Erekka’s face stiffened.

“Yes...?”

The flustered girl forced an awkward smile.

“Th-that... Ah! There must be some misunderstanding!”

There was no doubt Erilot had deceived the duke with cruel words.

‘If that weren’t the case, the duke wouldn’t look at me with such an expression.’

A cold, indifferent look, as if observing an object.

When he had competed against Erilot, he had watched her with an interested gaze.

“Um, Your Grace. I was the youngest to enter the 12th Tower, always ranked first there, and, ah! I even have three blessings—”

“Two, actually.”

Ayla snorted dismissively, and Erekka shot her a glare.

But she quickly turned back to the duke, conscious of his presence.

“Yes, well... I have two blessings. Also, though it’s messy now and hard to see, my hair is beautiful blonde. Viscount Tusco said it resembles Your Grace’s!”

“......”

“Though it’s embarrassing, I’m said to be the prettiest in the estate, and also—”

“So?”

“...Yes?”

“So what is it you want to say?”

Erekka’s eyes widened.

The girl stammered, “I... uh...!”

Liantin gave a hollow laugh.

“Still trapped in delusions, huh.”

“What rude words are you speaking before the duke!”

Erekka shouted, but the direct-line 3rd gens sneered at her.

Liantin crossed her arms and stepped close to Erekka.

“What part of what I said is rude to grandfather?”

“That’s—”

“Oh, so you interrupted the ‘special Erekka’? Don’t be mistaken. What exactly is so special about you?”

“Well...”

“You have two blessings?”

Joffrey scoffed.

“There are plenty of people in the direct line with two blessings. Milan, Richmond, and Erilot—all have two blessings.”

“The youngest in the 12th Tower? That’s Erilot.”

Erekka shouted sharply.

“That’s not because of skill!”

Loreina frowned and asked.

“I’m just curious. We don’t need to know the system of the 12th Tower, so we don’t, but... Erilot, how talented must you be to enter the 12th Tower?”

The 3rd gens all focused on Erilot.

Erilot groaned softly.

“The 12th Tower isn’t a place you enter because of talent.”

Strictly speaking, it’s where the main house takes children from the collateral branches to raise.

A place built to implant the main house’s ideals in their minds.

In other words, ‘a place to make collateral branches obedient to the main house.’

‘Well, from grandfather’s generation on, they ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) stopped ideological education.’

The 3rd gens snickered.

“So it’s not a place to brag about getting in early.”

“Did she go crazy just to brag? Pathetic.”

Erekka’s face flushed bright red.

“That may be so, but under the current duke’s generation, the more outstanding you are, the earlier you enter!”

“Then, do you take tests?”

Erilot sighed.

“Not tests, more like rumors...”

“Rumors?”

“If there’s a rumor that you’re outstanding, they take you. Academic knowledge doesn’t matter. When I was there, some couldn’t even read.”

“What? Then what she’s been bragging about is just ‘I was rumored to be outstanding.’”

Erekka trembled and shouted.

“When I entered, they checked if I could read! I could read at four years old!”

“Erilot could read and write at three. Selene, Loreina, Joshua, Richmond too.”

“Me too!”

Liantin quickly added to a 3rd gen.

“Most of the direct line learn to read quickly.”

Joffrey said proudly.

Then his older sister Loreina nodded.

“They have blessings far superior to yours. Selene’s , mine , Erilot’s , Milan’s ... none compare to your abilities.”

“That’s because they’re direct line...!”

“So basically, you mean, ‘Among ordinary people, I’m outstanding.’”

Liantin grabbed Erilot’s shoulder.

“And also, being pretty is this!”

Erilot looked away, embarrassed.

Dionera shouted from behind Erilot’s shoulder.

“Yeah, Erilot is really pretty! Right, Liantin? The princes and heirs all fell for her at first sight, didn’t they?”

“That’s right!”

Erekka, clutching her hem tightly, trembled and muttered.

