IHMEB - Chapter 7 < It's Theft >
Having An Enemy's Baby
I spread my hand in front of Hannah.
There was a thread ring on my left fourth finger. It was plain, but it suited my thin and white fingers rather well.
"Oh. Did the Duke really give you this?”
"Huh. Isn’t it pretty?”
I sat by the window and looked at it in the gentle morning sunlight.
No matter how small or thin it was, it was gold.
As I moved my hands, the sun moved back and forth across the curved surface of the yellow precious metal.
Hannah said to me, who was looking at this with a pleasant expression, with a flushed look on my face.
“Look at that. Isn’t there a man who wouldn’t like a beautiful woman?”
I did not answer.
Hannah's words were ambiguous.
First of all, I wasn't a beauty, and Kaian couldn't say he didn't hate me.
Shouldn’t people usually have slight movements in their facial expressions?
Kaian didn't seem to be an ordinary person if I think about it that way.
He looked cold and a little angry, glaring at me with his bright red eyes, his eyebrows raised at the corners of his eyes.
In any case, I couldn't help but like it, and I couldn't say I didn't like it.
'I can't help it because I'm from Vermont.'
It was a loveless marriage.
So I never wanted affection.
Spending the night with the redhead he loathed, he seemed to feel humiliated by his arousal.
Contempt and coolness coexisted in his excited and heated eyes.
Facing that made me sad, so I closed my eyes tightly the whole time Kaian held me.
That's why I planned to do that even when there was nothing to give me as a gift during thr first night.
He said he wanted to show off that he disliked it to the point of deliberately avoiding what had become a custom.
However, it seems that I, who had just turned 20, had hidden expectations that I did not know about.
Hundreds and thousands of times I had pictured in my mind the humiliation I might suffer by my marriage to Temnes.
It was just an extension of the cold treatment I had imagined when I walked out of Rowan Castle in the rain, my bridal dress soaked in mud.
But the sense of loss of losing what was precious to me as a woman, despite my modest upbringing, was a different matter.
When I realized I had not received the gift, I felt deprived of something inside me.
My father, the Duke of Vermont, sold me and took the food, leaving me with nothing left for myself.
I just wanted to receive an early night gift from him.
Even if it was just one flower, I would have been satisfied with what I received.
That night, I was trying to clean up the mess of clothes that fell on the floor because I couldn't stand the awkward atmosphere and felt like I had to do something.
I was startled when something fell from his clothes and I thought I was going to get beat up for ruining his clothes.
I felt the urge to try putting it on my fingers after seeing that it looked like it would fit perfectly.
The ring looked just like a ring, to the point where it was hard to think of it as the bezel of a button.
That's why I liked it.
'Can I have it?'
Even though I asked that, I didn't think he would give me permission.
Still, after the first night together, I thought Kaian wouldn't visit me again, but he came again.
When he casually mentioned that he had failed several times, I suddenly gained a little courage.
I have nothing to give to Vermont.
I was confident that I wouldn't be hurt even if those words came back to me.
'Anyway.'
Even though it was said coldly, permission was clear.
“The Duke wasn’t obligated last night, right? But since he came to see you, it’s clear that he likes you.”
Hannah seemed more excited than I was.
“The gifts will get better and better.”
I did not answer her words.
Because I had no desire to receive anything better.
I received something, so that was enough.
“I’ll bring you breakfast. Are you going to eat it?”
As my illness worsened, I could barely eat.
This was because the claw-like pain inside my chest became worse when I took a deep breath or chewed and swallowed food.
I nodded because I felt like I could eat something. After all, I was in a good mood today.
"Huh. I’ll eat.”
“I’ll quickly go to the kitchen and get it.”
The spirited Hannah disappeared in her excitement.
I looked at my gold ring, shining on my fingers in the stillness of the morning that enveloped me.
“... I got it.”
Hannah hummed and headed toward the castle's kitchen.
Today is the third day since she came to Rowen Castle.
The fact that she had to go to the castle's kitchen meant that the maids on the floor where Claudel stayed ignored all of Hannah's requests.
So she was so angry that steam was billowing out of the top of her head every time she went to the kitchen.
“Ugh. Hehehehe.”
A humming tune caught Hannah's nose.
“I hope you will be so happy. How great are you that I gave it to you yesterday?”
While Claudel lived as well as the Princess at the Castle de Valmonde, Hannah socialized with her maids.
The maids of the castle felt sorry for Hannah, who lost her parents in an accident at a young age and was brought to a strange place.
She is only ten years old.
It may also have been because Hannah was too young to do the chores of the castle.
Most of the maids working in the castle were serfs with large families. They said that looking at Hanna reminded them of their younger brother, whom they left behind at home, and they often gave her candy.
However, she was still a child and could not tolerate the dirty talk in front of Hannah.
The older sisters, who were subjected to various servants at the castle at an age when they were at the peak of their curiosity, were all very interested in the news of someone who had been taken to the castle lord and spent the night there.
Unfortunately, the Valmonde Castle did not have the young, energetic, and handsome lord they wanted.
The Duke of Vermont was older, and his relationship with the Duchess of Vermont was quite amicable.
Although they only had one daughter, Irena, they were so close and loyal that the failure to have a son did not lead to problems with the succession.
