***
It seemed as if everyone had kept quiet about what happened in the library.
It was unexpected.
Sez wouldn’t have been surprised if Bern, Lilien, and the rest of the gang snitched to their mothers out of spite after being beaten up by Rayton.
However, the palace was still quiet, even after half a day.
Runa heard what happened before the fight and things became clear to her that it was his Royal Highness and princesses who started it.
That could be the reason everyone was quiet, but Sez had a different opinion.
She thought that Bern didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to let others know that Rayton beat the living hell out of him.
He had a strong ego, after all.
Bern and Lilien were only the true blood relatives that came out of the emperor’s numerous concubines.
Their biological mother was a woman called Yulia, the emperor’s favorite concubine before Lisette came in.
Yulia Lyran.
She had the strongest background of all the mistresses.
Bern and Lilien could run wild without any consequences for a reason.
Although Yulia was not an empress, she acted like one.
She looked down her nose at people and belittled practically everyone.
No wonder, as she was well aware that she was the most powerful among the mistresses.
Naturally, Yerna didn’t like Yulia either.
She hated her.
But then Lisette came into the picture.
As a wise man once said, “The enemy of my enemy is a friend.” The same went for Yerna and Yulia.
They buried the hatchet and became good friends.
Well, it appeared that way on the surface, at least, you’d never know what they were truly thinking inside.
Anyway, Yulia also was abandoned just like Yerna since the emperor met Lisette.
Still, Yulia was in a better position than Yerna thanks to Bern.
Bern stood closest to the throne.
The next emperor, born with a golden spoon in his mouth, hated Rayton and Lisette like his mother.
While he could not harass Lisette because she was in the emperor’s favor, Rayton didn’t have such protection.
Having the same father didn’t mean anything to them since they were as different as night and day.
Bern took all his anger toward Lisette out on Rayton.
Bern harassed Rayton, and Lilien did the same to Sez.
You could say the siblings had their own interesting kinds of toys.
The scene in the library was all part of a normal day for Rayton as he was bullied, beaten, and vilified constantly.
It wasn’t any different for Sez.
Lilien slapped Sez around and yanked her hair simply for making eye contact with her.
Lilien was the biggest reason that Sez suffered from severe depression and aphasia before ten years old, even younger than she was right now.
It was Runa who stood by Sez’s side through her darkest days.
Yerna never gave a damn whether her daughter was alive or dead.
Runa took full responsibility for taking care of Sez.
She definitely helped Sez’s symptoms improve.
Runa was always sweet to Sez, and sometimes took Yerna’s beatings instead of her.
Therefore, it was natural that Runa was freaked out by the sudden news that Sez was learning Kazarkish from Rayton.
Runa objected.
Objected desperately, to be precise.
She reasoned that Yerna would break her arms or legs if she found out.
Sez knew Runa was right, but at least Yerna wouldn’t kill Sez five years later, unlike Rayton.
Sez persuaded Runa.
She had truly wanted to learn Kazarkish in the first place and Rayton was good at it.
She also added that she had gotten permission from Lisette.
Runa seemed embarrassed by the unexpected mention of Lisette.
Sez took advantage of her hesitation and begged once more.
“My mother will never know.
Any word of today’s fight will pass by quietly, and no one else knows that Rayton is teaching me.”
Runa seemed to doubt her.
“What are you going to do if His Royal Highness comes back to the library?”
Runa’s worries weren’t exactly unrealistic.
Though he’d been beaten like hell by Rayton, Bern had guts too.
He had the guts to bully and stomp on Rayton like always.
Sez did not doubt that he’d soon bring his gang back to the library.
“Then I’ll ask Lisette if she can find another place for us to study!”
Sez came up with her answer after thinking carefully.
Runa sighed and gave in, but asked Sez to promise exactly her three things.
“First of all, allow me to escort you there and back when you meet Rayton…”
The others were simple.
Second of all, if something similar happens next time, Sez should stop attending his tutoring.
