Chapter 39
A Very Generous Name for That Devil
Yuan unconsciously ground her teeth.
The titles of mad dog and tyrant were very generous names for that devil.
"After that mad Emperor left, Marquis Lev, who arrived late, traveled the entire continent, searching for doctors, shamans, magicians, and even black magicians. But the best they could do was what you see now."
Henna, exhausted, sighed with slightly subdued vigor.
Tears had welled up in her large eyes at some point. Henna quickly wiped them away before they could fall.
"After that, Master distanced himself from the servants who had served him for a long time. The older ones who remain here are those who served them since the time of the late Emperor. Most of the people who were in the Mansion that day died, and those who survived were not in the Mansion because they were finishing up the funeral arrangements. Those who barely survived... Even though Master doesn't show his face and acts coldly, they can't let go of him in the end. Because he was so kind to them when they were young."
Henna, seeing Yuan's state of suppressed emotions, felt it was okay to say more and looked out the window at nothing.
"Oliver too."
"Oliver?"
"Since that happened, Master has never hugged Oliver even once. He used to carry him around all the time, even if he just whined a little. If there was something delicious, he would always save some for Oliver."
"I can't imagine it."
"Right? After that incident, he became extremely sensitive whenever someone from the Imperial Palace was sent, and he isolated himself, never even mentioning Oliver's name."
Henna said bitterly.
"Everyone just bitterly thinks that His Highness the Prince was betrayed too greatly by his family, so he can't trust us either..."
"..."
"I used to follow my grandmother to the Imperial Palace and sometimes play with Princess Apollyni. It was when I was very young, so my memories are fragmented. I always think that if only the Princess hadn't passed away, Master would have been much less tormented."
"That's certainly true. She was the only family he had left after his parents passed away."
"Master always carried Princess Apollyni, who had difficulty with her legs, on his back. Even when he grew up a little. If she just whined to go together, he would run away, saying, 'Catch me if you can,' but would immediately come back and offer his back. I was so envious of that when I was little, hehe. I don't have an older brother."
As Yuan ruminated on the tragic event and refrained from speaking, Henna, who had been watching her for a while, cautiously opened her mouth.
"Perhaps Master... saw Princess Apollyni in Madam."
"In me?"
"You're the same age. And the atmosphere you give off is similar."
Yuan imagined Princess Apollyni, whom she had never met.
A beautiful princess with sparkling golden hair and amethyst eyes.
The complete opposite of Yuan, who was always called a Crow.
Klaud couldn't have possibly recalled such a sparkling and noble princess from her.
"Anyway, what I want to say is! Master wasn't originally like that."
Henna said urgently, seeing Yuan's subtle expression.
"Everything changes in ten years."
"..."
"He's just... changed a little."
Henna looked at Yuan's hand, which had taken hers, for a long time.
"I hope Madam stays here for a long time."
That day's scene must have been the worst memory of Henna's life as well.
Henna said that she still often had nightmares about that day.
The face of the parents who couldn't protect Princess Apollyni and tore up the wooden floor to hide their daughter.
And the screams of her parents, who fought against Emperor Igor, who was trying to kill her grandmother, Margaret, and died.
Soon after, the head of her grandmother, who was beheaded while trying to protect Klaud until the end, even while wailing.
Henna was begging Yuan to stay here, even if it was difficult, even at the risk of reliving the nightmare.
Even though Yuan had no intention of leaving this place at all.
"I want to get along well too."
At Yuan's subdued voice, Henna's gloomy face brightened noticeably.
"But His Highness sometimes makes me think that he... genuinely hates me."
Her brightening face immediately filled with question.
"What do you mean, Madam?"
And she jumped up from her slumped body.
"The butler said so. His Highness, who couldn't even stand the sunlight coming through the curtains, now opens the curtains wide in broad daylight and looks out at the garden as a daily routine. And that's not all? He sometimes even opens the windows."
"He must have felt suffocated."
"He's changing. If he hated Madam, he would have locked the door tightly and tried to chase Madam away by any means!"
He just keeps me by his side to avoid the pain.
Yuan thought with a bitter smile.
But cowardly, Lancelot's voice squeezed out between the voices of Henna, who was shouting as if frustrated, and lingered in her head.
'He wouldn't keep you if he didn't like you, would he?'
It was a word that she knew wasn't directed at her, but she kept it in her head and took it out like a secretly hidden snack.
