I Don't Trust My Twin Sister

I wondered if the crooked figure was really the Ersia I knew. However, since I had already seen her true self a long time ago, there was no sense of betrayal.

“It’s family values.”

“Are you trying to sell me to another family?”

“No.”

I smiled.

“I won’t do anything low like that.”

“It is not rare. It’s not really something to hide when aristocrats conduct arranged marriages. In that sense, selling me under the pretext of a contract with another family isn’t too bad…”

Ersia spread her fingers lightly and rubbed her lips, and she grinned.

“To the Marquis of Akpensia…”

Her eyes narrowed. I was a little embarrassed that I expressed my feelings too openly, but that didn’t matter. The key was that each and every word Ersia uttered was a bomb.

“To be honest, I don’t know. I don’t know why my sister turned down the Marquis of Akpensia. But I can understand if she meets the Grand Duke of Berdian on the premise of a future. No matter what anyone says, he is a person who stands shoulder to shoulder with the imperial family in terms of single power in the empire. But it’s strange, sister. How did the person who always looked after me in the mansion on the hills of Forlil, had a relationship with the person in the Duchy of Berdian, shared a deep love, and proceeded to marry him?”

Ersia and I are not the same only in appearance. I felt that the behavior and the flow of consciousness were similar. In a way, I thought that my prediction that Ersia was playing on the palm of my hand might have been wrong. Ersia, who I thought she was still a kid, knew how to roll her head well enough, just like me. She, like me, was a child born with the blood of the Ajstain family. But that wasn’t enough. Even if she wasn’t in the palm of my hand, there was nothing Ersia could do right away.

“If you’re trying to point out my relationship with a man, I think you’ve taken it in the wrong direction. What does it matter who I meet and who I promise to marry? Is my privacy important to you?”

“It is important.”

Ersia smiled brightly.

“We are twins.”

“…Stop saying such lies. I’m not sure what the fact that we’re twins has anything to do with me meeting Ian.”

“No. I know, sister. My head is always full of anxiety.”

The corners of my mouth twitched. Ersia doesn’t know what it is. She probably thinks she’s floating.

“I know my sister well. She knows what she says and does, her habits, and her voice. It means that if I put my mind to it, I can make the Grand Duke of Berdian my own.”

She could make him her own? She’s not even funny; Ian was nobody’s. He was his own master and I was the main character in my life too. He couldn’t be owned by anyone.

“Isn’t that why you got angry when I asked you to let me meet Ian?”

“Ian?”

The lips twitched open.

“Are you short?”

“Oops, my mistake. I didn’t know what to say, because I wanted to call the Grand Duke of Berdian comfortably.”

Ersia, who covered her lips and laughed, seemed to roll her eyes at her actions. Why was that?

“My sister is so withdrawn. You pay too much attention to the eyes of the people around you. Because of that, it is so easy to take away what you should have and what you already have.”

“And you were the one who took it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“But there won’t be a case where this will turn out to be regrettable. No matter how much you fly and crawl, Ian will never open up to you.”

“That remains to be seen.”

I wanted to rip off that grinning mouth. I felt resentful, hated, and cursed at Ersia, who held Ian’s name and showed malice toward me.

“If I go down these stairs again, I will return to the way I looked before. Poor Ersia, Ersia who deserves sympathy, delicate Ersia… Ersia, Lawrence’s younger sister. Other people will still feel sorry for me, but now that you know my true self, you will look funny and hateful.”

“Are you trying to test me?”

“It’s up to you.”

Ersia took a step back and looked up at the sky. The raindrops that fell incessantly became very thick. It seemed to pour harder.

“I wonder what kind of attitude you will show and what words you will bring out to show people the real me. But you have too many things to protect, sister. You have to protect your man, your position, and your family. You have so many things to protect, so can you pay attention to me?”

Ersia’s expression, smiling as it was, not a fake smile, was that of a villainess herself. My face could change like that. It seemed like an explosion of admiration.

“This is a game. If my sister takes off my mask and makes people see my real face, I will be defeated. Then the sister becomes the winner. I don’t care how you roast me. But what if the other way around?”

“…Otherwise, you take everything I have, right?”

“That’s right. My older sister always looks coveted and cool. Most of the time, when you have one, you’re not happy with it, but this time it might be a little different.”

A man’s face was drawn in her mind. I bit my lip. Was this the anxiety I heard all day?

“It’s Ian.”

“The man is quite greedy. He’s different from Beralt, who’s just pretending.”

Laughter flowed out and ridicule was drawn. A few raindrops splashed and landed on my cheek. I lowered my gaze a little in the cold, then raised it again.

“You said a lot of interesting things today, Ersia.”

“You’re welcome. I tickled because I wanted to show it someday. How is it, is it cool?”

“Huh. That’s cool. It looks better than the diseased mouse-like image you’ve shown so far.”

