Give Me Back My Glass Shoe - Chapter 21 - III.

Hello everyone! there are changes in the chapter numbering, I had edited it to the correct arrangement as there was confusion in the chapter count. Apologies and enjoy the translation!

Viscount Mullier hired and sent a more skilled person, but there was still no news. Their honor was in tatters, and money was being spent left and right—it was the worst situation.
“To think such a scoundrel is still living openly in the world… all justice in the world must be dead.”
Marius was furious. Aniella glanced at him and then let out an exaggerated sigh, loud enough for him to hear.
“There’s no proper income coming in, so the household is struggling. If you were to hire me as your assistant, I think my sister would be very pleased…”
Aniella said, cautiously testing the waters. Even though she had been rejected once, it seemed he had feelings for Holly, so she hoped that by dropping her name, he might change his mind.

Upon hearing that, the man, who had been more heated up than even her family, abruptly regained his cold rationality. Hiring Aniella as an assistant would naturally help Holly as well. While that was a good thing, he hesitated to rashly take on someone who wasn’t a magician as an assistant.
“I can give you work, but since you’re not a magician, I can’t pay you the full amount.”
After some deliberation, Marius made his decision. Having finally secured a job, Aniella gave her brightest smile of the day. She was thrilled by the thought that she, too, could now financially contribute to the household alongside Claudie, who worked as a journalist.

It felt like a ship that had been unable to set sail had finally departed to sea. She needed to share this joyful news with her family as soon as possible.

But when Aniella returned home with buoyant steps, what she heard was neither congratulations nor concern, but the news that her father’s third business had completely failed.

Aniella realized that the ship which had finally set sail had, in fact, stopped again not far out, stranded in the middle of the ocean.

`III.`

Lying on the deck of the motionless ship, Aniella groaned under the scorching heat of the blazing sun. She desperately wanted to move to a shaded spot, but as if pinned down by sleep paralysis, she couldn’t move a single finger. All she could do was squeeze her eyes shut tightly to escape the blinding sun.

A drop of water fell onto Aniella’s forehead, above her nose, which was dripping with sweat. It was strange for it to rain on such a fine day. When she opened her eyes and looked up at the sky, she was startled. An enormous tornado was right in front of her.

“Kyaaaaaa!”

As the tornado tried to swallow the ship whole, Aniella screamed and her eyes shot open. Gasping for breath, she looked around, but the tornado was nowhere to be seen.

All that was visible was the sunlight streaming through the window and her own breathing in the deathly quiet bedroom. Only then did she remember that she was not in the middle of the ocean but in Paiki’s mansion. It had been a frightening nightmare.

Aniella sat up, wiping the sweat from her brow with her hand. It felt like she had slept long enough to have such a nightmare, yet outside it was still a sunny day. Was it just the feeling of having slept deeply and long? That wasn’t it.

Here, the concept of time was ambiguous. There was no clock on the wall, and no matter how long she waited, night never came. Aniella was gradually realizing the truth of Paiki’s words that this was a ‘house I made’.

This was a different world. A world where, according to Paiki’s will, day could be turned into night, and even the positions of the moon and stars could be changed.

Because of this, Aniella couldn’t even tell what day it was. She could only guess how many days had passed based on the man who seemed to visit roughly once a day.

Click.

The sound of the door opening. It seemed he had arrived. Aniella hurriedly turned onto her side and closed her eyes.