Chapter 24
It had been a week and a half since she had returned to the mansion. That also meant that exactly the same amount of time had passed since Sis had not left her bedroom.
Her mind was still in turmoil, as if she were in a typhoon. In this state, she couldn’t handle her family’s work or anything else.
The two facts suddenly thrown in front of her made her mind dizzy.
First of all, Sis couldn’t believe that she hesitated to die.
My lifelong wish, my hope, my longing. Wasn’t that death? But she gave up on dying just because she was afraid that Alexis would get hurt. She abandoned the easy path that was right in front of her and went back to the difficult path.
And one more thing. Her portraits filled the exhibition hall. Evidence that Alexis knew her.
In retrospect, her plan to approach Alexis had worked out much more easily than she had expected. Despite their suspicious first meeting, their suspicious behavior, and their unconvincing story.
Things were going smoothly, so I pretended not to notice, but as I thought back, I couldn’t help but feel a strange. If I were Alexis, I would never let her be by my side, so my approach was so unsightly.
I now realize why the whole process was easy. Alexis was tolerating all the little lies and looking after her. I don’t know why, but that’s what happened when the truth was revealed before my eyes.
For that reason, Sis was spending her first free day in her entire life. She lay on the bed and didn’t move. As she sat there, her thoughts kept branching out and moving forward. Even though these were questions that couldn’t be solved by thinking alone.
I would rather be busy than think less, but I was in no condition to work, so I was in a dilemma.
“Master.”
Derrick, the butler, came to her bedroom. Sis, who was lying on the bed, got up and greeted him.
“What’s going on?”
“A letter has arrived requesting your permission to visit.”
“From whom?”
A visit request from someone who doesn’t have much connection to the capital city? I was puzzled and at the same time felt strangely furious.
“This is the Duke of Vegas.”
Her hand, which had been fiddling with the end of the blanket, flinched.
She began to retreat to her desolate and lonely mansion again, and stopped visiting the duke’s residence every day. Alexis probably didn’t know why Siss was acting like this all of a sudden. So he must have sent people and letters to her mansion during the ten-day period.
Of course, Sis was still unable to grasp the matter, so she ignored all of them. She ignored the letters with the Duke’s seal on it, and returned the servant from the Duke’s residence without a word. It was a subtle expression of rejection.
Then, on the tenth day, today, a letter arrived saying that he would visit in person. Sis let out a heavy sigh.
“Tell him that I said I couldn’t give him permission because my health is not good.”
Derrick looked at her with a face that seemed to have a lot to say. The master, who had always been the same, was acting unusually strange these days. However, since he was a subordinate, he had no right to ask her questions until she confessed first, and he had no choice but to use the quick wit of a butler who had served her for a long time to figure out what was going on.
The master’s mood seemed very uncomfortable these days, and it reached its peak when Duke Alexis Vegas was involved.
She spent a long time staring at the letter sent by the Duke of Vegas, and after spending the whole time locked in her bedroom, she went out of her bedroom for the first time when she heard that the Duke’s servant had come to visit.
In that respect, it was obvious that she was very sensitive about the Duke of Vegas.
“Are you sure you can really say that?”
Derrick asked again. Sis, who was running her hands through her messy hair, looked back at Derrick with a crooked look.
“Was what I said that difficult to understand?”
“… … No. Then I will tell him so.”
The butler bowed without saying anything more. Derrick, who was about to leave the bedroom in a hurry, thinking of the Duke who would be waiting, stopped when he remembered something he had forgotten.
“Oh, and Master, Hosson has arrived.”
Hosson, who had been beaten up by Alexis at the ballroom and escaped, had disappeared in fear of the backlash that would come back at him. Of course, Sis was not going to just sit back and watch, and had only given orders to keep track of his movements. After all, he was in Sis’s hands, and even if he had run away, it was only a matter of time before he would be caught. So I thought I would give him a brief reprieve until my confusion calmed down.
However, Hosson, who had run away, crawled into the count’s residence in person after ten full days, for some unknown reason.
“Bring him to the office.”
Siss, who had been coldly reprimanded, grabbed the bedside rattle. After calling Becky and getting ready for the first time in a long while, she headed to her office.
Hosson was on his knees, tied up by the knight. His expression was terrified as he turned his head when he sensed someone. He slowly crawled towards Sis, who was sitting leisurely on the desk.
“Your Majesty, I have come to ask for your forgiveness for what I did a while ago.”
