SSS-Class Revival Hunter-Chapter 236: The Death King (3)

The next moment, Sylvia’s smile turned dark and sad. The girl’s sparkling innocence did not reject the tears wetting the corners of her mouth. Rather, they blended well together.

“Hahaha. As soon as I found this out, I was shocked and hid the note. The fact that Lady Silver Lily and I were tied with an inseparable bond was probably decided before we were born. The note contained the confession of this scary truth, so I hid it because I didn’t want anyone to find out.

“I had to, right? This is a very tempting secret. This secret note was completely different from the tea gossip that the ladies at social gatherings would laugh at and say ‘This is a secret I heard from a friend’ or ‘There is this secret I heard from my parents.’ It was completely different. Yes, it had to be!”

There were still many young ladies of her age at the Silver Bell Society. How could she take this secret note without them noticing? She had to take this to Lady Silver Lily and tell her about this wonderful coincidence. Young Lady Sylvia was very nervous.

“I was different from the other members. Yes, I was very different. Even when the others were obsessed with how beautiful Lady Silver Lily was on that day, or who she met and danced with, I was secretly looking for some mystical connection between Lady Silver Lily and me. Horoscopes, birthdays, birthstones—they were all useless. But our names, our names proved our unbreakable bond!”

An exciting performance went on in the old yard. The sunset slowly climbed over the mountain peak like an old man tired from a long walk. It seemed the sun grew old as the day went by.

The old sunset spread around the world. Despite the passion of the maid, her performance sounded just like the recollection of a faded past.

“I didn’t care about imperial laws. Ethics? Morals? Fuck them. I was sure that Lady Silver Lily just didn’t know about our bond yet. After I jumped over the strawberry vines in the courtyard where the social gathering was held, went through the maze-like yard, and finally got to the hall where Lady Silver Lily was dancing with the gentlemen, I waited until the line of idiots disappeared. They were waiting to at least hold hands with Lady Silver Lily.”

I could easily imagine that.

“Finally, I could tell her the secret I discovered.”

Lady Goldencup would have looked messy at the time. She had been running frantically from the courtyard to the hall, so she wouldn’t have had the elegance of a noble. Even if the others had secretly asked her to get off the premises, Sylvia would have marched on, telling everyone that she had something to show Lady Silver Lily.

“My turn finally came.”

Finally, Sylvia and Raviel met. One of them was the flower of the high society and had been decided to be the crown princess. The other was a girl whose heart was racing to meet the flower she idolized.

“What is it?”

“I-I-I’m from the Baronial Family of Evanail. May the Moon of Ivansia’s glory be eternal!”

“So, what did you want to see me for?”

Lady Silver Lily had been stuck at work since dawn because of the banquet, so she was tired. It had been a long time since her mother had disappeared, so the person who had to fill in for the role of the Ivansia hostess was no one but herself.

Therefore, not only did she plan, design, manage, and supervise everything about the banquet, she was also the flower of high society and had received her second name from the emperor. She had the duty to offer the honor of letting the young lords have her hand when they asked her to dance.

While dancing in the hall, she had to be careful not to step on her dance partner’s toes. At the same time, she had to monitor if everything at the banquet was going smoothly. This included looking out for the orchestra’s song selection and the distribution of food and alcohol to the guests.

In other words, Raviel Ivansia was already playing an influential role in the empire despite her young age. She had also skillfully executed everything. The ducal family’s spies spread out throughout the hall and reported the whispers of rumors and secrets to the hostess. Classifying and interpreting that information was also Lady Silver Lily’s job.

That was how Raviel Ivansia had been living in the empire, her whole world.

“I was really nervous when I held out my hands to Lady Silver Lily.”

Meanwhile, the young noble lady didn’t know or needed to know what the empire was. She discovered a shiny treasure known as a coincidence. The secret note was in bad shape because she had crumpled it so others would never discover it. She felt a bit embarrassed to put such trash on Lady Silver Lily’s beautiful hands.

Sylvia had been young, so she probably believed that.

“But she’ll understand! Because this is a really amazing find! She’ll become my friend!”

“Lady Silver Lily opened the secret note and looked at it for a while. Well, now that I think about it, it seemed she thought it was a secret note from her spy in the enemy country, but she couldn’t figure it out, no matter how long she looked at it. Lady Silver Lily looked back at me impassively.”

“What is this?”

