Chapter 3: 3

Hadius bowed his head slightly towards her. Emilia returned the greeting by slightly bending her knee.

That was it. After that brief encounter, the two moved away again.
Emilia stood with an upright posture and stared at her fiancé’s back.

Then, an unfamiliar face suddenly popped into her blurry field of view.

“Hello, I am Erger Wischer. It is an honor to be next to such a beautiful person.”

The person who gave that awkward greeting is the one that Caitlyn Meyer said would fill in for her partner. Emilia had a sociable smile.

“Hello, Master Wischer. I look forward to your kind cooperation.”

Having a partner by her side didn’t make anything different. Erger Wischer was too busy talking to others, while Emilia stood there upright like a doll.

Have I gotten too accustomed to this kind of treatment?

Emilia didn’t hate it too much.

Should I call it a cold treatment without hostility? From the glancing eyes and the wiping of sweat, you could see he was extremely uncomfortable, as expected. Unless you are a devil, it will not be a very pleasant thing to treat someone you don’t even know as an invisible being.

Even if he wanted to talk, there is no helping it because the Meyers’ eyes are watching.

Emilia thought bitterly and stood silently next to Wischer.

Time flew by. Her shoulders were stiff and her feet were sore from being stuck in old shoes. It became more and more difficult to breathe as if she was trapped in a confined space. She reached her limit.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

Emilia exited the hall without acknowledging her partner’s reaction.
As she stood under the obelisk with blossoming vines, the breath she had been holding in burst out. The cool breeze and scent of grass slowly subsided the heart-wrenching whirlwind of thoughts.

Emilia walked along the garden path. The slow steps came to a halt in front of the flowerbed. Bees were flying from flower to flower, collecting nectar.

Among the fresh and colorful flowers, a bunch of withered and drooping geraniums caught her eyes. Emilia crouched down and reached for the curved stem.

“Miss Bern.”

Emilia was startled by the sudden man’s voice. When she looked up, both the familiar and unfamiliar man’s face was looking down, motionless.

“Master… Wischer.”

Standing against the gray building, he looked completely different from inside the hall. The pale yellow eyes under the dark eyebrows were full of tension instead of fabricated indifference.

“That’s where you were. You might be surprised if I suddenly say this but, actually, I…”

Suddenly, he was unable to speak. The reason must have been none other than Emilia herself.

Beyond Erger’s shoulder, there was another being that stole all her consciousness.

Hadius Meyer.

He, too, was walking towards the garden. Every time she sees a long man’s body through the thick bushes, the tremors multiply, and heat rises to her ears.

He was pushing a wheelchair with both hands. The person sitting must be the ‘great-aunt who suddenly came to visit’, as Caitlyn Meyer said. When he whispered something in the old lady’s ear, laughter bloomed in her dry and thin old face.

It was weird. Hadius Meyer’s eyes were fixated on the white-haired old woman, not on his timid fiancée who hid in the garden, but Emilia felt as if he were certainly looking at her.

A funny delusion. Embarrassing to call it unrequited love.

Emilia stood up with a twisted smile. She had no intention of running away like a startled rabbit. That kind of overreaction is just proof of her anxious heart.

“I’m sorry, Master Wischer. Did I come out too suddenly?”

Emilia smiled widely towards Erger Wischer.

He was embarrassed by the sudden change, but she did not want to care. After all, he is someone she will only see and talk to today.

“I came out because it was too hot, but it’s hotter here. Shall we go back now?”
“Sorry? Ah…”
“I am a little thirsty. I have to go and drink some water.”

Emilia passed by a helpless Erger. She also passed by the man who, stopping the wheelchair, had turned his head towards them.

You must brush it off.

Hadius Meyer is a star in the sky.

A person who is revered by the world. A person you cannot reach no matter how far you stretch your arms. Someone who makes you smaller and smaller… That kind of person.

***

When Emilia returned to the zelkova forest, the sky was getting dark.

In the dense forest, where a gentle breeze brushed the leaves and nameless insects cried, the large four-wheeled carriage came to a halt. After getting out of the carriage, Emilia thanked the coachman and headed straight to the cabin.

It was funny. She was buried in a crowd of people laughing happily, silver candlesticks and fancy plates, while tasting delicious food that makes your mouth water just from looking at it, yet she was as tired as if her whole body was falling apart.

There was a lot of laundry in the garden. Through the swaying fabrics, the wrinkled face of a middle-aged woman came into sight. Emilia’s stepmother, Kallia Bern.

“You’re here? Isn’t it a bit late?”
“Yes, the carriage wheel got stuck in the mud on the way here.”
“Oh my, are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Mr. Hewitt, the coachman, had a hard time.”

