Chapter 504: Jealousy

Her grandmother regarded her quietly before answering.

“I have known since the moment you were born,” she explained. “I was there when you came into this world, and when I held you in my arms, I could feel the power of my grandmother within you.”

Hiyori’s eyes widened slightly as she tried to make sense of those words.

“Since I was born?” she repeated, finding it difficult to believe that her grandmother had known about this for so long.

“That’s right,” the former head replied with a gentle nod.

“Does that mean you knew all along that I was going to become the Saint?” Hiyori asked, her confusion growing with every passing second. “Then why didn’t you tell me anything about it? And there’s something else I’ve been wondering about…”

She hesitated briefly before gathering the courage to ask her next question.

“Was your illness real?”

The former head looked at her for a moment, seemingly considering how she should answer the question. Her expression remained calm, although there was something about her eyes that made Hiyori feel as though the answer might be more complicated than she expected.

Then, after a short pause, the old woman nodded.

“Yes, my dear. I really am ill.”

Hiyori blinked in surprise, finding herself even more confused than before.

“Is it Alzheimer’s?” she asked cautiously. “Is that really what you have? Because if it is, then why are you acting like this right now? Y-You seem perfectly fine, Grandmother. It’s hard to believe you’re suffering from something like that when you can speak so clearly and remember everything we’ve been talking about.”

She knew that Alzheimer’s could affect a person’s memory, but seeing her grandmother behaving so differently from how she usually did left her struggling to understand what was happening.

Just moments ago, the old woman had been speaking with a clarity that Hiyori hadn’t seen in quite some time. Her answers were direct, her memories seemed intact, and she appeared to understand the situation far better than Hiyori had expected.

For a brief moment, Hiyori had almost forgotten that her grandmother was sick at all.

The former head remained quiet for a little while, her expression becoming more subdued as she considered her granddaughter’s concerns. The gentle smile she had worn earlier gradually faded, replaced by a look that seemed to carry a weight Hiyori couldn’t quite understand.

“It is Alzheimer’s,” she finally admitted. “I can still recover some of my memories from time to time, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to do so.”

Her voice softened as she continued speaking, and Hiyori found herself listening more carefully to every word.

“I don’t know whether I’ll be able to have another conversation like this with you, Hiyori. My memories are gradually slipping away, and I fear that once this moment passes, I’ll begin forgetting everything again. Eventually, I may lose these memories completely, along with the things I’ve been trying so desperately to hold on to.”

Hiyori stood silently before her grandmother, unable to think of anything to say as the meaning of those words slowly sank in.

For the first time since learning that she had become the next Saint, she began to understand that the moment she was experiencing might be far more precious than she had realized.

Her grandmother had known about her destiny since the day she was born, yet this might be one of the last opportunities Hiyori would have to ask her about it while she could still remember everything clearly.

And suddenly, the questions about becoming the Saint didn’t seem quite as important as they had a few moments ago.

***

Hiyori left the meeting room, quietly closing the door behind her as she stepped into the hallway. However, she barely had time to take a few steps before she noticed Haruna standing nearby, apparently waiting for her to come out. The moment their eyes met, Haruna turned toward her, and Hiyori immediately felt that something was wrong.

The look Haruna gave her was genuinely alarming, almost as if she were seriously considering killing her right then and there. Her eyes were so dark and empty that Hiyori couldn’t help feeling a chill run down her spine. It wasn’t just anger that she saw in her sister’s expression, either. There was something much heavier behind it, something that made Hiyori hesitate even before Haruna had said a single word to her.

“You really are God’s greatest masterpiece, aren’t you?” Haruna remarked, her voice dripping with bitterness. “Getting one stroke of luck after another, as if the whole damn world were determined to hand you everything on a silver platter.”

Hiyori didn’t respond, mostly because she had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to say. Somehow, she had a feeling that anything she said would only give Haruna another reason to lash out at her. Even a simple apology might come across as an insult, while trying to explain herself would probably make things considerably worse. Judging by the expression on her sister’s face, Haruna didn’t seem to have much left to offer her besides harsh words.

