Chapter052. What are you doing?
Monday afternoon.
It was a drowsy time when it was hard to shake off the overwhelming sleepiness.
Deborah’s face, as she just finished cleaning one guest room and came out, was also full of drowsiness.
‘Get a grip.’
Deborah forcefully opened her slowly closing eyes once and took a step forward.
Just as she stopped in front of the next room and was about to pull the handle.
Suddenly, a loud footsteps echoed from above the hallway.
It didn’t seem like one person’s, the sound was very urgent, and Deborah’s gaze naturally turned to the end of the left hallway.
After staring for a while, finally, the figure of the person coming up the stairs was captured in her view.
Ludmilla.
She, who was looking around as if searching for something, discovered Deborah standing there and immediately distorted her expression in an instant.
……Why?
Without even time to think, a sharp shout immediately poured out from the opponent’s mouth.
“You!”
Deborah involuntarily stepped back at the sight of Ludmilla approaching quickly with a face like a demon.
It was an unconscious action.
The moment Ludmila, who closed the distance in an instant, finally came right in front of her nose, her hair was fiercely grabbed without even time to defend.
“Ah!”
A short groan burst out from Deborah’s mouth at the extreme pain as if her hair was being pulled out entirely.
It was something that happened too suddenly.
Of course, similar situations had happened several times, but this was the first time it happened without any warning, truly without knowing the reason.
“Wai, let go of this hand, ugh, why are you…… Ahh!”
“You rat-like bitch! You beggar-like thing!”
She tried her best to shake off the hand grabbing and shaking her hair, but the gripping hand was so vicious that it didn’t budge.
“You, is it true that you received a begonia from Robin yesterday?”
At the grinding shout, she could finally vaguely guess the reason for this absurd incident.
She didn’t think for a moment about how that story leaked out.
No, it was right to say she couldn’t.
Because Ludmilla, noticing the suddenly quiet reaction, suddenly let out a scream!! and grabbed and shook her hair even harder.
“You whore-like thing, flirting with this man and that man- finally even Robin! You dirty rag!!”
“Wait, let go of this hand…… Ah!”
She could no longer endure the curses and insults that were too vile to utter, as well as the actions like a madwoman.
For a moment, anger surged up wondering why she had to endure such unfounded criticism.
That anger was soon expressed with explosive force.
“Ugh! This hand…… Please, let go!”
Deborah shook off the hand holding her hair and fiercely pushed the opponent’s body in front of her.
Ludmilla’s body, in a defenseless state from the sudden attack, rolled straight onto the floor.
Ugh, Ludmilla couldn’t get up right away due to the impact of hitting the hard floor and let out a groan.
“That……”
Ludmila, who barely raised her upper body, rubbed her aching elbow and glared at Deborah as if to kill her.
“You, just now…… dared to hit me?!”
Looking at the face twitching with indignation, Deborah calmly opened her mouth.
“The one who used violence first wasn’t me, but you, Ludmilla.”
“What?!”
“Why are you suddenly like this…… I can guess, but still, I haven’t done anything wrong enough to be slandered by you like this.”
“Haven’t done…… anything wrong?”
As if there was a huge flame inside, Ludmila’s face turned red and blue.
To the extent that there was no one in Elfengrin who didn’t know how much she liked Robin and how long she had liked him.
How yesterday’s incident was exaggerated and reached her ears, and how Ludmila must have felt hearing that.
Even if she couldn’t understand everything, Deborah also knew too well how lonely and desolate an unrequited heart is.
Because she herself had felt similar emotions not long ago.
But, no matter what, what was wrong was wrong.
Yesterday’s incident was something Deborah hadn’t noticed at all, and even if she had known, it wasn’t a reason to be treated like this.
Deborah took a deep breath and slowly nodded.
“Yes, I haven’t done anything wrong.”
For a moment, a very strange silence flowed as if time had stopped.
It wasn’t a silence that came naturally from the conversation breaking off, but rather something like a precarious tension right before an explosion.
That taut tension was broken when Ludmila slowly got up from her seat.
Looking at the opponent’s eyes burning like a red sunset, Deborah thought.
‘Ah, the end of today will be messy again.’
