NRAL | Chapter 86

~Chapter 86~

Damian’s Reason

As Eleanor began reciting the lines Damian had written in a cloud of emotion and excitement, his eyes widened in shock, and his mouth dropped open.

His pale face turned red with embarrassment as he glanced nervously at his knight and at Ernst.

Though the knights pretended not to hear anything, it was impossible they hadn’t heard her—it wasn’t like she was whispering.

“You—you dared to steal and read the letter from the next head of the family?!”

Panicking and desperate to shut Eleanor up, Damian shouted. At the same time, he realized he should’ve just pretended he didn’t know what she was talking about. But it was too late. He had already admitted it.

Having been caught, Damian jumped up and pretended to be furious, but he didn’t actually throw a punch like he had earlier. He’d finally realized that Eleanor held something that could destroy him.

“What do you think would happen if people found out the future head of House Astria committed a sex crime? I doubt Father would let it slide.”

Eleanor smiled sweetly as she brought up his father. Only then did Damian fully realize the seriousness of the situation, and he quickly backed off and tried to defend himself.

“Crime?! That’s not true!”

“Oh really? Then, how do you explain the content of the letter? It sounded like you and Nora shared a very special night together.”

“No! I mean—Nora isn’t even…!”

But his words quickly dried up.

It wasn’t a crime. He hadn’t actually done anything that intimate with Nora yet, and more importantly—Nora wasn’t really his sister.

But he couldn’t say that aloud. Damian believed Eleanor didn’t know she was the real daughter, and he desperately wanted to keep it that way. If she found out the truth and reclaimed her position, everything would fall apart for him.

Still, he couldn’t just admit to Eleanor’s accusation either.

In the Empire of Juvenile, it was strictly forbidden to marry within four degrees of blood relation. The Triton faith also viewed any sexual relations between family members as a grave sin. The same applied to the Solarem Church.

If the other nobles found out about Damian and Nora’s relationship, it would mean total social ruin for both of them.

But more than anything else, Damian was terrified of his father finding out and punishing him.

To Damian, his father was more fearsome than the emperor and more terrifying than any monster. After being acknowledged as the heir of Astria, his fear had eased a little. But ever since he had been beaten until he could barely move, it had flared up worse than ever. That was also why he had run away without proper preparation.

“Don’t worry, Damian. I know.”

After a short silence, Eleanor spoke first.

Know? Know what?

Damian frowned, trying to figure out what she meant. Annoyingly, Eleanor always had a way of saying things that were confusing and unsettling. He thought she was just being arrogant.

As if reading his thoughts, Eleanor added,

“That thing you know. I know it too.”

“…What are you talking about?”

“That Nora’s a fake.”

The effect of those words was immense—though she said them like it was nothing.

Eleanor knows that Nora isn’t the real one. And yet she hasn’t objected or tried to reclaim her rightful place.

Damian couldn’t make sense of it.

“What I’m curious about,” Eleanor continued, “is how you found out. My father couldn’t even figure it out, so how did you manage it with that dull brain of yours? Do you have better instincts than I thought?”

“How dare you…!”

The word “dull” was one of the things Damian hated most. His face twisted in anger, completely forgetting to be defensive.

Watching him, Eleanor brought up one more question that had haunted her for years.

“Just tell me one thing, Damian. Why do you hate me so much?”

It was a question she had never been able to answer.

“Why did you do all those horrible things to me? Even helping Nora become the real one—when you knew she was a fake?”

If she had done something to hurt Damian, she could at least understand. But Damian had hated Eleanor from the very beginning—from the moment she returned to the Astria mansion at the age of twelve.

“My name is Eleanor. I hope we can get along, Damian.”

Looking back, it was almost laughable. Back then, Eleanor had actually been happy about Damian’s existence. She hadn’t even known she had a younger brother, but the ten-year-old boy with the same blond hair seemed adorable to her, and she genuinely wanted to become close to him.

But for some reason, Damian had hated her from the very start. Even though Eleanor had done nothing to him, he had shown intense hostility toward her from the first day.

“You filthy, low-born wench! Get out of our house!”

Eleanor had assumed it was just natural distrust toward a stranger. She figured that once she acted more like a proper noble, his sharp attitude would fade.

But that hope never came true.

Damian’s bullying only got worse as time passed, and eventually, Eleanor began to hate him in return.

Still, deep down, she always wondered: why?

Even when Oliver died. Even when she was forced to swallow a live rat. No matter how much she hated him, she still couldn’t help but ask:

Why? What did I ever do to him?

He’s the one who always got our father’s affection. So why does he resent me so much?

And the answer to that question was always the same:

“It’s your fault! Mother died because of you!”

So cliché and worn-out that it had become tiresome.

