<6>
Hehe.
“Let me say it again, Rowena. In front of Madam, you must always observe proper etiquette…”
Hehehe.
“…If you don’t behave quietly, you will be in big trouble. Understood?”
“Of course, Teacher!”
Inside the rattling carriage, Rowena’s reply rang out energetically.
Normally, she would have let the orphanage teacher’s nagging go in one ear and out the other, but this time Rowena listened attentively to every word.
Her bright, sparkling eyes shone as brilliantly as the day she had monopolized an entire apple pie that had been served as a special treat.
It was perhaps only natural.
Because she was going to meet Madam Hayworth again — someone she had thought she would never see again!
‘Of course, the official reason is that I’ve been called to be a conversation companion.’
But still, another chance had been given to her!
Rowena swung her short legs excitedly and hummed a cheerful tune.
‘Madam Hayworth definitely likes cuteness.’
Perhaps it reminded her of her late daughter.
After all, Madam Hayworth had once been a mother too.
Rowena had no intention of wasting this opportunity.
Taking her previous failure as fertilizer, this time she planned to make a “request” to Madam Hayworth.
‘I’ll show her my ultimate three-set cuteness combo.’
It was a secret weapon she only barely pulled out when chocolate snacks arrived at Townsend, but this time there was no choice.
An orphanage full of children was no different from a battlefield.
Children of this age were closer to starving beasts than well-mannered little humans.
In the blink of an eye, snacks placed on the table would disappear — not your nose, but still — and in the moment you looked away, shiny, wonderful buttons on your chest would vanish — not a knife in the heart, but still — that was the terrifying place known as the orphanage!
‘And I am the one who survived rolling around in that place for ten whole years.’
Moreover, I was quite the top student, ahem.
Anyway, with this “ultimate three-set cuteness combo,” there was nothing to fear.
Finally, the carriage stopped in front of the Hayworth mansion, and Rowena hopped out briskly and entered the mansion.
Now, all she had to do was meet Madam Hayworth and everything would…
‘…Huh?’
Rowena stopped her quick little steps abruptly.
The usually quiet mansion somehow felt unusually chaotic.
People rushing hurriedly, and groups of worried whispering voices.
‘And the person running over there is…’
Holding a doctor’s visit bag?
Rowena was close enough with the old doctor who had diagnosed her illness to sit side by side and share boiled eggs.
Thanks to that, she was also well aware of what a doctor’s visit bag meant.
‘All my medicines are in here. It’s my lifeline.’
‘But it’s all glass. Isn’t that dangerous?’
‘Yes. That’s why no matter how urgent it is, a doctor must never run.’
If even someone who had once served as an imperial physician said so, it surely wasn’t wrong.
In other words, there was a problem serious enough to make someone run while carrying a doctor’s visit bag.
Rowena quietly crept after the running person.
Pressing herself flat against the wall and peeking around the corner, she saw people gathered in front of a room with worried faces.
Among them was someone Rowena recognized.
‘The man who brought me cookies!’
The man Madam Hayworth called “Henry” or “Butler!”
At that moment, “Henry or Butler” spoke with a concerned expression.
“Why does something like this keep happening to Madam…”
“This is already the third time this month alone. She doesn’t have any major illness, yet… I’m worried something serious might happen.”
“We asked her to tell us if anything was wrong, but she says nothing at all. If she collapses again…”
At the two people’s conversation, Rowena’s heart sank with a thud.
To summarize what they were saying:
‘Madam Hayworth has collapsed?!’
The complexion of Madam Hayworth, whom she had seen just yesterday, was by no means that of a sick person.
Even if she had a pollen allergy, who collapses from something like that?
Unless it was a child looking for any excuse to lie in bed all day.
It was not a fitting reason for Madam Hayworth to collapse.
“Could it really be because of that accident…”
“But it’s already been over a year. And Madam was perfectly healthy even after that incident. It’s too old an event to suddenly become the cause of this kind of illness.”
The “incident” they were referring to was simple.
It was the time when Madam Hayworth’s daughter, Rose, had died.
At “Henry or Butler”’s words, the middle-aged woman nodded.
“That’s true. Back then, it was only thanks to Madam’s steadfastness that Hayworth didn’t falter.”
“Exactly. If that event were going to be a problem, it would have shown much earlier.”
“She’s such a strong person, so what could possibly be the problem now… It makes me even more worried.”
“The attending physician said it seems to be a matter of the heart manifesting as illness.”
“Then if she would just say something… If even Madam collapses, what will become of Hayworth…”
The two continued talking in low, worried voices, then left the front of the room together when the examination was finished.
They were the butler and head maid in charge of managing the Hayworth mansion, always keeping their senses sharp for everything that happened inside.
However, this time, preoccupied with Madam Hayworth’s health, they missed one thing.
The fact that, after they left, a small shadow slipped away down the inner corridor.
* * *
Creep, creep.
A footstep so soft it could hardly be called a sound cautiously approached the bedside where Madam Hayworth lay asleep.
When the owner of the footsteps tilted her head slightly to the side, her twin tails tied like rabbit ears tilted along with it.
‘Her breathing sounds calm.’
The old doctor grandpa had said that if the breathing was even, it was okay to relax for the time being.
Rowena leaned against the tall bed and looked down at the face of Madam Hayworth, who was sleeping as if unconscious.
Even in sleep, Madam Hayworth was frowning slightly.
It was a reflection of her strict personality.
But in other words, it meant that even in sleep, Madam Hayworth’s heart was not at peace.
‘In truth, Madam Hayworth barely appears in the original work.’
She only appears when the villain, Seymour, is mentioned.
And even then, it’s always in the form of “If only Madam Hayworth had been well at that time…”
To summarize, at the point when the original story begins, it was not only Rowena who was unwell.
Madam Hayworth appears bedridden throughout the story.
‘I thought she was fine for now since that happens seven years later.’
But apparently not.
Or perhaps this illness was gradually worsening and would eventually lead Madam Hayworth to death.
The problem was what the cause might be.
‘They definitely said it was a matter of the heart.’
“Henry or Butler” had said it had no connection to the accident from a year ago, but Rowena thought differently.
‘In the original work, Madam Hayworth showed a brief improvement in her condition after meeting the female protagonist.’
The female protagonist of <Lily Wither> was said to resemble her deceased daughter, Rose, strikingly.
However, by then the illness had already progressed too far, and that alone was not enough to bring about a meaningful change, so Madam Hayworth ultimately succumbs to the disease and dies.
Moreover, seeing how Madam Hayworth became increasingly strict and obsessed with perfection after Rose’s death, it was not difficult to guess what illness of the heart she suffered from.
‘She simply never shows it to anyone.’
Because if even Madam Hayworth faltered, the entire Hayworth would falter.
The child’s green eyes, lost in thought, shone with a strange light.
‘In that case…’
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
