The Strongest Brother Lost His Memory
Chapter 107

* * *

That night, at the Idra Duchy.

“Linna. Linna.”

A middle-aged man stood for a long time in front of a tightly shut door.

“...It’s all for your sake. You know that.”

There was no response from inside the room.

“Linna.”

The middle-aged man, Duke Idra, let out a deep sigh.

“I had no choice... I believe you understand me.”

Still, no answer came.

“We’ve... we’ve come too far.”

A faint, quiet sobbing could be heard, but Duke Idra made no attempt to comfort her.

He simply muttered with a heavy expression:

“You know the imperial banquet is soon, Linna. I hope you’re preparing your heart for it.”

He exhaled deeply.

“You... you have to accept all this eventually. You are Idra, after all. If it’s too hard, think about your mother, locked away...”

Then, he slowly crossed the hallway and walked away.

Inside the tightly shut room—

Only after confirming the footsteps had faded, the girl with dark crimson hair quietly opened her window.

“Go on, Cassie.”

The girl’s name was Linna Idra—hair the color of blood, eyes golden like sunlight.

“Be careful not to get caught...”

From Linna’s windowsill, a cat Divine Beast nodded with a small pink pouch in its mouth.

It let out a quiet meow, as if saying not to worry, then leapt out, bounding across the rooftops of the Idra mansion and disappearing into the night.

Watching the black cat disappear, Linna slowly turned back inside and crawled under her blankets.

And for a long time, she cried.

“I’m sorry...”

In the closed room, she curled into herself and wept.

“I’m really, really sorry...”

The small girl’s blanket trembled and heaved with her sobs.

“But I... I really don’t know what to do either...”

In that dark room with no light, her quiet sobs didn’t stop—until the cat Divine Beast returned.

* * *

Hello, Brother

“Lady Rosie!”

When I slowly opened my eyes, the first person I saw was Heidi.

“Oh my goodness, you’re awake?”

“Uh... yeah.”

I felt perfectly fine. I blinked for a moment.

“Did I sleep long?”

“A whole day! Goodness, everyone insisted on staying by your side, and I had to force them all out. They don’t seem to ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) understand what rest means...”

Heidi pulled the bell cord to call the physician as she spoke.

“Anyway, that one day was full of chaos.”

“Tell me quickly. What happened after I passed out? Before the doctor gets here—fast!”

“Well, the biggest thing: Lord Felide and Lady Monica were expelled from the family. They were exiled to a factory in the Duchy of Aden.”

“...A factory?”

“Yes.”

Heidi let out a long sigh.

“It was wild. The Count was screaming at the top of his lungs—no one dared say a word.”

The Duchy of Aden was a distant foreign nation.

Being sent there with nothing was no different from being tossed out completely. And being assigned to a factory, no less.

“...My god.”

“But surprisingly, Lord Ethan and Lord Theo didn’t object at all.”

“What?”

“Lord Felide and Lady Monica apparently yelled at them, telling them to beg on your behalf since you’re their kin. But both refused. They just said they’d stay with House Noart.”

Heidi shook her head, repeating Caliban’s words.

“I was once a slave, treated worse than an animal in the Temple, and I clawed my way up here out of pure vengeance. And you went and used my name to join hands with the Temple?”

Even hearing it secondhand, you could feel how furious Grandpa had been.

“Then you try surviving like I did! If you manage to climb your way back up from the bottom like I did, I might forgive you! I’ll be merciful—since you’re my own kids—I’ll let you start at the legal bottom.”

So that’s how the factory in Aden was decided.

I’d heard it was grueling work with terrible pay—pure hardship.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

But in that country, even children worked there from a young age. Felide and Monica had lived in comfort thanks to their privileged birth.

In that sense, Grandpa had given them a... fair opportunity.

‘Though, with their ability, there’s no way they’ll succeed out there.’

I frowned at the thought when Heidi handed me a letter.

“Oh, this was left by the Duke of Dyfenril. He had to leave for something urgent at the duchy.”

“Ah, really?”

I didn’t even get to thank him for bringing Yuta...

‘No. I can’t think so normally. Be ruthless for the sake of love, Rosie.’

I quickly corrected my disappointment.

‘I have to find a way to meet him again. No way am I letting this end with just a thank-you letter. I can’t stick by his side like at the Academy anymore.’

A simple letter wasn’t enough for the weight of what I had to say.

I unfolded the letter while thinking about when I could see him next.

Ah—the imperial banquet.

That was a must-attend event.

‘There’s someone I have to rescue there.’

It was a necessary step toward toppling the Temple.

The person I needed to rescue... was the Emperor himself.

‘I’ll see Zahid there too.’

I’d latch onto him the entire time, saying I had to express my gratitude—make sure no one else asks him to dance.

As I braced myself with fiery determination, Heidi continued.

“And Chloe—that woman disappeared.”

“Huh? Seriously?”

“Yes. She was placed in the underground prison, but the guards all fell asleep. Very strange, right?”

Ah!

So Chloe did put the guards to sleep! My jaw dropped as Heidi continued.

“But something was odd. There was a carriage accident at the estate gate. A red-haired adult woman died instantly, but she was wearing clothes stuffed with the tiny garments Chloe used to wear... even that damned blue butterfly brooch was still there!”

A red-haired adult woman.

That was Chloe’s true appearance—in other words, what Clara looked like in my memories.

“A carriage accident... So what about the body?”

“It vanished on the road to the government office. But no one reported her missing either.”

I had a good guess at what happened.

Chloe had escaped... only to be eliminated by the Temple.

They had done the same thing before—erasing even a high-ranking priestess like Cecil once she was compromised. There was no way they’d spare a mid-level operative like Chloe.

‘Wait.’

I hastily lifted my skirt. Beside the faint blue mark, there was now a green one.

It was my second time seeing it, so I recognized it immediately.

It meant I’d become the other master of the Grass Divine Beast.

I swallowed dryly and thought seriously.

‘If I get all four, it'll look like a four-leaf clover...’

Before Heidi could question anything, I quickly dropped my skirt and blanket and changed the subject.

“...What about the Idra Duchy? They vouched for Chloe’s identity, didn’t they?”

“Count Noart formally protested to Duke Idra... but the Duke claimed ignorance. Said he only took her in because she was his sister’s child. Said he didn’t know anything beyond that.”

“And the government office?”

“Unfortunately, the official who conducted the paternity test for Felide disappeared after submitting his resignation.”

Looking back, everything was suspicious—but there was nothing we could do.

“The Idra Duchy ended it with ‘we might be victims too’ and left it at that.”

“Pfft.”

Well, I hadn’t expected much.

The Idra Duchy had long stood under the Temple’s favor—they were notorious for being arrogant. Just getting this far was more than I expected.

“Then that Temple apprentice who claimed to be my fiancé...”

“The Count kept his word.”

Heidi smiled faintly.

“He told the truth, but agreed not to protest to the Temple and let the child go safely. Maybe... he thought of you, Rosie. That’s why he couldn’t bring himself to kill a young apprentice.”

“...Then what about Assistant Yuta? Uh... huh? What’s this?”

As I sat up, a small pink pouch fell into my lap with a soft thud.