Chapter 4
“I want to go in there.”
“Yes?”
He couldn’t have misheard it because she said it clearly.
Moreover, Elysia’s finger pointed to the annex, so Rizbeth immediately knew what the young Miss meant.
“Right now, I’m sure you have the key with you.”
“……”
“So, can you open the door for me?”
He didn’t say anything in return to Elysia. When she said what she wanted straightforwardly, Rizbeth relaxed his expression.
He seemed to have thought that Elysia was still a child asking an adult for something that she wanted.
He thought she was whining for something like a little child would.
Rizbeth had heard about Elysia’s personality, after all.
Realizing what Rizbeth loosened his expression meant, Elysia paused before saying something further.
Judging from his relaxed expression, he seemed to be trying to hold back from cooing as best as possible.
No way.
Elysia tilted her head and smiled.
“Miss Elysia. It’s… It’s very dirty in there. So I recommend you not to go in if possible.”
Rizbeth, who thought Elysia was unaware that there was a person in the annex, made an excuse without thinking deeply.
That meant that Eden was locked up in a dirty place.
It added one more reason that would lead Eden to die, though it wasn’t something that Elysia did.
“But I want to meet the kid inside.”
“?!”
Rizbeth was surprised that Elysia knew there was a person inside.
He seemed to want to ask right away if she heard it from the Duke.
However, Rizbeth only had his lips twitching but couldn’t even bring up about the Duke at all.
Elysia liked that even more.
It was proof that he was tight-lipped. Elysia, who confirmed that her judgement wouldn’t miss, continued.
“I didn’t hear that from my father.”
Elysia could hear the sound of his brain rolling.
Elysia, who knew that she shouldn’t let him think any deeper, could only tell him the only information she could give to Rizbeth.
“My father didn’t know that I knew it.”
“…..”
“If he knows, it will be a big problem.”
It was evident that Duke Valtine valued himself more than Elysia in the original work. So, he wasn’t someone who would leave Elysia who knew about Eden alone.
“That’s why I came to you.”
“My apologies. I couldn’t let you in.”
Rizbeth shook his head with a determined face as he made up his mind.
However, Elysia didn’t give up.
She couldn’t give up.
It was a gamble that had already begun, and if she gave up at this point, Rizbeth would report it to the Duke.
“Will you make a deal with me?”
“… A deal?”
“Yes. I don’t think you would receive any bribe and would not violate my father’s orders.”
Rizbeth was a knight that valued orders. Just looking at their brief conversation, Rizbeth was a tight-lipped one.
Elysia was confident in herself. That she could offer the price that he wouldn’t be able to refuse.
“I heard that your brother is sick?”
When Elysia mentioned his younger brother, Rizbeth could tell where this conversation would lead to.
In fact, instead of a violent temper, he could feel despise and resentment rising inside, but Elysia brushed them aside.
The resentment of others was nothing to Elysia.
She had resented others enough she wanted to kill them, and she still did now.
The negative feeling of resentment drove Elysia to this point.
“After Baron and Baroness Monty passed, I heard you couldn’t afford to pay for your brother’s medical expenses….”
“Did you do a background check on me?”
“Yes.”
He couldn’t find any guilt on Elysia’s face.
As expected, the rumour must have been true. Word had it that the Duke’s first daughter, Elysia, resembled her father a lot.
Rizbeth felt dumb for thinking of Elysia as an average little child, even for a moment.
His shoulders trembled. Even though he knew Elysia had done a background investigation on him, Rizbeth wasn’t in a position where he could reprimand her.
“Sir Rizbeth, did you become a knight in our family to make more money?”
“……”
“I’m also in a position to grant you extra money.”
Instead, Elysia continued as if she didn’t know how revealing the secret would cost Rizbeth’s life.
“By anything that I want….”
“I’ll pay for all the treatment.”
“…..?”
“I don’t care if it costs more than my father gives you. If you want, I’ll send your brother to the Empire to help him get better treatment.”
It was definitely a good offer.
That was more than the conditions suggested by the Duke of Valtine.
In the first place, Duke Valtine didn’t know Rizbeth’s family situation. All he just suggested was the condition of giving him a higher salary.
Rizbeth tilted his neck and looked down at Elysia.
He looked like he didn’t understand why he was taking the bait offered by the kid in front of him.
Moreover, he was more questioning whether Elysia had enough money to cover his brother’s medical expenses.
“I have a lot of money.”
The kid in front of him was none other than the daughter of a Duke, but was she really capable of paying the treatment?
To be exact, it was the money she saved for the future.
‘Though I saved it for a house to live with Ariel later…’
By then, would Ariel build a family with Eden?
