Chapter 610: Refusal

Whether there was peace or not, the night wind of Belrand was always a little chilly.

And in that faint breeze, the brother and sister stared at each other calmly across a road.

As if time had stopped.

No one knew how long it was before the stillness finally broke, and a sigh drifted in with the wind.

"So you really did find out."

"These things aren’t that hard to piece together, are they? The Dion family, Sunshine Food Factory, the underground research institute—if you dig deep enough, you’ll discover they’re all tied together by the same line. And if you follow that line, you’ll be able to see... the Bugard family’s hidden channel."

Ariel’s eyelids lowered slightly. "I have to admit, you hid it well. No wonder even after the Inner Council was wiped out, the Canary could still get away. This time, if I weren’t the Bugard family’s heir—if I didn’t happen to know a little bit—I’m afraid it would’ve taken me quite a bit more effort."

"That’s not what I’m trying to say."

Orlando shook his head, his tone full of regret.

"If it got found out, it got found out. It was all within expectations. I never once thought these things could stay buried forever. But... why did you have to be so smart, my little sister? At a time like this, you could’ve just played dumb."

Orlando lifted his head and stared at Ariel. His pupils were the deep blue most common among imperial nobles, a gemstone-like color—proof of the noble bloodline from his mother.

And Ariel’s eyes were plain, brown eyes. Even if the sharp light and spirit in them could make it hard to meet her gaze... her mother had only been born in the lower city, a maid sold into a count’s household at the age of eight.

"You should understand this, my dear little sister. If something like this is dragged out into the sunlight, it’ll be a massive disaster—for me, for you, and even for the entire Bugard family. You could’ve just pretended you didn’t see anything. The Inner Council doesn’t exist anymore. As long as you pretend you didn’t see it—just this once—everything will end with you. No one will ever be able to uncover the real truth. After all, for His Majesty the new Emperor to have you handle something like this, he must trust you."

"Play dumb... Yeah. Playing dumb would be easiest..."

Ariel looked at her own hand, and the scenes she had witnessed along the way flashed through her mind.

Those human experiments. Those man-made monsters. Those pitiful people treated like disposable supplies...

After seeing all that, could she really turn a blind eye to every evil act?

She thought... she couldn’t.

"Sorry. What you did was too much."

"..."

After a moment of silence, Orlando said, "So you’re still going to the palace, to personally expose your own family’s crimes?"

"Yes."

"And you won’t think about the Bugard family at all?"

Orlando’s hand suddenly clenched around his thigh—already so numb it had nearly lost all sensation—and he burst out in anger:

"Ever since these legs were ruined by you, I’ve been a joke to everyone... I lost, and that’s fair. But I became that damned Canary so our family could take another step forward, so I could prove to the world that Orlando Bugard isn’t trash!"

"But you lost again."

Ariel’s gaze stayed calm. "And you dragged the entire Bugard family down with you—straight into the abyss."

"Yeah... I lost again."

Orlando sagged back into his wheelchair in one motion, as if all the air had left him.

"I lost. I guess I can only be trash forever now. But my dear little sister, you’re different."

He looked at Ariel with yearning.

"You’re the Bugard heir now. The future countess. I don’t matter. If my death could end everything, then you can take my head right now... but you know that’s impossible. This can’t end just because one person dies. It will inevitably implicate the entire Bugard family!"

"Ariel. Little sister. I’m begging you. Even if you won’t think about me, you should think about the family! Think about the hundreds of people in the Bugard household!"

"Turn back!"

Orlando lowered his head.

This was already the second time in his life he had lowered his head to the girl in front of him, so he was practiced now—more fluent, and apparently more sincere.

He thought his sister was too rigid and had made the wrong choice, but as long as he pointed it out to her, she would definitely come to her senses.

After all, she was the future of the Empire’s upper ranks, the dazzling countess—

"Sorry. No." Ariel answered.

"Huh? Wh—what?"

"I said no."

Ariel stroked the ring on her finger, and something extremely deep—almost tender—rose in her eyes.

"To be honest, I don’t really understand why you think... I would actually care what happens to the Bugard family."

"Because you’re the Bugard heir! You’re the future countess! As long as you turn back, no one will compete with you anymore, and the entire Bugard family will absolutely support you on this!"

Orlando roared with bloodshot eyes.

Those were the things he had once pursued with everything he had. Now they were just sitting right in front of this girl, within arm’s reach.

And she looked like... she didn’t care?

Impossible. Absolutely impossible. No one could resist that kind of temptation!

"Yeah... it all sounds very... but... so what?"

Ariel said calmly, "Future countess? Honestly, I never cared about some so-called countess’s seat in the first place."

"Liar! Who would refuse—"

"I don’t need to lie to you."

Ariel cut him off.

