It was only after he left that Elaine coughed lightly.
[That person seems to have decided to blame others again. He’s so consistent]
“Would people change so easily?”
Elaine quietly got up and went to the door. The maids were coming up soon, so she had to get out before then.
Rabes sat on Elaine’s shoulder again before she could say anything, and the two quietly moved to the first floor of the annex.
On the first floor porch, maids of the annex, who had rushed over were bowing their heads in front of Rubaine.
“You’ve neglected your work! how can the clothes disintegrate after 10 years!”
“Are you talking about the dress in the closet? It was fine when I checked yesterday…”
“So you’re saying I’m lying? Go upstairs and check it out right now!”
The maids looked at each other in confusion, but they couldn’t say anything more in front of Rubaine who was angry and ran amok.
“You’re just getting the maids in trouble.”
[You’re not getting scolded, so what does it matter?]
“It’s not their fault and if they get punished for that—”
[So why don’t you just kill the guy who’s your uncle or whatever in the first place, it’s not like it’s hard to kill him.]
Elaine tried to say more but just shut her mouth.
Despite his appearance as a baby dragon, Rabes was actually a big black dragon. It’s a disaster trying to destroy the empire.
How insignificant a human would seem to such a dragon.
Just as humans don’t care about a few ants being stepped on, humans would be just like that for Rabes.
Previously, it seemed that completing the mission would be easy, but now, feeling a bit helpless, Elaine sighed as she looked up at the sky.
Even though God didn’t respond to that.
* * *
Darkness fell outside the window.
The pieces of bread and soup she ate for dinner had already been digested.
‘I’m hungry.’
She forgot about it because she had never been extremely hungry at least after entering the temple, but Elaine at this time of year always had to fight with fierce hunger.
Elaine rubbed her rumbling stomach, trying to forget her hunger.
But she couldn’t fool Rabes’s ears.
[At this time, a strange sound came from your stomach.… Could that be because you were hungry?]
“Ah, no….”
[If it’s not, then it’s getting serious, something’s wrong somewhere in your body.]
Elaine, who denied it out of shame, had no choice but to admit that she was hungry.
“I just had dinner, but I’m a bit hungry.”
[I think the food is too little, right?]
“Um…”
[Could it be that they are giving less food on purpose?]
Elaine just smiled at Rabes’ unexpectedly keen guess.
It has been since Elaine left the annex and started living in the main building. Even at this point, about 9 years later, the amount of food eaten was not much different from what it was at the age of seven.
One day when she was 10 years old, she was so hungry, she mustered up the courage to ask if they could give her a little more, but the maid who passed by the kitchen maid scolded her.
“You should be ashamed of your life, you’re only thinking about getting your meal.”
At that moment, all the servants around her looked at Elaine, and Elaine, so embarrassed that she couldn’t say a word back, returned to her room as if she was running away.
At the time, she felt like she was a parasite, but now as an adult, she knows better.
‘Adults shouldn’t do that to children.’
Even as a child who ate the right amount, they shouldn’t have said such a thing, even the amount of food Elaine was getting now was too small.
If she had to live on these things, she would have collapsed a few times, and her development would be much slower.
Elaine was able to grow up well without collapsing because…
[Someone comes.]
Rabes whispered, but Elaine wasn’t too surprised.
Soon there was a small knock and Elaine opened the door without asking who it was.
“Lady Elaine!”
“Emily…”
‘I hadn’t seen that face in a long time. Maybe Emily came to see me a few days ago.’
“Are you hungry?”
After looking out the door once more, Emily carefully closed it and spread the small package she had hidden in her bosom on the table in a familiar manner.
Inside the clean cotton handkerchief were a few pieces of bread, a small spoonful of butter wrapped in parchment paper, two small bruised apples, and a chilled potato.
“Eat your potatoes now. It’s been two days since I steamed it, so it’s better to eat it quickly.”
“Thanks, Emily.”
The reason why Elaine was able to endure without dying of starvation even after receiving meals with small portions. It was because of Emily.
