CHAPTER 94**
Do you like the marriage proposal, or do you hate it?
Faced with this question, Babiyen’s lips parted. We would make our decision based on her answer. I was prepared to go along with whatever she said.
A period of silence passed. A long silence stretched between her and us.
After a while.
“...I, I h...”
Babiyen finally opened her mouth. Her head was bowed, and she bit down hard on her lip.
“Of course I hate it! How could I possibly like it?! Being married off to a man I’ve only ever heard the name of—what’s there to like about that?!” Babiyen shouted as if letting out a scream. Once her emotions burst forth, they came flooding out.
“But what am I supposed to do?! No matter what, it’s the house I lived in, my family! When that family holds me up as their hope, who in the world could easily ignore that?!”
Babiyen gasped for breath and slammed her hand on the table.
“...And more than anything.”
She glared at me for a second before biting her lip and looking away.
“No, forget it.”
I didn’t know what she wanted to say, but I decided to leave it at that.
Seeing that she had calmed down a bit, I got up from my seat.
“Then that’s settled. Let’s go.”
“...Go?”
“You just said you don’t want to get married. So that means you’re not getting married.”
Her lips moved, her face a mask of incomprehension.
“...It’s not that simple, you know?”
“I don’t know much about this world’s nobility, but I’d imagine that for nobles, especially royalty, chastity is extremely important.”
Nobles are all about such formalities and appearances.
I looked at Babiyen as if to ask if I was wrong, and she wore a bewildered expression.
“...Well, I suppose that’s true.”
See, people are the same everywhere.
“Then just say you slept with me.”
“...What?”
Aranseol raised her hand and smacked me hard on the shoulder.
I clutched my wounded shoulder and looked at the stunned Babiyen.
“You had that period where you lived as an adventurer, right? It wouldn’t be strange for you to have fooled around during that time.”
“N-No, something like that…”
“And more importantly, I’m a Transferee.”
The discrimination this-worlders have against Transferees still exists. Nobles, in particular, are strict about such things. The nobility are those who have managed this country for a long, long time. They are steeped in their own sense of authority and don't take kindly to new challengers.
Transferees are the greatest challenge to that noble authority. They were born in an era without nobles and have lived in a free society. Moreover, they are an armed group with the power to rebel against the imperial system.
What would happen if word got out that a noble daughter had fooled around with a Transferee like that? They wouldn't be this disgusted even if she had fooled around with a beggar off the street. To a noble, a Transferee is the enemy they must be most wary of.
The moment a rumor spread that Babiyen had slept with me, this marriage proposal would be dead in the water.
But Babiyen hesitated, unable to answer. It couldn’t be that she was worried about House Asteria.
Ah, right.
“If you don’t want to be linked with me, there’s always Sohan. That guy has a reputation with women anyway, so…”
“What, that’s not it at all!”
I thought maybe she didn’t want to be associated with me since we were rivals, but I guess not.
She huffed and puffed in anger before lifting her chin and exhaling.
“It’s just that your solution is so… Harua-like, it’s making my head spin. And besides, even if I said we slept together, the people of House Asteria wouldn’t believe it so easily. If I was going to refuse for a reason like that, I would have done it already.”
“Is that so.”
I thought for a moment, then came to a conclusion.
“Then, let’s just do it for real.”
And I got hit by Aranseol again.
Babiyen stood frozen, her face beet red.
“...It’s a simpler solution than dying, isn’t it?”
I don’t understand why these kids, who have already died a few times, are making such a fuss over sleeping together. It’s not like I want to sleep with her either. Mixing bodies with a this-worlder is no different from doing it with an animal.
“No, let’s do that.”
But in that moment, Babiyen’s eyes flashed.
“Harua, take one of my fingers.”
“What are you planning?”

“I’m sick of House Asteria too. They’re persistent people, so they won’t give up over something so trivial. So I have to make it definitive. I just need to create a reality where the Babiyen Asteria they knew is no longer of this world.”

I knew what Babiyen was planning. She was going to kill herself.
With my Resurrection magic, she could come back anytime. Moreover, Babiyen had already experienced death twice. There was no need for her to be afraid of dying one more time.
“Aranseol, this girl is saying she’s going to die with her own mouth. I think she’s lost her mind.”
“That’s what you say all the time, Harua.”
“Oh, are you finally going to use your Resurrection magic?” Lululio asked.
I had told Lululio about the Resurrection magic beforehand. Just as I trusted Rapha Hastel, I trusted the person he assigned to me. More importantly, it was easier for her to know about it if she was going to be by our side.
“And I want my own kind of revenge,” Babiyen said.
Her face was filled with malice. House Asteria used even their own family like pawns on a chessboard. Her expression said she would show them the fate that befalls a pawn.
If that’s what she wants.
“Do it.”
I decided to follow Babiyen’s solution.

