One Day My Sister Died - Chapter 1 - Part 2
Chapter 1 Part 2
***
One year ago.
Yuan’s sister, Louise Felice, suddenly packed her bags and said goodbye.
“Why do you have to leave? Where are you going? What has Uncle asked you to do again?”
“Just wait for one year. I’ll do anything to bring you back within a year. I’ll come get you.”
“What about now? Can’t I go with you now? Don’t leave me alone here…”
“Yuan.”
Louise gently wrapped her arms around Yuan’s face, which was holding back tears.
Her slender fingers moved delicately, as if stroking every corner of a feather.
There was moisture in Louise’s black eyes.
“This is for the best.”
Louise’s voice was firm.
Only a strong determination was etched on her delicate chin instead of tears.
Yuan could only smile faintly at that strange determination and couldn’t give any response.
“I’ll come back soon. Maybe next winter, we’ll spend it in a warm place.”
That’s how her sister left.
Riding a small carriage.
Without anyone seeing her off at home.
Without any explanation.
With a man wearing a tall hat and sporting a mustache, whom Yuan had never seen before.
That was already a year ago.
***
Louise got married.
No one told Yuan who her sister had married, where the wedding took place.
From the winter when Louise left until now, another winter had passed, and yet no one told her.
Yuan only inferred from the laundry maids’ gossip and the brief news she found among old newspapers in the incinerator behind the mansion.
[“The Scandalous Affairs of Former Emperor Claude Yufrees”]
It wasn’t even a proper wedding announcement.
Countless names of women who passed through Emperor Claude Yufrees.
Among them, Yuan guessed from a brief article mentioning “recently married Lady Felice” at the bottom.
Claude Yufrees.
Even though Yuan, who had never been involved in social circles, knew his name as well as anyone.
A monster with a hideous face.
A womanizer who had replaced his wives multiple times.
If you stared at him straight in the eyes for too long, they said you would be cursed, your body would rot, and your limbs would wither… Yuan trembled as she read about the news of her sister and the emperor, which didn’t even include a portrait in the newspaper.
The Emperor.
No matter how dark the news from outside, Yuan knew exactly what that title meant.
Louise was the bride of this monster, the Emperor.
In other words, she became the Emperor’s bride.
***
Outside the large window, the sound of horse hooves clattered repeatedly.
It was the sound of many people moving.
Because the Felice Mansion was located in the outskirts of the capital city Cielo, very few visitors came unless they were secretive patients.
Feeling uneasy, Yuan, who had been reminiscing about the day she parted with Louise, struggled to lift her eyes.
“Louise?”
Her heart raced.
It was just like that day.
The morning when Louise left, with snow falling.
The busy sound of horse hooves has a chaotic atmosphere.
“Louise. It must be Louise.”
Yuan managed to crawl to the door.
It took a long time just to grab the doorknob and open the door, but she had a strange conviction.
It was Louise.
Louise always kept her promises. It hadn’t been a year since she promised.
Yuan bit her lip and struggled to stand up, groping along the wall as she descended to the first floor.
Her whole body felt like it was breaking apart, but she didn’t fall.
As if to answer her expectations, except for her uncle, all the family members were gathered on the first floor.
Frederick, who was the first to spot her, raised his eyes in surprise.
“How did you? You’re still…”
“Get rid of that dirty thing quickly!”
Her aunt’s sharp words passed by Yuan like a piercing arrow.
Yuan inadvertently swatted her aunt’s approaching arm away, her eyes blinded by the approaching anxiety.
Her aunt’s eyes widened in shock.
The first floor of the mansion.
Despite the fading light, the marble floor was clean.
There was a dark wooden coffin standing alone.
Inside the open coffin…
“Louise?”
It was her sister.
Louise Felice was there.
Still as beautiful as ever, it tore Yuan’s heart into a thousand pieces.
Her sister, who promised to come back after a year, had returned.
“Lou..ise.”
As a cold corpse.
All the strength in her legs, which she had been forcing herself to maintain, suddenly gave out and she collapsed.
Louise, who had walked out confidently even when in pain, was now here.
Yuan’s gaze passed her aunt, who was nervously biting her nails, afraid that Yuan’s miserable appearance might bring shame upon the family, and landed on the man who had taken her sister away for the first time.
A man with a mustache spread wide on both sides.
Tall and thin, but with an air of elegance.
Although she had only seen him from a distance through a window a year ago, she remembered him distinctly.
Even the smooth texture of the tall hat he was wearing.
As soon as their eyes met, he shifted his gaze nervously.
“So, she’s really here.”
Leaving her terrified aunt behind, the man approached Yuan, who was sitting in front of the coffin.
His tall shadow completely engulfed her body.
‘’Greetings to the next Queen.”
Her sister had kept her promise.
The promise to come back for Yuan.
In such a miserable and repulsive manner.