The One Who Was Wrong
Canna held her breath.
She said nothing.
She could say nothing.
In the meantime, her eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness. Kallen’s silhouette began to take shape.
He stood with casual ease, close enough that she could reach out and touch him.
“Get out, Kallen Addis.”
“You should watch your language, sister.”
Kallen answered calmly.
“Are you done pretending to be the kind older sister?”
“Yes.”
“What a shame.”
Kallen smiled.
“It really is a shame.”
Truly, his sister was cruel enough to bring tears to his eyes.
All the smiles she had shown him until now had been nothing but lies. The gentle voice, the tender hand that had stroked his hair—every single one of them.
All fake.
Not a single thing had been real.
He had known. He wasn’t foolish enough to be completely deceived.
The fleeting irritation, annoyance, and contempt that sometimes crossed her face—he had stubbornly pretended not to notice, but he had seen them all.
It would have been better if he had never known.
At this moment, when the suspicions he had turned a blind eye to were finally revealed as truth, Kallen felt nothing but regret.
It had been good. He wanted to keep being fooled.
He wished she would have kept deceiving him.
“Think about it again. I am far more useful than you realize.”
“……”
“I won’t interfere with your meetings with Prince Argon anymore. Marry him again if you wish. If you want, I will even support him as the next emperor. I will place the empress’s crown upon your head.”
It was sincere. If his sister desired it, he was willing to raise her to the very pinnacle of this empire.
But his sister was stubborn. She would refuse.
“I don’t want it.”
Of course.
“I have no need for such things.”
Just as he expected. What a stubborn, inflexible woman.
If it had been the old him, he wouldn’t have even bothered with someone like her. He would have simply found her irritating.
Yet he could not bring himself to hate that iron wall.
Her sharp, jagged thorns stabbed him mercilessly, drawing blood that flowed in agonizing streams.
Even so, he didn’t mind.
“There is only one thing I want from you. Leave this place right now.”
“If I leave, will you face me tomorrow? The day after?”
Kallen spoke with bitter self-mockery.
“No. You will never want to face me again for the rest of your life.”
“So you’re threatening me right now?”
“Hardly.”
He laughed as if the very idea was ridiculous.
“If I truly wanted to threaten you, I wouldn’t be acting this pathetically. What I want is an honest conversation.”
“And if I don’t want that?”
Kallen answered with perfect courtesy.
“You will soon enough.”
Canna slowly raised her hand and gripped the necklace.
There was poison inside. If sprayed on skin, it would cause excruciating pain. If poured into the mouth—
She would probably die.
She hoped she wouldn’t have to use it. Once used, the situation would spiral beyond repair.
But if Kallen turned violent, she intended to respond in kind.
“If you were going to act like this, you shouldn’t have treated me kindly in the first place. I can never predict your whims.”
“That’s what I told you. You got tangled up with the wrong bitch.”
“No.”
Even in the darkness, Kallen stared directly at her clear face.
“It’s you who got tangled up with the wrong person.”
Yoanna was displeased.
No—this had already gone beyond displeasure into unease.
Why is he acting like this?
Throughout the entire dance at the party, Kallen’s attention had been elsewhere.
It had been on Canna Addis.
This is definitely strange.
It wasn’t just strange. It was suspicious.
At the end of that suffocating discomfort, the dance finally ended. But Canna was nowhere to be found. She had gone out to the terrace and still hadn’t returned.
After waiting for a long time, Kallen could no longer endure it. He had grabbed the servants and questioned them, eventually learning that she had disappeared with Prince Argon.
“With His Highness Prince Argon?”
She could never forget the expression on Kallen’s face in that moment.
That face, twisting like a savage beast baring its fangs.
It had sent chills down her spine.
No matter how close they are, isn’t this a bit much?
And then he had returned straight to the mansion.
He had waited in front of Canna’s bedroom, only to learn she had gone to the underground laboratory she often frequented.
Sleep would not come.
Yoanna stared at the ceiling with wide-open eyes before suddenly bolting upright. She slipped on her slippers, grabbed a lantern, and headed out.
This is too strange.
Canna’s sorrowful smile kept flashing through her mind. Now she thought she understood why the woman had smiled like that.
She doesn’t want Kallen’s attention.
As Yoanna cautiously descended the stairs, she finally saw the two of them.
Canna and Kallen.
They were talking.
She couldn’t hear the words clearly, but the atmosphere was bad. Then Canna stepped into the laboratory.
