When Lilliana actually started the work, it turned out to be much more demanding and exhausting than expected. She just stirred up trouble and then abandoned everything.
Naturally, all the unfinished tasks that Lilliana left behind fell onto Iris’s shoulders.
I never properly learned how to do this either.
Yet no one ever acknowledged Iris’s contributions.
More precisely, no one wanted to believe that their beloved youngest daughter could be so irresponsible.
So Iris’s efforts were dismissed as if they were nothing.
It used to hurt me a lot.
Ironically, now this very situation worked to her advantage.
The elder brother would never lend her the family seal—but if it was because of Lilliana, he would have no choice but to lend it.
In the past, Iris didn’t want to exploit her family’s circumstances like this. She thought it was wrong.
But now, I have to use everything I can.
They were no longer her family.
With a slight smile, Iris said to Lilliana,
“Lili, there’s somewhere you need to come with me first.”
“Huh? Where?”
Without explaining, Iris grabbed Lilliana’s hand and pulled her along—just like Lilliana had done to her before.
The place they arrived at was Orchid’s study room.
This is where it begins.
Iris calmly looked over Orchid’s study, a place that had always been a burden to her.
Noticing it was a study room, Lilliana asked,
“Unnie? Did you come to see oppa?”
Ignoring Lilliana’s voice, Iris knocked on the study door.
Permission to enter was quickly granted.
Iris entered with Lilliana leading the way.
“Well, well, our Lili’s here. Did you come to see oppa?”
Orchid smiled kindly at Lilliana, but the moment he saw Iris, his expression turned uncomfortable.
He’s definitely thinking I’m slacking off again.
Orchid was always like this.
He never showed up when Iris was working, but whenever she tried to rest, he would suddenly appear and click his tongue disapprovingly.
Because of that, Iris always had to lock the door and take short naps even during breaks.
Orchid gently beckoned to Lilliana,
“Lili, don’t stand there hurting your legs—come sit on the sofa.”
“Okay, oppa.”
Lilliana let her shiny blonde hair sway and gracefully sat down, looking as familiar with the posture as always.
In fact, Lilliana casually wandered in and out of their father and brother’s study like it was a playground.
Things I was never allowed to do.
Watching indifferently, Iris stepped forward to Orchid and bowed slightly with proper etiquette.
“Orchid, I would like to borrow the family seal.”
Orchid sighed and put down the pen he was holding.
“You know the rule, Iris.”
Exactly as she expected.
“I can’t lend the seal to just anyone.”
“Is that so.”
Yet Orchid had no problem lending the signet ring to Lilliana with ease.
And that was exactly the situation Iris intended to exploit.
He would permit anything if it was for Lilliana.
“Lili, do you think so too?”
Iris turned her head toward Lilliana, who was sitting on the sofa holding a macaron.
“Me? Why would I?”
Lilliana tilted her head with an innocent expression, acting completely clueless.
“You need to know.”
Iris answered calmly.
“Otherwise, you’ll be dragged to prison.”
At those words, Lilliana’s expression stiffened for a moment, but she quickly shook her head as if brushing off the worry.
“Prison? I don’t know anything about that.”
“Why are you feeding Lili such nonsense again, Iris?”
Orchid blamed her as usual.
“Well, I’m not letting it go.”
Ignoring Lilliana’s words, Iris faced Orchid directly.
“Brother, if you check the family ledger, you’ll find the accounts have been seriously off since about two weeks ago.”
Only then did the lovely Lilliana’s face turn ghostly pale.
“The ledger? But Lili has been managing that…”
Orchid naturally turned his gaze toward Lilliana, who subtly avoided his eyes.
“Also, recently, a broker laundering taxes through illegal methods was caught at the Imperial Palace.”
Orchid’s expression shifted subtly at that.
“Who do you think were the broker’s main clients?”
Iris looked at Lilliana, who was pale and hesitating nervously.
It was around this time.
The family had always pitied Lilliana, who lost her mother at birth.
Everyone assumed the beautiful youngest daughter was entitled to enjoy whatever she wanted.
Perhaps because of that, Lilliana treated the family’s signet ring and everything else too lightly, using them without restraint.
That habit grew and grew, eventually leading her to spend beyond limits at a gem auction—temporarily putting the family into debt.
If only it had ended there, it might have been easier to manage.
Surprised by how much trouble she’d caused, Lilliana tried to handle it in her own way.
That was tax evasion.
