Chapter 50: The Man Who Holds the Switch (3)

“Let’s talk.”

Yukomis was knocking on the locked front gate of the detached palace.

“No.”

However, only Signa’s firm voice was heard from inside the building.

“…It’s not fun to play such pranks on your sister.”

“It’s not a prank. I’m serious.”

Knock knock knock.

“Signa. Why are you suddenly doing this? What’s wrong…”

Knock knock knock.

“I’m sorry if I made you feel bad. But at least tell me what it is.”

“It’s not that I feel bad. Uh… Sister has been too good to me.”

“…Then why…”

“Sister. Let’s keep our distance for a while.”

“Keep our distance?”

Yukomis repeated quietly.

It was as if she was hearing such words for the first time.

“Yes. I think you’ve been sticking to me too much lately.”

“It doesn’t make sense for you to spend your entire afternoon on me. Isn’t it strange?”

“It’s not strange.”

“It is strange.”

“I can spend as much time as I want for you…”

“That’s what I’m saying you can’t do.”

Yukomis’s hand, which had been on the door, fell down.

“…I don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand.”

It was something Yukomis had rarely experienced in her life.

But this mysterious girl had been an incomprehensible existence since the first time they met.

“I’m really grateful that you think of me this way.”

Signa sighed lightly from beyond the door.

“But you know it yourself, right? It’s gradually getting worse.”

“Signa…”

There was no need to say what was getting worse.

“Am I.”

Yukomis asked with a slightly choked voice.

“Am I a burden?”

“…No.”

The very fact that she was thinking about that now proved how detached her sensitivity was, but…

Signa denied it.

She didn’t want to hurt Yukomis more than necessary by saying such things.

“What’s really burdensome to me is that you’re hurting yourself because of me.”

“…I don’t self-harm.”

Signa ignored Yukomis’s excuse.

In Signa’s eyes, Yukomis had already gone through enough self-harm. In Kifoll, she had entered the basement without preparation and was ambushed. In Isit, she voluntarily became bait to reveal the cult’s base.

Once she lost consciousness, and once she was tortured with a penetrating wound. Her reckless and self-destructive actions were all because of Signa.

“Everyone needs a proper sense of distance. It’s the same even in a sister relationship.”

“At least look at my face and talk. Whatever it is, it’s too sudden.”

“I don’t want to.”

As soon as she heard Signa’s answer, Yukomis took a step back.

“Listen to your sister.”

“You should listen to my words too.”

Yukomis glanced at Karat, who was standing next to her, but she just waved lightly.

Yukomis, who took another step back, lightly gathered magic power.

And she grabbed the doorknob, intending to corrode the lock.

“I’m starting to get angry.”

“Just in case, if you forcibly open this door…”

However, Signa’s words were heard from beyond the door, as if she had been waiting for it.

Signa knew that Yukomis could break such a lock like a lump of sugar if she wanted to.

“I won’t call you sister again.”

As if burned, Yukomis flinched and took her hand off the door.

“I won’t even exchange a word with you.”

“Si, Signa!”

Yukomis’s voice immediately changed urgently.

“I’ll hate you very much. Is that okay?”

This was the weapon Signa had prepared.

In Signa’s opinion, her favor was the only way to control Yukomis.

“I’m not saying I won’t see you forever. I’m just saying let’s take a break for a while.”

“How long? How long?”

Signa sighed inwardly.

The very fact that she was asking ‘how long’ from here was no different from saying that she was seriously attached to this.

“Sometimes go out and get some fresh air and meet people. I’m not the whole world, am I?”

It was like an overconscious remark, but Yukomis, who was actually almost in that state, had nothing to say.

“Signa. Open this door. I won’t get angry. Say it’s a joke, even now.”

“Why don’t you test whether it’s a joke or not. I can go back to the main house today.”

“Do you think you can do that without my permission?”

Signa stabbed Yukomis’s sore spot anyway.

Yukomis was still worry about how to explain the current Signa to Minon.

Actually… is it even possible to explain it to Minon?

How can she convince her that her s*x has changed so soon after bringing her younger sibling?

How will she react?

“Permission? Can you really stop me?”

Rather, Signa said as if she were scoffing.

“Can you, the current you, endure me hating you?”

“Ah…”

A sigh escaped, and Yukomis’s tightly clenched fist trembled lightly.

“…Please just go back today. I don’t want to hate you.”

“…Has she left.”

“Lady Signa. You told her to stay by your side, but… is this really okay?”

Aisha said after confirming that Yukomis’s footsteps were completely distant.

