Chapter 17

Even as she told herself her mother could not possibly have done that, thinking again, Cecile was exactly the kind of person who would.

Cecile had always treated Leana as a useless burden.

Perhaps she had been using the pretext of buying expensive medicine for Leana to siphon off the money Elena had been bringing in all this time.

There were times when things that had not been there before began to appear.

A newly made shawl, silk slippers, an expensive tablecloth.

Things Cecile could never have afforded on her own means.

Elena laughed through her tears.

“How… How could she do that to her own daughter…”

Elena buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

Her heart ached as if she would lose her mind.

It felt as if her heart would split in two.

“But she is her daughter… How could a mother… What possessed her…”

Elena’s tears filled the carriage.

Did the coachman understand her feelings?

The carriage slowed more and more.

The scenery outside the slowly moving carriage was entirely visible.

Cecile, Cecile.

Had it always been this way?

She could no longer even recall her mother’s face from when her father was alive.

She must have unconsciously bitten the inside of her cheek—blood pooled in her mouth, but in truth she had no leisure to notice.

The despair that things would get better if she just endured only made everything worse, and Elena writhed.

When on earth would her misfortune end?

Just as Elena barely swallowed her tears, the carriage stopped.

She opened the door with a swollen face.

Standing there was not the coachman but… Maxim.

“Maxim?”

“…Get down.”

Maxim spoke in a voice tinged with a sigh and helped Elena down from the carriage.

Elena staggered, leaning on Maxim’s arm.

She had never expected to run into him like this.

Elena stared at Maxim in surprise.

The coachman was watching the scene with a deeply satisfied face.

As expected, our master’s heart is like silk, he seemed to be thinking.

“…Do you think the world will sink just because you cry like that?”

Maxim spoke bluntly and pressed a handkerchief into Elena’s hand.

“Nothing changes.”

“I know.”

Elena said, sniffling.

“But what am I supposed to do when the tears come?”

Maxim took the handkerchief back and wiped Elena’s tears himself.

“I gave it to you to wipe your tears, not to hold onto.”

“Maxim…”

Maxim pressed the handkerchief back into Elena’s hand and spoke.

“When it’s too hard and painful, think about something else.”

“Something else…?”

“You said it seemed like the medicine money was stolen.”

Maxim bit the tip of his tongue.

There was no need to concern himself with others’ affairs like this.

Why was Elena so constantly on his mind, contrary to his usual creed of living?

It was probably because he saw himself in her.

The helplessness of being surrounded by misfortune.

Maxim knew where the end of that anxiety and restlessness lay.

Maxim smiled coldly.

“Take revenge. When you focus on one thing, other things get forgotten.”

“…How do you know about that, Maxim?”

“Because I needed a refuge too.”

There had been a time when he struggled desperately just to keep living.

After that incident, he could neither eat nor sleep.

He vomited the moment food touched his mouth, and even looking at people was difficult.

Even now, when a woman with strong perfume stood beside him, his stomach churned.

Still, it was not to the point of vomiting in someone’s face.

How long it had taken to reach this point.

There had been a time when no one in the mansion—not Empress Liena, not Hazel, not even Madame Greta or any of the servants—was permitted to use perfume.

What made Elena different was that she carried no scent of perfume at all.

From Elena came a faint scent of grass.

The same scent he had noticed when he took her into the carriage at Kress Bridge, and when they danced at the banquet.

Elena swallowed hot saliva.

“…Revenge, how do I do that?”

Elena’s voice rippled with moisture.

She was a mother who had abandoned her daughter.

Conversely, what problem could there be if the daughter abandoned that mother?

Elena gritted her teeth.

“I want to try it too. If I can forget everything.”

Maxim let out a soft laugh.

Contrary to appearances, she was not such a weak woman after all.

Maxim dropped his hand onto Elena’s head.

A faint smile hung on Maxim’s lips.

“What do you want to do first?”

“…I want to get the money back.”

Elena trembled.

“Then that’s where we start. Do you prefer the legal way or the illegal way?”

“Which is faster?”

“The illegal way.”

