Chapter 26
translator’s note: The author deliberately goes back and forth between past and present, so it does get jarring sometimes whenever the shifts happen because they’re seemingly disjointed. It takes a couple of paragraphs or more to reorient yourself, but it’ll make sense in the end!
III.
Knock, knock.
At the sudden sound of knocking, Giselle, who had been sitting in the bathtub and recalling memories from long ago, woke from her thoughts and lifted her head.
Her gaze naturally turned toward the door. At the same time, as though it had been waiting, a voice came from beyond the door.
“It’s Venya, Miss Giselle. I heard you were looking for me. May I come in?”
“…Come in.”
Giselle, who had composed her unguarded expression, answered calmly.
Soon, along with the sound of the doorknob turning, the maid Venya appeared, her black hair tied tightly into a ponytail.
“Did you call for me, Miss?”
With practiced movements, Venya lowered her eyes and bowed respectfully.
As soon as Giselle received her greeting, she told her what she needed.
“I’m sorry when you must be busy. But I called because I really wanted you to attend me in the bath. It seems the other maids are uncomfortable looking at my body.”
“……”
Venya keenly caught the meaning behind Giselle’s words.
Giselle always called for her after Grand Duke Barietsch had visited. The fact that Giselle had called her meant that her body was now in a state so dreadful that the other maids couldn’t bear it.
“Would it be alright for me to ask?”
“Of course, Miss. I’ll help you bathe.”
When Giselle asked carefully, Venya answered in a businesslike tone. Then she immediately strode toward the bathtub.
Soon after, Venya familiarly rolled up her sleeves, took a rough towel in her hand, and lifted her head. At that moment.
“……”
Without realizing it, she faltered in place and inhaled. Giselle’s body, submerged in the hot bathwater, was in a far worse state than usual.
Giselle’s pure and fair body, which should have been clean without a single wound, was covered in bite marks and unidentifiable red traces.
No matter how she looked, there was nowhere intact to be found. The bite marks densely covering her body without a single gap were beyond clamorous, to the point that they were absurd. Some parts of her skin were bluish, as though bruised, and it was clear they had been chewed with considerable force.
Even considering that Grand Duke Barietsch had visited, it was a severe state unlike anything she had seen before.
That terrible sight contrasted with the soft yet deep scent of roses rising from the scented oil Giselle enjoyed using, creating an even more discordant scene.
“What do you think? Now you understand why the other maids cried after seeing my body, don’t you?”
Seeing Venya’s eyes grow more distant the more she examined Giselle’s body, Giselle herself laughed calmly. As if this much was nothing serious.
She hadn’t known, but it seemed one of the maids who had helped prepare the bath before she arrived had burst into tears.
Venya’s expression hardened even more coldly.
“What on earth happened? This is too…”
She had been about to say that it was worse than usual. But before she could, Giselle opened her mouth.
“I don’t know why you’re looking at me with such a serious face. This is all thanks to you helping me, isn’t it?”
Having begun to speak, she calmly met Venya’s ash-blue eyes.
At that moment, Venya’s mouth closed firmly.
“I’m not trying to blame you. Well, there’s no need to blame you either. You’re a person of the Barietsch family, but you always work diligently for me.”
Just as she said, Venya was a spy whom Raven Barietsch had planted into the Vellasi household.
Venya’s eyes glared fiercely at Giselle. But Giselle did not avoid Venya’s eyes. Rather, she even smiled leisurely.
“I’m always grateful to you. For telling me the loopholes in the surveillance network His Highness set loose, and for telling His Highness at just the right timing last night that I had left my bedroom and gone out in the middle of the night, which made him come and do this to me. I’m truly grateful, Venya.”
There was not the slightest lie in Giselle’s words. However, Venya’s stiff expression showed no sign of relaxing.
In truth, Venya was afraid of her praise, her words, and her actions.
In Venya’s eyes, Giselle was someone who wasn’t at all in her right mind. It would even be fair to call her mad. She was simply not normal. From the moment Venya came to the Vellasi mansion as a spy to watch Giselle, she had felt that keenly.
As Venya’s face had gone pale at some point, Giselle pretended not to see it and continued speaking with shameless composure.
“Still, thanks to your help, I’m right on the verge of achieving my goal. Just once. If I provoke His Highness just one more time, I think I’ll be able to get what I want.”
“……”
“But no matter how much I think about it, I can’t come up with a good method. I suppose it’s because I’ve tried quite a lot of methods over the past year. Besides, as you know, His Highness is so thorough that he doesn’t allow the same mistake twice. A method I’ve used once can’t be used again.”
She had been speaking alone, but for a moment, she closed her mouth. Then she gazed steadily at Venya.
For an instant, her blue eyes, vivid enough to seem as though they might pull someone in, curved softly and narrowed. Then her closed, lively pink lips slowly opened once more.
“So, is there no other good way to slip through his surveillance, Venya?”
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