Chapter 51
“Lilyane’s cookies really are delicious…”
“Yours are pretty good too.”
Lilliana, who had broken off a piece of the dense cookie and put it in her mouth, chewed it brightly. However, contrary to her words saying it was just okay, the corners of her mouth were twitching and curling upwards. The moment I smiled faintly at Lilliana’s lips moving as if she were holding back like a grandfather hiding something good—
_Splash!_ I saw Jason, who had fallen into the lake, floundering on the water’s surface.
“!”
No, I was definitely looking at Lilliana?
Startled by the strange scene flowing through my mind as if a video were playing, I whipped my head around.
‘Huh?’
But the lake’s surface was perfectly calm, and there was no sign of anyone floundering, let alone Jason.
‘What’s going on?’
What is this?
I blinked at the unbelievable scene unfolding—no, that had unfolded—before my eyes.
It’s the first time I’ve ever experienced…
‘No.’
It was like this before too, during the carriage accident.
Scenes, memories, completely unrelated to what was before my eyes.
As I raised my head at this situation so similar to that time, at that very moment, Jason on horseback appeared as if from a lie from the woods beyond the lake where there had been nothing, followed closely by Chandler.
“Stop it!”
“Scaredy-cat! You need to go faster!”
“Seriously, stop chasing me, Hyung. I feel like I’m going to fall and get hurt.”
“You won’t get hurt! Hit it harder, I said! Harder! Harder! Woohaha!”
Chandler chased Jason threateningly, lashing the horse’s hindquarters with a long whip. But unlike Chandler, whose face was flushed with excitement, it was clearly visible that Jason, galloping ahead, was growing pale with terror.
Even now, he was hugging the horse’s neck, practically hanging on.
His precarious figure, looking like he might fall at any moment, made me turn my body.
‘No way.’
But before I could even finish the thought ‘No way,’ at the sight of Jason speeding up to escape Chandler—
“Jason! Pull the reins!”
Without a second thought, I sprang up and shouted.
But—
_Splash!_
The scene that had unfolded before my eyes did not change, and Jason, who had flown into the lake as if thrown by the horse’s sudden movement at the water’s edge, was floundering on the surface.
“Help!”
And at that moment, I couldn’t think of anything else.
Nothing but the thought that I had to save Jason.
“Young lady!”
“Young lady!”
Pushing aside Hale, who tried to stop me, and Pierce who was running over, I sprinted toward the water’s edge without a moment for other thoughts.
Don’t die.
You mustn’t die.
I hate dying.
From my heaving chest, a suffocating heat rose up and surged within my body, palpable.
An unfamiliar, alien sensation spreading from my heart, wrapping around me, permeating every corner of my body.
Until now, I had been half-doubting the talk about supernatural abilities.
I felt these suddenly surging, strange sensations heavily filling my entire body.
As if wearing clothes too small for my body.
The moment I felt I couldn’t breathe or drink as it rose, I reached out my hand toward Jason sinking into the water before my eyes.
“No!”
And at that moment, as if a bomb had exploded before my eyes, a light burst forth with a *pung* and spread, followed by—
“Enough.”
A large hand covered my eyes.
“That’s far enough. Breathe in.”
“Haah—.”
“And breathe out.”
It was Olga, the fraudster I hated.
* * *
“There hasn’t been a quiet day since Letitia came to the main house. Really.”
Bella, sitting across from Helen in the glass greenhouse not far from the lake, let out a heavy sigh.
Seeming quite displeased, Helen nodded in agreement with a furrowed brow.
“Indeed. Before that, there wasn’t much trouble. But a lot has happened lately.”
“She’s an unlucky child, that’s why.”
In the space where only the two of them were, Bella spoke bluntly and exhaled heavily.
“That illegitimate father of hers devoured her mother early, and now his daughter was practically born after devouring her own mother, wasn’t she.”
“She died, they say?”
“She must be dead.”
Bella frowned as if stating the obvious.
“If not, why would Chariet have brought that little brat and entrusted her to the family? She would have raised her with her own mother. And if the child’s mother had been alive, she would have naturally tried to settle in as the eldest daughter-in-law, right? Would she have stayed like that?”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“People who have nothing are scarier by nature. If she had fooled around and gotten involved with Chariet, she’d be a commoner. Could someone alive and well not covet the money, power, and such that the Ashers have? That doesn’t make sense.”
