One Day My Sister Died - Chapter 7
Episode 7. A Harsh Winter Night
Count Felice sighed as he rubbed his bulging arm, and Priscilla echoed his sigh.
“Well, well, Well, I suppose it’s a shame to have less work, but-”
Priscilla felt sorry for Yuan, who had done more than just work, but she could not bear to tell her husband that she had entrusted all the bookkeeping to Yuan, so she kept quiet.
“At least now we don’t have to worry about where to marry that girl. I was worried sick about having to deal with useless girl like her, pretending to be nobles and expecting dowry. Just the thought of having to send her with a dowry made me sick.”
“You’re too kind Mother. Did you really think about that? Why bother worrying about such things when they haven’t even made her debut in society? Just treat her as non-existent”
“It would be great if we could secure a piece of land with their dowry, wouldn’t it? If we reclaim it in your father’s name, we might truly become nobles! It was so fortunate that Lord Treloni’s third son took a liking to Yuan at that moment! Don’t you think so too? That family only has land, nothing else. If we had played our cards right, we could have disposed of that girl and taken the land!”
“What, Lord Treloni’s son? Where did Yuan see him? Why are you telling me this now?”
“Where did she see him? She must have asked one of the maids.”
“Oh, shut up, everyone!”
Count Felice burst in on Priscilla and Regina’s conversation. Where to send her off to? Who should they give that golden goose to? What a waste!
“Father, what’s the matter with you, do you still think she’s your niece?”
Frederick asked, turning to Count Garrett Felice, whose face was turning red.
His pronunciation was slurred by alcohol, but his voice was loud enough to command attention.
Priscilla and Regina’s gazes were drawn to Count Felice’s mouth.
“Not that……!”
Without her, how will they get the appointments they need? Who will manufacture the drugs they need, and who will write the speech they need to give at the upcoming Academy meeting?!
Count Felice looked at each of his family member’s wide-eyed gazes, and then stifled the words that rose in his throat.
He had come a long way from the days when he was a young man and married Priscilla, a merchant’s daughter, and lived off the land without a penny.
There was no way he could now say that Felice’s powers, if there was such power, belonged to Yuan Felice, his niece, and not to him, the head of the house.
“It’s because she has something important for my research, and I’m in a lot of trouble because she left home in such a troublesome way and fled to a remote place, so I don’t know where to find her!”
“She’s just like a thief!”
Frederick, who had been gulping down the rest of his drink, jumped to his feet angrily.
The couch rippled for a moment as he moved his large frame.
“I knew she’d get greedy and steal something from our house one day! You said the other day that a necklace that’s been in the family for generations went missing from the storeroom. Mother, I’m sure she took that too!”
Regina lowered her eyes in disbelief, picked up the teacup in front of her and sipped from it.
Frederick rose to his feet, his face flushed.
“Don’t be nice, you’re going to have to back off! If that wretch comes back, this time leave it to me, the eldest son. This is the trouble you get into when you try to treat something that’s not a person like one.”
“Come on and sit down, Frederick. There’s no need to get so angry just because of Yuan. Where could she go anyway? If she doesn’t have the support of her family, she’ll realize how tough it is to get married and might come back seeking help, won’t she?”
“Who cares about family! If it doesn’t contribute to my success, it’s nonsense!”
Frederick threw the flask on the floor and staggered back to his room.
Priscilla stomped after him, scrambling to keep her sturdy son from falling.
“That girl needs to be punished for bringing such rude people into this house and then siding with them. Moreover, she needs to be punished for stealing something so important from Father. If she comes back this time whining and pleading, please don’t even look at her! We can allow her to leave at least with some gratitude for going to become an elderly nobleman’s wife in a remote area! Count Treloni? Empress? Hah, unbelievable.”
Regina pouted and stormed out of the room.
As she raced down the hall, Regina’s mind began to envision herself meeting with the third son of Count Treloni instead of Yuan.
She could see herself clearly, marrying into a family with a large estate, becoming a lady, and sweeping the capital’s social circles.
Count Felice narrowed his eyes at the back of his family’s heads, which were firmly in the wrong.
The monstrous Emperor would never accept Yuan.
The place was always either crowded with visitors or the bride ran away on their own.
