Episode 7
I felt a mischievous pleasure at Marie’s appearance and released my hand as if tearing her lips.
Marie covered her swollen lips with her hand and let out groaning sounds. Her roughly heaving shoulders indicated that she was swallowing her sobs.
“Tell me.”
“Y, Yonel. Yonel told me.”
Marie gasped for breath and barely answered.
“Who is that child? What is she in charge of?”
“She serves Miss Roena.”
“Oh, really? I see. A maid serving Roena……. You must be quite intimate enough to urgently share such news?”
“Yes. We, we’re close.”
“Is that so? Then, it would be good to maintain that friendship.”
Because I’ll need that child’s help a lot in the future. After finishing my words, I smiled brightly and stroked Marie’s cheek.
“Now, shall we talk about Margo and you?”
Then Marie’s lips trembled. Whether due to fear, she couldn’t even meet my gaze.
Talking about the head maid who oversees the maids seems quite unsettling. After all, Margo is currently in charge of the household.
I whispered in a sweet tone as if to soothe her.
“I’m not trying to say anything special. I already know that Margo is trying to insult me through other maids including you.”
“No. Really no.”
“Tell me honestly. What is the reason you came to me? What did you want to do by putting me in your hands? I’m telling you to explain the reason for doing something like what happened this morning.”
“Miss, I was wrong. I won’t do it again. I won’t do such things in the future. I swear.”
“Is that saying you can help me? That you can do anything? Even if I do this kind of behavior to you.”
After finishing my words, I traced down her face line with my finger as if overlaying.
And I gently wrapped Marie’s neck. Pitifully, Marie, terrified with fear, couldn’t even breathe properly and just had her eyes wide open.
I applied force to the hand wrapped around her neck. Little by little, slowly, very slowly. Trying to make Marie feel the maximum terror.
“Shh, stay still. Yes, very good.”
Since she was already subdued by my spirit, she couldn’t even dare to resist. She just shed tears and desperately begged me for forgiveness.
“Miss, I was wrong. I won’t do it again. Please spare me. Please.”
However, I ignored her words. Because I need to imprint myself as a fearful existence on Marie. That I, who can kill her at any time, am the master of her life.
So only when her tongue protruded from her suffocated lips did I barely release the hand wrapped around her neck. Looking mockingly at her body wriggling like a worm, soon I stroked her convulsing head due to the hastily inhaled breath and whispered affectionately.
“Cute Marie. Go to Margo right now and tell her. That the stupid miss forgave you after you cried and begged that you were wrong. So ask for more chances, beg that you won’t fail in the future.”
Marie nods. In her tear-filled eyes, there was fear toward Sisse Wischwaltz, that is, me.
Only after seeing that did I finally feel satisfied. So I pulled up the corners of my mouth, smiled, and whispered.
“Yes, that’s how it should be. Then I’ll help so that Margo can’t punish you.”
And to calm her who was frozen stiff with fear, I took off the bracelet I was wearing and gave it to her.
“This is a small compensation for what happened earlier. Can you forget it? No, you must forget. That way we can get along well in the future.”
Marie nods dumbly with a confused expression mixed with fear, sadness, and a bit of joy. What was in her eyes was ‘greed.’
Marie looked at it passionately as if she had forgotten the unfair treatment she received. Her gaze, dazed as if enchanted by the bracelet, was ridiculous. With this, I could be sure that Marie would act according to my instructions.
A while later, a maid came to find me. The woman with red hair who introduced herself as Seril, with a slightly arrogant impression, said she came to me by my adoptive father’s order. I burst into laughter at her very familiar face.
Oh, yes. There’s no way I could forget you. You’re one of the maids loyal to Roena, aren’t you.
Her insolent eyes, full of dissatisfaction, looking straight at me despite being a maid assigned under me. I licked my lips with my tongue and ordered Marie.
“Marie, act as I told you earlier. I have something to discuss with Seril for a moment.”
Whether the punishment had an effect, Marie left the room without complaint.
I smiled satisfied at her appearance and looked at Seril. And to her who was bewildered by the strangely unfolding situation, I smiled as sweetly as possible and whispered lowly.
“Shall we have a conversation then?”
Very simply.
***
The me before returning was a girl who couldn’t hide her wild temper. Should I say the eye of the storm. There were always petty quarrels around, and even I got involved often. The flip side of this was due to my nasty temper that couldn’t endure anger well.
Especially, I couldn’t tolerate gossip about Mother. No, I couldn’t endure it. So if someone seemed about to say a word about Mother, I immediately pounced and turned them into rags. Even if the opponent’s body became tattered and I got hurt.
Insignificant honor wasn’t greater than the immediate grievance. So I bit until blood came out. I didn’t care even if called a crazy bitch. Rather, I boldly shouted, “So what? Got a problem?” So fixing a girl like Seril was nothing.
