I’m the Youngest Daughter of the Serpent Family
Chapter 68
“If you are happy, Madam, then I am happy too.”
“Thank you, Ella.”
Look at that.
At some point, Estella had begun to take being called Madam for granted.
Though she claimed to cherish Ella above all others, an invisible line always stood between them.
‘This is nothing more than the shallow hypocrisy of the privileged.’
Did Estella truly not know that the people in the mansion were tormenting her?
‘Truly?’
In a corner of Ella’s heart, a faint suspicion swelled and writhed.
It began that day. The moment her feelings toward Estella began to twist completely out of shape.
The moment every single word from her began to grate on Ella’s nerves.
It wasn’t fair.
The true feelings hidden deep within her heart kept breaching the surface whenever her guard dropped.
And so, Ella made up her mind. She would accept her clan’s offer and return.
She felt entitled to at least that much greed. After all, she had toiled away in the South solely for Estella.
Guilt or remorse never even crossed her mind.
She didn’t need to feel anything like that toward Estella.
She had everything anyway.
She might grieve once she realized her egg had been swapped and her child was gone, but Estella deserved to experience at least that much misfortune.
That was only fair. Besides, she would probably only mourn for a few days.
She could always bear another child, couldn’t she?
Ella secretly sought out her clan. Then, one evening, not long before Estella’s due date.
In Ella’s hands rested a pure white egg of unknown origin. It was an exceedingly fragile egg, within which a faint heartbeat could barely be heard.
The egg bore not a trace of pheromones.
It seemed as though it had been brought into this world solely to be swapped with an heir of the Astrophel family.
“Better you never hatch at all.”
That way, Estella would suffer even more.
“Because if you do hatch, Madam will only end up taking you in.”
That, too, was unfair.
She herself had been abandoned for being half-blooded, yet simply because this egg encountered Estella, it would be raised as a young lady within the great Astrophel family.
“So don’t you ever hatch.”
Ella muttered, baring her jealousy even toward an egg that had not yet hatched.
I only became like this because of Estella. It isn’t my fault.
Ella tucked the egg into her robes.
And soon after, the day of birth arrived.
A Black Mamba’s delivery required no extraordinary preparations.
It only called for tidying the surroundings so the lady of the house, Estella, could give birth smoothly in a tranquil state of mind.
“Madam... Please don’t worry, I’m right by your side.”
Yet the unexpected occurred.
Having briefly shifted into her beastman form to bear the heirs, Estella was struggling terribly.
She had only laid the first heir, yet barely half of the pheromones in her body remained.
Ella clenched her sweat-slicked hands.
Estella seemed so delirious that all the time Ella had spent fretting over how to swap the eggs behind her back felt completely pointless.
“Madam. Both of the heirs are out now.”
“...Haa. Haa...”
“I will move them to the basket.”
Her hands trembled violently for an instant.
Now that the moment had come to act, her heart began to pound against her ribs.
I can do this. I can pull this off.
After transferring the eggs one by one, Ella swallowed hard and grasped the egg concealed in her robes.
Just as she was about to swap the egg in the basket with the one in her embrace—
“Ella. I want to see my children. Could you bring them to me?”
Ella froze at Estella’s request.
“Ella?”
The room fell dead silent. Sensing something amiss, Estella called out in a weak voice and turned her head.
And caught her in the act of trying to switch the eggs.
Looking back and forth between the eggs in the basket and the egg in Ella’s hand, Estella’s expression turned chillingly dark.
“What are you doing right now?”
“...M-Madam.”
“What in the world are you trying to do to my children—!”
Estella scrambled to rise, but having drained all her strength, she staggered precariously.
She realized in a single instant what Ella had intended, horror washing over her face.
“Where are you taking my child? Stop this right now!”
Startled, Ella dropped the egg, and the fake egg tumbled into the basket, jumbling among them.
Under normal, composed circumstances, she would have recognized the foreign egg immediately, but in her panic, Ella could not tell them apart at a glance.
I have to grab the heir’s egg, quickly...!
Desperate, Ella lunged toward the eggs in the basket.
Smack!
