Chapter 005: The East Annex is Heaven!
“The person who last resided here was the younger sister of the current Count Glister. They say she was born a bit lacking, and fearing she would become a shadow over the family, she was sent here and ended up ending her life—”
“Wow!”
Leah, who had been whispering a story that couldn’t be heard without tears while sobbing, raised her head in surprise at the sound of Roanne shouting with her arms wide open, completely ignoring her words.
“Madam?”
“Wow, this is magnificent!”
Roanne, who had been standing and staring at the East Annex for a long while, was now spreading her arms and swaying as if excited.
“This much is excellent!”
Excellent? Leah doubted her own ears.
“Madam, perhaps you didn’t hear what I just told you, but this place is—”
“I heard, I heard!”
Leah checked again just in case, but Roanne was still swaying.
“And here I thought it would be some incredibly dingy place like an underground cellar!”
“Well, that’s……”
How could an annex in a Count’s estate be an underground cellar!
Leah swallowed the words that felt like they were about to burst out and stepped beside Roanne.
“Madam, this is a place where those abandoned by generations of the family have ended their lives—”
“I know, I know. You said so!”
Why keep repeating the same thing. Roanne waved her hand dismissively.
“And here I was worried because you looked so incredibly depressed. Wow. This much is a luxury, a luxury!”
What exactly was a luxury? Leah couldn’t understand. Roanne, seemingly motivated all of a sudden, stepped bravely into the East Annex. Inside the annex, a dark and secluded atmosphere lingered, as if human footsteps had ceased for a long time.
“Still, it looks like that butler fellow had the place scrubbed clean before moving the luggage. Indeed, that’s how it should be. He has the basic spirit of moving down.”
Roanne, who had entered the annex and was looking at this and that, chuckled. After checking the dust on the furniture and window frames, she spoke with satisfaction.
Leah could not understand why Roanne was so joyful inside this annex with its old, dilapidated furniture and desolate atmosphere.
“Madam, as I told you earlier, this place is—”
“Ah, the place where abandoned people come!”
“Ye-yes, that is correct…….”
Overwhelmed by Roanne’s momentum, Leah could not continue. Roanne turned to Leah with her hands on her hips.
“Everything is what you make of it. I was quite scared, too, but isn’t this excellent? Look, it’s spacious and there must be many rooms. The kitchen should be equipped for now. We have a place for me to sleep, a place for you to sleep, and a place to cook and eat—that’s all we need.”
“But……”
“I see there’s also a spot for a small garden before entering; we could plant flowers or vegetables.”
Wow, look at the land. The house is a house, but if the land surrounding it is this much, it’s incredibly vast. Roanne instinctively recalled the single room she used to live in.
Even if a room was as tiny as a booger, the monthly rent would skyrocket if it had a single window, a veranda, or even a ridiculous bit of extra space. But this place was far away from the prying eyes of those harsh people at the Count’s estate, and she was free to use this space as she pleased.
“This place is heaven, heaven!”
Watching Roanne laugh heartily, Leah was despondent, thinking she had finally taken a madwoman as her master. Leah could not understand where exactly was supposed to be heaven.
The East Annex. The rumors surrounding it were truly terrifying. Most recently, Count Glister’s deceased younger sister had lived there; it seemed they had locked her in this annex to hide her from the family because she was born slightly lacking.
Being physically weak, she didn’t live long and was said to have died of illness in this annex. Also, it was said that an abandoned second wife had been confined there in the generation before that, and because it possessed a gloomy history through the generations, there were even rumors that ghosts appeared.
“For that reason, please understand that I can’t come here often.”
“That’s too much!”
Leah shouted with a tearful voice, looking at the maid who couldn’t even turn her gaze toward the annex.
“I’m scared, too!”
The maid who had brought Leah’s belongings hurried away as if she hadn’t heard the shout. Leah, with tears in her eyes, sobbed as she picked up the items and entered the annex.
“You’re here?”
Inside the annex was Roanne, who had rolled up her sleeves and was cleaning.
“Madam!”
A flustered Leah threw down the items and rushed in.
“To do such work yourself!”
“This much is fine. I’m moving my body for a change of pace.”
