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Alongside a beautiful woman smiling against the backdrop of Cattleya, a young girl in a pale pink dress was attempting a similar pose, wearing a somewhat awkward smile.

The woman in the portrait exuded a transcendence of age, appearing younger than her actual age—some might even say she could pass for someone in her late teens. Despite that, she possessed ample mature charm. And yet, the girl, while showing good overall growth, still retained stiffness in various parts. Although she exuded a certain level of maturity, there was a prevailing sense of immaturity.

As a result, the relative age gap might seem around 5 to 6 years.

It’s like one was the evolved form of the other, or the perfected form made from the same mold—apart from the bust size, which was almost identical—but to say that these two people were the same person wouldn’t sound so crazy. To an outsider, we might even appear as sisters.

…yeah, trying to claim that I had no relation or blood connection to her just sounded so far-fetched.

But still, why does it still feel out of place…?

While the woman in the portrait exuded refined grace and beauty, the girl in the mirror, although seemingly intelligent, exhibited a certain incompleteness in the head department—as if the screws on the crucial parts of her brain were a bit loose. In essence, it was akin to comparing a jade beauty to a poster girl, or to be frank, an exotic beast.

“It’s like comparing Captain America to Captain Chaos. You get the idea, but then run full-throttle towards the wrong direction…Even with all the makings of a beautiful girl, deep down, it’s still a disappointment.”

That being said, when I actually put my face right beside hers like this and examined it closely, I could understand why Elder Uranus, the Fairy King, told me that I was nothing like my mother.

“—phew,” I let out a melancholy sigh and once again looked through the mirror, comparing the portrait of the shrine maiden princess Clara left by Luke with my own face, her genetically unmistakable biological daughter.

Appearance-wise, it was safe to say we were almost identical.

The differences lay in the fact that while my eyes were emerald, the woman in the portrait had azure eyes, and there was a slight upturn at the outer corners of her eyes. Normally, this feature might give a stern and cold impression, but in her case, whether innate or acquired later in life, there was an aura of gentle motherly sanctity that counteracted these traits.

So, at first glance, the resemblance was surprisingly striking.

“…you might even think I’m her illegitimate child.”

Royce, the family steward who remained in the parlor, agreed with me, “You are most correct.”

“Speaking of which, you know the circumstances, don’t you? About the Cattleya Princess…and the Ragweed Princess too.”

I looked up at the ceiling, a sigh escaping me. Royce’s serene gaze was felt on my back.

“…I have never met with the rumored Cattleya in person, but I’ve heard a lot of hearsay about her. Even if taking it with a generous amount of salt, she is a woman of impeccable character, a beauty of the century, and a genius of Magic Art.”

He cut off the eulogy there and twisted his head with a hum.

“For all the reasons above, many still worship her to this day. Her charisma alone has surpassed the faith people held towards the Saintess’ Church—however, young lady, do you really think that such a perfect person can truly exist?”
“…I don’t know. I have very little memory of her.”

My memories of Syltianna were already vague, to begin with, and considering that Clara passed away when I was around five years old, I had no recollection of her whatsoever. …Normally, one’s sense of self has developed to some extent by the age of five, leaving impressions or episodes of familiar individuals lingering in memory. In fact, I could recall some memories of my father from that time, but for some reason, there was absolutely nothing regarding my mother.

At the very least, not even a vague image like ‘warm’ or ‘kind’ associated with my mother existed in me, which was quite puzzling, to say the least.

“You are your own person, young lady. You’re neither an alter ego nor a shadow of Lady Clara. Why don’t you have more confidence in yourself? In fact, your esteemed friends and your ladies-in-waiting didn’t seem to mind.”

Perhaps in agreement with Royce’s words, Lana gave me a concerned look even though she probably didn’t understand half of what we were talking about.

“…umm, Lady Jill. Err, I think of you as my big sister, Lady Jill. But, Lady Jill is Lady Jill, not my big sister, but, I love you as much as I love my big sister.”

I felt my heart tighten at the sight of Lana trying to encourage me with her faltering words, and I quickly got up and hugged her.

“…thank you. You’re right, I am me. And Lana, I’ll make sure to find your sister and make you both happy.”

Lana squirmed, seemingly from embarrassment. Seeing her like that, the scene of the discussion I had with Luke and the others that ended an hour ago came to mind.

♢♦♢♦♢

After all was said and done, I was still stubborn enough to say, “I’m not related to her,” when they asked about my relationship with Syltianna. I even had Pryui judge the truth of my statement using Spirit Magic.

And the result was—

“She’s not lying.”

Pryui made her judgment, not entirely convinced by her own words. The others were reluctant to take that as an answer.

…Indeed, that statement was not a lie. As of now, the current me has never seen or met anyone who called herself Syltianna, so there was no relationship to speak of. It’s like a lie detector; once you know how it works, it’s easy to outsmart it.

“…Jill, be honest, are you actually hiding something from us?”
“Yes, I am. However, that is a problem I have to solve by myself.”
“—! Is there anything I can do to help? I want to take some burden off your shoulders if possible.”

Catching Luke’s straight gaze into my eyes as he bit down in frustration, I smiled without realizing it.

“Thank you very much, but I want to do what I can do first. I’m afraid that I’ll grow dependent on others if I take advantage of your generosity from the get-go.”

Also, I might just fall for you, which is considerably much more terrifying, in a lot of meanings. Besides, Luke has a girl he likes already. If we don’t maintain moderation as friends and draw the line clearly, it might bite me back later down the road.

“Nevertheless…I don’t know what kind of person it is, but the girl whom you like must be very lucky, Luke.” Good looks, good prestige, good future prospects, good personality, he’s basically the perfect superhuman. In fact, Luke might be too good a boy that some bad woman might dupe him in the future.

Luke added after me. “She is well-meaning, but indeed, in a way, you can say that I am being toyed around with by her.”

Well, doesn’t that make me even more anxious? And, for some reason, everyone around me seemed to nod unanimously at that.

Could it be, is she a mutual acquaintance of ours? I thought it wouldn’t hurt to at least ask a name, but Luke adamantly refused to tell me. I felt alienated.

“Well, I shouldn’t pry into it forcibly, so I won’t ask any further.”

I have things I don’t want to be asked about, that is precisely why I’m trying to find myself out of this discussion. Strangely enough, Luke seemed disappointed and dropped his shoulders at that, while Bruno, on the contrary, regained his vigor.

“You’re…right. I won’t push further too. But, please remember that I’m your friend, Jill. No matter what happens, I am always on your side.”

His sincere attitude left me with no choice but to apologize and bow my head. I hope one day I can share everything, but until then…

“I’m your friend too, Jill. In fact, I’ll be the first to come to you anytime!” Bruno spoke heatedly.

“Ha-hah, I’m Jill’s BEST friend. We’re always together, in life and in death.” Eren smugly puffed her nonexistent breasts.

“Well, Jill is a sister of the same branch. I’ll do what I can to help.”
“I’m also indebted to you, Lady Jill.”

Pryui and Lynn also made their statements.

“I’m so sorry…for someone like me…”

My heart was filled with unspoken emotions, and when I finally spoke up, all I could do was stand there and look around at my friends’ faces with carefree smiles on their faces.

Author’s Note:

This is isekai but floriography is common here. Also, in terms of the rarity of eye color, green is slightly rarer than blue.