“It’s time to go back.”
The knight, who watched my mother’s death with me, held my hand tightly.
‘No, I haven’t seen her yet!‘ Even though it was a miserable and horrible figure, I wanted to see her until the end to keep it in my eyes.
Since this is the last time, after this i won’t be able to see you anymore!
‘A little more; a little more!’
At least, I wanted to wipe away the tears that were in my mother’s eyes.
But my desperate defiance was just one of the little annoyances for the knight.
The knights wanted to dispose the body even faster.
I gave my body strength to try to move forward. Then the knight, with a strong grip on my arm, looked down at me with an irritated face.
I saw that he was trying to yell out loud as if he wouldn’t hold back his anger, so I hurriedly asked him before he even got angry.
“What’s going to happen to my mom now?”
“……”
The knight’s gaze immediately became strange at the question. A very slight sense of bewilderment seemed to remind him that I was only seven years old.
He didn’t know what to say so he just stayed silent.
Well, I’m just a seven-year-old kid.
Since I’m not old enough to understand what happens, so now how will you explain me that?
The knight kept his mouth shut a few times, and he soon raised his lips. There was scorn in his eyes.
“Your mother will be punished now. “
“…..”
Punishment… so you’re saying it wasn’t a punishment she recieved untill now?
Yeah, I didn’t even expect you to comfort me.
To them, I am not a seven-year-old child, but finally,
Because she’s the daughter of a dead evil woman!
The knight’s eyes glanced back. My mother’s body was covered with a larger white cloth than before.
I saw my mom’s cold body being moved by someone to somewhere else. And the knight threw a terrible look at her side and looked at me. His hateful eyes were no different than when he looked at my mother.
“Your mother was punished by going to hell for doing bad things.”
“…bad things?”
“Yes, bad things! So don’t do any bad things and live a good life.”
The knight wanted to add something else, but he turned his head and shut his mouth again.
Maybe he wanted to say otherwise, you’d turn out to be like your mother.
The knight dragged me out once again. The disdainful glance which were seen a liitle while ago, couldn’t be erased from his sight.
I turned my head back as I struggled along the knight’s fast steps. A narrow, grayish-colored spire was seen above the high stairs.
‘Living was like hell, but you’re going to hell even if you die?’
My mom only did it to protect her, and you kept her locked up in a place like this until she died.
What did my mom do to you guys so badly?
What did I do to you guys?
Because I couldn’t eat properly, my small size body is now being dragged away by the knight. I can feel the gaze from behind.
Is it a malicious or a reproachful gaze? What is certain is that none of them feel sorry for the daughter who lost her mother.
Neither sympathetic nor comforting gaze exists. That was the reality given to me.
The novel did not elaborate on the death of the wicked woman and her daughter. I guess it was enough to mention such a dark story in one line after a happy ending.
But-
What if the heroine didn’t disturb the couple in the first place?
What if she hadn’t touched a man with a wife?
If she had fallen in love with another sub-man, It wouldn’t be like this!
History is said to be recorded from the winner’s point of view.
My mom will be remembered as a loser and a wicked woman who will never be good even if she is burned to death forever.
And I will also be recorded in the story as an extra who died miserably.
‘I don’t like that.’
My mother’s death was the intended ending of this novel.
My death is also scheduled.
I’ll be surrounded and beaten to death by many people tomorrow according to the flow of the novel.
‘Because I’m the daughter of a wicked woman?’
That’s not funny.
Even if I raise my head, there is no good look at me. Even though i am just a child and have just lost my mother.
I tried to keep my composure and gave strength to my body, but failed to withstand the force of the knight who dragged me and fell down.
I fell down with a pretty loud noise, so I could feel the eyes of the people around me again. I slowly raised my head and tried to stand up without even thinking about the prickly and negative gaze around me.
I can’t see the faces of the people around me.
The sky was so clear that it looked strangely grayish.
And in such a grayish world, I could see people dyed black.
They looked down at me with sharp eyes as if they wanted to tear me to pieces.
They were looking at me as if I was a monster.
But to me, they were the real monsters.
***
“Oh, my God! Daphne!”
I turned my head when I heard the sound of running and a sweet voice that didn’t fit in here.
The only woman who was nice to me in the nursery was running fast towards me.
‘….was it Ulinee?’
I searched through my hardened mind and remembered her name, then i called out her name.
“..Ulinee”
“Yes, Daphne. my God. You’re just gonna watch her fall like that?”
An angry voice made the knight standing next to her had a wry look.
