Chapter 57

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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: The Truth Revealed
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“Oh, that’s a misunderstanding, Commander.”

Jonny, rising on trembling legs, frantically waved his hands. But Demian’s reaction was cold.

“What’s the misunderstanding?”

“Th-that is…”

“That you tried to kill that woman?”

Jonny furiously nodded, judging from the plain question that Demian hadn’t listened closely to their conversation.

“That woman kept threatening me for money, so I lashed out in the heat of the moment.”

“That’s a lie! I never once demanded money!”

Sisley, who had been weeping in Aracilla’s arms, cried out in an indignant voice.

“I just wanted Sir Pattinson to admit his fault…!”

“Shut up, you lowly wretch! Who wouldn’t know you’re slandering me for money?! People like you will do anything for a price!”

Jonny, silencing Sisley with a sharp barb, turned back to Demian. His face, rubbing his hands anxiously, was desperate.

“Commander, I truly regret holding the knife. But I couldn’t help it. After being slandered by her and even going to the Magic Tower prison, it was too humiliating for a knight to endure any longer—”

“What’s truly humiliating is your current state, Jonny Pattinson.”

Demian cut off Jonny’s rambling, responding icily.

Jonny stiffened, sensing a change in Demian’s eyes as he stared at him. Sweat drenched his armpits and back from the tension.

“I will listen to the woman myself and make a judgment. You keep quiet.”

“...!”

Demian, suppressing Jonny with just a glance as he tried to protest, shifted his gaze to Sisley.

Sisley swallowed hard, realizing she finally had a chance to speak. Aracilla gripped her shoulder encouragingly.

Soon, Sisley opened her trembling lips.

“Actually, Sir Pattinson… was the lover of someone I looked up to like an older sister.”

* * *

Sisley was an orphan. The only person she could call family was Rose, whom she had met on the streets, abandoned just like her.

The two worked together, lived together, and stuck together like sisters. To Sisley, Rose was her entire world.

Then one day, the Red Hawk Knights appeared in the border town where the two lived.

Their presence brought both a strange sense of unease and a burst of vitality to the town. The women of the village admired the young, healthy knights they rarely saw.

The knights occasionally came to the tavern where the two worked to drink, but Sisley, unlike the other women, wasn’t interested in them.

Most knights were nobles. They were beings commoners dared not aspire to. Especially a woman like her, who worked in a tavern.

“Sisley, you’re so nonchalant even when you see the knights?”

“It’s only a loss for me to look at a tree I can’t climb. You shouldn’t get interested either, Sis. Got it?”

“Oh, you silly girl. You treat me like a child.”

Rose laughed as if stating the obvious. Sisley was relieved by her jesting remark that she knew her place.

However, at some point, Rose started acting strangely.

She smiled without reason more often, frequently went out late at night, and would hide something she was looking at alone whenever Sisley approached.

Sisley sensed something was amiss and, after repeatedly pressing her, Rose finally confessed that she was in a relationship with a knight.

“Sis, are you crazy?! Dating a knight?! Do you think they see us as people?”

“Don’t say that, Sisley. Jo is different from the others! He truly loves me.”

Rose painstakingly tried to persuade Sisley, who was fuming.

Jo, unlike other knights, didn’t enjoy entertainment and had never once come to the tavern.

They had met on a bridge by the river, and he had saved her when she almost slipped and fell, leading to them falling in love at first sight, as if by destiny.

He was serious yet pure and kind, someone she could trust.

After she insisted for several days, Sisley had no choice but to relent. However, she wasn’t completely at ease, so she asked Rose to introduce her to the knight directly.

“Jo said it’s too early to announce our relationship…”

“Who told you to gather people and announce it? Just show him to me. Just once is enough.”

This time, Sisley persuaded Rose. Rose, after some thought, nodded.

Rose and the knight mostly met in secluded places at dawn, away from prying eyes, for their dates.

