Chapter 110. Forgiveness for the Previous Rudeness
“Madame Charlotte…… sent for me?”
Deborah’s expression as she asked back was extremely puzzled.
Not only the sudden appearance of the woman, but more than that, the words from her mouth were too strange.
The very person who conveyed the duke’s order to stay in the attic all day without coming out was Madame Charlotte.
Yet she was calling for her now, and at this hour when the banquet hadn’t even ended yet.
It was naturally suspicious.
Perhaps feeling the staring gaze, the next voice carried thick embarrassment.
“Y-Yes. She said to come to the smoking room right now.”
“……The smoking room?”
It was getting stranger.
The smoking room, of all places.
It was odd enough that Madame Charlotte supposedly wanted to see her in the smoking room, but the reason Deborah was so startled was because the smoking room was quite close to the dining room where the banquet was being held.
If by any chance she ran into Count Reister—
Just thinking about it made her fingertips turn cold instantly.
Biting her lips tightly once, Deborah looked at the woman before her again.
“Did Madame Charlotte really…… say to meet her in the smoking room?”
At the calm repeat of the question, the woman’s expression immediately twisted fiercely.
“No, how many times do I have to say it?!”
“…….”
Whether upset at being doubted or because she felt guilty about something, the woman shouted loudly enough to echo through the hallway.
“Anyway, I delivered the message, so go or not, do as you please!”
Snapping those words, the woman turned her body as if she had said all she needed.
Watching the woman’s back disappear into the darkness, Deborah stood there blankly for a long while.
After hesitating over what to do, Deborah eventually left the attic and headed to the first floor.
The stranger’s words were highly suspicious, but no matter how much she thought, there was no reason for it.
They had only passed each other occasionally, never even exchanged words—what reason would she have to lie like that.
And on this busy day, deliberately climbing up to the third-floor attic.
It’s just overthinking, something urgent must have come up for Madame Charlotte to send such a message—
Deborah shook off all remaining doubts and hurried her steps.
The fortunate part was that from the direction she was moving, she didn’t have to pass the dining room to reach the smoking room.
As she approached the smoking room, the buzzing sounds grew closer.
People’s voices.
Though the distance was considerable, so she couldn’t tell exactly what was said, it was sound indicating the banquet hadn’t ended yet.
A strange sense of relief came with the thought that it was fortunate.
If the atmosphere was at its peak, the chance of the incident she feared happening would be significantly lower.
Thinking to quickly meet Madame Charlotte and return, her steps quickened further.
After cautiously moving while alert to surroundings, she finally arrived at the smoking room.
Carefully opening the door in case someone was inside, fortunately, no human shadow was visible in the dim interior.
Letting out a long breath, Deborah closed the door and slowly stepped inside.
‘……Has Madame Charlotte not arrived yet?’
She had deliberately sent someone, calling her to this place close to the dining room for something urgent, yet the empty smoking room felt extremely puzzling.
Well, she’ll come soon, thinking that, Deborah slowly looked around the smoking room.
This was a place she had entered once before.
That time too, it was a day like today with a banquet.
The day he invited close friends for dinner together.
When told to bring wine to the smoking room after the banquet, how flustered she had been.
Recalling trembling with tension while standing beside the dining man, a small laugh escaped unknowingly thinking there had been such times.
She hadn’t dared imagine moments like now would come.
Click.
Lost in such thoughts, a sound suddenly reached her ears.
The sound of the door opening.
Deborah’s gaze naturally moved that way.
She thought the person opening the smoking room door and entering was obviously Madame Charlotte.
So she thoughtlessly took one step forward.
“…….”
But soon Deborah’s body stiffened completely.
No, her feet unknowingly began retreating step by step.
‘……Why…… is he here?’
As the person slowly entering came into view, Deborah’s breathing grew increasingly rapid.
In contrast, a strange glee seeped into the face of the person who opened the smoking room door—Count Reister.
Confirming Deborah a few steps away after slowly taking one step at a time, he grinned, revealing yellow teeth.
“It was true.”
I wondered if it might be—at the count’s low added words, they didn’t reach Deborah’s ears.
Deborah’s mind was now entirely chaotic with thoughts of why this man had entered the smoking room.
Though thinking Madame Charlotte would come soon, her heart pounded madly.
As horrific memories of that day with the opponent resurfaced, her entire body began trembling like an aspen.
In that instant, the count’s body moved one step forward.
“I thought what it meant to want forgiveness for the previous rudeness at first.”
“…….”
“You were so stiff back then.”
“…….”
“Seems your mind changed in the meantime.”
Muttering incomprehensible words, as the opponent approached one step at a time, Deborah retreated the same distance, stepping back hesitantly.
Only then did the repulsive smile on Count Reister’s face gradually disappear.
“……What’s this now? You said you wanted forgiveness.”
At the ominously changed voice of the count, Deborah finally slowly opened her mouth.
“I don’t understand…… what you’re saying.”
“What?”
Clenching her fists tightly at the count’s face crumpling fiercely, Deborah continued.
“I…… never said such a thing.”
Forgiveness—what she felt was wanting to spit in his face if possible.
To the beast-like man who tried to do such horrific things to her—forgiveness.
It was nonsense.
The strong smell of alcohol wafting, staggering body. Slurred speech.
The circumstances suggesting he was already heavily drunk made her heart even more uneasy.
Glancing past the count’s back, the open door remained as is.
‘When on earth is Madame Charlotte coming?’
‘Surely, she’s not not coming?’
‘No, what if that maid lied?’
As such questions surged like waves in her mind, suddenly a force grabbed her arm, and Deborah’s body stiffened with a flinch.
“You never said such a thing?!”
“W-Why are you, l-let go, let go of this hand!”
Just like that time, the count roared madly with a demonic face.
Startled by the sudden change, Deborah struggled desperately to pull her captured hand free, but it only fueled the count’s excitement further.
“You never said it! Then what! Are you saying you dared to toy with me?!”
“I didn’t—”
“This insolent wench, to the end!!”
With a face flushed red, the count bellowed.
In an instant, roughly grabbing Deborah’s hair with one hand, the count raised the other high above.
Slap-!
It happened so fast there was no time to react.
From the brutal force of the man striking with all his might, her head rang in an instant, and her ears went deaf.
Unable to escape even if she tried, with her hair gripped.
Just blankly watching the descending hand again and tightly closing her eyes at that moment.
Bang-!
At the sudden loud sound, not only Deborah but the count with his hand raised high flinched as well.
Both their gazes moved simultaneously to the door where the sound came from.
Looking back, there were not one but several faces.
A noble lady with a face flushed red and blue in fury, and a black-haired man she had never seen.
The faces visible behind were some she knew and some she didn’t.
But that wasn’t important now.
Deborah’s gaze was fixed on the faces looking this way in shock, particularly the man standing at the very front.
Raymond von Cheister.
Even from the distance, she could tell his clenched jaw was twitching faintly.
An expression hardened terrifyingly stiff.
Seeing that face, moments similar to this long ago flashed quickly through Deborah’s mind.
An unpleasant incident occurring again at a gathering with guests, and on the day of the banquet welcoming the crown prince…….
Biting her burst red lips tightly, an indescribable devastation soon deeply stained Deborah’s face.
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