Chapter 59: 54

Surrounded by several men, I was brought to a dimly lit, half-underground room.

「You will be quiet here for a while. The room is a little inappropriate for a well-bred lady-in-waiting, but don’t ask me to be extravagant, okay?」

「…urk.」

I say nothing and glare at the man with the eye patch who shows me his sword and threatens me.

「Oh-oh, aren’t you a competitive lady-in-waiting?」

The man who smiled at me like a fool with a snicker pushed me back strong and I stepped into the room. The smell of mold mixed with dust and moisture makes me frown. It is a very unhygienic room.

「You can rest assured. I’ll at least give you a warm welcome. We don’t want you to die.」

The man, who was laughing incessantly, said what was so funny and threw something that the other man had handed to him. The man with the eye patch clears his throat and laughs at me as I unintentionally accept it, wondering what is so amusing.

「Ahh, yeah-yeah. I thought you might be lonely on your own, so I brought a friend along. You should be grateful, okay?」

I kept staring at the man with the eye patch while inwardly tilting my head to see who his friend was referring to. I am sure he wants to see me scared. That’s why he’s deliberately saying things that will make people fearful. Who is going to be as frightened as they want to be?

「That’s great. I don’t mind your spirit, you know. But I don’t know about anyone but myself. I hope the lady-in-waiting doesn’t turn out to be like your friend, huh?」

The man who says increasingly unintelligible things makes his laugh echo through the air loudly. The men around him laughed in response. Their laughter was indescribably creepy and sent chills down my back.

「Don’t do anything you don’t have to, for your own good!」

With that final warning, the men left. But the sound of laughter echoed even as I closed the door, and I couldn’t stop the chills.

「…You need to calm down…!」

In a small voice, I scold myself.

I take several deep breaths to calm myself down, and each time I am reminded by the musty smell in my nose that this isn’t a dream, but something real.

I let out a deep breath and looked around the room. The only light coming in was through a small window near the ceiling, which must be the ground level. It’s not a place that can be reached and there’s nothing that can be used as a foothold. Even if I could reach it, there is a small grate attached to it, and I have no choice but to give up on escaping on my own.

I let out a sigh and decided to check again what the man with the eye patch had thrown to me.

In the dingy bag was a leather water bag, portable food, and a travel blanket. Naturally, there were no knives or other blades in the bag.

「Welcome, hey… That’s definitely the least I could do.」

He said he was not going to let me die. In other words, he didn’t want me to commit suicide.

I looked at my portable food and saw that I had enough for about three days. If I save it, it will last a little longer. I felt a little relieved to find plenty of water in a leather bag, probably for men. As long as there is water, a human can live for a week.

This kidnapping was almost certainly related to the lost jewelry. Perhaps Brace’s robbery-like behavior was also a pretext to ensure my abduction. Otherwise, there was no way they could have prepared the carriage and escort in a timely manner. The villains had successfully led me into their trap.

「I am so frustrated…!!」

I can’t help but regret that I had forgotten the sense of danger I felt when I first became Myra-sama’s maid of honor in the course of my peaceful days.

I wonder if it will be discovered that I’ve been kidnapped when I make an inquiry to the royal palace because I am suspicious that I haven’t returned to the mansion. But if news of my return hadn’t reached the mansion, that would cease to be the case. But by tomorrow morning, they’ll definitely know that I’ve been kidnapped. I also said that I had an appointment to go talk to Karie and that Douglas-sama would pick me up when the time was right. That means tonight at the earliest. Tomorrow morning at the latest.

How long would it take to track me down and get help?

I desperately racked my brain to find out what I could do. I was absolutely certain that help would come, I just had to do what I could to protect myself. Just because I can’t escape on my own doesn’t mean I have time to despair.

「……Nhn?」

Suddenly, I looked around and noticed a bulge in the corner of the room. I stopped looking at it when it moved slightly.

Speaking of which, didn’t the man with the eye-patch say, “You have a friend together here”?

I gulp and fearfully approach the bulge. It’s dimly lit only by the light coming through the small window, and I can only see what is there in silhouette, so I have no choice but to get closer to check it out.

Then, step by step, I moved closer, and an inarticulate scream escaped my throat at the identity of the bulge that had been exposed.

「……ah…」

What was there, no, what was there was a person. There was a white, bloodless, dirty woman lying there.

「…What, what a horrible thing to do…!」

At first glance, I understood what had happened to her.

