🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 9
“Next time, I’ll make it for you again.”
I had made it with a purpose, but seeing Helios so genuinely happy made my conscience sting a little.
“Vili? You don’t look well.”
And at this point, I couldn’t hold on anymore.
Forcing a smile, I finally gave up.
I feel… sick.
Ugh!
The unbearable pain pushed me toward unconsciousness.
The last thing I remembered was Helios’s face, shocked and panicked.
The next day, I woke up again in Helios’s arms.
I’m going insane.
I didn’t understand why I kept ending up using Helios’s arm as a pillow.
The dizziness seems a bit better now.
After confirming that my toes could move, I slowly started to wake up my body.
I moved my fingers once, then slightly lifted my eyelids.
Rubbing my eyes, I slowly pushed my upper body up.
Just as I was about to get out of the bed—
“…?”
An arm suddenly wrapped tightly around my waist.
Confused, I blinked again.
It was just the two of us in this wide bed—me and Helios.
“Helios? You’re awake?”
“No.”
Helios answered shamelessly.
His confidence was so absolute that it was almost ridiculous.
“You don’t sound sleepy at all.”
“Yeah, because I didn’t open my eyes.”
“What kind of logic is tha—”
I bit my tongue before I could finish.
A damp cloth that I hadn’t even realized was on my forehead slipped off and fell.
Just like I had done for him when he was sick, Helios had placed a wet cloth on me.
“They said you fainted, but it’s common, so they just told me to let you sleep.”
“Oh, yeah. It’s common.”
“It’s not common. It’s the first time I’ve seen someone faint.”
He said that while still hiding his face.
But I saw it—his shoulders trembling ever so slightly.
What’s wrong with him?
“…I thought you were going to die.”
“What? No way.”
After making the hallucination perfume, I do throw up a bit, get dizzy, feel hot-headed, and sometimes feel nauseous…
But die? No way.
I’m still this young.
Is the effect of the perfume only showing up now? Or did he open his heart because of the gift?
Helios hugged me tightly, even rubbing his cheek against me.
A completely different attitude from yesterday.
It was obvious—he had opened his heart to me.
If it was because of the gift, then… that was a little sad too.
“You look like a black rabbit, really.”
“Really? Then I’ll be a rabbit.”
Why is he so obedient?
He was so different from his usual blunt attitude that it almost felt like he had become a different person overnight.
“Say I’m pretty. Noona.”
At that moment—
Helios lifted his eyelids slyly and smiled at me.
He was already pretty, but smiling like that made it almost dangerously beautiful.
I nearly bit my tongue and replied calmly.
“Noona?”
“Can’t I call you that?”
“Well… you can.”
You can, but…
It felt strangely unfamiliar. I had never even heard Blain call me that.
And yet, I didn’t dislike it. It just felt oddly ticklish in my chest.
“Noona… huh.”
Suddenly, it felt like a heavy responsibility came with that word.
“I liked yesterday’s gift.”
“Oh.”
“So I’m going to count yesterday as my birthday. I don’t know when I was born, but I want it that way.”
Before I woke up, he must have already used the perfume once, because a faint apple scent lingered around Helios.
I reached out and gently patted his shoulder.
Ah… I just remembered.
The name of my second perfume.
“To bind you to me…”
“Perfume of Domestiquer.”
A sudden thought, but I liked it very much.
I decided to dedicate this perfume to Helios.
Helios and I each drank half a recovery potion and quickly felt better.
The physical fatigue was gone, but mental exhaustion remained.
So instead of going down to the dining hall, we decided to eat in the room.
I don’t want to see that disgusting Richard either. I’d rather avoid him completely.
After considering all variables, I pulled the bell cord.
Jingle-jingle!
The bell rang clearly, but no maid came even after waiting.
Understanding the situation, I sighed.
“I wish you’d stop messing with my maids…”
No choice. I’d have to clean this up myself again.
Yesterday evening, we had left because of that lecher Richard, but today they were supposed to do their job properly.
One pull.
Two pulls.
Then five.
Only after repeatedly pulling the cord did a maid finally appear.
“…You called?”
The curly-haired maid staggered in, clearly still drunk.
Her appearance was messy—uncollared front, wrinkled skirt—and her attitude was just as bad.
I ignored it and gave a cold order.
“Bring breakfast. And prepare bath water.”
“Yes… yes.”
She bowed lazily and left with an obvious hangover.
Helios tilted his head in disbelief.
“That maid… is she insane?”
“Who knows… maybe my dear brother filled her head with dreams about becoming a viscountess. Forget it. It’s his hobby.”
I shrugged.
Richard, that vile man, enjoyed feeding maids impossible dreams.
When he got bored, he discarded them.
No one even bothered to count how many maids had “disappeared” after behaving like that.
There were so many that I no longer even remembered their names.
“What a disgusting hobby.”
Helios muttered in distaste.
I silently agreed.
“I brought it, young lady.”
My personal maid, the curly-haired one, was extremely slow.
Afraid I wouldn’t even get a chance to wash my face, I had called another maid, and even then it took her ten full minutes to arrive.
And even then, she placed the food on the small tea table inside the bedroom—only one set of utensils, one spoon, one fork, one bowl.
“Eat.”
It didn’t need explanation that this was deliberate humiliation.
And I had no intention of playing this exhausting game with a maid.
In the end, this is all Viscount Sachet’s fault anyway.
I stared coldly at the bowl of soup that wasn’t even steaming.
Without even tasting it, I could tell—it was yesterday’s leftovers from the servants’ kitchen.
Chunks of carrot and turnip floated inside.
I let out a short, hollow laugh.
“…Ha.”
Because I had been too obedient in front of Richard and my father, the newer servants in the mansion sometimes crossed the line with me like this.
And they all shared one trait:
They conveniently forgot that the head maids, butlers, and long-serving servants treated me with respect.
Whenever Richard spent a night in the mansion, things always turned out like this.
“Did I ask you to do something difficult?”
I asked quietly.
The maid looked down at me with a smug expression, barely suppressing laughter.
“You make me do things like this first thing in the morning. I had more important work to do, but I was called here and couldn’t even properly attend to the young master. He’s still in my room, you know.”
“You are my maid, not my brother’s…”
I wasn’t someone who took stress out on the weak like the original Vilette.
But I was also not a generous master.
If I left her alone, she would only grow more insolent.
She would start spying on my every move and reporting everything to Richard.
And now that Helios is here, I can’t afford to be watched.
SLAP!
My thoughts were brief.
My action was faster.
I stepped forward and swung my hand at her in an instant.