That’s what she thought.
* * *
“Then, how many attendants will be coming with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?”
Lady Charlotte asked as she followed Raymond ascending the stairs.
Just a moment ago, she had greeted the returning master in the entrance hall and heard an astonishing story.
That in about a month, the Crown Prince plans to visit Elfengrin, so prepare accordingly.
It was the first time Elfengrin had hosted a royal family member, except for a few years ago when Raymond officially inherited the dukedom.
Although a preparation period of a month was given, there must be more than one or two things to take care of.
Perhaps reading the worry and anxiety in that voice, a light laugh came from Raymond, who was ascending ahead.
“No need to be so tense. He’s the type who hates ostentation, so the number of people coming will be small.”
“…….”
Of course, the duke who has been close friends with the Crown Prince since childhood can say that, but how can the subordinates do the same.
“……Yes, I-”
Will prepare thoroughly without any issues, Lady Charlotte, who let out a faint sigh, was about to reply like that.
Suddenly, at the sound coming from somewhere, the duke walking ahead, and Lady Charlotte and Robin following behind, all stopped at the same time.
“What is…… this sound?”
The one who spoke first was Robin.
But somehow, there was no response.
Lady Charlotte scanning the top of the stairs with a completely stiff face, and the duke’s broad back whose expression was utterly unreadable.
The puzzled Robin tilted his head.
‘……Uh, this voice.’
Just as he thought that the voice faintly heard in between sounded very much like someone he knew.
Suddenly, the shadow blocking his view disappeared from in front of his eyes.
“Uh, uh? Where are you goin- Your Grace!”
Raymond, who had been standing in front, quickly leaped up several stairs and disappeared from view.
Robin and Lady Charlotte looked at each other with bewildered faces, then quickly followed behind.
* * *
“You vicious bitch! Look at her not even making a sound!”
“This kind of girl needs to be properly trampled this time so she never thinks of men again!”
Thud, thud-!
Despite the merciless kicks flying from everywhere, Deborah hadn’t moved from below since earlier.
Like a corpse, curled up tightly for a while.
At first, she struggled to escape in her own way.
‘What are you staring at blankly?! Step on her!’
When Ludmila, who had lost her reason, screamed at the two people standing behind with bloodshot eyes, the two who had been watching until then rushed at Deborah as if they had been waiting.
One person might be manageable, but it was hard for Deborah alone to fend off three.
They pressed her down when she tried to stand, and knocked her down again when she tried to stand once more.
Finally, when Deborah, exhausted, gave up standing, that’s when the merciless kicking started.
It was too harsh to endure the assault from Ludmila, full of malice, and the two others joining in, all alone.
Even in the orphanage, she had been surrounded and beaten like this, but this was the first time as an adult, making her heart even more miserable and desolate.
And above all-
Her body aching everywhere was one thing, but it was hard to endure the nauseating smell of blood rising every time she breathed, probably from being hit wrong somewhere.
“You dirty bitch! How dare you eye Robin?!”
Thud-!
“I’ve been annoyed with this bitch since the first time I saw her. Looking down on people with that pretty face-! But you’re just an orphan bitch anyway?! You don’t know your place!”
Thud-! Thud-!
Ah…… Did she get hit wrong again? She felt something hot trickling down from inside her nose.
‘The clothes, what if they get dirty…….’
Even in this situation, thinking that, she must have let out a laugh unconsciously because it was absurd.
Ludmila, who saw that like a ghost, stopped kicking and panted with an even more demonic face.
“This thing, just now…… laughed?!”
Ludmilla, screaming as if she had lost her mind, roughly grabbed Deborah’s hair, who was lying motionless on the floor, with both hands.
The moment the hand gripping the hair flashed up again, Deborah instinctively closed her eyes tightly.
Biting her lips hard, waiting for the horrific pain that would soon crash down on her head, but strangely, even after a while, nothing happened.
Wondering what on earth was going on, just as she was about to open her eyes in puzzlement,
“This is- what are you doing right now.”
A coldly dropped low voice.
Thump- Deborah’s heart plummeted rapidly down a thousand-foot cliff.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
By Anna 💓
