“You are really crazy.”
“Ha…”
“Are you betraying the grace of the family that fed, clothed, and raised you? Do you think we will keep a traitor alive in our family?”
She hastily wiped her tears and looked at Shane.
“You fed me, clothed me, raised me, and… Yes, if you have to call it grace, then my letter was sent to repay the grace. My warning, you better not ignore it.”
Despite her heartfelt advice, Shane smiled at her and gave her a low growl.
“A hawk is medicine for a bastard that doesn’t recognize its owner and goes on a rampage. Do you think there is no way to tighten your leash just because you are in the Ludwig family?”
Then he hurriedly left the place. After he was gone, her heart started beating fast. It was because Edith’s memories from a very long time ago came to mind only belatedly.
“Sorry, Father! sorry!”
“Stupid bitch! I’ve taught you several times, but you couldn’t do it!”
“Kyaaak! Sorry, sorry!”
Cheeks and head and back and forearm… No, Count Rigelhoff, who had hit random wherever his hands and feet could reach, shimmered.
She didn’t know why the hell he did that to his own daughter. However, young Edith did not dare to rebel or run away. With no one to help her, she became her father’s puppet and was forced to move.
‘For Edith, this marriage… Killian… I must have been really desperate.’
That’s why Ludwig desperately wanted Killian even though he was married to her, they may know she couldn’t refuse the Rigelhoff family’s order to steal insider information so they might think her expulsion was a question of time.
Her eyes grew hot. Even though there were many differences, I could understand Edith’s feelings. Was that why she possessed Edith, not someone else? It’s also about saving her life, but she didn’t want to let Edith die a miserable death.
She took a deep breath and came to her senses.
‘Haa, too late. If I’m late, I’ll get suspicious.’
She hurriedly took a handkerchief from her bag and wiped away her tears. Looking in the hand mirror, the cheeks Shane slapped were red, but it seemed like they would somehow get over it if she pretended to be slightly heated by the sun. The corner of her mouth seemed to keep falling, so she practiced smiling a few times before turning around the corner of the building. And it was then that she met Killian’s eyes.
“I have been looking for you for a long time. Where the hell are you coming from?”
“Ah… The mansion is beautiful, so I wondered what it looked like on this side…”
“You have a lot of questions.”
She lowered her head and covered the cheek Shane had hit with her hair and asked in a deliberately cheerful voice.
“No way, did you come looking for me on purpose?”
“It can’t be. I also came out to wash my hands and only found you.”
“Ah, that’s right. It almost made my heart flutter.”
“Are you excited about that?”
It was really a nuance that he acted like a child here.
“It’s thrilling to have someone who cares about where I’ve disappeared, isn’t it?”
Seriously. It was so bittersweet. Did someone care about the empty seat of Sona Choi who died? If she died as Edith Ludwig, who would take care of the empty seat?
Returning to the tent after the speechless Killian, she felt a little weak at the thought of Shane’s threats and her own lack of support. But it wasn’t all bad things.
“Even at this year’s bazaar, all donations were sold out at high prices! Thank you! We will deliver your warm hearts as necessary items to each orphanage.”
Mrs. Ermenia, the organizer of the bazaar, announced the end of the bazaar with the news that all items were sold.
‘Uh? Then someone bought my handkerchief too! Oh, thank God!’
Originally, items donated to the bazaar were handled so that there are no leftovers, but she still decided to believe the organizer’s words that ‘all’ items were sold at a ‘high’ price. Today would have been a really good day if it hadn’t been for meeting Shane…
* * *
Returning from the bazaar, Count Rigelhoff hysterically dragged out the cravat, threw it away, and sat down on the sofa. Then he turned his head to Shane, who had followed him into his study, his eyes shining sharply.
“Take a closer look at what you said at the bazaar earlier.”
Shane sat across from the Count, and his maid, Sophia, arrived belatedly preparing tea for the two of them. As the teacup was filled, Shane passed the sip before opening his mouth.
“Edith has definitely changed.”
Shane frowned as he remembered Edith, whom he had met at the bazaar.
“She met her brother, but instead of being polite, she became very arrogant.”
“How did she say she got cocky?”
“I’d understand if she said she’d rather have her head beaten hard at the Duke of Ludwig. She raises her head very stiffly to me and makes a joke, but I doubted Edith was correct.”
