I Really Hate You
Canna turned to look at him with an apathetic expression.
Of course he was talking about her departure to Riben Island for recuperation tomorrow.
“Yes. You’ll be heading to the Great Temple soon as well, right?”
You.
She had not called him father even once since that day. It must have been an uncomfortable title for the man who had raised her as his daughter her entire life, yet Alexandro nodded without the slightest hesitation.
“I may see your biological father there.”
“…….”
“Do you have any message you wish me to deliver to him?”
Canna narrowed her eyes.
“Are you speaking seriously?”
“I will listen first and then decide.”
“Would you tell him, ‘Your adorable daughter is being held captive by madmen, so please come and rescue her’?”
For a fleeting instant, a spark of emotion flickered through Alexandro’s eyes. Canna was startled by the subtle shift.
Had he just laughed?
“What an interesting joke, Canna.”
No, it seemed not.
It must have been a mistake after all.
His face remained as parched and desolate as ever.
“How strange. Why would you take it as a joke?”
“If it is not a joke, then is it sincere?”
Canna offered no answer. She simply pressed her lips together, openly displaying her displeasure.
It was not a joke, but neither was it entirely sincere.
She had not the slightest intention of going to the Holy Spirit.
She lacked the confidence to endure the suffocating rules of the Great Temple, and above all else, she could not bring herself to trust the man who was supposedly her biological father.
The Holy Spirit. Merely thinking of him sent a chill racing down her spine as though she had glimpsed a ghost.
They said he had lived more than five hundred years.
What might be lurking inside that ancient mind, Canna could not begin to imagine.
Then this man will become like the Holy Spirit as well?
Canna stared intently at Alexandro Addis’s face.
In her memories he had always appeared as a beautiful young man. He would continue shining like a brilliant jewel for all eternity.
This, perhaps, was what eternity looked like.
Was immortality a blessing for him, or a curse?
Their gazes remained deeply entangled until he finally moved his lips.
“Strange.”
Alexandro took one step closer. The sudden wave of overwhelming pressure made Canna instinctively retreat.
“Why so docile?”
“……What do you mean by that?”
“You have grown suddenly quiet of late.”
Canna inwardly hurled every curse she knew at his razor-sharp senses.
“Don’t misunderstand. It is not that I have become docile.”
To divert his attention, she deliberately provoked him.
“It is your wife who has been overly active. She even wagered the family’s safety in her attempt to harm me, didn’t she?”
The words themselves stirred fresh irritation. Why should she have to make such excuses?
“Still, even you must have been alarmed by this incident. It does not matter what becomes of me, but your precious family nearly fell into crisis.”
He gave no reply.
Upon closer inspection, the conversation appeared to hold little interest for him.
Perhaps he was already bored.
If you have no interest, why stop a passing stranger to speak?
If that was the case, he should never have spoken to her at all! Canna clenched her fists until her knuckles ached.
Well, it was not as though this were the first or second time.
He was occasionally generous, and sometimes behaved as though he cherished her.
Yet Canna had never believed in his whims for even a single moment.
It had been a wise judgment. Had she harbored even the faintest hope in him, she would now be tasting the grief of the ground crumbling beneath her feet.
The thought made the man before her eyes utterly loathsome. She hated him so fiercely she could hardly bear it.
“I really hate you.”
The words burst from her lips on impulse.
“I wish you would simply die.”
She had crossed the line.
She half expected him to grow angry.
But that was all. Alexandro simply stepped back once more.
He regarded her with an emotionless face, then walked past without a word of farewell. His steady footsteps echoed into the distance.
He left just like that.
Canna, who had been staring after his retreating figure, turned away as well. She moved far from him.
This is the end.
Yet unlike Alexandro Addis, she was an ordinary human, and so a storm of emotions raged inside her.
Only recently she had still believed him to be her father.
And even before that—far, far earlier…
It seemed she had once loved that man as well.
The day she first succeeded in alchemy.
She could still vividly recall the fluttering excitement of running toward his room, clutching her research.
But now all of it was nothing more than long-dead ashes.
Canna let out a bitter laugh.
It was all over. Since it was finished, she needed to clean it up.
It had rotted through and through—before the stench could spread.
Kallen had been in a foul mood the entire time.
No—in truth, it was a complete disaster.
“Raphael!”
The woman who had barely survived the fire had called that name the moment she opened her eyes.
Raphael. The defrocked priest who had always grated on his nerves.
And that night, he had learned that Raphael had visited Canna’s room.
For the first time, Kallen experienced what it truly felt like for one’s vision to go red with rage.
He paced the room in restless circles.
Damn it all, he had no right to drive the man away.
Raphael was permitted free access under Alexandro Addis’s authority.
I must endure.
If he stormed into his sister’s room now and demanded answers about their relationship, he would only earn her fury.
Yes. This is the moment I must endure.
He waited for time to pass, for word that Raphael had left the mansion.
It was hellish time.
He could not even remember how he had survived it.
Yet after that day, the memory resurfaced often, and each time it ignited a blazing fury.
Crack. While examining documents, Kallen’s gaze dropped to his hand.
The fountain pen had snapped in two.
Kallen stared at his own hand with an expressionless face. The broken pen had driven sharp fragments into his palm. Blood dripped steadily down.