“Well, of course, if you get pampered all day like that, how could you not be pretty? If I were born the duke’s granddaughter and spent money like that—”

“What are you saying!”

Liantin yelled.

“She’s pretty even if she doesn’t wash for a week! Last year during outside training, trapped in a cave for a week because of Loreina’s team’s attack, her face still shone!”

Other 3rd gens angrily added their voices.

Elmen, who cared most about appearance, even stomped.

“We all rolled around in dirt for a week, but the professor said Erilot radiated noble light even in the mud!”

“Didn’t even bring makeup... tsk.”

‘Stop it!’

Erilot wanted to hide in a hole.

Frowning, she clapped her hands sharply.

“This is in front of grandfather. Let’s stop the useless talk here.”

Erekka glared at the direct line with a stern face.

“What’s this... why are you so jealous of me claiming to be outstanding? Why can’t you stop belittling me?”

Liantin said.

“I know people like you well. Because I used to be like you.”

“...That’s nonsense.”

Liantin was the least talented among the direct line.

Useless blessings.

A hopeless kid studying desperately to get rid of her penalties.

‘How could someone like you be like me?’

“You must be jealous of Erilot so much it’s maddening, right? She has everything you want.”

“No, no! Erilot Astra is jealous of me!”

“Why?”

“W-well...”

“Erilot has better blessings, was born of a better family, is more beautiful, and wiser than you.”

“...”

“Why would she be jealous of you?”

“That’s, that’s...”

“The truth is, you were jealous. So jealous you couldn’t stand it, so you projected yourself onto Erilot.”

“...!”

“You’re trapped in the delusion that she must be jealous of you too.”

Just like she was in the Sun Society.

Actually, the one jealous of Erilot was herself.

That’s why Erilot’s kindness looked like jealousy.

People see others by projecting themselves.

Erekka could only open and close her mouth, saying nothing.

‘Jealous of me?’

Impossible.

No way.

Why would an outstanding person?

‘I have two blessings...’

“Erilot, you now have two blessings: and .”

‘Good at studies too...’

“Isn’t that amazing? Erilot is the youngest ranked number one!”

‘Beautiful...’

“The great nobles of the Imperial Capital called her ‘The Rose of Astra.’ Ah, I admire her.”

‘Was I actually losing to her the whole time? ...No. No! That can’t be!’

Erilot planted strange logic in them.

They’re all wrong, and actually I’m the most special one—they just don’t know it yet.

Erekka looked at the duke, sniffling.

“I really can’t understand Erilot. She’s so jealous of me she put strange ideas in the direct line.”

“......”

“I understand why she treats me like this. Because the duke thinks of me as special, not direct line—”

“Ridiculous.”

“...Yes?”

Viscount Debussy chuckled incredulously.

“Foolish Girard girl. The duke didn’t even know your name before the contest.”

“Th-that can’t be...”

The duke frowned.

“Confiscate the Girard family’s property and erase their name from the nobles’ registry.”

“What about the mother and daughter?”

“Consider the predecessor’s merits and spare their lives if they confess to matters related to the monster experiments.”

“Yes.”

“Cut off the father’s tongue and one leg, and send him to the mines—”

The duke raised one eyebrow as he looked at Erekka Girard silently.

“The Girard daughter who dared spill blood on my granddaughter’s body is...”

A chilling voice settled low in the room.

It felt like every hair on your body was standing on end.

Like standing beneath the guillotine.

The duke slowly opened his mouth.

“Implant a golden restraining stone in both legs. No one in the duchy shall take this child in.”

“...!”

Erekka’s face turned pale.

‘No way. No way!’

Not just a restraining collar, but implantation of restraining stones.

Removing the collar lets you use blessings again, but the stone implantation is different.

You can never use blessings again for life.

That means...

‘Be a miserable commoner?’

If no one takes her in, she’d have to live begging like a beggar.