At those words, Count Rigelhoff’s eyes narrowed. Since she was beaten and taught to obey other family members from a young age, Edith did not dare to look her eyes at Shane unless they were in the eyes of others. He couldn’t believe that Edith raised her head and touched her mouth. But Shane was really furious. He gritted his teeth and continued his words.
“At first, I spoke well. Are we being watched by the Duchy for what happened?”
“So?”
“I asked when and from whom she got the documents related to the fake weapon, and she asked if we knew that she was in a precarious position in the Ducal family.”
Next to him, the maid Sophia gasped in disbelief.
“I was taken aback, but she said that the letter she sent to father was sincere, and she told me not to think about hitting the Ludwig family, so I gave her a slap. Did she dare to betray her family?”
“You mean she couldn’t come to your senses even after being beaten?”
“Rather, more. You know what? She said she really sent that letter to repay the family’s kindness and that we better don’t ignore her self warnings. Ha!”
At those words, Count Rigelhoff let out an absurd laugh.
“Edith is really crazy. Or maybe the Ludwig family has taken possession of her more terrifyingly than we have.”
“Maybe she thought he was free now that she was out of this house.”
Now even Count Rigelhoff’s teeth were grinding. Was this what it feels like to be bitten by a dog?
“I should have killed her mother and her in the first place! I didn’t want to raise such a mongrel that I didn’t even know who it was!”
Edith was not the real daughter of Count Rigelhoff. Not to mention that she wasn’t her own daughter, they did not know who Edith’s father was. It’s just that Count Rigelhoff’s younger sister was Edith’s mother.
“Brother! Please save me! Please!”
Her sister, who had not behaved properly even in her usual ways, was so full that she could not hide it, and then she knelt down in front of him and wept bitterly. How dumbfounded she was when she said she didn’t know when she had a child or whose child she was… But he couldn’t bear to kill his sister, who had a child with her, so he sent her to the manor as an excuse for recuperation, and when the child was born, he put it on the family register. It was possible because his wife also went down to the estate in her recuperation car, and he had no choice but to do it for the family’s honor, but he was actually reluctant from the beginning.
‘The stupid woman died right after giving birth. Tsk.’
Her sister, begging for her life, gave birth to her child, and her blood did not stop, and she eventually died shortly after. He should have abandoned Edith when her fortune teller called it unlucky, saying she was the bitch who ate her mother.
‘If only Anais was healthy…!’
His wife, Anais Riegelhoff, was a beautiful woman, but her body was weak and after giving birth to Shane, she was unable to have children. She was fortunate to see her heir, Shane, but she felt uneasy about having only one son in the aristocratic family. So, it was Edith who was raised thoroughly as a family dog, thinking that she would be useful someday.
“My sister reaped what she deserved when dying but I raised the child as the daughter of a Count, but she betrayed the family without knowing the favor?”
Count Rigelhoff trembled as he clenched his fists. Then, their maid, Sophia, who had been sitting quietly beside him, stepped out.
“Master, I will go and crack down on Lady Edith.”
The gaze of Count Rigelhoff and Shane turned to her. Since it had already been discussed with Shane, Sofia had no qualms about it.
“I’m guessing that you don’t have a railroad yet and don’t know about water. I will make sure that she cannot leave the Rigelhoff family, even if she belongs to the Ludwig family.”
“The Ludwig family might harm you. Will you be okay though?”
Count Rigelhoff asked a question he hadn’t even asked Edith.
“What can I do for Master and Shane?”
Sofia smiled and Count Rigelhoff nodded his head.
“You are much better than Edith. Then go get Edith to wake up and spy on the inside of the Ludwig family.”
Then Shane intervened.
“What if Sophia’s ‘discipline’ doesn’t keep the girl awake? What if she tell the Ludwig family about it?”
But Count Rigelhoff had a different idea.
“If she tells them about her situation, rumors would spread in the social world. She is a stupid bitch, but she knows her situation. If they knew she was abandoned by her family, would the Ludwig family keep her?”
“Well, that’s right.”
“But you should always be prepared just in case.”
He grinned and ordered Sophia.
“Sophia. If that doesn’t work out, it’s okay for Edith to be mysteriously assassinated. The culprit must be Killian Ludwig.”
“I understand, master.”
Sophia showed off a bright smile that she had never seen before in front of Edith.
How do you feel?
