One Day My Sister Died - Chapter 6

Episode 6. Show of Force

The Marquis de Reve looked up at Claude, remembering that terrible day, and then looked down again in disbelief.

Claude smiled as his gaze slowly dropped to the floor.

“Thank you for your answer.”

“No one can understand your pain, but do not forget those, like me, who still follow you.”

With Marquis Reve’s pleading voice behind him, Claude staggered to his feet and flopped down on the bed in the darkest corner of the room.

Having tossed and turned in agony all night, now was the only time Claude could even close his eyes.

“On your way out, tell my ninth wife that going back now is the only way to live. That’s my first and last advice as her husband.”

“Your Majesty.”

“She’ll either die alone again or run away anyway. Why bother bringing an outsider into my house?”

Claude said nervously and turned over.

His shadowy blond hair fluttered softly against the white pillows.

“Why should I have to watch someone else die before my eyes?”

A voice, almost a whisper, came from the back of the golden head that still faced the wall.

“I’m sick and tired of …….”

 ***

Marquis Reve left the mansion with a shuffling step.

A lone carriage, unauthorized to enter, stood at the entrance.

And in front of it stood a small girl, clad in fur earmuffs and a thin fur cloak.

Her red, frozen face stared at him from beneath calmly flowing black hair.

Her posture and facial lines were mature, but her plump cheeks and drooping eyes beneath dense lashes still showed signs of youth.

She looks much younger than I thought.

It was a situation that made sighs come involuntarily..

“Eternal glory to the great Yufrees.”

Even as the Emperor, Claude was a true imperial bloodline.

Marquis Reve bowed his knee and inclined his head before his wife the crown princess.

“I am Mosan Reve. Please call me Marquis Reve.”

Reve.

The last name of the late Empress Dowager.

Yuan racked her brain for the name from the newspaper she’d picked up.

The Reves were one of the most respected families in the country.

A noble among nobles, just and upright.

Founding fathers who helped the first emperor start this country.

One of the most prestigious families in Yufrees centuries-long history, having produced several empresses.

The Marquis of Compani, having received a telegram from someone, tells her that the person will come out in a few minutes and then hurries away.

The man who came out after a long time was not a butler, but the Emperor’s maternal uncle.

The head of the Reve family.

Yuan nervously looked back over the Marquis de Reve’s shoulder at the black mansion, which was breathtaking to behold.

Finally, she would see it.

The man who must have seen the last of Louise.

There he was, the man I wanted to ask about Louise’s death, the man no one had ever answered.

And the man who was now her only family.

“Am I…… going in now?”

“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but I think you should return to your family first.”

Yuan held her breath. 

I’m sorry. Home. Go back.

The three words rolled around in her head and mouth before she finally breathed them out.

“Why?”

Go back? Go back to where?

As Yuan’s eye’s shook intensely, Marquis Reve quickly scanned the surroundings. 

Confirming that there was no attendance or maids from Felice, he was momentarily taken aback but soon regained his composure.

No parent would send their precious daughter here in the first place.

The thought weighed heavily on his mind.

“I know how rumors circulate about Emperor Claude. But he’s neither a monster nor a lecher, just a sick patient. He is in no condition to receive a companion, and I think it would be wiser for you to wait until the imperial family has something to say.”

The Marquis looked at the woman, whose complexion grew darker and darker with each word he spoke.

Usually it was the other way around.

There had been many similar situations, but everyone had waited and returned to their homes in procession.

The woman hadn’t seen Claude yet, but she was frightened enough, and she looked fragile, like she was about to collapse.

“What if ……I say no?”

But the voice that came out after a long pause was quite firm.

The woman’s reddened hands clasped together and shook, making her intentions clear.

“I’m not going back, I’m staying here.”

For a moment, Marquis Reve was so taken aback by the unprecedented reaction that he could only gape.

The woman didn’t give him any room to maneuver and hastily continued speaking.

“I haven’t had a wedding, but I’ve heard that the imperial family has already chosen me to be their next bride, so isn’t that black…… mansion where I’m allowed to enter, and isn’t that my home now?”

The woman was right, but the most important fact was that the owner of the black mansion was Claude Yufrees.

That meant that common sense didn’t apply.

Marquis  Mosan Reve began to genuinely worry about this innocent-looking and fearful lady.

“He…… So I’ll wait for my husband to come out himself.”

Yuan closed her mouth tightly after saying that. The tiny jawbone beneath her ear twitched, then snapped back into place.

She stubbornly looked straight ahead, oblivious to Marquis Reve’s worried gaze.

If I go back, I’ll either be sick to death or sick enough to want to die.

Anywhere would be better than that hell.

Even if it’s in front of a strange mansion, where her husband is standing at the gate.

Seeing Yuan’s desperate look, Marquis Reve gestured awkwardly towards the entrance of the mansion.

A servant ran toward them from a distance.

Without taking his eyes off Yuan, Marquis Reve instructed the servant to summon Claude.

He ordered the other servant to drive his own carriage and come immediately.

He was sorry for the new Empress, but he had no intention of accompanying the naïve young lady on her stubborn journey.

The ninth bride, Yuan Pellieser, would be afraid of him and run away, and the imperial court would soon send for his tenth bride.

If he came out and showed his face, she would run away in such a panic that her shoes would come off.

Just like it has always been.

Marquis Reve bowed his head lightly with a fleeting sympathy towards the seemingly frail new bride.

Yuan didn’t realize until the end that he had bowed and withdrawn.

Instead, she clasped her hands together and waited for someone else to come out of the manor to take her away.

***

“What have you been waiting for, you’re making everyone anxious, so just sit down already.”

“How can I calm down when it’s been days and there’s no resolution? Going out there in front of so many people and not hearing anything back. What kind of disgrace is this for our household?”

“Well, I’ll get her back, and this time I’m not letting her get away with it. I’m going to make her kneel in the snow and kick her until her joints are frozen solid and she can’t walk on her own two feet, so she won’t think of running away again. Follow her, follow her, follow her.”

“What if, what if she’s so scared they’re turning the carriage around and coming back halfway?”

“As if I would forgive her so easily!”

Even as he said that to the Countess, Count Felice sat down on the sofa in the parlor and shook his legs.

He had been like this for several days now.

Turning the household upside down and causing utter disgrace, at first the whole family was furious at Yuan’s escape.

The Marquis of Compani’s private soldiers had ransacked the house, and it was humiliating to be unable to protest.

Moreover, for the first time, Yuan, who had always been obedient, opened her eyes, said everything she wanted to say, and left, leaving the Counts Felice in a state of bewilderment for a while.

But unlike Regina, who smiles as if her tooth had fallen out, and Frederick, who is no different from Regina in that he was angry with his parents once they were angry with him.

The Counts of Felice, who had been taking care of their household chores with the help of Yuan, began to grow increasingly impatient with their niece’s behavior after four days without a word from her.

“Ah, I told you it was all for my good. Where’s Loxenhard? Winters are long there, and right next to it is the dessert. How am I to live in a poor, remote estate, as the bride of that monster of an emperor, and not count myself lucky that your sister has gone there?”

The more Count Felice pondered, the hotter he became, and he began to fan his face.

Frederick, who had been puzzled as to why he should lose his temper over the departure of a worthless girl, soon began to ramble on.

“The Emperor is royalty, and if we’re related to the imperial family, we’ll have a better chance of getting in line, and I’m sure he’ll be able to get us something for that Loxenhard estate anyway.”