Chapter 60: 60

Chapter 60 – A Real Grown-up

“Come here, Emilia,” Hadius said. “Look over there.”

Emilia, who was about to refuse, changed her mind and stood beside him. As her gaze followed his eyes, her stubbornly closed mouth lost its strength and began to slowly open. The lights that had been growing one by one since earlier were not the external lamps installed in each house. They were sky lanterns.

“I heard that a night market would be held in the village, and it was today.”

Dozens of small lights were floating off the ground and slowly rising into the sky. It was like looking down at the stars from above. A feast of faint starlight dancing along a summer night. Hadius suddenly called Beppy.

“Is your younger sibling over there?”

“I don’t know.”

The moment she heard the short answer, Emilia realized another strange fact. Laura certainly said she would live near here and marry a vineyard worker. She also said she would soon work as a maid at this Sitmer villa. Emilia was more than happy to know that Mister’s younger sister would become a Royal maid…

“By the way, why are we here now? Why are we at His Majesty’s villa…?”

Hadius was chasing one of the fastest flying lanterns with his eyes. Like that for a brief moment and,

“It’s a Royal gift,” He answered. Emilia began to logically organize the jumbled answers.

‘If it is ‘a royal gift,’ it means that His Majesty the King has handed over this villa belonging to the Royal Family to this man. It didn’t make sense for the person holding the hilt to give a gift to the person who didn’t.’ But at least one thing was certain.

“Then, have you met His Majesty the King?”

“…Right.”

In front of another late answer, Emilia’s heart quickly fell into a frenzy.

“Then… Our annulment…”

“Not yet.”

It was a uselessly short answer. Emilia felt her chest tighten. ‘To end this damned relationship, we need to get permission to annul our engagement.’ Emilia leaned her staggering body against the railing. Two pairs of eyes followed the tracks of the sky lanterns. Unlike Hadius, who only followed the fastest and highest, Emilia found the last one that had not yet left the ground.

“…I used to do it when I was young. That…”

No matter who flies it higher, Emilia was not happy at all, unlike the other children who jumped in excitement. She didn’t want to let go. The beautiful light leaving her hands reminded her of her late father, so it felt like saying goodbye… Tears welled up suddenly. Emilia started muttering in a flurry of embarrassment.

“I blew a sky lantern, but I accidentally burned my hair. That happens sometimes. Because of the Young Master, my lying skills are improving.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Emilia pretended to be looking elsewhere and turned her back on him. Annoying water kept filling the corners of her eyes.

‘Why am I like this? There is no reason to cry.’ Still, the tip of her nose wrinkled and her eyes continued burning hot. The man wandering in the dark returned to reality again.

Meanwhile, the lanterns lost their power and went out, or disappeared somewhere in search of their own paths.

 

* * *

 

Deep in the night, when the moon was full, Emilia opened the door and appeared. Kallia grew pale as if she had seen a ghost.

“Oh my gosh…”

Her wrinkled eyes wandered aimlessly around the nape of her neck, then to her bowed crown, and then to her hair that had been cut into chunks. Mitch, who had his arms resting on the back of the chair, frozen in the same posture. Only Charlotte snooped around like a meerkat, saying, “What is it?” “What happened?” Even amid shock, Emilia began to say the lies she had practiced quite calmly.

‘I met Laura to buy her a wedding present, and just in time, a village festival was held and there were sky lanterns, but somehow my hair caught on fire as I tried to light one.’ Even if you think about it a little deeper, it made no sense, but her family believed it straight away.

“Do you know you could have been in real trouble?! How fortunate is it that it didn’t get stuck to your clothes? Oh goodness, there’s nothing else, right? You didn’t get hurt, right?”

Kallia had no choice but to accept it at face value. The shock was so great that she was not in a position to examine the situation closely. It took quite a long time for her to relate the suddenly cut hair to Ramsco.

“Oh, God… It’s a relief that you didn’t get burned…”

Like any mother who realizes that her child was not seriously injured, her shocked heart turned into anger and scolding.

“How can you be so careless? No matter how hectic you have been playing, to burn your hair on a sky lantern…?”

