Chapter 15
Prove Your Worth
Yuan met his gaze calmly.
Gustav, the butler, who had been staring at her with a dumbfounded expression, hid an involuntary chuckle and soon shook his head.
"It's unlikely, but that's the principle."
Then, he bowed and disappeared.
Gustav's reaction was quite cold, but Yuan felt like she had seen a glimmer of hope.
'Just enduring by working isn't everything.'
She didn't want to return to Pellieresse.
However, she wasn't confident that she could escape empty-handed without being caught.
Her uncle would never let her go.
If Yuan were to escape from the Deposed Emperor, her uncle would not miss the opportunity.
He was the kind of person who would find Yuan by any means, deliberately make her a missing person, and lock her up in a side room of the Pellieresse laboratory.
The thought alone was horrifying.
Thinking about it at length, her indifferent husband wasn't all that bad.
At least, his actions were far from the 'lecherous' rumors.
If she just gritted her teeth and proved the Consummation, Yuan might be able to live a moderately peaceful life in a secluded room of this mansion where no one would look for her.
Once Yuan became his wife, he wouldn't be able to easily chase her away even if she subtly asked about his ex-wife someday.
"Madam! Madam, let's prepare for the Consummation!"
Henna, who had been watching her from the side, quietly cheered and clasped her hands together as if in prayer.
"It's time for the mistress to be here. I hope you prove the Consummation so that the master can't chase you away even if he wants to! What luck! This is God helping you, Madam. Suddenly, the Imperial Family issued such an order!"
With a flushed face, Henna immediately sat Yuan in front of the vanity and began to comb her hair in earnest.
After making her look healthy with makeup, she even took out a slip dress that a new bride would wear, from who knows where, and helped her get dressed.
Yuan, with a dazed expression, entrusted herself to the maids and began to feel anxious as she watched the setting sun.
'Will he come?'
Still, it's a request from the Imperial Family. Wouldn't he at least pretend to listen?
Butler Gustav had become somewhat lax due to Yuan's recent assertiveness, but he was fundamentally a principled person.
He would have naturally conveyed the Imperial Family's request to prove the Consummation to his master.
However, contrary to Yuan's expectations.
Even after the sun had completely set and evening had passed, the Deposed Emperor Claude Euphris did not show even a strand of his faded blonde hair.
"Today isn't the only day, Madam. Don't worry too much. You're not fully recovered yet, are you? Maybe the master is subtly considerate of you."
Henna, who had been eagerly waiting for news that Klaud was coming this way, tried to speak brightly as she arranged the bedding.
Yuan watched her busy hands and fiddled with the unfamiliar attire.
Perhaps that man had known all along.
The Imperial Family's pressure to prove the Consummation.
That she was in a position to wait for her husband.
Wasn't his attitude of scoffing as if no matter how hard she tried, it would be useless, because he could chase her away at any time under the pretext of not proving the Consummation?
Contrary to Yuan's expectations that once she entered, she could adapt and he wouldn't be able to easily kick her out, he had something to rely on.
A family with no blood ties could be severed so easily.
'What if I get kicked out like this?'
If she couldn't live in this mansion, her peaceful life, asking about Louise's death, and properly holding Louise's funeral would all be for nothing.
Some of the maids changed the canopy over the bed to gold and lit incense before leaving.
Yuan watched the maids close the door as they left and asked Henna, who had finished arranging the bedding.
It was actually the first thing she had wanted to ask since she had been here.
"Henna. Could I possibly see the room of the previous wife... I mean, Louise's room?"
Henna's chattering voice stopped abruptly.
A moment of silence swept through the room, and Henna straightened her back and lowered her head.
"I'm sorry."
Everyone was like this whenever she asked about Louise.
Not only Henna but all the servants in this mansion had the same reaction.
It was because they were never to speak about the previous wives.
"I've decorated the bridal chamber, and it seems like it's enough, so I'll be on my way, Madam."
She was anxious because she thought she might be kicked out soon. It was a misstep.
Watching Henna try to quickly leave, Yuan answered bitterly.
"...Good night, Henna."
Henna, who was about to leave with her arms full of odds and ends, saw Yuan looking dejected.
Yuan forced a smile.
The young maid hesitated for a long time after opening the bedroom door and then lowered her big eyes.
"The guest rooms in the main building are mostly on the 3rd and 2nd floors."
"!"
"...That's all I'm saying."
Henna quickly closed the door without making eye contact and left.
Yuan stared at the spot where Henna had left for a long time before jumping up.
The 3rd-floor hallway was as silent as a graveyard.
The mansion was vast, but there were so few servants, and the guards only guarded the outside, and everyone retreated to their quarters at night as a rule.
Thinking about the maids taking turns patrolling in the Pellieresse mansion, it was extremely desolate.
It was a good thing for Yuan.
But the problem was.
"Please..."
No matter how many times she opened and closed these terribly numerous doors, there was no sign of anyone inside.
Most of the rooms had no furniture at all, let alone signs of people, and the rest were all locked.
"Louise, Louise, please..."
Let me find even a trace of you.
She wandered around desperately for hours.
In the end, Yuan found no trace on the 3rd floor and went down to the 2nd floor.
