Chapter 29
29
Failed Wish
Leila unconsciously held her breath. Mathias’s face, stripped of its smile in an instant, looked ferociously ruthless.
“I’ll be leaving.”
Lacking the courage to face him, Leila stared down into the teacup before her as she spoke.
“……What?”
“I’ll leave so I won’t dare disrupt Your Grace’s territory anymore.”
“You, where to?”
“Anywhere.”
Leila forced strength into her trembling hands. Don’t be scared. She comforted herself, knowing it was pointless.
“There are other places in this world for me to stay besides Arbis.”
She bristled with sharp thorns equal to the insult she’d received. It must have seemed too pathetic and ridiculous, for the duke made no reply.
She wanted nothing more than to stand up and leave right then, but the memory of last summer flashed through her mind—the day he’d taken her hat away for refusing to eat what he’d given her and thrown her into the cold river. She couldn’t let herself end up like that again.
Steeling herself, Leila hurriedly drank the still-warm coffee. She barely managed to suppress a cough. Only when the bottom of the cup was revealed could she finally breathe properly.
“Leila.”
The way he called her name was so low it sounded threatening. Leila, now rigid, hurriedly pulled the fare for her tea from her bag and placed it on the edge of the table.
“What’s this?”
Mathias asked with a scoff.
“It’s for the tea I drank.”
Leila answered while still staring at her fingertips.
“Do I look like someone who needs to take tea money from the likes of you?”
“I wouldn’t know, but I don’t want to owe Your Grace for a cup of tea.”
Her hands grew steadily colder until even under her nails they were deathly pale. Still, Leila wanted to make it clear. This wasn’t his world where Leila Llewellyn was a freeloader—Arbis.
“Lift your head.”
“No.”
“Lift your head, Leila.”
“Don’t order me around.”
Leila glared at Mathias with eyes that hid no anger. A surge of reckless courage wiped away her fear.
“I’m not Your Grace’s maid.”
“Maid.”
“I may be staying in Arbis as Uncle Bill’s family and imposing on you all, but that doesn’t make me Your Grace’s maid.”
“Is that so? Then what exactly are you?”
“……Nothing at all.”
Leila’s eyes rimmed faintly red.
“That’s how it’s always been, and it’ll be that way forever.”
Her teary green eyes took him in. And with him in them, she dared to deny him.
Mathias quietly gripped his teacup. Memories resurfaced of the day he’d wanted to strangle Leila Llewellyn. That late summer afternoon when he’d lost his mind over one insignificant woman, rolling in the dirt, feeling as filthy as his disheveled state.
What if he had gone through with it?
It probably wouldn’t have been as bad as now. Not like this, swept up in inexplicable impulses, clinging to a nobody like her.
Mathias picked up the money Leila had left and stood. Then he slowly dropped it onto the lap of Leila, who was still seated.
“Take it.”
Leila’s eyes, looking up at him, reddened further. Staring straight into them, Mathias tossed a few of his own gold coins onto her skirt.
“This too.”
“What…….”
“You should say, ‘Thank you,’ Leila.”
As Mathias smirked, Leila’s eyes grew even clearer.
“You take Claudine’s money like that. With gratitude, politely.”
Leila moved her lips as if to retort, but no sound came out.
“I’ve taken up your time, even though you’re not my maid, so I have to pay you proper compensation.”
Even grinding her teeth, Leila couldn’t hold back her tears in the end.
“If you don’t like that, think of it as pity for a poor orphan.”
Her falling tears looked like gem fragments.
“A guy who says he’ll marry you out of pity because you’re pitiful—and you like him—making a fuss over a few coins with your worthless pride? That’s ridiculous.”
Leila glared at him as if refusing to back down, but her tears filled her eyes and streamed endlessly down her cheeks.
Feeling a sense of relief, Mathias left the café. Leila never smiled in front of him, but she could never hold back her tears either.
If he couldn’t make her smile, making her cry would do. Whether it was smiles or tears, it didn’t matter to Mathias. If all he could give was tears, he’d give tears. If wounds, then wounds. At least then, you wouldn’t be able to think of me as nothing.
Before leaving the café, Mathias turned to look at Leila. She was crying now, her glasses removed and placed on the edge of the table.
As he slowly exited the Natural History Museum, Mathias hoped Leila would marry the doctor’s son as soon as possible and vanish from his world. And yet Mathias also hoped the tears and wounds he’d left her with would last forever.
The sun was already setting, but Leila still hadn’t returned to the hotel.
Kyle, who had gone to the hotel where Leila was staying to have dinner together, left the lobby with a face full of worry. Leila wasn’t a child, but this city was unfamiliar to her. And this unfamiliar city was crawling with bad people.
“Anyway, that little thing has no fear.”
Kyle ran down the street in mounting anxiety. He’d thought she’d surely be at the museum, but it was already closing time when he arrived. Even after searching everywhere, there was no sign of Leila.
Had she gotten lost?
Kyle started running faster.
Or had she run into some bad person?
