Chapter 13
Blink.
As the boy’s eyelids moved slowly, his thick black lashes glinted beneath his dark brows. It was an annoying fact, but he didn’t have a single flaw—like some celebrity from a past life. His eyelashes were ridiculously long.
And he was shameless.
“Look at this. It’s fascinating.”
“What?”
“You look at me, but you keep your distance. Don’t you like my face, noona? It’s pretty. That should be enough.”
“It’s not like I’m going to eat your face and live off it. What does that have to do with me?”
He seemed to have figured out instantly that I was trying not to let him get close. That was why he sometimes looked at me like that.
Look at me. Talk to me. Pay attention to me.
As if persistently insisting on it.
‘Hmph. As if I’d fall for that.’
But I knew something else too. There wasn’t a trace of warmth in those smiling eyes. Vasilisa was a cruel person.
He was only observing me and finding me interesting. Maybe no one had ever told him to repay a debt the moment they first met him, so perhaps he was just looking for a chance to tease me in revenge.
Like those cliché lines—“You’re the first woman who ever slapped me!”—that kind of dramatic nonsense. The thought of a cheesy morning drama scene made me bite my lip to suppress a laugh.
“Noona. What are you thinking about so deeply?”
“That the sky is clear.”
It absolutely was not. The sky was gloomy. It looked like it would pour any minute. My wrist bones had been aching since last night. When my joints throbbed like this, it usually meant heavy rain was coming.
Ugh, my whole body aches.
I muttered to myself, and Vasilisa, who had clearly heard everything, wore a strange expression. He wasn’t smiling, but he wasn’t frowning either. What kind of face was that?
“Is life in the mansion manageable?”
“You’re strange, noona.”
Silence passed between us for a moment.
“…If we’re going to keep formalities, could you call me Lady Azalea?”
“Why? Noona. Noona. Noona sounds much closer.”
I don’t want to be close to you, Vasilisa.
“Why don’t you ever answer properly? In a conversation, when something is given, you’re supposed to respond accordingly.”
“You really are like an old soul in a child’s body.”
What?
I widened my eyes.
“It’s like you’re living your second life.”
Hey, that’s a forbidden word!
I ground my teeth.
“I’m not an old soul.”
“Oh? Sounds like you’ve heard that before.”
“….”
Of course I had.
Even if I had started life again as a child, I still carried the memories and experiences of my mid-twenties. There was no way I could be the same as an ordinary child.
I had been a baby who rarely cried, who found typical baby food deeply unsatisfying, and who had struggled desperately to learn how to chew meat with a fork before even learning to speak or write.
My tone had never been particularly childlike, and even the slightest movement made me mutter “I’m tired” or “I’m exhausted.” So people often said, “Our young lady is like a little adult.”
The words “old soul” and “little adult” made me shudder now. The only way to stop hearing them was to grow up quickly.
…Wait a minute. Now that I think about it, I hadn’t heard those words in a while.
Snapping out of my thoughts, I wagged a finger at Vasilisa. Even if I had an adult soul inside me, what about him? He was a year younger than me. Since when did thirteen-year-olds talk like this?
“Hmph. You’re not one to talk.”
“I am pretty mature.”
I laughed coldly.
“No. You’re just jaded. Who would ever see you as a child?”
“Why not say I’m sharp when it comes to profit, noona?”
The boy winked cutely.
“And look. You like my smile.”
Gasp.
At his meaningful tone, I froze stiff.
Did he notice that?
“Right? When I smile, the corners of your mouth lift like this.”
Damn it. How is someone that small so perceptive?
A wave of embarrassment crashed over me. This was all because Vasilisa had no business being that cute.
“It’s true, isn’t it? Or not? Why aren’t you answering?”
I tightly shut my eyes and pretended not to hear.
And once again, a thin stream of blood trickled from my nose.
Astonishingly, it had already been a week since Vasilisa entered our Tinya mansion.
During that time, the building had not been half-destroyed, no one had shed blood, and I had not fainted even once.
Reluctantly, I had to admit—Vasilisa was an exceptionally professional attendant.
If I suddenly stumbled, collapsed, got a nosebleed, or fainted, he never panicked.
Since we were around the same age, he also made for decent conversation. Though rather than warm exchanges, it was more like learning how to smile sweetly while turning someone’s insides upside down—or how to debut in high society and make enemies of everyone with just a few words.
