After a moment, Lady Shudrian sat on the spot with her arms crossed, puffing with anger.
Ileya stood pitifully to the side, touching her own reddened cheek.
If anyone else saw the young lady looking like a little girl who had been scolded and didn’t dare to speak, they would probably be quite surprised.
“Um… Mother… what exactly did you want to say just now?”
Seeing Lady Shudrian frequently glancing at her, Ileya knew the other party wanted her to give her an out.
So she could only helplessly comply with her mother’s wish.
“Hmph! It’s about this! But let me tell you, Lily… is your full-blooded younger sister!”
“Right… I was just saying full-blooded, so Father…”
Ileya thought to herself but didn’t dare to speak.
Seeing her daughter’s strange expression, Lady Shudrian realized her words were a bit problematic…
“No no no! Your father is also the same person!!”
“Huh? I-I-I’m not the old butler’s offspring?!”
Crack crack crack… Lady Shudrian turned to stone again.
She wondered just how unreliable she was in this child’s eyes?!
“Why… sigh…”
“You… are all your father’s children, all children of the Marquis, Grosset Bateos!!”
Although she was exasperated, the Lady explained very rigorously to prevent Ileya from continuing to misunderstand.
“Oh… ahh~ So that’s how it is.”
“It seems… the old butler wasn’t cuckolded. What a pity… ahem, congratulatory.”
“Furthermore…” Shudrian paused slightly here.
“You two are even twins. You were just delivered from my belly before her~ So you’re the older sister.”
Saying this, Shudrian’s eyes were full of tenderness as she looked at her daughter before her, who was now… up to her shoulder in height.
“Twins?!”
Ileya was slightly stunned.
But she and Reliel didn’t look alike. It was just that Reliel resembled Mother, while she resembled Father.
“Eh? Putting it that way, there doesn’t seem to be any problem…”
“If… we’re twins, then why could I stay here and be the young lady while Reliel was sent away?” Ileya asked, somewhat bewildered.
“Sigh…”
Lady Shudrian let out a long sigh and turned her head to look at the garden outside the crystal window…
For a moment, the room fell into silence.
“Because… your little sister showed something unusual at birth…”
As her mother spoke, she seemed to recall that night when muffled thunder echoed.
……
Rumble…
Under the night sky flashing with thunder and lightning, the young Lady was pale-faced, covered in cold sweat, gripping the bedsheets beneath her.
“Lord Marquis! You… you should wait outside…”
“Get out.” A cold voice sounded at the door, followed by hurried footsteps.
The hand that had been tightly gripping the bedsheet was firmly clasped by another large hand.
“Lian…” Then, beside the Lady’s ear, rang the voice of the one who had been by her side since childhood, the voice that always made her feel incredibly at ease.
“I’m here… I’m here. Sorry I’m late, sorry…”
Shudrian could feel that warm large hand trembling slightly, while the other hand helplessly wiped the fine sweat from her forehead.
“Goodness… who’s the one giving birth here…”
“I’m not… that nervous, but you… what are you nervous about…”
“It’s not… the first time…”
Thinking this, Lady Shudrian weakly opened her eyes. Kneeling on one knee by the bed, the one whose eyes held more… fear than worry.
“You’re… such a grown person… aren’t you embarrassed…”
“Ah… I…”
The Marquis, known for his coldness, now looked like a child who had accidentally broken the family dishes, his expression subconsciously causing a slight upturn at the corner of the ordinarily pain-ridden Shudrian’s mouth.
“I… ugh!!”
“Lian!?”
“My Lady! It’s coming! It’s about to come out… Push a little harder!!”
At the foot of the bed, the maid in charge of delivery was also sweating profusely, nervously watching the movements of the Lady’s body.
Who knew how long passed…
The stifling and painful atmosphere, shrouded in the scent of blood, was shattered by a loud cry!
“Waaah—! Waaah!”
“My Lady! Lord Marquis! It’s a girl… the eldest young lady!!” The delivery maid wrapped the still loudly crying infant in a small blanket.
But before Lord Marquis Grosset, standing nearby, could breathe a sigh of relief,
He heard his Lady moan in pain once more.
“There’s another one! It’s… twins!” The delivery maid’s voice rang out again, not bringing Grosset joy, but causing the heart he had just begun to ease to tighten once more.
However, the birth of the second child was much easier than the eldest young lady’s.
It didn’t take long before the second young lady was already in the delivery maid’s arms.
But…
“Lo-Lord Marquis…” The delivery maid’s voice came, trembling.
At that moment, Grosset didn’t have time to look at his two newborn daughters; his attention was entirely on his extremely weak wife.
It wasn’t until the maid’s voice reached his ears…
That he somewhat belatedly realized, it seemed… he hadn’t heard the second child’s cry after birth?
Grosset turned to look, only to find himself… locking eyes with a pair of large, light blue eyes.
