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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Rachel's Scheme (1)
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‘Why did she change so much?’
Ariana was supposed to wear a tacky dress, act like a stubborn brat, and throw a tantrum, weeping throughout the party.
Then Rachel would have blamed Ariana’s lineage, bringing up the Eastern Emperor, and people would have whispered, comparing Ariana to the well-mannered and educated Helena and Victoria.
During that process, some might have questioned Ariana’s treatment, but their voices would have been very quiet.
That’s how it should have unfolded, but Ariana neither cried nor blushed in that situation.
‘What went wrong today?’
Victoria glared at the kneeling maids.
‘They’re the problem. If they had done it right, I wouldn’t be getting blamed.’
Victoria ordered her ladies-in-waiting.
“Whip them fifty times each and lock them in the East Tower.”
“Ah, Milady! Milady, no. Please forgive us.”
“We tried our best. We’ll do better. Please forgive us.”
“Please spare us, Milady.”
The East Tower was a prison with no guards and no one entering or leaving.
A terrifying place where criminals who had caused great harm to the Bronte family were imprisoned and left to rot.
The maids knew that no one who entered there had ever come out alive.
But Victoria entered her bedroom as if there was nothing more to hear, and the maids were dragged away by the servants summoned by the ladies-in-waiting.
+++
Duke Jacob Bronte had been silent since the party ended.
Jacob, with his black hair and black eyes, was tall and slender, giving off an impression of being scholarly and somewhat sensitive.
When expressionless, he looked irritable, but when he smiled, wrinkles formed around his eyes, creating a gentle atmosphere. It was precisely that smile that Rachel had fallen for.
Knowing this, Jacob always smiled in front of Rachel, so it was a very long time since she had seen her husband with such a stern expression.
Since getting to know Jacob, she had only seen him wear such a serious expression twice before.
Once, when Rachel learned she had to marry the Eastern Emperor, and again, when Rachel returned to Seoryeong with Ariana, her daughter by the Eastern Emperor.
And today, Jacob’s expression was darker than ever, and he wouldn’t even meet Rachel’s gaze.
Rachel, sensing his mood, carefully placed a hand on his arm.
“Jacob. You don’t have to take it so seriously.”
“Not take it seriously? Are you being sincere?”
Rachel flinched at his angry voice.
Born as the Western Emperor’s daughter, Rachel had lived without fear of anything, but she was weak when it came to Jacob. He was the man she had loved for the first time in her life, and the man she would love until the very end. She didn’t want his hatred.
“Didn’t you see everyone’s expressions at the party just now? Didn’t you hear what people were whispering about that child? Rachel, it wasn’t just Seoryeong nobles there. There were nobles from the capital too. You can’t stop their mouths.”
“Why do we need to stop their mouths? Just let them be. Whatever they chatter about, it’s just a fleeting topic of conversation. Other scandals will keep emerging, and they’ll forget easily.”
Jacob sighed.
“Rachel, what happened earlier isn’t something that will be easily forgotten. That child isn’t just an ordinary noble young lady. She’s the daughter of the Princess of Seoryeong and the Eastern Emperor, and now she’s the adopted daughter of the Duke of Bronte. Don’t society ladies love stories like that?”
“They do, they do, but…”
“They might forget for a moment. But every time they see us, they’ll remember it again.”
Rachel watched with a desolate feeling as Jacob paced nervously around the room.
What had happened at the party earlier felt like a nightmare. A terrible nightmare that shouldn’t have happened. Of all times, it had to happen when they had invited nobles from the capital, prominent figures in society no less.
‘Ariana…’
The Ariana in the greenhouse seemed like a different person from the Ariana Rachel had raised all this time. She looked like a changed person, as if possessed by an evil spirit.
Her expression, her gaze, her posture, her tone of voice—not a single thing felt like the Ariana Rachel knew.
Come to think of it, she had been acting strangely for a few days now.
Even when she got sick after eating spoiled food, or when Rachel encountered her in the garden yesterday morning.
At the time, Rachel hadn't taken the changes seriously.
She had merely thought that Ariana was trying to act differently because she was always scolded and never acknowledged, no matter what she did.
Rachel had believed that no matter how much Ariana tried to change, as long as she was under Rachel, she wouldn't be able to harm the Bronte family.
But Ariana had dealt a huge blow to the Bronte family in a single moment.
Just as Jacob said, the nobles who attended today’s party would recall the incident with Ariana every time the Bronte family was mentioned.
‘This won’t do.’
Her father, the Western Emperor, had told Rachel to raise Ariana quietly. The Eastern Emperor had also ordered that his daughter, Ariana, be raised out of sight, so that no one would notice her and she would be forgotten.
He had said that when the opportune moment came, he would find a suitable family and marry her off. The Western Emperor already had a few families in mind as potential matches for Ariana.
Among them, the most likely candidate was the Albrecht family.
Viscount Ingou Albrecht, who had earned a fortune selling weapons and bought his viscount title.
