One Day My Sister Died - chapter 26

**Chapter 26. Whether to Sell Yourself to a Monster or Not**

Yuan clenched her cold fingers.

There were many eyes watching.

Regina had always made such aggravating remarks, so today was no exception.

“But today, I kind of understand. On the surface, everything seemed desolate, but once you enter the mansion, there are quite a few valuable things. It’s not hard to see why you betrayed your family and sold yourself.”

“Why don’t we step outside for a moment and talk.”

Sophia, looking even paler than Yuan, didn’t know what to do, so Yuan finally stood up.

***

In the corner of the spacious annex hall.

Yuan led Regina far away from the Felice people.

“You look like you’re living quite the life. Even wearing clothes that don’t suit you.”

Regina, eyeing Yuan’s attire, spoke through her twisted lips.

“You get to wear that much when you sell yourself to a monster? Quite the skill you’ve got there, just like when you stole my father from me.”

“I never stole your father.”

“Of course you’d say that.”

Regina sneered.

Yuan looked at Regina, who was acting just like she had in Felice, and responded.

“Shouldn’t you be happy that I’m no longer in Felice?”

Regina blinked quickly, unable to accept that Yuan, who had always been timid, dared to say something in return.

“What?”

“That’s right. If you’re going around trying to humiliate me in front of people like this, it seems like you hate me and think about me more than I thought. Wouldn’t it have been better for you if I had disappeared?”

“You… how dare you, you little beggar who lived off us in our house!”

“And it’s you and your family who did the stealing. My mother’s bedroom became your mother’s, and my bedroom became yours. There wasn’t a single thing inside that you didn’t take.”

Regina’s large green eyes widened in shock as if she’d been slapped.

Despite Regina’s piercing gaze, Yuan continued speaking firmly.

“I never begged for anything. Your father used me because he needed me. I was valuable enough to live there. If I were useless, your parents wouldn’t have bothered keeping such a close eye on me. If I was just a freeloader, they’d have praised me for leaving.”

“Valuable? What value could someone like you possibly have? All you did was take down notes for my father’s prescriptions. What’s so hard about pouring tea into a cup when the servants have already prepared it? What big accomplishment did you make that gives you such confidence? You crow.”

You really don’t know anything.

Yuan refused to continue the conversation, looking at Regina, who still knew nothing about Felice’s true power. Only those who understand that power can grasp the exploitation at play.

“Say it, huh? Fine, let’s hear it. What’s this so-called valuable ‘assistant work’ you did?”

Assistant?

Yuan let out a bitter laugh in disbelief.

Assistant?

It was Yuan’s uncle who was always busy taking notes on Yuan’s research.

It was Yuan’s uncle who took Yuan’s prescriptions and passed them off as his own to the nobles.

It was Yuan’s uncle who boasted about possessing Yuan’s talents and chose the path of a quack medicine seller instead of a true physician.

And it was Yuan’s uncle who reduced the proud medical legacy of Felice, built by their parents, into nothing more than a money-making scheme.

“If you don’t even know that, I don’t want to talk to you anymore. Stop making a scene. Even His Majesty the Emperor is here.”

Regina stood there with her mouth open, shaking her head.

She couldn’t believe that the once timid girl, who always lowered her eyes and looked at the ground, was acting so arrogantly just because they no longer lived together.

But when she saw Yuan’s pale face and trembling hands, Regina soon regained her composure and cooled her anger.

“Do you dare try to teach me?”

A crow is still a crow, no matter how big the house or how fine the clothes.

“You think we stole from you? Ha, that’s some delusion.”

Regina folded her arms and looked down at Yuan with a smug lift of her chin.

“You’ve always run and hidden like this. You selfish girl.”

Regina lashed out at Yuan, who remained standing silently.

“You’ve always lived thinking you’re the only one in the whole world who’s unhappy, haven’t you?”

Regina mocked Yuan, recalling how she had always lived with downcast eyes, acting like nothing more than a servant, constantly wearing a pitiful expression.

“You never accepted the filthy reality you were in. Never knowing your place. Even if we had kicked you and your sick sister out to an orphanage back then, no one would have blamed us. And even if we had sold you off like some old bride to a rich man, people would have applauded us for finding a good match for an orphan like you.”

Glancing at her family, who were watching her and Yuan closely from afar, Regina continued to press Yuan.

