KFBRV Ch 32

When she opened her eyes, a familiar desk came into view.

It seemed she had fallen into a deep sleep while playing a game. Her left arm, which had been pinned under her weight, throbbed with a prickly numbness.

Suwan wondered how long she had been out. She had been having a dream—vivid and intense—but the moment she tried to grasp the details, they vanished like mist, leaving her mind blank.

A hair tie lay on the floor, having slipped off while she slept. As she pulled her dark brown hair back into a neat bun, something clinked against her neck.

A locket? Did I own something like this?

She wondered if her younger sister, Songyi, had left it there as a secret apology. Just yesterday, Songyi had broken a precious memento of her late biological mother, and their mother had scolded her for "making a scene over nothing."

Hurting and exhausted, Suwan had retreated into the game world, specifically seeking out the story of Odette.

On days when her family wounded her, she sought out the villainess like a reflex. She had spent hundreds of hours hoping that, just once, the story would show Odette’s family regretting their choices. She wanted the male leads to feel a shred of guilt for her.

She knew now that such hope was a fairy tale, yet she couldn't stop obsessing over Odette’s tragic end.

The phone screen on her desk was still glowing, displaying a scene from <Karl’s Route>. In the game, the fourth male lead was baring his soul to the heroine, Charlotte, expressing his venomous hatred for the villainess.

[Karl] "Odette... that woman might as well have murdered the children herself."

Karl, newly awakened as a Transcendent, spoke with a face like frozen stone.

[Karl] "Since the day I became the sole survivor, I have lived in hell, Charlotte. I know why the Gods chose me to be a Transcendent. It was to give me the power to kill her."

His crimson eyes burned with a madness born of revenge.

[Karl] "I will take her life with my own hands. Give me the order to kill her."

Suwan had seen this scene dozens of times, yet a heavy weight settled in her chest every time she watched it. Having read the official setting books, she understood the source of his rage.

Ten years ago, a series of Calamities had swallowed the tundra where the Fenrir Clan stood. The only survivors were seven-year-old Karl and three younger children.

Thrust into the role of a leader too soon, he had survived by begging and working as a mercenary to feed the infants.

But Odette had intervened. Claiming that a "noble Purifier" shouldn't have to breathe the same air as "filthy foreigners," she pressured the Emperor to throw them into a containment zone. Even during those three years of imprisonment, Karl hadn't truly hated her.

Then came the final tragedy. On the last day of the Founding Festival, a Calamity struck the containment zone. Because Odette had demanded that Karl be sold as a slave, he was away from the zone for the first time that day. In the short window of his absence, all three children were devoured.

The next day, the camp warden "revealed" a horrific truth: Odette had specifically chosen that location because it had the highest rate of Calamity outbreaks in the Empire.

From that day on, Karl believed Odette had orchestrated the deaths of his family. Eventually, he would use an axe to end her life.

I know why he hates her.

Suwan thought with a sigh.

But it’s a misunderstanding. It was clearly the Count’s lie. There’s no way Odette could have known the geography of the containment zones.

The sound of her own voice startled her. She wondered if she was losing her grip on reality, over-identifying with a fictional character to the point of delusion.

She decided it was time to put the phone away. She needed a glass of water.

Walking quietly to avoid waking her sensitive mother, she approached the kitchen. Voices drifted from the shadows.

[Songyi] "Mom, are you really getting rid of her?"

[Mother] "Of course. The papers to dissolve the adoption will be finalized by the end of the month."

[Songyi] "What if she doesn't agree?"

[Mother] "How could a girl like her refuse? Don't worry, my little princess."

[Songyi] "My friends keep asking if she really only has a high school diploma. It’s so embarrassing. Everyone thinks she’s my real sister."

Suwan froze. Her heart hammered against her ribs so loudly it felt like it might burst. Her legs turned to lead as the reality of the words sank in.

[Mother] "You've been so patient, darling. The business is finally stable. Once we remove that blemish from our lives, you’ll be an only child again."

It felt as though the floor had vanished beneath her feet. She struggled to reconcile this cold woman with the mother who had wept, begging her not to go to college because it would "dim Songyi’s light."

Suwan had believed that sacrifice was her role. She had been ready to do anything for the family she thought needed her.

I have to run. Please, move.

She pleaded with her own body. She knew that if they caught her listening, it would be the end.

[Songyi] "So I really never have to see Han Suwan again?"

[Mother] "Songyi, why do you think I adopted her? Your father needed that investment. The Chairman was obsessed with 'Christian ethics' and 'the beauty of adoption.' But now the business is thriving. We have no reason to keep her."

[Mother] "I only played along with her to keep her happy so she would focus on your university entrance exams instead of her own. Who could love a fake when they have the real thing?"

Move. Please, move.

Suwan was practically begging her frozen limbs.

Then, a thunderous voice exploded from behind her.

[Father] "What are you doing, eavesdropping like a thief?"

A massive, heavy hand struck the back of her head. The world spun.

[Mother] "What happened?"

[Songyi] "What...? Han Suwan?! Dad, did she hear everything?"

[Father] "She was hiding in the shadows. I never could stand this gloomy girl."

Her mother and sister stepped into the light, their eyes cold and predatory.

[Mother] "This is bad. What if she reports us?"

Suwan scrambled to her feet, desperate to reach the stairs and the front door.

[Father] "You—!"

Her father’s hand shoved her hard in the center of her back.

[Suwan] "Oh...?"

By the time she turned her head, she was already airborne. Through the strands of her falling hair, she saw the vile, unbothered expression on her father’s face.

CRASH.

A dull, sickening pain exploded through her body as she hit the bottom of the stairs. Warm blood leaked from her head, and the strength drained from her limbs.

[Songyi] "Dad! Are you crazy? What if you get arrested?"

[Father] "It’s better this way. We just tell everyone she slipped. There’s no one else here. If we don't report it, it’s a perfect crime—"

As her consciousness drifted, the voices of her "family" grew faint. Not one of them checked her pulse. They only discussed their own futures.

Suwan realized then that there hadn't been a single moment when she was actually loved. Despite the years of effort and the desperate longing to belong, it had all been a delusion.

[Mother] “Who could love a fake when they have the real thing?”

Her adoptive mother’s mocking laughter echoed in her ears until the darkness swallowed her whole.

Odette gasped, her eyes snapping open.

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