Declared Dead, Exiled, and Betrayed— Now I Walk Away, but I'll Save One Who Cared - Chapter 4

“Sister, what is the meaning of this?”

“What’s wrong, Shifa?”

I couldn’t forgive my sister for what she had done to Lax.

After he left, I went to the Adventurer’s Guild to confirm everything for myself.

I needed to know exactly what my sister and Jekyll had done to him.

Transferring leadership to a new party leader when someone is presumed dead… that’s understandable.

It’s a necessary system—otherwise, a missing party member could hinder the survival of the rest.

Just thinking about it made me furious, but at the very least, they had already accepted Jekyll as their leader.

Fine.

But an engagement doesn’t automatically dissolve just because someone is presumed dead.

Stripping someone of their citizenship? That was absurd.

And what about Lax’s personal assets? Where did those go?

And now she was pregnant with Jekyll’s child?!

I felt nothing but disgust and nausea.

“Lax-sama! Why did you exile him?! And how could you be carrying Jekyll’s child?!”

Jekyll…

I had heard he was once a lowly errand boy for a bandit gang that “Flash” had taken down years ago.

That gang was notorious for human trafficking, and after their defeat, those with families were returned to them.

But Jekyll had no relatives.

He had begged to stay with the party, and since he was a thief, they figured he could be useful.

And then… he betrayed them.

“You wouldn’t understand. There are… complexities in the adult world.”

“Don’t treat me like a child!”

I hated the way she always dismissed me like this.

She had always been like that.

I loved Lax more than she ever did.

And she knew that.

Yet, she took him away from me anyway, using the excuse that it was for “the future of the city.”

If that were really the case, why couldn’t I have been chosen instead?

Even when I tried to fight for my place, they treated me as nothing more than a weak girl injured in the Stampede, locking me away in the estate like a fragile doll.

Lax had embraced his role in this city, protecting both its people and its reputation.

So I resigned myself to watching from afar.

I convinced my father to let me work at the guild, hoping that at least I could support him in some way.

And yet… my sister betrayed him.

And now she was pregnant?

That meant she had been with Jekyll while still engaged to Lax!

That was outright adultery!

The worst kind of betrayal!

“Enough. What’s done is done. He left, didn’t he? That’s the end of it.”

I stood there, utterly stunned by her selfishness.

She had hurt Lax so deeply…

Did she hold some kind of grudge against him?

Lax, who had protected us for three years.

I clutched the charm Lax had given me, squeezing it tightly in my hand.

“That… That’s Lax’s charm, isn’t it?”

“…”

I didn’t respond.

I only glared at her.

“Say something. It is his, isn’t it? Then hand it over. His assets have already been transferred to me.”

SLAP!

I slapped her across the face as hard as I could.

“If hitting me makes you feel better, go ahead. It doesn’t matter. It’ll heal anyway. Claire, if you would?”

“Yes, yes~”

With an emotionless expression, my sister spoke as if nothing had happened.

She wasn’t the sister I once knew.

“Claire, you saw it, didn’t you? You were there when Lax fell.”

Seeing that my sister was beyond reason, I turned to Claire, the party’s mage.

“You know my position, don’t you? I’m a mage. I was in the rear. It was a dark dungeon—I couldn’t see anything in detail.”

She gave a lazy, indifferent response.

Claire knew.

She had seen everything.

And yet, she refused to tell the truth.

She idly toyed with her necklace, completely uninterested in the conversation.

This was wrong.

All of this was so, so wrong.

That necklace… it belonged to Lax, didn’t it?

He was wearing it when he saved me.

If I remember correctly, it was a magic item with a mana regeneration effect.

Lax had stored it in the guild’s vault because wearing too many magic items at once could negate their effects.

I remember—he had found a more powerful item and didn’t need it anymore.

He even asked me if I wanted it.

I turned him down.

Even though I really wanted it, I wasn’t an adventurer. It would have been ridiculous for me to accept something so valuable.

And yet…

Now she was wearing it.

I couldn’t believe it.

Not just her.

Not just Jekyll.

All of them.

They had schemed together to steal everything from Lax.

Lax wasn’t originally from this country. He had been a wandering adventurer, traveling from place to place.

I remember him mentioning that he had relatives in a neighboring kingdom.

If he had actually died, his assets should have gone to them.

No—he hadn’t died, so his belongings were rightfully his.

Instead, they twisted the law… manipulated the system… and even abused the acting lord’s authority to take everything from him.

Unforgivable.

I felt sick.

I couldn’t trust anyone anymore.

Silently, I left the room.

Neither my sister nor Claire even glanced at me as I walked away.

They didn’t care.

Clutching the charm Lax had given me, I cried alone.

They wouldn’t even notice.

No one would.