“Debbie. The truth is…Sergey had one condition in becoming my friend.”
“Conditions? What conditions?”
“Don’t fall in love with him.”
For a moment, silence passed between Debbie and Elaine.
“It’s not like there weren’t any women around Sergey, and it’s not like there weren’t any who tried to become Sergey’s only woman. But it seems like Sergey would have immediately cut off their friendship if someone did that.”
Elaine said with a bitter smile.
She wasn’t sure why she was feeling bitter.
‘From the beginning, I had promised Sergey that I would never expect anything more than ‘being able to greet each other by the name’.’
But Debbie, who had been quietly watching Elaine, opened her mouth that had been tightly shut.
“But you already like Sergey.”
“Huh? Me?”
“Of course you. Surely you didn’t even know that you liked Sergey?”
“Oh, no, I don’t! I’m friends with Sergey—!”
“Are you stupid?”
Debbie took a deep breath.
Her innocent friend seemed to be experiencing romantic feelings for the first time.
Anyone could see that Elaine and Sergey were attracted to each other, but the two were making excuses that they were just ‘friends’.
“Who would take their ‘friend’ as their partner to the debutante banquet? I have a friend named Klein who I’ve known since I was little. If I was asked to go to the debutante banquet with him, I wouldn’t have debuted at all.”
“Why…?”
“Haa…Do I even have to explain this to you? Do you really not know what a debutante banquet is?”
“Well, debuting in high society….”
Debbie pounded her chest with her fist at Elaine’s frustrated answer.
“You idiot! It’s like a marriage market there!”
“I know that too!”
“Really? Then, what do you think it means to bring a partner of the opposite sex there?”
“That’s…”
“That means the two of you are either engaged or about to get engaged! It’s my woman or my man, so don’t look at me with your eyes.”
“Really?”
Debbie sighed deeply.
“Yeah. But you…are a bit of a special case, so everyone’s going to be freaking out and poking at Sergey, so you’d better pay attention.”
Just then, Emily came in again and changed the vase on the table.
Embarrassed, the two ended the conversation about Sergey and moved on to talking about the temple.
As they talked about other friends, the topic of Sergey was quickly forgotten, and the two talked excitedly for a couple of hours before parting ways.
But when left alone, Elaine began to think more about Sergey than about the temple.
‘Do I…like Sergey…?’
Debbie confirmed without a doubt, ‘Elaine, you like Sergey.’
Those words made a small hole in the dam of emotions that Elaine had been pretending not to know about until now.
She remembered the day she’d first met him, the sunlight breaking like a halo behind his pitch-black figure.
How he told her his name, bluntly, ‘Sergy Lindell’.
Memories of the time when Elaine felt peaceful while sitting in the shade of the trees in front of the cemetery with him, and the cream he handed her, saying he didn’t need it.
At first, memories came to mind one by one like small streams of water leaking out, but at some point, they began to overflow like a dam breaking.
Only when her mind was filled with memories of Sergey, his smile, his voice, his body scent, and it took her breath away, did Elaine admit it.
‘I…like Sergey.’
Her heart pounded hard and her eyes narrowed.
“Don’t fall for me.”
‘I didn’t want to fall in love.’
“When women ask to be friends, as we get closer, they start asking for weirder and weirder things. Then they start getting upset, crying, and making a fuss by themselves.”
‘I didn’t want to cry alone like that.’
“If that’s what you’re thinking, you might as well stop now, because there’s nothing I can do.”
But it was too late to stop.
Sergey’s words stabbed Elaine’s heart like a dagger.
‘At that time, I confidently answered, ‘I won’t do that,’ but what an embarrassment this….Maybe Sergey knew from the beginning that I would like him.’
‘Perhaps I have become too accustomed to the kindness shown to me as sympathy towards a poor girl who has nothing.’
They lived in the same house and received the same treatment, so Elaine became dull, but in reality, she was not in a position to receive the same treatment as Sergey.