“Maybe you’re better at explaining this, Lili.”
“Unnie!”
Lilliana trembled violently.
At that, Orchid realized Lilliana had been involved in illegal tax evasion.
But he still had no intention of blaming her.
Orchid snapped angrily at Iris.
“So why bring this up now—and drag Lili into it? What kind of cruel thing is this to do to such a fragile girl?”
Nothing was different from what Iris had expected.
“Brother.”
Iris’s expression turned cold as she spoke.
“Do you really think this is something our father will just scold and then let go?”
Of course, their father would likely just scold and be done with it.
That’s how he used to be.
In fact, he once slapped Iris after she spent days dealing with the tax issue that Lilliana caused—even though Iris was the one who first noticed and solved the problem.
‘What have you been doing if not taking care of your little sister?’
Fortunately, that father was no longer around.
And Orchid had no clue how their father would have acted now.
So Iris could use this.
“...What?”
Seeing Orchid caught up worrying about Lilliana, Iris quietly began describing the future.
“Inspectors from the Supervisory Bureau will come to the family soon.”
She painted a bleak future, forcing him to imagine the worst possible scenario—
Making Orchid unable to resist the weight of her words.
“You know very well what kind of organization the Censorate is, Brother. They don’t move lightly.”
There was no falsehood in Iris’s words. The tax evasion Liliana committed was far from ordinary bookkeeping fraud.
“What kind of calamity would befall the family… and Liliana?”
Orchid’s mind was already filled with the image of his beloved Liliana struggling under the weight of her predicament.
“Lili, what on earth…”
Orchid turned to Liliana, his voice laced with worry.
“Tell me quickly. What mistake did you make?”
“Bro—Brother… I just…”
Tears welled up in Liliana’s eyes, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
Instead, Iris spoke calmly.
“It’s the Tear of the Sun.”
“W-What? How could you know about that, Sis?”
Liliana’s eyes widened as she shot up to her feet, stunned that Iris knew so much even now.
“Tear of the Sun? You mean that Tear of the Sun?”
Orchid’s reaction came a beat slower.
The Tear of the Sun.
Though Orchid was hardly a connoisseur of jewels, even he was familiar with this gemstone.
The largest yellow diamond ever discovered in the Empire, fashioned into a necklace.
A treasured imperial artifact designated by the palace, and one of the most famous lost masterpieces still sought after.
There was only one place where such lost relics could be acquired by auction.
An illicit auction run by grave robbers.
In other words, Liliana had purchased an imperial treasure through an illegal auction, then used her credit as collateral to buy the family seal.
Afterward, she shamelessly exploited those records to commit tax evasion.
Everyone present knew this truth.
Liliana’s trembling voice broke as tears fell.
“B-Brother, it’s…”
Weakened by the sight, Orchid spun around and began to scold Iris harshly.
“Iris! What were you doing, neglecting Liliana?”
The outcome was predictable.
Unlike the agitated Orchid, Iris raised a finger gracefully and spoke with calm authority.
“Brother, is yelling at me the priority right now?”
At her side, Liliana wept bitterly, terrified.
“Or will you stand by and let this poor child be dragged into a Censorate prison?”
Surely not.
You would never be the hypocritical brother who abandons poor Liliana.
Chapter 4
As expected, Liliana was the first to tremble with anxiety and act.
“O-oppah!” Liliana’s lips quivered as she grabbed Orchid, her voice trembling with tears.
“Are they really going to take me away like this? Oppah, you’ll help me, right?”
Though foolish, Liliana wasn’t without a sense of danger.
“How can I go into a place like that and endure? I might really die.”
With Iris’s explanation deepening her fear, Liliana pleaded with Orchid,
“Oppah, you won’t abandon me, will you?”
Already overwhelmed, Orchid grew even more exhausted as Liliana clung to him.
“No, Lili. There’s no way I’d just let that happen to you. Don’t you trust your oppah that much?”
“Right? You wouldn’t, would you?”
“Of course not. I’ll handle it well, so stop worrying.”
He comforted his beloved younger sister, Liliana, for the moment.
Then, turning sharply to Iris, he gritted his teeth. It was time to release his frustration.
“Iris, you’re making things harder for Lili already struggling!”
“I’ll handle it,” Iris replied calmly.
“What?”
“You know, Oppah, that I take care of Liliana’s affairs on her behalf.”
