SWMD 22

Chapter 22

Several days had passed. Icel waited for Catherine to fall into a deep sleep.

She couldn’t tell the time without a clock, but when no light at all leaked through the gaps in the bookshelf, Icel began to release her mana. However, her unrefined magic didn’t flow out easily as she intended.

It seemed last time had simply been luck. Her mana still wasn’t fully familiar to her body—unstable and raw.

She had practiced during her confinement, but each attempt at release wasn’t always successful. With a grunt, Icel opened and closed her palms.

“Please…”

Luckily, it worked this time. Blue lights popped up like fireflies around her.

The faint lights slipped through the cracks in the bookshelf, swirling around the lock. In an instant, the lock froze solid. A click echoed as the lock disengaged.

Icel carefully opened the bookshelf door. The night was pitch-black, without even a moon in the sky.

Peering out through the small crack, Icel scanned Catherine’s bed. She was fast asleep, lips moving gently as if dreaming sweet dreams.

That was supposed to be my place.

Icel stepped out of the bookshelf and stood before Catherine. Looking at the peaceful face of the girl who had made her life hell filled her with seething rage.

She clenched her fists, then tightly shut her eyes and left the room. She could release her magic now, but didn’t yet know how to use it offensively.

Weak and untrained, all she had done was escape the bookshelf.

She couldn’t act recklessly.

Curling her small body, Icel snuck out of the estate. Who would have thought her stunted, malnourished frame would be useful now? The irony made her let out a soft, bitter laugh.

She slipped into the underbrush, thinking back to Alicia’s words.

Alicia had said they would lock the Grand Duchess in a hut at the edge of the estate.

Icel picked up her pace toward the hut. Perhaps because Diana was blind, no one was guarding the entrance.

Only a large lock, like the one that had confined Icel, hung on the door.

She fumbled with it, trying again to channel her mana. This time, nothing came out.

“Damn it.”

It pained her that she couldn’t rescue her mother right away.

Circling the hut, she found a window she could peek through.

Standing on tiptoe, Icel clung to the window. It was so dark, she could barely see inside.

Then, the moon, previously hidden by clouds, peeked through.

Moonlight trickled through the window, faintly illuminating Diana’s slumped figure. It was the first time she’d truly seen her mother.

Though the luster in her golden hair had faded, those emerald eyes mirrored her own.

Tears began to stream down Icel’s cheeks. Her mother looked as if she could stop breathing at any moment.

It was clear how cruelly those monsters had treated her. If nothing was done, she would surely starve to death.

Icel returned to her bookshelf room. From her food rations, she grabbed a single lump of dry bread.

She headed back to the hut. It had been so long since she’d moved this much, sweat dripped from her hair.

She gently set the bread on the ground and grunted as she focused her mana again.

This time, it worked.

“Yes!”

She carefully removed the frozen lock and crept into the hut.

Her mother—so long yearned for—was finally in front of her. Diana barely looked alive.

Even though she had entered soundlessly, Diana stirred slightly and raised her head.

With parched lips, she barely managed to speak.

“…Who is it?”

The sight of her broke Icel’s heart, leaving her speechless. She simply dropped the bread in her hand.

Then she bolted back toward the mansion.

Tears poured down her face.

She hated the people who had created this tragedy.

But even if her mother didn’t recognize her, she couldn’t abandon her.

After a while, panting, she paused and turned back toward the hut.

Her eyes shimmered like ripples on a still lake.

Just a little longer, please wait for me, Mother. Until I can control this power. Just until then.

She prayed and prayed that Diana would survive that long—then headed back to the estate.

* * *

For days, all Icel had eaten was milk—moldy milk. She felt weaker than usual. But at least she could eat something.

If she didn’t help Diana, her mother would starve to death.

She picked up this week’s bread ration.

She planned to sneak out again.

After much practice, she could now easily unlock the door.

Every night after Catherine fell asleep, she went to the hut. Seeing her mother’s frail body had become her final task of the day.

But she never once spoke.

She didn’t know what to say—and it pained her to see Diana suffering, knowing she couldn’t save her right away.

