When You Turned Your Back On Me, We Became Strangers [EN]: Chapter 21

If Rayleigh had seen her, she might have been shocked. But Caber’s demeanor was calm.

He seemed to know she was alive, as if it were a given from the start.

She had silver hair like Rayleigh, and she was ‘Leta,’ Rayleigh’s sister, who everyone believed was dead.

“How are you feeling?”

Caber asked as he entered the room. He noticed immediately that her expression was much brighter than before, and she looked like she had gained some weight. Relieved, he handed her the gift he was holding.

‘Fortunately, she’s much better, but she doesn’t seem to have fully recovered yet…’

Her trembling hands and the anxiety in her eyes were still occasionally visible. He wouldn’t be able to deliver the news she wanted today either. Caber sat down in a chair with a wry smile.

“It’s beautiful…”

Leta, who had opened the gift, was gently touching a piece of green gemstone jewelry. Seeing the well-crafted gemstone and the sophisticated design, tears welled up as someone came to mind.

“Don’t you like it?”

“No, no. It’s too lovely. But… I don’t think it suits me.”

“Is that so…? I bought it based on a recommendation.”

“It reminds me of someone who would suit it better than me.”

“…More jewels will arrive tomorrow. You can choose whatever you like.”

Caber pretended not to understand and changed the subject. He knew perfectly well who Leta was talking about. Rayleigh came to mind, and he averted his gaze from Leta.

“Can I go outside for a walk for a bit?”

“Yes, you can. But remember, there are many eyes watching and ears listening here.”

Caber matched Leta’s slow pace. It was still too much for her to walk quickly. It had only been less than a week since she had opened her eyes.

He had been able to find Leta because he had been keeping an eye on the Printz family. The hidden knights quickly sent him a letter, detailing Leta’s situation and the date of her return.

While strolling through the garden, Leta asked Caber with a look of lingering questions.

“Why were you watching the mansion where my sister was staying?”

“It was the least I could do.”

At Caber’s words, Leta nodded as if she understood. If Caber hadn’t been waiting where Leta’s carriage was passing by that day, she wouldn’t be here.

“I don’t know if it was a coincidence or a plan orchestrated by someone… If it hadn’t been for you that day, I would have already lost my life.”

In fact, Leta vaguely suspected the Count [a noble title] was behind it. The fact that she left the Count’s estate and was told to return that day was only known to Theo, Rayleigh, and the Count of the Printz family.

While heading to the Count’s estate in the carriage, Leta felt something was wrong. She felt uneasy about the carriage driving so fast. Looking out the window, she realized the carriage was moving faster than usual.

“Stop! It’s too fast!”

Leta shouted out the window, but the coachman didn’t respond. Only the sound of rough hooves and the cracking of whips could be heard. Leta cried out in fear, “Help me! Save me!”

She wondered if someone would respond, if someone passing by would hear her voice. But no one appeared, even as her throat grew hoarse and her voice turned raspy.

“Grab the reins!”

At that moment, she heard a person’s voice from above. People on horseback surrounded the carriage from both sides. Leta’s gaze turned forward, and soon her whole body trembled.

It was a cliff. If they went any further, they would fall off the cliff.

Leta, her face pale and ashen, heard urgent shouts from the people.

“There’s someone in the carriage! Save her first!”

“Yes, I understand!”

A masked man opened the carriage door. Leta’s legs gave way, and she couldn’t move. A hand suddenly pulled her waist and held her in his arms.

“I’m sorry for being so hasty.”

As she nodded and was held in his arms, the man hugged Leta and jumped out of the carriage. With a final scream, Leta’s consciousness faded.

Later, when she regained consciousness, she was in an unfamiliar place.

Leta of the Trailla family was dead, at least officially. When she opened her eyes, she had become someone who no longer existed. After hearing about her father’s actions along with the Count’s, Leta accepted it calmly.

Leta thought it was fortunate that she had become a non-existent person. She didn’t have to suffer anymore; she had finally escaped.