Then, when the knight came to the backyard of their house at Rose’s request, Sisley happened to appear before them, pretending to have just woken up.

“Jo, this is my sister, Sisley. We’re not blood-related, but she’s like family.”

“Hello, I’m Sisley. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Sisley greeted him politely. The knight was visibly flustered, his face flushing crimson.

He seemed utterly at a loss, so Rose tried to soothe him.

“Sisley is trustworthy. She’s very good at keeping secrets, you know?”

Only after Rose had reassured him for several minutes did the knight finally speak.

“...I’m Jonny Pattinson.”

That was Jonny Pattinson and Sisley’s first meeting.

Sisley judged that Jonny was not bad, as he didn’t speak harshly or act roughly like other knights, and she truly stopped interfering with Rose’s romance.

Rose met Jonny happily. Although it was a secret romance known to no one but Sisley, she had no complaints.

Because…

“Jo says he’s taking me to the capital, Sisley. You come with me too! We’ll start a new life.”

“Sir Pattinson might not like it if I go too.”

“No, he said he wants to be deeply involved with me. This is a secret, but he’s even thinking about marriage!”

Jonny always promised her a distant future, so Sisley couldn’t complain.

Sometimes, Sisley felt an inexplicable unease surge when she looked at Rose, but she deliberately didn’t voice it.

If Jonny Pattinson truly loved Rose, transcending the difference in their statuses, she didn’t want to spoil Rose’s happiness.

“Once we settle in the capital, I’ll definitely call for you, so wait. Sisley, you’re my sister. Let’s start a new life together.”

Rose smiled, filled with dreams and hope. Her eyes, dreaming of a new life, sparkled like stars.

However, in the end, she never made it to the capital.

“Kyaa! Sister Rose—!”

One day, she suddenly took her own life.

Sisley, who discovered her body, wailed. She clung to her cold, lifeless body and cried out.

Jonny did not attend Rose’s funeral. Even after receiving the letter announcing her death, he heartlessly returned it and showed no reaction.

When Sisley returned after barely managing the funeral alone, Rose’s room had been burglarized, leaving hardly any belongings behind.

She spent her days consumed by the despair and sorrow of losing her family. Lost in dejection, she couldn’t even work properly.

It was then, having fallen behind on rent, that she was forced to leave the house she had shared with Rose.

While cleaning every corner of the room in preparation for moving, Sisley accidentally discovered Rose’s diary and a pendant necklace hidden beneath a wooden board under her bed.

‘Why are Sister’s things here…?’

She was overjoyed, thinking she had finally found Rose’s belongings, and eagerly opened the diary. And then she learned a shocking truth.

“March 20th.

Jo had a fiancée. He said he loved me, but… he was actually just playing with me.

Unable to contain my furious betrayal, I confronted him with this fact, but he was shamelessly brazen.

He mocked and laughed, asking who would truly love someone like me.

My heart felt like it was tearing apart.

I was a foolish, idiotic woman to have believed you, your words, your love.”

“March 25th.

Jo broke up with me.

He also threatened that if I dared to speak of our relationship anywhere, he wouldn’t let me off.

How could someone betray a heart and be so cold?

I said I couldn’t do that, because it was unfair.

Jo might have thought of me as a toy, but I am a person with a heart and feelings too.

I can’t just accept this pain and retreat.”

“April 2nd.

Jo gave me a pendant necklace as a gift.

Sadly, as he offered me the necklace, he asked me to die.

He begged me not to tarnish his honor as a knight and block his future.

I’m so sad I can’t breathe. The man I once loved so much now wishes me dead…

What should I do?”

And Rose took her own life in the early hours of April 3rd, after April 2nd.

Only then did Sisley understand the reason for Rose’s suicide, and she was filled with rage. She wanted to somehow get revenge on Jonny Pattinson, who had toyed with her only family and driven her to death.

But it wasn’t easy for a commoner like her to take revenge on a nobleman like Jonny.

Just as her simmering anger and resentment were reaching their peak, the news of Aracilla and Demian’s marriage was announced.