At first, he ran away without thinking, but he knew his situation well. Even if he could escape the crisis right now, Sis would eventually find him. How could she not find even one knight who was under the Count’s command?
So, he wanted to run away to another empire that was hard to reach. However, because he had been buying things recklessly, he had already squandered most of the money he had received from Sis. However, if he continued like this, he would only be wasting time.
Hasson racked his brain for a few days, not knowing what to do, and finally came up with the idea of asking for forgiveness. While employed as ‘Dalian Millan’, Hasson had made several minor mistakes before, but each time, Sis Millan had been generous in forgiving him.
Yes, so maybe this time too, she can forgive him with the same heart as before. Hasson, consumed by fear, rationalized absurdly and eventually returned from where he had run away on his own two feet.
“I guess you are starting to get scared again.”
“I was drunk that day… … and I made a huge mistake. I’m really sorry. Please forgive me just this once!”
Hosson hit his forehead hard enough to make a thud. Sis glared at the back of his head, wanting to hit him right away, and rubbed her throbbing temples.
“I don’t intend to give you a second chance, so you should go now.”
Sis nodded to her knights. Then the knights who had been binding Hasson stepped back. Hasson sat up with his eyes wide open.
“Hey, did you forgive me?”
Sis, with her arms crossed, stared at Hosson without saying a word. Hosson bowed and thanked her, though he did not know what he had read in that gaze and interpreted it in his own way.
Sis, who almost burst out laughing because he was so shocked, somehow held it back and pointed to the door.
“Go out and look.”
“Yes, yes!”
Whether he believed that things had been resolved well or not, Hosson left the office without saying a word. Sis, who had been watching his back, spoke to the butler as soon as the door closed.
“Take care of it today.”
Even if you beg in front of her, the fact that he is a target that needs to be dealt with will not change. Hosson is a vile person. So even if you are afraid of the immediate future, you never know how he might use the nondisclosure agreement later on with malicious intent due to the breach of contract. It is better to deal with dangerous people who might cause trouble early.
And Sis had no intention of forgiving him, even for the rudeness he had committed against me.
The knight bowed his head as if he were obeying an order and quietly left the office like a shadow. Hosson would become a corpse and leave this life today.
* * *
Alexis stared at Derrick with a frosty gaze. Derrick stood calmly, seemingly unafraid of the cold stares dripping from his eyes.
“Sick?”
“Yes.”
“How much pain she must be in that she can’t even show her face?”
“She is not feeling very well.”
Derrick answered the question calmly without flinching, but inside he was hiding his surprise.
He left the mansion to decline the visitation request, but instead of the servant who brought him the letter, the Duke of Vegas was waiting for him at the front gate. Judging from the way he was harassing me, it seemed that he had guessed that after several days of negative response, this request would also be declined, so he came here.
Derrick looked at Alexis, who was sitting on the carriage with his eyes half-open. As if to prove that he was popular with the ladies, his beautiful appearance was not hidden by his frowning expression. However, Derrick also worked for several years under a master whose looks were enough to conquer the social world, so he was not very impressed.
Looking at the motionless butler, Alexis felt suffocated as if something had been weighing heavily on his chest for the past few days.
On the day he returned from the ball, he was proud that he had become a little closer to Sis. The sweet conversation they had in the drawing room still filled his heart with warmth.
But then, Sis Millan suddenly stopped coming to see me. I sent her a letter and even sent a servant, but all I got in return was silence.
It was not that he did not know why she was acting like this. Alexis had been briefed on what had happened ten days ago.
He guessed that Sis would come to the exhibition hall if she woke up at dawn, so he relaxed the security in advance.
It wasn’t for any grand reason like trying to trap her. I just wanted to show her the room. I wanted to reveal what I was hiding first, and hear what she was thinking.
It was an action I took because I wanted her to speak for herself. If I had wanted to find out, I could have, but at some point, the emotions that came rushing in made me feel awkward about suspecting Sis.
It was on the night of the ball that I realized it most clearly, when I still had doubts and kept asking her about her family. I felt uncomfortable with myself for asking her questions all the time, trying to find out something.
So on the night of the ball, Sis left the reception room and stopped by the exhibition hall. He was certain of it. She must have seen the many portraits hanging in the exhibition hall that night.
They were the very reason Alexis created the exhibition and it was also his most precious treasure.
He searched for the ‘red-haired woman’ he had met 20 years ago, and at the same time, he made a portrait of her every year. This was because he was afraid that he would forget her face at some point. The woman’s face was the only information he had, so he never wanted to forget it. However, human memory tends to fade over time.
