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     Life in Roland was that horrible. However, she didn’t know where Sarah had been sold. Being merely a bedchamber maid, she could only know that a prostitute named Sarah was no longer staying in Roland. That was 8 years ago. 8 years…… Not a short time.

     Ella stared at her foster mother. Though it wasn’t a dream, it didn’t feel real, like meeting someone in a dream. No matter how she thought about it, there was no reason for Sarah to be in San Parvale. It was all the more so because she hadn’t heard anything about maids being reinforced recently.

     Sarah’s hand grabbed Ella’s arm. She seemed to be trying to lift her dazed foster daughter. Ella rose unsteadily and held both of Sarah’s cheeks. Sarah wasn’t surprised by the outstretched hands. Rather, her eyes were filled with emotion. It seemed tears would soon flow from her reddening eyes.

     “Ella. Ella……”

     A small spasm ran through her foster mother’s lips. Ella silently wiped the woman’s moistening eyes and embraced her. After burying her face, she rubbed her thin joints as if searching through them, and Sarah responded by rubbing Ella’s back and shoulders with the same touch.

     “Why are you here? How much, how much I looked for you……”

     Sarah wasn’t the mother who gave birth to her. Still, a mother is a mother. Because she raised her like a mother. Because she always thought about Ella’s life and future. Because with those small hands, she washed, fed, and clothed Ella thoroughly. There was no reason for her to cherish and love a child she hadn’t given birth to so dearly. And yet……

     “Sarah……”

     “Here, you shouldn’t be here.”

     Sarah, who had been embracing her back, pushed Ella away. Ella, who had been lost in old memories and hadn’t come to her senses, looked at her in surprise. Her wet eyes were urgent. The way she kept looking around nervously was strange.

     “What’s wrong?”

     “It’s, it’s……”

     Suddenly, she saw a maid walking from afar. Sarah trembled and tried to hide somewhere. She wanted to ask why, but first, it seemed she needed to hide her. Ella pushed Sarah behind her back and then pushed her into a warehouse not a few steps away. Fortunately, the maid didn’t enter the warehouse.

     When the footsteps faded away, Ella locked the door. She couldn’t leave Larque’s side for long. However, Sarah was more important than that.

     “What’s wrong?”

     She looked into her drying wet eyes. Looking again, Sarah was much thinner than before. Moreover, her appearance was somehow strange. The clothes she had stolen were the uniforms of San Parvale’s maids. Even that was a mess as she hadn’t worn it properly. Was she running away? Was the duke’s castle not her original destination? Ella stared at her with a hardened face. Sarah burst into tears again. Those weren’t tears for reunion.

     *** 

     “She’s taking a long time.”

     Clementina murmured as if whispering. The duke had stopped eating. Clementina had also put down her knife long ago. Since his beautiful servant girl had left her seat, he hadn’t eaten or drunk anything. Yet he wasn’t formally mentioning the marriage either. What was he scheming? He was a man whose inner thoughts couldn’t be gauged. Clementina looked at him with an uncomfortable face. He moistened his lips slightly with wine and then looked at her. His straight gaze that tightened around her neck was close to a noose.

     “The lady seems to have a lot of interest in my servant girl.”

     It was a twisted tone. He didn’t seem to have any intention of hiding his displeasure. Clementina, at a loss for words, could only blink. Interest…… She wanted to say that wasn’t the case, but in fact, the inner thoughts of hers that the man had penetrated were true, so it was difficult to deny.

     “Do you dislike it?”

     “What do you think?”

     The counter-question was disconcerting. Unable to think of a retort, she repeatedly closed and opened her lips.

     “Wouldn’t it be good for Your Highness if I get along well with your servant girl? Because I won’t disturb your mood with issues regarding your servant girl.”

     How foolish an answer after carefully choosing her words. She regretted it even as she was speaking, but it was something that couldn’t be undone. Clementina awkwardly smiled while rubbing her reddened cheeks with the back of her hand. The duke merely gave a short sneer as if he had seen a ridiculous woman.