***
She didn't know where the hurt feelings from being told not to cross the line had flown away to.
Yuan prepared Klaud's lunch next to Ralph, the chef who welcomed her.
Ralph praised Yuan's skills as if to show off to the butler, who told him not to dare make Madam work.
He also snorted, telling him not to interfere with the Little Madam's hobbies.
Yuan awkwardly laughed and shook off her resentful feelings toward Klaud.
-Knock knock.
When she knocked on the door in front of Klaud's bedroom, there was no answer as always.
It always happened, but it still hurt her heart.
She wouldn't have known if she hadn't heard those circumstances. But now that she had heard them, she couldn't help but feel sorry and want to take care of him.
Inside the bedroom, Klaud, who had suddenly stepped in, paid even less attention to Yuan than usual.
Honestly, no matter how much Lancelot or Henna said that he wouldn't keep her if he didn't like her, the main character, Klaud, remained silent, and she was in a position where she couldn't dare ask him if he liked her, so nothing had changed.
If she asked and he said yes, she wouldn't be able to believe it. And if he said no, she would be even more hurt.
"I'll come up again when the sun sets today."
Klaud nodded almost imperceptibly after a long time.
Yuan let out a sigh of relief and smiled faintly.
The past cannot be undone.
Just like there's no way to get back the birthday presents that were taken away by her cousins when she was young.
All she can do now is to make Klaud, who looks lonely like a wounded and scarred wolf, a little happier.
Clean the Annex faster. Make sure he eats hearty meals every time. And open the curtains so that he can get used to the bright light again.
"I'm going to follow the people who go to fetch water often and get some fresh air."
Yuan asked for permission from Klaud, who was just staring at the prepared meal.
He drank the soup without saying anything. And Yuan waited patiently for him.
"Do as you please for that much."
Yuan sighed in relief at the dry answer, as usual.
Those kinds of answers were much better than being told not to cross the line.
Now that she had adapted to his mood swings, Yuan's ears heard his short permission as, 'You can do whatever you want as long as you tell me.'
"It would be nice if Your Highness could come with me too."
The reaction to her further advance wasn't very good.
He narrowed his eyebrows as if it wasn't even worth considering and went back to the rocking chair and lay down.
***
There weren't many horses in this desolate Mansion either.
The butler didn't like it because Yuan had to mix with the servants and sit on the baggage cart with them to go out with the water cart procession.
But that was the only time Yuan could see Louise's grave.
Yuan scattered the fallen flower petals around Louise's grave and prayed that Louise would go to heaven.
And on the way back to the Mansion with the baggage cart, it suddenly occurred to her.
Maybe Klaud also wanted to come out of the bedroom.
He had only come out a handful of times in ten years.
He couldn't possibly not feel suffocated.
Klaud from her childhood, as she heard from Henna, was quite active.
She had come out under the pretext of getting some fresh air to the butler, but honestly, she wasn't coming out of the Mansion because she was particularly suffocated.
If it wasn't for taking care of Louise's grave, she wouldn't have minded staying in the Black Manor for the time being.
At the Pellieresse Mansion, it was difficult for Yuan to even go out to the garden.
She couldn't even dream of it unless it was around the laundry room or near the incinerator.
Her uncle hid Yuan from the outside world except when he was giving her work, and her cousins were busy teasing and tormenting Yuan, who hadn't washed properly, so Yuan was always busy hiding in her room.
Now, she could freely roam most of the Black Manor, and just watching the gardening made the day go by quickly.
Besides, she had been busy cleaning the west Annex these days.
'It must be because of his face that His Highness doesn't even want to take a walk in the garden.'
Yuan now thought that she should start making Klaud's face clean even during the day.
On the day the west Annex was completely clean, Klaud's face would be just as clean.
Yuan resolved to work hard both day and night.
She wanted to erase all traces of that damned mad dog Emperor from Klaud's face.
***
Lancelot, who had come to the Black Manor to visit Klaud, stroked his chin as he watched the butler's brightened expression and Klaud scribbling something on the documents in front of him.
"Did the sun rise in the west?"
"Butler. Report to me whenever someone comes to my house."
"Since you didn't inherit the Rockenhardt County title, strictly speaking, this place 'legally' belongs to our father, and later it will belong to Eddie."
"You're being petty for a man."
"You were just being petty until just now."
