"I never stole anything! You gave me the dress! And the story ended with me saying I didn't build the grave either!"
Strictly speaking, it was Penelope's fault, but Brigitte was generous enough to cover it up.
Penelope cried out tears streaming down her face.
"I'm not! Bridget, don't you believe me? None of this is true!"
Bridget let out a short sigh and put down the book she was reading.
"That's gossip that anyone can publish. Any rumor is published there. No one cares whether it's true or not. You know that, don't get too excited, Penelope."
"What?"
Penelope got angry and banged her fist on the table.
Yesterday was another case, and she really didn't like that calm and composed Bridget.
"We're not talking about someone else right now, we're talking about us! How can you be so indifferent?"
"Then what should I do?"
"That, that is..."
Penelope was moved.
"Are you relaxed because you weren't portrayed as a villain? Your face is here too!"
"What does it matter to you and me since we barely meet anyone and just spend all our time in this mansion?"
"What does it matter? The whole world will curse me when I'm not around!"
"What's the point of swearing in a place where there's no one? You won't know or hear anything anyway, so why are you afraid of that? Just don't imagine it."
Penelope flinched at Bridget's cold response.
Why is Bridget like this? She's never been like this before. What's with that strange expression? Bridget isn't like this...
"You just have to come out and say one word that this isn't true!"
"Are you telling me to go out into the square and shout that this is a lie? Where, to whom, what, and how should I say it?"
"You, you... You were recently invited to Count Spencer's house..."
What she doesn't have and Bridget has.
It was a huge blow to her pride to admit it and say it with her own mouth.
Still, Penelope had no choice but to hang on there.
It was a matter of her honor.
"Penelope, if you pay attention to these gossips and respond to them one by one, it will only make things funnier. If you just sit still, it will soon be forgotten."
"What If not?"
"If you really care, prove your Innocence yourself."
"That's..."
She indeed took Bridget's dress, and although she did not steal it, she indeed touched the wedding gift.
It was true that Isaac had taken Penelope's side the whole time, that she had tried to be the mistress of the mansion, and that she had secretly bullied Bridget, though not openly.
And the grave. It wasn't intended to be a curse, but it was her own doing anyway.
Do you want me to prove my innocence? How can I prove it when I'm not innocent?
"How can I, by myself..."
Penelope felt like she was being sucked into a swamp.
As if to mock her true feelings. Bridget said bluntly.
"Isn't that shameful?"
Penelope, who was stabbed alone, became furious.
"Come on, be honest! You know that you didn't know that Isaac and I met in Russel! I rejected Isaac, but I couldn't help it because I got pregnant... The reason I ended up here is because you asked me to stay with you!"
"Yeah. You can tell the world that too."
"Who else but you would say something like that...!"
Penelope almost shouted, "Who else would believe that but you, so naive?" but barely managed to keep her mouth shut.
Bridget was looking at her with dry eyes.
Penelope felt like she was standing on trial. The judge in this trial was Bridget.
She felt like she was being stripped naked, piece by piece. It was hard to bear.
Her head, tangled with excitement, shame, and anger, skipped logic and leaped forward.
"You, you! Is this why you brought me here? To embarrass me like this?"
"Well, I don't know why the arrows are suddenly pointed at me."
Penelope couldn't stand that annoying, nonchalant expression on Bridget's face.
Penelope racked her brain trying to come up with something to complain about before shouting.
"Portraits! Yes, it's not something that a mere employee can do to get a portrait of you and me! You definitely had it, right? The portrait of me on there is the one I gave you as a token of our friendship!"
"In this mansion, where someone carelessly takes my shoes and belongings and buries them in the ground while I'm away, is it a big deal if a portrait gets lost?"
"...!"
The belongings of Bridget buried in the tomb were ones Penelope had brought and buried herself.
No servant would be so daring as to steal such an important object as a portrait from this mansion.
To get to that truth, she had to confess what she had done.
Penelope was sucked deeper and deeper into the swamp.
Beyond the calves, to the thighs, to the waist, and now to the chest. Her breath was suffocating.
"This... Ugh...!"
It was while Penelope was groaning in anger.
The door opened wide and Isaac came into the room.
He suddenly shouted at Penelope.
"Penelope! Why are you taking your anger out on Bridget?"
"Isaac!"
Penelope looked at Isaac as if she felt wronged.
Isaac urged Penelope, keeping an eye on Bridget.
"Bridget is a victim too. All three of us are on there with our faces and names! Why are we fighting each other when we are all victims? We can't help each other!"
"Huh! The same victim?"
Penelope trembled.
"I was the only one who became the villain there! Even though you were the one who cheated on me in the first place!"
Immediately after saying those words, Penelope realized her mistake and covered her mouth.
"I cheated on you? Is that something you would say to me?"
"Oh. Isaac. That's not it..."
"You were the one who seduced me at that masquerade ball! I was drunk at the time! Didn't you seduce me and take me to bed?"
"Oh. Isaac. That's not it... I'm sorry, Isaac. That was a mistake. I think I'm crazy."
Isaac, who was already furious because of the gossip, couldn't stop criticizing her
even after her apology.
Why did Penelope build something like Bridget's tomb in the first place?
From there, the irritation he had been holding in exploded.
"Who was it that got pregnant with the child of a one-night stand partner after lightly flirting with her? Then, should I have just ignored you and come back? Really? You're criticizing me for keeping my duty? You don't even know how grateful you are!"
At this point, even Penelope couldn't stand it anymore.
She screamed in a tearful voice.
"... Why are you talking like that? Did I create this child all by myself? Why do you talk as if you were doing me a favor when I had no other choice?"
"Then, isn't this charity? Can't you imagine what would have happened to you if I had turned away from you back then? I saved you from being miserable! If this isn't charity, then what is?"
Bridget watched blankly as the magi attached to the two people's bodies burned like fire.
The room was so full of magi that it was suffocating.
She quietly left the room, leaving the two fighting men alone.
'Until the day before yesterday, it was chaos as if we were going to die.'
Love?
Can something like that be called love?
'Dare.'
It annoyed me that we called such shallow feelings of love among ourselves.
It was an act that polluted and belittled the essence of love.
Love was something grander and more wonderful.
A human being who has the nature to cherish himself more than anyone else goes beyond his nature and cherishes others as much as he does.
That was love, and that was a miracle.
That was the love that Bridget knew.
***
Even after Bridget left the room, Penelope and Isaac's sharp fight continued.
After a while, Penelope came out crying.
She goes out of the mansion and towards the hill beyond the garden.
'It's dangerous.'
A magi in the shape of Penelope was clinging to her back and strangling her.
Magi was calling for death.
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