The time spent with the boy I had expected to be strange and terrifying… wasn’t bad.
Frighteningly enough, Vasilisa steadily expanded his place beside me. I had to admit it.
“You adapt pretty well.”
Vasilisa looked at me as if I had said something ridiculous, then curved his eyes.
“Of course. There’s nothing I can’t do.”
The boy’s playful expression was so friendly that it was terrifying, day after day. He was too good at this. It was annoying.
“But how long are you going to avoid saying my name? You call that maid ‘Sasha, Sasha’ just fine.”
“I’ll do that once we get closer.”
Though you’ll leave before that.
“Aren’t you being overly cautious?”
“I’m being careful.”
“I can guess why. Your father taught you that, didn’t he? He glares at me every time we pass each other.”
Wow. What nonsense.
I had never seen anyone kinder than my father. He was so sensitive. Vasilisa just didn’t know it—my father even teared up over passing ants, saying it was pitiful how they worked so hard only to remain ants.
“Don’t be ridiculous. My father is incredibly kind. Don’t slander him.”
“Kind? Who?”
“My father is the kindest man in the world.”
“Wow. So this is brainwashing.”
“What?”
“You need to look around you a little, noona. This is what you call a frog in a well.”
The boy snorted lightly at my protest. With a crisp snap, he shook out a handkerchief. It unfurled perfectly smooth without a single wrinkle, like magic.
Sasha, he’s seriously threatening your position.
“You don’t have to work so hard. It’s your first time doing this kind of thing, right?”
“First time?”
I had been watching his slender back carefully when I blurted it out.
The boy, who had been moving busily, stopped instantly.
The air stiffened.
The moment I felt it, I realized I had made a mistake. Damn my mouth.
Vasilisa lifted his head and asked quietly, smiling.
“That’s strange. I’m this good at it—so why would you think that? I might have worked as an attendant for another noble family before coming here.”
“….”
“Isn’t that possible?”
His tone was calm as usual, but his eyes were icy cold.
I wanted to look away, but at the same time, I didn’t want to.
I admitted he was good at his job. I admitted that in just a week, I had grown used to him standing beside me.
But there was something I would not forget.
What Vasilisa felt toward me was not goodwill.
It was the cruel curiosity that children sometimes show.
“You always look at me like that, noona. It’s not the same way others do, but you keep poking at my heart. At first, it was really irritating.”
“….”
“Now I’m curious.”
I swallowed dryly.
The annoying flies buzzing around the heroine in the original story—whenever Vasilisa found them irritating, they were instantly disposed of like trash.
I wasn’t one of those pieces of trash, right?
Say no. Hurry and say no, you prickly little attendant.
“You look like you know something more.”
“I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really?”
My heart skipped.
Terrifying bastard.
Even though I already knew what kind of Tilet Vasilisa was, a thick suspicion rose in me—what if he could read minds?
Surely not.
‘Could he really?’
Like a hawk eyeing its prey, he studied me closely.
Then suddenly, he grinned.
The moment that intense gaze disappeared, I was finally able to breathe deeply.
“What a nasty guy.”
“That’s enough. Let’s stop here.”
“Huh? O-Okay?”
“I’ll let it go this time. You’re terrible at lying anyway. That desperate face you make when you try to hide something is amusing. You’re supposed to save the delicious things for later, right?”
“…No matter how I think about it, your personality is really awful.”
Cold sweat slid down my back.
I swallowed the flood of thoughts rising in me.
What would happen if I told him the truth?
‘I actually know you very well. I read a novel where you’re a male lead hopelessly in love with some woman, and I practically memorized it! I know everything that’s going to happen between you and Tesha. If I just told you one thing, you’d have to bow to me, you jerk!’
What kind of reaction would I get?
“And listen carefully, noona. In this world, it’s the bad ones who survive.”
“….”
Even so, I won’t live like you.
I shook my head coldly, and the attendant, mercifully, turned his gaze away as if he wouldn’t torment me further.
To be honest, I still couldn’t quite believe it.
That the boy who chatted so easily with the people of this mansion was really that Vasilisa.
Because the Vasilisa who appeared in Red Rose, the one I had read about, was nothing like this at all…
