/
Was it because of what Harris had done?
Or was it because she always insisted that she was real? Bad thoughts kept coming to mind.
“You’re not mean. You’ve been through something.”
Cecilia looked down at me with a pitiful face.
Then she swept my hair with her free hand.
“Okay. Shall we go now?”
“Okay!”
At this time, I thought it’d be nice to have my mom with me, but there was no way I could wake my sleeping mom, so I walked for a long time holding Cecilia’s hand.
But the atmosphere was really strange today.
It felt very busy.
It’s definitely the same as then, but something was all over the place.
It was like before you greet a guest.
“Cecilia, what’s happening today?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t even realize it. Shall we find out?”
“No, it’s just… it looks a little busy today. Come on, let’s go.”
Something felt strange, but I tried to ignore that weird feeling.
I was curious about how Harris would insist on it until the end.
I walked in the middle of the garden for a long time.
Dad was already there. Allen’s brother was also with him.
“Are you doing it here?”
“Yes, I guess the same thing happened last time, so we changed places and decided to do it here.”
Then came Harris, who was dragged like a criminal, and Lexit, who followed her. Lexit, who looked anxious, was busy appeasing the child in case something happened to Harris.
As soon as Harris stood in front of her father, Lexit yelled at him.
“Father! How can you bring her back like a criminal!”
“Who knows if she doesn’t have the blood of the Grand Duke but continues to insist until the end like a criminal?”
“Harris has our blood! She’s my sister! Father said so!”
Like a child refusing to believe the truth, Lexit was busy raising his voice in front of Harris.
“Lexit, I thought you were a smart kid. Do you still believe that?”
“…That’s what Father said. I thought Harris was my little sister. That’s what I believed in. On behalf of Mother, I really loved her. Are you saying that she is no longer my sister?”
“Yes, Harris, you should tell him who you are.”
However, Harris only shook her head from side to side with her big eyes full of tears, as if she would never say.
“Harris, if you don’t, I’ll have to force you to check.”
And the thing that was said to have disappeared had appeared again. Seeing that, Harris was rather embarrassed.
“That’s…”
“Are you embarrassed because we found it?”
“…I’m not embarrassed! Harris is not embarrassed! I’m…”
Harris shook her head as if she had brainwashed herself.
It was now hard to tell whether she was telling the truth or acting.
“If you don’t believe it, you can check it.”
If he had hesitated to take advantage of Harris’s convenient behavior before, it was no longer the case. The two knights who brought Harris blocked Lexit and grabbed her.
“N-No! Stop it!”
However, as if he had been watching for a long time, my father checked Harris’s veins without hesitation.
Dad, who pricked Harris’s finger with a tiny needle, dropped blood on the bead. Like last time, red blood disappeared in an instant, as if it was absorbed by the bead.
Instead, black smoke floated inside the transparent bead.
“It’ll be over soon.”
It was Dad’s turn this time. He pricked his hand, like before. Then, he let it flow into the bead. A fairly large amount of blood was absorbed into the bead in an instant.
Then, a black smoke, which looked rougher than before, swayed inside the bead.
But the two black smokes did not merge. The color of the smoke gradually changed as if they rejected each other. Even that wasn’t enough, and there was a strong spark.
The vassals of the Grand Duke, who had already flocked, were astonished.
“No… No way…”
“What is this..”
Even the Marquis and his followers, who had always stood firm by Harris’s side, were nowhere to be seen.
With the unexpected result, Harris looked at the bead in vain.
“This can’t be… I’m real… It’s true. You said I’m real!”