“In that case... Your Highness, can you teach me the letters?”
It wasn't hard to make a face of shame and embarrassment, because she had been truly ashamed of being illiterate her entire life.
Enough to make her face blush naturally in any situation.
"What are the letters...?"
The Crown Prince looked as if he had been hit.
Judging from the look on his face that said, 'Can't you read?', it seemed like Sion hadn't yet reported that she was illiterate.
“...Is that all you need?”
In his distorted eyebrows and dark eyes, there was a clearer sense of sympathy and pity than before.
The sympathy and compassion felt by someone with such strong love for humanity inevitably leads to feelings of guilt.
'I have to use it.'
Odette's hair is slowly getting wet from the drizzle. It makes her look even more miserable.
“Do you remember? At my debutante, Your Highness asked me to dance.”
The Crown Prince's body appeared stiff and tense.
“I hate it so much. Why should I dance with Your Highness?!”
He must be thinking of Odette's screaming rejection.
“Why are you suddenly talking about that-”
“Actually, I did that because I couldn’t write Your Highness’s name with my own hand on the dance card hanging on my wrist.”
“...Lady Albrecht.”
“It is too sad for Your Highness to find out that I am so lowly...”
The rain slowly soaked her white nightgown and gown. Odette had learned how to beg among the beggars when she was most pitiful.
When she gets wet from the rain, when she looks down, and when she shivers.
And now all three of them were jackpots.
“Your Highness said it was ‘just letters,’ but you have no idea what it feels like to disappear into thin air rather than be caught illiterate.”
“...”
“Every time the butler says that I was abandoned by my own mother because I can’t read or write...”
Odette paused for a moment, feeling her voice 'really' wavering.
'What am I going to do, I'm so absorbed in it?'
Now was the time to use her head and act, not to wallow in real sadness and self-pity.
“So, Your Highness, grant me the ability to read and write. That would be a more precious gift to me than any jewel.”
John, who had been staring at Odette for a long time with a complicated expression, eventually nodded.
“Okay... that’s it. If that’s enough for you.”
“I am sorry, Your Highness.”
Odette smiled the most innocent smile, a smile created through careful calculation.
The Crown Prince hurriedly averted his eyes.
He looked confused. Perhaps because he could not find any trace of the Lady Albrecht he so detested in the woman standing before him.
The expression on the Crown Prince's face when he tried to get rid of the debt in his heart was truly something to behold.
She took advantage of the gap and quietly opened the necklace.
[ 'John's' disgust level has been reduced by 5. ]
[ 'John's' disgust level: 70 ]
But Odette's smile disappeared in an instant.
Seventy? Seventy points?!
She was astonished by the high number.
'This damn game... The setting is that if your disgust level is 100, you feel an unbearable killing intent...'
Odette avoided the <Crown Prince's Rampage Incident>, and even though John knows it was thanks to her purification, he still hates her like this?
A cold anger enveloped Odette, but she had no time to wallow in emotion.
A disgust level of 70 means she can't relax for even a moment.
Odette suppressed her anger and closed the lid of the necklace.
***
The Crown Prince left before dawn.
The Crown Prince surprisingly had a talent for teaching, and Odette, who had already learned to read and write through Han Su-Wan's memory, was able to successfully read geometric patterns into letters in just two hours.
She opened the postcard Sion had sent again.
"I will arrange for the cleansing bounty and future maintenance expenses to be deposited in your hidden account.
The amount below is the monthly maintenance fee."
Hmm. The letters are completely readable... Huh?! What did you say?
'This fucking number 0 is the amount of money I get paid every month?'
The cost of maintaining dignity is at the level of a direct royal family!
Odette was astonished to find that the Count had been embezzling so much money. She continued reading the letter.
"Your family will also receive money as a kind of maintenance fee. It is part of the dirty money I stole from the Count's criminal enterprise.
It's like stealing 100 atasha from your right pocket and putting 1 atasha in your left pocket. I believe that the sight of your father getting the maintenance fee and being happy like a monkey will be a small source of entertainment.
If you want to withdraw cash, just visit any Kleist bank and show the necklace to the bank manager."
Even in his handwriting, he seemed excited to break the Count's code. It seemed he had already stirred up a criminal enterprise.
Is that because he is the male lead? His action is truly amazing.
'Why is there no injection mark on my arm?'
Even in the previous life, when the fake Purifier's pretense came to an end, the Count's surveillance became lax.
Yet the servants never once forgot to put Mengele down.
How can I forget how badly my father beats the servant who forgot to give me an injection?
'If he can forget about the existence of the injection for three days, it means that the Count's criminal business is going downhill at a tremendous rate. To the point where it can't even be handled.'
After having to endure that dirty temper and criminal enterprise for three years, now that the opportunity to wipe it out has come, how well must he be doing?
Odette chuckled and tore up the postcard.
'Once Sion takes down all of the Count's businesses, there are only two sources of income left for Father.'
The Albrecht Pharmaceutical Company has been passed down from generation to generation. And the Ulrich Casino, which was started by the Count.
Odette threw the shredded postcard into the fireplace and lost herself in thought.
'The Count and Ferdinand are in the palace. If there are no servants or maids to watch over me....'
At that moment, knock, knock, a knock on her door rang out.
"Who is this?"
“It’s Malea, Miss.”
It seemed like she visited early in the morning to avoid other people's attention.
'When you see things like this, you can use your wit.'
“Wait outside the door.”
Odette left Malea standing in front of the door and leisurely changed her wet pajamas. But the moment she changed into her new chemise.
'Ouch!'
A pin stabbed her waist. Odette held the pin and stared at it for a long time. It was obvious who did it.
'It's just that human being's doing that's so gloomy.'
She guessed they was pretty upset about being insulted by her a few days ago, but this wasn't an urgent matter.
Odette threw away the hour pin and called out to Malea.
“You may come in.”
Malea, who was pulling a trolley into the room, walked cautiously, fearing that she might offend her.
Until three days ago, she was just lying on Odette's bed and eating cookies, but now she's watching her like that. This is a lot of progress.
“You haven’t come out of your room for three days... I was worried, so I came to visit.”
“How disgusting. Malea, you wouldn’t have been worried about me. You would have been worried about your own safety.”
Odette answered coldly and sat down in the baroque armchair. Malea was wearing a headdress made of chapel pearls.
“It looks like you’ve found a good position as a maid.”
“How did you know?”
Malea asked back with an expression as if she had seen a ghost.
“That Chapel Pearl is my mother’s favorite. You wouldn’t have received it if you hadn’t become her maid.”
Malea, who had an awe-inspiring expression on her face, had completely lost the attitude of trying to fight Odette.
Odette guesses Malea must have come to some realization after three days of experience.
“As the young lady said, the gallery was full of cheap fakes. When I pointed out that they were fakes, the butler secretly sent me into the room of the detained madam.”
"So?"
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