The Strongest Brother Lost His Memory-Chapter 25Vol 2.

“No matter who you meet, what you do, or how glamorous your day is, the end of the day always belongs to me.”

“...Like when we were at the Academy?”

I barely held back tears and spoke in a faint, sentimental tone.

“Back then, I was in Class 1 because I was top of the class, and you were dead last in Class 2... so we had separate classes all day, but we still met every night, without fail, right?”

At my brilliant example, Zahid let out a deep sigh. Then, shaking his head, he asked:

“...Did you really have to bring up that example, Rosie? Right now? Really?”

“Yeah... It was just so touching and appropriate...”

“I really want to see you, Rosie.”

Zahid gave a small laugh, resting his chin on his hand, staring straight at me.

“I want to meet you and take out my frustration.”

“Frustration? How... what do you mean...”

“Well, I don’t think I’ll just talk about it.”

Our eyes met through the mirror, his gaze burning, and I blushed again. Then, laughter escaped me despite myself.

We just stood there smiling stupidly at each other in the mirror for a long while. My heart wouldn’t stop pounding.

* * *

A few days later, at the Idra Duchy.

“Um, Lady Linna...”

One of the maids cautiously brought a report to Linna.

“Here, the thing you instructed us to investigate...”

Linna, who had been lying in bed, suddenly sat up. She moved to the desk and took the report in her hands.

“Oh my, our lady is sitting at a desk—how long has it been since that happened...”

Without even glancing at the maid’s moved expression, Linna focused and began to read the report.

Her golden eyes shone more seriously than ever before.

“We couldn’t find a maid matching the conditions you gave, my lady.”

The maid spoke carefully.

“She could’ve used a false name, so it’s proving hard to find her...”

Normally, the maids of the Idra Duchy didn’t really pay much attention to Linna’s orders. They figured she was just drunk and rambling.

But after she had repeated the same demand over and over for days, they had no choice but to do their best.

“First off, we couldn’t find anyone your age who’s worked as a maid for 15 years without any gaps...”

Linna didn’t respond, just kept flipping through the report.

Her hand, turning the pages diligently, came to a stop.

Heidi Oroz

Age: 31

From Oroz Orphanage, Lavendal Duchy.

Worked as Rosie Noart’s personal maid at the Noart estate from age 16 to 22, then retired and returned to her hometown when Rosie Noart left for the Magic Tower.

Recently reinstated at the Noart estate after Rosie Noart returned from the Magic Tower.

Noticing Linna’s eyes lingering on that page, the maid added:

“But the age doesn’t match, my lady. You clearly said she was around your age...”

“But she’s from Noart.”

Linna muttered chillingly.

“It’s that Noart, I’m talking about.”

The maid kept silent, saying nothing.

Linna had never properly controlled the Earth Divine Beast.

Whenever the Temple called her for training, her memory would vanish for hours. And every time that happened, there’d be landslides or earthquakes somewhere.

She hadn’t known at first, but after hearing news of casualties through the papers, young Linna had started to piece things together.

That while she was unconscious at the Temple, disasters would strike.

She had asked around, but no one gave her a straight answer. Then, an unexpected person told her the truth.

“Did I... did I really do this? Huh? Did Cashie and I really do this...?”

“Yes.”

It was the Empress Dowager.

“All those people getting hurt and dying, that was all...”

“That’s right, Linna.”

The Empress Dowager smiled sweetly and said:

“That was all your doing.”

At the time, Linna had been ten years old. It was agonizing, but she had no memories of it, and no idea how to take responsibility.

“But Linna, that was the best you could do.”

The Empress Dowager stroked young Linna’s cheek and whispered:

“Everyone lives for their family. If I ordered that knight to kill either you or his own mother..."

“Your Majesty!”

“He wouldn’t hesitate to kill you.”

“...B-but...”

“That’s just how it is, Linna. You don’t need to think about it. Just live without thinking. It’s not like you give the orders yourself, right?”

Linna tried to live ‘without thinking’ like that.

But it wasn’t easy.

As a child, Linna was constantly emotionally unstable, and eventually, her admission to the Academy was canceled. The experts said she wasn’t fit for group life in her condition.

However, there was one ‘bad thing’ she did of her own ‘clear mind.’ She wrote a false letter.

“Write it, Linna. Write. Just sign and seal it.”

“But Father, I don’t even know this girl named Chloe, and I never gave her a brooch. If I write this, won’t that girl Rosie get into trouble?”

“This is an order from the Temple, Linna. Hurry and write it. Think about your mother.”

“But...”

“Remember. You are Idra, Linna.”

The Duke of Idra’s solemn expression was frightening, and since not writing it would trouble her mother, she did as told, but it weighed heavily on her.

So she secretly apologized and cried for days.

Unable to move past it, the Duke of Idra spoke to her seriously.

“Linna, the Noart Count Family isn’t a place for you to feel guilt. They’re a rotten, shady house that mocks the law and the Temple.”

“But Father... I still manipulated things...”

“What you did was nothing. That family came from slaves—they don’t care about status, and they’re obsessed with money. They manipulate everything.”

Since then, Linna had grown up hearing nothing but curses about the Noart family.

Even if she hated it, she was always surrounded by people from the Temple, so it was inevitable.

Her world was still too narrow to think properly and rationally.

“They say Noart manipulates everything like it’s nothing. They don’t care about noble honor—they’re a house crazed by money.”

So Linna took a deep breath, convinced.

“Fifteen years? She was that young, doing cleaning work? Isn’t that against some royal labor something-or-other rule?”

“Well... there was one rotten place that ignored those rules.”

As far as she knew, the Noart family was the kind of rotten place that ignored those rules.

“They probably faked her age on paper to avoid that labor rule thing. It’s easy to fake birthdays from an orphanage.”

Linna’s eyes lit up as she spoke.

“Everything lines up—Heidi’s the one! Even down to having somewhere to go and the dates matching perfectly!”

“Yaaaoooong...”

Cashie shook his head, but Linna’s face showed a flash of euphoria.

“Contact the Noart estate immediately.”

She jumped to her feet.

“Tell them I want ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) to hire Rosie Noart’s maid, Heidi Oroz. Tell them I’ll pay whatever they ask!”

“W-wait a moment! My lady, it’s not something that can be decided with just a word, there are procedures... Especially since our Idra family has very strict hiring standards, the head maid will have to review everything and then decide...”

“Procedures? What’s that? Tell me everything. I’ll follow it all to the letter, so no one can complain. You know, right? I am Idra. That’s what everyone’s told me all along, haven’t they?”

A madness started to swirl in Linna’s eyes.

“I will definitely bring Heidi to me! Especially if she was exploited by that rotten family since childhood!”

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