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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: A Shared Secret
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It happened without any warning.
For a moment, Lumina almost screamed.
Thankfully, she was biting her lip to keep a pained groan from escaping.
Otherwise, she would have let out a scream loud enough to shake the entire mansion.
Her heart pounded.
Lumina turned her head to look at the person who had grabbed her wrist.
“Endymion…?”
With a face still clouded by sleep, Endymion stared intently at Lumina.
His blue eyes, which should have been hazy from a deep sleep, were instead filled with suspicion.
“What were you doing?”
“Um, well…”
Lumina, who had been looking for a chance to escape, trailed off.
It was too late to run, and it didn't seem like he would just accept a flimsy excuse and let it go.
*I have to choose my words carefully here.*
Depending on her answer, the distance between her and Endymion, which she thought had recently narrowed, could widen irreparably.
“Well… I came out for a drink of water and must have mistaken the room! As you know, we have to fend for ourselves for a while since all the servants were dismissed.”
“…”
“When I came in and saw you sleeping, I was so surprised. So I was just about to leave… Haha…”
A chill filled the air.
The air grew so cold it felt like a physical chill.
*Right, there's no way such a pathetic excuse would work!*
Lumina thought that if she could see Endymion's affection level, it would have plummeted straight into the ground.
But her damn mouth, trying to salvage the ruined atmosphere, kept running on its own.
“Actually, a rat appeared in my room, so I ran out and…”
“A rat appeared?!”
This time, she got a vehement reaction.
The moment he heard the word “rat,” Endymion shot up and grabbed Lumina's shoulders.
*Huh?*
At the same time, Lumina’s body staggered.
Endymion had only pushed her back slightly as he grabbed her, but her legs, which had barely been supporting her, gave out.
*Thump!*
Caught off guard, Lumina fell backward, landing squarely on her bottom.
“Sister!”
Not having intended this at all, Endymion scrambled out of bed.
*Ouch.*
Fortunately, the plush carpet cushioned the fall, so her bottom didn't hurt much.
Then again, her legs were in so much pain that the ache in her rear seemed trivial in comparison.
“Sister, are you alright? Can you stand?”
“Ugh, yes. But my legs have given out. Can you help me up?”
To be precise, her legs hurt so much that she didn't have the courage to stand on her own.
At her request for help, Endymion, standing before her, readily started to offer his hand.
But then, suddenly feeling something was off, Endymion flinched.
“Endymion?”
She couldn't exactly grab the hand he'd awkwardly half-extended.
Lumina called out to the boy, bewildered.
But the voice that answered was chilling.
“What did you do to me?”
“What do you mean, ‘what did I do’?”
Endymion had noticed that something was wrong with his body.
Just before falling asleep, he had definitely felt pain in his leg.
It had gotten much better since the accident, but it was still painful enough to wake him from his sleep at times.
But not anymore.
He could even stand and walk perfectly, just like before the accident. As if he were completely healed.
“I felt a brilliant light while I was sleeping. And when I opened my eyes, you were beside me, Sister.”
It seems that's what woke him up.
Lumina broke out in a cold sweat internally.
“I could overlook things up to this point. But my leg no longer hurts.”
“…”
“What in the world did you do to me, Sister.”
She had planned to heal Endymion in secret. Then he would have just assumed a miracle had happened overnight.
After all, her power was impossible for an ordinary person, something akin to a literal ‘miracle.’
“First, could you offer me that hand?”
“Ah, my apologies.”
Even while interrogating her, Endymion showed the courtesy to apologize.
*Ugh.*
After finally getting up with Endymion's help, Lumina pretended to dust off her skirt, buying time.
*My leg hurts terribly, but I should be able to make it back to my room. No, I have to make it.*
That meant the immediate problem she faced was Endymion.
Endymion was silently waiting for Lumina's answer.
*I didn't plan on revealing it so soon.*
The one silver lining was that Endymion was one of the two people Lumina trusted most.
The other was Lucius.
“It seems I’m a Legion.”
“…You, Sister? But you showed no signs whatsoever. No, more importantly, I’ve never heard of a Legion who can heal wounds.”
“Neither have I. But I guess I’m a mutation. I only awakened my ability recently.”
“That’s impossible. Awakening at your age is already unprecedented…”
Lumina gently tapped the bridge of Endymion's nose as he denied reality.
For a moment, unable to hide his bewilderment, Endymion fell silent.
Just then, a butterfly made of light fluttered its wings and landed on the boy's cute little nose.
Right on the spot Lumina had touched with her finger.
Endymion's blue eyes, reflecting the light, sparkled as he looked at Lumina.
Wings had sprouted from her back.
It felt like he was dreaming.
When Endymion blinked, the butterfly and the wings on Lumina’s back vanished like a mirage.
“That’s why I said I must be a mutation.”
If she were to heal his face, the wound would transfer to a visible spot on her own body. Worried it would be noticeable, she had deliberately only created the butterfly.
But that alone was enough to convince Endymion.
The boy didn't ask for any further healing, as his legs were already completely cured.
“I understand for now. I’ll just assume you’re a special case, Sister.”