I could see her eyebrows twitching while she pulled the corners of her lips

“By the way, my cute and cheeky little sister is planning hard and showing greed, but unfortunately there seems to be one thing he doesn’t know.”

“Which is it, sister?”

Ersia, who looked at me with her relaxed face, gave me a soft smile and a bright answer.

“I think you’re under the illusion that Ian will be yours once I’m gone… Oh my poor little sister. There is no such thing as that.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Are you stupid? Or are you pretending not to know? No matter how many times I’ve shown it, I don’t think he’s my sister’s when I see that she asks for the same answer.”

“Sister…!”

“Listen, sister.”

Stepping on the sticky soil, I approached Ersia. While taking Ersia’s stare at me as it is. Leaning my back slightly, I put my lips to Elsia’s ear and whispered quietly.

“You keep saying, ‘Ian, Ian,’ and I’m the only one who can call him by his first name.”

I could feel Ersia’s breathing being disturbed. I grabbed the end and stretched out.

“And Ian is mine. So stop playing nonsense and get your hands off of it, bitch.”

Eventually, as my final words came out, Ersia took a deep breath in. Her shoulders trembled, and I wondered if she was trying to raise her hand. Sure enough, the slight lift of her shoulder made her hand fly towards my cheek. But her hand stopped in the air. Ercia’s face was flushed. Somehow I laughed.

“How are you going to deal with me if you can’t muster up the courage to do that? Coward.”

She straightened her back and looked straight at me again, then put on her mask and smiled.

“You risk your life to deal with me. Only then will there be a chance for you to win, at least through a needle hole.”

After my last words, she twisted her back. She wasn’t worth talking to anymore. If we did this, we could see each other’s real faces. The distance between Ercia and I was completely wrong. So while giving her voice, there was no words to give or take. Seeing her fighting in front of our parents’ graves, my heart was heavy. What should I say to my grandfather? It felt like I was going to let out a sigh of relief.

“Go back now…”

It was the moment when I opened my mouth to organize the situation and go down the stairs with the knights. 

Ping! 

I thought I could hear a bang, but a sharp wind blew through my hair and passed quickly. The fluttering hair touched my cheek again. It was chilly. Eyes widened, Benson and his knights flinched, then shouted loudly.

“It’s an attack!”

With Benson’s booming voice, arrows began to fly in an instant as if they had been waiting. 

The rain of arrows that flew in an instant accurately aimed at Ersia and me at the same time. Benson quickly rushed to protect me, but I shook my head, pointed at Ersia, and ran to the knights. Benson, who stopped and watched my actions, ran to Ercia after accurately grasping the situation and hugged Ersia, who was trembling with her startled face. Surprised eyes met Benson’s pupils.

“Excuse me, Lady Ersia.”

He hid himself with his back to a tree to avoid the trail of flying arrows, and the knights also skillfully avoided the arrows to protect me. At Benson’s cry, the footsteps of the knights below were heard as they quickly came up. I rolled my eyes and looked around. The rain of arrows that flew suddenly stopped at some point, and then calmed down again. Only the sound of the heavy plate boots of the knights could be heard. I quickly climbed the high stairs and rolled my eyes as I watched the movements of the knights who were protecting me and Ersia.

“You are not hurt, Miss Lawrence.”

“I’m OK. What about Ersia?”

Once I dropped the pretense, I rolled my eyes again. It was confirmed that Ersia was also surrounded by her knights.

‘…Did Ersia not know about the current situation? Does that mean Ercia doesn’t particularly care about dying?’

I clicked my tongue low and looked up at the sky. It felt as if the raindrops, which had gotten thicker before I knew it, were hitting her painfully. To avoid the arrow, I threw away my umbrella and moved my body. Raindrops fell on the raincoat she was wearing. However, the raincoat, which was not very waterproof, was not enough to cover the entire body. And most of all, since the weather was cold, I could feel my skin cooling down. It wasn’t good if it lasted long.

“…Lady, I’d like to escort you in a carriage right away, but the stairs are very narrow and it’s dangerous to attack them there. So could you wait a moment?”

I nodded my head at the words of the knight commander. He took off the raincoat he was wearing and put it on his shoulder, then took a step forward and opened his mouth.

“Make your appearance.”

He raised his voice as much as he could, but it was drowned out by the sound of the rain. The knight commander spoke louder. His high-pitched cry filled the top of the hill. The voice returned as an echo and once again brushed my ears. And then there was a moment of silence and waiting. However, no reaction or movement could be confirmed. After turning my eyes to look at the knight commander, I now looked beyond the fog that permeated the hill.

‘Life is a gamble.’

The word unconditional did not exist. Everyone had their own baseline and was certain. Some people used the word “confidence” even if the success rate was only half, and some had confidence only when it was 70% or 80%. So that was the business. There was no guarantee that I would always be successful. I was just measuring the odds. Always be careful. High risk meant a lot to lose, but there was also a lot to gain in case of success.