Chapter 10

Shattered Glass Slipper Shards Episode 10

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As I entered the room, Marie jumped up in surprise. She must have been nursing Seril all this time, as she held a damp towel in her hand. I scolded Marie with a deliberately displeased tone.

“Why didn’t you take her to the next room? Someone might misunderstand.”

Marie’s face turned ashen, her eyes widening as she cautiously scanned my expression. Her pale face looked whiter than if she had applied white powder.

Pretending not to notice Marie’s expression, I nonchalantly walked to the corner of the room. I opened the lid of the plain, dark brown Capsa and dumped all the miscellaneous items inside onto the floor.

The Capsa, large enough to easily fit a person, was one of the possessions my mother and I had brought to the Bischwartz Family. This chest, usually used to store clothes, had been inherited by my mother from her grandmother and was said to have been covered in red velvet with tassels in the past.

It was an item her grandmother had brought when she married into the Baron Family. It was a legacy of the past that she couldn't give up, even when selling the baronetcy due to debt.

Perhaps because of this, the Capsa, layered with the grime of time, was very dirty, with as much accumulated dirt as the number of hands that had touched it. But my mother would sometimes look at this Capsa, reminiscing about the nostalgia of past years and singing mournful songs as if recalling past glories.

I couldn’t understand my mother. I felt that instead of caressing such a thing and weeping, she should sell it to a general store and get even a single coin more.

At that time, I was always hungry. The thin soup with a few vegetables and the hard black bread to dip in it were not enough to fill my growing stomach.

So, I wanted to sell the Capsa, which, though plain, exuded aristocratic elegance, to buy a wider variety of ingredients. I didn’t want to wear old clothes that couldn’t be mended anymore. If I could exchange the Capsa for money and have a better life, I thought I should gladly do so.

Therefore, we often argued about the issue of selling the Capsa. I didn’t understand my mother’s sentimentality at all, and she thought I could endure my hunger to some extent.

Our fights never reached an agreement. My angry mother would imply that she was deeply hurt by calling me a ‘fierce beast with an ice heart.’ But that was all. She wasn’t as fierce as I was.

If we hadn’t entered the Bischwartz Family, this Capsa would surely have been turned into a few coins by my hand. As always, my mother would not have been able to win against me and would have given up in exhaustion.

Anyway, my mother, who had fortunately managed to keep the Capsa, wanted to express her love for her child with this old chest, just as her mother had done. So, she passed it on to me. With a look full of longing, my mother whispered in a soft voice, ‘You will know the use of this someday. So, keep it well.’

But in the past, I didn’t know the use of this Capsa at all. I was dissatisfied with why I had to keep this old and even dirty thing in my room. So, I wanted to get rid of it from my sight. I covered it with purple velvet and left it in the corner without ever using it.

My mother, who came to visit my room, quickly noticed that the object covered in cloth and unrecognizable in shape was the Capsa and let out a small sigh. She didn’t scold her daughter for not understanding her feelings, but only suppressed her disappointed heart.

At such times, I would feign ignorance and deliberately avoid looking at my mother’s face. At the same time, I thought my mother was quite old-fashioned. I dismissed her as a rustic person who didn’t know the latest trends.

But now I know. How useful this Capsa is to me. It’s really ridiculous that I’ve only now realized why it was made so large, enough to fit a person, unlike ordinary chests.

Of course, it’s a realization that is completely different from my mother’s girlish sentimentality. Still, isn’t it good that I don’t leave it in the corner like in the past? Shouldn’t I just use it somehow?

I kicked the miscellaneous items piled on the floor to one side and said to Marie.

“Bring her here.”

“Seril?”

“Yes.”

Seril was bigger than Marie. Compared to Marie, who had a slender frame, Seril had thick arms and thighs, and her back was slightly broad like a man’s. With her thin, slit-like eyes and a slightly hooked nose that curved to the right, she had a mature air like a woman who had given birth, rather than a maiden.

When Seril and Marie stood together, there was about a head’s difference. Marie was weaker and younger than Seril. So, it was impossible for Marie to bring Seril to me alone.

But Marie was very conscious of my mood and knew that she would be severely punished if she didn’t act as quickly as a flying squirrel. So, she put her hands under Seril’s armpits with all her might and dragged more than half of her body along the floor, barely managing to walk towards me.

Although it was only about thirty steps from the center of the room to where I was, Marie’s face was soaked with sweat. Moreover, she looked exhausted.

I comforted her for her efforts with a short remark.

“Good job. Now, put Seril in here.”

Marie’s eyes shook greatly with shock. She asked me in a rapid tone, as if she had forgotten to breathe.

“Put Seril in the Capsa?”

“Yes. Just as you heard.”

“Good heavens! What are you doing, Sishe de Bishwaltz? How can you put an injured person in the Capsa?”

“Don’t worry. It’s big enough for Seril to stretch her legs and fit inside. She can rest comfortably in here. Surely you’re not disobeying me now?”

