Chapter 39

The knighthood ceremony was scheduled for the afternoon of the next day.

However, before that, something even more unexpected occurred.

Theresa’s magical beast, Mustafa, and her knight, Kristen, had started fighting in the courtyard.

Talli was watching the commotion from upstairs. The fight downstairs was intense, and most of the servants didn’t have the ability or the courage to intervene. They stood far off, waiting for the conflict to come to a conclusion.

Theresa appeared halfway through the fight. She still seemed to have a high fever, her face pale, and although she tried to join the battle, she was kept at a distance. It wasn’t until she fainted on the ground, tears streaming down her face, that Mustafa finally disengaged from the fight.

Kristen was losing the battle.

Although he was known as the “Undying Knight,” his combat abilities were no match for a bloodthirsty beast driven by a hunger for violence.

While he lay on the ground recovering, Mustafa walked over and picked up Theresa, as if he were a victor in an arena, claiming his prize.

Theresa slowly regained consciousness in his arms.

As soon as she saw Mustafa transformed into a human, tears started flowing from her eyes.

“Your Highness, you…”

Her lips were pale, and she couldn’t bring herself to say anything more. The prince held significant power, and there were many in the royal family who supported him. In his presence, she dared not speak any words that could oppose him.

After Mustafa took her away, it began to drizzle again. The servants started cleaning up the area, which was now tainted with rubble, dust, and blood.

“This is a good opportunity,” Talli thought to herself, holding an umbrella. She quietly slipped past everyone’s attention and approached Kristen.

Kristen’s wounds were slowly healing. He was now breathing in more than out, his silver hair clinging to his pale face, and large gashes from claws and fangs marked his body. Blood mixed with the rainwater, flowing across the ground. Talli crouched next to him, holding the umbrella.

She waited for a while, until Kristen had regained a bit of his strength and opened his eyes, before she asked him, “Do you remember me?”

Kristen lay in the flood of rainwater, his eyes slightly shifted, mechanically turning until they met her figure. The girl crouched beside him, holding a small umbrella, her skirt soaked by the water. He trembled slightly, but no sound came from his lips.

“A pitiful soul who has lost himself,” Talli murmured.

She didn’t hold back. Following Deritz’s teachings, she took away the curse of immortality.

“By all rights, I should have killed you a long time ago. But you were lucky. Even though you tried to kill me so many times and failed, I let you live this long. After seeing this, I realized that merely ending your life in a fight would be too light of a punishment for you.”

“Do you remember the time you tried to kill me outside the temple?”

Talli took a worn-out knight’s badge from her pocket. “I hadn’t touched you before because I couldn’t defeat you. But now that I can, I realize that for you, the most important thing may not be to duel with me. It’s far too easy for me to defeat you now.”

She had awakened her magical bloodline, using magic to fight a knight who only knew swordsmanship—it was, in every way, an unfair fight.

“Not even Mustafa—the magical beast—could defeat him. It seems you’re not much better.”

The knight did not answer. His gaze was fixed on the badge.

“As soon as news of today gets out, I will appeal to the family head about all the times you tried to harm me, Kristen. After that, you will never be able to step foot into the Fred estate again.”

Once Kristen lost Fred’s protection, his old enemies would be more than capable of hunting him down and killing him.

“Everything ends here. The Undying Knight.”

Talli narrowed her eyes and slowly stood up. “Whether you’re incapable of love, or blindly loyal, everything ends here.”

Since being cast out of Fred’s protection, Talli’s punishment for him had only just begun.

She turned coldly and left the heavy rain behind.

As expected, just after submitting her request to the family head, Theresa’s plea arrived late that evening.

Talli was in her room experimenting with more possibilities for magical bullets when she heard a servant knock at the door. They informed her that Miss Theresa wished to see her in her room.

Talli set down her goddess crossbow and tilted her head slightly. “What’s this? She couldn’t even come to beg me herself? I wonder if she’s the one who needs something from me, or if it’s the other way around.”

The servant broke into a sweat and awkwardly said, “Miss… her health is not well, she can’t get out of bed right now. She really is asking you personally.”

Talli replied, “At dusk, I’ll go out.”

She said this as she walked out of her room. “It just so happens, I have something to discuss with her.”

—

When Talli opened the door to Theresa’s room, she was taken aback by its size and decoration.

Such luxury and layout wouldn’t be out of place for a royal princess.

In comparison, Talli’s own room could be described as incredibly modest.

Theresa was weakly leaning against the headboard of her bed, coughing a few times, covering her mouth, and drinking some medicine before forcing a smile at Talli. “…Sorry, I must be embarrassing you.”

Talli pulled up a chair and sat by her bedside.

“You should know the real reason I asked you here, Talli. I know, Kristen has wronged you many times, he’s made so many mistakes. But, from my standpoint, he was only trying to protect me. Can I ask you… not to make things so final?”

Theresa went straight to the point.

She didn’t really expect to be able to spare Kristen from punishment.

She only hoped to reduce it as much as possible. At the very least, she wanted him to stay by her side.

He was the last person who stood fully behind her.

Talli remained calm. She listened to her words without showing much emotion, even saying that her feelings didn’t fluctuate at all.

