The man who used to be so kind that he felt badly started to become violent one day.
On a gloomy and cloudy monday that was no different than usual, Yuria was taking a walk in the garden.
The problem was that the floor was slippery because it rained the night before.
Yuria slipped on the floor and sprained her ankle. She couldn’t even walk properly.
Emma has been away for a while, so there is no one to support her. Yuria put her hand on the floor and moaned, trying her best to get her body up.
If it had not been for the passing servant to help her, she would have remained that way until the maid returned. Yuria was carried by the servant and returned to the mansion.
The two of them, who were going up the stairs of the mansion, noticed the stinging gaze and raised their heads. There was a Count with a terrifying expression on his face. His red face and red veins on his forehead were showing his anger. Both Yuria and the servant were trembling with fear and sweating.
The Count growled and ordered.
“Put her down.”
The servant swallowed his saliva and put Yuria down. At the same time, the servant’s face turned to the side. The servant’s body was thrown into a puddle of water on the floor.
It rippled like dirty muddy water and splashed water droplets on the Count’s shoes. At the same time as the drops of water fell to the floor, the Count’s feet were thrown towards the servant’s body. A scream rang out.
Surprised by the sudden violence, Yuria’s face turned white. She limped back quickly. The horrendous scene before her eyes preoccupied her with the tingling pain rising from her ankles.
“Keep him in the basement!”
The servants flocked to the commotion and took the servants by the Count’s orders. The Count glanced back. He grabbed Yuria’s arm roughly.
“What did you do?”
“Ugh…!”
“What did you do with that kid?!”
“What, what are you talking about…? Ouch!”
The Count dragged Yuria to his room, and asked her to reveal clearly what she had done with the servant.
“I didn’t do anything! please forgive me!”
“Then why is that bastard face so red?”
“…Yes…?”
“Why is he carrying you? Was it nice to see a guy with a good face?”
The Count cursed Yuria and waved his hand at her. Yuria could not understand why he was so angry. So she spent three hellish days in the Count’s room with half an unjust heart and half a fearful heart.
And Then Yuria heard from the Count about slavery.
The Count had been drunk all three days, so he kept saying anything he couldn’t say. He spat out the horrors of his own business and told me how miserable and tormented life an enslaved person is. He threatened to make my sister a slave if he saw her again in the future.
What he did in an empire where slavery was illegal was a great sin. Yuria became aware of the Count’s weakness, but with it she did not think to do anything. She, a commoner, never thought she would be able to accuse the nobility, because the three nights she had with the Count were so terrible that she didn’t want to remember.
The drunken Count couldn’t remember what he had said. It was fortunate. If he had remembered, he might have concealed his sins by getting rid of Yuria, who learned a secret she shouldn’t have known.
After that, he moved Yuria’s room to another place. He brought Yuria to a room on the 3rd floor of an old, unused annex. And he locked her in the room to never go outside. She had no way of knowing what changed his heart, and why he had done this.
All she can do is accept the new misfortune that has come to her. The Count brought only a few female employees to the annex to work, and made sure that Yuria was not allowed to tell others that she was living here.
No matter how secretive the Count’s actions were, the employees in the main building thought that she had been kicked out of the mansion and abandoned somewhere on the day Yuria angered the Count terribly.
About a week later, one night the Count entered Yuria’s room with a gift box.
The Count gave her a large gift box. Inside was a gorgeous dress with jewels. The Count says with a face that wants to receive ar praise.
“How about it?”
“… Yes?”
“It’s annoying… I ask you if you like it!”
“… Thank you. I really like it.”
Yuria bowed her head and said thanks. Even though I’m not thankful for anything. It was a really beautiful dress, but it didn’t break her heart in the slightest.
Because…
‘… I don’t even want anything like this.’
Because what she wanted was to get out of this hell. Yuria wanted to get out of the mansion and meet her sister.
Recalling her lovely younger sister’s face, Yuria tightly closed her eyes and bowed her head.
‘Why do you want to meet her? There’s no way I, who is so dirty, have the right to meet that child, Lala. Lala doesn’t want to see me. She said that she suffered a terrible thing because of me….’
As I was immersed in such thoughts, the Count spoke to me.
“Yuria.”
Yuria suddenly shook her head.
“Put it on.”
“Ah… Yes….”
Emma, who was standing in the corner of the room, approached Yuria and helped put on the dress. The Count sat in the room while she changed her clothes. Seeing him openly staring at her changing clothes gave Yuria a slight displeasure. As Yuria changed her dress, the Count applauded with his contented face.
“It’s worth a look.”
Then he approached her and kissed her. Yuria forcibly raised the corners of her lips to hide her growing fear and disgust.
The Count often visited the annex. He came to Yuria’s room, kissed her freely or watched how she was doing, and then went to work. One day, the Count came in when Yuria was looking at Layla’s letter. The appearance of Yuria reading her sister’s letter with her dazzling smile seems to have made the Count uncomfortable.
