A little girl as small as a rabbit strangely looked too big.
“I think it’s because Baroness Terran loves her family more than anyone else and is affectionate. Right?”
“Okay, enough. Stop asking useless questions.”
Baroness Terran avoided Elisabeth’s eyes first. It felt strange. She felt like she was being caught by this child.
“I like my family, too. As much that I want to sacrifice.”
As soon as Baroness Terran was in a hurry to get up, she stiffened at the words of Elisabeth.
She slowly turned her head and looked at Elisabeth like a rusty spring doll.
Elisabeth was speaking with a small smile.
“I’ve never seen anyone so warm to me since I was born. Neither my biological father nor my sister did this to me.”
“Everything the men in this family are doing is all acting. To use you!”
“Still, it doesn’t matter. In the past, there was no one who treated me kindly even with such acting. But it’s different here. Even Baroness Terran compliments me on my assignment.”
“…..”
“It was my first time. For something like that.”
There was joy in Elisabeth’s eyes. Baroness Terran could not believe that the child could even laugh at this moment.
“If I can stay with my family like now, anything else will be fine. I’m happy now.”
“It, it’s because you’re young. That’s why you can’t tell the difference. You should stay away from this family!”
“If I die eventually, I want to live happily then die. “
I meant it.
After all, it was my fate to die. Whether I die of illness, executed, or sacrificed for the revenge of the Leschine family.
If so, I wanted to live happily for the rest of my life.
Not just ‘safe’ but ‘happily’ with them.
‘Like Baroness Terran said, it’s possible that I could not discern.’
Elisabeth was an ‘impure blood’. She could not give blood and sacrifice for them. But in her heart, Elisabeth thought she could do it if she had to sacrifice herself.
Elisabeth thought she had become a little bit strange. She liked these people so much that it felt strange because she was so happy to be loved.
“Go back. Today’s class ends here.”
Baroness Terran turned her head. Her voice trembled slightly.
Elisabeth turned and stared at the back of Baroness Terran.
‘I wanted to tell her more.‘
But now was the time when it shouldn’t be.
“I’ll be back in class tomorrow.”
Elisabeth greeted Baroness Terran’s back and left the drawing room.
“Gasp!”
It was the moment when she opened the door. Immediately, Dylan and her eyes met.
“Since when have you been standing there?”
Without an answer, Dylan pulled Elisabeth out of the room and closed the door. He glared angrily at the closed door.
“What did my Aunt say?”
“She just told me a funny story.”
“I could hear you from outside.”
Elisabeth smiled with embarrassment. Dylan stared at the girl with an angry face and sighed.
“If you say that one more time that you sacrifice for our family, I’ll chase you out again.”
Then he said firmly.
“Don’t say that again and don’t even mind it.”
Elisabeth stared into the boy’s face until she was determined.
“Then Dylan should promise he won’t sacrifice himself.”
“Huh?”
Dylan asked back at the unexpected answer. Elisabeth held out her pinky finger.
“Promise me.”
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“You’re not going to make a promise?”
Elisabeth looked up at Dylan quite fiercely. Dylan was in anguish with an expression saying…
‘Do I have to do this at this age?’
…. Then ended up hooking her little finger awkwardly.
“Hey, I promised, so keep it.”
“I got it. Does Dylan keep his promise too?”
“I hate being in pain.”
Elisabeth looked at Dylan, who blushed with shame, with a smile.
‘Lies.’
Dylan was not as enthusiastic in revenge as Victoire or Damon was, but he loved his family. Elisabeth could feel it. As Baroness Terran said, he wouldn’t hesitate to step up for his family.
‘If it weren’t for the Cabezo family, these people wouldn’t have been hurt.’
I naturally remembered my biological father’s face. However, I no longer felt sadness or distress like before. I just hated it. I hated them for making their fate like this.
‘Dylan, whatever fate awaits you, I wish you all well as long as we can live. A little happier.’
Elisabeth took Dylan by the hand. Dylan looked at Elisabeth in surprise.
“Let’s go play!”
“Where are you going to play in the rain?”
Elisabeth smiled silently and walked forward with her hand.
The rain grew stronger in the evening.
‘I have got to go back to the North.’
Baroness Terran stood by the cold window and looked outside.
‘I can’t be with that child anymore.’
Elisabeth was a really unexpected child.
No matter how harsh she tried to be, she laughed lightly, saying that she was grateful to her for being nice. She said she liked it here even though the Baroness told her a secret for her to cry and fall as she was a child.
But she didn’t blame Baroness Terran for telling her the scary truth.
‘That child is the blood of the Cabezos. It can never be connected to my family.’
But her mind kept moving. Every time she pushed Elisabeth away to shake off her affection, she was strangely fond of her.
Polia, whom Baroness Terran met outside, was the Cabezo that she thought of itself. So she thought that Elisabeth would be the same.
But this child was different.
