One Day My Sister Died - chapter 20

Chapter 20: You’ve Defiled My Pure Body

Compared to the days when he lived with his eyes closed and ears shut, it felt strange to find himself listening to the outside world over the past few days.

**This morning.**

Claude, who had remained chaste until the age of 24—an age that would undoubtedly earn him the label of “bachelor” in Cielo—had to admit he had lost his virginity. Although, in truth, it wasn’t so much that he had preserved it as that circumstances had kept him from getting close to a woman.

“It seems the lady didn’t just lay the master down once.”

“Looks like the two of them really hit it off.”

“Why on earth?”

“They must be a good match! It’s been quite embarrassing every night.”

“I saw them giggling, pressed up against the door without even sleeping—how deceitful!”

Claude interpreted the maid’s chatter, particularly the question “Why on earth?”, as meaning that no one could understand why someone like Claude, as dried up as a withered crow, would have been chosen.

He should have heard the maid’s side of the story, but by then, Claude was no longer capable of rational thought.

Only his bloated self-justification ruled his spinning mind.

“Yeah, why me?”

But unlike the painful and monstrous state he was in during the first night, when he was drunk, last night he was completely sober, and his memories before blacking out weren’t jumbled.

He touched his face with his hand, the same cheek where the woman’s brazen lips had been.

“Am I supposed to believe that crap about some intimate human warmth being a treatment?”

But the effect was too powerful for him to deny the series of unbelievable events.

He had spent not one but two nights, including the first night, without pain or nightmares.

Was it just sleep?

Even though he had practically overdosed on sleeping pills, the pain that would usually wake him up had noticeably lessened.

A picture formed in his mind—one that only lightweights like Lancelot Reve would imagine.

“Now that the pain has subsided, maybe your hidden desires have surfaced, and because you let it all out on me, you finally got some good sleep?”

If only he could remember, it wouldn’t feel so unjust.

What kind of trick had she pulled that made everyone else know about the passionate night while he couldn’t recall a thing?

He wasn’t so foolish as to not understand what the woman meant by “intimate human warmth.”

“Did I really sleep with *that*?”

Claude yanked open the curtains he usually kept closed and stood crookedly.

He even pressed himself against the wall next to the window so that no one below could see him.

The murmuring voices suddenly fell silent, and there she was—the woman who had unsettled him so much—wandering around the garden.

Her composed face showed little expression as she busied herself around a small plot of land where she had planted culinary herbs near the ornamental plants.

“What is she so busy with?”

The master, who usually just lounged in a rocking chair staring at the ceiling or with his eyes closed, had gotten up on his own, drawn back the curtains, and was now looking out the window.

Gustav, the butler, who was watching his master’s uncharacteristic behavior, dutifully replied, “She said she wants to tend to the garden.”

“That was a rhetorical question.”

Gustav, feeling awkward, weakly responded with the same expression he had when answering his master’s absurd question about whether he had spent the night with his wife yesterday.

“Yes…”

“That’s the kind of thing the servants should handle.”

Gustav once again answered, “Yes…” but then flinched at the cold silence that followed.

“Yes?”

“Yes…?”

“How are you managing the servants?”

Since when did he care about such things? It’s been a while since he started wandering around himself.

It was just an excuse to vent his frustration, not something he truly cared about.

Knowing his master’s prickly nature all too well, Gustav quietly apologized without further comment.

However, Claude’s gaze didn’t linger on Gustav for long, quickly returning to the window.

Was he upset, agitated, or both?

Based on Claude’s temperament, Gustav could only guess, but he was suddenly startled when Claude, with a look of shock on his face, suddenly yanked the curtains shut as if to tear them down.

…Surprisingly, Claude’s face was deeply flushed.

“Tell them I’m going to sleep.”

“Yes.”

“Leave.”

But who exactly was he supposed to convey that message to?

Receiving the familiar dismissal, Gustav left the bedroom but couldn’t help but question it belatedly.

***

Yuan was making her way through the busy servants, carrying two logs from the storeroom.

Two logs were just the right amount to carry without drawing attention.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, the butler.”

She happened to run into the butler Gustav right in front of her bedroom.

Gustav looked at the logs in her arms and then at her face, his expression one of shock. He quickly grabbed the logs from her, looking pale.

Seeing the slightly downcast look on Yuan’s face, he hastily explained.

“I’m not taking them from you; I mean that such tasks should be left to the servants.”

“Everyone seemed busy…”

“No matter how much work there is in the house, the top priority is to take care of you, ma’am.”

Yuan looked at the butler, puzzled.

Gustav started to lecture her but then suddenly remembered why he had come there in the first place, adjusting his tone.

“You don’t have much luggage, but I’ll send someone to help you pack.”