Elysia worried about her younger sister’s marriage, who hadn’t even hit puberty yet.
“To be honest… You grab my attention..”
The face of the Duke of Valtine, who told him to keep his mouth shut about Eden, had long disappeared from Rizbeth’s head.
Instead, his brother’s face, who was younger than Elysia, filled his head.
The younger brother, the one who lived coughing every day and sometimes vomited blood on bad days.
Rizbeth could do anything for his brother, who was his only family left.
However, that didn’t mean that he brought himself to fully believe Elysia, who wasn’t any older than his brother.
Moreover, he felt insulted because he felt like he was being threatened by his own brother.
“Are you sure you want to make a deal with me?”
There was nothing such as a one-sided deal. It was apparent that this deal was a low-key threat.
At Rizbeth’s question, Elysia replied with a victimized look.
“How could it be a threat? Even if Sir Rizbeth refuses my offer, I won’t do any harm to you or your brother. Instead, I just have to think another way to get in there.”
Credibility had long disappeared from the little lady of the Duke of Valtine the moment she conducted a background check on him.
“If I was going to threaten you in the first place, I wouldn’t have brought up about paying the treatment expenses.”
It made sense. Rizbeth, who couldn’t find anything to refute, turned his eyes to the ground.
“Should I give you some time to think?”
Rizbeth would accept her offer anyway. It wasn’t something that took time to think about.
She also knew well that he couldn’t trust her as she was still young.
But Rizbeth was still hesitating because he couldn’t throw aside the other facts.
It seemed to bother him that she did a background investigation, mentioned his younger brother, and talked about the price she could offer.
Elysia removed her harmless expression and smiled.
“It may sound like I’m encouraging you, but if I were you, I would accept my offer.”
“……”
“I understand that you are not comfortable that I did a background investigation about you and tried to make a deal involving your younger brother. But Sir Rizbeth doesn’t have an obligation to accept my offer.”
Elysia knew he shouldn’t be encouraged. She was just going to give him some time and wait.
The reason why Elysia changed her mind was that Rizbeth would think of her as a bad person.
“I’m sure I’m looking at someone who wouldn’t run away after receiving my money.”
It was the same as saying you didn’t have the luxury to judge me.
At Elysia’s last words, Rizbeth bit his lower lip tightly.
“I’ll ask you again. Do you need more time to think?”
If he opened his clenched fist, the nail marks would definitely appear on his palm.
Elysia, who glanced at Rizbeth’s fist, continued to observe for positive signs.
Only then did Rizbeth rummage into his pocket and took out the key.
It was the key to the annex where Eden was detained.
Elysia watched the tightly closed door with her breath held.
Strangely, she didn’t feel like she wanted to be in the dark room any longer.
Somehow, she felt colder inside the annex than outside.
Elysia looked around the room to find the figure of the person.
Perhaps it was just Rizbeth’s excuses, but the interior of the annex didn’t look so dirty.
“I stand guard until midnight. So you have to go back before then if possible.”
“I get it.”
Upon hearing the definite answer, Rizbeth left Elysia and went outside.
Several rays of light fell from the window secured with bars.
As she shifted her gaze along with the light, a white seal caught Elysia’s eyes.
“Ah….”
Elysia, who sighed, slightly opened her mouth.
She had only known all the characters in the form of writing. She knew the existence and names of the main characters, but she only roughly imagined their appearance from writing.
‘That kid…’
A boy sitting on the bed with a blank face clearly caught Elysia’s eyes.
Eden.
He was the male protagonist of “The Prison in which Ariel was Locked Up” and the man who would save Elysia’s beloved sister later in the future.
Elysia, who took her time thinking in front of the door, closed her mouth and quietly approached Eden.
The closer she got, the clearer she could see his appearance.
White hair like snow caused the illusion of his hair looking almost silver.
However, considering that it didn’t reflect the lights that illuminated the room, it wasn’t silver but white as described in the book.
Eden, sitting motionless, had never blinked since Elysia entered the room.
Thanks to this, Eden’s important purple eyes were more visible for her to see.
Finally, his skinny body, which she didn’t know if it was due to his natural build or because he didn’t eat properly, his chapped lips like someone had squeezed them dry, and his bruised face made Elysia frown as the light from outside illuminated the room.
‘Is it from what the Duke of Valtine did?’
If so, the Duke was a heartless human being who didn’t see him as a child.
‘I’m one to say, but he is beyond horrible.’
Elysia, who created her place under the wings of the terrible man by using all kinds of flattery, was also just as awful.
Elysia didn’t deny that point.
Because in the future, she had to save her own life by all means.