It was the most severe scolding from Kallia. Emilia had no choice but to bow her head at the fact that she was being scolded by her mother for the first time in her life. There was a sigh long enough that it seemed to hit the floor, followed by the sound of rummaging through the drawers. Kallia was looking for scissors.

“First, let’s do something about the jagged parts.”

A linen cloth was placed over Emilia’s shoulder, and the blades of the scissor began to move slowly. There was a soft, quiet rustling sound, completely different from when the wig seller cut it. With each jagged, uneven cut, Emilia felt her heart, which had been pushed to the edge of the cliff, return to her safe place.

“Sister, how short did your hair get? Here? Here?” Charlotte, who belatedly grasped the situation, began to cry, poking somewhere in her chest with her own hands. Emilia couldn’t say the truth, so she put her younger sister’s finger on her shoulder, not her earlobe. Nevertheless, Charlotte teared up.

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“You’re a boy! My sister has become a boy!”

She thought she was okay now, but Emilia felt her eyes burning again for no reason.

“Don’t worry, Sister is still very pretty. Men will still drool all over when they see you.”

“Oh my God, Mitch. What are you talking about in front of your little sister!”

“…Is that true? Is she still as pretty as a princess?”

“Yeah, Charlotte. Your sister isn’t that ugly. She’s beyond pretty, she even looks younger. It’s really okay.”

Thanks to her loud family, Emilia could feel the huge dark cloud slowly evaporating. Of course, it didn’t mean it wasn’t painful anymore. As if the pain that gradually crept in after that moment was much greater than the moment of being mercilessly mutilated… Something soggy was pressing on her chest. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t understand it. Until that incident in the carriage, Hadius Meyer was a man of minimal common sense.

‘What was the problem? Nathan Malvin? Did that person’s existence awaken the sleeping monster within him? Was it like that story of the man who becomes a gentleman during daylight but a monster at night? Yeah, maybe the medicine I saw on the terrace wasn’t a tranquilizer, but a poison like a curse or a drug. All kinds of new drugs and cigarettes are being imported from the New World. Hadius may be in a state of irreversible drug addiction.’ After threatening her, he changed his mind as if joking around, then suddenly gave her a revolver and burst into anger. He seemed to have no awareness of what he was saying or doing.

“Okay, let’s see.”

The last snip was complete. Emilia lifted her head and looked in the mirror. ‘Is this me?’ Her stepmother said she looked much younger, but that must have been a lie to comfort Charlotte. The woman in the mirror had turned strangely unfamiliar. Perhaps she had become a real adult, Emilia thought sadly.

“Sister, would you like to try this?” Mitch handed her a hairpin that her stepmother had given her as a gift. One she couldn’t bear to sell.

“…hair grows again. Don’t be too upset.”

Mitch lifted his sister’s short hair slightly and carefully pinned it in. She was very pretty when she had long hair, but short hair didn’t suit her. Still, Emilia laughed. It was the last laugh as a child who briefly immersed her feet in the nobility world.

 

* * *

 

“The factory where Kallia Bern was working was quite an honest and hardworking place.” Grozhang shuffled through the notebook with great enthusiasm, not because he was digging and plotting something gloomily, but because he was demonstrating his skills in his field after a long time.

“The problem is that the customer suddenly shut down. As a result, there was a temporary default of bills, and the factory owner seems to have explained the situation to the employees quite well. The arrears won’t last long, so please be patient. He was a surprising gentleman compared to the vicious factory owner nearby.”

Hadius nodded as if to encourage him to continue.

“It seems that Kallia Bern also thought she could pay it back. So she dared to knock on the door of Ramsco. Mrs. Bern is overly docile and obedient, but I don’t think she’s foolish enough to go into debt without any recourse.”

Hadius’ gaze left Grozhang and turned out the window.

“I met the factory owner and talked to him, and he gave me a guarantee for the bill. As it was confirmed, the investment was also paid because it is a steady factory with good productivity. As you requested, Meyer’s funds should not be spent in vain. Overdue wages will be paid to employees immediately after two days. By paying a small allowance as consolation money, Kallia Bern will be able to pay off all the interest, even the interest. Of course, everything will be done through some trust company that has nothing to do with Meyer Steel.”

