Weren’t You the One Who Was Dying? Chapter 118

I honestly thought I must have heard wrong.

“Say that again, Enric.”

“Trustia.”

Even after hearing it again, I swallowed hard at the unmistakable family name.

So, if Riedel was—if Enric could be wrong, but if, just if, he was right……

Was Riedel my older sister?

“……!!”

I covered my mouth.

“That can’t be……”

“Delphi! I told you to brace yourself and listen with a clear mind.”

“How could that be…… But I never heard that the Admiral had a younger sister who was lost……”

I muttered without even knowing what I was saying, when suddenly, memories flashed through my mind.

‘Whenever I see people with holy power, I always think of my younger sister. Her holy power was so strong that it only appeared once every hundred years, so my parents even had to suppress it on purpose.’

‘They had to suppress it? You must have had an amazing younger sister!’

‘……Yes. But she went to heaven when she was young.’

Riedel had definitely said that she had a younger sister who had gone to heaven.

What if that younger sister hadn’t actually died……

‘Come to think of it, I fell into the Thorns of Epheon. No one has ever survived after falling there.’

Then, from the Trustia family’s point of view, it would have been understandable for them to think their daughter had died. No trace would have remained after falling into that place.

My confused thoughts became more and more tangled. Then, suddenly, I remembered a certain day.

The day the train derailed while I was in Arcan!

Back then, I had dreamed after using the talisman Sonya of Herdens gave me.

‘She definitely said it was a talisman that would let me meet someone I wanted to see.’

Of course, looking back now, Sonya may have given it to me because she wanted me to suffer by becoming trapped in the past.

But when I thought about it again, the people I had seen back then really were people I wanted to see.

Even Ehit, whom I had already given my heart to at that point, though I couldn’t admit it to myself.

And Ritt, the young Ehit, who had sat beside me and offered me food.

And so, the girl who had called out to me in that spring garden.

‘Lenia.’

‘Big sister!’

The blonde girl whom I had called my sister, and the tall couple who had been with her. They were all people I wanted to see.

My biological family from my distant memories.

Then, was that blonde girl Riedel?

“The place I told you we needed to visit together is also the Trustia family, Daphlen.”

Ehit also supported what Enric had said.

With even him saying that, I felt as though I had lost any reason to insist that it couldn’t be true.

“The Trustia family also said that they lost their second daughter in the Thorns of Epheon. After checking, we also found that the green jewel in the pendant you had is the same as the one passed down through the Trustia family.”

An indescribably strange, almost overwhelming emotion surrounded me.

It felt different from being surrounded by holy power. It was as though emotions I couldn’t handle kept pouring out of me and surrounding me.

It was frightening and exciting at the same time, like learning to swim for the first time.

When I looked up, my Ailetta family was looking at me with overwhelmed expressions, smiling as if to reassure me.

Now it was time to go there, to my biological family.

After that, everything happened incredibly quickly.

Or perhaps everything only seemed to move so fast because I was too overwhelmed to keep up.

Anyway, only a few days later, I met the members of the Trustia family.

When Ehit sent a letter saying that he wanted to talk about their daughter, a reply came immediately, and we headed straight to the Trustia family.

In the sitting room of the Trustia mansion, Ehit placed his hand over the back of mine.

“It’s all right. Don’t be nervous.”

“Do I look nervous?”

He took my hand and gently unfolded my tightly clenched fingers. My palm was red from the marks my fingernails had left.

“Not very. But I think you are a little.”

Thanks to Ehit, the expression that had been stiff with tension relaxed a little.

“Do you remember anything?”

There were memories that occasionally came to mind. But since they were from so long ago, they weren’t as vivid as something that had happened yesterday.

Still, there were a few memories that remained clear.

Memories of the four of us hugging each other when I was young, or a song someone used to sing to me before I went to sleep.

A little later, Lord and Lady Trustia entered.

It was the first time I had seen them since we had shared a carriage during the expedition a year ago.

“It’s nice to see you again.”

I greeted them first. The Trustia couple simply stared at me without answering.

The atmosphere was still heavy and awkward.

Silence settled over us.

I tried another light greeting to break the tension. But Lord Trustia only answered with an awkward smile, and the atmosphere sank even further.

It wasn’t merely sinking. The mood had just…… completely died!

Naturally, I couldn’t help wondering if I had come to the wrong place. From their point of view, they had been living with the pain of losing their daughter, and perhaps I had only reopened a wound that should have been left alone.