The moment she entered the 2nd-floor hallway to search from the inside out.
Yuan stiffened at the sudden, pain-filled groan.
Thump! Thump! The bizarre noise continued for a long time.
Yuan hunched her shoulders and took one step at a time toward the source of the unidentified noise.
A huge room in the middle of the 2nd-floor hallway.
Each time the sound inside the room cut through the air, the flame of the candle she was holding flickered sharply.
After hesitating, Yuan slowly passed by the place, ignoring the sound coming through the thick door.
She couldn't tell if the thumping sound was the noise passing through the wall or the sound of her own heart beating.
She quickly wiped the cold sweat that was rapidly wetting her palms and hurried her steps.
But the steps that she was trying to pass by while looking only at the ground did not go far.
Even though she knew it was dangerous. Even though she knew she had to pass by quickly.
Yuan turned her body sideways and stared at the huge door from which the screams were escaping, as if glaring at it.
"Haa-."
Then, the steps that had been about to pass by returned and finally stood in front of the door.
Yuan knew too well when such groans came out.
The day her uncle brought as many as six couples of elderly people suffering from chronic illnesses and presented them to Yuan under the guise of treating them.
When she unleashed the pain of twelve people, which she had been careful to save, inside her.
She remembered the moment when her vision went white and she could only let out screams of pain.
In fact, there was no need to remember those six elderly couples.
Because she had received tremendous amounts of pain in so many different ways every time.
That was the sound that came out when the weight of the pain was more than one person could bear.
Yuan reached out and carefully twisted the doorknob.
The door was locked.
At that moment, the desire to ignore the pain and the desire not to ignore it fought fiercely. But Yuan couldn't ignore it in the end.
It was as if the sense of accomplishment she had felt for the first time while taking away the pain of the people in this mansion had grabbed her ankle.
Yuan thought of the kind and warm people of the Black Manor. Her body moved before she knew it.
Thanks to Frederick, who locked Yuan's door whenever he had a chance, she was used to picking locks.
Yuan took a hairpin from her hair, which Henna had styled, and inserted it into the doorknob.
Click-.
The noise stopped as if by magic as the door opened.
At the same time, the door opened so easily that it felt anticlimactic.
The room was a mess.
The few pieces of furniture in the large room were all scattered on the floor.
Yuan stretched out the candle forward to adjust her eyes to the dark room where not a single ray of moonlight entered.
And she made eye contact with the Deposed Emperor, who was standing awkwardly in front of the opposite window.
She had a hunch, but it really was his room.
Although he looked much more shocking than the face she had seen outside the other day, Yuan had no doubt that he was the Deposed Emperor.
His bloodshot eyes were glaring at her.
She had no time to pay attention to the strong stench emanating from the room.
Yuan barely stared at the man's eyes, which were filled with murderous intent, with a pale face.
'I might really get kicked out.'
His appearance, which seemed to have lost half of his reason, was scary enough, but Yuan was overwhelmed by the fear that she might be told to leave the mansion as it was, rather than the fear of Klaud himself.
She felt a sense of unease as if she had crossed a river from which she could not return with a moment of camaraderie and sympathy.
At that time.
Klaud, who had been standing with his back to the window, strode toward her.
For some reason, his hands and body were covered in blood.
She could also hear him muttering curses under his breath as he moved the short distance.
No. No, I can't get kicked out like this.
Yuan didn't leave but instead took another step into the room. And she immediately closed and locked the door.
When Klaud finally stood in front of her, Yuan opened her trembling mouth.
"Consummation Proof."
She didn't have the confidence to meet the eyes that were looking down on her as if to crush her.
But she couldn't stop her mouth.
"It's the Consummation Proof period, and I've been waiting for a while, but you didn't come."
The only excuse she could come up with was this.
But she couldn't say that she was looking for Louise's room before you kicked her out, no matter what.
Yuan held onto her loose clothes and mustered her courage once more.
"I didn't wander around as I pleased, I came to Your Highness's room."
A deafening silence.
Yuan licked her parched mouth and glanced up at Klaud, who didn't answer.
"...Huh."
Klaud's eyebrows twitched as if he was in pain, and he let out a hollow laugh with a frown.
She thought he might push her away or slap her with his hands dripping with blood right away.
Compared to those delusions, it was an infinitely gentle reaction.
Yuan mustered a little more courage.
"I don't want to leave this mansion. If you're thinking of kicking me out without consummating and using that as an excuse, then, then no way! I, I came into Your Highness's room like this!"
It was a pathetic bravado with a terribly trembling voice. Yuan herself knew it too well and felt like she was going crazy with embarrassment.
It's okay.
This man wasn't even going to come anyway.
It was something she had to say.
Even if she tried to comfort herself, it was still embarrassing. Yuan clasped her trembling hands together and hoped that Klaud would say something.
She could hear Klaud grinding his teeth. His breathing was rough, and his glaring eyes were full of annoyance.
'Ah, right. This man is in a lot of pain right now...'
"If you want to stay in this house that badly, then prove it."
Suddenly, his voice, which he spat out, was very low and ominous.
"Prove your worth. Cleaning. Laundry. Preparing meals... Not that kind of work that anyone can do."
