Chapter 117 - Her greedy plan

Has she not yet realised her greedy plan of stealing jewels from me is stupid after all this time?

I didn’t think she would be this daft.

“You know, Lucille.”

“Yes, madam?”

“I won’t be giving away any more jewelry.”

Surprised, Lucille turned around as she was picking up the cold teapot, when I spat out these words with a little bit of mischief.

Her wide-eyed face was very worth seeing.

A mixture of surprise and fear flickered in her eyes.

I deliberately pouted at her expression.

“I won’t give you anything but a fixed salary. So you can stop serving me.”

“…W-What do you mean madam… That’s not what I want!”

“Really?”

“…….”

“…….”

“Of course, if you want to give something to me, I’d be more than happy…”

The greedy Lucille stuttered, her face turning bright red.

And for a moment, I couldn’t help but wonder how humans here were so shameless and insistent.

But that wasn’t necessarily bad.

“Very well, I can give you an award when you and Ronja do particularly well. Don’t expect much though.”

“Yes, madam!”

And not much of a surprise but Lucille looked down humbly with a big smile etched on her lips.

Oh, she’s as foolish as ever.

Should I say it’s good to be able to see her honesty?

Honesty won’t exactly bring her any empathy but it’s good overall.

I fell asleep again after drinking the tea that Lucille brought me.

I didn’t feel any pain in particular, but I fell asleep quickly when I closed my eyes, perhaps because of the over-excitement.

As my solemn father-in-law said, I have a lot of work to do after I recover, so I should rest as much as I can.

Thanks to the warm sunset that fell on my eyelids when I woke up from a nap, I sensed the shadow of someone near me.

I looked up to see if it was my husband, but it wasn’t.

It was my beautiful sister-in-law who looked just like him.

On top of that, she was alone.

All the time I was here as a patient, Ellenia would often sneak up at the door, watch quietly and disappear only when the Doctor or the maids checked up on me.

Maybe she was afraid of me. That came without a doubt. But I just felt like we both weren’t ready.

Ready for what? Even I wasn’t sure.

While I was looking far away, Ellenia also stopped pacing and stared at me with that expressionless look.

The sunset glow from the window highlighted our faces.

“……you may have heard already.”

The voice that finally rang was as calm and cold as her appearance.

Her long hands under the wide lace sleeves look especially dainty today.

“I sent Martha somewhere else.”

“Ah…”

“It’s not Ruby’s fault, so I hope you don’t misunderstand. It was something I should have done earlier… No one around us knew what had actually happened.”

The stupid question, ‘Why did that happened?’, didn’t come out of her mouth.

Wasn’t there a moment when she could answer something without being asked?

Ellenia, who turned her eyes outside the window, slowly exhaled, as if she were avoiding my gaze.

“I was just negligent because I didn’t expect it. Because she never did anything of this sort before…. Now that I see it, I am worse than my brother for not noticing it.”

I thought she would slowly bring up the secret I had hidden, but she brought up a different problem than that.

“It brings the long time Ruby and I spent together to a shame…… I know it sounds ridiculous, but I believed that it would be okay for you to leave anytime. Like Mother… It wouldn’t matter if you left so suddenly.”

“…….”

“As cold as I used to be…… Now that it almost happened, I don’t dare to imagine how I’d live if Ruby…”

Her calm voice sank dangerously like the sign of a typhoon.

I was half lost.

“Ruby, I-I’m…… I’m sorry, I really don’t know what to say.”

Again, she said something strange.

“I’m sorry.”?

I didn’t think there was anything she would ever feel sorry for me about…

“I don’t hate this warmth that I haven’t felt in such a long time, the weird incidents that catch me off guard, or the envy I have seeing you always being so honest…”

“…….”

“Even though I felt uncomfortable and knew something was wrong…… I just wanted Ruby to stay like this. I was scared that you’d change, even though I knew nothing about what was going on. I didn’t want you to leave.”

