stopped the search.

The tombstone had been made just three days ago.

The small coffin beneath the tombstone was empty.

While burying the empty coffin, the duke shed tears and the duchess fainted.

The second son Richard did not appear at the funeral at all.

The eldest son Leonhardt received a call from a tavern the morning after the funeral. His younger brother had collapsed there, completely unconscious.

He went to bring his brother back personally. Richard mumbled incoherently the entire time he was being carried home.

They say Lily is dead, brother.

They’re telling me to accept that Lily is dead now.

After 10 years, isn’t it time to forget? Have you forgotten, brother?

I can’t forget. I can’t accept it.

We couldn’t even see her body.

That kind and gentle child went into the forest alone in the middle of the night?

Do you believe that, brother? I don’t.

Brother, Leon, do you know what she told me the night before she disappeared?

She said she had a strange dream. That’s why she woke up.

She asked if I could stay with her just until she fell back asleep because she was so scared.

But I, I!

Why did I do that?

It’s because of me, brother. It’s all because of me.

If I had stayed with her that day…

It was a story he had heard many times already.

No matter how much he told him it wasn’t his fault, Richard wouldn’t stop blaming himself.

Leonhardt brought the drunk Richard to his room and handled urgent matters in place of their father, who was distracted caring for their collapsed mother.

Because of this, he hadn’t been able to sleep properly for three days since the funeral. He had no time to think or compose his feelings.

Leonhardt was not at all prepared to accept his younger sister’s death and let her go. That’s why he had come to visit Lillieta’s tombstone from early morning.

There was already someone there. The Raskail duchess, who had been unconscious, was sitting blankly in front of the tombstone.

She was continuously caressing a framed photograph. It was a photo of her young daughter smiling like an angel.

She too seemed unprepared to let her daughter go. Perhaps she would never be able to accept that her daughter was dead.

If only they knew how she had died. If only they had seen her body.

Leonhardt repeated the thoughts he had mulled over dozens of times. After quietly watching his mother’s back, he turned away.

There was quite an age gap between the brothers and their youngest sister. When Lillieta was born, Leonhardt was 8 years old and Richard was 6.

Lillieta was completely different from her brothers, who had inherited the Raskail family’s characteristic of being exceptionally large and sturdy.

She was born premature at seven months and was a difficult birth. They said she was constitutionally weak from birth.

Throughout her childhood, she was often sick. Though it must have been painful and frustrating, she never really complained.

Even when taking bitter medicine, she would smile and say, ‘I like it because I can have candy after taking medicine. From now on, I’ll call it candy time instead of medicine time.’

She was a child like sunshine. The whole family had cherished that child.

Leonhardt walked past the tombstone. The back gate of the garden came into view.

The iron gate entwined with rose vines was tightly closed, wrapped with rusted chains.

That back gate leads to the Birch Forest.

It used to always be open. The Birch Forest that the family had cultivated for generations was a safe and beautiful place.

But after Lillieta’s bloodstained clothing was found in that forest, the duke personally chained the gate shut.

Leonhardt clearly remembers what the Birch Forest was like.

There were no dangerous beasts. Deer and rabbits roamed freely, and you could hear birds chirping. If you walked a little along the forest path, there was even a small lake.

He used to take walks to that lakeside holding his young sister’s hand. The soft, small touch of her hand was still vivid in his memory.

That forest was within the Raskail estate. It was also why the Raskail Ducal Mansion was called Birch Castle. It wasn’t dangerous.

Yet Lillieta was supposedly killed and eaten by non-existent beasts there?

And she had snuck out of the manor alone in the middle of the night without anyone noticing? A 10-year-old child?

Moreover, Lillieta was physically weak. She was a child who would get out of breath from just a little running.

It couldn’t be. It simply couldn’t be.

‘Someone took that child away.’

Leonhardt unconsciously clenched his fist. Strength filled his grip tightly. A vague murderous intent surged up.

Every time he imagined what might have happened to that child that night, he wanted to tear apart and kill that unknown someone.

He unclenched his hand and took a deep breath. Only then did he notice his father standing in the distance beyond the chain-wrapped gate.

Duke Raskail was standing in the middle of the Birch Forest path with his hands behind his back.

As if waiting for someone—a girl with footsteps as light as a fairy’s—to return along that path.

Leonhardt grabbed the gate’s bars and stepped on the thick chains.

He leaped over the gate in one bound and approached his father. The duke turned around at the sound of footsteps.

“Leon.”

“Father.”

Leonhardt didn’t ask what he was doing here. Duke Raskail also didn’t ask his son why he had come to this place.

Father and son stood side by side, looking toward the end of the path. No one appeared from within the Birch Forest.

The duke slowly turned around and patted his eldest son’s shoulder.

“Even though I’ve been absent for three days, there were no problems at all. You’ve worked hard.”

“Not at all.”

“Go inside and rest well. You probably haven’t been able to sleep properly.”

“Yes, I’ll go in soon.”

Duke Raskail returned to the mansion first.

Leonhardt didn’t go back but stood there for a while, then walked alone along the path.

Through the white birch trees, the blue lake began to come into view little by little. The setting sun cast long, dazzling sunset streaks across the lake’s surface.

“Leon, look at that. The sun must have dropped its silk shawl while going to sleep. It’s so beautiful.”

That child’s whispering voice lingered in his ears.

Leonhardt gazed at the lake and thought of Lillieta.

Her rosy cheeks, the sparkling violet eyes within her crescent-shaped eye smile, her fine blonde hair fluttering in the wind…

At that moment, suddenly, wet blonde hair burst up from the lake’s surface.

Scattered water droplets flew in all directions like jewels. Even soaked through, the hair sparkled brilliantly. Just like his sister’s had.

White, smooth skin. Long hair that seemed never to have been cut. Violet eyes visible between the clinging blonde strands.

A fairy-like girl, no, woman had emerged from the lake.

With a face that was the spitting image of Lillieta.

Looking exactly as that child would have if she hadn’t disappeared and had safely grown to be 20 years old.

Leonhardt couldn’t understand what he was seeing.

‘All this time I’ve searched the lake bottom countless times… and found nothing.’

While he stood frozen, the woman who had burst from the lake staggered briefly, then quickly regained her balance and pushed through the water to get out.

A quiet curse could be heard.

“Damn it, what the hell happened? I open my eyes and I’m underwater.”

The woman standing at the lakeside irritably swept back her wet hair. Then she made eye contact with the dazed Leonhardt.

She quickly changed her stance. Lowering her upper body slightly and pulling one leg back while her hand moved habitually to her waist.

The hand that had been groping for a weapon came up empty. Nothing was hanging at her waist.

The woman was visibly flustered, then soon looked down at her own appearance.

“What the hell is this?”

She was wearing a nightgown with white lace. The exact same clothes Lillieta had been wearing when she disappeared.

Though the negligee that had been full on that young child, reaching below her ankles, now barely covered her thighs.

One side of the hem was torn. It matched the bloodstained piece of fabric Lillieta had left behind.

The woman lifted the water-soaked, drooping hem with her thumb and index finger. Her beautiful face scrunched up as much as possible.

“What is this frilly thing? What kind of pervert’s doing is this?”

Leonhardt couldn’t breathe. The woman’s muttered complaints didn’t properly register in his ears.

He barely managed to open his mouth.

“Lili?”

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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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