‘Viscount Albrecht is known to be fond of women, so even if some scandals circulate about Ariana, he’ll like her as long as she’s attractive. He’d get a beautiful, young wife and a connection to the Western Emperor’s family and the Bronte family, so he wouldn’t refuse over a slight scandal, would he?’
Even now, married, Rachel still feared her father, the Western Emperor. The Western Emperor was someone who would sell his own children to get what he wanted.
‘If Ariana becomes useless, he might try to use Helena or Victoria. I can’t let Helena and Victoria end up like me.’
Rachel had been forced to marry a man she didn’t want, leaving the man she loved, but she wished for her two daughters to grow up freely and marry whomever they desired.
She couldn’t let the Western Emperor’s expectations for Ariana shift to Helena or Victoria.
A good idea came to her. It might be cruel to Ariana, but ultimately, this was Ariana’s own doing.
‘Ariana, if you hadn’t done that at the party, I wouldn’t have resorted to such a method. I tried to raise you gently and marry you off, but you dared to rebel against me…’
There was no guilt.
She could do anything for Helena and Victoria.
‘Ariana is still a bit young, but… stories can always be made up.’
Duchess Juliana Robenta had invited Ariana for this social season, but Rachel had no intention of taking Ariana to the capital.
If an incident occurred that made it impossible for Ariana to go to the capital, Juliana would surely accept it as unavoidable. With luck, the incident at this party might even be perceived as a scheme by the ill-behaved Ariana.
Rachel stroked Jacob’s arm, which still bore a heavy expression, and said,
“Don’t worry, Jacob. Ariana’s problem will be solved quickly. I’ll make sure of it.”
+++
“Oh, h-h-hoo.”
“H-h-h-h-h.”
The women’s sobs drifted down through the damp air.
The weeping that had begun yesterday had quieted significantly after a day, but it now contained deeper sorrow, resentment, and fear.
Ariana leaned against the cold wall, closing her eyes, and listened to the maids’ weeping.
One might expect goosebumps from hearing cries in the darkness, yet a strange smile played on Ariana’s lips.
‘Helena doesn’t know what her maids did, so it must have been Victoria who imprisoned them.’
Victoria had always been polite and kind to her employees for the sake of her image. Her employees praised her, saying, “The youngest Bronte duchess is not only beautiful in face but also beautiful in heart.”
Victoria’s beautiful disposition wasn’t sturdy enough to withstand even a slight provocation.
‘Because she’s still young.’
If this had happened a few years later, Victoria wouldn’t have acted so emotionally.
Even though Victoria had a knack for reading people and manipulating them from behind the scenes, she was still too inexperienced to respond calmly to a sudden disaster.
The maids, who hadn’t had a drop of water since being imprisoned last night, had hoarse and cracked voices and couldn’t even weep properly.
‘Yes, they must be scared. But aren’t you all together, and in a place where light enters?’
Unlike Ariana, who was confined in a windowless underground dungeon, the maids were locked in an upstairs prison with windows. Rachel would likely release those maids this evening or tomorrow.
After all, with the rumors already swirling about Ariana’s mistreatment, it would be difficult to deal with the aftermath if several maids died at once.
Having been on the hard, cold floor since yesterday, her body shivered uncontrollably. The spots where Rachel had hit her ached and burned with fever, causing cold sweat to bead on her skin.
Ariana wrapped her arms around herself.
Being confined was familiar, but thirst was still difficult to bear. The fever made her even thirstier.
‘It’s okay. This is nothing. It was harder in the final moments. I can endure this much.’
Perhaps because she was in the darkness, various emotions silently welled up.
The strongest among them was a sorrow she thought she had discarded upon her revival.
She wanted to discard negative emotions and walk forward calmly, focusing only on what lay ahead, but no matter how much time she had turned back, she was still human and couldn't erase all her feelings.
She felt resentful and sad.
She pitied her own plight; it was pathetic.
She had merely been born, merely lived, merely wanted to live, so why did she have to endure such treatment?
Her eyes stung, and Ariana clenched her fists tightly.
‘Don’t cry. There’s no reason to cry. Crying this much won’t accomplish anything. Don’t waver. There’s no reason to waver. You knew it would be like this. You’re just getting what you deserve, so there’s no need to feel resentful.’
She steadied her weakening heart. She forcibly pulled her crumbling resolve back up.
She recalled Rachel, who had abandoned and trampled her; Helena, who had laughed even while watching Ariana die; the pain of the rough rope digging into her neck; and Victoria, who must have manipulated everything from behind the scenes.
The most pathetic and regrettable thing was that she had trusted them.
The foolish Ariana, who had an absurdly soft heart, craving affection and yearning for recognition.
Therefore, she had to make this heart even harder.
‘If I burst into tears over something like this, that old life will just repeat itself.’
Ariana tried to think of other things to forget her physical pain.
She tried to gauge how Rachel would act next, and what new scheme Victoria would come up with.
She struggled to escape the sorrow that no one acknowledged.
Just then, something fell at Ariana’s feet.