Maxim answered flatly.

“Then the illegal way. Please make the doctor pay too.”

“Of course. He’ll have to pay the price.”

Elena nodded.

The peculiar blue eyes, holding back tears, rippled.

Maxim let out a faint laugh.

* * *

“Sister…”

Leana blinked.

After giving Leana the newly prescribed medicine, three more hours had passed.

She had not slept a wink, but she could not sleep until Leana woke, so she had held on—and it had been worth it.

Leana had opened her bleary eyes.

Leana clutched tightly at Elena’s hand.

“Sisteer…”

“You must have been scared.”

Elena stroked Leana’s hair.

“Yes. I thought I would never see you again, Sister.”

Leana whined and held out both arms.

Elena pulled back the blanket and climbed in, pulling Leana into her arms.

Tenderly, so the child could feel her body warmth.

Leana burrowed into Elena’s embrace.

Elena stroked Leana’s hair.

“Why would you not see me? Why would you say such a thing, silly. I told you I would definitely save you, didn’t I?”

“Yes. I know. Leana is a coward, that’s why.”

“…Go back to sleep. The medicine will make you better. When you wake up again, I’ll do your princess hair.”

“Princess hair?”

“Yes. The hair Leana likes best. We’ll do that hair and eat candy and take a walk in the garden.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

Elena hooked her pinky finger with the child’s small one.

The tears that fell she quickly wiped away and hid.

Elena’s hot breath, swallowing a sigh, scattered over Leana’s head.

Leana burrowed into Elena’s arms.

“Then I’ll go to sleep quickly. When I wake up, Leana will be strong too. I don’t think anything will hurt anymore.”

“That’s right. When you wake up in the morning, I’ll make the stew you like.”

“Okay!”

Leana’s breathing slowly grew quiet.

Elena rubbed her face against the pillow.

Only then were her tears hidden.

Elena let out a slow breath.

And gradually she fell asleep.

* * *

“You want me to hand over the money? That was our contract fee! It’s rightfully my money!”

“You fool. Elena ran away. That child is gone. I’m telling you, we need money to go find our source of income! You’re a doctor, is what I’m saying so hard to understand?”

Cecile shoved Derrick’s shoulder.

Derrick furrowed his brow in humiliation.

Derrick glared at Cecile.

“Thanks to whom do you think you were able to skim off that money, and you talk like that? If you were alone, do you think you would have scraped together anything? Do you think that clever girl would have shared her money with you?”

Translation work paid better than expected.

The amount that would take over a week of piecework sewing—that girl brought it home in just three days.

Once her translation picked up speed, they could handle some money.

But Cecile’s greed was not satisfied with that.

She thought of dozens of ways to make money with that money.

Among them was gambling.

Didn’t people say life is one big gamble?

She could not abandon the dream that a single chance could take her back to how things used to be.

So she took Derrick’s hand.

“Anyway, you’re saying that girl has to be there! I’m telling you, I’ll catch her and bring her back. I need money to buy a train ticket.”

Cecile carefully omitted any mention of Baron Benjamin.

There was no need to bring that up.

That was the price for selling her daughter.

It was profit she could gain even without Derrick.

Cecile hid her true intentions and cleared her throat.

“It seems she ran off following a man.”

“…Just like her mother.”

“What?”

“Whoa. I meant she’s pretty, just like her mother.”

Derrick said that and slapped Cecile’s rear.

It was quite a vulgar gesture, but Cecile accepted it without a care.

Derrick grinned and asked.

“Are you going to stay the night?”

“…I have to take the night train.”

“That sounds like there’s time until then.”

Cecile let out a sigh.

Then she opened both arms.

Cecile pulled Derrick into an embrace, bit his ear, and spoke.

“Give me the money first. At this rate, we’re all going to starve to death.”

“All right, all right. Where did you spend all the money you took? They say you can’t quit gambling even in death.”

“Hmph. Don’t come regretting it when I hit it big.”

Derrick stuffed money into Cecile’s pocket.

It was enough to buy a train ticket and have plenty left over.

Derrick pulled Cecile onto his bed.