Kallen stared quietly at her retreating back… and followed her inside.
Click. The door closed.
“……”
Yoanna nearly collapsed on the spot.
What is this? What on earth is happening?
She didn’t know what it was, but it was clearly not something Canna wanted. That much was certain.
At a loss for what to do, Yoanna first retreated back up the stairs. She had to help. She couldn’t just stand by and watch a woman trapped in a difficult situation.
But was it truly a difficult situation?
It might not be. She could be misunderstanding and making a mistake.
However, her mistake would become the mistake of the Yalden Kingdom. She was in no position to act rashly.
So she needed to find someone.
Someone who could intervene in this matter…
“Sir Orsini!”
A sigh of relief escaped her.
Orsini was just strolling over, apparently having finished his training!
“What is the matter?”
“I couldn’t sleep, so I was taking a walk, and then…”
“Get to the point.”
Orsini cut her off mid-sentence. It was incredibly rude, but at this moment, she was rather glad for it.
“Right now, Duke Canna Addis and Sir Kallen are talking. But the atmosphere between them is quite bad, so…”
“Where?”
“The underground laboratory.”
Before she could even finish speaking, Orsini brushed past her at a rapid pace.
Yoanna hurried after him. Orsini reached the basement in an instant and violently threw the door open.
Bang! The door rattled violently with a sound like thunder.
The laboratory was submerged in pitch-black darkness. Only when the door opened did a faint light spill inside.
Inside, Kallen and Canna stood facing each other in silence.
“What the hell are you two doing?”
They were standing so close that a mere stretch of the hand could touch the other’s face. They stared at each other from an extremely intimate distance.
In that instant, something inside Orsini’s head snapped.
“I asked what you’re doing.”
As he spoke, he strode forward. Without hesitation, he roughly grabbed Kallen by the collar.
“I asked what the hell you’re doing here.”
Without waiting for an answer, he hurled Kallen’s body onto the workbench. Glass flasks and mana stones crashed to the floor in a clattering heap.
That wasn’t the end. Orsini yanked Kallen’s collar again and slapped him across the cheek.
“Orsini!”
But at that moment, Canna clung to his elbow, causing the blow to miss. If it had landed properly, it would have caved in his cheekbone.
“What are you doing? Stop it!”
“Let go.”
“I said stop! You’ve ruined my research materials!”
Orsini’s face twisted violently.
The faint weight clinging to his arm.
It was pathetic. The power was so weak that if he swung his arm, she would simply be dragged along.
Yet at this moment, it felt as heavy as a lump of iron. He couldn’t move an inch.
Overwhelmed by a terrible sense of helplessness, he grit his teeth and slowly lowered his arm. There was nothing else he could do.
“Oh god, my research materials…”
Canna let out a sigh as if dizzy. Little by little, the heat in Orsini’s eyes began to subside at the sound of her voice.
And Kallen slowly rose to his feet. For some reason, his face looked completely dazed.
Come to think of it, it had been like that from the beginning.
Even as his collar was grabbed and he was slapped, he hadn’t resisted—hadn’t even reacted.
As if his soul had left his body.
“…What is this?”
Only now realizing he had been hit, Kallen finally showed anger.
“What are you doing, brother?”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Can’t you see? I was having a conversation with my sister.”
“A conversation?”
Orsini wanted to throw him again, but he held back. Canna was still gripping his arm.
“You have conversations in a place like this?”
“A place like this? What’s wrong with this place?”
Kallen answered nonchalantly, as if there was nothing strange about it at all.
“Is there a problem?”
Kallen met Orsini’s blazing eyes with a gaze as cold as a glacier.
“I don’t understand why you’re so furious. What exactly were you thinking?”
His eyes flicked briefly to Canna’s hand, which was still holding Orsini’s arm.
“Is there some place siblings shouldn’t talk? I truly cannot understand your behavior, brother. Unless…”
A violent impulse slowly raised its head from within. Kallen gently suppressed that ferocity and spoke.
“Is there another reason?”
Could it be that his brother already knew?
Kallen glared at Orsini with wary eyes.
Suddenly, the conversation he had shared with Canna just before Orsini entered came to mind.
“Sister? You keep calling me that, so I guess you still haven’t heard?”
“What?”
“The truth is, Kallen, there’s no reason for you to pay any attention to me. You and I are nothing to each other.”
His heart pounded.
His mouth went dry. The blood in his entire body boiled fiercely, making it hard to endure.