The life she couldn’t sever, the days she had even given up struggling to escape.

“I think it’s fortunate that I became a dead person.”

“…Leta.”

“Now, every moment I spend here is happier than the days I’ve lived.”

Except for one thing: Rayleigh’s disappearance.

Leta’s eyes welled up with longing again. She felt suffocated at the thought of Rayleigh, who would have collapsed under the guilt of thinking of her, who had supposedly died.

“…Could it be that my sister doesn’t remember the butterfly pin?”

She had intercepted the letters sent by the Count and sent a butterfly pin from Leta’s side. She thought that if Rayleigh saw the pin, she would realize something.

However, when no letters came from her sister, Leta felt that something was wrong.

“If she remembered, she would have contacted me.”

Caber hadn’t received any contact from Rayleigh either. As he had confirmed at the shop, she had probably tried to erase her memories of the past.

Only the divorce papers and evidence sent by Ren arrived on his side. He hadn’t expected her to leave, but when he arrived, she was already gone.

“Did my sister use her ability? Why would she do that?”

“I don’t know exactly what it was for. However, I can only speculate that she was in a situation where she had no choice but to use her ability…”

It was to hide her identity. He didn’t know what had happened, so he couldn’t tell Leta. Although the knights were watching, they didn’t know what was happening inside the house.

‘From what I can see, Leta doesn’t seem to know everything that happened to Rayleigh either.’

Caber didn’t know where to start or how much to say. In the end, he couldn’t say anything to Leta.

“Where did she go? Could it be…!”

Leta covered her mouth, recalling something she didn’t even want to think about. It was too terrible to even utter.

“Leta, the sword hasn’t returned, so that’s not it.”

It was because she was hiding Rayleigh’s whereabouts that the sword hadn’t returned [a magical sword that returns to its owner]. Caber felt guilty for deceiving Leta.

“Then where on earth did she go…”

“…Actually, I saw a woman who resembled her today.”

In the end, he let slip only a part of the story before she thought of something worse.

“Really?!”

Leta’s eyes sparkled. A bitter smile spread across Caber’s lips at the sight of her expectant eyes. He said she resembled her, but it was Rayleigh.

“But, it wasn’t Rayleigh.”

“Ah… I see.”

Caber changed the subject. Leta was quite concerned about the family as much as she was interested in Rayleigh.

Leta was waiting for an opportunity to see her father collapse.

“I visited the Trailla family today.”

“Are they still holding on? They must be grasping at the scattered fragments of hope that have already disappeared, dreaming empty dreams.”

Caber nodded slightly at Leta’s words, which accurately described the Duke [a high-ranking noble].

Her eyes were full of anger and contempt. Her trembling fists showed Leta’s feelings for the Duke.

“If I find my sister, I will never let her go.”

“I will make sure you never find her.”

“It’s chilling that such a person is my father. How can he drive his children to their deaths and use them as tools? I thought he would have at least some affection for us.”

The warmth of her father that she had felt briefly as a child.

The smiles and affection he occasionally showed her were just expectations that she might be the manifestor of the crest [a magical symbol of power].

Even before Leta faced the abuse that had been going on without her knowledge, she thought her father loved her and her sister.

Whenever he took her to the Imperial Palace, he always wore a kind smile and was full of composure.

“It was too late when I realized that something I didn’t know was happening.”

After Rayleigh hid her crest and went to marry into the Printz family, her father’s attention shifted to Leta.

At first, Leta was simply happy. She was just happy in her young heart that her father’s attention was on her.

Leta, who didn’t know anything, often went to the Imperial Palace with Duke Verita. Each time, he kept saying things she couldn’t understand, but she thought she would understand everything when she grew up.

“Now you have to take over our family.”

“You are the only hope left for this father. If even you are not… then surely one of you is deceiving me.”

Duke Verita was looking at Leta with twisted eyes and desires.

It didn’t take long for her to realize that his attitude towards her was not interest but obsession and greed.