Born as the Hidden Daughter of a Villainess and the Male Lead

<Episode 41>

 

‘Arkane, the spirit king of darkness, does not love life. Shouldn’t we just treat it as a bug that only disturbs one’s feelings?’

‘There may be someone he cherishes and loves, but it won’t be us humans.’

‘Therefore, I think it is a wise choice for dark attribute Elementalists not to use the abilities given to them, even if it means sealing their innate power. …It’s better than being a chess piece.’

“Stop making stupid oaths. The reason you helped me was to satisfy your personal curiosity. I think this is the clearest proof of your hypothesis that the Dark Spirit King is the worst evil that wants to exterminate all humans!”

Riat gasped and poured out his innermost thoughts without filtering.

“So how can I not be against you? No matter how different you are from other guys…even if you showed me favor, your true intentions were not kindness. It was just an act born of contempt and a little curiosity-”

“Oh, I’m sorry, but could you please stop talking nonsense?”

……….?

Riat raised his head with a puzzled look on his face.

Mariette had an expression as if she was looking at something pitiful.

“I didn’t know you had that illusion. So, to be honest… I just hate dark spirits, I don’t hate spiritists who are born with the dark attribute.”

And an unexpected story flowed from her.

Riat’s expression became tinged with despair.

“In fact, it’s the opposite.”

Mariette looked at Riat quietly and continued speaking.

“What….”

“I think you are pitiful.”

I forced my lips, which seemed as hard as stone, to speak, but the moment I heard her words, my heart sank and I couldn’t say anything more.

“There is only one reason why I hate dark spirits. Now, look at this.”

Mariette’s quiet voice continued.

She raised her fair, white finger and pointed to Riat’s arm.

His black necrotic arm.

“It’s disgusting that he’s making fun of people like this by causing pain to the people he blessed.”

Wah-

The girl, who had always been coldly calm and rational, suddenly showed genuine anger and quietly muttered.

“It’s so despisable.”

Riat looked at Mariette blankly.

His head was dizzy from the echoing screams, the battle between Naiad and Forten, and the roar of the building collapsing.

Why?

I didn’t hate it.

The moment the girl said that, all the noise became quiet as if he was asleep.

In the middle of the vast expanse of the sea, it seemed as if the girl in front of me and I were alone.

“It’s a long story, but to sum it up in one word, I don’t hate you and I don’t hate your country. What would you live in that barren land? You shouldn’t have had to hold on to the Spirit King of Darkness or anything else.”

Mariette stood up from the floor, shaking off the hem of her clothes.

“There are times when I don’t understand your ancestors’ choice to establish a foundation on that land. Nevertheless… to those of you who have decided to pay the full price, I…”

Just then, Naiad took the last breath of Forten, who was rampaging.

Mariette, who was looking around at the scene where the crisis had receded and a lull had arrived, reached out her hand to Riat, who still had a devastated expression on his face.

“I won’t ask any more questions about your arm, unless you want to talk about it. So, let’s just leave it aside.”

“Why…..”

Riat bit his dry lips.

“Why are you doing this…?”

I may already have a intuition of the answer.

Sympathy.

Mercy shown to the poor.

But no one, except the people of Nisha, had told Riat that they did not hate him.

…No one said they felt sorry for him.

So he guessed so.

“I told you.”

Why are you just helping a stranger?

“It’s pitiful.”

Mariette answered in a quiet voice to the boy who could not finish his sentence.

The words said with an indifferent expression that was the same as other times, seemed to have a kind warmth to them for some reason.

“That’s why I can’t just leave you alone.”

Riat couldn’t say anything more.

I could only deal with the feeling of the dam collapsing that contained all the emotions I had secretly been storing away.

 

***

 

Was that why?

You were like the endless deep sea that seemed generous enough to embrace even my ugly and pathetic shadow.

So I had no choice but to cling to you.

 

***

 

If you ask where the change in the relationship began, Riat will probably answer that it was the conversation of that day.

“Mariette.”

All the hostility and inferiority feelings towards Mariette melted away like snow, so much so that even he was embarrassed and could no longer find a trace of them.

“…Were you waiting for me?”

I couldn’t figure out how to express the indescribable emotions that filled my heart.

I probably should speak in a half-hearted manner that is neither considered friendly nor is as cold as before.

“Okay, sorry I was a little late, Riat.”

The girl, who seemed so cold that he couldn’t even put a finger on it, would often smile and answer his awkward questions.

On days like that, Riat couldn’t sleep all night.

“I……”

The dark sky was shining through the wide open window while I was lying in bed.

With the light of the slender crescent moon shining.

And the hem of the fluttering light white curtain moving.

It was a quiet place in which the only sound heard was the sound of his breathing.

“Do I like Mariette?”

After contemplating for a while, Riat suddenly realized.