     “Why, why are you laughing?”

     Was she getting tipsy? Her mouth spoke on its own again when she could have just pretended not to see it. The awkward smile disappeared from her face. The duke, who had been smiling, also erased his smile.

     “It seems the inability to mind one’s place is hereditary in the Mertel family.”

     “What……”

     “There’s no need to teach someone who’s too stupid to understand.”

     “Your Highness. I think your words are too harsh.”

     Clementina glared at the man with a completely hardened face. The duke with his smile erased was surprisingly cold and at the same time inhuman. But she couldn’t back down. It wasn’t simply a matter of her own face.

     “Let’s set the wedding ceremony three months from now. Count Mertel will agree as well.”

     “Your Highness, I’m now……”

     “Lady.”

     The man rose from his seat. His merciless gaze fell vertically. Clementina also stood up and waited for his words. Her heart beat as if it would burst.

     “You have no rights.”

     “……”

     “Not even the right to be jealous of my woman. No, not even the right to look at that woman……”

     The man looked at the empty seat with languid eyes. Come to think of it, the seat where his servant girl had sat was the seat of honor. The seat that should rightfully be occupied by his wife…… Clementina swallowed her rising anger and glared at him. Even if her eyes were gouged out, she couldn’t suppress her anger at the moment.

     “I didn’t give it.”

     Suddenly, a sharp sneer like a cold draft settled on his white face. Clementina, who had been trembling, dropped a tear at his subsequent murmur. Her ears were deafened by what she had heard.

     A slender figure like a flower seed was approaching from the opposite side of the corridor. The light pink dress made from the finest satin in the south was an expensive dress that was hard to find even in the capital. And such a dress, in the duke’s castle, could be owned by only one person. Only one person.

     Larque looked at the woman who had stopped abruptly. The woman who had discovered him neither came closer nor moved away. The cool breeze of a summer night swept past them. Larque slowly took a step. The woman was still standing still.

     “What about the lady?”

     “……Where have you been?”

     Her closed lips were as vivid red as a fully bloomed crape myrtle. She lightly clenched and unclenched her fist. The woman he faced up close had a frighteningly colorless face. Just a few days ago, it had been a smiling face due to the festival.

     “I asked where you’ve been.”

     “……I just went out for some fresh air. Why is the lady here?”

     “……”

     “Aren’t you going back in?”

     “How curious.”

     Ella didn’t respond. She threw her gaze, which had been fixed on him, to the garden with blurred outlines. Suddenly, her shoulder ached as if it would dislocate. It was a strong force, but Ella stubbornly kept her mouth shut.

     “If that wench were a man, I’d think you were having an affair.”

     “……”

     “Are you pretending to be composed or are you trying to provoke my temper?”

    “I don’t know what you mean.”

     “Ella.”

     “Didn’t I already explain this afternoon? I hate it. Master.”

     “……”

     “But you don’t listen to my opinions. You don’t care if I’m in pain. I told you I hate it. Already, already…! While knowing everything!”

     She straightened her gaze that had been thrown beyond the corridor. Her agitated expression and breathing were completely disheveled. Ella grabbed her puffed skirt hem and took deep breaths. She couldn’t understand this man. A man she had lived with for half her life. From childhood until now. Until her child was born, Ella had only this one man.

     Joy and sorrow, worry and fear. It was solely him who had dominated Ella’s reason and emotions. So she thought she knew him well enough. How heartless and how indifferent he was. But…… now she wasn’t sure.

     “What should I do?”

     She was disgusted. She didn’t want to accept him anymore. Every moment was overwhelming, every moment was a strenuous love. She raised her head and looked at him quietly. A face she had loved so deeply. A man who would remain vertical even at the end, loved so deeply that it hurt. She knew that even if she came to hate and despise him more than now, she wouldn’t be able to forget him. Ella knew she would never let him go. But……

     “Leave me alone. Just, just leave me alone.”

     This is goodbye, Larque.

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