And when I thought about it, I hadn’t even been proven to be their child yet. From their perspective, it was only natural that they would be wary of me.

The more I thought about it, the harder it became to speak.

Ehit started a conversation, and a few more words were exchanged, but they were stiff and businesslike.

Lady Trustia simply sat there and stared intently at me without even giving simple answers.

Eventually, I abruptly stood up.

I wish I could say I did it to lighten the mood somehow……

But that wasn’t why.

For some reason, it was becoming difficult to keep sitting there with a smile on my face.

Even aside from the awkward atmosphere, it was because of the strange emotions I felt whenever I looked at Lord and Lady Trustia.

Because of the sensation of something quietly, very slowly tightening around my heart.

“I’m sorry. You must have been very surprised that I asked to meet you over something like this……”

“Daphlen.”

Ehit stopped me as I stood up. But honestly, it was becoming impossible for me to keep sitting there as if nothing was wrong.

“I’ll see you next time.”

I hurriedly picked up my handbag, bowed my head, and turned toward the door.

But at that moment, Lady Trustia suddenly sprang to her feet.

Since I had arrived so suddenly and was now leaving without giving them a chance to respond, it wouldn’t have been strange for her to be angry.

But instead of getting angry at me, she rushed over and suddenly pulled me into her arms.

“……!”

A familiar name reached my ears.

“……Lenia.”

It was my old name.

“Lenia.”

Lady Trustia called me again.

The voice saying that name was familiar. The tender way she spoke, the gentle rise and fall of her voice as she called my name.

It felt as though a song sleeping deep inside my memories had suddenly come back to life.

“Why couldn’t I recognize you sooner? Why did I…… back then…… Please forgive me.”

Lady Trustia hugged me even tighter.

I stood there frozen in her arms. My body, my mind, and even my heart seemed to turn completely white and still in that moment.

I thought it was embarrassment. I thought the confusing feeling tightening around my heart whenever I looked at the couple was the same thing.

Then Lady Trustia raised her hand and placed it on my back.

She slowly stroked my back, gently comforting me.

And then. Only then did I realize that the feeling strongly tightening around my heart wasn’t simple embarrassment.

It was tenderness.

“……”

I pressed my lips tightly together.

“I missed you.”

At those sincere words, I couldn’t respond by saying that I had always searched for her or that I had missed her too.

Even though I knew my biological parents were somewhere in the world, I had never tried to find them. I couldn’t say those things.

But even so.

The tenderness I felt now wasn’t a lie.

The overwhelming warmth and tenderness that made me want to hold the owner of that warmth just as tightly wasn’t a lie.

“Lenia.”

Lord Trustia, who had been standing nearby with his teeth clenched as he tried to hold back his tears, approached and embraced both Lady Trustia and me.

And so, we remained like that for a long time, as if we had all turned into statues.

After finding my biological parents, I realized one thing.

Before coming to the Trustia family, this was what I had been worrying about.

How much proof could a few of my memories, or the pendant necklace made with a jewel from the Trustia family, really provide?

Could they truly prove one hundred percent that I was the daughter of this family? And if not, how could I prove who I was?

But I was learning over the next few days that those worries had been rather meaningless.

The instinctive pull between parents and child.

The familiarity and tenderness toward each other that had been embedded deep inside us without us even realizing it.

Those things had become such powerful proof.

“Yes, that’s right. She has the same holy power as that child did back then.”

Of course, there were other things as well, such as the priest’s confirmation that the holy power I had as a child had once been sealed. Those details erased even the smallest remaining doubts.

And a few days later, in the evening, when the sun began to sink behind the blue river,

I had come to Trustia’s country house with Riedel.

The country house stood beside the river that flowed through the capital.

“Daphlen! Come quickly, over here!”

Riedel practically dragged me along, almost carrying me as she led me to the river dock.

She smiled brightly and pointed toward the dock.

“What is this?”

“What do you think? A boat. And I told you to speak casually with me, remember?”

Riedel happily stood me in place in front of the dock.

Then she promptly ran off.

“Wait, where are you going?! No, where are you going?”

I tried to catch her, but she had shouted so firmly, almost frighteningly, ‘Don’t go anywhere! Absolutely nowhere!’ that I had no choice but to freeze in place like a bear caught with its paw in a jar.

Left alone, I blinked at her in confusion.