“Your Grace—!”

Erekka shouted, but the duke didn’t look back.

When he left the room, the collateral kids’ eyes gleamed.

“So now Erekka’s not a noble anymore...?”

“She’ll have to live begging?”

Erekka was ostracized so badly she sometimes thought of suicide.

If she rebelled, Viscount Girard punished her by family.

Now she was even hated by the direct line...

‘What is this? What’s going on?’

The collateral kids she once looked down on were terrifying.

The collateral kid she was closest to smirked.

“A new toy’s been born?”

“Ah, ahh, ahh...”

“Exercise well in the prison. They say the place where they implant the restraining stones feels like carrying lead weights.”

“Ugh, ugh...”

“I’ll wait for the day you come out, Erekka.”

The direct line sneered and left the room.

Erekka, last to leave, desperately clung to Erilot.

“P-please tell the duke. Ask him to forgive me!”

“Balzac oppa got hurt badly.”

“Huh?”

“Joshua oppa and Richmond oppa too. Because of the monster you accused me of calling.”

“W-what...?”

“I’m the bad kid, like you said—”

Erilot pulled her hem from Erekka’s grasp and continued.

“Forgiveness isn’t easy.”

Trying to kill others so easily, then begging forgiveness for herself.

‘Still far from reflecting.’

Bang!

The door closed.

Erekka went stiff like a machine and looked back.

The collateral kids snickering was terrifying.

A few days later.

Reading a book, I sensed someone approaching and looked up.

Han Ji-hyuk looked at me with a troubled expression.

“You can’t go to the underground prison.”

“Has the Girard family’s interrogation ended?”

“It ended, but they’re not in a state to speak.”

He must have been severely mistreated.

I groaned and closed the book.

Then Han Ji-hyuk asked.

“Why the Girards?”

“There are suspicious parts.”

“Suspicious?”

“Erekka Girard went wild at the direct line, but she was fine.”

“Maybe because of her Monster Taming blessing, they were scared?”

“That’s possible, but... I wonder if there was a genius among the 3rd gens. Maybe someone influenced the mood so no one attacked Erekka Girard.”

There must be a reason grandfather told us to look for a genius among the 3rd gens.

If he wanted to control the 2nd gens, he could have told us to find one among them, but telling us to find one among the 3rd gens is suspicious.

“Then why not meet Erekka Girard?”

“If there’s a genius among the 3rd gens, there would be interference when I try to meet Erekka.”

“True.”

“If it were me... I’d kill them.”

The best way to silence someone.

‘Probably she’s still alive because none of us have paid her any attention.’

Han Ji-hyuk asked.

“So what will you do?”

“It’s not necessarily the Girards, but if someone controls the mood, they’d be hard to find.”

We could ask the 3rd gens one by one.

Han Ji-hyuk nodded.

“Right. Oh, and about Milan.”

“Milan?”

Why mention him now, without being asked to investigate?

My eyes widened, and Han Ji-hyuk frowned.

“They say he’s being ostracized in the direct line.”

“What?!”

“Probably because he’s Hernan’s child?”

“But without Milan and Aunt Canaria’s help, we wouldn’t have known about Hernan’s wrongdoing!”

“Everyone thinks so, but they say they can’t set a precedent...”

I stood up with a flustered expression.

If Milan is ostracized in the direct line, he won’t be able to return to his maternal home either.

Aunt Canaria’s maternal home was originally weak, and she couldn’t get divorced because of Astra’s watchful eyes.

‘I doubt Aunt Canaria would want to bring trouble to her home.’

Then—

Knock knock.

A voice called.

“Conrad here, miss.”

“What is it?”

“The duke sent word inviting you to dine together.”

“......”

I pondered for a long time.

‘There’s no choice now.’

I declared firmly.

“Tell him. From today, I will not eat—.”

Thus began the “Erilot Astra Hunger Strike,” recorded in Astra’s history.