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Chapter 26
“Who do you think you’re calling your father?”
Cedric glared at Rose with eyes sharp enough to swallow everything whole. Rose wasn’t surprised by his cold reply or by the fact that he didn’t acknowledge her greeting. She knew all too well how Cedric and Tercia had always treated her. With steady clicks of her heels, Rose walked toward Cedric. At her unhurried approach, the servants collectively swallowed dryly. Watching her felt like walking on thin ice, and tension crept in despite themselves.
Rose looked different from usual. The woman who had always bent over backward before Cedric now stood with her back straight. Whenever she was with him, she’d been like a trembling herbivore before a ferocious beast—but today, she seemed oddly composed. The servants exchanged uneasy glances and whispered in low voices.
“Will the Countess be all right?”
“They say she has short-term memory loss after the miscarriage. She hasn’t forgotten what kind of man the former count is… right?”
“She did call him ‘Father,’ so it doesn’t seem like she’s completely forgotten… but I’m worried something bad might happen.”
The servants stared at Rose with anxious eyes. Whether she noticed their concern or not, Rose still looked relaxed. Standing opposite Cedric, she lowered herself and sat on the sofa.
“You sent for me.”
“……”
Cedric half-lidded his eyes and glared at her. The way one eyebrow lifted when he was annoyed was exactly like his son Eric’s.
Where does she get the nerve to act so confidently?
Rose felt unfamiliar. She was always unable to meet his gaze, her eyes darting nervously. Even when she spoke, she stammered so badly it was frustrating to listen to. So why, today, was she looking him straight in the eye?
…How insolent. Just like her mother.
Her soft pink hair, porcelain-white skin, and delicate features—Rose looked remarkably like her mother in her youth. That wretched woman who had toyed with him using an innocent face, then married his rival, Count Serviat.
Ribera…
Over Rose’s figure, he superimposed the image of his first love, Ribera—the woman to whom he had given everything, only to be cast aside like a worn shoe.
I said I’d make you regret not choosing me.
He knew exactly how shabby the fallen Serviat family’s life had become. By now, she must be madly regretting marrying Count Serviat instead of him.
By the time you realize how incompetent and worthless that count you chose is—and how great I am—it will already be too late.
Any love he once felt for Ribera had vanished long ago. What filled the emptiness in his chest was neither longing nor affection, but rage. Rose—Ribera’s treasure. Cedric wanted to destroy her completely. It would be the greatest pain he could inflict on the woman who hadn’t chosen him. Imagining Ribera kneeling at his feet in tears, Cedric curled his lips into a vile smile. His gaze slowly traced Rose’s porcelain-like skin. His viperous eyes flashed with madness.
I can’t just let her divorce quietly.
After the divorce, with that pretty face so much like Ribera’s, she would surely seduce another man. He didn’t want to admit it, but legally, Rose was the mistress of the Wens household. He could not tolerate her joining another noble family. He planned to remarry his son Eric, but Rose herself remarrying was something he would never allow.
“Do you really not know why I came?”
Cedric scolded her, looking at her as if she were pathetic.
“I truly have no idea what you mean.”
Rose feigned ignorance, wide-eyed and innocent.
“Is that brain of yours just for decoration?”
Cedric spat out the insult casually. At his words, Rose’s gaze turned icy. Cedric didn’t miss the brief moment her expression changed.
They say even a worm will squirm when stepped on—how amusing.
The Rose who used to tremble like a frightened rabbit was now staring back at him with defiant eyes. As Cedric was about to hurl more mockery at her—
Creak.
A cold-looking man opened the door and entered. One of his eyes was covered with a black eyepatch, and his face was riddled with grotesque scars. He took up a position by the door and fixed his gaze on Cedric, then nodded as if signaling him.
Looks like things went according to plan.
At the man’s nod, a satisfied smile spread across Cedric’s face. But only for a moment—he soon shot Rose a sharp glare.
“Tsk. There’s nothing more to say to a fool like you.”
With that, he stood abruptly and strode out of the reception room without looking back.
“What… that’s it?”
She had been worried she might get slapped. Instead, Cedric withdrew far more easily than expected.
“Why did he even call me? Just to insult me?”
She couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling. There had been something ominous in the way Cedric had stared at her until the very end.
“Am I just being oversensitive…?”
Trailing off, Rose stood up. It felt unpleasant, but in the end, nothing had happened—so wasn’t that enough? She let out a deep sigh and headed for the door. Grasping the red handle, she pulled it open—and froze.
“Madam!”
The servants were crowded outside the door. Their arms were filled with napkins, and they looked at Rose with worried expressions.
“What’s going on? Why are you all gathered here? And what are those?”
“Are you all right?”
“Madam! You’re okay, right?”