‘This child…’
She might give her heart away if they were to be together any longer. She must return to the North before that.
“Cough, cough.”
Baroness Terran suddenly coughed.
“Madam, you’ve been by the cold window for too long.”
The maid hurried after her and said.
“Get me a cup of warm tea.”
“Yes, Madam.”
“And let’s get ready to go back to the North tomorrow.”
“Already? You’ve only been with the Count for a while. Everyone will be sad if you leave already.”
“The blunt men in this family…”
Elisabeth’s face floated to mind in the head of Baroness Terran, who was laughing.
“I don’t know if that child will be sad.”
She could not shake off the thought of Elisabeth.
The next day, Baroness Terran could not return to the North.
“I won’t have a class today?”
“Yes, Miss. The Baroness has a bad cold.”
Elisabeth looked disappointed inside the drawing room.
As for the maid, she was amazed by Elisabeth who had such an incident with the Baroness yesterday, and was the same as usual and even worried about the Baroness.
‘Simple like a child, on the other hand, she’s very mature. I understand Madam’s concern.’
Elisabeth, who did not know what the maid was thinking, raised her innocent face and looked at the maid.
“May I see her face and ask if she’s okay?”
“I’ll give her your regards. The miss is too young so you’ll catch the cold. “
‘How much does it hurt to not be able to attend classes or see my face?’
Baroness Terran looked like a person of iron who would stand firm against any disease.
She was also a human being. Even a small cold had knocked her down.
‘Are you stressed because of the conversation you had with me yesterday?’
She had all sorts of thoughts. Elisabeth took a heavy step.
Baroness Terran was a strict teacher, but she felt empty today thinking she couldn’t see her today.
‘I’m so bored even when I don’t hear the Baroness’ angry scolding. It doesn’t feel empty if you look at it like you don’t like it.’
Marian then asked Elisabeth, who was playing a boring puzzle.
“Usually, young ladies and young masters like it when they don’t have classes. Why are you disappointed?”
“I know. It’s weird for me too. “
“Pardon?”
When Elisabeth answered, Marian laughed and asked. Elisabeth smiled embarrassingly.
“I feel like I have to memorize a heavy book right now, and I think I need to solve a difficult problem by groaning, but I can’t do it, so I’m bored.”
“You’ll be more bored because it’s already cloudy outside and you can’t go out and play. You have no one to hang out with, because young master Dylan is at Marquis Dalton’s.”
Victoire and Damon went to work early in the morning, and Dylan went to take lessons with Marquis Dalton.
The only person in the family who was in the house was Baroness Terran.
‘If it’s a legally connected family, then I’m the only one.’
It was a pity that she was not with Baroness Terran when they were alone.
‘If she knew I was thinking this, she’d go crazy again, right?’
How dare you pretend to be a family with me? She will be angry. When she thought of it, she wasn’t strangely scared, but only laughed.
‘She’ll be so angry and then she’ll be sorry unknowingly.’
(*t/n: lmao she got the baroness in her hands)
Although she had not known Baroness Terran for a long time, Elisabeth realized this while taking lessons from her. Baroness Terran was not a bad person. Baroness Terran always looked angry, but she was actually a pure and good-hearted person.
She had human compassion without concealing her anger.
So Elisabeth liked Baroness Terran.
“It’s frustrating to stay in my room all the time. I’ll take a walk in the mansion.”
“Shall I go with you, miss?”
“No. I’m good enough alone. Don’t worry, Marian, I won’t go outside the mansion.”
Elisabeth left the room on the pretext of boredom.
The tranquil mansion was filled with the noise of the rain.
Elisabeth quietly approached the room where Baroness Terran resided. The sound of the door opening melted into the sound of rain and could not be heard.
“…..”
The maid, who had been nursing Baroness Terran since dawn, was dozing off on a chair. Her face was full of fatigue.
Elisabeth crept up on Baroness Terran. There was a dry towel on the forehead of Baroness Terran on the bed. There was a bowl of water on the tray next to the bed.
“Ughh…”
Baroness Terran was very sick and moaned in her sleep.
“How sad.”
Elisabeth wet the dry towel and squeezed it tightly and put it on the forehead of Baroness Terran.
The groans of Baroness Terran reduced.
Elisabeth held her chin on the bed and looked at the sleeping Baroness Teran.
“Father, Mother…”
Baroness Terran talked in her sleep.
Then she made a face.
‘Does Baroness Terran suffer from nightmares like Victoire?’
The demise of the Leschine family was a terrible incident that Baroness Terran suffered as a child. Elisabeth could not forget the abuse she suffered in the Cabezo duchy, so it was natural that the brother and sister could not get out of the nightmare.
‘We are maybe alike.’
Elisabeth felt strange. At the same time, a sad feeling filled her heart.
Elisabeth held the hand of the fevered Baroness Terran.
“Mother…”
Baroness Terran smiled.