“That was the first time I met Lady Silver Lily’s eyes. Do you get it? My first time! Well, she was expressionless, so she looked cold. Still, her iciness would melt away as soon as she heard my explanation. After I calmed my pounding heart, I started explaining to her.”

“Well, umm, that’s my name...”

“Your name?”

“Yes! My name is Sylvia Evanail, and your name is Raviel Ivansia. If I split the two names apart and we are left with just the letters, they’re the same. I-Isn’t it fascinating? It’s a really... really awesome... coincidence...”

“The more I spoke, the more I felt like something was wrong. I smiled awkwardly and looked up at the young lady’s face. When I saw her eyes, I realized I made a mistake. Yes, well, there wasn’t even any disappointment or boredom. What should I say? Lady Silver Lily looked down at me with her red eyes for two seconds. Those seconds froze everything in me.”

The cold seemed to chip away at her existence, starting from her fingertips.

“She only saw me as trash.”

Lady Silver Lily had said nothing to the young lady. Without insulting, ridiculing, or saying goodbye, she just turned back and returned to the banquet. After she left, the crumpled note was left lying around on the floor.

Sylvia smiled. “These things often happen when we’re young. Yes.”

She bent down and grabbed the broom, wiping away the letters she had traced in the yard.

“I didn’t want a lot in life. The young ladies around me squealed that the crown prince was handsome, but I wasn’t interested in things like dating or marriage in the first place. One day, I happened to catch a glimpse of Lady Silver Lily, and she was just so beautiful.”

The consonants and vowels drawn on the ground disappeared into the dust.

“I just wanted to get to know her a little better, so how could she insult me like that?”

Sylvia looked up. The smile that bloomed on her face was completely different from before. It resembled a poisonous flower, beautiful yet dangerous.

“Is the empire that important? Is the task of collecting and classifying information so sacred? Sorting out the family’s affairs, taking care of the people, and betrothing to the crown prince are so important that I am nothing compared to them, right? So I was going to prove something to her.”

It was a curse.

“I charmed the crown prince, the one she thought was sooo important. It was simple, really. I had a pretty face and knew how to whisper sweet nothings and make captivating gestures. He fell for me right away. You also really appreciate a lot of your family spies, right? I asked the crown prince to command the imperial knights to kill some of them. His Highness’ love for his lover ran really deep! I was so touched!”

Lady Goldencup smiled brightly.

“Your hatred for me deepened every time I did something like that, isn’t that right, Moon of Ivansia? You probably thought something like ‘You’re just a lowly wench that never thought about the empire’s future.’ No? Yes, you were right, but it got me curious.”

All the letters drawn in the yard were now gone. Maid Sylvia bowed politely while leaning on her broom.

“Would that lowly wench be able to ruin you?” she asked.

Raviel didn’t reply.

“You care for the empire and the people. The imperial family has your loyalty, and you love your family. After I crush the empire, push the people into despair, turn the imperial family into a mess, and obliterate your family, would you still love the empire and your family? Or would you hate me so much that it will drive you insane? I wanted to know that.”

Sylvia grinned.

“I was waiting for the day when your hatred for me would become stronger and deeper than your pathetic love for the empire and your family. It’s a pity. The feeble-looking bell boy came in and ruined everything.”

Sylvia glanced at me. Her sparkling eyes were smiling, but poisonous grudge and resentment gathered beyond them.

Raviel was silent. The incident that Sylvia just mentioned had occurred before any of the regression happened. She didn’t and couldn’t remember anything from back then. My spouse, the wisest person in the world, was pondering with her chin resting on her palm.

On her behalf, I said, “I know.”

“What do you mean?”

“I know how you felt and how painful it must have been for you.”

Sylvia paused. Her poison was now directed at me. “How... How dare you say that?”

She grabbed her sleeves, wrinkling her clothes. Her voice was burning with vehement anger.

“What do you know? You think you can understand me? How? How would you know my scars? Do you know how much pain I was in? How much it hurt that day? Do you have any idea what it feels like for your idol to ignore you? There is no way you’d know anything about that. Don’t give me that bullshit.”

“I know what it feels like,” I replied. “I know that very well.”

I didn’t ask why she had vainly risked her life to get revenge on something so trivial, nor did I call her out for bringing disaster to her entire world over such a trivial incident. Being ignored as if you didn’t exist, or not being treated as a human being was a poison strong enough to kill someone over four thousand times.

Goldencup shut her mouth, but the sound of her gritting her teeth was clear. “If you do, then why are you stopping me?”