And lastly, the third and final condition.
Don’t get close to Rayton.
Sez understood the first and second to some extent, but she couldn’t promise the third.
‘The tutoring itself was an excuse for me to get close to him in the first place, I can’t stay away from him!’
Runa continued as Sez hesitated.
“I can tell you want it so much, but please promise me….
don’t get too close to him.
I feel bad for Prince Rayton, but I don’t want to see you get hurt because of His Royal Highness.”
Ultimately, Sez had to agree.
She was worried that spilling her true intentions would make Runa faint.
She assured Runa several times before finally taking her leave.
Drip…
drip…
Sez jumped up from her seat, feeling the blood run from her nose again.
She thought it had calmed down a little, but the dam had broken again.
Looked like Yerna had got her real good.
‘Runa told me to hold it like this…’
Sez, who was holding her nose tightly, frowned at the cotton ball blocking her nostrils.
Fortunately, Sez was not seriously injured.
The swelling where she was hit was gradually subsiding, and her head wasn’t ringing anymore.
She just wanted her nose to stop bleeding.
After sighing, Sez suddenly thought about Rayton.
Rayton fought alone against a group of more than five people, yet came out unscathed…
Sez tilted her head.
‘Why did you always let yourself get hit when you fight so well?
You endured all this yet that wasn’t even the reason for your coup… it was the death of Lisette.
So, if she doesn’t die, it won’t happen again, right?’
“Um…”
Sez’s expression was serious as she got lost in her thoughts.
She thought about it for a while, but for some reason, the image of the monarch theory book she’d seen in the library kept coming to mind.
“Hmm…”
Sez, who was leaning against the head of the bed, blinked slowly.
Honestly, she had no idea.
She might have gone back in time, but she still didn’t know how to stop Yerna from killing Lisette… Sez decided to think about her immediate goals first.
‘First of all, let’s try to get along with Rayton.
In the end, it will all fall into place.’
Sez’s eyes flickered shut.
She was extremely tired since so much had happened that day, and her body ached here and there.
Darkness began to creep up on Sez as she muttered to herself.
‘What if my brother doesn’t come tomorrow…?’
***
Sez was out of her mind all morning.
After waking up, Sez asked Runa to clean her up, so she took a bath earlier than usual, and then had breakfast.
Sez was all dressed up.
She knew how terrible she looked yesterday, so she wanted to look at least decent today.
But her bloody nose kept erupting over and over again.
Sez finally had no choice but to decorate her nose by shoving a large cotton ball into her nostril.
Sez was accompanied by Runa to the west library.
Before heading inside, Runa grabbed Sez and spoke somewhat urgently.
“You didn’t forget what I told you yesterday, did you?”
Sez nodded.
Runa said she would wait outside until the tutoring was over.
Sez told her she could go somewhere else, but Runa insisted.
The implications were twofold.
The first was that she was simply waiting outside for them to finish, and the second was that she was standing guard at the door because she was worried that something like yesterday would happen again.
Sez headed into the library alone.
“…….”
Sez looked a little disappointed as she reached the window.
There was nobody there.
No Rayton, no one at all.
An uneasy thought passed through her mind.
‘What if he really doesn’t come?’
Sez resolved to wait for a little while as she squatted in front of the window and stared at the door.
Ten minutes passed, then thirty…
She guessed he wasn’t coming.
Sez’s face darkened.
Well, actually, Rayton didn’t like the idea of this tutoring from the start.
It was only because of Lisette that he agreed to do it yesterday.
Sez knew that, too.
Sez grumbled.
‘Honestly, both of us have nothing to do in the palace…
why is it so hard for you to spare a few hours to tutor me?’
Even Sez thought he was being cheap now.
‘What should I do now?
Going back to Lisette for help might work… but wouldn’t she think I’m weird?’
The moment she started weighing up her options, the door opened suddenly.
“…”
Sez jumped up from her seat as she saw Rayton walking toward her.