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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Fix My Skin, You Quack Doctor!
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“What was that?”
Roje tilted her head, bewildered by the ear-splitting scream that echoed through the mansion.
“Could something big have happened?”
“It sounded like it came from over there.”
Knights nearby approached Roje. They formed a protective circle around her.
“Aaaargh!”
The mansion’s atmosphere was chaotic with the loud screams.
“It seems we should go towards where the sound is coming from.”
The people of the mansion murmured and began to gather in the direction of the screams. As Roje slowly walked towards the sound, she soon felt something was off.
“Oh… that’s my room.”
The scream, loud enough to burst eardrums, was coming from her own room. Roje quickened her pace, protected by the knights. What on earth could have happened? And in her room, of all places. Roje soon reached the door. In the distance, Butler Gwen was seen rushing over.
“Are you alright, Madam!”
“I’m fine, Gwen.”
Gwen, who had rushed over, worried that Roje might be the one screaming, let out a sigh of relief.
“That’s a relief. Then, who on earth is inside…?”
At Gwen’s words, Roje shook her head as if she didn’t know. Roje exchanged glances with the knights and nodded. It was a signal to open the door. One knight stepped forward and grabbed the doorknob to Roje’s room.
“Excuse me, Madam.”
The knight flung Roje’s door open at the same time he spoke. The person immediately visible was Doana.
“…Doana?”
Roje frowned, seeing Doana screaming at the top of her lungs in her room.
“What are you doing here?”
Roje couldn’t hide her bewildered expression. Not only had Doana entered her room, but she was also wearing one of Roje’s dresses. Gwen sighed deeply, watching Doana causing a commotion in Roje’s room. His expression, as he pressed a hand to his temple, looked quite troubled.
“Kyaaaah! What do I do?! What am I going to do?!”
Gwen gestured towards the screaming Doana.
“Drag Doana out immediately.”
At Gwen’s words, the knights approached Doana. Doana, who had been despairing while looking in the mirror, only then noticed Roje had entered. Doana pushed away the knights approaching her and rushed towards Roje.
“Roje!”
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Large, fat tears streamed down Doana’s face as she rushed forward with a desperate expression. Roje’s eyes widened when she saw her.
“Your… what happened to your face?”
Doana’s once fair and beautiful skin was covered with red blisters on one side. From below her right cheek down to her jawline. The red, swollen blisters were incredibly unsightly.
“It’s because of you! My skin became like this because of you!”
Doana lunged forward with a fierce intensity, as if she would strike Roje at any moment. The knights grabbed Doana’s arms as she charged at Roje.
“You have to take responsibility! Aargh!”
“How dare you speak to the Madam like that!”
Gwen reprimanded Doana, who was screaming at the top of her lungs.
“Sniff… sob, sob.”
Perhaps startled by the butler’s voice, Doana dropped her head and began to sob. The butler looked at Doana with a displeased expression and clicked his tongue.
“Summon a physician.”
He ordered a nearby maid and then fixed his gaze on Doana.
“This matter cannot be overlooked, Doana.”
Gwen could no longer tolerate Doana, who had even stolen a dress.
“First, receive treatment. I will deal with the punishment for your actions afterwards.”
The butler’s low voice was filled with suppressed anger. The knights dragged away the slumped Doana.
“My apologies, Madam. I should have disciplined her better.”
Gwen sighed softly, looking at Doana’s retreating back.
“No, Butler, it’s not your fault. It’s my fault for not drawing proper boundaries, due to having lived lonely without friends.”
Roje calmly spoke to the butler, who couldn’t hide his apologetic expression.
“I will make sure to warn her thoroughly so she doesn’t do something like this again.”
He bowed his head to Roje. Gwen’s eyes, as he bowed, were chillingly calm. ***
“I have administered first aid.”
The physician, who had been gently dabbing Doana’s face with a thin cotton pad, spoke.
“Did you fix my face? Did you fix it?!”
Doana was still agitated. She grabbed the physician’s clothes and screamed frantically. She completely revealed her true nature, which she had kept hidden until now. The side she had only shown to the servants she thought she could easily manipulate. It seemed she had lost her reason upon seeing her face so disfigured. The physician pushed away Doana’s hand gripping his clothes and disdainfully brushed off the spot she had touched. Although he knew she was Eric’s mistress, he was displeased at being treated so disrespectfully by a mere maid.
“I have provided the best possible treatment. The blisters will subside soon, but the red, blotchy scars will not disappear.”