He, Riat Ilkay Khalid, liked Mariette Aydin Bastevan.

Her indifference to everything, which other boys used to point out, gave him a sense of peace.

What was better was that his assumption that she was just overly curious about him was nothing more than bullshit.

Because she was intelligent, she understood Riat’s uniqueness that ordinary people could not dare to accept.

Oh yeah.

“…This is what it feels like to like it…”

The feelings he had for Mariette were an irresistible attraction towards another person who sympathized with him for the first time…

If this was like this, then only one thing could be done.

“-Mariette!”

However, the heart that barely blossomed had to bear the fate of never being reciprocated from the very start.

“……Roberick?”

Because Mariette already had a fiancé with whom she had pledged her future.

That fact caused Riat the most pain.¹She was a 10, how did she end up with that thing 😭.

 

***

 

Would it have been better if he had been just a fiance in name?

That she did not truly love him, but only saw him as a match suited to her family’s interests and status.

 

***

 

The first time Liat encountered Roberick happened when she left the east building after the lectures and was walking along the path in the garden with Mariette.

“-Mariette!”

An unusually clear and beautiful voice rang high in the air and shouted Mariette’s name.

Riat inadvertently turned his head in the direction from which the voice came.

An unknown man with pure white hair was smiling brightly, waving his hand above his head.

It was definitely the first time I met him.

However, that gaze..

Unlike his own, which had an empty and gloomy color, Riat could not help but be overcome by a feeling of anxiety that seemed to be gnawing at his heart the moment he came face to face with red eyes that sparkled so brilliantly.

…….No way.

Riat looked down at Mariette.

Soon all expression disappeared from his face.

Mariette was looking at the boy and smiling.

It was different from the smile she always gave him.

She always had a calm and rational face, with a faint smile rising above it.

However, the feelings that are now emerging on Mariette’s beautiful painted face are…

“Sorry, Riat. You can go back first.”

An elegant complexion full of freshness.

Perfectly suited for a girl of that age.

With a smile made of pure joy that Riat had never seen before.

Tuk–

“…Riat?”

Riat couldn’t help but catch Mariette who was passing by him.

“……Who is this?”

Riat gazed at the star-like eyes looking at her in wonder and held back the trembling of his hands.

Even though I already guessed his identity.

I was hoping he was not who he thought.

“My fiancé, didn’t I tell you about him last time? He is Roberick Arne Heilian… By the way, Riat, I’m sorry, but we’ll talk about it later. He has a rather impatient personality.”

Mariette gently moved Riat’s hand away and walked away, lightly stepping on blades of grass.

Riat stood there and watched them walking away.

 

***

 

My throat burned.

“……”

Why am I doing this?

Clang-

Riat threw the water bottle on the floor.

The sight of it being torn to pieces and cruelly abandoned was reflected in his gray eyes.

“…I already knew.”

His empty voice muttered so that only he could hear.

Still, the unfamiliar pain that pierces his heart does not go away.

 

***

 

A Maddening anxiety clouded Riat’s patience.

“I like you.”

That day.

The day when the new moon reached the edge of the sky.

Riat eventually expressed his longing feelings.

“…I was going to hold it in since you have a fiancé. I really tried my best…”

The boy smiled and whispered, his red eyes pearing at her.

“It didn’t work. I think I like you… more than I thought.”

“……Riat.”

Mariette pursed her lips, showing signs of agitation as if she was seeing him for the first time.

“I am…….”

Because the meaning contained in the girl’s whisper, which quietly and hesitantly flowed out, was very clear.

“……okay.”

Riat lowered his head as he held on to the slender shoulders of the girl she loved.

“Don’t say anything.”

He hid his face in the shadows and chanted in a trembling voice.

“I know everything…Please, don’t say anything.”

Teardrops fell from the gray eyes that resembled the back of the moon.

Riat and Mariette stayed there for a while as if they were stuffed.

 

***

 

A year had passed.

Riat left Litera and returned to Nisha as scheduled.

Half a year ago, Mariette had also returned to the Roshan Empire, so he no longer had any regrets about that land.

For a while after returning home, I was really busy.

Riat, who took the position of successor in place of the deceased first prince, could no longer remain as a young boy.

“-how tired.”

Sigh!

Because there were so many threats to Nisha everywhere, getting my hands dirty with human blood had become a natural part of everyday life.

“……..”

But even in those numb days, the memory of Mariette came to mind as if capturing every fleeting moment.

An invaluable memory that lifts the spirit that is being consumed by boredom out of this boring life and allows me to smile sincerely, even if faintly, for just a moment.

Yes, it did.

“……What?”

One day, about two years had passed since I returned to Nisha.

“……In other words.”

A piece of news reached Riat that Mariette had been stripped of her noble title and exiled.

 

***

TL:

I am working on the last one~