Chapter 111
Helen rushed over. She looked in shock at her master, who had just closed the bedroom door. Just from his darkened, heavy expression, she could tell something serious had happened.
‘The knights even came earlier…’
The Blue Dawn knights rarely stormed into the mansion. Her master never liked many people coming and going—he even hated letting others look at his most precious treasure.
A treasure so beautiful, its name was known even beyond Redamas and Yulia Kingdom to foreign lands.
Florence Love Lindquist. He had wanted to hide her away inside the mansion.
‘And they dare to gossip, saying it’s imprisonment? If only they saw how deeply and beautifully they love each other!’
Helen had seen it. Sometimes excessive, but still so lovely—so tender and devoted, as if only the two of them existed in the world.
She had served Florence every day, yet never once found any trace of violence on her body. Whatever the rumors said, this was all false accusations.
‘If it wasn’t love, why would he stay at her bedside for days without food or sleep?’
Linus had always kept watch. When he couldn’t help but sleep, it was with her hand tightly held in his own. Remembering the suffering of both her master and mistress, Helen’s eyes welled with tears.
Even after Florence went missing, Linus was a wreck for more than three months. He barely ate, hardly slept, and drowned himself in alcohol just to close his eyes. Helen, moving his drunken body to bed each night, wished only that they could be restored to how they were.
It had to happen.
“Master, may I go in?”
“Ah, Helen.”
He spoke her name.
“Go in. …But don’t be too shocked.”
“Is Lady Florence very… angry?”
“….”
“I’ll handle it.”
Helen bowed deeply. Linus sighed softly, patted her shoulder, and left.
When she opened the door carefully, the first thing she saw was the bed in the middle of the room.
Whenever ‘Florence’ was upset, she always shut herself inside her bedroom to protest. Helen usually found it endearing, but this time she thought it was far from mature.
‘Does she not know how much the master has suffered?’
If she only knew the cold criticism poured on him by society, she would not be acting this way. She should go out to meet reporters or at least appear at parties, declare that all the rumors were false, and testify that her husband had never forced or harmed her.
“Lady Florence…”
“Don’t call me that!”
A cushion was thrown but fell weakly. Helen flinched—the voice was different.
“L-Lady Florence…?”
“What? Do you think I’m a monster too? Not even human?”
“Uh, L-Lady Florence…”
“It’s me! It’s me, I said it’s me!”
Hiding under the blanket was a habit Helen knew from serving Florence for five years.
But the person inside was someone she had never seen before.
For a moment she thought it was an intruder, but if it were, Linus would have acted already. Now she understood why he told her not to be shocked.
“It’s a curse, Laila Green’s curse made me like this!”
“My goodness, Lady Florence…”
“How many times must I tell you, don’t call me that!”
The voice was shrill, sharp with nerves. But it was because she was in pain. Helen gently hugged ‘Florence’ under the blanket.
“It’s all right. The master will restore you to how you were. I’ll help too. Whatever I can do, I’ll do, my lady…”
“…Helen…”
‘Florence’ had always been childish, fragile, relying on Helen like a sister. Helen always gave her strength.
“Lean on me. Anything you cannot do, I’ll do for you.”
“Uuuh, sob…”
“You poor soul…”
The embrace was warm. Hyunji’s body loosened a little.
‘Yes… Helen is on my side…’
Helen had always loved ‘Florence’ especially, cherishing her like a younger sister. Hyunji clutched her wrist. Helen didn’t recoil like Linus, but smiled kindly and stroked her scarred face.
“How much you must be suffering.”
“….”
“To be cursed like this…”
“….”
“To be left so disfigured, ah, how cruel…”
Helen’s eyes filled with tears.
“How could such a beautiful face become like this…”
“Get out…”
“Pardon?”
“Get out! Get out, get out!”
Hyunji screamed, hitting Helen wildly. Her thin arms and legs had no strength, but Helen couldn’t fight back against the woman she served.
“My lady, what did I do wrong—”
“Get out, I said!”
“Lady—ugh.”
Her nails scratched Helen’s cheek. Hyunji couldn’t bear the fact that even a maid was prettier than her.
Those pitying green eyes—
The same as the girl whose life she had taken.
‘Mari. Are you listening? I was born for Florence.’
She squeezed her eyes shut and shouted:
“Get out right now! If you don’t, I’ll bite my tongue and die!”
“My lady…?”
“Get out! Don’t let me see you again! Disappear!”
“But—”
“Do you want to watch me die? Get out now!”
Helen reluctantly left. Hyunji pulled up her knees and buried her face.
Why am I like this? Why must I suffer this way? No, no—it can’t be.
‘Once I came back… everything…’
She thought she would return to perfection.
Even losing her powers hadn’t seemed so serious. Linus’s love should have made everything fine. Money wasn’t an issue. Her body was still beautiful and healthy. That should have been enough.
Linus knew me. He loved me.
But his gaze had changed.
Not just because she had lost her powers.
‘No… it was even before that.’
When she returned, he had been overwhelmed, holding her tightly, whispering love. She had been satisfied with his chillingly obsessive words.
‘No, thinking back, even then something was strange…’
The Linus she knew, the obsessive husband, should have been furious. He should have locked her away, punished her for leaving. That would have been normal. But instead, he had accepted her plea not to show her burned body without protest.
That wasn’t like him.
Nearly a week had passed since her return. In all that time, Linus had not embraced her.
He had once been a man who cared nothing for time or place, always clinging to her, driven, forceful. But now—nothing.
Even today—he captured Laila Green and Florence’s mage, yet did not stop her from rushing ahead recklessly. He had once been madly overprotective. But now he let her go.
And now, he doesn’t even treat me like a person.
Because he realized I am truly “me.”
Did he stop loving me?