At the physician’s words, Doana’s face turned desperate, as if she had lost everything in the world.
“…So, you can’t fix it?”
“It seemed to be a cream full of various toxic ingredients. Your skin condition will not return to what it was before.”
“What…?”
At the physician’s thunderbolt-like words, Doana’s face turned chalk-white. She gazed at her face in the small hand mirror she held. The blisters covering her entire right cheek. These marks wouldn’t disappear…!
“Are you even a doctor?! Are you?! You should do laser treatment or skin peeling or something! Why are you saying no without even trying?!”
Laser? Peeling? What on earth was she talking about? The physician could no longer tolerate Doana’s incomprehensible ramblings.
“You seem to need more rest. I will take my leave now.”
“Where are you going? Hey! You quack doctor!”
Doana hurled insults at the physician, who walked out without looking back. Panting, she found it hard to accept the current reality.
“Why… why did this happen to me…?”
Everything was Roje’s fault. If she hadn’t applied that cream from Roje’s vanity table, her skin wouldn’t have been ruined like this. Doana pushed aside her own fault and directed all the blame towards Roje.
“Sniff… sob. This is unfair…”
She covered her face with both hands and sobbed piteously. Just then, the tightly closed door opened, and Eric entered.
“Doana!”
“Count…”
Seeing Eric’s face, Doana burst into even more bitter tears.
“What on earth is going on?”
Eric approached Doana and removed her hands from her face. As the skin, covered in blisters, was revealed, Eric’s pupils wavered. He seemed speechless at her condition, which was worse than he had imagined.
“Count… what on earth did you gift Roje? Because of that, my skin became like this. Sniff, sob.”
As Doana leaned in to speak, Eric subtly recoiled. He asked her, bewildered by her words.
“A gift, what are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
“You gifted Roje cream, didn’t you? I even saw the letter you personally wrote to Roje, apologizing for not paying attention to her!”
Even at Doana’s words, Eric merely tilted his head. He hadn’t given Roje anything, so he couldn’t understand her words.
“I didn’t gift Roje anything.”
At his firm words, Doana’s eyes trembled like an aspen leaf.
“That can’t be! I saw it clearly! And my skin, it’s all because of that cream!”
He hadn’t given anything… Eric’s expression grew quite serious at Doana’s words.
“That cream you mentioned, where is it now?”
“I left it in Roje’s room. On her vanity table.”
He called a nearby servant and ordered him.
“Go sweep up all the creams on Roje’s vanity table.”
“Yes, Count.”
The servant bowed his head and quickly moved his feet. As he opened the door to leave the room, Roje was standing outside.
“I came to see if Doana was alright.”
The servant stepped aside to let Roje enter first. As soon as Roje entered, he quickly left the room. He had Eric’s order to sweep up her vanity.
‘Eric was here too.’
Roje instinctively frowned, as the person who had arrived before her was someone she didn’t care for.
“Doana, are you alright?”
Truthfully, she hadn’t come out of concern. Roje had endured too much from Doana to genuinely worry about her. She merely wanted to hear what had happened. Why she had entered her room, why she wore that dress, and why her face had changed so much. Doana resented Roje for coming to see her. She believed Roje was the root of all evil. She didn’t answer, merely glared. A heavy silence hung in the room. Eric simply watched the two of them, saying nothing. Not long after, a servant entered, carrying a handful of cosmetics.
“Count, I have brought all the creams from the Madam’s room, as you commanded.”
“…?! Why did you bring the creams from my room?”
At Roje’s words, the servant’s voice trailed off as he eyed Eric.
“Well… the Count commanded it.”
“Eric did?”
Roje looked at Eric with a bewildered expression. Eric answered indifferently, as if it were nothing.
“Doana said she applied your cosmetic and developed blisters on her face. So, I ordered your cosmetics to be brought here for confirmation.”
“She applied my cosmetics?”
At Eric’s words, Roje couldn’t hide her astonishment. So… she had secretly stolen and applied her cosmetics without permission. Eric paid no mind to Roje’s bewildered expression and asked Doana.
“Which one of these did you apply?”
Doana examined each cream the servant had brought. However, the cream she had applied was nowhere among them.
“Did you bring everything? The one I used isn’t here.”
When her sharp voice rang out, the servant urgently nodded.
“I brought everything. The Countess doesn’t have many cosmetics to begin with, so…”
“Look again. Is it truly true that the cosmetic you applied is not here?”
At Eric’s words, Doana nodded weakly. But only for a moment, her eyes glinted venomously.