“Marrying a Mage? Does Demian Vandermir have no pride as a Knight?!”

The newspaper article criticized Demian, a knight, for marrying Aracilla, a mage, clearly disapproving of it.

Reading that newspaper article, Sisley learned that being involved with magic was dishonorable for a knight.

A good way to take revenge on Jonny came to her mind.

‘Not just magic, but Black Magic would hit him even harder, wouldn’t it?’

Sisley meticulously researched Black Magic on her own and devised a plan to frame Jonny for using Black Magic.

She deliberately chose the last day he met Rose to write the accusation. His alibi would be empty because he had gone out to meet her secretly, so he wouldn’t be able to provide a proper testimony.

‘The honor as a knight, the future he wanted to protect so desperately, even telling Sister Rose to die for it. I’ll ruin all of it.’

Sisley vowed as she left the accusation at the Magic Tower. Even if she were to suffer divine retribution, she would make sure Jonny Pattinson paid for his sins.

She would make everyone know his guilt.

* * *

After finishing her long story, Sisley’s lips trembled, and she lowered her head.

Memories of her struggles, working tirelessly to reach the capital with the sole aim of avenging Jonny, flashed through her mind, and emotions overwhelmed her.

Jonny’s eyes flashed, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles were white. He had come too far; there was no turning back now.

“That’s right. I secretly had an affair with Rose, and when my fiancée found out, I broke up with her. But is that really such a big sin?”

“Sir Pattinson! Rose died because of your lies! It’s no different from you encouraging her to commit suicide!”

Sisley, her eyes red, screamed. How could Jonny Pattinson be so shameless even in this situation?

Rose had chosen to leave this world because he told her to die…

“I didn’t know she’d actually die! Isn’t suicide her own choice? Why are you blaming me when she died by her own will?!”

Jonny retorted, veins bulging in his neck. Sisley was shocked by his words and lost her composure.

She had still hoped he would show some remorse. She had come here holding onto a futile hope that Rose’s happiness while being loved by him wasn’t a lie.

She wished Jonny Pattinson would truly regret and repent now.

But Jonny was not a man of such conscience. Then, as now, all he cared about was his future and life as a knight.

“Commander, someone committing suicide is not my sin. Even if I said something that seemed like encouragement, I didn’t kill her directly, so how can it be my fault?!”

Jonny pleaded, looking at Demian. He feared he would be expelled from the Red Hawk Knights because of this revelation.

“You can punish me however you see fit according to the Knight Order’s internal regulations. But please don’t abandon me like this. No matter what, it’s just the death of such a woman, that kind of thing shouldn’t hinder a knight’s future like mine—!”

“Sisley, would you hand me that pendant necklace?”

Jonny, who had been clinging to Demian, almost losing his mind, abruptly stopped speaking. He snapped his head around frantically.

Sisley was taking the necklace from her pocket and handing it to Aracilla.

“No!”

Seeing this, Jonny lunged to snatch the necklace, but was immediately stopped by Demian.

Demian blocked Jonny’s body with his scabbard and said firmly,

“Move, and I’ll cut you down. I don’t give second warnings.”

“...!”

Jonny, knowing Demian’s personality well, couldn’t move. Demian was truly a man who would cut him down.

Aracilla, having received the pendant from Sisley, narrowed her eyes and examined it carefully.

The pendant shimmered white in the moonlight. But that was only the front; the back did not reflect light.

“From the first time I saw this pendant, I had a strange, unsettling feeling. I’ve recently been in contact with a Black Mage, so my senses for detecting ill energy have developed a bit.”

Aracilla spoke leisurely, pulling out a handkerchief and rubbing the back of the pendant. Jonny’s face turned almost deathly pale.

As she wiped away the painted-over spot, a small, black magical symbol was revealed.

Aracilla quirked one corner of her mouth.

“Sir Pattinson. You, in fact, did use Black Magic, didn’t you?”