“Luggage?”

Yuan’s voice rose slightly.

Claude had slept soundly and hadn’t sought her out the next day.

She had been nervously pacing around her room and ended up helping the servants with their work again.

She had done everything she could, but was she really going to be kicked out?

“Yes, it’s time to officially move you into the lady’s bedroom. Staying in the guest room isn’t appropriate.”

“No, I… What? What did you say?”

Yuan asked, looking a bit dazed.

Gustav smiled slightly and gently scolded her.

“And please, speak more comfortably. I may be old, but I understand well enough that you are above me, ma’am.”

Gustav nodded and left, promising to move the firewood to the new bedroom.

Soon after, Monica and Canary began moving her modest belongings. Yuan followed them as they made their way.

Up to the second floor, where Claude’s bedroom was located.

To the massive room at the far end of the hallway.

“We had to set it up quickly this morning. How do you like it, ma’am?”

For a moment, Yuan was speechless as she gazed at the room, bathed in sunlight pouring through the large windows.

The white chiffon curtains swayed gently in the breeze, billowing like her own heart, expanding and contracting.

Every corner of the room, whether touched by light or shadow, was filled with elegant and antique furniture, tapestries, and carpets.

Yuan was amazed first by the enormous size of the bedroom, nearly as large as Claude’s, and then again when she looked up at the towering ceiling, adorned with a masterpiece.

“This was Sir Vile’s idea. We couldn’t decorate the study, so we set up a few things in the adjacent room instead.”

Henna, more excited than anyone else, took the dazed Yuan by the arm and led her to the adjoining room attached to the bedroom.

There were medical books and herbology texts from the region that Vile had often lent her, as well as small items like a silver pot, mortar and pestle, brazier, dropper, and transparent beakers.

It was a small study set up just for her.

“Sir Vile went out to Central Loxenhard’s commercial district this morning to buy all these things.”

“Henna…”

“And look at this!”

Henna picked up a large walnut pie from a small table and lifted it high with a beaming smile.

“I mentioned that it would be nice if your room smelled good, and Grandpa Ralph made this pie with walnuts roasted in the fall! He told me to secretly share it with you so the other servants wouldn’t complain about not getting any. Hehe.”

Henna, her eyes shining, brewed tea just for Yuan at the small, tastefully decorated tea table in the spacious bedroom, despite what the cook had said.

Yuan repeatedly invited Henna to join her, and the two shared the still-warm walnut pie.

Finally, Yuan’s pale, tense face flushed with warmth.

For the first time since she was ten years old, she had her own room.

When she lived in Felice, she had shared a worn-out room with Louise, and even that had been a space constantly invaded by others, hardly qualifying as a proper room.

“Can I really decorate this place as I please?”

“Of course! The butler has already called in a merchant for you.”

Henna’s cheerful voice filled the air. Yuan chewed and swallowed the fragrant, sweet pie as the sunlight streamed in.

Yuan had finally found her place in this mansion.

She reveled in the warm and peaceful atmosphere, laughing and chatting with Henna for quite some time.

But all the while, she couldn’t shake the ticklish feeling in her stomach, a sensation that made her feel almost restless.

***

“Hey, we need to talk.”

Claude spoke to Yuan exactly three days after their last night together.

It was right after two merchants in a grand carriage visited the mansion, met with Yuan, and left.

Yuan had been standing in the garden, watching them leave, when she heard his voice from the wide-open window. She knew that the moment she had been dreading had finally arrived.

When she looked up, Claude appeared even more haggard than when she last saw him three days ago.

The dark circles under his eyes, which had briefly faded, had returned, and the veins in his bloodshot eyes looked like they were about to burst.

At Claude’s sudden summons, Yuan went up to his bedroom.

“I need you.”

He spoke directly, even before she had a chance to sit down.

Just by looking at the scattered painkillers, his bloodshot eyes, and his trembling hands, she could tell what he wanted.

In truth, Claude had been utterly broken by the relentless pain that had overtaken him for the past three days.

Despite resisting the absurd and deceptive treatment, his body, which had finally enjoyed restful sleep for the first time in ten years, was no longer the same.

Even though the pain was as intense as before, it felt twice, even three times worse.

If he hadn’t spent those three days digging his nails into his hands to keep himself from running to Yuan’s bedroom and demanding that accursed treatment, Claude might have done so two days ago.

“Do you remember? Our wedding night and the night after?”

Yuan asked, knowing full well that he wouldn’t remember.

Claude hesitated for a moment before nodding.

Not remembering two nights that had been so loud and wild that the entire mansion knew about them was a shameful thing for any man, but Claude had no intention of revealing his weakness.

Perhaps it was better not to remember.

Better than recalling just how much that wretched crow had defiled his once-pure body.