She had been standing by Signa’s side, watching Signa clench her teeth and turn away Yukomis’s visit.

“It’s not okay.”

Signa sighed again and said.

“She really left. It can’t be okay.”

“Yes? You didn’t want to meet her…”

“Aisha. It’s not like I have a hobby of bullying my younger sibling.”

No. Now it’s sister, isn’t it. Whatever you call her.

“I wouldn’t have worried at all if she had really broken the door and came in from there. That’s really like Yukomis.”

She was someone who never even worried about being hated.

She did what she had to do, and said what she had to say.

“Yes…”

“But I’m important to her, to the point that she can’t even accept the grumbling of a twelve-year-old saying ‘I really hate you’.”

She wouldn’t be someone who would allow someone to shake her like that.

“She’s the owner of this mansion now, and my guardian. But does it make sense for her to be so restless at my trivial threat?”

However, just a moment ago, she was so afraid of going against Signa’s mood that
she couldn’t even cross this thin door, which was like a toy to her.

Godmother, sister, educator, guardian. Whatever you call her, it was an attitude she should never have.

In Signa’s eyes, Yukomis was like a girl who mistakenly thought that the world would end the moment her first love broke.

Her heart pounding at every little reaction of ‘I hate you’, thinking she was lacking, giving more, giving more.

Such desperation and single-mindedness only destroyed herself.

It was not enjoyable for Signa to receive such self-abusive love.

“But how long will you keep doing this?”

Aisha asked anxiously.

“There’s no time limit.”

“Yes?”

“I’m waiting until she can force her position on me. Here.”

“What do you mean by forcing her position?”

“Forcibly breaking this door, or forcing me to do something I really hate.”

It was called the courage to be hated.

Even if it’s not that full-scale. At least…

“I have to let Yukomis know. That even if she does such things… I won’t sincerely hate her.”

“If you have such a deep meaning, shouldn’t you just tell Lady Yukomis directly?”

Aisha asked cautiously.

“She doesn’t know. She has to feel it.”

Signa shook her head.

“Besides, as I said, there really needs to be a proper sense of distance. I can’t be with her every single day until the moment I die. That doesn’t make sense. I hope she feels that too this time.”

And she looked back at Aisha.

“Yukomis is still in a dangerous state. The reason why you asked me to stay by your side is because of that. You’re someone who can understand this situation.”

Of course, to the three people around her, Yukomis might seem happy and normal lately.

But if all the elements that made Yukomis look like that were on top of the small foundation of Signa’s existence and affection…

In Signa’s eyes, there was no state as precarious as that.

Yukomis had now replaced all the dozens of pillars that supported the lives of ordinary people with just one.

Ironically, in order to minimize the influence of the switch she held,
Signa had to use that switch.

“I need her to know that a ‘normal relationship’ is one where she can be a little selfish to me, just like I can be a little stubborn to her.”

Not unique, not absolute,
just one of the many existences that make up Yukomis’s life.

Signa wanted Yukomis to think that way.

And of course, Yukomis couldn’t think that way at all.

After Signa locked herself in the detached palace like that, her schedule was completely ruined.

Originally, she used to finish her work quickly in the morning and go to see Signa,
but having lost all her concentration at once, she couldn’t put any documents in her head.

Now she went to the detached palace from the morning.

And after knocking on the front gate lightly a few times, she said one word with a heartbreaking voice.

‘Signa. Open the door.’

‘Let’s talk…’

There was no response from the other side, and Yukomis always had to return weakly.

And all she could do was ask Aisha, who was allowed to enter and exit the detached palace alone, if she was ‘doing well.’

‘Yes. Of course, she is doing well.’

Aisha always answered like that.

It was the answer she had been asked to give by Signa.

‘Why is she suddenly rejecting me.’

‘She’s not rejecting you. Lady Signa is really worried about Lady Yukomis.’

‘I’m worried about her too.’

Signa’s plan to keep a proper distance had gone wrong from the start.

Yukomis meeting other people or getting some fresh air never happened.

As the number of days she couldn’t see Signa increased, she was only reconfirming every day how precious Signa was to her,
and how big a place she occupied inside her.

And that was why she would soon break into the detached palace.

Signa was certainly right about that point.

She had originally made a plan where only one of A and B had to be right.

Yukomis breaks the door and enters, confirms that Signa still doesn’t hate her,
and then they could build a healthy relationship with both sides sharing the initiative.

At least that was Signa’s plan.

But just before that happened, Parnen brought some different news.

“My lady, Baron Minon Irendel has come to visit.”