From the next day on, the Count made it impossible to receive her letters.
“Why?!”
Yuria made a loud noise for the first time that day. She rebelled against the Count by pounding her chest with a face that looked like she was about to cry.
“It’s an order!”
“Didn’t I tell you to call James?”
“ I… James said it doesn’t matter if I get my sister’s regards, but if you suddenly say you’re hanging up like this… I am.”
“Do you think I’m going to stop if you don’t eat? Why are you making such a fuss about such a letter? If I say so, it is.”
“No, I do not want to! … Hick!”
The rebellion was immediately silenced by the Count raising his hand. But the eyes looking at the Count were full of resentment. The Count’s face flushed red with anger.
“This… this…!”
He pushed Yuria away. It was tremendous power. Yuria just bumped into the drawer and fell to the floor. The Count hesitated for a moment, trying to approach her, then spat her on the floor and walked out of her room.
“It’s going to be ruined.”
So, in an instant, Yuria lost her only link to her sister. Her letter was the thing that supported Yuria’s heart. As it disappeared, she became more and more depressed day by day, and it was more difficult for her to smile. Even when the Count visits her, she no longer has a forced smile like before. That made the Count nervous.
Each time he came, he brought a gift and looked at Yuria’s reaction. No expression on the face. It was only when the Count threatened Yuria that she barely smiled. Although the Count found Yuria’s behavior annoying, he did not return the letter.
Day by day, gloomy and uncomfortable times pass, and an incident that will break Yuria’s heart arrives.
The case started with Emma, a maid. Emma, who has always tried to maintain a blunt and distant attitude, is actually… She always had her sympathy for Yuria.
It was sad to see a beautiful and lively girl dying little by little and slowly like a flower in a vase. So, when she found out that her sister had not actually returned to the village but was still trapped in the basement of the mansion, she couldn’t help but tell Yuria. It was not enough that such a poor girl was being abused, she was being deceived! When Yuria heard it from Emma, she became insane. At first she denied it, then she denied it, and eventually she decided that she had to confirm the truth with her own eyes. She dared to escape from her annex. When she was caught by the servants or caught by the count, she did not think about it.
At a time when everyone was sleeping soundly, Yuria woven a blanket and dress from the wardrobe and hung it outside the window.
With a weak arm, holding a cloth rope, she barely set foot on the ground.
Yuria has lost a lot of weight since coming to the mansion. She came to the mansion because she didn’t eat properly and had no appetite.
So it was very difficult to hold on to the line. In fact, Yuria almost missed the line several times. Each time, Yuria barely survived with the thought that if she fell the wrong way, she would be seriously injured.
Emma was originally supposed to stop Yuria’s actions as a watcher and inform the Count. But instead of doing that, she helped Yuria. Emma, as she did, descended on the rope and led Yuria to the basement room.
It is not something that can be done with compassion alone. Perhaps she had lost her heart while spending time with Yuria.
You may have come to feel affection along with compassion. Because it was difficult not to love a pitiful girl who smiled sadly instead of getting angry when she did nothing wrong, and a kind-hearted girl who smiles at a maid who is no different than the count’s.
A knight was guarding the entrance to the stairs leading to the basement.
“Yo-you….”
As soon as the knight found Yuria, a look of embarrassment was evident. They would show that kind expression if they met someone they thought had been kicked out of the mansion.
Yuria went underground while Emma turned and blocked the knight’s attention.
As I went down the long stairs, a cold hallway appeared. Torches hung on the left wall, and thick doors lined up on the right wall. Yuria leaned forward, relying on the dim light of the torch.
When she came across a road that turned sharply to the right, she was startled. Because Oberon appeared there.
He was the count’s favorite servant. Oberon with a whip in one hand was covered in blood. Rather than shed blood, it looked like someone’s blood was covered in it. When he found Yuria, he laughed as if it was funny.
“Huh? Why is the lady here? I know the Count kept you locked up in the annex… Oh, did you escape? I’d be very scolded if he found out, would you mind? Will the Count not stand still for this time? Come back quickly.”
Oberon patted Yuria’s shoulder. Yuria felt the touch so terrible that she retreated behind him.
Why is he coming from where her sister should be? Maybe, maybe…
Oh, I don’t want to believe it. I don’t want to know.
But Yuria has already guessed the truth.
“Seeing that you had to escape and come all the way here, you must have known what he was doing to your little sister! Did Emma tell you? I only told her and Alexander.”
Yuria’s face contorted. She had a very eccentric look, some angry, some sad, some smiling. She shoved Oberon away and ran frantically towards the door at the end of the hallway. The man just stared at the woman’s back and giggled.
Soon, Yuria reached the end of the hallway and opened the door there. The door opened gently, revealing the room that had been prepared inside.
As soon as she saw the figure of the person in the room, Yuria grabbed her head and fell to the floor, screaming.