When Elaine came out of the annex at the age of 7, Emily was a 15-year-old girl who had just joined as a maid, but she was the only one who felt pity for Elaine, who had been neglected by older maids.
At first, she couldn’t do anything more than teach Elaine how to work or treat her kindly, but as she grew older and became a kitchen maid, she would steal leftover foods and bring them to Elaine secretly.
Without these foods, Elaine’s life would have been much more miserable.
“Just be patient. At the end of the year, there will probably be plenty of food, so I will be able to bring more at that time.”
Emily was the only one who treated Elaine, whom everyone hated, as a noble.
“I will eat well.”
Elaine swallowed back the tears that threatened to fall and picked at the potatoes Emily had brought her.
In fact, this food was something that even the maids of this house didn’t eat, but the Countess of Newt and her maid, who was no better than her minions, were reluctant to give Elaine even the food on the verge of decay.
When she bites into a cold potato, the sweet and savory aroma of the potato makes her saliva flow.
“Delicious.”
“Freshly steamed potatoes will taste better…”
Emily felt sorry for Elaine, who seemed to think that even the cold potatoes were delicious.
‘I wanted to add even one more potato to Elaine’s meal, but I didn’t dare because there were so many eyes watching me.’
No matter how much she felt pity for Elaine, Emily was also in trouble if Count Newt and his wife saw her doing it.
And Elaine knows Emily’s heart well enough to know how she feels.
The one piece of bread she’d brought today that looked in good condition must have been Emily’s bread from her meal.
“Thank you every time, Emily.”
“You’re welcome. I’m sorry I couldn’t bring you more than this.”
“What are you talking about? Without these foods, I would have starved to death.”
“Lady…”
Emily couldn’t understand this family at all because Elaine was an illegitimate child, but she had the last name ‘Newt’ and she had to worry about starving to death.
If it was a poor family, she would understand, but this is a rich countess’s house that had everything.
“How are you doing these days?”
“Same as always.”
“You don’t have any cold symptoms or anything?”
“I’m in good health.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that. You haven’t caught a cold that everyone else has. However, you should always sleep with the blanket up to your neck. Because this room is windy.”
Seeing Emily taking care of herself so lovingly, Elaine remembers the last day she heard about Emily.
“Hey, you know what?”
Lorina had been talking to Elaine with a sly smile on her face. The smile was so ominous that Elaine was already getting goosebumps.
“A maid named Emily.”
“Emily? What’s wrong with Emily?”
“I heard she stole food from the kitchen and brought it to you?”
Elaine couldn’t answer anything because she seemed to know the reality of the anxiety she was feeling.
Lorina laughed as if she had expected it.
“You know that a maid caught stealing is kicked out without receiving a recommendation letter, right?”
“Ha, but…”
“Well, I feel sorry for her, too. I heard her father was a hopeless drunk, and when he ran out of money, he sold his daughter as a barmaid.”
“What?”
Lorina shook her head despite Elaine’s shocked look.
“her life as a woman is over. What if she stays there and ends up being sold to a brothel? Because of ‘who’.”
The shock and despair she felt then are still vivid today.
In her heart, she wanted to find Emily right away, but there was nothing Elaine could do, as she was trapped in a temple.
Recalling what had happened then, Elaine couldn’t quite figure out whether she was choking because of the potatoes or because of the intensified emotions.
“Emily.”
“Yes, lady.”
“I feel like I owe too much to Emily all this time.”
“What are you talking about? It’s only natural for children to rely on adults for a lot of things.”
Yes, of course. Elaine, who was not blessed, knew very well that the environment where she could take things for granted was blessed.
“Thank you so much. I always wanted to say thank you.”
“Don’t say that. I’m not doing anything great….”
“From now on…You don’t have to bring me food. No, you can’t bring it to me.”
“What? Why are you suddenly like that?”
Emily looked quite confused. Because, as Elaine said earlier, it was because of these foods that Elaine did not starve to death.
* * *
