Chapter 1 (1/2)

Chapter 1

Vivian Ataraxia Summers.

She was born in early summer, and after lasting for 20 years, she finally died today.

There was a period of time during her childhood that she had forgotten. She couldn’t remember what had happened then, and how unjust it was.

The feelings of wanting to cry and being scared were still clear in her memories, despite not knowing what made her so upset.

So, was the fact that her first memory was of her sister coming to pick her up a foreseeable tragedy?

That was her thought as she was on the verge of death.

It was painful to breathe. She opened her eyes one day after her consciousness sank into slumber, not expecting her body to recover.

And her sister hovered over her feet every time she opened her eyes. Vivian would rather that her sister not come.

Her older sister often came to listen to the doctor’s report, before walking away indifferently. Like she had finished the day’s work that she needed to do without even checking if her younger sister was awake.

‘The Young Lady seems to be waking up soon. Would you like to stay for a while?’

‘Ahh, next time.’

It was the same today.

The room’s interior was warm.

The pleasant sound of wood crackling as it burned in the fire reached her through her hazy consciousness, her motionless body that was buried in the bed was very warm. The head that continued to burn hotly with a fever, and the wet towel placed on it was lukewarm.

Even so, it still felt cold. Her entire body trembled.

“…I’m sorry.”

From the voice of the doctor that had taken care of her since she was little, she seems to be slowly preparing to pass away.

“Tonight will be crucial.”

Vivian’s family, the Summers, was a prestigious family of mages that had accompanied the Millennium Empire since its founding. Their affluence came from the granary they owned, and they ruled the Southern part of the Empire with the powerful magic that protected their wealth.

However, in the present generation, the disgrace of the family, Vivian, must have been the Summer’s misfortune. In other words, it was also the misfortune of her older sister that will inherit the family.

Vivian was born as an illegitimate child of the Summers, and with a chronic disease.

Her body couldn’t withstand magic.

Everyone gossiped about the Summer’s ludicrous illegitimate child; a half-baked mage that was unable to wield magic and the unprecedented disgrace that clung to her older sister.

To Vivian, Sasha was no different from a hero, and so she wanted to gain recognition from her older sister. She didn’t want to be a burden, she wanted to be more than an obligation to her older sister.

‘You are my responsibility. I am your protector. Then, shouldn’t you listen to my words?’

It failed, though.

‘If I wasn’t a mage, would Sister have come to pick me up?’

“No.”

‘Right…?’

‘If you weren’t a mage, the family would definitely have killed you.’

She didn’t know why the painful words that were embedded within her heart poured out when she was on the verge of her death.

For a long time, she didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that to her older sister, she was nothing, let alone a Summers.

So, she would anticipate the words of, “You’re not my responsibility,” but end up getting hurt.

It was for that very same reason that she hated birthdays.

Her birthday falls in early summer, which was the season her family was at its busiest, so she would usually spend it alone. It was her plan to do so that year. It wasn’t that miserable to celebrate her birthday by herself, as it has always been like that.

But her sister remembered her birthday.

Every time, when she received a card with the words:

Happy birthday to you. Enclosed with the card is a little sincerity of mine.

— From, Sasha Laurel Summers

Her sister would always be the first to congratulate her with the card that her aide had sent.

She would obviously think of blowing out the cake’s candles with her sister.

She looked forward to it.

What her sister had done wrong was making her look anticipate it. If she hadn’t inquired after her, she would have spent that day as usual without expecting anything from anyone.

Her sister left the mansion, as if she had forgotten about her birthday.

Vivian remembered that she looked out of the window all day, wondering if she would return in the evening. But her sister was nowhere to be seen, and if it was not for her sister, her father wouldn’t have allowed her to sit with him in the first place…

She had dinner alone at the large table of the spacious dining hall.

As she chewed and swallowed the meat that made her feel sick, the heart that was busy worrying over her sister, the heart that she had tried so hard to protect, was broken by the large cake placed before her.

The sight of the cake that obviously took effort to make suffocated Vivian. After being dazed for quite a while, she finally moved her mouth to ask the butler.

‘…Can’t we not do this?’

‘I apologize.’

‘If you tell my sister that I had eaten well…’

‘I apologize.’

That evening, she only returned to her room after swallowing down a slice of the cake, in order to report to her sister that she had eaten.

And Vivian spent that whole night throwing up everything that she ate, feeling sad.

The reason her sister didn’t show up wasn’t because she was busy and forgot about her, but because there wasn’t any need to appear.

There were so many memories that were filled with grievances that she couldn’t count with her hands, but why didn’t Vivian give up?

Her older sister was always cruel, she would occasionally show kindness. Vivian couldn’t forget her sincerity, hence she kept getting involved with her.

But now, this too has finally ended.

When it was said that it would be hard for her to turn past twenty, that age felt very far away, but time flew so quickly that she was surprised that she had already reached the age of twenty.

There wasn’t a place that was comfortable usually, but occasionally she could bleed profusely and faint when problems occurred. But those occurrences were temporary, and she would get up soon after.

That was the case during the late summer of her twentieth year. Both the inability to breathe properly and the terrible sensation of magic clashing assaulted her. As she fell to the floor, the calm thought of whether she would be able to wake up these days flitted through her mind.