Those eyes were beautiful, exactly like his wife’s. Only… there was a gleam of… indifference… and a cold emotion within them.
Grosset had seen similar expressions before, but… seeing them now in the eyes of a baby less than a minute old…
And this baby was also his own daughter…
This caused his red pupils to contract sharply, and he stood frozen on the spot.
It was at that moment…
A pitch-black birthmark suddenly rose on the baby’s skin… The birthmark coiled around the infant like a python.
This child… was definitely problematic!!
But before Grosset could say anything, the black “birthmark” coiled around the baby suddenly sprang up from its body!
Now the Lord Marquis saw clearly! It was a small black python, its scales shimmering with a metallic luster!
“Damn thing…” The Marquis subconsciously drew the sword still hanging from his waist, intending to kill the small snake…
But at this moment, he hesitated…
Because that was his daughter, and this snake seemed to be connected to her body. If he cut it…
“Hiss!!”
But before the Marquis could finish pondering this, the snake suddenly burst forth in an instant!
It bit directly into the neck of the delivery maid holding the second young lady’s body!
“Guh…?” Instantly, the maid’s body went limp as she fell backward…
And the child in her arms fell to the ground at that moment.
Thud!
This head-first landing would be absolutely fatal for an infant…
But…
“Wah… wah wah wah!!”
As if delayed, the strange infant let out a loud, piercing cry at that moment.
……
After listening to the entire story, Ileya was also somewhat dazed.
So… the reason she could stay at the Marquis’s castle was because she cried loud enough at birth and was too ordinary?
But this time, she finally understood why Reliel was sent away to be raised.
It wasn’t that the Marquis and his Lady didn’t love this second daughter, nor were they afraid of her innate abnormality.
Rather…
If they kept this “Innate Transcendent,” similar to the “Saint Witch,” at home, once discovered by the Royal Family’s surveillance network, it would be a disaster for the Marquis’s castle and even the Sereton family.
Of course, at that time, the Lady and Marquis didn’t know the matter could be this serious.
They had only considered the Royal Family’s attitude towards the Sereton family’s “female Transcendents.”
In truth, they were more worried that if Reliel herself was discovered… she would be threatened by the Royal Family.
The reason they sent her to the Hunter Blade Mercenary Group was also a joint decision by the couple.
First, as Reliel grew, she would only become stronger. The mercenary group was a good place to hide her identity, and she would hardly be suspected.
Second, ordinary Transcendents needed a strong physique.
Although they didn’t know if a naturally female Transcendent needed it, sending her to the mercenary group to train her body from a young age was a precaution against future troubles.
And so, the two newborn sisters embarked on completely different fates.
Because of this, the Marquis and his Lady turned their guilt towards their younger daughter into love for Ileya, nurturing a personality like the “Bloodblossom Demon.”
But… following this logic, the Marquis and Lady, who understood all this background, would absolutely not acknowledge Reliel at this critical juncture of the Foreign Race invasion…
Therefore, the thought in Ileya’s heart surfaced once more.
It must be because the Marquis’s castle, or something unexpected had happened on the old butler’s side…
Causing Mother to make the decision to acknowledge Reliel.
And given her personality… acknowledging Reliel wouldn’t be because she could help the family, but simply… not wanting to leave any regrets.
Thinking this far, Ileya’s eyes narrowed slightly.
And judging by the timing, that unexpected event would happen very soon.
That was also the reason she had rushed back.
“So… Mother, when do you want to acknowledge Little Sister?”
Ileya, now sitting before Lady Shudrian with her arms crossed, asked.
“I originally thought you would be very resistant to this~” Seeing her daughter’s expression, Lady Shudrian shook her head with a light laugh, then slowly reached out again to stroke Ileya’s soft head.
It seemed she really had grown up~
“I didn’t have this plan originally, and now that I have the intelligence you brought back… I’m even less inclined to.”
Lady Shudrian slowly shook her head.
Knowing this information, having Reliel acknowledged now would not help her; it would even harm her…
This family had already wronged her enough… They couldn’t add fuel to the fire and bring a deadly disaster upon Reliel at such a time.
“Mm.” Ileya nodded slightly.
But in her heart, she confirmed her thoughts once more.
If something special hadn’t happened, Mother would never choose to acknowledge Reliel at a time like this.
“By the way, how’s Old Father been lately? Any news?”
Lady Shudrian was also a bit surprised by Ileya’s sudden concern for her father.
But… if her father heard Yaya calling him Father instead of old man, he would probably be very happy?
“It hasn’t been peaceful lately… You saw it when you came back. Although your father’s letter hasn’t arrived yet… according to my estimation…”
Lady Shudrian’s gaze once again looked far out the window.
But unlike the previous reminiscence, her light blue eyes this time seemed to look into a distance beyond sight.
“War… is coming.”