Despite my command, Marie hesitated greatly. She seemed to be torn between her moral conscience and her fear of me.

Unable to endure the momentary pause, as I needed a well-behaved beast rather than a rational person, I grabbed Marie’s hair and growled deeply.

“Why are you hesitating? I didn’t give you time to think. I literally ordered you. Didn’t you say you would help me? If you’re hesitating because you want to work in the laundry room, you can stop. There are plenty of maids.”

The laundry room was a more difficult workplace than the kitchen. Covered in lye water and fermented urine, it was always hot and noisy because laundry was constantly being boiled.

Therefore, even the youngest and most energetic maid would become as weak as an old woman after working in the laundry room for a day. This was because they spent the whole day repeating the process of beating, boiling, and drying mountains of laundry piled up at the very bottom of the mansion, making it impossible to find any energy.

It was the worst job that maids who had been trained to serve their superiors, like Marie, could not endure.

Perhaps fearing to go to the laundry room, Marie quickly succumbed to my threat. She grabbed Seril’s shoulders, trying her best not to sob.

She struggled to put Seril, who was slumped and groaning, into the Capsa. Her tightly closed lips were twitching slightly due to intense sorrow.

Had about ten minutes passed like that? After a hard struggle, Marie succeeded in putting Seril’s body into the Capsa and sat down on the spot, breathing heavily. Her sweat-soaked face was shaking with deep guilt. I hugged Marie and whispered softly.

“Good job. I’m so glad you’re here, Marie.”

For noble ladies who considered noble honor as the highest virtue, disposing of a punished maid was a difficult problem to solve easily. So, they became interested in and modified the ‘Capsa,’ which had a lid and was easy to conceal, and no one would suspect what was inside.

In the past, I had heard from a noble lady how she used the ‘Capsa.’ She said that she had whipped a maid who had crept into her husband’s bedroom and then locked her in the Capsa, starving her for three days. At the same time, she endlessly kicked the chest and mocked her.

It was a simple yet sadistic torture. The maid, who had been trapped in the dark chest and had to listen to the noble lady’s mockery for three days, eventually went mad. Her pupils were so terrified that almost no white was visible, and even after she came out of the Capsa, she curled up like a worm and trembled.

When people tried to drag her out of the room, she frantically struggled and let out animalistic cries. Then, the noble lady, as well as her husband, said that they could not keep a mad person in the mansion and kicked her out.

‘I don’t know what happened to her after that. She might have crawled into a brothel and sold her body.’

Having said this, she raised her fan to the tip of her nose and giggled. All the women around her praised her wise actions. They, too, were people who had similar experiences and thought her actions were justified.

This chest, elegantly patterned with silver decorations, was a legal ‘prison’ that noble women could personally possess.

I folded a piece of cloth several times and inserted it between the lid of the Capsa. I lowered the lid as much as possible to minimize the amount of light entering, while adjusting the angle so that it was not difficult to breathe.

After finishing the work, I dragged a table to a place where the Capsa was visible and took out paper, a quill, and ink, placing them on it. I had made thorough preparations so that I could react as quickly as possible when Seril woke up.

Next, I told Marie to prepare a blue dress and a hat with feathers.

After changing my clothes, I was going to go to the general store to buy paper with an elegant pattern. The paper I had now was too poor to write a letter.

The blue dress with several layers of ruffles was made of silk, muslin, or thin cotton fabric, so it wrinkled easily. Therefore, every time I wore it, I had to carefully iron each wrinkle with great care.

But it was easy to scorch with the iron and often got soot on it, so it was a difficult garment even for maids with nimble fingers.

However, since I didn’t have to wear a pannier, it was light and easy to move around in, so noble young ladies, as well as myself, often wore clothes made of this material. The belt, loosely tied around the waist and made into a large ribbon, was an escape from the stuffy dress.

Since it would take about an hour for Marie to prepare the dress, I dismissed her and sat down on a chair. I filled the quill with ink and spread out the paper, writing with the most elegant strokes I could muster. This was a task to capture the person who could be the biggest trump card I knew.

《To Marianne de Chatou, the mistress of the Rose Palace and the role model for all young ladies and noblewomen living in the Empire, I dare to inquire about your well-being.

I am Sishe de Bishwaltz, the stepdaughter of the Count Bischwartz, and I have long admired the high reputation of Marianne de Chatou.

Therefore, it would be appropriate to visit you first and pay my respects, but it is sad that I cannot enter the palace yet because I am not old enough.

Therefore, unable to overcome my admiration, I presumptuously send this letter, so please forgive my rashness with your generous tolerance. (Omitted)》

Lady Marianne de Chatou was known as a femme fatale who was the Emperor’s mistress and wielded more power than the Empress. She was a fox who captivated the old Emperor with her beautiful appearance and witty speech, and embraced him in her skirt using various bedroom techniques.

With her transparent skin and rosy cheeks, Chatou, who loved power and luxury, enjoyed confronting the Empress by making full use of her charm.