She had already guessed that she would say something like this.

And because of that, she responded without mercy:

“Theresa, do you think I’m being too harsh, or was it him back then who was even more extreme?”

She turned her head and gently touched her neck with her fingertips, the feeling of suffocation from that time still vivid in her memory. “If I had been just a little bit more unlucky back then, I’m sure you’d be offering me flowers now.”

Theresa’s face instantly turned pale, and she shook her head, biting her lip as she grasped her hand tightly. “No… Talli, I beg you, please… look at you now, you’re fine, aren’t you? From now on, Kristen will never hurt you again. Without my orders, he won’t do anything he shouldn’t do… so please, I beg you, don’t… don’t let him leave me…”

As she spoke, tears couldn’t help but pour out, dripping onto the blanket in large drops.

Carl had left her, Mustafa only had possessiveness toward her, Ryan didn’t have any affection for her, and her father didn’t care about her—only the reputation she brought.

She had nothing.

Only Kristen could disregard everything and stand by her side, no matter what. Only Kristen saw her and her alone.

She couldn’t imagine life without him.

Talli, however, slowly and mercilessly pulled her hand away.

“Theresa,”

Her voice was calm and indifferent, completely unmoved by Theresa’s tears, much like how her mother once was.

“Why should I do this?”

Theresa was stunned.

Talli remained silent, seemingly waiting for her response.

Why should she?

Was it because she was her sister? Because they were family, both bearing the Fred surname? So they should take care of each other?

Yes, that was true. But when looking into Talli’s eyes, Theresa couldn’t say a single word.

“Theresa, don’t tell me you’ve never doubted…”

Talli leaned closer to her ear, lowering her voice and speaking slowly:

“Don’t tell me you’ve never doubted that you’re not your mother’s daughter.”

In that moment, Theresa’s body stiffened. The voice by her ear seemed like the whisper of a devil. Her face turned pale, her pupils contracted sharply, and her whole body tensed as if a string had been pulled taut.

“You’re not her daughter.”

Yes.

Theresa was not Carl. She was sensitive, had excellent grades, and when outsiders saw her, they would always praise her as “extremely intelligent.”

With her upbringing, having encountered the extraordinary treatment from Mrs. Fred since childhood, how could she not have doubted everything at some point?

Of course, she had doubted. However, as long as she wrapped this terrifying thought up and locked it away, she could pretend it had never happened, that it had never existed. As long as she pretended it didn’t exist, she could act as if it weren’t real.

She would rather admit that she was the one not favored by her mother than confront such a dreadful thought. Over time, she even deceived herself into believing it wasn’t true.

Until Talli exposed this festering wound.

The cruel reality spilled out onto the floor.

They had such similar eyes—violet-colored, indifferent, and calm.

The same eyes that could never be won over by her.

“You…”

At this moment, Theresa seemed to have forgotten how to smile. She could only force her lips into a smile that was uglier than crying. “Talli, what are you talking about…”

“What I’m saying, you know it in your heart.”

Talli looked at her face, so beautiful as described in novels, slowly turning ugly and twisted. “Theresa, stop deceiving yourself.”

“If it weren’t for everything the family head did, you wouldn’t even be here.”

Talli lowered her voice, speaking clearly and slowly so she could hear every word.

“Mom wouldn’t have died so young.”

“Ha, by the way,”

She suddenly seemed to remember something, and said, “Do you think if Carl knew about this, how would he look at you? His good sister.”

“No, no…”

Theresa shook her head, crawled out of bed, and kneeled before Talli. In a panic, she grabbed her sleeve with both hands, her golden hair disheveled, her eyes nearly burning with intensity. “Talli, you wouldn’t do this. You wouldn’t, right? You still consider me your sister. You’ve saved me so many times, you’ve protected me…”

From Mustafa’s claws, from the threat of ancient creatures…

She was soft-hearted and could never bear to face another’s pleading.

However,

“I did save you.”

Talli interrupted her, coldly lowering her eyes to look at her. “—But that was because I believed you were innocent at the time.”

She had thought the Fred family head should treat the children separately. She had thought the heroine was truly as gentle, kind, and pure as depicted in novels. She had believed Theresa truly knew nothing, that she was completely unaware.

It wasn’t until she saw Mrs. Fred’s portrait and heard Carl recount her death that she realized—

Someone with such a capricious mind, such sensitive and emotional feelings, living in a huge, century-old family like that, how could she possibly not know anything?

“Theresa, you’re just an accomplice who isn’t innocent, a vile deceiver.”

Talli pulled her sleeve from Theresa’s grasp, her gaze cold and looking down at her from above. “—A coward who has relied on others from beginning to end, a despicable person.”

Her gown swirled as she turned, leaving without a trace of warmth, stepping away from Theresa.

Talli’s voice was cold as she walked away, her footsteps fading. The door clicked shut with a “click,” cold and indifferent.

Moonlight streamed through the window, as cold as ice shards, and the wind lifted the curtains.

The summer evening breeze was unexpectedly chilling.

The last shred of hope for Theresa sank to the depths. Her rigid body collapsed into the soft brocade quilt, emitting a desperate cry.