I hastily wrapped the woman’s half-naked body in the blanket in the bag. Desperately resisting the urge rising up from the back of my throat, I soaked the handkerchief I kept in my pocket in water to wipe my dirty face. I understood that water was precious, but I couldn’t care less. My eyes begin to fill with tears, as the reddish-black bruises in places are so painful, despite the whiteness of her complexion. I don’t have time to wipe away my tears, though. I had to clean her up as quickly as possible. Even if it was only a comfort to her, but I wanted to make her as clean as possible.

After a round of cleansing, I realize what the man with the eye-patch meant when he referred to the woman as my『friend.』This woman was a maid who had transferred from the Queen’s Palace to the Princess’s Palace last year. Perhaps it was the maid who went missing after giving false testimony to Brace.

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If she was in custody at that point, I don’t think it would’ve been a bright thing waiting for her after she perjured her testimony. Perjury is not a minor offense. It could have resulted in a certain amount of punishment. But I wouldn’t have had to go through this. I don’t even know if she really lied in the first place. She could’ve been falsely accused like I was.

The words of the man with the eye-patch repeated in my head while I was taking care of the woman.

——I hope the lady-in-waiting doesn’t turn out to be like your friend, huh?

I notice the distorted smile of the man with the eye patch and the meaning of the men’s lowly laughter around me, even if I don’t like it.

A cold sweat ran down my back as I realized that even if there was a guarantee of life, there was no guarantee of a woman’s dignity. I found myself feeling my heart beating hard, even though I hadn’t done any strenuous exercise. I was breathing hard and my throat was parched.

In the ten years that I have been the queen’s lady-in-waiting, I can never say that my life has never been in danger. I’ve been in danger many times. I’ve had my body exposed before a sword, I’ve fallen to poison, I’ve even been engulfed in flames. I never give up and keep struggling, I barely manage to get through a critical situation to get to where I am now.

But it was the first time I had faced a crisis of female dignity.

The loathing and fear that came over me.

Earlier, I could’ve been hopeful that help would come as long as I protected my life, but I can’t say that. It’s not my life that is at stake now. It’s my dignity as a woman. My hairs were loose as I imagined what would happen to me if that time ever came.

There are many ways to harm yourself even without a knife. I closed my eyes tightly for a moment, as if I would rather have my dignity violated.

I was scared and felt sick, but the ring from Liam-kun on the ring finger of my left hand, which I suddenly remembered, gave me no small amount of courage.

It was only a few hours ago that I received a lovely proposal from that little gentleman. I was in a heavenly mood and now I feel like I’ve been plunged into an abyss.

「I can’t stand to lose…!」

I bit my lip, more out of anger than fear. That’s when it happened.

「………ah.」

A faint voice escaped from the woman’s mouth, and her eyelids slowly and thinly opened.

The woman took me into her sight, looked at me strangely, and then, as if remembering, her eyes widened and she let out an inaudible scream. Rattling and shaking her bodies, she was desperately trying to escape from someone she can’t see.

「You can’t, just calm down!!」

If she lash out with that body, she will only hurt herself even more.

I embrace the woman from the blanket. I don’t want her to get hurt any more.

「…urk… argh…!!」

「Look at me. You see? I am a woman. A woman just like you. I would never hurt you…」

Where did she find such strength when she was lying there with a bloodless face? I ask her to look at me, her resistance is so strong that I wonder that way. I am patiently telling her over and over again that there is no one here who will hurt her.

Perhaps my voice reached the woman, who gradually became a little more mature, and I, too, relaxed, relieved.

「Yes, don’t worry. It’s going to be okay, right?」

I smile gently at her as she gazes fearfully but hopefully into my face.

「Come on, drink the water. Take your time.」

I gave the woman, who couldn’t drink from the water bag, a scoop of water in the palm of my hand. I guess she was finally able to calm down, and that’s when she realized who I was for the first time.

In a voice that made her lips tremble, she said, “Help me. And I don’t want to die.”

「You’re safe now. Don’t worry.」

I said so, but I don’t think she can trust me so easily. There is no way to know for sure that it is actually safe. But I cannot show weakness here. I couldn’t have beaten her into further despair when she told me that she didn’t choose death and didn’t want to die, even though she had suffered such terrible things.

「You know who I am, don’t you?」

“I used to say this about myself when I was working at the Queen’s Palace,” she said, patting her head as if I was a parent soothing a child.

「The Queen’s first lady-in-waiting, Marshallie Gracis, is a woman of means to an end. Isn’t that right?」

That was a bad word at the time, but it was never wrong. It was an everyday occurrence that they would stop at nothing to protect Myra-sama.

And I have achieved all of those goals.

「That’s why, I will help you by any means necessary, I promise.」

I said this with a wry smile, concealing my own fear.

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