Bella picked up her teacup and twisted one corner of her mouth.
“As you know, I’m not the type to just sit still even if that were the case.”
Helen, holding her teacup, slightly bowed her head as if hiding her expression at Bella’s *Hmph* and smirk.
If I just sit here facing her like this, my true feelings of mocking Bella might be revealed.
‘That won’t do.’
How did I build this wall myself?
It can’t crumble over such nonsense.
But it was no easy task to hold back the laugh that, though usually well-hidden, threatened to burst out over something truly insignificant.
“Of course.”
Forcing a smile nonetheless, I put down my teacup.
“Thanks to you being here, Sister, the Ashers have maintained this much. If it were me, it would have been unthinkable.”
“I’m grateful that even you acknowledge that.”
“……”
“Both *him* and Father take my efforts too much for granted, so I was getting a bit annoyed.”
Bella’s mood seemed to improve instantly at the mention of Letitia, as she smiled, stroked her hair, and set down her teacup.
“Lately, I have too much on my mind that I need to attend to. I’d love to hand it all over to you and rest a little.”
“You can’t possibly do that. What do I know how to do?”
“That’s why.”
“……”
“You came into the marriage knowing nothing, so I can’t just let go.”
At Bella’s words, which subtly diminished her, Helen smiled slightly.
“You’re right, Sister. Thanks to you, I just read books, look at paintings, and relax.”
Seemingly satisfied with the same old pattern of conversation, Bella smiled brightly and was about to lift her teacup when—
_Clatter!_
“Sorry, s-s-sorry.”
Tea spilled and flowed down Bella’s skirt as she collided with the maid who was pouring the tea.
And the moment the color of the skirt darkened as it spread—
_Smack—_
Bella slapped the maid’s cheek without mercy, then shook her hand while making a fist.
“Ah, it hurts.”
One wondered how the slapped maid’s cheek felt if Bella’s hand hurt that much, but Helen pretended not to see, turning her head away.
“Go out and call the head maid.”
“Yes.”
The maid, wiping away a tear that had pooled at the edge of her chin with the back of her hand, turned and hurried out. Then Bella, as if nothing had happened, sat back down, repeatedly clenching and unclenching the fist of the hand she had hit with, as if it hurt.
“I really don’t have a single maid I like.”
“It seems Elin is on leave.”
“Ah, I sent her away.”
“Huh?”
At the unexpected news, Helen’s eyes widened.
“Why?”
“That day when there was an issue in the front courtyard, she was called away by Bennet, remember?”
“Ahh.”
It seemed she had cut ties, probably worried that if the connection between Arina and Elin was discovered, sparks might fly her way.
‘She must be scared.’
After all, Elin knows a bit too much about Bella, doesn’t she?
“But she was a girl who had been by your side for a long time. Are you sure you’re alright with that?”
She offered a slight hint out of genuine concern, but—
“Unnecessary things should be disposed of when they’re no longer needed.”
“……”
Things.
Helen glanced at the faces of the maids who were listening behind her and picked up her teacup.
‘How foolish.’
The maids are precisely the ones most necessary to me.
What on earth did she learn at the Count’s house?
Even in my own home, a decaying Baron’s household, they taught me this.
Don’t starve the dog you employ.
And if you ever have to drive it away…
‘Kill it.’
That’s the way to leave no future trouble, he said with a laugh.
That’s truly the last resort, he said, otherwise feed it well and keep it appeased.
“It is a bit regrettable, though.”
At Bella’s words, which pulled Helen out of her thoughts, she looked up.
“What is?”
“Elin, I mean. She really did her work well.”
_Tsk,_ Bella clicked her tongue, shook her head, and then turned it toward the outside of the glass greenhouse.
“Oh my, the children are on horseback.”
Seeing Jason riding ahead and Chandler following, Bella smiled. Helen also turned her head and smiled back.
But at the sight of her own son’s face, utterly terrified, the moment she abruptly rose from her seat—
“Jason! Pull the reins!”
Simultaneous with someone’s shout, a light poured forth, followed by a _splash!_ sound of something falling into the water.
No way.
“Jason?”
