The Unfilial Heir Who Tries to Kill Me Tempts Me - Chapter 3

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 3.

“There is risk of escape. Lock her in the Underground Dungeon. We will proceed with the exile protocol in four days.”

“Merciless, truly.”
After I’d surrendered everything, they wouldn’t even give me time to remove the Control Restraint before throwing me into this cell. An emperor without blood or tears, that was what he was.
“Still, I should be grateful. At least I wasn’t executed.”
I sank onto the cold stone floor and drew a trembling breath across my chest.
This was the deepest part of the Underground Dungeon. The very place where Charlotte had been imprisoned before her execution in the original story.
“Strange, seeing it in person like this.”
I ran my fingertips across the dingy stone, and it was slick with moisture and algae, reeking of decay.
“Charlotte would have hated it here.”
For someone of her temperament, this was hell.
Even though Charlotte was the villain of the work, I had never truly despised her. If anything, I had felt pity for her throughout the writing—a constant ache in my chest.
She resembled me too much.
A family that couldn’t be called family.
A heart twisted by the lack of love.
The knowledge that she could never be the protagonist of this world.
All of it was my own reflection projected onto her.
In truth, when describing Charlotte, I had immersed myself far more deeply than I had with Leoni, the beloved heroine adored by all.
“Still, that didn’t mean I wanted to become her.”
Was this retribution? Perhaps it was.
While I sat in the dank gloom, my thoughts churning, the entrance to the dungeon suddenly erupted in commotion.
Multiple voices tangled together, and the sound of boots drew nearer. A small figure in a Robe emerged with a flickering Torch.
I knew that face.
“…Leoni?”
A knight following behind her spoke anxiously.
“Young Lady Schmidt, the prisoner is a vicious criminal sentenced to exile by His Majesty. It may be dangerous.”
How absurd.
I’m Young Lady Schmidt too.
As I stared at the knight in bewilderment, Leoni smiled softly and replied.
“It’s all right. I heard she’s wearing a Control Restraint. Would you open the cell?”
“…But—”
“Please.”
There it was.
Leoni’s specialty.
That harmless smile.
“W-well, just for a moment, then.”
“Thank you, sir.”
At Leoni’s gracious bow, the knight’s ears flushed red, and he cleared his throat as he opened the cell door.
Clang.
Once inside, Leoni removed her Robe. Soft cherry-blossom-pink hair cascaded down—nothing like Charlotte’s at all. Her pale blue eyes gazed down at me with a strange heaviness.
“Charlotte, you look dreadful.”
“What brings you here? I thought you’d be lying down.”
“…Is your hair all right? I couldn’t believe Mother would do such a thing.”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
Now that I thought about it, this was the first time Leoni had seen my hair torn out. The Countess had brutalized Charlotte terribly, yet she had taken pains to hide that fact from Leoni alone.
We stood awkwardly facing each other for only a moment before Leoni spoke.
“…Why did you do it?”
There was a note of resentment in her voice.
“You knew I loved him. Why would you do that?”
It was a strange feeling.
The Count’s daughter Leoni, standing pristinely in a clean Robe, reproaching me; and me, Charlotte, the convicted criminal in a Control Restraint, sitting on the filthy, dingy floor, bearing her accusations.
If I had truly been Charlotte, I would have laughed coldly in her face.
To hide my own wretchedness behind cruelty.
But I wasn’t really Charlotte, so I didn’t feel that particular, innocent despair.
That’s why I answered her question as objectively as I could.
“I wanted to know what it felt like to be loved.”
“…What?”
“Everyone loves you as though it were written in stone. I was jealous of that, envious of you, and I wanted to take away the thing most precious to you and see how it felt. I failed, but.”
Yes, that was the heart of it. Charlotte had never known love, so she envied Leoni. She wanted to be like her. And stealing was all she knew how to do.
“Hah.”
Leoni exhaled a shaking breath. Her hands trembled as she lifted them.
Crack.
My head snapped to the side.
“I thought of you as my own sister. How could you do this to me?!”
Wait. Did Leoni just hit me?
My mouth fell open.
When I turned my head, I saw her face—eyes brimming with tears. Her hands shook more pitifully than mine, though she was the one who’d struck the blow. Even at a glance, she looked fragile enough to awaken every protective instinct.
Yes, this was Leoni.
The female protagonist of my novel.
A being who commanded the affection and attention of everyone around her. A being who lived in ignorance of the world’s darkness and suffering.
She had never witnessed the abuse and contempt that Charlotte endured at the hands of the Count and Countess—only love flowed from them to her. She likely thought this whole affair was nothing more than the Countess losing her temper and her senses.
If Charlotte was a character who reflected me, then Leoni was someone gifted with everything I could never have.
And so whenever I looked at her, a strange mixture of longing and deprivation stirred in my chest.
If I’d become a character in a novel, I’d wanted to be someone like Leoni. Instead, here I was as Charlotte, taking a slap across the face.
Was this some kind of dark comedy?
I touched my cheek where only a dull sting remained and spoke.
“Once I’m expelled from the Capital, the Crown Prince will come to his senses soon enough. I designed the brainwashing to unravel gradually once I’m gone.”
“Is that why you asked for the Lucifenia Duchy as your place of exile?”
So word had already reached her.
I nodded.
“It’s the farthest point from the Capital. That would be better for you, wouldn’t it?”
This is how I see you.
“…Do you even know what that place is?”
“I do.”
The Lucifenia Duchy.
The borderland of the empire, touching the continent’s edge—once a territory under the sway of a dark sorcerer.
But there was a reason Leoni spoke of it this way.
It was because of the territory’s current master.
He had seized the dark sorcerer’s lands so thoroughly—and out of such hatred—that he made them his domain. Since he raised his flag there, the Lucifenia Territory had earned another name: the dark sorcerer’s grave.
“You should go somewhere remote instead. What are you even hoping to do there?”
“I don’t know.”
I shrugged vaguely, brushing it aside.
I understood her worry, but I had to go there. It was the only way for you to be happy, and for me to survive.
Leoni, meanwhile, wore an expression of complete bewilderment. She opened her mouth to speak, then suddenly turned her head away.
“Fine. Do as you please. I don’t think of you as my sister anymore. You can’t…you mustn’t try to take him from me.”
For a moment, I found myself without words.
Something caught in my chest like a hook.
Leoni felt strange to me.
This girl, who had never lost anything, was suffering so acutely over the loss of her lover—even for a moment.
This girl, who could cast blame so freely at her sister on the eve of her expulsion.
It was a strange feeling.
I knew Leoni’s innocence better than anyone.
But now, inhabiting Charlotte’s body, the scene felt terribly bleak and sorrowful.
“Leoni.”
I met her blue eyes. I gazed quietly at the fresh, vivid light that Charlotte—with her pale, ashen irises—could never possess.
After a brief silence, I spoke.
“…Let’s not see each other again.”
It would be the path to happiness for both you and Charlotte.
I didn’t say “take care of yourself.”
My female protagonist would go on to flourish, just as she always had.
……
Leoni never answered. Instead, she pressed her lips together and left the Underground Dungeon’s iron bars behind.
The flickering torch-light receded into the distance.
I stood alone in the suffocating darkness, watching her figure disappear for a long time.

