Previously
Irenia recalls her complex childhood with Giovinetta, who oscillated between performative kindness and cruel outbursts, culminating in the incident where she pushed Irenia down the stairs. While resting, Irenia experiences a vivid waking vision that reveals the exact location of the pond where a girl previously drowned.
The little chick seemed to grasp my request to stay quiet, for he gently tucked in his head and fell motionless. He truly was a clever little creature.
Reaching into my inner pocket, I softly stroked his beak as I slipped quietly from the palace. Fortunately, the guards from the White Cross Unit were still scattered about, idling in casual conversation.
Slipping past their gazes and making my way toward the rear entrance of the Emerald Palace proved remarkably simple. Just as I had seen in that dream resembling a waking vision, a passage led outside from here, and there it truly stood.
The gate had once been used for servant rounds, but now climbing vines choked it, left behind in the Emerald Palace’s abandoned garden.
I checked my surroundings once more, then opened the gate without hesitation and slipped out of the palace grounds.
Elda had originally served as a dressing maid in the Moonstone Palace. She had not come into the post easily; it was the fruit of grueling toil and, at times, discreetly bribing officials in high places.
The role of a dressing maid was far better than ordinary drudgery—the pay was respectable, and the work itself was light. Elda was passably fair, and her quick wit had allowed her to secure her footing in no time.
In such a line of work, pockets lined themselves quietly when no one was watching. Gathering minor trinkets noble ladies could never recall owning and pawning them off was second nature. To her mind, the grandly wealthy would never miss a petty bauble, any more than the sea missed a scooped spoonful of water.
Yet Elda had more sense than other maids her age. She knew such dangerous games could not last forever; let your tail drag too long, and someone would inevitably step on it.
She had therefore never dirtied her own hands. Instead, she tasked lower-ranking maids with the deeds, turning them into partners in crime.
The problem had been Delfina, that insufferable girl. As a fresh maid in the Moonstone Palace, she had naturally answered to Elda.
When Elda ordered her to pocket some belongings, the wretched girl dared to refuse, insisting she could never do such a thing. She even threatened to take the matter to their superiors, going so far as to lecture Elda like an elder teacher! It had been infuriating beyond measure. From that hour forth, Delfina had earned Elda’s bitter hatred.
A stiff branch was easily broken. Elda never forgave her, waiting for the chance to strike her down.
Then Elda was assigned to the Emerald Palace, newly granted to the Crown Princess, rising to the post of head maid. And on the wedding day, the bride, Irenia, had seemed nothing more than an ignorant fool.
Elda thought the moment ripe to frame Delfina for theft. She saw it as a harsh lesson the girl richly deserved, one that might simultaneously win her the favor of the new bride…
“Are you going to cause an even bigger scene? I don't care to watch another pathetic spectacle from you. Leave this place, and never let me lay eyes on you again.”
What Elda had never anticipated was that the bride was not the fool she appeared to be, but razor-sharp, with a keen grasp of power dynamics. And so Elda found herself on the verge of being implicated alongside that idiot Sara for the crime of theft.
By good fortune she managed to clear herself, yet once whispers spread that she had laid hands on precious belongings of her betters, finding a post anywhere else became impossible.
In the end, she had lost her place at the Emerald Palace and everywhere else besides.
‘All of this is that woman’s doing!’
Elda ground her teeth. She loathed the Crown Princess. Passable though the girl’s features might be, she was barely any older than herself and limped through life a cripple.
Rumor had it she was an illegitimate daughter from a ducal house, someone who had once wandered the gutters, begging for scraps.
‘She festers with an inferiority complex from her wretched bloodline.’
That had to be why she was so warped inside. When Madame Arontxo gave the order and handed over the coin, Elda had felt a thrill of joy. Even without the money, she would have taken her revenge all the same.
‘In any case, I can never work in the Imperial Palace again.’
Within the palace, reputation was everything. Once ruined, it could never be regained. Worse still, she had fallen out of Countess Elvira’s favor, leaving her without so much as a letter of recommendation for elsewhere. Her entire life had run into a wall.
She clenched her fists tight. She had spent the past few days watching that woman from afar, waiting for an opening to strike.
Then something entirely unexpected took place.
‘What is she doing out there alone?’