Orchid lowered his gaze quietly. In truth, he knew that unlike Liliana’s chatter, he himself never involved in the household affairs.
And that Iris bore the burden of those duties, constantly busy.
‘Since she’s directly managing the family matters, it’s impossible not to know.’
But he refused to admit it.
Perhaps he couldn’t bear the truth of his beloved sister’s weaknesses.
Or maybe his pride was too fragile to accept how vital Iris was in supporting the mansion.
‘What does it matter now?’
Whatever the meaning, it no longer mattered to them—especially not to Iris.
Iris extended her hand toward Orchid.
“If you give me the seal, I will go to the imperial palace and resolve this.”
“……”
“Don’t worry, Oppah. Everything will be settled.”
The token Iris offered carried the weight of the years she had quietly endured.
She had always resolved Liliana’s problems, as if nothing had happened.
So this time would be no different.
‘Unless I suddenly change.’
Orchid paused, seemingly torn over the sweet proposal.
Perhaps his pride wouldn’t let him immediately accept Iris’s words—
For that would mean openly acknowledging her achievements.
But, as expected, he chose the convenient, familiar path he always took.
He looked up at Iris with weary eyes and muttered through clenched teeth,
“...Is this really true?”
“Of course. As always.”
Orchid pressed his lips tightly together.
He had given the family seal ring to Liliana many times before, but this was the first time giving it to Iris.
“Iris,” he said slowly, with a disapproving look, as if disciplining her,
“You know how important the family seal is. You must not use it carelessly.”
Who was he lecturing now?
Iris listened expressionlessly and gestured toward Liliana.
Tears welled continuously in Liliana’s clear eyes.
To Orchid, the mere fact that his young sister was crying was enough to break his heart.
“Liliana is crying now. You should go comfort her quickly.”
Orchid looked at the weeping Lilliana with pity in his eyes. At last, his trembling hand pulled off the clan’s seal and handed it to Iris.
“Fine. I’ll trust you… this once.”
Iris stared down at the Valentina sigil etched into the seal, her face devoid of emotion.
Once, she had yearned for this seal with a desperate heart.
I couldn’t even receive this when I was handling the duties of the matriarch.
Back then, when an urgent matter required the family seal, Iris had humbly requested it from Orchid.
But he denied her request.
“Iris, do you really think you’ve been managing things properly if you need the clan seal? You’re getting too dependent on the clan. That won’t do.”
And then he added—
“You’ve never once done anything properly, after all.”
Even though he knew perfectly well what Iris was managing behind the scenes, he deliberately ignored it.
I never thought it would be this easy.
The seal—once so precious—felt weightless in her hand.
Just like the love and recognition she had once craved.
So light. So cheap. So insignificant.
Without even bowing, Iris turned her back to him.
“Iris.”
Orchid, sensing something unfamiliar in the way his sister walked away, quietly offered one last piece of advice.
“Try to be kinder to Lilliana.”
So fate really did love to repeat itself.
Back then too, after Iris had been struck across the face by their father for a mistake that wasn’t hers,
Orchid had said the exact same thing—
“Try to be kinder to Lilliana.”
Iris turned her head ever so slightly. Her face was blank—no sorrow, no hatred. Just emptiness.
Then, she walked out of the room with steady steps.
“Take care of yourself, brother.”
She left behind the shouting voices of her family.
Just like that.
Once she had the seal, no one could stand in her way.
Whether it was fortune or misfortune, their father, Kaidrich, never wanted the outside world to know that the Valentina clan had cracks in its foundation.
Thanks to that, Iris was still recognized—at least officially—as a member of the Valentina clan.
Even if she was scorned and treated with contempt compared to the others.
A servant waiting with a carriage gave her a half-hearted farewell.
“Have a safe trip, Young Miss.”
“Yes.”
But the servant didn’t even wait to hear her answer and turned away immediately—just going through the motions.
That much is already a blessing.
The Valentina servants, from the start, refused to do anything unless explicitly ordered by Iris.
The ones who worked inside the estate knew all too well how she was treated.
And since none of them had any reason to curry favor with her, they felt no need to lift a finger.
Still, it didn’t bother Iris.
She was long used to handling everything herself.
Shouldering the burden alone was second nature to her.
Inside the carriage, Iris reached up and lightly touched the holy sword that hung around her neck, gazing out the window.
The verdant greens of summer had now ripened into a deep, somber red.
I want to be red, too.
She’d once thought that.