Even now, days later, Kallen could not escape that memory.
What did they do in that moment?
In the dead of night, alone with that man, inside her bedroom.
This will not do, sister.
After turning me into this. This will not do.
Suddenly he thought of Riben Island.
The island he had purchased to keep Canna far from the capital. He had intended to strike her name from the Addis family register.
They no longer regarded her as family, yet their relationship remained trapped within that familial frame.
Kallen had planned to destroy that bond first.
He had tried to send Canna away to safety during that noisy period. He had harbored no other intentions whatsoever.
That was all.
It had truly been all, yet…
Kallen stared at the handkerchief slowly soaking through with blood.
His thoughts had changed.
At last the day dawned.
As she prepared to leave the Addis mansion early that morning, Lucy came running.
“Sister, wait just a moment!”
Canna greeted her with an awkward smile.
“It’s you, Lucy.”
It had been quite some time since she had deliberately distanced herself from Lucy. She had avoided her on purpose, fearing she might grow attached.
So she had intended to leave without a greeting this time as well, but…
“Sister, please travel safely. This is a gift.”
Lucy held out a lace-trimmed handkerchief embroidered with an adorable teddy bear.
A teddy bear.
Come to think of it, she had once torn open Lucy’s teddy bear doll and placed a protective potion inside.
“Did you use it?”
“Pardon?”
“The protective medicine I gave you.”
“Ah, no. There hasn’t been any need for it yet. Still, every time I see the teddy bear I feel reassured! It feels as though sister is protecting me.”
How sweet. Canna almost reached out to stroke Lucy’s hair but stopped herself. It was affection she could not take responsibility for.
“Sister, please travel safely!”
“Yes, I will.”
She would not be able to keep that promise.
Canna smiled bitterly. As she turned to leave—
“W-wait.”
Another voice stopped her. This time it was Isabel.
“What is it, Isabel?”
“Well…”
Canna tilted her head. Strangely, Isabel’s cheeks were flushed and she seemed hesitant.
“W-where is Brother Orsini?”
“What?”
“Brother Orsini hasn’t been seen much lately.”
“Why are you asking me?”
“……Right.”
Isabel laughed self-mockingly. She seemed to want to say more, but Canna had no desire to waste further time and simply turned away.
Why is she acting like that?
It looked as though she could not voice what she truly wished to say and had simply thrown out the first words that came to mind. The topic was far too disconnected.
Now that I think about it, that Orsini fellow really hasn’t shown himself lately.
After rescuing Isabel from the bandits, Orsini had vanished.
It’s not as if his wandering off on his own is anything new.
Suddenly she seemed to hear the sound of rain from that past day.
The firm sensation of the thigh she had stomped with all her strength. And those feverish eyes gazing up at her from his kneeling position.
It was an exceedingly unpleasant memory. She would erase it if she could.
If I can leave without seeing that guy’s obnoxious face, all the better.
Canna walked with firm strides. And without the slightest hesitation she departed.
From Addis. From her own personal hell.
“How is the island? Does it please you?”
On the evening of her arrival at the island, Canna dined with Kallen.
“When did you say you would return?”
“At most, three days.”
Kallen said he had business to handle on the island.
Three days. By then I will no longer be here.
Canna did not mind Kallen’s company.
Soon she would escape this island. The more witnesses to that moment, the more advantageous for her.
In that sense, she had deliberately brought Claude as her escort this time.
Because Claude is Alexandro Addis’s eyes.
He would report everything that happened on this island to Alexandro—including the moment of her disappearance.
“Do you wish for me to leave quickly?”
Kallen smiled as though teasing.
“Or are you planning to call for someone the moment I depart?”
“What?”
“Is there not a certain man whom sister calls for quite frequently?”
Canna narrowed her brows. Perhaps it was only her imagination, but his tone sounded exceedingly hostile.
“That man in the black priest’s robes.”
He spoke calmly while slicing his steak with a knife.
“What is your relationship with that priest?”
“None of your concern.”
“It concerns me. Because I love you, sister.”
That repulsive statement again.
“What exactly is your relationship with that man?”
She would ignore him. Canna pretended not to hear.
“From what I have seen, that priest appears to share a close relationship with Duke Valentino. A former husband’s friend—it is morally reprehensible.”
She could listen no longer. Canna set her wine glass down with a sharp clack.
“Kallen Addis, do not insult Raphael. Raphael is not that sort of—”
Crash!
At that instant, something shattered sharply.
Canna flinched. The explosive sound had come from Kallen’s knife.
His knife had sliced through the meat and shattered the ceramic plate as well.
“Raphael.”
Kallen murmured in a voice as faint as a candle flame.
“Raphael, Raphael.”
“…….”
“You have been calling his name with such familiarity all this time.”
Then he sneered openly.
“Well, of course. After all, he is a man you invite into your bedroom in the dead of night. Does that man call out sister’s name as well?”
Her appetite vanished instantly. Canna shoved her chair back and rose abruptly.
“Sister.”
She ignored his call. She turned to leave the dining room.
“Sister.”
She heard Kallen following behind, but she had no intention of answering anymore.
The moment Canna grasped the doorknob—
Kallen muttered in a low voice.
“Lock the door.”
Click! The metallic sound of the lock engaging rang out.
The door had been locked from the outside.