“…Roje, did you perhaps throw it away?”
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She glared at Roje with fierce eyes.
“Throw away, what?”
“That cosmetic! The one in the red bottle!”
“I don’t have any cosmetic in a red bottle.”
Roje replied, frowning at Doana’s words.
“You clearly left that cosmetic in your room, so why are you pretending you don’t know?”
Doana, wanting to curse, barely managed to suppress her anger and glared at Roje. Just then, a spark of suspicion ignited in Doana’s mind.
‘Could it be… was this a trap Roje set from the beginning? Knowing I was sleeping with her husband, she put a toxic cream on her vanity table?’
No matter how she thought about it, there was no other way to explain the current situation. Eric said he hadn’t gifted Roje anything, and the maid, who had swept the vanity at Eric’s command, had conveniently left out the cream Doana had applied. Doana’s mind went cold.
‘…This crazy bitch!’
It was clear that this foxy Roje was jealous of her, had disfigured her like this, and then destroyed the evidence. Doana’s eyes welled up with tears, enraged at having been outsmarted by Roje.
“Sniff… sob. Count.”
She cast a resentful glance at Eric and spoke with difficulty.
“It seems Roje is the culprit. She clearly lured me in on purpose and ruined my skin like this!”
“What…?”
Roje was disgusted by Doana’s actions, accusing her, an innocent party, of being the culprit. Eric, seemingly believing there was credibility in Doana’s words, glared at Roje with sharp eyes. Thinking she might actually be framed as the culprit, Roje quickly opened her mouth. And just as she was about to retort to Doana, Butler Gwen appeared. Gwen stood in front of Roje and said to Doana:
“The Madam would never do such a thing, Count.”
He continued in a very calm voice.
“I have just confirmed with Jane, the maid assigned to the Madam. She stated that the Madam does not possess any cream in a red bottle. Not only Jane, but all the other maids confirmed the same.”
“It was a gift that arrived today! So, couldn’t the other maids not know about it?”
“We searched the Madam’s room, but no red bottle was found, Doana.”
Gwen looked at Doana, who was refuting his words, with a look of disdain.
“I’m truly curious if your face changed like that from applying the Madam’s cosmetic. Though it’s ridiculous that a mere maid would dare to steal and apply the Countess’s cosmetic.”
Doana bit her lower lip at Gwen’s overtly aggressive words. She wished Eric would step in and defend her, but—
“I will go and find out how the situation is unfolding.”
He left the room, not even considering staying by her side. After Eric left, there was no one in the room on Doana’s side. Doana continued to glare at Roje with fierce eyes. Gwen could not stand Doana’s disrespectful gaze towards Roje. He didn’t want to be this harsh to someone who was unwell, but…
“Madam, I will take care of the rest. You must be tired, why don’t you go and rest?”
“…Alright.”
Roje also didn’t want to be in the same room as Doana for too long. Especially not with that foolish woman who was accusing her of being the culprit… Gwen also gestured to the maid beside Roje, signaling her to leave. Once Roje and the maid left, only Doana and Gwen remained in the room. Doana had to endure all sorts of humiliating words from the butler.
“Doana, why don’t you know when to stop?”
“What did I do? Can’t you see this? I’m the victim.”
“The victim? No matter how I think about it, you are the perpetrator. You acted friendly towards the Madam, but behind her back, you were sleeping with the Count, weren’t you? And you don’t know your place. You don’t actually think a mere maid like you can push aside the Countess, do you?”
“Why is that relevant now? I’m talking about the incident that happened to me today.”
“If you hadn’t entered that room without permission, and if you hadn’t touched that item without authorization, wouldn’t this have not happened?”
He looked at Doana with cold eyes and added one more thing.
“And why did you steal and wear that dress that doesn’t even suit you?”
Every single word from the butler was humiliating. She couldn’t stand this insignificant old man daring to reprimand her, the future Countess.
‘…Do you think I’ll just sit here and take this?!’
Doana, having been thoroughly reprimanded by the butler, furiously ground her teeth. She vowed to definitely kick out the butler who had disrespected her. And the next day. Doana immediately put her plan into action. The entire mansion was shaken by Doana’s single statement.
“Sniff, sob. It’s true. The butler… last night, he dragged me away and…”
Doana closed her eyes tightly, as if she couldn’t bear to say it all, and her voice trailed off as tears streamed down her face. With tearful pleas, she claimed the butler had molested her. But ironically, no one in the Count’s family believed Doana’s words.
