At Samuel's relaxed voice, my sister's brows slightly furrowed.
"I apologize. I thought all the followers had been dealt with before arriving at Kraim."
"...If they were dealt with, then others would have followed even more secretly."
As is typical of powerful families, Roam also had a secret organization that moved in the shadows.
They received orders only from the Family Head and the Young Family Head, specializing in tracking people secretly or gathering intelligence.
Of course, they possessed a certain level of martial prowess as well. Each member was an elite, making it an organization that required significant expense to raise and maintain.
I had considered that Roam would move them to capture me. Since the search parties publicly dispatched weren't producing proper results, the secret organization's role would naturally grow larger.
Yet I hadn't been particularly wary of them because I was certain they would have no way to find me.
I had long ago used an appearance-altering magical tool and rotated through multiple fake identification documents. To find someone, you need at least some kind of hint, don't you?
I never imagined that hint would be Samuel.
No, saying I didn't know is just an expression of my own carelessness. I should have anticipated that Samuel might be tracked to find a connection to me.
Belatedly reproaching myself, I gazed at the person across from me. What good would regret do? Shaking off my sister standing before me right now was the priority.
"I didn't know it would be this hard just to see your face once."
"I didn't know you'd want to see me this badly either."
At my response in the same tone, Frisian sister hesitated.
She was such a proud and haughty sister that I thought she'd naturally be offended, but instead, a faint smile appeared on her face.
Joy seeped through that smile.
"So it really is you."
It was an incomprehensible reaction. I frowned as I scanned the subordinates standing behind her. Not on the scale of a search party, but there were more than I expected.
Of course, even if there were many, I didn't think they could defeat my Durahans. However, there was nothing good in revealing the Durahans, so I simply wanted to resolve this quietly if possible.
"But that's strange. I heard Sir Samuel had 'two companions whose identities couldn't be confirmed.'"
"If you're interested in Sir Samuel, I'll hand him over. Take him."
"That wouldn't happen. Anelli, if it were you, you'd hide someone and try to catch us off guard, so I'm worrying in advance."
If not for the magical tool Zenon had that erased presence, I would have been discovered already. I inwardly relaxed while twisting my lips.
"You're the one who caught us off guard."
"You're the one who revealed yourself first before I could catch anyone off guard."
Frisian sister's expression was calm.
So it didn't really feel like meeting after a long time. Though thinking about it, this was the first time facing her since the beheading.
"How did you know we were chasing? We were moving secretly."
Of course, as sister said, I was the one who revealed myself first. Once followed this far, clumsily running away might lead to the misfortune of being tracked all the way to the monastery.
Before revealing myself, I had gathered testimony from the mountain birds. Through that process, I obtained information that the number of soldiers was small.
I concluded that rather than dispatching a search party determined to capture me, they prioritized contact with me.
Seeing sister personally leading the secret operatives, my guess seemed correct.
"But how did sister follow all the way here? Samuel's identification was only used in Immon."
"I was lucky."
Watching her faintly smiling face, it felt like nothing had changed between us.
If not for the scar remaining on my neck, the memory of my beheading might have been forgotten forever.
The familiarity was slightly unpleasant. Even though I hated and resented her, I fell under the illusion that I hadn't escaped the fence called family. A terrible illusion.
"What matters is that we met like this. I happened to have something to give you, so it worked out well."
"Sister has something for me?"
"Yes. I brought it personally for you. Here."
Sister smiled and handed me something. What glittered in her palm was a brooch. The brooch of a Roam direct descendant that I had sent away as if discarding.
Through this, I could clearly understand sister's intention. Returning that meant she wanted me to accept the Roam name.
"I am not Roam's child."
At my words, sister's smiling lips stiffened. Her quietly settled purple eyes gazed at me.
"You are Roam's child."
"Seems you forgot. You were at the forefront when erasing my name."
"As Young Family Head, I only considered the family's political position. Your name is now newly inscribed in the family register."
"The Roam family put me on the execution platform."
Sister's mouth, which had been responding shamelessly, closed.
"That's why you're not family, but an enemy who killed me."
Sister looked at me without answering. I pulled my lips askew and asked cynically.
"Shouldn't you be thanking me for not going around swearing revenge?"
"Anelli Roam."
"Be grateful and leave."
"I know you're resenting us."
