My Sister Was the Male Lead - Chapter 77

“Mac, I think you can head back now.”

“Me, you mean?”

“Yes. Is the examination not finished?”

“Ah! Haha. Yes, it is. It is quite finished.”

When Anne asked with a look of confusion, Mac scratched the back of his neck sheepishly and laughed awkwardly. For some reason, Mac looked as if his feet were glued to the floor, unwilling to leave. However, this was troublesome. Anne wanted to wrap things up quickly.

“I will prepare the gruel and decoct the herbs as soon as the Young Lady wakes up, just as you instructed.”

“Right. Well then, I shall be going. If anything happens, do not hesitate to contact me, even if it is the middle of the night.”

“Yes, I will. Have a safe trip back.”

After sending Mac away, Anne, Razenka, and Parker headed to another drawing room. The expression on Anne’s face as she walked ahead was more resolute than ever. A stray teardrop gathered in the corner of her eye, but she bit her lip hard, determined not to show it. Finally, the long, long wait was coming to an end.

Struggling, I lifted my heavy eyelids. A faint groan escaped my lips as my blurred vision slowly took in the surroundings. It was only after blinking several times that I realized I was in my own room. The familiar ceiling and the flowing canopy embroidered with rose patterns confirmed it.

At the same time, my gaze drifted toward the window. Seeing that the scenery had turned pitch black, I realized that a significant amount of time had passed.

“Sigh. Just how long was I asleep? As I thought, it was all a dream.”

“Did you sleep well?”

Startled out of my wits, I froze mid stretch. Or rather, my entire body went rigid. From beside my bed, a man with silver white hair peeked his head out toward me.

“Aaaah!”

At the sight of the phantom, I finally shrieked. Simultaneously, I bolted upright in bed.

“A ghost! It is a ghost!”

“Sei?”

I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears with both hands. Was he now even invading my bedroom? This was on a different level from the illusions I had seen before. Besides, this was going too far. It was true that I had missed my sister for a long time, but imagining her as a man was just crazy.

“I have lost it. I have truly lost it.”

I opened my hands and slapped both my cheeks. I wanted to snap out of it somehow. However, when I opened my eyes again, the hallucination had not disappeared; it was still right there.

“This is really wrong. This crosses the line. My sister, a man?”

What kind of nonsense was this? It was truly unbelievable. Would a cold water bath bring me back to my senses? I clawed at my hair and shook my head violently.

“Stop it! It is time to stop now!”

Seven years had passed since I started seeing these illusions. I thought it was about time they stopped, so why was this symptom getting worse by the day? Perhaps I should let everything go and focus on treatment. Should I ask Mac for help before it is too late? Just as all sorts of thoughts were swirling through my head, a voice broke through.

“Fine, then stop.”

I froze instantly. In a flash, I felt warmth against my skin. He grabbed my wrists as if to stop my movements. It felt warm, exactly like the body heat of a real person.

“It would be troublesome if you fainted again.”

“What?”

“I do not think Anne would let me off the hook this time.”

As he spoke, he knelt beside the bed. Before I could process my confusion, his large hand reached out, traced my temple gently, and came to rest on my chin. To be precise, he cupped my chin and stared intently into my eyes. An indescribable sensation sparked and traveled down from the crown of my head.

Soon, my own face was reflected clearly in his emerald eyes. I looked stunned and dazed, unable to accept the situation. Only after seeing my own foolish expression did I suddenly snap out of it.

‘What am I doing right now?’

Even so, it was still a mystery whether this could truly be called reality. I did not know what to say, so I repeatedly opened and closed my mouth. Just as I concluded that my dazed behavior was even worse than my foolish expression, he spoke first to break the silence.

“Sei, I am not an illusion. I am finally able to stand before you. I am sorry I am late.”

It was true. As he said, he certainly seemed to exist, and he was indeed standing before me. Yet, I did not know why his apology made my heart ache so much. Something hot, as if scorched by fire, kept swirling in my throat. At the same time, doubt lingered about whether this was really happening, and the corners of my eyes began to sting.

I did not understand why I was acting like this either. Still, I could not just openly ignore a person to their face. As if understanding my feelings, he spoke again.

“I know. It is something hard to believe even after seeing it.”

What was it about those words? Did his small gesture of sympathy give me courage? I finally managed to compose my emotions and spoke slowly.

