The Strongest Daughter-In-Law Of The Black Lion Family [EN]: Chapter 139

#139.

Cersia tilted her head, studying the unfamiliar bug.

“What does that have to do with the Butterfly Syndicate?”

“The Loyalty Bug is a parasite created by the Butterfly Syndicate to prevent leaks. It’s a terrifying bug that eats the host’s heart if they reveal certain secrets.”

“What? He fed that to his own daughter?”

Cersia was shocked. No matter how awful Lord Sarvan was, did he have no affection or conscience at all? Ella sighed and replied.

“I can’t know for sure, but seeing him forcibly administer the antidote, it seems he’s involved. The Loyalty Bug absorbs the host’s pheromones if the antidote isn’t provided regularly.”

“Huh.”

“Maybe Eve Sarvan’s poor health is also because of that bug. He might have been threatening Eve to keep her silent at the risk of her life.”

Cersia gaped, replaying Eve’s actions in her mind.

‘I’m okay.’

At the time, she thought it just meant she was okay even if Lord Sarvan hit her.

To think she was being threatened with her life on the line.

In the end, her saying she was okay was a story premised on her death.

She wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for the secret passage.

Before she knew it, Cersia’s eyes turned fierce.

“Tell me more details.”

“Considering he tried to manipulate the heir’s pheromones, there’s a high probability he’s a member of the Butterfly Syndicate.”

Ella calmly reported the information she had gathered and interpreted.

As her memories gradually returned, she also learned quite a bit about the Butterfly Syndicate.

It was thanks to her investigating the syndicate alone in the past.

How the upcoming pandemic would spread, how the Butterfly Syndicate had been able to hide without being caught for so long, etc.

The information Ella knew was going to be quite useful in this life.

She had met someone who shared the same secrets, making things much easier, and now she had obtained another clue.

“So Sarvan was involved after all.”

After hearing the whole story, Cersia was calm, as if she had expected it. In fact, she was half certain of it.

Unlike the original story, she thought it wasn’t a coincidence that all the heirs of the Sarvan family had died.

Besides—

‘Poor thing.’

Cersia recalled the mysterious woman she had encountered at the banquet hall.

The woman, who looked very much like Ebensev she had seen in her dreams, left her with meaningful words and disappeared.

What was strange was that Tebi and Jonathan hadn’t noticed what happened immediately after she met her.

—You were alone and collapsed that day?

—I don’t know. There were only hyenas there, though?

It was as if the woman was invisible to their eyes.

Immediately after encountering the woman who resembled Ebensev, Cersia’s memories of Larien were returning through her dreams.

To be exact, it was her past memories of being Larien.

The dreams started right after she read the Ebensev Bible, so it seemed that the Bible had been the catalyst. Perhaps the seizures were also related to it.

‘To think I would be Larien’s reincarnation.’

There must have been a reason why she saw different memories from Ella during the Saintess test.

Of course, even if those memories returned, nothing would change.

She was already living her nth life, so what did it matter who her first life was?

Rather, she was more pleased to know who had orchestrated this game.

The opponent would be off guard, thinking she was a rat in a trap.

But she wouldn’t be caught off guard anymore. A running man can never beat a flying man. Now that she had regained her memories, Ebensev was the running man, and Cersia herself was the flying man.

Cersia remembered Ebensev’s pheromones. Using a type of puppetry, she could create and move clones.

There was a high probability that the woman she encountered at the banquet hall was not the real body. Perhaps the real body was tied down somewhere and unable to move.

According to the Ebensev Bible, she was cursed and turned to stone.

Only after regaining her memories did she realize that the stone in the Ebensev Bible was not Mu’s Opal [a precious gem].

The ‘Ebensev turned to stone’ mentioned there was closer to being tied down.

She thought she knew why the Bible vaguely described the location.

The Divine Beast seemed ruthless but always hid his kindness.

He must have made it so that no one could find the place. She wasn’t sure yet whether it was to warn or to hide something.

In any case, she felt like she would find out something if she went there. What happened to Ebensev immediately after leaving Hebel? What exactly did it mean to be turned to stone?

‘Just wait a little. I’ll make you comfortable soon.’

To think she said such things and left. Her sister had a cruel side, then and now.

But there was something they hadn’t anticipated: the fact that they weren’t the only ones who remembered the past.

“Did you hear from Heath?”

At Cersia’s question, Ella nodded.

“Yes, he said he’s finished preparing and to call him whenever I want.”

* * *

When Cersia’s first seizure occurred, Heathcliff eventually went to find Ella.

He thought all the way there. It was only natural that Ella was angry with him.

The evening of the day Ella shouted and left, Heathcliff met a woman in his dream who looked exactly like Ella.

The two, who seemed as close as lovers, swore their love to each other and marked each other. Heathcliff burst into tears as he remembered that moment.

It wasn’t a complete memory, but after waking up from the dream, he was flooded with regret. He just kept crying without even realizing what he was regretting.

As she said, it would have been better if he hadn’t remembered.

“Let’s talk.”

Ella looked surprised at Heathcliff, who had come to her out of the blue. Well, it was only natural since it was the first time they had faced each other since she had made that bombshell statement.

Soon, Ella frowned and tried to avoid him.

“I have nothing to…….”

“Ella, don’t run away.”

Ella froze at Heathcliff’s plea. His voice was clearly different from before.

Ella blankly turned around, and Heathcliff said.

“I still don’t know what you mean. I can’t even be sure if it was you who appeared in my dream.”

“…….”

“One thing is for sure, I’ll regret it if I let you go like this.”

“You haven’t regained your memories.”

Ella looked disappointed. For a moment, she seemed to think he had regained his memories.

Hearthcliff resisted the urge to hug Ella right away. Then he took Ella’s hand and said.

“If the reason you hate me is related to a life I don’t know, I’ll stay by your side until I remember.”

“What reason do I have to do that?”

“…….”

“I have no reason to stay by the side of a man who killed me, and who might kill me again in this life.”

Heathcliff sighed at Ella’s harsh rejection. He had a card prepared, knowing this would happen.

“I know the location of Mu’s Opal.”

“!”

“If you let me stay by your side, I’ll guide you there myself. So please help me get all my memories back.”

“……Really?”

“Yes. I’ll contact you as soon as I’m ready. Don’t avoid me, please.”

Ella nodded silently at Heathcliff’s words. That was enough for Heathcliff.

After some of his memories returned, the relationship between Heathcliff and Ella was reversed. Now it was his turn to follow her.

* * *

“When should we tell them to meet?”

“I think it would be better to determine the timing after monitoring Lord Sarvan’s movements first.”

“Not going right away?”

“If Sarvan is really involved with the Butterfly Syndicate, we might fall into a trap if we move rashly.”

“That’s true, but…….”

Ella made a sullen face. Now she knew what that face meant.

‘She must be thinking I’m sick because of her.’

In the first place, one of the pheromones inherent in her body was Ella’s.

After the regression, Ella said she had abandoned her pheromones. Someone had advised her that she had to do that to go against fate.

What was funny was that even Ella didn’t remember who had advised her. She was only guessing that it was someone from Hebel, since she said she had encountered them right before being sacrificed in Hebel.

In any case, it was a problem that the pheromones Ella had abandoned were absorbed into Cersia’s body. Ella seemed to continue to feel guilty about it.

Cersia comforted Ella.

“As I’ve said many times, it was just an accident that I ended up with two pheromones.”