Louise, who survived for a year and returned as a corpse, is a rare case.
“Though there have been others who died quickly for no reason.’’
Unless that creature knows what Yuan can do, it has no reason to accept her.
If the Emperor were to send Yuan back, Garrett Felice was going to give her such despair that she wouldn’t even think of running away again.
“And this time, I’ll have to hide her somewhere where no one knows.’’
Before Count Treloni’s third son could send another marriage proposal, or before the First Prince Bolonico could ask about Yuan.
Count Garrett Felice’s jet-black eyes glinted coldly in the firelight of the crackling fireplace.
* * *
After Marquis Mosan Reve left, the horses and coachmen who were standing behind Yuan, and the guards who were talking to each other also locked the iron gates and left to change shifts.
The bitter cold pierced through her furry earmuffs and licked at her ears.
Despite the bone-chilling cold, Yuan stood stubbornly. Her toes felt numb. A breeze wafted through the holes in the black mansion.
Whooooooooooo-.
It was a dreary, cold sound.
“Louise.”
Staring at the iron gate, Yuan called out to Louise.
“Since you brought me here, I’ll consider this my home.”
Even if the Emperor is as terrifying as the rumors say.
She has abandoned the home she has known all her life, and the people closest to her are gone.
Would Louise have waited here for her husband without hope?
Or, as rumor has it, did she look him in the eye while her body decayed, her hands and feet grew old, and her illness worsened?
Hazy clouds rolled in, bringing ebony darkness. It wasn’t long before the night’s waves rolled in from the far end of the winter forest, crashing over the white snowfields.
Long after dark.
The door remains unlocked.
Pulling her thin cloak tighter around her, Yuan stopped to watch the second-story window, where light streamed through a tiny slit in the distance.
She felt like she was standing alone on a cliff face, though she was sure she was on level ground.
Yuan stood like that for a while longer, then dragged her half-frozen body into the carriage, which had no horses or driver. When she sat down and curled up, her frozen body felt like it would break.
A chilling sensation, unsure if it was the cold or something else, tore at the surface of her skin.
“This is nothing.’’
Compared to the last ten years of being submerged in a sea of pain.
‘This is really nothing.’
Yuan closed her eyes, repeating the words like a fervent prayer.
The faint sound of the breeze from the mansion followed her into the carriage and scratched her ears. Stiffening, she let the sound become her lullaby and drifted off to sleep. In her dream, Yuan was dead, lying side by side with Louise.
It was a cold winter night.
The forest was white and deserted.
The winter night was harsh on everyone.
Only a few servants remained in the mansion.
A guttural groan of pain escaped from the bedroom.
Mingled with the harsh blowing of the snow outside, the groan sounded like the agony of a beast.
An eerie voice that didn’t seem to belong to a single person.
It sounded like the howls of demons, one after another.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty, please open the door.”
Outside Claude’s bedroom stood Vile, the attending physician, fresh from the capital city of Cielo, carrying a medical bag.
From inside the door came the sound of someone starting to bang their head against the bedpost in agony.
Vile stamped his foot. But he couldn’t bring himself to open the door and enter.
“Your Majesty”
“Get lost!”
The voice, shrill and irritated, came from inside. It was a desperate cry, coming through the thick door.
“Please tell me the details of your symptoms, please let me in!”
Click!
The door that seemed like it would never open finally opened in front of Vile’s frustrated face.
As soon as the door opened, the smell of rotting animal carcasses paralyzed Vile’s nose.
The stench stopped him in his tracks, and a giant shadow pooled on the floor.
Vile slowly raised his head, stunned. He couldn’t even open his mouth to scream.
“I told you to get lost.”
The figure in the darkened room was not human, but more like a beast.
There was nothing human about him, not even his hair, which had turned to the color of trampled leaves in late autumn.
Eyes so red you could barely see the whites.
The corners of his mouth, reddened from biting his tongue to hold back the pain, met Vile’s eyes one after another.
In fact, it was hard to call it a mouth at all.
This is what a doll carved from wood into the shape of a human being would look like if it were burned to charcoal.
Or is this what it would look like if you dug a rotting corpse out of a hole?
The decommissioned emperor, who had lost even his healthy half, was like a living death.