“The person I missed and longed for was a sister who looked lovely in dresses and bonnets. Not a man who has grown so much that I cannot recognize him.”

“Ah. I suppose so. You never would have dreamed that I was a man.”

“That is why I still cannot believe it.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Try to convince me. Give me some reason to believe, even a little, that you are my sister.”

When I first opened my eyes, I thought I had simply fallen asleep for a moment. But if the person in front of me was not an illusion, then were the things I heard before I collapsed all true?

‘Sister, you must marry me when you grow up.’

‘That is what you said.’

‘Who? Me?’

‘Yes, you.’

The moment I tried to turn away, dismissing it as a dream, the words he had spoken returned vividly to my memory.

“Let me introduce myself formally. My name is Razenka Viviana Eckmote. Now I am able to keep the promise I made to you.”

“Even if it is valid for a man instead of a sister.”

Valid. If I were to weigh the validity of that matter now, I did not know. There were certainly times when I lamented why such a cool and talented sister was not the male lead. I would never deny that. But I never imagined she would appear in such an absurd situation. At any rate, now was the time for verification to see if he really was the sister I had been looking for.

Did he sense my confusion? He pulled something out of his inner pocket and held it out before my eyes.

“Do you remember this?”

The moment I saw the object he offered as proof, my heart began to race violently.

“This is.”

“That is right. It is the rabbit pin you gave me. I have kept it quite well, have I not?”

He bit his lip lightly, looking a bit bashful. As if he had truly kept it with great care, the rabbit pin showed no signs of aging at all. It looked exactly as it did the day I gave it to him. For a very brief moment, I was almost swayed by those words, but I regained my senses and examined the rabbit pin carefully. On the corner of the pin was a small label with the name of the workshop, and on the back, my name was clearly engraved.

‘Is it real?’

Looking at it this way, there were already two pieces of evidence that he was my sister: the marriage promise made in childhood and the rabbit pin, which was a gift from my mother.

‘It is still too early. A marriage promise could be fabricated somehow.’

I could not fully trust him based on this alone. Just as childhood friends often do, one might lightly mention marriage at an age when they know nothing. This might just be a coincidental situation that happened to fit.

‘Maybe the rabbit pin was obtained through other means.’

Since so much time had passed, I could not rule out the possibility that my sister had lost the pin in the meantime. It was the same when I tracked her location in the capital after hearing the workshop owner’s story. How was I to know if it was my sister or someone else who had turned off the tracking entirely? I glared at him through a lens of deliberate suspicion. Besides, silver white hair and green eyes?

‘Is this look really that common in the Empire?’

Even when I had posted the portrait flyers to find her, many people had come with clumsy disguises, but none had ever been as realistic as this. That was not all. I now knew the fact that there was no daughter in the House of Viscount Viviana. The more I tried to grasp the situation, the clearer my mind became. A long time ago, the photo of the child in the locket pendant, the one I thought was my sister’s childhood, also featured silver white hair and green eyes.

‘I cannot trust this person until I determine the true identity of the child in that photo.’

There are so many dangerous people in the world. Did someone not even say this to me before?

[Lady Cleo, the world is not an easy place. Especially, do not trust people you meet for the first time. – Koel]

It was not even funny that I would remember those words in a situation like this. Of course, I did not intend to follow Koel’s advice religiously, but it did not hurt to be on guard. I had to be even more cautious since the ending was not far off. I spoke with a disinterested expression.

“Is that all?”

“All, you say. I expected it would not be easy, but experiencing it firsthand is quite painful. However, this is just like you.”

“And? Does that mean there is no more evidence?”

I had seen too many people appealing to emotions already, so I was a professional at dealing with that. At my question, which I asked without even a flicker of expression, he let out a low sigh.

‘Is he going to leave like this?’

Of course, it would be a shame not to see that stunning face again. At any rate, just as I was thinking that I did not want to give a high score to someone impersonating my sister, he spoke.

“Lavie.”

“That is what you used to call me. And there is something else.”

This time, he moved even closer to me, as if he had made up his mind. Startled, I tried to pull back, but I was on a bed. There was a limit to how far I could move my hips back.

“What are you doing? If you come any closer, I will call for help!”

I snapped at him, hurriedly furrowing my brows, but he seemed completely unbothered. Then, he roughly peeled off the bandage that had been stuck to his face.

“Look closely. You will have no choice but to remember this.”