Right before her eyes, the Crown Princess was slipping out of the Emerald Palace like a scurrying rat.
I stumbled onward. The closer I drew to the pond, the more distinct the visions before me became.
It was strange. Unlike the nightmares that haunted me each night, this vision felt different. In those dreams I had been completely helpless, sensing someone lingering behind it all without ever being able to tell who.
The sight in those dreams was always obscured, as though shrouded in black mist, or perhaps the agony of the dead girls had been so overwhelming that I could never focus.
Yet now, with every step toward the pond, everything grew clearer.
The pond lay tucked away where few ever ventured, particularly after whispers spread that someone had died here. No one came near it anymore.
And being so close to the Emerald Palace, I reached it with ease despite my uneven gait.
As I arrived, the scent of water washed over me. The instant it met my senses, I saw something once more.
This time, a hand shoved me from behind toward the pond.
Was it merely my imagination, or was that hand terribly familiar? A hand with thick knuckles… I felt that if I only drew a little closer, I would recognize who it belonged to.
“Just a little more… just a little…”
I urged my legs onward. I could hardly see the path ahead, the visions cloaking my sight once more.
Then, out of nowhere, an immense force shoved me from behind.
“Ah…?”
My balance shattered. In that split second, I saw something with terrifying clarity.
“Stop thrashing around!”
It was a woman’s face, contorted with rage like a demon. The hair she had always combed with such meticulous care was disheveled, her eyes brimming with madness.
She was shrieking in a shrill, horrifying voice.
“You wretched thing!”
My head felt as though it would burst from within, and a piercing sound rang out, like glass shattering into pieces. It was like a glass dome crashing down, splintering across the stone floor.
“Agh!”
A jolt coursed through me, as if struck by lightning. My heart churned violently, yet I knew there was no escaping what I had witnessed.
Images surged through my mind: a crushed skull drowning in blood, swallowing searing poison that melted my insides until I spewed crimson, plummeting from a terrible height…
And most horrifying of all: my own body sinking into the icy water of the pond, a hand forcing my head down again and again.
A pale neck appeared before me, revealing a red blemish beside bulging veins. There was a tiny mark on her neck—so small she herself might not even have known it existed, yet visible to anyone close. It only showed when she was consumed by fury.
“Mer… cedes!”
It was her. The culprit lurking behind these dark shadows was none other than Madame Mercedes Arontxo.
The moment the truth settled, a loud splash echoed in my ears. Water engulfed me from head to toe. No—water had not merely been splashed over me; I was plunging into its depths.
“Ack!”
My body moved on sheer instinct, but my struggles proved utterly useless. The freezing water invaded my nose and mouth without mercy, rushing into my chest despite every desperate effort to survive…
Scattered thoughts no longer ruled me; the primal urge to live seized hold instead. I choked and thrashed, flailing with all my might, trying desperately to pry my mouth open by any means.
“Die! Just die!”
Yet the heavy hand pressing down upon my head stole away every chance to breathe.
Who…? Who was shoving me down with such savage force?
“I told you to die! This is all because of you!”
I tried once more to move, to kick to the surface, but my limbs refused to obey. The water caught in my airway clung like thick mucus, refusing to dislodge.
I gasped frantically for air, but water tore into my chest with every attempt.
“Ah… kgh!”
“You brought this on yourself! You!”
I had to cling to something, anything. I thrust out my hand, seizing whatever my fingers could find, when a sharp shriek pierced the air from nearby.
“Peep!”
At that very moment, a tiny yellow chick burst out from nowhere.
No! Abu! It’s dangerous—get away from here!
I threw my arm out with all my strength, unsheathing my nails like the last weapon left to my name.
“Aargh! You little—!”
I felt something tear away, and with it, the crushing weight upon my head vanished. For a fleeting instant, I broke free from that brutal hand.
And in those few seconds, I caught a glimpse of my attacker’s face. It was that maid… the one I had driven from the Emerald Palace before… What was her name again…?
Yet there was no time left to remember.
It was over. Too late.
My vision began to blur, and time seemed to stretch, every heartbeat slowing to a crawl.
When had my hand grown so agonizingly slow?
I could feel with terrifying clarity my body beginning to stiffen… bit by bit.
FADE OUT