Is that so?…

Closing her eyes as if she didn’t know, looking at what she wanted to see, and turning around and forgetting….. But how could I blame her?

She wasn’t the only one.

In a way, we were all similar pebbles, just in different colours.

We were children, clumsy and depressed in their own way, struggling as hard as they could because they didn’t want to feel hurt anymore. They don’t want to topple and break down like a sand castle.

I thought it was over when the castle fell and turned into sand.

I wish I had realized earlier that this was not the end, that we could only mix together completely after becoming sand, and that we’d stay strong even among the storm.

Then we wouldn’t have to cry like this.

I swallowed, saliva stuck in my dry throat.

Ellenia now stood with her head down in silence.

Her long silver hair, red under the sunset, poured like a veil over her face.

When I carefully raised my arm and slightly grabbed Ellenia’s limp hand, I felt her flinch.

“You know, Ellen.”

Ellenia, who slowly raised her head again, stared at me with a look that felt somewhat lost.

I couldn’t even get a sense of what kind of reaction would be most appropriate and what to say in this situation, but it didn’t matter.

I pulled a dry smile, and mumbled, “Ellen, I want to have Shepherd’s pie.”

The kind of northern pie that would fill your mouth.

Ruby-colored eyes, which looked dazed, gradually widened.

Gosh, I never thought I’d see this look on Ellenia.

But suddenly, she looked like a young girl.

Maybe it was because of the sunset.

“Ellen, why don’t you join me? I think I’ll be lonely by myself.”

As soon as I plucked up my courage and added this, a star seemed to rise in the red sky.

Starlight-like discoloration appeared in her enlarged eyes, and then she pulled up the corners of her mouth.

It was my first time seeing Ellenia’s small, faint, but clear and beautiful smile.

“Yes… gladly.”

* * *

When the dragon woke up the other day, it snowed for a while and then it became sunny.

I didn’t know whether the climate was wild and fluctuating because of the dragon, or if the country was always like this.

Even if it was the early winter season, it felt nice to see snow piled up like this.

“Madam….”

For some reason, I looked back at the mumbling servants who had a stunned expression and put my finger on my lips.

Then,I stepped into the snow-covered yard, tightening the shawl around my shoulders.

Didn’t it feel nice to take a walk with a good view? To see the contrasting blue sky at dawn with the whole white garden?

A series of footprints were left on the soft snow.

Maybe it was because I had been in bed for a long time, my legs were still a little stiff, but I knew I would get better soon.

Physical strength was said to be mental strength and endurance, but I seem to be weak in all.

I should try to stay healthy from now on.

I’ve got things to answer for.….

I was wondering what my greenhouse garden would look like alone in the midst of all white, so I tried to go there, but suddenly stopped walking and squatted on impulse.

I wondered what it would feel like to see a cute snowman showing off his figure in the front yard of a vicious manoeuvring castle that looked like it was claiming, “This is the spirit of the North!”

I was glad I came out with indoor gloves.

I don’t remember making a snowman properly, but when I rolled the snowballs tightly together, I began to sweat even though the cold air was overshadowed.

It was the moment I was so absorbed in producing a winter masterpiece that–

“…Ruby!”

…… No way?

Wasn’t this my arrogant husband whose face I hadn’t seen in ages?

I smiled at the monster-like man running this way in a hurry, my arm lying on the fairly huge snowball.

Izek growled, as if he clearly didn’t like my calm attitude.

“What the hell are you doing, coming out alone in the cold…”

“I came out alone because you weren’t there.”

Izek, who took off his fur cloak and wrapped it around me, paused and looked at me.

His sharp eyes were stained with untimely embarrassment.

“I’ve been waiting a lot to comfort you since I heard you were kept on probation, but why hasn’t my lover shown me his face yet?”

“…Well.”

“Huh? Tell me, where did you stay out overnight?”

There was some long silence.

Izek scratched his head with an awkward appearance that did not suit him for a moment, but as expected, he proudly insisted with a brazen frown, “I don’t have a lizard to flirt with.”

“…….”