Today, too, she opened the door and gently dropped the bread.

“…Catherine, is that you…?”

Hearing that name, Icel’s eyes wavered.

You foolish mother. Catherine isn’t your daughter. I am. I’m your real daughter.

Her throat tightened. She couldn’t speak. Swallowing the words, she turned and left with a lonely expression.

As she wiped her tears and trudged forward…

A large shadow fell over her.

“…You little rat.”

Icel’s head snapped up. In front of her stood Alicia, Catherine, and—surely—her father, Duke Calypso, along with armed knights.

“Haa…”

Without thinking, Icel stepped back. But knights had already surrounded her.

Alicia and Catherine looked at her in disbelief.

“Father, that filthy thing dared to go near the hut, despite your strict orders!”

Catherine pointed at Icel, spitting venom.

Calypso slowly looked her over. He had never cared about the maids—he probably didn’t even know she existed.

Alicia and Catherine had simply stirred up trouble, claiming a maid had gone missing, which led to mobilizing the knights.

Still, a direct order had been disobeyed. If word got out that Diana was being held captive, it could destroy them.

In the story they had crafted, Diana was supposed to die suddenly of illness.

Icel and Calypso locked eyes. He had no idea this pitiful girl was his own flesh and blood.

Just as Icel tried to speak, Alicia and Catherine jeered at her.

“How did she escape?”

“We fed and sheltered you, and this is how you repay us?”

“Repay?” Icel’s lip curled into a bitter smile. A clear sign of contempt.

“You dare mock me?!”

Catherine raised her hand to strike. But at that moment, Icel’s eyes flashed.

Blue mana surged from her body, instantly freezing Catherine’s hand.

“Aagh!”

“Kyaa! Catherine!”

Alicia rushed over to examine her daughter’s hand—it was frozen like a block of ice.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Icel ran toward Calypso.

She was going to say it. I’m your daughter too.

But before the words left her lips, Calypso’s expression changed upon seeing Catherine’s frozen hand.

With a frown, he silently raised one hand.

The knights surrounding Icel drew their bows.

“Fire.”

At his quiet command, a volley of arrows rained down.

They pierced Icel’s small body like a storm.

Dozens of arrows struck her. Coughing blood, she collapsed.

Watching her fall, Alicia and Catherine began to smile.

Everything slowed down. Icel realized she was dying.

Father…

Her fading gaze lingered on Calypso.

She had never called him that before. Even though he had ruined both her and her mother’s lives, she still wanted to say it once.

I’m your daughter, too.

If she had said it… would anything have changed?

“Fa…ther…”

She couldn’t even finish the word. Tears welled up as her eyes slowly closed.

She thought she had died.

But then, her eyes flew open.

Icel blinked rapidly. She had clearly been killed by arrows. Yet here she was, in the small bookshelf room.

“What…?”

Had she not died?

She felt around her body—there wasn’t a single wound.

Then she heard Catherine’s voice from outside.

“Icel!”

Her heart pounding, Icel pushed open the bookshelf door. Outside, she saw Catherine—who had deliberately shattered a glass.

Everything was just like before. The day Catherine returned from Diana’s room, irritable over something.

“Clean it up.”

Even her words were the same.

Icel silently began picking up the shards. Catherine kicked them toward her like before.

Her hands were cut—the wound identical to the one she remembered.

Icel looked up at Catherine’s sneering face.

“What’s with that look? Got something to say?”

“…No, Your Ladyship.”

Everything was exactly the same. Icel answered in a weak voice, even more drained than before.

“It’s all cleaned up.”

“Good. Now go back inside. Don’t come out until I call you.”

“Yes… Your Ladyship.”

She crawled back into the bookshelf room, glaring at Catherine on the other side.

She didn’t fully understand what was happening yet.

But whatever this was—it was a chance.

A chance to undo everything. This time, she would protect her mother.

She wouldn’t be defeated like before.

Alicia, Catherine… and even her foolish father, who ended up killing his own daughter.

She would repay them all—tenfold.

Icel clenched her fists. Her emerald eyes, so like Diana’s, now blazed with vengeance.

Unaware that her mother had also regressed.