ICBV Chapter 20

Done by Sid(Alina)

Chapter 20

Jessie’s grip on the trolley handle tightened.

If she were fired from here, there was no chance she could find a better job elsewhere. Despite her family’s difficult financial situation, she had attended a four-year women’s vocational school and passed the grueling exams to become a maid at the Count’s estate.

“…”

Jessie earned about 250 berks a month, more than half of which she sent back home. Her widowed father was an unemployed drunkard, and she had two younger siblings to support.

If she lost this job… she might have to do something even more grueling for less than half the pay.

“Really… it’s too much… Lady Aira only cares about herself.”

The sight of Aira’s crimson eyes alone was enough to instill a primal sense of fear.

As a proper noblewoman, Aira was elegant, haughty, and beautiful. She was someone far beyond the reach of insignificant maids like Jessie, someone who gave orders from above as Jessie groveled on the ground.

It was only after meeting Lady Luna that Jessie began to feel the unfairness of this dynamic.

Despite being of the same Marcelline bloodline, how could Lady Luna be so warm and gentle?

Whenever Luna confided in them, the maids learned even more about Aira’s true nature: how arrogant and cruel she was, devoid of any sense of compassion.

Gemma, Aira’s devoted maid, would always deny those claims in a fit of anger, but that was likely because she hoped to gain a few scraps of favor by staying close to Aira.

“If all of you are dismissed… I don’t know what I’d do. Just thinking about it makes me feel so helpless. Talking and spending time with you all has been my only joy…” Luna’s trembling eyes seemed genuinely sorrowful.

Jessie suddenly stopped pushing the trolley.

From her pocket, she pulled out one of the vials.

If just one vial could cause someone to suffer stomach trouble for a week, then Aira wouldn’t be able to make her announcement about dismissals in three days.

She might still end up losing her job… but at least she could exact a small revenge, if only for Lady Luna.

“…”

Jessie furrowed her brows, her hand trembling as she uncapped the vial.

It was then that a chillingly calm voice rang out behind her.

“What are you doing, Jessie?”

Startled, she turned her head slightly, only to see the one person she could never afford to be caught by at this moment.

Though there was no breeze, her golden hair seemed to glimmer as if it were softly moving.

Her cold red eyes shone like rubies, and her pale lips were curved into a faint, icy smile.

The legitimate daughter of the Marcelline family—Lady Aira Marcelline.

Jessie felt her heart drop.

“Ah, my lady… you’re already here,” Jessie stammered, hurriedly trying to screw the cap back onto the vial with her shaking hands.

But Aira swiftly stepped forward and snatched it out of her grasp.

Jessie’s eyes widened in panic, her heart pounding as if it might burst out of her chest.

“Hmm…”

Aira held the vial up to the light, narrowing her eyes as she examined it.

Well-read as she was, Aira recognized the substance from the label printed on the vial. It even had a small warning strip attached—a detail that Jessie, unfamiliar with medical terminology, likely hadn’t noticed.

“Jessie…”

Aira’s lips moved as she spoke her name, her crimson eyes boring into the maid’s pale, terrified face.

Jessie, feeling as though her heart might leap out of her chest, stood frozen under her piercing gaze.

The fire in her vivid red eyes was both chilling and searing, leaving Jessie trapped between cold dread and burning shame.

“Let’s have a little chat.”

**

Aira’s room, contrary to her proud and domineering personality, was surprisingly modest.

In fact, it could even be described as simpler than Luna’s room.

Luna once claimed that Aira’s stark sense of cleanliness was the reason for her minimalist choices.

As Jessie stared absentmindedly at a butterfly perched on a flowerpot on the balcony, she momentarily forgot her anxiety.

Jessie snapped back to reality, clutching her chest as she took a deep breath.

One wrong word today could mean not just getting fired, but in the worst-case scenario, standing on the gallows.

How could she have dared to think of mixing a laxative into a noblewoman’s meal?

“You’re beautiful, my lady,” said Gemma as she finished brushing Aira’s hair.

Aira turned away from the mirror and walked toward the table where Jessie sat.

Jessie, dressed in her maid’s uniform, hunched her shoulders and bowed her head even lower as Aira approached. Her trembling hands were so pale they looked bloodless.

When Aira sat down at the table, Gemma excused herself, saying she would fetch some tea, leaving the two alone in the room.

Jessie felt her throat dry up in the silence of Aira’s quarters.

“Jessie,” Aira’s calm voice broke the stillness.

Unlike Luna’s high and cheerful tone, Aira’s voice was always steady and quiet.

“Y-yes, my lady,” she stammered.

The way Aira’s gaze bore into her and the oppressive silence felt like a form of torture to her, stretching endlessly.

She briefly considered falling to her knees and begging for forgiveness.

But then—

“Have you been going through a hard time?”

Her sudden question made Jessie’s eyebrows twitch in surprise.

She looked up hesitantly, meeting Aira’s eyes.

Those elegant and noble eyes, which should have been filled with disdain, held no malice as they observed her.

“Ah… I…” Jessie stuttered.

“Yes,” Aira said softly. “There are days when life feels unbearable.”

Her voice carried a tone of self-mockery, something that seemed utterly unfitting for a noblewoman of the prestigious Marcelline family.

Jessie’s heart sank further.

What is she talking about?

Turning her gaze toward the distant window, Aira continued, “I’ve felt the same. There were moments when death seemed like a kinder alternative. Yet, in the face of death, the one thing that surfaces is an overwhelming desire to live.”

Even while praying for vengeance, the instinct for survival would always dominate one’s thoughts. It was simply the most primal nature of all living beings.

“So…” Aira turned her eyes back to Jessie.

“You would have regretted it if you had taken that medicine.”

Jessie’s heart dropped at those words.

But then, relief began to creep in as she realized something.

Aira had misunderstood. She thought Jessie had been trying to take the medicine herself.

That meant Aira hadn’t discovered what she had actually intended to do.

At least for now, she wouldn’t be punished or thrown out.

“A-ah… my lady…” Jessie struggled to mask her emotions.

Her thoughts spun as one sentence from Aira stuck out in her mind: ‘There are days when life feels unbearable.’

Jessie’s eyes wavered violently at the implication.

Aira, oblivious to her reaction, let out a small sigh.

“Felopoison,” Aira said, holding up the vial. “It’s a stimulant for horses, but for humans, it can stop the heart. It says so right here on the label. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice your attempt at suicide?”

“S-suicide?” Jessie gasped.

“Yes. This is poison. And not just any poison—deadly poison.”

Her eyes widened in shock, her thoughts spinning out of control.

That can’t be. Lady Luna said it would only cause a stomachache.

**

“Please…”

Luna clasped her hands together, praying for the first time in her life to a god she had never believed in.

In a fleeting moment, Aira had gnawed away at Luna’s foundation like a mouse devouring cheese.

By the time Luna realized it, she was stranded on a lone raft in the middle of an endless ocean.

Sweat beaded on her forehead.

Jessie—given her personality, she would undoubtedly try to feed Aira the medicine.

Luna had chosen her for that very reason. Jessie wasn’t the type to feel guilt over small mischiefs, unlike the other maids, who were too timid to act no matter how much Aira tormented them.

“…”

Luna’s eyes drifted toward her bedside table, where the Countess’s treasures still lay.

She didn’t want to give Aira anything—not those treasures, not anything.

If only Aira could be silenced forever, then everything would be fine.