The horrific thought he didn’t even want to entertain made him want to collapse on the spot. That was when he spotted Leila. She was standing in front of the fountain in the park square at the end of the museum street. Absurdly, she was tossing coins toward the statue in the center of the fountain.
“Leila!”
When he shouted her name, Leila turned.
“Oh, Kyle?”
She looked baffled, as if she were the one who’d made his heart drop.
“What are you doing here?”
Sweeping back his sweat-dampened hair, Kyle approached her.
“Why are you here? What about studying for the exam?”
“Is that the issue right now? You really…… seriously, you…….”
Kyle gripped Leila’s shoulders and panted roughly. His metallic breaths took a long while to calm.
“Are you okay? Want to sit down?”
Leila examined his face with worry-filled eyes.
Who’s worrying about whom right now?
Kyle cupped Leila’s face with his hot hands. A hollow laugh escaped like a sigh. That was when he noticed her eyes were a bit swollen.
“Leila, were you crying?”
“No.”
Her immediate denial confirmed she had.
“Why were you crying?”
“I wasn’t.”
“Who made you cry?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
Leila smiled faintly and gently pushed his hands away.
“I just toured the museum. Took a walk in the park, made a wish.”
“A wish?”
“Yeah. I heard people do it.”
Leila pointed at the fountain. People with bright smiles on their faces were tossing coins into the fountain and making wishes.
“I even wished for you to get into medical school.”
“Looks like you have to put it in there for it to work?”
Kyle pointed at the water jug the statue held and laughed. Sighs followed from those who’d failed to get their coins in.
“Of course I did.”
Leila looked proud.
“I’m really good at this.”
“I’m sure you are, miss.”
“It’s already dinnertime. Hungry? Let’s make one more wish before we go.”
Leila approached the fountain with a glittering gold coin in hand. Kyle followed in surprise.
“Leila! You don’t mean you were throwing gold coins in there just now? You, the thrifty one, into that fountain?”
Instead of answering, Leila tossed the coin with force. But it failed. The gold coin hit the edge of the jug and bounced out. Leila let out a stunned gasp.
“Didn’t you say you were really good at this?”
“Why is this happening? I got all the regular coins in!”
“How many gold coins did you throw in, exactly?”
Kyle burst out laughing again at this utterly un-Leila-like behavior.
“Fine. Since you’re making such a generous donation to Ratz’s fountain today, I’ll toss one too.”
“Throwing coins? Don’t!”
When Kyle pulled out money, Leila turned serious and grabbed his hand.
“It’s a waste!”
“You’re saying that after throwing in how many gold coins?”
“That money was okay to use.”
“There’s money that’s okay to use and money that isn’t?”
“Yes!”
Leila drove the point home firmly.
“Don’t throw it. It’s wasteful. If you’re going to, let’s just buy ice cream with it instead.”
“Now you sound like the real Leila Llewellyn.”
Kyle shrugged and pocketed the coin again.
“Let’s go, Leila.”
Knowing she’d refuse, he tentatively offered his hand anyway. Leila lightly clapped it like a high-five and walked ahead with light steps. Kyle caught up with quick strides.
“What wish did you make?”
“For Uncle Bill to be healthy and happy. For you to get into university and become a great doctor. For me to become a decent adult. Nailed all those.”
“Then the last one?”
“Hm?”
“The one that failed.”
“That’s…….”
Leila’s beaming face suddenly turned serious.
“That’s a secret.”
She shook her head stubbornly and lengthened her stride. Kyle considered pressing but just laughed cheerfully instead.
“Let’s eat something delicious, Leila. I ran around looking for you and I’m starving.”
Dr. Etman sighed as he opened the bedroom door.
When he lit the lamp, he saw his wife lying in bed. She’d been like this ever since Kyle and Leila left for Ratz to take the exam.
“Dinner’s ready, dear. Let’s go.”
“Leave me be.”
Unlike her listless appearance, her voice carried a sharp edge.
“I understand how you feel, but…….”
“No. You don’t understand. The generous and kind Dr. Etman never would.”
She sat up abruptly, her eyes flashing with anger.
“You liked Leila too.”
“Yes, I know. Leila’s a good girl. If it weren’t for you and Kyle, I could like her forever.”
“Her marrying Kyle doesn’t change that, dear. It’s just our son marrying the good girl he truly loves.”
“You might think I’m an irredeemable snob, but marriage is reality. You’re allowing our son to marry beneath his station!”
“The world is changing, dear. Station will soon be an outdated value.”
“No. Never.”
Mrs. Etman gathered her loose hair and neatly pinned it up. Stepping out of bed to face her husband, her face held a strength unbecoming of someone who’d barely eaten for days.
“In a world where people live, station will never disappear forever. If titles vanish, something else will divide people by station.”
“Dear.”
“And no matter what that measure becomes, the fact that Leila doesn’t match our Kyle will never change.”
With those cold words, Mrs. Etman brushed past her husband.
Dr. Etman, watching his wife head to the garden, gave a faint smile to the housekeeper standing awkwardly nearby.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Becker. Please clear the dinner table.”
Letting out a quiet sigh, Dr. Etman followed his wife into the dark garden.
