I couldn’t believe what I was seeing with my own eyes. Tanya, who had told me she didn’t like me and that she wanted to turn me into her pet, was crying like a crybaby while asking me for forgiveness.

If I already didn’t know how to react in a situation where I had to strike up a conversation with her, seeing her cry in such a childish way left me paralyzed. Her crying was more effective than the Puppeteer Eye, without a doubt.

But I don’t believe it was a technique or an attempt to manipulate me emotionally. Even without the blindfold, her eyes were closed, and her tears kept falling endlessly.

"P-Please don’t cry," I managed to say, even though I was nervous.

After some time, Tanya finally stopped crying. I remembered the time when we were children. When the training was too harsh, she would always cry afterwards, far from our parents.

Tanya finally told me her story. She had managed to escape the attack on the clan on her own, but for a long time, she was alone, trying to survive every kind of threat with only the clothes on her back and a knife in her hands.

Thanks to the assassin training she had received, she managed to barely survive the threats she encountered along the way until she reached the nearest city.

Despite being a child, she was left helpless in the streets, and no one wanted to help her. She asked for help from door to door, but no one wanted to help her. Sitting in the streets, she watched adults pass by, but none of them looked at her ragged figure and dirty clothes. It wasn’t as if she were invisible. People looked, but quickly averted their eyes.

"I missed you so much, sis. Even Father and Mother, and the harsh training," she told me, sniffling a little as if she were about to start crying again. "I just didn’t want to be alone again."

One day, Tanya was sitting in the street, watching people pass by. The crowd that ignored her looked like shadows, and she didn’t even believe any of them would help her anymore. She only stayed on that busy street out of habit.

"Hey, you. You don’t have anywhere to go?" That was when a voice called out to her.

"He was a boy older than her. He seemed to be in his teens, with tanned skin and wavy dark hair," Tanya told me the story with a smile on her face.

"Vulcan," I said, which she confirmed with a nod. A smile appeared on Tanya’s face, as if she were remembering a pleasant memory.

She told me that Vulcan took her to a nearby restaurant. All the customers gave her dirty looks since she had dirty, ragged clothes, but after talking to the owner, he let the two of them sit down.

"Is it okay for me to be here?" Tanya asked Vulcan when they were at the table. She had already passed by that establishment before and had been rudely thrown out.

"Don’t worry. The owner here owes me favors," he told her in a serious voice. "Eat until you’re full."

"I was so happy. After so long alone, someone had reached out a hand to me," Tanya told me.

"Tanya," I asked my sister, "do you like Vulcan? Like, romantically?"

"Eh?" My sister was surprised by my question. "N-No, he is my benefactor. I don’t have that kind of feeling for him. But I am truly grateful that he took me in."

Tanya told me that Vulcan gained her trust by helping her, and she explained her situation, including what had happened to the Stollen clan. Vulcan was well informed about the kingdom’s affairs. Even though he hadn’t formed the Ghosts of the Road yet, he already knew what had happened to our clan.

"The Stollen clan has been a nuisance to the kingdom for a long time, so the King and his brother finally decided to take action against it," he said to the young little girl. "From now on, everyone with the Stollen name will be a target."

"T-That can’t be..." Tanya said. She was still a child at the time.

As if being homeless weren’t enough, the young girl now knew she could be hunted for being associated with the Stollen clan. Bounty hunters, slave traders, and even the army itself would be looking for her, or for people with the same physical traits as her, the rare white hair of her clan.

"Come with me," Vulcan said to Tanya. "Abandon your name and change the color of your hair. It won’t be an easy life, but as long as you are my subordinate, you will be under my protection."

And that was how Tanya became Vulcan’s first ally, and soon one of the first members of the Ghosts of the Road. As a way to protect her identity, she dyed her hair green and began using the name Jasmine.

"At first, it was very hard for me," Tanya told me with a sad face. "I still hadn’t completed my training, and Vulcan still took on some missions that required more combat, but even so, I did them. The first mission was an assassination."

Tanya’s voice seemed to grow sadder as she spoke, as if the happy moments had grown more distant in her memory.

"But even so, I did it. I don’t regret it. I did what I needed to survive, but I also never stopped looking for you." The crying seemed to return little by little in Tanya. "I lied, sis."

"About what?" I asked her.

"When we were children, I admired you."

My eyes widened at that revelation. I hadn’t expected to hear that from Tanya, and I also didn’t remember Tanya ever showing it, but I continued letting her speak.

"You were admired by everyone, and you seemed to have no flaws. I wanted to be like you, sis."

It didn’t seem like there was any lie in her words. Tanya was letting out all the emotions she had kept inside herself for so many years.

"With Vulcan’s sources, it wasn’t hard to find out that you were working in the King’s guard, even though you were very young. I know our clan doesn’t have strong family bonds, so I never saw you as a traitor for that. More than that, I wanted to meet you again."

But that had never happened. Since the attack on our clan, I had never known her whereabouts.

"I decided to go see you in person, sis. I went all the way to the Capital just to see you. I didn’t know how I was going to find you. I even thought about trying to sneak into the palace for it. I really wanted to see you!"

The tears could no longer be held back, pouring from Tanya’s eyes.

"Until I found you walking with the princess."

"Eh?" I watched her crying, speechless. Only now did I realize it.

"You were accompanying her through the city. You looked really happy, sis," Tanya said amid her crying, her voice filled with anger and frustration. "You were enjoying a happy life, a new life in the light! Everywhere you passed, people waved at you! Even though you were an Assassin, even though you were from the damn Stollen clan, you didn’t have to hide your face! No one seemed afraid of you! No one was disgusted by you!"

No matter how much Tanya raised her voice at me, I decided to let her speak. I thought she had the right to let out what she felt towards me.

She continued speaking, her voice weaker than before. "Looking at you together with the princess... I wanted to have lived like that with you, sis. I felt betrayed, as if you had replaced me with her. I got angry, I got jealous, but I didn’t know what to do."

I couldn’t listen to what Tanya was saying anymore. I threw myself towards her, hugging her.

"Sis..." Tanya said, surprised.

"Forgive me, Tanya!" I said, my voice filled with regret. "I should have looked for you that day! I should have protected you! Forgive me!"

I could feel her thin fingers touching my back and returning my hug. Tanya began to sob while I tried to console her, like the sister I should have been.

...

While the girls were making up inside the tent in an emotional moment, I was outside, listening to everything. Fortunately, it seemed like they had made peace, and as Diane’s husband, I couldn’t have been more satisfied. But now that it had only turned into crying, I thought I should leave.

I sighed, realizing that our trial still hadn’t ended. There was still a fight, and if we lost, everything would be over.

"Let’s get this over with, then," I said to myself.

I left the tent and headed towards the ring. Vulcan was in the middle of the arena, with a manic smile on his face.