Chapter 618 – #124_Deneb’S Deviation (5)
#618
1.
Love between children of enemy families.
A second-generation chaebol heir with immense wealth falling in love with an ordinary, poor woman.
A princess falling in love with a clown.
Such impossible loves are not new material, overflowing in both the East and West.
However, Albireo had never once sympathized with it.
She didn’t even consider it a plausible story.
Love that transcends rationality is nothing more than a genre-specific production.
She firmly believed that anyone with a modicum of rational judgment would not be so desperate for a forbidden love.
That’s why she trusted her younger sister.
Because Deneb was just as smart as Albireo.
Even if she made a mistake due to a moment’s impulse, she believed she would turn back.
If it was a relationship that didn’t even need to be judged as right or wrong, she expected her to give up on it appropriately.
And now.
“I’m sorry. I don’t think I can give up.”
That trust and expectation fell to the floor and shattered into pieces.
Like sharp shards of ice, Albireo’s tone was icy cold.
“Is that so?”
Deneb’s face was resolute.
She had already made up her mind.
Albireo knew how stubborn she could be.
Wasn’t that why she couldn’t stop her when she went behind her back to ‘verify’ Shin Siwoo?
Looking back, that was the beginning of the problem.
She should have avoided it at all costs, even if it meant Albireo sacrificing herself.
“You’re really disappointing me.”
“It’s not like that, listen to me, sis.”
Deneb didn’t try to argue vehemently as she usually did when her opinion was met with opposition.
That meant she knew her fault.
Yet, Albireo couldn’t understand her younger sister’s thoughts, as she calmly declared that she would continue an act that she couldn’t even bring herself to mention.
“Okay, tell me.”
Albireo crossed her arms, ready to hear what nonsense she would bring as an excuse.
Deneb began to speak as if she had been waiting for this.
“They say that if we use Siwoo, it’s possible to inherit the mark without losing our lives. Count Yesod cooperated to obtain that sample.”
“I know that.”
“You just heard that?”
“No, I knew it from the beginning.”
Albireo had heard about the research from Count Yesod much earlier than Deneb.
The twins also knew about it because they had heard it from Siwoo in advance, so Deneb was the only one who didn’t know about the research.
“So?”
“So…? This is incredibly innovative research! It means we can be with the twins forever! Of course, we should help, right? Maybe even we…”
When she first heard about the research from Count Yesod, Deneb was filled with joy.
Passing on the mark is a frightening thing.
Not because of death.
All witches prepare for and accept their death from the moment they become witches.
So, what Deneb feared was leaving the rabbit-like Odile and Odette alone in the world.
All witches with apprentice witches would feel the same way.
But if the research was completed, she could be with the twins forever, and, if she were to be a little more selfish, she could live a long time with Siwoo.
“Deneb, please get a grip.”
“Why? Did I say something wrong?”
“We have fulfilled our duty as Gemini. Just as our teacher did, my last duty is to pass on the complete mark to Odile, and yours to Odette.”
Albireo had examined Count Yesod’s research with her mother-in-law’s authority before Deneb.
In a word, the research was a transfer using the replication of the mark.
It involved repeatedly transferring the teacher’s magic to the apprentice witch.
In the final stage, it would end by exchanging the apprentice witch’s vessel with the teacher’s magic.
In other words, the teacher would get the ‘vessel’ that the apprentice witch originally had, and the apprentice witch would inherit the original teacher’s inherent magic, excluding the vessel.
After thoroughly examining all the data, Albireo quickly reached a conclusion.
This was research only necessary for a daughter-obsessed Yesod.
And it was research that many witches would never want.
“Even if the research is successful, the twins will end up inheriting the 21st rank, one rank lower than the hierarchy they should have originally received. Then what meaning does our life have?”
The existence of a witch is ultimately for the advancement of magic.
Passing on the mark through generations is also the most efficient way to ascend the hierarchy.
But if the result of inheriting through a shortcut is stagnation.
That is an act that tarnishes the glory of the past Gemini who burned their lives for magic and passed on their names to posterity.
“We can be by the twins’ side! Aren’t you worried?”
“What are you going to do by the twins’ side?”
“It’s not that…”
“Neither Odile nor Odette can remain young witches forever.
We have to help them break free from our arms and fly with their own strength someday. We are their teachers, but we are also their mothers.”
Albireo’s thoughts were firm.
Even in her eyes, Odile and Odette were still lacking in many ways.
But Albireo and Deneb were the same in the past.
