Chapter five :
Chapter title: If That's What You Call Ruthless.
The suited man stood silently by the door.
He had been warned countless times before coming here.
Do not provoke her.
Do not make sudden movements.
Keep your distance.
Yet...
Looking at the woman before him, he couldn't understand why.
She looked really fragile, thin and almost lifeless.
Could this really be the infamous Lady Laurel?
"...Lady Annalisa."
He got no response, he cleared his throat.
"I've come under Master Liam's orders."
Slowly...
Very slowly...
Annalisa turned her head, her silver-blue eyes met his.
For the first time since entering the room...
The man felt his heartbeat quicken because those weren't the eyes of a patient. They were the eyes of someone measuring him.
Judging him.
"...Speak."
Her voice was calm and cold.
"I don't like repeating myself."
The messenger swallowed.
"Master Liam wishes to see you."
Silence.
"I thought he was dead."
"He survived."
Another silence.
Then...
A soft laugh escaped her lips.
"So..."
"He survived."
"How fortunate." The messenger frowned.
He couldn't tell whether she was relieved...
Or disappointed.
"He wishes to apologize."
That sentence made her smile disappear.
The room instantly felt heavier.
"...Apologize?"
She slowly rose from the bed.
Barefoot and each she took step echoed softly against the tiled floor.She stopped only when they were face to face.
"So..."
"He remembers I exist."
The messenger forced himself to maintain eye contact.
"He regrets what happened."
Annalisa tilted her head.
"What happened?"
"My lady..."
"What happened?"
Her voice sharpened, The messenger hesitated.
"The fall of House Laurel."
For several seconds...
She said nothing.
Then she smiled, it wasn't a warm smile. It was terrifying.
"You mean..."
"The day my sister died."
"The day my family was slaughtered."
"The day our home burned."
She leaned slightly closer.
"And the day..."
"My brother ran."
The messenger instinctively stepped backward. Without even realizing it...
He had just stepped into the mouth of a predator.
"He didn't run!" the messenger blurted out.
"He escaped because the elders ordered him to!"
"He was supposed to survive!"
"He was supposed to protect the future of House Laurel!"
Silence.
Annalisa looked at him expressionlessly
Then...
She laughed not loudly ,quietly it was almost sadly.
"The future?"
She looked toward the rain outside.
"My sister..."
"Was the future."
Another pause.
"My family..."
"Were the future."
She slowly turned back.
"If saving himself meant abandoning them..."
"Then don't call him my brother."
"He stopped being my family..."
"The moment he chose to live alone."
The messenger lowered his head. He had no answer. None.
The messenger steadied his breathing. He knew he had already said too much.
Still...
He forced himself to continue.
"My lady... Master Liam has carried this guilt for five years."
"He blames himself every single day."
"He hasn't smiled since the fall of House Laurel."
"He needs you."
Once again silence. Annalisa looked at him.
Her expression was unreadable.
Then...
"...Needs me?"
She chuckled softly.
"What an interesting choice of words."
She took another slow step forward.
"So..."
"The man who abandoned his family..."
"...now needs his sister?"
The messenger clenched his jaw.
"He was trying to survive!"
"So were we." Her answer came instantly.
"So was Eliora."
"So was every servant."
"So was every guard who chose to die protecting this family."
Each sentence landed like another knife.
"But only one person ran."
The messenger finally lost his composure.
"You can't keep blaming him forever!"
"He was only one man!"
"He couldn't save everyone!"
"He made a choice!"
Annalisa nodded slowly.
"Exactly."
"He made a choice."
A long silence followed.
"And now..."
"So have I."
The messenger felt a chill crawl down his spine.
"My lady..."
"Please..."
"He's still your brother."
Annalisa's smile vanished.
"No."
"He is an orphan my parents pitied."
"My father gave him our name."
"My mother gave him a home."
"Eliora gave him her trust."
"And I..."
She looked directly into his eyes.
"...gave him my respect."
Another pause.
"He buried every one of those gifts the moment he turned his back on us."
The messenger could barely breathe.
"You..."
"...you're too cruel."
The room fell silent. Too cruel, too ruthless the words echoed inside Annalisa's mind.
She lowered her head, for several seconds...
Nothing happened.
Then—
She laughed a quiet laugh one that made the messenger instinctively step backward.
When she looked up again...
Her eyes had completely changed they were no longer calm yhey were glacial.
"You call me ruthless?"
She whispered.
"Tell me..."
"Where was your master's mercy..."
"...when my sister died in my arms?"
One step.
"Where was his kindness..."
"...when I begged the man holding a gun to her head?"
Another step.
"Where was his courage..."
"...when House Laurel burned?"
The messenger stumbled backward until his back struck the wall. There was nowhere left to run.
The messenger raised both hands.
"My Lady—"
Too late. Her foot slammed into his chest like a battering ram, the impact blasted him across the room.
His body crashed into the concrete wall.
The wall cracked.
Dust rained from the ceiling he collapsed onto the floor, coughing violently with lood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
The room became deathly quiet.
Annalisa slowly lowered her leg and not a single strand of hair had moved.
She stared down at him with absolute indifference.
"If that's what you call ruthless..."
She turned away.
"...then you've lived a very sheltered life."
The messenger struggled to breathe.
For the first time...
He understood.
The woman standing before him wasn't broken.
She wasn't heartless.
She was simply...
A survivor who had buried every ounce of mercy alongside her sister.