It was clear that the setting where incidents and accidents occurred was not Castle de Valmonde.
She would talk about all kinds of social talk and all kinds of gossip without any filter, and when little Hannah would blink at her, she would giggle to herself in embarrassment and say.
Her smarts made her understand them quite early, but she only shared with Claudel the sweet cookies and candies she got from her maid sisters.
She learned early on about the dirty and heartless side of the world, and the reason she quickly learned about it was because she thought that her situation was one of persecution.
Claudel, who was growing up as a 'Lady' in this large and wonderful castle, was like a sanctuary to Hannah.
So Claudel did not need to know this, nor should she.
Claudel, too, lost her parents on the same day as Hanna, but she is Claudel, and she lives a different life than her.
That Claudel would meet her handsome, noble husband - who would not lay a hand on the castle's young maid, which was very important to Hannah - and that Claudel would be loved abundantly and live happily ever after.
But the opponent is Temnes!
There was no way Hannah didn’t know the meaning of this marriage.
No, since she was Hannah who grew up seeing the Duke and Duchess of Vermont closer than any of the maids in the castle, she could not help but know them better.
“I should have killed that old raccoon with my own hands.”
The Duke of Vermont sold Claudel.
He exchanged Claudel for a month's worth of food to feed his people.
When she found out the news, Hannah's blood boiled.
Even though she knew how important a worker's blind loyalty was to nobles as an employment criterion, she rushed into the Duke of Vermonte's office and screamed at him, 'How could you do that?'
The Duke of Vermont did not punish her, saying only then did she dare to climb to see if something was crawling, but instead, he avoided Hannah's eyes and said, 'If you want, she can go to Rowan Castle with you.'
She gritted her teeth and walked out of the matriarch's office. Hannah said she had grown in strength since that day.
She wields a heavy wooden block at night when everyone is asleep.
Hannah knew better than Claudel how a wife lived when she was abused by her husband.
In particular, unlike the commoner counterpart, the noble marriage made divorce more difficult due to the family's interests.
Even if the daughter, who was the subject of the contract, suffered harsh treatment that led to her death.
As a written marriage endures, the woman who is the greatest victim cannot escape the name of her husband's family that drove her to her death.
In Temnes and Vermont, even non-black-haired and red-haired residents often fought and ended up getting hurt or killed.
If the person who died or was injured in a fight was an enemy, the head of the family would reward him for doing a good job.
There is no way that the delicate flower-like Claudel could survive there.
So she must protect Claudel even if it is Hannah herself.
However, after the marriage was decided, Claudel began to eat less and became thinner day by day.
When Hannah saw that, she was so upset that she went crazy.
Claudel's wedding was arranged as an arranged marriage and was held quickly within a month, and as she approached the wedding day, it was doubtful that she would wither away before being struck to death by Temnes.
The doctor at Castle de Valmonde kept repeating that she was healthy and that there was nothing wrong with her, and since Claudel herself said that she was fine, Hanna could only assume that her terrible marriage to Temnes must be causing her great stress.
In any case, she was at a loss as to how to console Claudel, as she knew how big a blow it was for her not to receive a gift early in the night.
To be so happy with just one small ring.
Hanna decided to raise her evaluation of Kaian, who was hitting rock bottom, by about 5 points.
As soon as she entered the castle kitchen, she suddenly stopped talking to her gossipers.
She felt strange, but she found a tray, put a bowl on it for the soup, grabbed a plate for the bread, and headed to the oven.
“Vermont has no pride.”
At that time, the civil rights group's ridicule flew in.
"What?"
“The redhead you serve, Miss. I heard she stole an ornament from the Master’s clothes yesterday?”
"What are you talking about?"
The maids narrowed their eyes and laughed at Hannah.
“In the morning they said she showed you a button-work that was given from the Duke?”
“But the seamstress said it fell from the Duke’s clothes.”
Clink.
The tray fell from Hannah's hands and the dishes shattered.
Kaian headed to Claudel’s room.
Tonight, the third day, there was a banquet held with her.
He was curious about whether preparations were going well, and he also wondered if the two of them should have lunch together.
'Is this for no reason?'
Even though it was Vermont, Claudel did not feel uncomfortable.
The anger he had before the wedding had now largely disappeared.
“That’s stealing!”
"What? This is crazy! How dare you say something like that!”
However, in the hallway in front of Claudel's room, a fight was going on between maids tearing out their hair.
“In Vermont, don’t you think it’s okay to have bad hand habits?”
The servant and the maids, who opened their eyes wide when they saw Kaian who suddenly appeared in the mess, retreated all at once.
Claudel was standing in the doorway of the room, and in front of her was her maid, her hair and clothes torn to pieces.
"Master! Why are they saying such nonsense!”
“What’s going on?”
One of the maids quickly answered obediently.
“Well, she stole the button decorations from the Duke’s clothes and got them for her. Put it on her hand as if it were a ring.”
At those words, one of the servants shouted loudly.
“Even though they looked at our Duke funny, they looked at you funny for a long time. Are you the kind of person who would give something like that as a gift?”
Claudel looked at him with an embarrassed face.
However, Kaian was equally embarrassed.
He was a monarch who reigned over them.
The leader of Temnes seemed like a laughing stock to his servants.
“There’s no way I would give something like that as a gift.”
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