roccoschili Chapter 185 The City of Faith, Istchi 3
Chapter 185 The City of Faith, Istchi 3
"What I'm curious about is... are you and your sister very close?" Jean tapped her fingers on the table calmly, seemingly ignoring Avelia's question.
"That...of course..." Avelia's voice trembled slightly, perhaps because she was angered by Jean's question. What did he mean? He was doubting her...I haven't even doubted you guys who brought my sister back to be tortured yet!
"As the sister of a criminal in this kingdom, how can you live a normal life in this kingdom—" Jean's subtext was already very clear; she was practically stating it outright: if you don't explain what happened in the past, then you are not trustworthy.
Family members are sometimes the most trustworthy people in the world.
However, it is undeniable that when faced with significant interests, even brothers can fight each other without regard for kinship, and betrayal and rupture are entirely possible.
Even the strongest friendships in the world can be torn apart by self-interest.
What was Avilia doing while Emnesia was being punished with the punishment of forgetting her homeland?
What was she doing when her sister had the accident?
Why did Amynia's affair come to light, while her younger sister Avelia seems to have escaped unscathed, with no media coverage whatsoever?
These are all highly suspicious.
It's possible that Avelia sided with Emilia and became her sister's so-called witness. After all, many people would likely abandon their so-called sisterly bonds to protect themselves.
Perhaps Emilia promised her sister many benefits in order to tarnish Emnesia's reputation?
“You’re right, it’s perfectly normal for you to doubt me if I don’t explain these things clearly.” Avelia sighed. “It’s hard for me to say how I can convince you, but I will try to keep my story about my sister and me brief.”
“Almost everyone in Easton thinks my sister and I have a very bad relationship, but that’s just what they think,” Avelia said. “In the world of stubborn and prejudiced people, they assume everyone is as stubborn and prejudiced as they are.”
……
Emnesia is the older sister, and compared to her younger sister, she is quite different in this kingdom.
In this kingdom that places great importance on magical aptitude, Emnessia, who has no magical talent whatsoever, is undoubtedly the object of ridicule.
Although the kingdom's laws stipulate that everyone is equal, in reality, this so-called equality is only based on the class of those in power.
Those in power revere magic, so those who don't know magic are destined not to achieve so-called equality.
This is the same in any kingdom.
Avelia's magical talent was exceptional, so ever since Avelia was born, she was often compared to Emnecia.
When Avelia is mentioned, the neighbors always bring up her good-for-nothing sister.
Even though both her parents are outstanding magicians in the kingdom, why does Emnicia have absolutely no magic power? Some even say that Emnicia might have been adopted from someone else's family.
Putting aside the fact that the two sisters look very alike, isn't there even a slight possibility that they are the daughters of the grandmother of the second aunt and third uncle next door and the old landlord next door?
Even with such comments, Amysia never showed any sign of frustration. She seemed like a natural optimist, always smiling at everything.
As for her younger sister, whom she is often compared to, Amuncia shows no sign of rejection.
A normal person would hate their sister to the core if they encountered such a thing—but clearly, Emnessia is not normal, at least not in this country where all the residents of East are considered normal.
On the contrary, Avelia felt a slight...guilt when she heard herself being compared to her sister again.
When Emnesia was a little older, she joined the kingdom's orthodox knightly order. As if it were divine compensation, Emnesia's swordsmanship talent was exceptional.
Even so, in that knightly order where almost everyone possessed magic, Emnessia was at the very bottom.
She was only fit to do the lowest-level jobs—after all, in other people's eyes, sword fighting was outdated and a waste of time; why bother with close combat when a fireball could solve the problem?
Even the most skilled swordsman cannot get close enough to engage in combat.
After working for about a year, Avilia also joined the Kingdom's orthodox knights.
Unlike Emnicia, Avilia, with her outstanding magical talent, easily rose through the ranks, becoming Emnicia's superior in just a few months.
This seems to be a deliberate arrangement by the higher-ups at East, to let Emnisia see the difference between those who can and cannot use magic.
There are always those who like to see despair on other people's faces.
They found pleasure in it.
To their disappointment, even though Amysia did such low-level work as sorting letters every day, she never showed any signs of distress.
From the outside world's perspective.
The two sisters are like heaven and earth, one is like the sky and the other like the earth.
They naturally view the world through the lens of prejudice, yet they take it for granted that others also perceive the world with the same inherent prejudices.
In their eyes, the high and mighty Avelia was of course not in the same world as their good-for-nothing sister.
This sister who can't use magic is a burden to me. It's her, it's Amysia's lack of ambition, that has cast a dark shadow over me.
Otherwise, when Avelia is mentioned, everyone only knows that Avelia is that genius magician, and no one will think that she has a useless older sister—how pitiful that she has to carry such a burden.
But this is just the stubborn opinion of a prejudiced person.
There will always be people in this world who are different from them.
In Avelia's heart, no matter how useless her sister was, she was still her sister. Even if her sister was missing an arm or a leg, she was still her sister, and she could simply work harder to support her.
But she never had the courage to confront those rumors and gossip.
She dared not say in public, "You bunch of blind fools, open your dog eyes and look, this is my sister. If you keep talking nonsense, I'll treat you to mud."
So many sincere feelings have been defeated by the sharp knife of so-called worldly values.
Cowardice is the main theme of people's submission to fate.
Emnesia seemed to have always known Avilia's thoughts, and when Avilia was indignant, it was Emnesia who comforted her.
—Don't get angry, don't get angry. Getting angry only hurts yourself.
But Avelia was really angry.
This situation continued until Emnessia was sentenced. The accusations from Emilia, the kingdom's only witch, led the entire kingdom to blindly believe them.
They firmly believed that Emilia was right.
I believe that Emnessia, a social outcast who is already idle and a parasite without magic, is narrow-minded and caused the deaths of other witches because she doesn't know magic.
That's prejudice.
Avelia could no longer hold back—she wanted to defend her sister.
Even if it's useless, she has to say it—she believes her sister's words: Emilia killed the other witches and framed her. Her own sister couldn't even bear to kill an ant, let alone kill witches? How could that be?
But when she saw Emnessia again before her exile, the words she wanted to say were forced back down her throat.
Emnicia saw her, shook her head, and put her finger to her lips.
Silence.
The cowardly Avilia ultimately chose to give up.
She watched as her sister was magically erased of her memories and exiled—she knew her sister would return, and before she did, she had to find a way to save her.