"Resentment is too much, sister."
At my gentle response, sister's expression cracked slightly.
She knows me. How I treat what I'm interested in, how irrationally Roam's people devote all their nerves and hearts to what they're attached to.
"I'm just not interested, sister. Whether it's Roam, or anything else."
So take your subordinates and get lost—I was about to say that when sister suddenly spoke.
"Lilia suddenly insisted on going to Ridl."
Lilia?
"She said she'd travel to the sea with His Highness the Crown Prince. Since we happened to discover Sir Samuel's trail in Immon, I accompanied them. But when we arrived at Immon, she said that. That she absolutely had to go to Ridl. Right now, His Highness the Crown Prince is there with her."
Lilia is in Ridl with Maxwell right now?
At the completely unexpected news, I felt bewildered. Why did she suddenly pop out there?
"What I said about being lucky was true. I heard news of you in Ridl and followed."
'Did Lilia find my location through prophecy?'
At the sudden thought, my spine went cold. But if her prophecy could be used that way, there was no way the imperial family's or Roam's search parties wouldn't have found me until now.
'She visited because of her connection with the village chief, and it coincidentally matched my timing.'
I forcibly calmed my pounding heart and wore a nonchalant smile.
"...So, should I congratulate you on that good fortune?"
"Lilia has become strange."
"She was always strange."
"She hasn't been able to prophesy at all since you died."
Prophecy was Lilia's greatest weapon and value. At the unexpected words, I fell silent, and sister continued in a cold voice.
"It turns out she was hiding a lot behind our backs. You knew she was acquainted with Fresh, didn't you?"
If it was Fresh, that was a figure from the underworld I had contacted before to get medicine for Lilia.
I thought it was oddly easy to mess things up. She knew Lilia? This bastard.
No, comparing him to a dog is too much. That damned thing.
"She's Roam's now. If she's strange, sister should figure it out yourself."
Discussing the past now was ridiculous. I shook my head and tried to turn away. But sister didn't stop speaking.
"We all suffered greatly after putting you on the execution platform."
"What?"
"You don't know what kind of mind Father was in when he made that decision."
"...Decision?"
I unknowingly stopped in my tracks.
"What a magnificent decision."
I looked up after mocking in a low voice.
"But sister, that's not called a 'decision,' it's called 'unfilial conduct.'"
I was the proud second daughter of Roam. I'm confident I lived without a shred of shame in that position. I was....
I cannot forget the execution platform where my entire life was denied and I was treated as worthless.
"Unfilial conduct."
Frisian sister's face went pale. Even in that state, she didn't stop speaking.
"Lilia prophesied! That you would destroy the Roam family!"
I hesitated at her voice filled with intensity.
"We couldn't ignore that. Neither Father nor I.... As you know, Lilia's prophecies were accurate! And now we discover she's strange! You and Lilia never got along from the start, so you must have known something, right?"
Sister rather interrogated me. As if not informing her beforehand of Lilia's strangeness was my fault.
When I cried in resentment, got angry, and screamed, they coldly mocked me saying 'it's too immature and stupid behavior for Roam's second daughter.' They shuddered saying I was beneath their level.
Standing there at a loss for words, I asked in a subdued voice.
"Do you know it was Lilia who bribed doctors to make a healthy person terminally ill?"
Frisian sister gasped. Just looking at her expression, I could tell she hadn't known.
I smiled as gracefully as possible. It was the most beautiful smile I could muster.
The 'dignified Roam bearing' that sister used to frequently demand from me.
"Perhaps rather than prophesying, she might be manipulating things so her words become prophecies."
Sister's lips quivered as she forced out words.
"You know how accurate she was too."
"I don't believe it. Even if it was a real prophecy."
After briefly composing emotions that nearly unraveled, I concluded gently.
"If sister had said Roam would destroy me, I wouldn't have believed it."
That they put me on the execution platform because they fell for such nonsense about me destroying Roam.
That it was unavoidable, so I should understand? Is that what they're explaining now?
"So play among yourselves. Consider me dead."
Frisian sister, pale and breathing heavily, clenched her teeth.
"Too many people know about the resurrected one to claim she's dead."
"So in the end, the resurrected one is the problem."
When I said that sarcastically, sister bared her teeth and laughed.
"Roam's things to Roam's things. You wouldn't not know that, would you?"