One Day My Sister Died - Chapter 5 - Part 2

Marquis Compani shifted his gaze from the still-closed eyes of Claude and locked eyes with Marquis Reve.

 

 

 

This meant that the responsibility for the new Empress now rested squarely on his shoulders.

 

 

 

Marquis Reve stiffened and nodded.

 

 

 

***]

 

 

 

As Marquis Compani left, Claude’s eyes fluttered open again in the darkness.

 

 

 

His keen gaze traveled to the curtained window.

 

 

 

He could see nothing, but he immediately frowned.

 

 

 

The chill that he’d only half shown to the Marquis de Compani immediately washed over the Marquis de Reve, who stood beside him.

 

 

 

“The priest?”

 

 

 

“I am, Your Highness.”

 

 

 

“Your highness, shut up. You’ve been a jester in Yufrees for so long, and you’re still calling me Your Highness.”

 

 

 

“As the Marquis de Compani said, the carriage carrying the Empress is in front of the mansion.”

 

 

 

“The Empress.”

 

 

 

Claude laughed, mimicking the Marquis’s words.

 

 

 

The thin corners of his mouth twitched and parted at the sides.

 

 

 

White teeth glinted in the shade.

 

 

 

“I suppose you’d call her the Emperor’s Empress, but I’m tired of the obvious. So, how’s the story going to go this time, the Emperor’s violent female eccentricities, with his previous eight wives dead, missing, or fleeing?”

 

 

 

“…….”

 

 

 

“A killing party in a black mansion. What’s that?”

 

 

 

“It’s not your fault, Your Highness.”

 

 

 

“Who says it’s my fault?”

 

 

 

Claude shrugged and stood up from his rocking chair.

 

 

 

The worn chair creaked and squealed until he stood upright.

 

 

 

The Marquis de Reve said no more, but waited in silence.

 

 

 

Claude walked over to the console opposite him and opened the first drawer.

 

 

 

With rough hands, he tore open a pill packet and chewed and swallowed it without water.

 

 

 

I winced, the headache I always get after meeting an imperial dog that’s watching my every move.

 

 

 

Long, knobby fingers traced my naturally oily forehead.

 

 

 

His finely honed voice drifted haphazardly through the space.

 

 

 

“Just tell him to start looking for the Tenth Emperor’s wife now, Eunuch. Why don’t you have a coffin or divorce papers ready for her to choose from?”

 

 

 

“You’re not willing to try?”

 

 

 

Marquis Reve asked as he watched Claude finally tear open another pill packet. His voice dripped with regret.

 

 

 

“Even if you can’t live with honor. But you can live happily.”

 

 

 

“Here we go again. Is that what happiness in a foreign land is like? Holding a woman and seeing a child. Laughing and talking like a husband and a father?”

 

 

 

The Marquis de Reve fell silent.

 

 

 

Claude, bloodshot-eyes, threw his arms around him and grinned like a clown.

 

 

 

“Look at me, Marquis.”

 

 

 

“Your Highness…….”

 

 

 

The half of me that had been in the shadows was now fully exposed to Marquis Reve.

 

 

 

Claude’s smile was short, as if he didn’t like being seen in the light.

 

 

 

His bloodshot eyes quickly receded into the shadows, glazing over like a wounded animal.

 

 

 

“Who could wish for a husband like me?”

 

 

 

The Marquis of Reve politely clasped his hands together and swallowed hard.

 

 

 

Before him stood the young man who had once been called the most handsome man in Euphrith.

 

 

 

The other half of his stunningly beautiful face was hideous.

 

 

 

Thick veins like animal guts sprouted and intertwined with each other, hardening the skin as if it had been frozen.

 

 

 

Rough and hard to the touch, like the bark of a tree, there was no way to describe it other than to say that it was hideous, as if it had been horribly burned.

 

 

 

The marks of that horrific day extended not only to his face, but also to his exposed upper body and below.

 

 

 

In other words, half of his body had been split exactly in half lengthwise, mangled and mangled horribly.

 

 

 

The cruel curse was compounded by the fact that the other half of his body was blindingly white and beautiful.

 

 

 

The Marquis de Lev studied the clad before him thoughtfully, then closed his eyes.

 

 

 

Ten years had passed, but time stood still here.

 

 

 

After the death of the First Emperor, his brother, Grand Duke Igor, tried to kill his young nephew in an attempt to usurp the throne, and failed.

 

 

 

Instead, he left a terrible mark.

 

 

 

His body, which had been so horribly slashed, had rotted and turned pitch-black.

 

 

 

He was in such terrible pain that his hands and feet would curl up at night, and he was extremely sensitive during the day, suffering from the after-effects of pain and sleeplessness.

 

 

 

Despite his best efforts to cure himself, even calling in exotic wizards, the beautiful prince was forced to give up half of his body.

 

 

 

When Igor Yufrees the Centurion ascended to the throne and became the Emperor, Claude Yufrees locked himself in this black mansion.

 

 

 

It was like being in prison, as he never left his bedroom.

 

 

 

It had been ten years. Ten years.

 

 

 

It was too much for a 14-year-old boy, who hadn’t even reached puberty yet, to handle.

 

 

 

No one can understand his feelings and pain.

 

 

 

The Marquis of Mosan Reve opened his eyes with a sinking feeling.

 

 

 

Claude’s eyes, sensitive with pain, were still staring at him in a formidable way.

 

 

 

As if she knew what he was thinking.

 

 

 

“Who could wish for a father like me?”