Hiyori, in particular, couldn’t bring herself to say anything at all. She could understand Haruna’s frustration, at least to some extent, but she also knew that understanding someone’s feelings and actually experiencing them were two entirely different things. There was simply no way she could fully comprehend what was going through her sister’s mind at that moment. Haruna had spent practically her entire life training to become the Saint, dedicating years of hard work and discipline to a goal that had probably shaped almost every decision she had ever made. Then, just when she might have believed that all those sacrifices would finally pay off, the opportunity was taken away from her and given to Hiyori instead.

It was difficult to imagine how devastating that must have felt, especially when Haruna had done everything she could to prepare herself for that very responsibility. Now that her lifelong goal had slipped out of her hands, she probably had no idea what she was supposed to do with herself anymore. All those years of training, all those expectations, and all the effort she had put into becoming someone worthy of the position suddenly seemed pointless to her. Hiyori could only imagine how frustrating it must have been to watch someone else receive in a moment what she had spent years trying to earn.

“Ugh, if I’d known things were going to turn out like this, I shouldn’t have gone through so much trouble trying to do everything on my own and maintain a good image in front of everyone,” Haruna muttered, letting out a frustrated sigh. “I shouldn’t have bothered playing the good girl around Mother, Father, and Grandmother. I shouldn’t have wasted so much time trying to understand the Association and how everything works within its society. Seriously, what was the point of all that? I’ve spent so much of my life trying to do everything right, and now I feel like I’ve wasted my entire youth for absolutely nothing.”

Her voice was filled with bitterness, and Hiyori could tell that those words had been building up inside her sister for quite some time. Haruna sounded exhausted, as if she had finally reached the point where she couldn’t bring herself to pretend that everything was fine anymore. All those expectations she had placed on herself, along with the pressure to maintain a respectable image in front of their family, suddenly seemed like a complete waste of effort.

Still, something about Haruna’s reaction caught Hiyori’s attention. Despite the harsh words and the resentment in her voice, Haruna didn’t seem particularly angry about the fact that Hiyori had received the Saint’s power instead of her. At least, that wasn’t what she appeared to be focusing on the most. Her frustration seemed to come from something else.

“I’m always jealous of you, Sis,” Haruna admitted, letting out a short, bitter laugh. “You don’t even realize how much you’ve been handed to you on a silver platter by our own family. You can just stand there and somehow end up getting everything without having to go through half the trouble I’ve put myself through.”

Hiyori remained quiet, unsure of how she was supposed to respond to that. She certainly didn’t feel as though she had done anything to deserve being treated like the enemy, but she also understood that trying to argue with Haruna at that moment would accomplish absolutely nothing. Her sister was clearly hurting, and Hiyori doubted that any explanation she could offer would make things better. Even telling Haruna that she hadn’t asked for any of this might sound like another excuse, especially when she was the one who had walked away from the meeting with the very power Haruna had spent her life pursuing.

So, for the time being, Hiyori decided to keep her mouth shut. It wasn’t exactly a brilliant solution to the problem, but considering the circumstances, she figured that avoiding an argument was probably better than making an already terrible situation even worse. Besides, she had a feeling that Haruna would find a way to turn just about anything she said against her right now.

“Well, considering how most of my life has ultimately turned out to be pointless, I guess it’s time I started doing whatever the fuck I want,” Haruna declared, her expression twisting into a bitter smile. “I’m going to start drinking, dating, and actually enjoying myself for once. All those restrictions I’ve placed on myself can go straight to hell. I’ve spent years worrying about what everyone expects from me, and look where that got me. Honestly, I don’t feel like there’s anything left that should stop me from doing whatever I want anymore.”

She paused for a moment, looking directly at Hiyori with an expression that was difficult to read. There was still anger in her eyes, but beneath it was something that looked suspiciously like disappointment. It was as if she had finally given up on trying to make sense of everything that had happened, deciding instead that if her efforts were never going to amount to anything, she might as well stop making those efforts in the first place.

“So, Sis, enjoy all the luck you’ve been given,” Haruna continued, her voice becoming colder as she finished speaking. “You have everything now, after all. The position, the recognition, and whatever else comes with being the Saint. I hope you’re happy with what you’ve got, because I’m done trying to compete for something that apparently wasn’t meant for me.”

With those final words, Haruna turned around and walked away without waiting for Hiyori to respond, and then she got on her car. All Hiyori could do was watch the car pull away.