I guess people who used to work shouldn’t suddenly rest. I feel refreshed after working lightly, Roanne said, making nonsensical remarks while smiling brightly.
“Still……”
Leah stamped her feet, but Roanne continued to move her body diligently.
“Why did you take down all the curtains?”
Leah asked, suddenly noticing the curtains piled in a corner. She must have had great strength; the curtains of each room were piled like a mountain on the floor of the annex, and Leah wondered when she had managed to take down all those incredibly heavy, long, and dangling curtains.
“I wonder how many years they haven’t been washed; they’re caked with dust and faded by the sunlight… tsk tsk… I cleaned them up because I felt like I’d catch a disease I didn’t even have.”
Roanne said.
“What’s the point of a house being spacious and grand if you live gloomily; that’s how diseases start and ghosts are attracted. So what if it’s far from the main building. Rather, it’s better to live comfortably without having to watch the master’s every move.”
Key figures frequent the main building where the people of the Glister Count’s family stay. Naturally, the head of the family, Count Glister, conducts business in the main building, and all those of the Count’s bloodline reside there and receive education for the family.
The psychological factor of being cast out from there and placed in an annex like this must have been quite despairing.
“I… can’t understand you, Madam.”
Leah hesitated and then spoke quietly. It could have sounded quite impertinent, but Roanne just gave a grin.
“It’s better for two people to do the work than for one to handle it all. I won’t be completely useless.”
Since my body is tempered by countless part-time jobs. Roanne swallowed the rest of her words.
Just as Leah said, it seemed that those abandoned by the family had resided here for generations.
And after sending them out with just a single maid attached, didn’t they just stop caring altogether?
If so, it would mean that a noble who did nothing in such a spacious annex and a single maid who had to handle all sorts of chores had to stay here. When the body is exhausted, the heart also grows weary. A maid who had to serve a master fallen into despair from being abandoned while suffering through all the chores of this annex could never be comfortable.
“Now, next, let’s organize the unnecessary items!”
Roanne urged the dumbfounded Leah and rolled up her sleeves again. After that, she would change out of this cumbersome attire first.
* * *
It was much later when Alexis found out that Roanne had been kicked out to the East Annex.
“But please do not mind it, Young Master. Your residence is still here.”
The butler spoke politely to Alexis. The corner of Alexis’s mouth twisted slightly.
“To separate a couple who just started their new marriage and tell me not to mind it. How can you say such a thing.”
“Ah……”
The butler was flustered by Alexis’s sarcasm.
“But Young Master……”
“Forget it.”
The butler, whose face had turned red, tried to protest something, but Alexis waved his hand as if everything were a nuisance.
“Leave.”
Once the butler left with an embarrassed face, Alexis’s expression completely hardened.
Anyway, the existence of a wife forced into a union between families held no meaning for him. That was why, from the first night of the marriage, he had left her alone and wandered outside, drinking with a trivial crowd.
This family, where he could never feel affection. To Alexis, who couldn’t get along warmly with anyone, this place was no different from a prison he had no choice but to return to. Because of that, he hadn’t considered what the position of his wife, whose face he couldn’t even remember, would be while he was wandering outside.
‘The East Annex.’
Alexis’s gaze sank low. The East Annex was an infamous place in the Glister family, but to Alexis, it was a place with a different meaning.
‘It’ll be gloomy, no doubt.’
He flopped down on the bed. An afterimage flickered through his mind as he covered his eyes with one arm. A woman who always wore a white dress like a sinner, her long hair fluttering.
-Alexis…….
With a fading voice, trembling fingers, and reaching out a thin arm, she would always sob whenever she saw him.
-Tell Brother… please… please… tell him I am dying here… tell him I am dying here… tell him to let me out, please…….
Please!! A woman, white and pale, collapsing as she burst into a boiling cry.
Alexis’s eyes snapped shut. Something he didn’t want to remember had surfaced. The East Annex. Perhaps his bride, whom he didn’t remember, would also fade away gloomily there.
But as always, there was nothing he could do. Back then, and still now.
A fierce storm was blowing inside his heart as his eyes remained tightly closed.