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Emilia smiled weakly and stood in front of her stepmother. There was still a pile of laundry in the basket next to her. Kallia stopped Emilia, who bowed down to pick it up.

“Leave it. You must be tired, so take a rest.”
“Tired? I came after only eating and playing to my heart’s content.”

Emilia pushed her stepmother’s arm away, then brushed off the cloth and hung it on the clothesline. Kallia let down her arms as if she were defeated, and soon resumed what she had been doing.

“How is Mrs. Meyer? Is she healthy?”
“Yes.”
“And the Young Master?”
“Him too. He looked exceptionally good.”
“That’s good. I heard that Elfort’s training is very arduous, so please comfort and cheer him up.”

Emilia nodded with a forced smile.

She was the one who kept secret the fact that she was treated like an invisible person at every dinner party, but it was confusing seeing her stepmother say something like that.

Her stepmother, Kallia Bern, is an overly naive and innocent person. Rescued by Emilia’s father after being whipped by her ex-husband while in a pregnant state, she is a person who knew obedience and endurance as a virtue.

Besides, her stepmother knows nothing. She could not even attend the engagement ceremony 4 years ago, so she never met Hadius Meyer or his parents. She only met the Meyer family through the mouth of her stepdaughter.

“It’s all done. Let us go inside quickly.”

Emilia, who came inside the house with her stepmother, suddenly realized something and stopped.

“What about Charlotte?”

Kallia shrugged, knowing why she asked that. Emilia’s face stiffened.

“Is she in the attic again?”
“You know how sensitive that child is. As soon as she heard the sound of the carriage, she went into the attic and locked the door. It’s no use even if I tell her not to worry, and that it must be her older sister…”
“Charlotte!”

Emilia went straight to the attic.

“Charlotte Bern, come out right now!”

Bang, she knocked on the door while shouting.

“Open the door! Right now!”

After a while, the door opened. A small figure emerged through the floating dust. The child sneaking out her head was Emilia’s real sister, Charlotte.

The child was very similar looking to her older sister. From the light blonde hair that comes down to her waist, to the deep-blue eyes, sharp nose, and vivid rosy lips.

But there was one thing that was definitely different. There is something else in the place where the left eye should be.

A lump that protrudes from her brow to her cheek.

The dark lump, which occupied half of her face, had protruding veins, and one eye almost went to the ear with its pupil curled up.
A distorted face, that can only be referred to as ‘grotesque’.

One-eyed monster.

It was another name people used when addressing Charlotte.

“I told you not to hide.”
“I didn’t hide. Charlotte was looking for Ferguson.”

Charlotte held out a brown teddy bear. Of course, Emilia was not fooled.

A few years ago, some vicious kids hung Charlotte upside down from a tree, saying they were hunting for monsters. A child who couldn’t see from the moment she was born, who didn’t even know what a ‘monster’ was…

Since then, Charlotte has avoided strangers.

Today too, as soon as she heard the horse’s hoofs, she hid in the attic like a rabbit. Even though she knew it was her older sister, she must have done so instinctively.

“I’m serious. I fell asleep while looking for Ferguson.”
“…….”
“I’m telling you!”
“Okay, I got it. It’s alright, so come out for now.”

Emilia forcefully grabbed the child’s hand.

As they went down the wooden stairs and entered the small kitchen, their stepmother handed her a teacup, as if she had been waiting. When she grabbed the teacup, the warmth passed through her hand and went all over her body. The shoulders that had been tightly stiffened finally felt like they were loosened.

“Right, Emilia. From tomorrow I will be going to a factory in Tyron.”

Emilia’s body stiffened and she blinked her eyes several times.

“They say it’s for oiling the spinning machine. The stagecoach runs right in front of us, so I think I can commute.”

She talks excitedly as if she had gotten a great fortune. Emilia didn’t know what to answer, so she took the teacup to her mouth.

Compared to laundry service, working in factories exposes you to various risks in exchange for a higher wage. All kinds of incidents and accidents she read in the newspapers, concerns, and worries filled up her head.

But Emilia couldn’t say a single word.

She couldn’t help it. His Majesty’s royal grant, which was paid monthly, has long been cut off. The laundry that her stepmother brought from here and there was not enough to make ends meet.
They needed living expenses right away, and the fiancée of the Meyer family was unable to work.

As if she knew the heart of her stepdaughter, Kallia smiled gently.

“It isn’t a very difficult or dangerous work since it was recommended by the pastor. Most of all, you can receive a fixed monthly salary. You can also earn Mitch’s tuition, isn’t that wonderful?”

But Emilia couldn’t smile at all.

The empty hand that put down the teacup only swept away the hair of her innocent younger sister.

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