Chapter 27
Translator: Latte Editor: Sasha
Months before Ifrit regained his holy power…
Elody’s days were very peaceful because she had finally developed a cure.
‘I found the cure, so all that’s left is… ’
It was time to start preparing for the divorce.
Elody thought of Caville, who would fall in love with the princess.
There was a silence to her soul. Her heart felt… empty.
‘Is this how mothers feel when their children marry…?’
Elody sighed and looked through the newsletters.
“…What is this?”
Elody looked into the newsletter with a serious expression.
The news said that monsters had appeared in hordes near the south-east active volcano.
It was quite far from the Duchy of Cernoir.
‘The articles about monster attacks are gradually increasing… ‘
Elody was deeply troubled by the articles.
It was written that the knights would be dispatched soon, and there would be no casualties.
However, it shouldn’t be simply overlooked as the news about monster attacks had also increased.
‘I need to pay close attention to articles like these… .’
Elody called the butler and instructed him to speak to Sir Therion.
“Please tell him to strengthen the security of the Forest of Death and place more guards.”
“Yes, Madame. I will do it immediately,” Norman said while bowing his head.
As Norman left, Elody continued to drink the herbal tea she made.
“Cough! cough!”
Elody quickly pulled out a handkerchief and covered her mouth.
Then, she immediately ran up the stairs and headed to her room.
She was in a hurry because she didn’t want the servants to misunderstand the situation.
Vomiting blood was a serious medical emergency. This was common sense that even children knew.
‘If I ever get caught, what kind of excuse shall I make?’
She had worried about it for a long time, but she couldn’t come up with the right excuse.
‘I am severely ill, so I have to vomit blood after drinking the remedy to my illness!’
Who would believe her if she said such things?
Elody washed her blood-soaked handkerchief by hand. It was annoying, but she couldn’t help it.
Come to think of it, she couldn’t see the handkerchief from a while ago. She had washed all of her handkerchiefs, but one seemed to be missing.
Unfortunately, Elody couldn’t remember where she had put it.
She was anxious, but soon dismissed the thought and forgot about it completely.
‘Oh well, it’s no big deal.’
However, contrary to Elody’s hopes, all the servants of the mansion had already found out that she was constantly vomiting blood.
This was how the ‘handkerchief’ incident took place…
Sylvia, a young maid, was cleaning the Duchess’ bedroom.
Sylvia was a child from one of the orphanages in the Duchy, who had applied for the position of a maid of the mansion to repay Elody’s kindness.
Sylvia was thrilled to have finally met her benefactor.
Elody, whom she’d just met, was a gentle and caring lady.
When she told Elody that she would swear allegiance for life, the Duchess even praised her for being cute.
And that was how her life in the mansion began.
There were times when work was difficult, but all of the servants treated her very kindly.
At first, Sylvia was afraid of Marie, who became the new Head Maid after Julia retired. However, she turned out to be kind-hearted and friendly. She was only strict when she was working.
Sylvia was very pleased with her new life in the mansion.
However, there was something that completely surprised her.
It was how the Duchess treated the maids like they were her own sisters, and of course, she was the closest to Marie.
‘I want to be friends with the Duchess too…’
She was very envious of them.
Sylvia recalled one of her memories, where the Duchess stroked her head. Then, she imagined herself walking in the fields hand in hand with the Duchess.
Sylvia giggled as her imagination ran wild again.
‘Will she treat me like a sister?’
However, Sylvia knew that she lacked skills when compared to the other maids. Furthermore, she repeatedly made mistakes every day.
In order to get closer to the Duchess, Sylvia had to become a more capable maid.
Thus, Sylvia acknowledged her shortcomings and tried even harder.
The only thing she could do to show her gratitude was to work hard.
Hard work will never betray you!
That was her motto.
But one day…
‘What is this?”
While cleaning, Sylvia found something that had fallen under the Duchess’ bed.
Sylvia put her hand under the bed and pulled it out.
“What is… Huh?! What the-?!”
Sylvia was so shocked that she stumbled and fell to the floor.
It was a bloody handkerchief.
“I… what on earth is this?”
Her thoughts were scattered for a moment; every part of her froze while her mind tried to catch up.
‘Is it maybe… that time of the month?’
Sylvia calmed herself, then threw away the bloody handkerchief.
The next day…
Silvia witnessed Elody vomiting blood.
‘M-Madame is ill!’
Her eyes shifted to Elody again and became glazed with a glossy layer of tears. As she blinked, they dripped from her eyelids and slid down her cheeks.