Isn’t it an undeniable fact that a bit of punishment can be medicine for a dog that doesn’t understand words. I knew this truth early through past experiences.
I glanced at Seril sprawled on the floor and opened the door. Marie, who was standing in front of the door having returned at some point, let out a suppressed scream as soon as our eyes met. Her eyes rolling restlessly as if anxious contained extreme fear.
“You came back faster than I thought. Did Margo listen to you?”
When I asked with a grin, Marie fiercely nodded only with a deathly pale face instead of answering.
I deliberately pretended not to know Marie’s emotions. Instead, I slightly moved my body aside to considerately allow a full view of Seril collapsed in the center of the room.
“She seems unwell. She collapsed like that during the conversation? So you need to check her condition.”
“Me, me?”
Marie swallows and asks back. It seems she doesn’t understand this situation of giving illness and then medicine. Because other noble ladies only punish maids, not treat them.
When I firmly nodded and said “Yes, you have to do it,” a strange light appears on her face. Marie approached Seril hesitantly and looked back several times to check my reaction.
“Check thoroughly. So she can get up by tomorrow at the latest.”
“Tomorrow?”
Marie looked at me as if it was nonsense. Her appearance was so pitiful that even non-existent sympathy was about to arise. I shrugged with a annoyingly bright smile. And answered in a casual voice.
“Yes, tomorrow.”
In fact, Seril’s condition wasn’t very good. Even I couldn’t guarantee she could get up tomorrow. But I’m not the one treating. So what do I care about her circumstances.
“Is it difficult?”
Marie answered in a quiet voice. Her resigned words had a faint sob mixed in. Pitifully, Marie seemed to cry all her lifetime’s tears today because of me.
“No. No, Miss. I can do it.”
“Yes, you should.”
I intended not to let Seril out of my room until she completely submitted to me. Rather than grabbing her every time something happens, it’s more convenient to implant obedience to me deep in her bones in advance.
Well, her absence might be a bit of a problem, but it’s just a minor happening, not big enough for someone to nitpick at me. Who can say anything if I say I need my maid for a few days.
Above all, since Margo, the head maid, will be hunched over watching my adoptive father’s reaction for a few days, no one can interfere with me. So I can safely—entrusting Seril to Marie—leave the room.
After walking through the corridors turning a few times, a familiar room engraved with the count’s crest came into view.
It’s Mother’s room. Like in the past, Mother was staying in the countess’s room. I lightly knocked on the door to announce my visit.
Mother seemed to be enjoying teatime, sitting at the table by the window drinking tea. With Roena.
I narrowed my eyes at her sitting opposite Mother. I couldn’t understand why she was with Mother.
“Mother.”
I scurried to Mother and kissed both her cheeks. And hugged her tightly. It was a petty display of affection.
Mother lightly smiled as if not disliking my childishness and stroked my hair. Normally, she would have scolded lowly saying why a grown girl acts like a lamb, but considering the recent incident, she seems to let it be.
“Are you okay?”
I nodded at Mother’s whispering question and answered energetically.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Compared to before.
In the past, I was always suffering from overwork and lack of sleep. The deep shadows under my eyes due to fatigue were always blackened.
Sleeping a lot 4 hours, little 2 hours.
It was inevitable since it was a time when I could barely catch up to Roena’s heels by desperately splitting time.
Even if my molars cracked from carrying marbles in my mouth all day for elegant pronunciation, even if I cut off the calluses on my heels several times from dance practice. Thanks to that, my body was breaking down, but I endured harshly with obsession toward her.
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t surpass Roena. Rather, it only left physical aftereffects. Vomiting blood several times from unbalanced life, eventually my body didn’t accept food, becoming a state where I couldn’t even swallow a spoonful of soup.
My body, which was quite plump and well-balanced, dried up like a skeleton. My face was becoming a mess due to fatigue, but there was no way to handle it.
I had to satisfy myself by mixing pearl powder with water and flour and applying it to my skin since makeup didn’t work. To the extent that someone pointed at me and called me a walking ghost, that’s how broken my body was.
Nevertheless, I didn’t give up. Until I realized the reality given to me, until I was toyed by that damned fate and finally prostrated at his feet in surrender, I never let go of the mind to overtake Roena even for a moment.
Words of wanting to quit rose to the tip of my throat, but I always held back. Endured and endured again. I whipped myself imagining that a sweet future would come someday. Believing that there would be a day to escape Roena’s shadow and be seen fully as myself.
So compared to then, now is nothing. I haven’t even started yet, so what to struggle about.
At my words, Mother lets out a sigh of relief. She kisses my eye area and speaks in a soft voice.
“Yes, good. Child, would you like a cup of tea too?”
“Yes.”
I sat down next to Roena with a beaming smile. A maid quickly brings my share of teacup.
