Chapter 15: Death Part 1
A strong rain was pouring down. She went outside with a sword in her arms, unaware that she was dressed in a negligee. The rain poured down and soaked her hair and her white negligee.
Without even knowing that she was barefoot, she began to walk on the ground. The wet soil soaked in the rain stained the white bare feet, but she didn’t care.
“Estelle.”
Khalid’s brightly smiling face came to mind. Pale hair like a cold lake. Beautiful purple eyes.
If there was the most beautiful person in Estelle’s life, she could pick Khalid without hesitation.
One step after another, she struggled. So soaked in the strange body and the sorrow of encroaching on the body, as if Khalid were standing beyond the rain.
“Estelle, are you okay? I’m here to save you!”
When isolated in the demons, Khalid, who eventually dragged an army that refused to support them, came to mind.
He was covered with wounds, and so was Estelle.
But the first thing Khalid checked was whether she was injured, and he smiled brightly when he confirmed she was safe.
Regardless of the fact that she distrusted Khalid for a moment and misunderstood that he had run away.
Oddly enough, each time her memories of him returned vividly, her hatred for him grew stronger. As if the sharp dagger hidden in the splendid scabbard was finally pulled out.
Estelle’s emotions, which had been hidden in Lucifella’s shell, began to burn vigorously.
She slipped into the wet mud as she approached the Count’s front gate. It was natural not to walk on the stone path.
But it was natural for Lucifella, but not for Estelle. She never slipped and fell in the mud. Lucifella, who slipped with the sword, was lying on the ground.
However, even though she only fell, her body was severely impacted, so she did not get up easily. Her long, wet hair was blocking her view.
She tried to stand up with her sword as a support, but she collapsed again.
She spat some curse words. She kept trying to get up but failed each time. Eventually, her sword that supported her land slipped, and she fell again.
The fallen woman raised her upper body with her arm on the ground. Then her gaze met her trembling arm.
Pale skin. Slender wrists. Her very weak body caught her eye.
She looked at her own body. Even though it hadn’t been long since she got rained on, her body was trembling. She shook her head slowly, startled by the sudden realization.
No, I don’t do this. This is…. This! This wasn’t my body. This is not my body!
She bit her lip and shook her head desperately.
Alas, I hope this nightmare ends soon!
She tilted her head back to look at the sky. The dark gray clouds were still throwing up the rain.
With a white sigh, she gritted her teeth. Then, as if to deny the fact that she had just realized, she stepped up to get up from the ground.
She was able to get up unexpectedly easily this time because she got up slowly without impatience.
She tried to draw the sword with her trembling hands. But the sword was not drawn. She tried to pull it out several times, but only a bit part of the sword was visible.
Even she found it difficult to even lift her sword. Although it is not for killing, it is a ceremonial sword that has not been smelted from steel, so it is light.
Aahhh…..
She had no choice but to admit it. She dropped her sword and wrapped her hand around her face. I thought I could return to my original state if I recovered my physical strength and trained my body properly.
Her unique positive thoughts made her feel at ease without deep consideration. She didn’t really know what it meant to be her death. But now she knows.
Although Estelle was a genius in swordsmanship, now she was Lucifella.
Muscular strength, sharp feet, sense of sharpness with survival instinct, and vision to see through the trajectory of the sword. It was something Estelle had by nature, and something she learned in life.
Her swordsmanship was the product of Estelle, everything that contained her life, but not of Lucifella, the lady.
Estelle, the genius in swordsmanship, died.
She was killed by Khalid. She’s dead and never comes back. Even if her spirit lives like this and opens her eyes here, she’s not the Estelle she used to be.
That’s the way death is. It was a foolish idea to think that she could barely recover her physical strength and revive her swordsmanship to live the same life as before.
She was now accepting the death of Estelle, only now that she realized her powerlessness over herself, not the record engraved in the history book or the existence of Khalid. And she was angry that her life was taken away.
“Aaahhhhh!!!”
She screamed and wept tears of sorrow. She might have been shocked by her subordinate betrayal, but she did not accept her death.
But now I can see clearly what she has lost.
She lost the right to live as Estelle, the honor she has earned through her life, her colleague who was bound by trust.
She couldn’t even be a knight who lost her country. Because Estelle, the knight, is already dead.
Estelle’s memory, not Lucifella’s memory, remains so clearly in her head. Estelle’s fierce life and her feelings for betrayal burn so clearly, but now she is not Estelle.
Then who am I? Is it Lucifella? Or is it Estelle in Lucifella’s mask?
She agonized and screamed for the first time. The rain continued to pour down and chilled Lucifella’s body.
***
Upon hearing the report, Zed frowned. His aide, Bernard, saw his master’s expression change and bit his mouth. This meant that he was in a bad mood.
“What a bunch of trouble.”
Sitting against the back of the chair, Zed looked out the window, muttering.
It was pouring outside. Although he was relaxed, he tapped the desk with his index finger. The tapping sound in the quiet office spread at a tempo that could not be said to be slow.
“Yeah, Lady Aydin is crazy?”
“She’s not crazy, she’s said to be insane.”
“I don’t know what’s different with that.”
He said, twisting his lips.
“Count Aydin trying to cover it up, but rumors just keep spreading faster.”
“Yeah, it’s understandable that you went out to the garden barefoot with a sword at dawn and cried in the rain in your pajamas. No wonder there are rumours.”
At this point, Bernard thought he would be skeptical of his engagement to Lady Aydin. Being engaged to a mad woman was something that would make him a laughing stock even as the Duke of Heint.
“How on earth does Count Aydin manage his servants? It seems that the sick lady doesn’t even know that she is leaving and they didn’t even stop her. If it were me, I wouldn’t have left it alone.”
He uttered annoying remarks, as Bernard had expected, but the content was not what he expected. Rather, it was a tone of rebuke to the servants who spread it.
“Why the hell did that person do such a crazy thing?”
That person?
Bernard realized that what she called ‘the person’ was Lucifella Aydin. Bernard looked at Zed.
“Why?”
“No, they said that Lady Aydin had lost her mind, but Your Excellency, are you okay?”
“Do I have to say that?”
The reddish-brown eyes had an ominous glow. Bernard realized that he had made a mistake.
But he is also curious, apparently, Zed rebuked the servants who spread the rumor ‘first’ and then complained about Lady Aydin. Clearly, the priority of dissatisfaction has changed.
“What is Lady Aydin doing?”
The same was true of this. Now, far from swearing at the lady, he was asking after her. Zed was now worried about Lucifella.
“She’s suffering from a fever cold. The original body is weak, so it’s serious…..”
“It must have been because it was raining.”
Tsk, he clicked his tongue.
“How far did the rumors spread?”
“It probably hasn’t spread yet. It seems that the servants accidentally spilled it while buying food. It just happened to be caught in our information network.”
“Block every rumour that claim that she’s insane.”
Bernard foolishly refused to return the word ‘yes?’ Zed’s feelings for Lucifella are uncertain, but Bernard nodded his head outside, grasping the whole story slightly.
Zed sat at his desk and looked out the window blankly.
She seemed to be out of her mind from the beginning, but why did she want to run away again this time? Besides, I can’t believe she cried in the rain. What really happened in the palace?
As far as he knows, the crown prince has rarely come out of his palace since he was humiliated by Lucifella. I heard that he was playing hard to get, but that’s all. He didn’t encounter Lucifella that day.
So is the confrontation with the Emperor the reason?
***
Thank you for reading!
