It must not be known that Scarlett is associated with the witch.
Everyone present agreed, so after tidying up the scene, it was already quite late.
Scarlett, who had fainted, was to be taken home by Luke and Yun Siwoo, who lived near her house, so Sylvia parted ways with them and returned to the mansion.
Waiting for Sylvia at the gate was Sebastian, her bodyguard, who had been waiting for her return.
"Miss! Even if you had business, how could you just send a text message! And to come back so late, you should have at least contacted me! Do you know how worried I was!"
Sylvia realized that after sending him a text, she had turned off her phone.
When she turned it back on, countless missed calls and messages appeared.
In the past, seeing this would have made her face pale, but now it didn't evoke any emotion in Sylvia.
Sylvia calmly apologized to Sebastian.
"I'm sorry, Sebastian. It was really an emergency."
"At the very least, you should have told me where you were going! Even if there were no important schedules today, how could you just inform me like that? If the elders were to look for you, what was I supposed to say? Do you want me to be fired from my position as your bodyguard?"
"That's not the case. I don't dislike you, Sebastian. But I can't tell you what I was doing. It was a personal matter."
Sylvia smiled and said this, fully prepared for a scolding.
Although he held the title of bodyguard, he was a person directly assigned by the elders to monitor her every move and had the authority to reprimand her if she didn't act as the successor of Astra.
In the past, she wouldn't have even considered speaking to him this way, given his backing by the elders.
But now, after the elders found out about what she had been doing in secret, it all seemed trivial.
Sylvia waited for Sebastian to scold her.
"......Is that so? I understand."
But he nodded without much comment and took his usual position a few steps behind her, as he always did when accompanying her.
Surprised by his unexpected reaction, but glad that she wasn't being scolded, Sylvia quietly walked to her room.
The sound of footsteps echoed as she walked to her room.
Sebastian's voice mixed in between the sounds.
"Miss, if it's not too much trouble, may I speak to myself a bit?"
Sylvia nodded slightly in response.
"Miss, I want to say that I have always felt great gratitude to the Astra family for taking me in when I lost my parents to the demons and became an orphan. I work for Astra to repay that debt."
As he said, Sebastian was a human, not a member of Astra.
The elders of the family had taken in and raised Sebastian after his parents, who had ties to Astra, were killed by demons.
"When I was twenty, that was when Miss was six, and I started this job. It's been over ten years now. Do you know what the elders asked me to do when I was chosen as your bodyguard? To watch over you and make sure you grew up to be a worthy successor of Astra."
He wanted to repay that debt and, following their orders, had been her bodyguard, protector, and teacher since she was young.
"I thought it was right to be as strict as possible with you. To always be better than others, to never show any weakness. But you did all of that without a single complaint. And you grew up to be a wonderful successor of Astra. But recently, I've noticed that you've changed."
Sylvia thought she would hear the scolding she had missed earlier.
But what she heard was something completely different.
"And I think that change is for the better. Seeing you happy about matching rings with a friend, laughing while reading a children's fairy tale. Seeing your face brighten when you entered the academy, I realized that was the real you, not just the successor of Astra. I also realized that I was the one who made you unable to smile like that. So I apologize. I'm sorry. I think I hurt you deeply when you were young."
Sylvia clenched her teeth at his words.
"I won't tell the elders about today. As your bodyguard, I need to manage your schedule, but you can act freely during your free time. Just let me know in advance. And if you have any troubles, you can talk to me."
Such kindness was toxic to her now.
The elders of Astra are bad people.
So, Sebastian, who follows their orders, is also a bad person.
If only he had remained someone she could continue to hate, it would have been easier.
By the time they reached her room, Sebastian said,
"Miss, I'll prepare some tea for you before you go to bed. Today, chamomile would be good."
Sylvia, who was holding the doorknob, shivered at his words and asked,
"......Did it show that much?"
Sebastian replied,
"I've been with you for ten years."
Chamomile tea is known for its calming effects on sadness.
Sylvia stood in front of the door until the sound of his footsteps faded away. When it was quiet, she opened the door and entered her room.
As soon as she closed the door, she slumped to the floor.
Recalling the conversations of the day, she sat there blankly when a knock came from outside the door.
After slowly getting up and straightening her clothes, Sylvia opened the door, but Sebastian was nowhere to be seen.
Only a steaming cup of tea and a tray with a macaron were visible.
You're too perceptive......
Sylvia brought the tray into her room and sat down in front of the door, taking a sip of the tea and biting into the macaron.
But before she could savor the taste, tears began to flow.
"Sniff...... Uh, uh, sniff......"
With her head buried in her knees, Sylvia silently cried, thinking about the troubles she could never confide in anyone.
Her friend was actually an experimental subject created by her family,
And the creation of that experimental subject was planned because of her,
And due to the torturous experiments, her friend's lifespan was reduced to only three years.
The guilt, sadness, frustration, and confusion were overwhelming, and even the sweetness of her favorite treat and the calming tea couldn't soothe her.
The girl sat with her head buried in her knees and cried for a long time.
*
The next day, Sylvia told Sebastian she was going out.
When he asked where she was going in the rain, she said she was going to meet a friend and declined his offer to drive her.
She wanted to trust him, but Luke's warning that if Scarlett's existence was discovered by the family, they might try to dispose of her, made her want to avoid any risks.
As her bodyguard, he was worried, but Sylvia forced a smile.
She was a hero and could take care of herself.
Thus, Sylvia crossed the gate to Sector 15.
She had gotten Scarlett's address from Yun Siwoo when they parted yesterday.
The ring she had dropped on the street yesterday.
She had come to Scarlett's house to return it, which she had forgotten to give her.
When she arrived at the address she had received by text, she was speechless.
'......You live here?'
The building standing there was hardly what she would call a home.
It looked old and, with the rain, resembled an abandoned house.
Sylvia couldn't believe that someone could live in a building that looked like it could be haunted.
With trembling eyes, she climbed to the second floor of the building, where the address was written.
The door to apartment 203.
When she knocked, there was no response, and she noticed a hole next to the doorknob.
On a whim, she put her hand in and was able to open the locked door.
'This is a bit too much for a girl to live in......'
Thinking this, she cautiously opened the door and entered.
Immediately, she saw Scarlett lying on the bed, staring at her with a blank expression.
The room was so small that she could see everything at a glance.
The room was so tiny that even a bathroom in the mansion would be larger.
She was shocked by how poor Scarlett's living conditions were.
"......"
At a loss for words, Scarlett, who was lying on the bed, spoke.
"......Why are you here?"
Regardless of her family's financial situation or her past, it wasn't important.
She had nodded when Scarlett said she wanted to continue being friends, so she decided to treat her as she used to.
Recollecting the purpose of her visit today, Sylvia took the ring from her pocket and extended it to her.
"......I found this on the street. I think it's yours, so I came to return it......"
She saw Scarlett's face, which didn't look good, twist in a strange way.
It was, if she had to describe it, a smile.
But it was the saddest smile Sylvia had ever seen.
With that smile, Scarlett gently pushed away the hand that offered the ring and said,
"I'm sorry, but I can't accept it."
At that moment, Sylvia had a feeling she knew what was coming next.
The hesitation, the anxiety, but the sense that there was no other choice, all conveyed through that smile.
It was a feeling she had experienced before.
What had she said then?
"I'm sorry for everything. It was all my fault. So today, I'll tell you the truth."