The day after Harua’s party left.
Vasia Asteria was strolling leisurely down the hallway. Today was the day Babiyen was to go to the Imperial Palace and meet the 2nd Prince. So, she was on her way with a host of maids to get Babiyen ready.
Her younger sister, Babiyen, had always been a troublemaker, a nuisance. Having been compared to her all her life, Vasia did feel some guilt. But what could be done? That was the treatment people with insufficient abilities received.
Vasia subconsciously looked down on Babiyen. It was a natural condescension towards a younger sister who was less capable and always treated as an afterthought. Indeed, Vasia had always brought glory to the Barony, while Babiyen had always been a problem.
But this time, she too had a use.
Her father and mother also had high hopes for Babiyen’s marriage. Their lacking little sister had finally done something big. From now on, the future of House Asteria would be smooth sailing.
“Babiyen, it’s morning. Time to get ready.”
Vasia opened Babiyen’s door without knocking. She was about to motion to the maids with her chin, to turn her sister into the most beautiful doll in the world, when—
Thud.
Vasia stopped in her tracks.
The room was dark, the curtains drawn. In the faint light filtering through a gap in the curtains, something was slowly swaying.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
The shrill screams of the maids who had entered echoed through the hall.
Vasia, on the other hand, just stared blankly at the scene, her face one of utter devastation.
There, a single girl was hanging. A girl with long red hair cascading down, her body suspended in mid-air.
Her name was Babiyen Asteria. The youngest daughter of the Babiyen family.
“Ba-Babiyen?”
Vasia whispered her name. The sister she had looked down on and condescended to her entire life. But she was still her sister.
“Babiyen, Babiyen!”
Babiyen was a tenacious child. Her head may have been in the clouds, but fundamentally, she was like a weed that would eventually grow no matter where it was planted. That’s why Vasia had assumed, of course, that it would be the same this time. With a marriage proposal from the Imperial Family, she thought her sister, with her inferiority complex, would have been overjoyed.
But another thought began to cross Vasia’s mind. Babiyen had been unusually quiet and silent. The pitiful image of her younger sister came to mind.
Vasia ran.
She grabbed the legs of the suspended Babiyen and tried to lift her up somehow. Her legs were cold. But Vasia didn’t care, desperately trying to keep the rope from tightening around Babiyen’s neck.
“Call a doctor! A Holy Mage, anyone, just call someone quickly!”
As Vasia shouted, the maids scrambled into action.
While they ran out, Vasia finally managed to get Babiyen down and began CPR.
Her heart wasn’t beating.
She couldn’t feel her breathing.
But Vasia did everything she could, trying her best to save her.
“Vasia, what is all this commotion?”
Just then, her mother arrived. She had come with a look of confusion, but her face froze when she saw Vasia and Babiyen.
“Ba-Babiyen?”

Her mother, who had always been submissive to her husband. After marrying into House Asteria, her role had been merely to bear children. So, while she loved her children, she could never dare to say anything to her husband, the Baron. It was the same when he had cut Babiyen off. She could do nothing as her child was cast out.
And because of that, she was met with this result today.
“Ah, aaaaaah!”
Unable to accept the situation, she screamed and rushed towards Babiyen.
“My baby, my baby!”
Calling out to Babiyen as she did in her childhood, she began to wail. The mother who had witnessed her child take her own life screamed, coughing up blood.
A Holy Mage and a doctor arrived late and checked Babiyen’s condition. But she was already a cold corpse. There was no way to bring her back to life in this world.
Vasia collapsed to the floor in despair. Her mother had already fainted and was being carried away on a stretcher.
“What is going on?”
Finally, her father, Baron Asteria, appeared. He saw Babiyen’s body and his eyebrows shot up.
“...What is this.”
His face, too, was filled with bewilderment. He also seemed to realize that the marriage meeting was today.
“...Father.”
Vasia quietly looked down at her sister, who had grown so cold. She remembered their childhood, when her sister would hold her hand and toddle along, saying how much she loved her big sister. Back then, they had laughed together, and she had promised to protect Babiyen no matter what.
But as she grew older, she began to think more of the family’s will. She valued appearances, worried about what others thought, and under the guise of concern, she ignored her lacking sister.
And today, she paid the price.
“If you are thinking of talking about the marriage proposal, please, do not say a word right now.”
Fat teardrops fell from Vasia’s eyes. She realized what a foolish thing she had done.
“Because I don’t want to be utterly disgusted by you.”

Baron Asteria, blinded by the ambition for his family’s advancement, fell silent at her words for a moment, then turned away.
“Prepare a funeral for the youngest.”
With those words to the people around him, her father left.
Vasia could only gently cup Babiyen’s cheek, finally realizing what a terrible older sister she had been.