He seemed to be trying his best to sound blunt, but Endymion couldn't control his expression.
If Lumina hadn't been standing in front of him, he probably would have pinched his own soft cheeks to check if he was dreaming.
“So, Endymion.”
Lumina's voice dropped to a serious tone.
“The fact that I’m a Legion, and that I used my power to heal you—it’s all a secret.”
“…”
“I need you to take it to your grave. Because…”
“You don’t have to say it. I know things will get complicated if this ability becomes known to the world.”
“Yes! Exactly. I know you won't harm me, but we can't be sure about other people.”
Endymion opened his mouth slightly, then closed it again.
It seemed he had wanted to ask why she trusted him so blindly.
“And I was thinking, won't everyone find it suspicious if you're suddenly all better? So for now, I think it would be best to pretend you're still in pain.”
“Understood. So, there was no rat?”
“Huh? A rat? Oh, right. There wasn’t.”
Endymion seemed slightly relieved.
Seeing the usually expressionless Endymion react like that, she figured he must have been worried the rat would spread to his room.
“Well then, I’ll be on my way!”
Lumina started to drag her aching leg toward the door.
That is, if Endymion hadn't spoken.
“Did you do it on purpose?”
“Do what?”
“Falling from the railing.”
*Tch. This is why I hate sharp-witted kids.*
But now that she'd even told him she was a Legion, there was no need to hide the truth.
“I did. How did you know?”
“Because you spoke as if you had a clever plan. Though I never imagined it would be something like this.”
*That's right. An ordinary person wouldn't think of intentionally getting hurt.*
Lumina had always had a fast recovery rate, so she had been prepared to endure the pain.
*If I had just asked the Duke from the start, he would have helped, even without me doing all this.*
But then it would have ended with just the servants being dismissed.
They would have gotten away with tormenting her all this time and continued to live comfortably.
*And I also needed to crush Aunt Teresa's momentum.*
By now, the head maid would probably shudder and recoil more at the name Teresa than at Lumina's.
Betrayal, after all, tends to be etched deeply into one's memory.
“It’s better to live with servants who don’t play favorites, isn't it? It’ll make this place feel more like a home.”
Lumina wanted to feel the sense of relief and comfort that the word ‘home’ implied.
“Can’t you heal yourself, Sister?”
“No, that’s not possible. But I heal quickly, so I'll be much better after a night's sleep. Don't worry about it.”
Getting her leg injured after falling from the railing was all part of her calculation.
*Though I did fall a little more roughly than I expected.*
From the beginning, Lumina had wanted to heal Endymion.
But if she healed him rashly, she would take on his injuries, and her mobility would clearly be slightly impaired.
Then those around her would notice something was off.
So she decided to injure her leg while she was at it, falling from the railing, but even she had to admit it was a bit excessive.
*Still, my wounds heal fast.*
She knew from being severely whipped by her stepmother.
She was casually thinking that she would be walking around perfectly fine in a few days, as if nothing had happened, when Endymion spoke.
“Please wait a moment.”
Endymion rummaged through a drawer. Then he handed her a packet of pills.
“They’re painkillers.”
Since Endymion was also a patient, he had a supply of medicine on hand.
The doctor had come by in the afternoon, so Lumina must have also been prescribed some medicine, but it seemed he was worried anyway.
“Thank you. I’ll make good use of them.”
Lumina readily accepted the medicine and left.
The sound of Lumina's limping footsteps could be heard from beyond the door.
Endymion stared at the door until he could no longer hear the sound.
“Because we’re the only real family each other has left in this world. I’ve decided not to hate you anymore.”
Lumina had said that not long ago.
But Endymion didn't fully trust Lumina, who had changed her attitude as easily as flipping her palm.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Endymion unwrapped the bandage on his leg. A leg without a single scar was fully revealed.
It was healed, quite literally, ‘perfectly.’
He should have been happy about it, but his concern for Lumina outweighed his joy.
He had decided he shouldn't believe her blindly, yet his heart kept softening, leaving him confused.
“Mother, why are you so strict only with Sister?”
“Endymion, my dear. This mother of yours has always told you, hasn't she? Lumina, that child's mother, stole everything that should have been mine.”
His mother's always-gentle voice turned sharp whenever she mentioned Lumina.
“So this is just the process of things returning to their rightful place. Do you understand, my darling baby?”
Endymion, who was only seven at the time, found it strange.
It seemed to him that what Lumina's birth mother had taken from his own had nothing to do with Lumina herself.
But he didn't voice his thoughts.
He had enough sense to know that asking wouldn't resolve his questions.
So on the day Lumina was beaten for lying about a rat in her room.
He had stood secretly before Lumina's door, holding a small tube of ointment the size of his palm.
“*Hic, sob…*”
He could hear sniffling from beyond the door. It was more like a suppressed groan.
Endymion, who had stood there listening as if he were about to pull open the door at any moment, ended up just leaving the ointment behind.
That was all he could do for his half-sister, who seemed to have had everything taken from her.
“You should hate me. That would be the right thing to do.”
Endymion muttered.
The boy couldn't begin to comprehend what went on inside the head of the girl, who was only two years his senior.
