Marquis Hildegarde and all of his children were gathered for breakfast.
Laila absentmindedly poked at her portion of the meal with a half-dazed expression.
‘This is so ridiculous……. It must be a dream…….’
Her fork shattered the fish into pieces. Laila stared at the mashed fish dish with empty eyes. Although her eyes were fixed on the dish, her mind was occupied with something else.
Specifically, the child in the underground prison.
The child disliked Laila.
No, the term “dislike” seemed too light and cute.
The child detested Laila.
Expressing it as hatred didn’t seem far from the truth either.
‘Why?’
Laila had truly done her best, but her efforts hadn’t reached the child even once in the past few days.
Food? He didn’t eat it. Water? He didn’t drink it. He wouldn’t take either in the first place.
Medicine? She couldn’t apply it. The child prevented Laila from getting close.
Herbs? Although she always left them inside the prison due to unfavorable conditions… the child hadn’t even touched them.
Laila felt unjust, frustrated, and suffocated to the point of madness.
‘Why? Why do you hate me so much?’
Was it because of the punishment he endured? Is he still holding that against me?
‘But it’s strange. His increasing dislike…’
Laila clenched the fork tightly.
Yes, it was truly bizarre.
If the child had merely “disliked” her as before, she might have felt down and disheartened, but she would have tried to ‘understand’.
However, she could be certain. The child’s hatred and hostility towards her had clearly grown as the days passed.
It was incomprehensible.
Was he angry because she was being kind to him?
Why?
Why would he be angry when she was being kind to him?
‘I really don’t understand. It’s driving me crazy. What do I do now?’
She tried to win his favor but gained hatred instead.
Laila didn’t know what else she could do at this point.
Feeling increasingly frustrated, Laila poked at the innocent fish dish once again.
That was when it happened.
“I think we should go hunting this morning.”
Marquis Hildegarde finally revealed the reason for gathering his children early in the morning.
Laila half-heartedly listened to the Marquis’s words.
Not only was her mind preoccupied with thoughts of the child, but the topic of “hunting” wasn’t something Laila usually found interesting.
For one thing, it wasn’t fun. What was the point of doing that?
Why bother with an activity that involved releasing animals into the forest and shooting arrows to hit them?
‘Arrows… Wait, arrows?’
Laila, who had been bent over, looking at the dishes on the table, suddenly lifted her head.
The Marquis continued speaking.
“We won’t delay the departure, so those who are joining should prepare in advance.”
“Wow, hunting!”
“When was the last time we went hunting?”
“This time, I’ll definitely catch a wild boar.”
“You? As long as you don’t get startled and fall off your horse when you see a rabbit, that’ll be a relief.”
“……Want to bet on who catches the bigger one?”
“Sure. What’s the prize?”
“The winner gets to make the loser crawl on all fours and call them ‘Milord’ in front of everyone.”
“Ah, yes. I knew you’d say that. I’ve already prepared a kneepad for you.”
“Really? What a coincidence! I bought one last year too!”
“I actually bought them two years ago.”
“Me too, actually, three years ago…”
“Stop it, both of you; I’m sick of it.”
“Brother Henry, can’t you give me the boar skin?”
The previously quiet dining table suddenly became noisy.
Laila, amidst the commotion of joy, excitement, and anticipation, sat pale and rigid.
It had been a week or so since the child had been brought to the Marquisate.
Hunting.
“Oh my goodness.”
Laila barely suppressed a groan that was about to escape her.
Today was none other than the day the child would die.
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
A beast in crisis finds a solution.
Suddenly, Laila recalled that saying.
She, too, had found an answer.
The problem was executing it, as it went against her will, profoundly, very much so.
‘Do I really have to go this far?’
Laila answered herself immediately.
She must.
Even to this extent.
Because there was no other way.
At least, for now, this seemed to be the only option.
Even if she pondered for a long time, the answer might not change significantly.
The situation Laila found herself in was grim.
“Miss Laila! You were looking for me?”
At that moment, a man in his early thirties opened the door and appeared.
Laila welcomed him into the empty office.
“Yes, come in, Vilhel.”
“What’s the matter that you wanted to talk about privately?”
Vilhel, looking puzzled, closed the office door and approached Laila.
Laila gazed intently at the man with a gentle demeanor.
His name was Vilhel.
Thirty-something… She forgot the exact age because it wasn’t crucial.
And the truly important fact.
Vilhel, the aide who had been serving Marquis Hildegarde for nearly 20 years,
‘He’s been working here since before I was born.’
He must be competent, having worked alongside the villain for such a long time.
Laila needed Vilhel’s competence.
“I have a favor to ask.”
“A favor?”
“Yes, right now…”
Upon hearing Laila’s explanation, Vilhel immediately turned his body.
“Where are you going?”
“I am a busy person. I don’t have time to indulge in your pranks, miss.”
“It’s not a prank.”
“If it’s not a prank, it’s even more of a problem!”
Vilhel stopped at the door and turned to face Laila.
“Are you telling me to steal something from the Marquis’s belongings? Secretly?”
“You can do it.”
“Is my ability to do it the issue here? What if I get caught?”
Vilhel, a man in his thirties, lost his dignity and glared at ten-year-old Laila.
“I guess you’ve never liked me. But I’m not the kind of Vilhel who is amenable to such a crude method.
“Don’t take this the wrong way. I hope Vilhel can continue working at the Marquisate safely for a long time.”
“Is that why…?”
“That’s why I haven’t told Father that Vilhel manipulated the accounts.”
Vilhel, who was about to scold Laila, stiffened.
“…What?”
“I mean altering the double-entry ledger. It happened in the fall two years ago.”
The more Laila spoke, the paler Vilhel’s face became.
“When Father was away for an extended period, you conspired with the butler to embezzle the second half of the budget. Back then, what was embezzled was the cost of herbs…”
“Ugh!”
Vilhel screamed and rushed towards Laila.
However, just before grabbing her, he seemed to regain his composure. He stood in front of her, his hands hovering in the air, as if trying to gather his thoughts.
“Oh, Miss. How on earth did you, uh, find out about that?”
“I found out by accident.”
Actually, Vilhel had said it himself.
Not now, but about three years later.
‘Did Vilhel reveal it first, or did he reveal it at the same time as the butler…….’
The setting was simple.
So, around this time, three years later, a remarkably beautiful widow moved into the Marquis’s estate.
The widow’s beauty was enough to make rumors spread across the entire region.
The unmarried and vigorous men, Vilhel and the butler, went to meet the widow out of curiosity…
‘They both fell in love at first sight.’
And so the tragedy began.
The two men, nearing forty, spared no effort to eliminate each other as rivals for the widow’s affection.
The method they chose for their fight was a disclosure battle.
Vilhel and the butler ruthlessly exposed each other’s secrets and weaknesses, narrowing each other’s ground.
What started as minor secrets and weaknesses gradually escalated, eventually leading to…
‘They revealed even things that shouldn’t have been revealed.’
Thus, the accounting scandal became public, and both the butler and Vilhel met their ends side by side.
Note that “met their end” doesn’t mean they were fired. It means they died.
Quite literally, their lives were hanging by a thread of secrets.
The fact that Laila knows every detail of such secrets made Vilhel tremble.
“Oh, Miss.”
Soon, Vilhel dropped to his knees.
“Please, please spare me. I’m only thirty-five.”
‘So you’re thirty-five, Huh?’
“Isn’t that too young to die?”
Embarrassed to be called young in front of a ten-year-old, Vilhel stammered.