Eleanor let out a short, bitter laugh. She felt foolish for wasting her time asking something so seriously.

“That again…”

She rubbed her aching forehead and continued.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just say you hated me for no reason? Saying my very existence disgusts you would sound more believable than that tired excuse.”

“You think I’m the only one who feels this way? Father feels the same!”

“Right. Father did say once that Mother only attended that wedding because I begged her to. Amazing how long you’ve managed to compose that one sentence.”

There was no point in continuing. Eleanor sighed and ran her fingers through her long hair.

“Just once? Sure, it was once for you.”

But when Damian spoke again, her hand stopped mid-motion.

“But I heard it every day growing up. That you were the reason Mother died. That you ruined this family.”

That was the first time she’d heard of it.

Father said that to Damian?

It was hard to believe.

Eleanor deeply hated her father, but she also knew exactly what kind of person he was. He wasn’t the type to sigh behind someone’s back—he would have said it straight to her face. And he never liked talking about his late wife. The legendary love story between Alcestis and the Duke was so exaggerated by other noblewomen that Eleanor even doubted whether it was ever real.

The Duke never spoke of his wife with longing or affection. That’s why Damian’s story felt like a lie.

“From as far back as I can remember until the day I met you at ten years old, I was alone with Father. And he—he was out of his mind with grief after Mother’s death. He’d always talk about you, how much you looked like her, and then scream and rage, blaming you. Pouring all that hate and anger onto me. Do you know how terrifying that was?”

But then again… Damian’s face didn’t look like he was lying. He looked truly shaken.

“If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have had to grow up in that kind of fear!”

Damian was a terrible liar. He didn’t have the brains to fabricate stories, or the acting skills to convey them.

Which meant… he was telling the truth.

“You stole my right to grow up in a normal family!”

Eleanor said nothing for a moment. His claims were so outrageous that she couldn’t even respond.

Even if you ignored the idea that “having both parents” automatically meant a normal family—as if this house could ever be normal with that man as a father.

And Eleanor didn’t believe her mother’s death was her fault. Sure, saying she felt no guilt would be a lie, but a five-year-old begging her mother to attend a wedding didn’t mean she deserved to carry the blame.

The church’s collapse had been a natural disaster. If anyone was to blame, it was fate, not her.

And the way their father treated Damian? That wasn’t her fault either. No matter how devastated he was, it had been his duty to protect his son—not to terrify him.

Damian had never once stood up to his father, yet he blamed her for everything.

Eleanor wanted to shout all of this back at him, to tear down his logic piece by piece—but she held it in. Instead, she brought the conversation back to its original point.

“So, I get it. That’s why you made some random girl pretend to be your sister. And then slept with her.”

“S-Slept with her? Who says we did anything like that?! That’s disgusting! Do you have proof? Any evidence that we shared a bed?”

So he was going to play dumb now.

That was exactly the reaction Eleanor expected.

She touched her chin thoughtfully, then nodded as if agreeing with him.

“You’re right. I mean, why would Nora sleep with someone like you? Gross.”

“…What?”

“Seriously. Even if Arlo’s out of duty, why would she pick you? If she’s desperate, she’d go for someone better looking. Smarter. Braver. Not someone ugly, stupid, cowardly, and immature.”

Eleanor understood now that Damian’s arrogance and obsession with the Astria name originated from low self-esteem. His appearance, his intelligence, his dependence on his father—he hated all of it. That was why he clung so tightly to pride.

Now that she had exposed all his insecurities, Damian looked like he’d been hit in the head.

Then his face flushed red with rage.

“You…!”

“Oh dear, did I hit a nerve? Be honest, Damian. Has Nora been giving you excuses? Pushing back your ‘special night’?”

His expression gave away the truth. As always, he couldn’t hide his emotions.

How is someone like that going to lead a noble house? Eleanor shook her head. Even if she did nothing, the Astria family was clearly doomed.

“Oh no… You didn’t actually believe her excuses, did you? Nora has no interest in you. She’s just using you.”

“Don’t try to fool me! I know you’re trying to come between us!”

“Really? Is that what you think? Even you know deep down that all her excuses are fake. So give it up already. She was always out of your league. Got it, dummy?”

As soon as she finished speaking, Eleanor noticed Damian’s expression change.

His eyes were empty now, burning with rage. He’d completely lost control.

Oops. Maybe I pushed too far.

She had gotten carried away, enjoying how easily she could wound him—and now she’d crossed the line.

“Aaaaaah!!”

Right at that moment, Damian let out a scream and thrust at her with a raised fist.

Eleanor didn’t flinch. She just stared at the incoming punch, thinking to herself:

Like father, like son. Even their violence is the same.

SMACK!

But just before his fist could reach her face, someone grabbed his arm.