‘What to do, what to do…’
She saw everything.
That day, Sylvia was cleaning the garden, and nobody else was there except her.
She wasn’t really in charge of cleaning the garden, but she still did it because she wanted to improve herself.
Hard work will never betray you!
So Sylvia was keeping herself busy and doing her best to improve her skills as usual when suddenly, she saw Elody strolling inside the garden and then proceeding to sit on a bench.
“Mada-“
But as Sylvia was about to approach her…
“Cough! Cough!”
“…?!”
Sylvia quickly hid behind a tree and witnessed the heartbreaking scene before her.
She wouldn’t have been so surprised if it was just a normal cough.
However, as Elody took away the handkerchief from her mouth, Sylvia saw that it was dyed with blood.
‘Madame…!’
Sylvia almost screamed. She bit her lip tightly in an attempt to hide any sound that wanted to escape from her mouth; her heart sank.
As soon as Elody stopped coughing, she hid her handkerchief inside her sleeve and went into the mansion.
Sylvia couldn’t stop her tears.
‘Madame must have a deadly disease!’
Sylvia cried and went to the other maids.
“Oh, Sylvia… Why are you crying? Who scolded you?” Tessie asked.
“Did Marie hit you?” Anna probed as she wiped Sylvia’s tears away.
“Big Sister Anna, is vomiting blood dangerous?”
“Oh, isn’t that a sign of a deadly disease?” Anna replied.
“No, no, no…!” Sylvia cried.
“Huh? What do you mean by no…?”
“What are you saying? Spill it out, will you?”
“The Madame… She’s suffering from a serious illness!”
“What?”
And that was how the rumor started.
Sylvia’s sightings quickly began to spread among the servants.
“…The madame is…? No, no… Th-this can’t be…”
“Oh, Marie!”
Marie was so shocked by the news that she even passed out.
“What? The Madame?”
Even Norman had heard about the news. The servants held secret meetings to talk about Elody’s condition.
Two years ago, Elody constantly studied herbs like she was obsessed.
“I guess it’s been since then…”
“What should we do? Oh, the poor Duchess…”
The maids cried at the fact that the sweet, young lady was sick. Norman also wept.
Marie cried to the point that her eyes were swollen. She didn’t want Elody to see her, so she made excuses saying she was sick.
“She seemed so happy these days though… I thought she was fine.”
“Is she really fine?”
“But Sylvia saw it just a few days ago.”
“Oh! What can we do? The madame…!”
They were worried because vomiting blood usually represented something more serious and required immediate medical attention.
Moreover, her symptoms had definitely worsened, her state didn’t look like that of a recovering patient.
“Everybody listen. Do not give off any signs of suspicion to the Madame.” Norman ordered.
The servants nodded while weeping tears.
The Duke’s mansion was engulfed in a gloomy atmosphere.
Then, time passed… and Elody still didn’t know about the grave misunderstandings that sprouted in the mansion.
* * *
Caville glared at the woman in front of him, giving her a suspicious look.
The woman who had opened the mysterious gate introduced herself as Princess Larissa of the Dayev Empire.
Caville was suspicious of her words.
A gate suddenly appeared before his eyes, and what came from it were two Urta soldiers and this dubious woman. Caville was skeptical about the motives of the intruder.
The knights took Larissa into the tent and Caville ordered the knights to interrogate her.
* * *
After hearing all the explanations from Larissa, Brien asked her with a serious look.
“How were you able to summon the gate?”
Summoning a gate was rare ancient magic that existed only in legends.
“This artifact saved me… This bracelet is a memento from my parents.” Larissa spoke.
She showed Brien the thin bracelet she had in her hand, it was indeed an artifact filled with ancient power.
Artifacts were artificially created by mages to contain simple magic. However, the older the artifacts, the more mysterious the ancient magic persists.
However, artifacts were no longer useful once they had been used.
“Uh… mother…” Larissa sobbed.
The bracelets had been used and they no longer had any value.
However, the treasure was still precious to her.
“……”
The knights looked at the weeping princess with sad eyes.
She was trapped in prison for a long time, and her clothes had become shabby, but she was still utterly beautiful.
TL Note: Hello guys, I have a few things I’d like to say. Please do not read the spoilers of this novel! Stories can give you much more than what you expect, and I don’t want the spoilers to ruin that. So once again, please do not write any more spoilers in the comments because it takes away the anticipation and pleasure of the novel. That’s all I wanted to say. I thank you all for reading and for giving us your support.
See you in the ~
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