She wanted to become the color that symbolized the Valentina clan—
To be cherished by all.
Would there ever come a day when I, too, would be recognized as part of the family?
Back then, young Iris believed it was her own inadequacies that were to blame.
So she poured herself into pleasing her family, doing everything to earn their love.
Her world began and ended with her clan.
How could she even dream of letting go of that?
I thought at least Brother would be different.
Unlike their father, Kaidrich, Orchid would often speak to her with gentle words.
So amid a family that ignored her, she convinced herself that he was the only one who cared—
The only one who truly understood her.
“We’re family, Iris.”
Unlike her father, who always treated her like a useless pest, Orchid acknowledged Iris as family.
That alone brought her joy.
“You’ve worked hard, Iris. You must have endured a lot.”
Orchid even recognized all that Iris had done so far.
For the scarred Iris, those words struck deeply.
If only he had checked on her once a month, she could have found enough happiness.
She didn’t mind that his warm affection was always directed at Liliana.
“But oppah still cares about me too.”
Though he showed it differently, Orchid must have cherished her just as much as Liliana in his heart.
“I’m just more mature than Lili.”
She believed she was the steadier, less troublesome sister compared to Liliana, and that’s why his attention was less overt.
But that wasn’t true.
No matter how mature she appeared, Iris was still a child.
Like any child, there were times when she was gravely ill.
And that day was one of those days when the pain was almost unbearable.
Everything before her eyes seemed to melt away as her mind slipped away.
A raging fever consumed her body, and every cough felt like her lungs were being pierced by knives.
Her trembling hands fumbled until she managed to ring the servant’s bell.
When the maid arrived, she barely whispered with a cracked voice,
“Please… call oppah.”
Why did she long to see Orchid so much?
Even in her delirium, she needed someone to cling to.
She knew he was extremely busy at that moment.
But Orchid always stayed by Liliana’s side day and night whenever she was sick.
She only wished for the same.
“Because I’m… his sister too.”
Naturally, she expected him to come to her side as well.
“But Young Master Orchid is currently…”
“Please… I beg you…”
Seeing the tears welling in Iris’s eyes, the maid left with a pitying look to summon Orchid.
“I’m sorry, Miss.”
But no one returned with her.
“Right now, the young lord is… caring for Miss Liliana and cannot come.”
“Liliana too?”
“Yes. She was crying because she was very ill.”
Coincidentally, that day Liliana had fallen during a walk, bleeding from her knee.
Of course, Iris didn’t know that then.
All she worried about was Liliana being in worse pain than herself.
Yet in a corner of her heart,
still, a lonely ache kept rising.
“I need oppah too…”
Her forehead felt as if it was burning up.
Dry coughs tore at her delicate skin. Her condition worsened.
“Even if just for a moment… can’t he come?”
The maid tried again to call Orchid, but he still did not come.
Only a message was passed to Iris:
“Liliana is too ill to move. Since you’re more mature, Iris, please understand.”
Orchid always demanded consideration only from Iris. Not even once had he ever put Iris first.
In the end, that day too, Iris closed her eyes with only a flicker of fragile hope.
“Still… once Lilliana settles down a bit, he’ll come.”
When Orchid had once fallen gravely ill, it was Iris who had stayed by his side until the very end, nursing him through the night.
Back then, he had said to her—
“Even with how busy you are, you still came to see me. Yes… this is what it means to be family.”
A father's affection—she had never been able to count on.
But she had believed, at least, that her brother was different. That his words were sincere.
But hope… is called hope precisely because it is never fulfilled.
Night fell.
And then dawn broke.
Even as sunlight spilled through the windows the next morning, no one came to see Iris.
Not the Valentina clan's physician.
Not Orchid.
Later, he claimed he had no time—that he had been busy soothing Lilliana.
That was the excuse Orchid offered in the days that followed.
But really—was he truly so helpless?
Not even for a single moment?
Lilliana was human. She must’ve slept at some point.
Wouldn’t there have been at least a sliver of time?
A breath of space to check on her?
And yet, Orchid never once came to Iris’s room.
Not even up until the day she finally dragged herself out of bed, pale and still weak, and went to find him herself.
“Iris. You’ve been delaying your duties lately. Why do you keep slacking off like this?”
That was all he said, scolding her right there in his study.
He had even forgotten that Iris had been sick at all.
Chapter 5
Translator's Note:
🎧 Check out the audio versions on my YouTube channel:
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