“Okay.”

“But, Young Master,” Grozhang continued to speak cautiously. “The Bern family’s financial situation is not good. Until now, the Young Master had instructed me not to interfere in their personal life as much as possible, so I didn’t pay any attention either but… As I learned this time, it was almost a miracle that my life was maintained. Perhaps, if it had not been for Miss Bern’s side job, the laundry, which she and her mother do, they would have gone out on the street long ago.”

Grozhang barely swallowed the phrase “I wanted to help personally.”

“Is there a way to solve the financial problems that the Bern family is experiencing–”

“No. Leave it alone.” Hadius cut him dry.

Grozhang’s neck twitched. Initially, he had been sure, but now he had no idea what his Master’s intentions were. When he was ordered to vacate Sitmer’s villa, he was convinced that his Master was trying to keep his fiancée. So, the day he found out about Kallia Bern’s debt, he was sure his Master would do it. Many noblemen take women that way. In their world, it’s taken for granted. But in the end, he paid off the debt and sent her back. And then, even though he knows her financial difficulties, he won’t help her. How do you explain the incongruent behavior of trying to get her out of trouble and then pushing her into another pit?

He frowned and barely swallowed a sigh that was about to burst out of a certain conclusion that was naturally drawn. From the music box to the ring, everything that Young Master Meyer did to his fiancée was close to ‘sincere.’ Above all else, he had heard from Pip before. He had given her that high-end revolver with his initials on it. Giving a pistol to a girl who is fuming with her hair cut off? Anyone who sees the behavior can tell he’s out of his mind.

However, as Grozhang knew somewhat the meaning of it, for some reason, it was heartbreaking. That revolver was the only, sincere gift that Duke Meyer gave to his legitimate heir. He was very proud of his seven-year-old son’s prominence in marksmanship. It was also the field where Theodor, the eldest son, an illegitimate child, showed below-average skills. Young Master Meyer treasured the revolver like his own life for a while. Now, he was turning a blind eye to his father so much that he doesn’t even visit him, but seeing that he has a lot of firearms in the shooting room but put this one right next to him, there is no doubt that he is very attached to it. Of course, he would never admit it. The problem is that Emilia Bern doesn’t like it at all. She has no interest in her fiancé. No, sometimes she seems to be disgusted by him. Didn’t she even do that in Eliere Boutique? It was the first time he had ever seen a woman refuse a gift of clothing from a man. She hated Young Master Meyer terribly, he even clicked his tongue, thinking that maybe she had another man.

On the other hand, Grozhang could understand such a woman. From what he had seen so far, Emilia Bern was as proud as Hadius Meyer. She would never be able to forgive the man and his family who treated her as an invisible person. Thinking back to every dinner party, her cold attitude, as cold as the Young Master’s, it was clear that she hated the Meyer family extremely. Besides, Nathan Malvin intervened. He couldn’t know how she felt for Malvin Young Master, but given the circumstances, there was no reason for her to not like him.

In conclusion… The two were completely at odds. It was too late for the relationship to recover. And yet, it seemed that all his Master could think of was about making that woman his. Blood can’t be deceived, and Hadius Meyer is Meyer, too, after all. Once he has made up his mind, he’ll be much more evil and merciless.

“Why are you standing there blankly?”

“Ah…”

Grozhang hastily focused on his notebook.

“Finally, a message from Ricardi Palace. Her Majesty the Queen will be waiting for you at the Etna Side Palace at 8 o’clock on the 17th. As stated before, she commands you to visit alone without Miss Bern’s company.”

——

[tl/n: I feel like I have to explain this. A side palace (or lateral/detached palace) is -for this case specifically- a palace used by the Crown Prince to receive his consort, the queen consort, or a concubine with high status. It’s a preliminary or temporary palace used to receive guests other than the main palace.]

I have to say this. F*ck off Grozhang. It’s not that Emilia is proud AF or that she hates his family or all the sht you said. HE behaves like a dckhead all these years and now is acting like a freaking possessive spoiled kid who’s about to lose his toy. Don’t give me this sht!

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