Can We Become a Family?

Chapter 3

Wood has always been vulgar and violent.

“You knew I hated you from the beginning, but do you know the reason behind it?”

Navia already knew what he was going to say.

“You’re a commoner that is worth less than dirt.”

Wood had a disgusted expression on his face as he stared back at Navia. Navia quietly rolled the word commoner in her mouth.

I thought that I was the daughter of a low-ranking noble, but it was only later that I discovered that I was merely an orphan of a commoner.

“Are you a commoner?”

Ah, was it when Wood was 20 years old?

She could still clearly remember the day that Wood asked whether she was a commoner.

“I don’t think an ugly bee like you should mingle in the aristocratic society because you’ll only muddy the water. However, father is stubborn and I cannot change his mind…”

Wood reached out and grabbed Navia’s chin and tilted her to look at him. He then swept her lips with his thumb. The fresh red blood stained his finger.

“A noble’s blood is blue; not like a vulgar red, like yours.”

He laughed heartily in satisfaction of what he said.

“Although I am the one who orchestrated everything, there was actually someone who asked me to do this. Do you know who it is?”

“It’s Her Highness, the Empress,” Navia answered calmly.

Wood stared at Navia as if she knew everything.

“…That’s right. So, why did you seduce Prince Ares and offend Her Highesss, the Empress?”

He took a small vial and threw it at Navia. It was a type of poison that could dissolve a person’s organs immediately after drinking it.

“Come on, drink it. Now is the only time you can live as a princess. Do you know why the prince came here today?”

“He wants to hold a slave trial for you and I’m sure his wishes will come true if you don’t drink this.”

Ares loved Navia because of her beauty and because of how ruthless she would act towards her enemies. He had loved her as a tool, not a person, which was no different from how Agnes viewed her.

Wood was nervous that Prince Ares would burst in and take Navia away, but he pretended to be calm and continued his bluff in front of her.

“Wouldn’t it be better to die now than to live as a slave?”

Please read this at Sleepy Translations.

If Navia didn’t drink the poison, she will still be forced to drink it.

The Empress had promised Wood that he could marry Princess Sarah Lucia for taking care of Navia. The Duke of Lucia was the Empress’s father and Sarah Lucia was her niece.

Navia stared down at the small vial of poison vial in front of her.

In the end, it turned out like this again. 

She drank the poison in one gulp with no hesitation, Wood’s shoulder relaxed as he watched her. He was glad that she consumed the poison. He hated her and was completely fed up with her at this point.

“You’re pretending to be an elegant and graceful aristocrat till the very end. How disgusting.”

Navia vomited blood due to the poison. She laughed at her situation.

“Kkeuk… Hahaha…”

It didn’t matter whether she acted humbly or arrogantly. Her ending was always the same.

“How much more should I try?”

How much more effort should I put in to be accepted and loved? I did my best. Yes, I really did my very best.

Navia took off her blood-soaked gloves. There was a number on his right wrist. She was the only one who could see the number.

1

Looking down at the number, she confessed calmly.

“Brother, I have lived the same life seven times.”

“What?”

“Now, I only have one last chance to be reborn”

“Are you going crazy because you’re dying?” Wood’s face was scrunched up in confusion.

The poison took its final effect and Navia slowly lost the ability to see. The number on her wrist turned blurry.

“I thought we could be a family, I tried so hard…,” she continued speaking with great effort.

The smile on face turned chilly and the voice that came from her parted mouth was even colder.

“But now, I’m going to stop playing these games.”

Just before her sight went out, Navia stared directly at Wood. Under that eerie gaze, Wood froze like a prey in front of a beast. He couldn’t say anything under that spine-chilling moment.

“See you in the next life, Wood.”

I will never do anything for you again.

“You-!”

Wood belatedly opened his mouth and shouted something, but Navia couldn’t hear it. She went deaf.

And dark.

The number on the wrist changed.

0

Then it disappeared without a trace.