Instead of answering, they inspected her face with tearful eyes.
“Huh? What do you mean, am I okay?”
“The former count was here today.”
“He didn’t say anything strange, did he?”
The servants clustered around her, all of them full of concern.
Don’t tell me… they’re all here because of me? Because they’re worried?
Only then did Rose realize why they had rushed over like this. Their anxious faces, the napkins in their hands—they had come to comfort her. Every time Cedric visited, Rose had inevitably ended up in tears.
“Thank goodness. You didn’t cry today, Madam.”
Seeing the servants who had come running for her, something welled up in Rose’s chest.
I’m nothing special…
She didn’t know how the original Rose had treated them, but she herself hadn’t been particularly kind to the servants. She hadn’t mistreated them either—but she hadn’t done anything for them. And yet they worried about her like friends, like family. It was a warmth she hadn’t felt in a long time—the feeling of not being alone.
“We’re always on your side, Madam.”
It was just one sentence, yet why did it feel so comforting?
“Thank you, everyone.”
She had thought she was alone all this time, but she wasn’t. The servants gathered around and hugged Rose. A warm, gentle heat rose between them. Though spring had passed, its soft breeze seeped warmly into Rose’s heart.
At that same time.
Cedric and the man who had left the reception room together exchanged furtive glances as they looked around.
“So, everything went well?”
“Yes. As ordered, we left ‘that’ in Rose’s room.”
“And the letter?”
“Don’t worry. We enclosed it under Count Eric’s name. That girl will be happy, thinking the count gave her a gift, without suspecting a thing.”
At the man’s words, Cedric’s expression relaxed in satisfaction. His purpose in visiting Rose today had been clear—to make her pay for overstepping her bounds. While he was with her in the reception room, he had ordered his subordinate to place a ‘gift’ in her room, making it look as if it came from Eric. If Cedric himself suddenly gave her a present after always treating her poorly, it would only arouse suspicion.
“Someone who doesn’t know her place deserves punishment.”
“Indeed, Master.”
The man nodded in agreement.
“No mistakes, I trust?”
“No. Everyone’s attention was on the reception room. No one paid any mind to that woman’s room.”
“Well done. My plan worked perfectly.”
The leering smile on Cedric’s face exuded a darkness rivaling that of a demon.
“The effects will be certain?”
“Absolutely. We’ve completed live experiments on animals—and even prisoners. As reported, the results have been thoroughly verified.”
“Excellent. A ‘product’ being unveiled to the world for the first time.”
Excitement and anticipation mixed on Cedric’s face. Yet, strangely, an uncomfortable feeling crept up as well. Everything was proceeding according to plan… and yet Rose’s face flickered before his eyes. No—more precisely, her mother’s.
Cedric.
With the hallucinated sound of her calling his name, Ribera’s image—smiling with crescent-moon eyes—hovered before him. Cedric forcibly chased her from his mind.
Disgusting.
He twitched one eyebrow and bit down on his lower lip, then headed toward the underground storage room inside the estate with his subordinate. The Wens family’s underground storeroom—a forbidden place no one could enter without permission. In that secret space, where no one should have been, someone was hiding.
“Oh, come on… I’m sure it rolled this way.”
It was Jane. Unaware that Cedric was approaching, she stamped her feet in frustration, searching for something. Her ring had rolled down the basement stairs and disappeared through the gap under the door. While everyone’s attention was on Rose and Cedric, Jane had secretly taken the storeroom key and slipped inside. If she were caught here, she could be expelled—or severely punished. But the ring was too precious to abandon, so she had risked it.
Tap. Tap.
Footsteps echoed. Unable to even turn on a light for fear of being discovered, Jane looked around—and belatedly realized someone was approaching.
“Gasp! N-no way… someone’s coming, right?”
She needed to hide, quickly! As the footsteps grew louder, her body stiffened, frozen in place. Her heart pounded wildly.
W-what do I do?
Just as her panic rendered her helpless—
Clack!
The doorknob turned. Her unfocused eyes shook like quivering leaves. In the pitch-dark basement, the old iron door creaked open, and Jane’s pupils dilated. A single ray of sunlight slipped through the narrow opening. With heavy footsteps, a massive shadow descended the stairs.
I-it must be the former count.
Cedric, who had visited the estate early that morning—his face flashed through her mind. Only members of the Wens family were allowed in this forbidden place. Regaining her senses, Jane hurriedly scanned her surroundings, searching for a place to hide before they came all the way down.
Just then—
Thud!
“Mm—!”
Someone clamped a hand over Jane’s mouth from behind.
I—I’ve been caught!
There was someone else in the basement besides her! Fear drained the color from her face as it engulfed her whole body. The more Jane struggled, the tighter the unknown grip constricted her.