That smooth face, as if she were living comfortably. Seeing Yuan’s jewelry and clothes, things she couldn’t have dreamed of before, made Regina twice as resentful.

“An orphan with no parents. A noble with no title. A woman without a penny to her name. You knew exactly what kind of end awaited you, didn’t you? That’s why you clung to our family.”

Yuan silently stared at Regina.

Those irritating black eyes.

“You were always like this.”

Regina’s lips curled further in disdain.

“You always picked the best option available to you, and yet you were never satisfied, always clawing your way up.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You pretend like you’ve lost everything, playing the victim, but you’ve always managed to replace it all, haven’t you?”

As Yuan’s black eyes finally began to tremble, Regina gained momentum.

“You think you’re the only orphan in the world? The only person living without a room of your own? You lost the house you lived in with your parents, so you clung to mine. You relied on Louise instead of your parents. How clever of you, always finding a way to survive. Sucking up to my father to get into the lab, and when you felt lonely or miserable, you ran to Louise. What exactly did you lack?”

Regina took a step forward, closing the distance between their faces.

“Your sister died. And now that you have nowhere to go, didn’t you just want to replace everything?”

“No. No, that’s not it.”

“A husband to replace your sister. This dark mansion replaced the Felice estate. It must feel like a relief.”

Yuan’s eyes quickly filled with bloodshot veins.

The smile on Regina’s lips deepened.

“That’s your nature. You’re rotten to the core. A cunning little bat. Whatever you stole, stop clinging to it so miserably and give it back. Because of you, my father suffers every day, hanging on in misery.”

“……”

“You can replace everything, so you don’t care, do you? Did you leave the estate because we tormented you? No! You just wanted to settle down somewhere else, selling yourself to a man who might have killed Louise!”

“!”

The man who might have killed Louise.

That single sentence cast a dark shadow over Yuan’s heart.

Regina, of course, didn’t miss that reaction.

“Feeling guilty, are you? You think I wouldn’t notice?”

Leaning even closer to meet Yuan’s sunken eyes head-on, Regina pressed further, her face flushed with indignation.

“So what if Louise died? You didn’t shed a single tear when she passed either, Yuan Felice, did you?”

As their noses nearly brushed, Regina finally saw the guilt bubbling beneath Yuan’s black eyes and opened her mouth again.

“In the end, all you care about is your own comfort, Yuan Felice. You don’t give a damn what happens to your family, whether it’s us, who took you in, or Louise!”

Regina stepped back, her body still tense, and flicked open her fan with a sharp snap, covering her face.

From behind the fan, her sharp green eyes glanced far across the room to the exiled prince, Claude Yufrees.

“A half met a half. They suit each other perfectly.”

Yuan clenched both fists tightly as she caught sight of Claude beyond Regina’s deep red hair.

Regina’s shoulders shook as she laughed mockingly from behind her fan.

“You’re hiding that black heart of yours behind that innocent face, aren’t you? Just like your husband. What good is looking fine on the outside? Everyone knows there’s a disgusting, ugly side beneath that mask. And what’s worse, he’s a disgraced prince, exiled with no title or inheritance, trapped here to spend his life as nothing more than a spectacle for others to gawk at.”

Though Yuan’s husband wasn’t from a grand noble family, Regina felt her future husband would be much better.

At least Drakeup Trelowney would inherit some land and a title when he married. At least he wouldn’t need to wear a mask to cover a ruined face when attending parties.

“You two make a perfect pair. Keep at it. Whether you sell yourself to that monster or not, it’s none of my business. But…”

*Snap!*

With a sharp clap, Regina closed her fluttering fan as if clapping her hands and leaned in toward Yuan, who was straining to endure the humiliation.

“I’m warning you. It would be wise to reply to my father’s letter soon. If my family suffers any more because of you, I won’t sit still. You’re not even worthy of the nickname ‘crow’ anymore. You’re just a filthy bat.”

With that, Regina struck Yuan hard on the shoulder and then walked off, as if nothing had been said, returning to her family.

Yuan clutched her shoulder, still throbbing from the impact, and stared at the piercing gazes directed at her.

Her uncle’s face was flushed.

It was a face filled with the expectation that his daughter might have accomplished something.

Yuan grimaced deeply, unable to stand the sight of that face.