Chapter 27
Faced with the question directed at her and the incomparably beautiful smile before her, Venya felt an emotion difficult to describe.
In contrast to her elegant and beautiful appearance, as though touched by God’s hand and as though blessed by an angel, the pitch-black and enormous desire surging inside the noble lady choked off Venya’s breath.
Blue veins rose on the back of her hand as she gripped the towel. Her palm was already drenched in cold sweat.
“Are you planning to… deceive His Highness again?”
After a long silence, Venya asked.
The voice that flowed out was dry and rough. Her face was dry, without a single trace of vitality.
“How long am I supposed to… How long am I supposed to deceive His Highness and help you, Miss? Just how long…”
After murmuring out what was inside her heart, she quietly lowered her head. Her gaze fell on her knees, which were kneeling in front of the bathtub to attend Giselle.
The black and white maid uniform that proved she was a maid of the Vellasi household wrapped around her body, even though she belonged to Grand Duke Barietsch.
Her hand gripping the towel trembled like an aspen tree.
The emptiness and guilt of having acted as a double agent for more than half a year, telling lies as easily as eating meals, surged over her like a wave.
Seeing her like that, Giselle let out a small sigh, as though she found her pitiful.
“Oh, dear.”
Then she reached her hand out of the bathtub and laid it over the back of Venya’s hand.
The hand that had been submerged in warm bathwater until just now was unpleasantly hot and wet.
“Venya.”
Giselle called her name in an affectionate voice. But Venya did not lift her head.
“You’re thinking about this the wrong way. You’re not deceiving His Highness and helping me.”
“……”
“You’re making an effort so that His Highness and I can be joined by love.”
“……”
If the earlier silence had contained a slight question, this silence was mixed with deep disappointment and disgust toward the other person.
Even so, Giselle continued speaking calmly while looking straight into Venya’s eyes.
“I told you before, didn’t I? That I love His Highness very much. That I love His Highness as much as His Highness loves me. Right now, this is merely the process of that love being connected between us. And now we’re almost there.”
“……”
“So there’s no need for you to feel that paltry guilt that you’re deceiving His Highness. Once everything is over, both His Highness and I will be able to have what we want. Then both of us will become wholly happy. What’s bad about that? Isn’t it good instead?”
As if she were someone who wanted confirmation, Giselle asked again. Venya remained silent this time as well. She merely looked across at Giselle as though looking at something unfamiliar and dangerous.
“…Can’t it just.”
After a long while like that, Venya finally spoke.
“Can’t it just be resolved by you confessing to His Highness that you love him, Miss?”
“……”
“His Highness cherishes and loves you very much, Miss, so if you simply say that, he’ll be happy at once and accept your confession. Then isn’t that love completely fulfilled? Without needing to take such a roundabout way, one confession would settle everything.”
At Venya’s rebuttal, Giselle’s blue eyes sank coldly for an instant. At the same time, the wet hand stroking the back of Venya’s hand gripped it suddenly.
At the pressure she felt from Giselle, Venya inhaled without realizing it. Her heart tightened as though wrapped in chains. Cold sweat slid down the nape of her neck, exposed by her tightly tied hair.
Giselle’s gaze rested fixedly on her. At last, Giselle slowly opened her mouth.
“Venya, I don’t want some ordinary love where we love each other and confirm our feelings through a confession. I want a very special love. For that to happen, I must become His Highness’s.”
“……”
“I’m sure I told you something similar before. Have you already forgotten what happened that day?”
When the words ‘that day’ flowed from Giselle’s mouth, Venya’s pupils shook for an instant.
The incident that had happened in the past, on ‘that day,’ flooded into her mind like a tide.
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