“Your butler.”

She stopped talking.

“I don’t know much about your butler. He may have secretly loved you. Perhaps he even loved my spouse, but what is clear is that he would never have been happy to see you sharpen your sword to seek revenge. The butler hoped that someone would help you and him. Hamustra intercepted his plea and sent me as his agent. In the end, you did this to yourself.”

“How so?”

“You couldn’t make the butler happy. You had someone who cared for you and loved you, but you ignored him because you were fixated on your revenge. That way, you should have been happy, but you couldn’t even do that. As a result, the butler stopped existing. Maybe Raviel was an asshole to you, but you were also an asshole to the butler, who always had your back.”

Sylvia’s head drooped. Her words sparsely echoed in the silent yard.

“Urgh, what? It’s unfair to bring the butler up...”

Silence fell. The sky was now dark as the sun was hidden way beyond the mountain. The street lamps in the alley turned on with a buzzing noise. However, the dark orange streetlights didn’t reach Ja Su-Jeong’s old hanok, so the house remained enveloped in darkness and shadows.

“I’m sorry,” Raviel said in a quiet voice. “I’m sorry about what happened, Sylvia Evanail. I’ll always be sorry.”

Slowly, Sylvia looked up. In the dark night, she appeared as if they were just shadows with outlines. “What do you mean?”

“Even though I don’t remember this, this is definitely something I should have done. I would have ignored you and not even remembered you. The only things that mattered to me at that time were the well-being of the empire and the glory of my family. I’m sorry. I didn’t know what pain was at the time.”

When Raviel stood up, the daecheongmaru made an old, creaking sound, as if it played out music from a broken cassette.

She went on. “I lost my promised future to you. You took away my future position as the crown princess and had His Highness the Crown Prince’s heart all to yourself. The Moon of Ivansia, the Flower of the High Society, the Future Pillar of the Empire—all those names crumbled because of you.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Raviel walked toward Sylvia. “You were the first to make my heart bleed. It hurt. A lot. It hurt so much that I had to look in the mirror and stab my own heart with a sword. Only then did I realize how much pain I had caused others.”

Sylvia bit her lip but couldn’t look away from Raviel’s eyes.

Raviel looked back at me. “And then I met my love.”

Even in the dark veil of the night, I could clearly recognize the warmth in her breath, the rhythm of her breathing, and the air around her. She didn’t say anything, but I could tell she was beckoning me to come closer. So I did.

“My love was a regressor, suffering from the same wound as mine. I had no idea that someone else could also have leftover wounds from an endless loop. I’m grateful that I was cursed with those eternal ten days. Thanks to you, I was able to meet Gong-Ja.”

Correct. I also became grateful for my regression.

“It was very painful.”

As Teacher had said, those were painful days.

“If it weren’t for that wound, I wouldn’t have met my love.”

Thanks to my regression, I was able to fall in love with Raviel at first sight.

“The reason I was hurt was simply to meet someone who was bleeding like me. Gong-Ja, I found this out when I saw you. Sylvia, you’re the reason this was all possible. I’m grateful to you, Sylvia Evanail.”

Night dust had settled on the ground. Raviel went down on her left knee and bowed toward her maid. “Thank you.”

Ah, I knew it. I knew it... Raviel sure is amazing.

Raviel’s feelings for Sylvia had to be just as intense as my feelings for Yoo Soo-Ha. She should have wanted to retaliate against Sylvia, but instead she kneeled before her maid. Raviel was incredibly happy to have met me, so she was grateful for everything that had made this meeting possible.

Sylvia gritted her teeth. “Ugh. Damn it. Damn it! This is why I hate you all. Why are you so happy? Stay miserable and painful! Keep crying, screaming, and lamenting your misfortune! Yes, be fucking unhappy! Otherwise... Otherwise, I look like a fool who wasted my life because I got too carried away by my emotions!”

Sylvia covered her face. “That’s not true. No, it’s not true. My wound is deeper and special. No one can understand me. I will never forgive you, so... so...”

Her voice faded like a faucet whose water supply had been cut off. Only silence reigned around us for a little while. Because she was trying holding in her sobs, her shoulders shook uncontrollably.

Raviel slowly stood up and headed to a table on the daecheongmaru. She sat down on a chair, resting her elbows on the table and placing her pretty chin on the back of her clasped hands.

“Okay, let’s think about how to handle this now,” she declared.

The sourc𝗲 of this content is fre(e)novelkiss