At that moment, Ella’s hand was slapped away. Though it was a feeble strike, Ella stumbled backward in dismay.
“Stop right now.”
Estella spoke with fierce resolve. She was frail and utterly spent, yet the moment Ella saw the stubborn vitality burning in her eyes, terror seized her. If anyone caught her like this, she was as good as dead.
Flustered and cornered, she shoved Estella with all her might.
“D-Don’t come any closer, Madam!”
Estella collapsed powerlessly onto the bed.
Barely able to keep herself upright, she was thrown off with ease.
Ella stared down at the hands that had just shoved her mistress, letting out a shaky breath and swallowing dryly.
Right now, I can overpower Madam. Maybe I can make it out alive.
Driven into a corner, Ella deliberately reached for the basket to threaten the eggs.
“Ella, you...!”
It was a move possible only because she had observed Estella for years.
She could anticipate exactly how Estella would react.
Sure enough.
Her expression twisting in urgency, Estella squeezed out every last drop of her pheromones and blasted them outward.
Her pale red eyes, only now saturated with deep betrayal, locked onto Ella for a fleeting heartbeat before the light in them slowly faded.
Ella quickly pulled her hand away from the basket.
It was a shame, but given how things were turning out, taking an heir of the Astrophel family would be impossible.
She could feel people swarming in from outside.
Out of consideration for Estella’s heightened sensitivity during childbirth, the clan members had been waiting outside the mansion, dampening their presence as much as possible.
Ella hastily laid the unconscious Estella onto the bed.
And she pulled the blanket all the way up to her neck. Her hands shook uncontrollably.
Her heart sank cold and heavy, tears streaming down her face without end.
They were not tears of guilt or remorse for Estella. They were tears born of sheer relief that she had survived.
The door flew open, and Hestia, the family physician, rushed inside.
“How is Madam?!”
“Hic... Ugh... H-Hic... Sob.”
Ella spoke through her sobbing tears.
No one doubted Ella as she trembled abnormally, overcome with raw emotion.
“M-Madam... Madam isn’t breathing.”
“Step aside.”
Shoving Ella aside, the doctor began examining Estella’s condition.
She was, for all intents and purposes, already dead. No matter how brilliant a physician’s skill, saving Estella was judged to be impossible.
Ella told herself this, too, had happened because Estella was a fool.
She had never intended to take Estella’s life. All she had wanted was to swap the egg and return to her homeland.
Yet having achieved nothing, she was now stranded, unable to return home either.
Tears dripped steadily from Ella’s eyes.
Fear gripped her at the thought that she might no longer be able to survive in the South or the East.
The other Black Mambas, having realized the situation late, filed into the room.
“Lady Hestia. What is Madam’s condition?”
“...Madam has passed away.”
A ripple of shock stirred among the Black Mambas.
Hestia, the only one maintaining her composure, rose to her feet.
“And the heirs?”
“Three in total.”
“...She passed away from pheromone depletion. We believed Madam was carrying two... but I failed to sense the third. The pheromones were so faint, I couldn’t detect it in time.”
Hestia bowed her head deeply, looking like a sinner.
She blamed herself, believing Estella had died because of her own incompetence in misdiagnosing three heirs as two.
Ella held her breath, a spark of hope rising within her.
I can walk out alive.
I can survive without a shred of suspicion.
The heavens were on her side.
From there, everything moved swiftly.
“What about the Head of the family?”
“It will still take at least another day for him to arrive.”
“Send word first. Inform him that Madam gave birth earlier than expected.”
“Then what about Madam’s passing...?”
“...We must inform him of that as well.”
A grim, heavy gloom enveloped the mansion.
Everyone was lost in grief over the loss of their mistress, struck dumb with sorrow.
Reeling from the immense shock, Hestia remained before the bed, staring blankly at Estella.
Because no one could have anticipated such a tragedy, the shock was all the more profound.
Perhaps because of that, few paid any mind to Ella. It was a relief.
In that case, there was only one thing left for her to do.
“Uhh-hic... sob... Lady Estella!”
Ella played her part faithfully: the fragile maid who had lost her beloved mistress overnight.