They shed their clumsiness and reached maturity after their teacher left, and they directly faced all sorts of hardships and the harsh world.
“Or do you want to stay with them forever and remain a hindrance?”
Albireo told Deneb the cold reality, who was still trying to argue.
“You saw it too, even if the transfer is successful, all that remains for us is the vessel. We won’t even be able to properly deal with a homunculus, let alone another witch. We won’t be able to understand simple academic journals, let alone magic research.”
For a witch, magic is the purpose of life itself.
Taking away magic from such a witch is no different from taking away their life.
“We’ll have to live like empty husks, with great disabilities. Can you handle this future?”
“I can.”
Deneb’s answer was immediate.
It wasn’t just a bluff to avoid losing an argument.
The proof was that her violet eyes, which had been wandering, were now looking straight ahead.
Albireo had a love that supported the independence and self-reliance of her disciples as a teacher.
Deneb had a love as a mother who wanted to give more care and affection.
Both of them had different methods, but they truly loved the twins.
“…Let’s talk about this later. There’s still a lot I need to hear from you.”
It was Albireo who ended the confrontation first.
The fundamental problem of today’s incident was not due to a difference in parenting theories.
Rather, the story had gone off on a tangent.
The more fundamental issue that needed to be addressed was that Deneb, as a mother-in-law, had told a grand lie to sleep with Siwoo, and, to make matters worse, she was stubbornly insisting on continuing the relationship with various excuses.
“Whatever the case, absolutely not. You can’t give up? Are you out of your mind? Are you going to fight with the twins over the position of concubine? I can’t stand to see that, even if dirt gets in my eyes!”
Albireo, who declared firmly as if cutting with a knife, began to indiscriminately wield the heavy facts that she had been holding back.
“In the first place, it’s a problem that you’re seducing your son-in-law just because you want to feel good. Do you think you’re a stray cat or something?”
“It’s not like that!”
“What do you mean it’s not! You colluded with Count Yesod and dragged him into bed, so you’re happy? Are you satisfied?”
“It’s not like that!”
Deneb pouted her lips as if she was wronged, and her eyes welled up with tears.
“You don’t know, sis. What do you know about love?”
“Wow, I’m going crazy.”
Where was Deneb, who used to rant that love between men and women was romanticism that packaged the instinct to reproduce?
Also, where was the dignity of the great witch who achieved the great work of a witch and quietly finished her life?
She was now preaching lines that Odile and Odette would have said during their adolescence with a serious look.
“I don’t want Siwoo’s body. I just wanted to be held in his warm embrace again.”
“So you’re going to keep being held in the future?”
“…If you ever find someone you love, you’ll understand me.”
Albireo sighed.
She could now fully understand what state Deneb was in.
“And even if inheritance isn’t the problem, as you said, this could actually be for the twins.”
She was now a racehorse with blinders on either side of her eyes.
She was truly blind, like an innocent princess who didn’t know that her clothes were burning in a hot fire.
“You were worried about the twins having a relationship with Siwoo, weren’t you? If I, even before the inheritance, relieve their desires, the twins will be much safer.”
She was seriously spouting such nonsense that she didn’t know where to start tackling it.
He already had many lovers by his side.
If the purpose was to relieve desire, there was no need for Deneb, the mother-in-law, to step in.
“So, you’re volunteering to relieve your son-in-law’s desires for the sake of the twins?”
“Yes.”
“We did a verification before, didn’t we?”
“There will be variables that we can’t prepare for with just verification.”
Even at her sigh of disbelief, she was giving her a look of expectation, as if to say, ‘Are you finally going to understand me?’
She no longer felt the value of having a conversation.
“Why don’t you look for another man? I’ll find you a handsome one.”
“It has to be Siwoo.”
“Haa…”
Albireo couldn’t hide her deep sigh.
“Okay, go rest.”
“Sis…”
“Go rest.”
The conversation ended there.
Albireo turned her back on Deneb, who was standing there blankly, and returned to the mansion.
Albireo had initially planned to firmly scold her younger sister, but it was useless since she wouldn’t listen.
“Haa, migraine…”
Albireo pressed her temples, holding her throbbing head.
Why were there so many things happening in her later years? She never thought she would see her younger sister having an affair with her son-in-law while she was still alive.
If this rumor got out, the reputation of the Gemini would fall to the bottom.
On top of that, she was her beloved younger sister.
If she went down the wrong path, it was her duty as an older sister to stop her.
“I can’t let it go like this.”
For Deneb, who couldn’t face reality, Albireo decided to take special measures.