‘I still vividly remember Newt’s cold attic, but I couldn’t figure out how I had become so numb.’
Suddenly, she remembered Rabes’ voice saying, “Will you make that guy like you?” but Elaine shook her head, thinking that she was really being cunning.
‘Once the coming-of-age ceremony is over…let’s leave here.’
It didn’t seem like anything to be sad about, but tears kept welling up in her eyes.
As the tears that had been welling up fell onto her skirt, Elaine quickly wiped her eyes and took a deep breath.
‘On the Coming of Age ceremony, let’s ask Rabes to take me far away. Then, I’ll find a way to get away from Newt completely and then come back.’
‘In my previous life, it seemed like there was no way, but now, somehow, it felt like I could find a way.’
‘If only that could happen, I could live a life without losing my friends or being tied down to Newt or the temple.’
‘If I spend some time apart, my mind will calm down, and then I can remain friends with Sergey. Yes, a friend who I can greet by calling his name, that’s all I need.’
Since she had nothing to give Sergey right now, she wanted to at least keep her promise to him: ‘I have no intention of being greedy for you.’
Elaine smiled sadly as she gently stroked the cheek of the doll Sarah that was placed on the head of the bed.
* * *
After the year-end imperial banquet, the atmosphere at Count Newt’s house was like a sheet of thin ice.
It wasn’t just because Ellie didn’t get as much attention as she’d hoped, and because Elaine had appeared with the successor to the Count of Lindell and had caught everyone’s attention.
Since that day, Rubaine and Lark have been fighting over one topic.
“I have to bring Elaine.”
“What are you talking about? If we bring Elaine back, won’t we lose our family saint?”
“Why don’t we send Damon instead?”
“Why should I do that? Elaine will be a saint in two years anyway, so if you need to bring her, then bring her then.”
“Elaine is not normal. She’s probably trying to get out of the house by using Serge Lindell.”
At those words, Rubaine laughed as if he found it absurd.
“That’s ridiculous! How could she possibly use Sergey Lindell? All she can do now is give herself to him and stay with him for a while.”
Lark’s brow furrowed at the phrase ‘give herself to him’.
However, Rubaine did not notice and instead fanned Lark’s displeasure even further.
“I was a little angry at the banquet, but when I think about it again, it’s actually a good thing. I’ll be able to use Elaine as an excuse to get things from the Lindell family. It would be even better if that girl Elaine had a child.”
“What do you mean?”
“Spreading rumors that Sergey Lindell seduced and corrupted the innocent Newt family’s saint. Then, to cover up the rumor, they will send Elaine back with a huge consolation money. There is no way he would marry that woman.”
There Lark exploded.
“Father! Are you going to spread rumors everywhere that a family member of the Count Newt family has become the victim of Sergey Lindell?”
“Don’t call her a family member! She’s not part of the Newt family!”
“If you had intended to do so, you shouldn’t have given her the surname Newt in the first place! Now that the entire social world has clearly remembered Elaine’s existence, how dare you spread such a dirty rumor herself, Father, I know it is presumptuous of me to ask, but are you in your right mind?”
“What, what is that? What kind of thing to say to your father!”
Even Rubaine, who usually accepted whatever Lark said, felt greatly betrayed by Lark confronting him.
“I am still the head of this house! By my own decision!”
But Lark could no longer tolerate his father.
“What kind of head of a family would throw his family into the mud!”
“This guy!”
With a snap, Lark’s head snapped back.
“You must have been really arrogant when I always said yes.”
Lark slowly turned his head and glared at his father coldly, but Rubaine was also very angry.
He grabbed Lark by the collar and shouted at him in a low voice.
“You keep making excuses like Elaine is your property, but do you think I don’t know what’s on your mind? You…are obsessed with that woman.”
“What did you say?”
“Hahaha…I sent that woman to the temple because I was afraid that this would happen to you. I was afraid that you would end up like me too!”
* * *
Dayum the drama is real 😃