Chapter 36
“I apologize on behalf of my grandmother.”
At those words, Anne’s eyes widened as she looked up at Hannibal.
“……?”
As soon as she raised her head, Hannibal’s face was right in front of hers—so close that Anne flinched in surprise.
There was barely a single step of distance between them.
Hannibal, realizing how close he had come while checking her condition, stepped back slightly.
Only then did he notice Anne’s face, which, unlike usual, was filled with confusion and embarrassment.
Normally, she would mask her emotions, but occasionally her bold gaze betrayed her dissatisfaction—unlike any ordinary maid.
But he had never seen her look this startled before. Unconsciously, Hannibal asked,
“Does it hurt badly?”
“……No, sir.”
She answered nonchalantly, but deep down, Anne was shocked by his apology.
Nobles might offer compensation to those beneath them, but they never apologized.
She had always believed that—so to hear an apology so casually from the lord of the West was astonishing.
“I found Lady Victoria collapsed and, in my panic, I opened the door without knocking and called the servants. I’m sure the Viscountess must have been quite alarmed as well.”
Despite Anne’s explanation, Hannibal’s demeanor didn’t change.
“In that case, she had even less right to hit you. Especially when you’re a servant in my castle—no other noble should lay a hand on you.”
Hannibal sounded almost offended, as if his own pride had been wounded.
Though his tone remained commanding, there was genuine anger in his voice at the treatment Anne had received.
“Go see the physician and apply some medicine.”
With that, he cast a glance toward the second floor where Victoria was, then turned away.
“Thank you for your concern.”
Even though her mouth throbbed with pain and a metallic tang lingered, Anne felt the ache dull somewhat—and managed a faint smile.
The injuries she’d suffered would heal in a few days, but Victoria had collapsed, and that deeply worried Anne.
She hurried to the second floor to see the physician.
“She seems to be suffering from shock. I’ve written down a few calming herbs and instructions. Make sure she takes them before bed.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Anne also received an ointment for her cheek and took a seat beside Victoria’s bed.
Victoria was sweating heavily, groaning in her sleep like she was trapped in a nightmare. Anne had to wipe her face over and over again.
“Aaaah!”
With a scream, Victoria’s eyes flew open.
“My lady, are you awake?”
Sitting up and looking around, Victoria’s eyes were unfocused.
“Anne.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“I have to protect Claid.”
Gripping Anne’s hand tightly, Victoria spoke as if etching the words into her heart. A fierce intensity flickered in her red-rimmed eyes.
“What?”
“I have to make sure no other Claid is born here. No more accidents. No more monsters—not besides me. I’m Claid’s beast. What kind of beast falls in love or gets married?”
Her sudden change in demeanor was both familiar and strange.
This was the violent, cruel Victoria Anne hadn’t seen in months.
Had she dreamt of the past?
“My lady, don’t listen to those terrible rumors or slurs—”
“No, they’re true. That’s why I survived. If I wasn’t the beast, there’d be no reason for me to exist. Love is for decent, respectable people!”
The words coming from Victoria’s mouth weren’t her own.
She repeated them like a script—eyes distant, not grounded in reality.
“Who said that to you?”
Anne gently offered her a glass of water she’d prepared earlier.
“It took Earl Arthur Claid six months to come see us after he dropped my mother and me in this castle. By then, she was already gone. Do you know what the first thing he said to me was?”
Her face looked more sorrowful than mad.
All Anne could do was listen as she poured out her pain.
“‘So Sara didn’t kill you after all.’”
“……!”
“The Countess didn’t kill me. But remember this clearly.”
Victoria had been just a child then—barely old enough to fumble through fairy tales.
And yet, the first place the Countess had dragged her was the dungeon.
It reeked of burning flesh and rotting blood. Horrific screams rang through the air—cries of pain and torment.
Then Sara Claid opened her mouth to the terrified child.
“If you don’t want to end up like them, you have to catch them. From today, you’re Claid’s beast, Victoria. Otherwise, you won’t survive here.”
That voice was seared into her soul like brainwashing.
It had carved itself into her heart and never left—not even in death. And so, every year, another woman the Count brought home had to die.
Each year, Victoria’s hands—and her heart—became more monstrous.
“I poisoned the water of one woman just like the Madam said. She coughed up blood and died within three minutes. Another woman I lured into a storeroom during a game of hide-and-seek. She was found two weeks later—just a starved corpse.”
Anne clutched her hands to her mouth.
Victoria said she’d first poisoned a stranger’s drink when she was just seven.
Since then, she’d witnessed countless corpses and been complicit in the deaths of the Count’s women.
“I first picked up a weapon when I was twelve. It’s strange—until then, I’d never even had a tutor. But suddenly, they introduced me to a fencing teacher. Only had two lessons, though.”
Sara Claid had guided and trained her to kill with her own hands.
They said she was once respected for managing the estate well before Hannibal took over. Was she really the same person?
Anne spoke firmly.
“That was abuse, my lady.”
“I did those things. I killed them.”
“It was the Countess who made you do it. You were a child forced to stake your life on survival. You only did those things to live. And you remember it all, even now, because deep down, you knew it was wrong. That guilt means your heart isn’t lost.”
“No. What I regret is not killing them. What if I displeased the Madam?”
Victoria laughed hollowly, her eyes void of emotion, like someone whose soul had vanished.
Seeing her sink deeper into self-loathing, Anne hurried to pull her out.
“My lady… Yes, you’re not innocent. But you can atone from now on. Remember this—the Countess made you this way. And the adults who didn’t stop her are also to blame. Do you think Lord Claid and the young master are innocent?”
“No!”
Who would dare call a Claid a criminal?
Victoria looked stunned by Anne’s words.
“They didn’t kill anyone themselves, but they neglected you. That’s no different. If you’re a sinner, then so are they. This burden doesn’t fall on you alone.”
She was just a child who had fought to survive in an isolated castle.
A child who, starved of love, turned to murder, with no one to protect or correct her.
Anne hated the Countess more than anything—dead though she was.
She despised the Count who abandoned his family for his affairs, and even Hannibal Claid, who’d never once spared a glance for his sister.
No one knew that the youngest Victoria had been waging war alone in the heart of the manor. And even now, they still didn’t know.
Only then did Anne fully understand Victoria’s desire to escape.
“Do you think I can break free?”
“Yes.”
“Will it get better if I leave this place? I don’t want to live in the West anymore, Anne.”
“If you wish it, you can make it happen. So let’s focus on this party. Meet someone who’ll take you far away, my lady.”
“Do you really think I can?”
“You can, my lady.”
Moved by Anne’s genuine comfort, Victoria burst into tears in her arms like a child.
By the time the long weeping and conversation ended, Anne was just as exhausted.
“So I still have to keep taking those lessons, right?”
“Is it too hard for you?”
“They say it’s pathetic—a beast trying to become human. That I should just marry well and live quietly, unnoticed. Just like the Madam used to say. Same voice. Same face. Those yellow eyes.”
Victoria trembled, terror built up not over days, but years.
“This won’t do.”
No matter how much someone might hate a bastard child, no one had the right to treat her like that.
“Then who do I learn from now? How do I find a teacher at this point? What about my debut party? Who’s going to like me? Can I even escape this place?”
Seeing Victoria start to tear at her own hair again, Anne quickly grabbed her hands.
“I’ll speak with the young master and find a way. Please, don’t worry about it tonight. Just rest.”
Just then, a maid arrived with the prescribed medicine.
After making sure Victoria took it, Anne left the room and headed straight to Hannibal.