***

Clang.
“Come out.”
On the fourth day of my confinement, the iron-barred door finally swung open.
So I was finally leaving.
I thought my back would break from the strain.
“Are you not going to remove this, by any chance?”
I held out both wrists. The manacle-shaped Control Restraint binding them had remained locked the entire time.
But the knight merely swept his eyes over me with a dry expression before turning his head away sharply.
“You’ll figure it out yourself after the transfer.”
Seriously?
That’s just cruel.
If I’m being transferred anyway, they ought to at least remove this.
Judging by the atmosphere, I doubted any further plea would get anywhere, so I obediently slipped through the iron bars.
Two Imperial mages were waiting in the Underground Dungeon corridor. They were the ones tasked with transporting me to the Lucifenia Duchy.
“Begin.”
As they chanted, a blue Magic Circle materialized beneath my feet.
Flash!
Light flooded my vision, and when my eyes opened again, I saw not the dark ceiling of the Underground Dungeon but a clear blue sky.
A vast grassland rippled before me, scattered with low trees, and in the far distance, the familiar Grand Duke’s Castle rose dimly against the horizon.
“…I really came here.”
I never thought I’d end up in this place.
Though I suppose I should have expected the possession itself.
With a complicated swirl of emotions, I wiped my face with my hand. The Control Restraint still locked around my wrists clinked dully.
“Anyway, my wrists are killing me. How am I even supposed to open this thing?”
They could have at least given me a key.
I need to get these off before I can do anything. I haven’t eaten in four days—I can barely walk as it is.
I was in the middle of struggling with the restraint, working both hands and my mouth in frustration, when it happened.
Shing.
A cold, menacing sound cut through the air, and something sharp pressed against my throat.
“Hello, Witch.”
A soft voice reached my ears.
“Welcome to your grave.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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