"Do you know what it was like? Brother. I was born in the lower city. I grew up in the lower city. My memories before I turned ten were nothing but a shack so broken it couldn’t even keep out wind and rain, and my mother—gentle and stubborn—working herself to the bone day after day without rest. You, who grew up in a rich noble household, probably can’t even imagine what that kind of life is like. The black bread that I can barely swallow now—back then, it was something we could only eat once a week, the one thing that could really fill your stomach!"

Ariel tightened her grip on the ring, her expression turning vicious, like an enraged stray dog.

"Then, when I was ten, even my only family—my mother—died. I became completely and truly alone. And it was only before she died that she told me I had a very impressive father. She gave me this ring and said that if I had no way to live in the future, I could go find him. She told me she didn’t blame him. She even said she still loved him... just a bunch of words that I thought were too stupid to be any stupider.

"So after using the last of our money to bury my mother, I didn’t go looking for him. I started running around the lower city, fighting punks, robbing the robbers—but even then, it was still hard to survive, because I was weak. I couldn’t beat anyone. I was constantly getting beaten until I blacked out. If I hadn’t met a kind abbess who took me in, I might’ve died one day in some filthy gutter in the lower city.

"Of course, it was also because of that that I met Liya... and even more important people."

Ariel took a deep breath, closed her eyes, calmed the emotion down, then continued.

"Later, with my own savings and my teacher’s help, I fought my way into Saint Maria Academy. I started making a name for myself there. And it was only then that that ‘incredible big shot’—my dear father—finally noticed me and brought me back to the Bugard family."

"But you still came back, didn’t you? Saying you don’t care, that has to be—"

"The reason I came back to this family and fought you for the right to inherit was, first, because you were the one who hated me first and started taking shots at me in the dark, and second... because I wanted to clear my mother’s name!"

Ariel cut Orlando off, her voice icy. "Do you understand? The Bugard family, the countess’s seat—I don’t care about any of it! All I wanted was to prove to you that the ‘cheap woman’ you looked down on, and the bastard you despised behind closed doors, is far stronger than your so-called noble bloodline!"

"That’s right. That’s all."

The cold wind swept past. Thin night fog danced with it. Ariel stood alone in the middle of the wide road, her silhouette looking even more slender.

But light from somewhere behind her shone down, casting a huge, savage shadow on the ground.

At that moment, Orlando looked like he’d been frightened, unable to speak.

It was as if he remembered the time he had been defeated—how he had been sitting there in the same humiliation, while Ariel looked down at him with contempt.

After a long silence, Orlando’s body swayed slightly. He shook his head, forcing away the loss of composure, and begged again, humble once more. "No matter what, over these last two years, the Bugard family did take care of you quite a bit. You can’t—"

Clang.

Before Orlando could finish, a delicate bracelet-shaped spatial magic tool dropped in front of his wheelchair.

"This is...?"

"Do you know why I discovered all of this more than a day ago, but I’m only going to the palace now?"

Ariel tried not to look at that bracelet. She spoke through clenched teeth:

"This entire day, I’ve been scraping together money. It cost me a lot, but that little /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ bit of broken money you supported me with before—it’s all in there!"

"Th—this... how could—"

"I recorded every single transaction. There won’t be any mistakes. I won’t owe you even a single coin!"

As if she didn’t want to stay in a place like this for even another second, Ariel didn’t look back again. She turned and walked away.

"I’ve said what I needed to say. I’m leaving. Goodbye!"

"Wait!"

Orlando suddenly slapped the armrest of his wheelchair and barked, "You think you can just leave because you want to?!"

"Oh?"

Ariel glanced back slightly. The phantom outline of a greatsword surfaced behind her, and a dangerous aura began to leak from her slender body.

"What are you saying... you want to fight me?"

"..."

Orlando froze.

"A year ago you weren’t my match. Now you’re even less. Save your strength and think about how you’re going to face the trial that’s coming... Big Brother Orlando."

After chewing those words with extra weight, Ariel casually waved her hand and vanished completely into the night street.

Orlando stared blankly at her back. The veins on the back of his hand bulged as he clenched and unclenched his fist again and again, but in the end... he still didn’t make a move, even though he had already made thorough preparations before coming here—enough men hidden around them to surround and kill ten fourth-tier martial warriors.

But he still chickened out.

It wasn’t because the commotion here might quickly draw palace experts and make everything completely irreversible.

It was because...

Orlando lowered his head and looked at his trembling legs. And suddenly he realized that from the very beginning, he had been afraid of Ariel.

That “beginning” didn’t mean just now.

It meant from the moment Ariel stepped into the Bugard family.

He had feared this sister of his—someone who didn’t fit the word “noble” in the slightest, whose way of doing things was closer to a wild beast.