TTMLPTWW ~ Chapter 127

“Helene. Our mother was not a princess.”

“What are you talking about?”

Helene frowned as she asked. It was such an absurd statement.

Carlos sighed as if he understood her reaction.

He too had a hard time accepting it at first and began investigating, hoping it wasn’t true.

But through this, he learned many things and eventually had to accept it.

“…Our mother was not Princess Margarita, but a commoner who resembled her. She was merely a substitute for the princess our father loved.”

Despite looking like someone who had just crawled out of a pit of despair, his tone was remarkably calm.

A blue vein popped out on Helene’s forehead.

“I understand you want to protect Cynthia, but do you really think such a lie is acceptable?”

“I wish it were a lie too.”

Carlos took a photo out of his coat and handed it to her.

“Father disguised our mother as Princess Margarita and erased our real mother from the world. Because the real one he wanted finally came to him.”

Helene took the photo he offered with a still disbelieving face.

In the photo, worn by the passage of time, there was a woman holding Carlos as a newborn. She looked very similar to the princess’s portrait, but was clearly a different person.

Words written on the back of the photo were visible.

“Carlos, Helene, Edford. My dear children. Please don’t forget your mother.

– Riena Carlz”

It was a photo she had secretly taken and hidden before her death, hoping her children would remember her.

“…You think this counts as evidence?”

“There’s a living witness who remembers our mother. They barely escaped with their life with someone’s help and are in hiding.”

Helene’s eyes, which had been staring intently at the photo, began to turn a dry color.

“This can’t be.”

“I am my father’s daughter, so I must take after you in this as well.”

“No. You take after your mother.”

Suddenly, Count Queensguard’s incongruous words echoed in her mind.

What her father, who was skilled at passing off fakes as real, had created… was not Cynthia’s life, but Helene’s own.

“Huk.”

A wave of dizziness hit her as her vision turned black.

Helene crumpled the photo as she exhaled roughly.

“…My mother was not a princess, but a lowly commoner? Then the life I’ve lived… No, that can’t be…”

I was the one pretending to be a princess my whole life?

Imagining her image of sitting on the throne shattering to pieces, she clutched her head.

Helene’s pupils dilated as she struggled to accept reality. Soon, she let out an agonizing scream.

Carlos embraced Helene and began to calm her down.

“With a witness, it will come to light someday, Lena, so stop this now. You know that whatever you do with a fake life is meaningless.”

“What are you telling me to do now? To live meaninglessly locked up in prison or a convent until I die?”

“We can go abroad together and start anew. You’ve had a dream since you were young, right? I’ll devote the rest of my life to helping you achieve your dream.”

Helene shook her head violently.

“What are you saying? Stop talking nonsense!”

“Helene. If you don’t stop, I’ll have no choice but to make you stop.”

Helene, who had been tearing at her hair like a madwoman, stared blankly at her brother. Her bloodshot eyes looked out of her mind.

“…You’re going to reveal the truth? Brother, please don’t.”

Despite her plea, Carlos’s face showed he had accepted and resigned himself to everything.

As the truth she had wielded like a weapon now threatened to choke her, a tidal wave of emotions crashed over her.

“I can’t stop. What am I supposed to do now? I have no more options. I have nowhere to go, no goals, no dreams. I don’t even have a reason to live. I hate this.”

Carlos looked at her suffering with sorrowful eyes.

Helene was already backed into a corner.

The one he needed to save was not Cynthia, but his sister Helene.

Judging that only he could stop her, he stepped away from her.

“Alright. I won’t force you. Let’s each make our own choices.”

Carlos left those final words and turned away.

Helene, who had been staring blankly at Carlos’s back, picked up a vase of lilies from the table.

Who does my brother think he is to try and take away my future?

We’re family.

…Why won’t anyone take my side?

Thwack-!

With a heavy impact, Carlos’s body swayed unsteadily.

Staggering, he turned to look at his sister with a sorrowful face.

“Helene… I wish things were different.”

Dark red blood trickled down his forehead as he reached out to Helene.

At last, Carlos collapsed lifelessly to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut.

“…”

The room was enveloped in silence as if time had stopped.

Helene, standing with a dazed expression, looked down at the broken vase in her hand.

Blood was flowing from her palm, but she felt no pain.

“…Brother.”

There was no response, not even a twitch.

The image of her fallen brother became blurry.

Helene stumbled backwards, her whole body trembling, then approached him again.

She quietly gazed down at the blood spreading beneath her shoes.

The red blood was staining the scattered white lilies on the floor.

“Brother Cal.”

Like a film reel, memories from childhood began to flash before her eyes.

Rescuing a fallen bird from its nest together, getting lost in the forest while chasing a squirrel, him carrying her home on his back after she fell asleep playing outside.

“You’re a princess. You can’t follow your brothers around and play like a boy anymore.”

She loved going on adventures here and there, but as she got older, she had to separate from her brothers and receive strict lessons as a bride.

“Lena, are you bored being cooped up in your room doing embroidery? Look, I found a bird’s egg.”

The innocent smile of her brother, who had climbed up to her window, was vivid. Back then, Carlos was wearing the ribbon tie she had made for him.

Her hand, cut by the broken shards, began to throb belatedly.

“Brother. I… I wanted to live as I pleased.”

A life where she could do what she wanted, not do what she disliked, and make her own decisions rather than others.

“Brother, when I grow up I’m going to be a great fashion entrepreneur.”

“You’re the smartest of us, so you’ll definitely succeed. Then your brothers should learn sewing too. To help with your business, you know.”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to be a violin player before? And Ed said he’d sell hot dogs.”

“We’re going to be adults first. So we have to help you achieve your dream.”

The tidal wave that had been raging endlessly in her heart calmed down and began to sink like a shipwreck.

Helene gathered the scattered lilies and placed them in the broken vase, then set it neatly on the table.

Sitting down weakly in a chair, she murmured desolately, feeling as if she might suffocate.

“How did I become a monster consumed by anger?”

It can’t be undone.

Tears flowed from her eyes, filled with a deep blue void, melting her cold cheeks.

* * *

Long ago, at the Queensguard estate in the North.

It was a night when a fierce blizzard was raging during the coldest season.

“My lord, you should come see this immediately.”

Count Queensguard followed the butler who had urgently come to his study and went out to the garden, where his eyes widened at the sight of someone.

A blonde woman in a shabby cloak was sitting on the ground.

“Margarita…”

He hurriedly supported her and glared at the butler.

“Why didn’t you bring her inside?”

“If it became known that we harbored a runaway princess in the mansion, it would cause problems…”

“As long as there are no witnesses, it’s fine.”

Bang-!

With a sudden gunshot, the butler clutched his chest and collapsed.

As he put away the pistol and lifted the princess in his arms, he frowned upon discovering the young child in her embrace.

He wanted to leave it behind, but since she was holding it tightly, he had no choice but to bring it along.

Princess Margarita, gasping for breath, spoke in a dry voice.

“…Grant.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

He looked down at the princess in his arms as he put a bullet in every servant they encountered.

He was happy she called his name, but his brow furrowed every time she coughed.

“Did you come to save me?”

She seemed to be hallucinating that they were in a gunfight with revolutionaries, perhaps due to the cold and blood loss.

“Yes, you don’t need to worry anymore.”

Count Queensguard replied gently as he strode down the corridor.

The princess smiled brightly, feeling relieved.

A faint smile also appeared on his lips, which were tinged red at the corners of his eyes.

“I’m glad you’ve come back to me, my princess.”

Behind the back of the knight carrying the princess, a scene from hell unfolded.