Then the knight stared at me from behind Ulinee, who raised and supported me. He glared at me as if it was my fault that I fell so why should he be the one hearing that and turned his head away.
I didn’t even want to deal with it.
“Oh, my God. Your knees are all scraped.”
“…..”
“Let’s go back quickly and heal it.”
If you’re talking about going back, you are probably talking about the nursery.
‘…Wait a minute.’
Come to think of it, I’ll end up living in a nursery school, so how the hell am I going to be beaten to death?
My death would have been marked as a single line in the novel.
So how the hell do i die ..?
“Oh, Daphne. You must be very sick. What should I do?”
‘Why was she outside the nursery…?’
The voice of the one who was sad to see my wound suddenly stopped.
I raised my head, feeling strange, and met her eyes, which were more glistening than usual.
“Oh, there’s someone to meet before we go back.”
“Who?”
Ulinee smiled at my question and nodded.
And there was a big shadow over us as we had waited for it. I felt something was strange and began to raise my head slowly.
A large physique, dark navy hair as if the night sky were stained, and a sharp jawline that matches those sharp-eyed eyes. There was one thing that stood out above the colorful appearance that told me he was the main character.
The glittering gold eyes that I’ve only seen in the mirror.
I was able to notice instinctively. The fact that the person standing before me is my father.
I quickly lowered my head before my father made a eye contact with me.
My body trembled because I felt like his eyes were full of displeasure that was directed at me.
My mom died, and now I have…Dad the only one who didn’t even care about my existence.
If even my dad throw me away, I’m really going to…
I wiped my sweaty hands on my hook which were caused by nervousness.
“Who is this child?”
The knight seemed a little perplexed at the question.
Ulinee, who had already come to my side, spoke in a bright voice.
“This child is the daughter of the Duke.”
“Daughter?”
It was a ridiculous voice.
I could hear a voice asking the knight next to me, leaving Ulinee behind.
His voice full of irritation asked, and the knight who hesitated, answered.
“She’s the daughter of the evil Freyr.”
“…ha.”
A deafening sigh and a clear feeling of displeasure. A cold gaze that descended upon me.
‘… but if you miss this opportunity.’
I’ll die tomorrow, no matter what.
‘I don’t want to die…’
I moved my hand slowly, unable to raise my head.
As if a doll was moving, she raised her fluttering arm to the point where he almost shook her trembling hands.
“Pa…pa.”
And when I started calling my dad i slowly started to lift my head up.
He refused to listen to what i was trying to say and backed away as if he was avoiding my hand trying to hold onto the hem of his robe.
“Not my child.”
“……”
His eyes went through my eyes to the crumbly, short hair.
Purple hair, color passed down by my mother.
Perhaps it reminded him of my mother, his expression got deeper than before.
“It can’t be true.”
There was no hesitation in his firm answer.
“She was a woman who hired someone to hurt Eunice. Since she didn’t have money, she probably said that she would give herself away to one of them.”
“It’s understandable since she was a woman who had been trying hard to keep power and her place better than love.”
There was a terrible silence.
“Don’t dare put a dirty child in your mouth, as my child, when no one knows whose blood is flowing in her.”
When that was over, knights with my mother’s body came down behind us.
Dad, or the Duke, moved his steps towards the people as if he had no interest in me, and soon after, there was a peculiar, lifting sound of the cloth.
“You certainly died. I know the body. Take care of it.”
As if there was nothing more to see, the Duke walked out of there without hesitation.
The last time he visited was to confirm the death of his wife.
The evil woman’s death, my mother’s death, was miserable to the end.
It was a death that everyone was happy about.
***
I was led back to the nursery by Ulinee’s hand.
On the way, Ulinee didn’t say anything to me and that wasn’t like her.
I’d normally feel strange, but I wasn’t in a condition to notice it.
As soon as Ulinee entered the nursery, she looked down at me with a cold gaze, as the Duke did.
“…Ulinee?”
The expression of Ulinee, who always smiled at my small voice, was stiff.
“Ah, really.”
A voice full of annoyance, not the usual kind voice. The woman, who swept my hair roughly, looked down at me.
“I thought what I was holding was a golden cord to straighten out my life but, it was a rotten one.”
A scornful look now followed over the irritated voice.
“I tried to follow her and live comfortably as a duchess’s nanny.”
Only then I could see why she was kind to me.
“Ah, I’m so annoyed. What should I do? “
A voice that couldn’t stand anger, and then, with the end of the words, came the sneer from behind.