Chapter 22
“Lord Kaelan. The count is asking for you.”
A knock sounded at the door behind me as I stood in front of the mirror.
The smile disappeared from Kaelan’s face as he looked at the mirror.
“Tell him I’ll be there soon.”
After stroking the area near the brand on my collarbone once with his thumb, he disappeared from the mirror.
My body flinched at the touch against the scar, where a faint heat still remained.
“Mary. Clean everything up while I’m gone.”
Before long, no one remained in the mirror.
Click.
The collar was fastened around my neck again as I was led to the front of the bed.
Freedom denied.
Yet this restraint, which could easily be shaken off, no longer felt insignificant.
Was it because a restraint that would follow me forever, even if I escaped him, had been carved into my body?
“You held out well. Good girl, Ella.”
After stroking my head one last time, he left the room, while I stood there without moving an inch.
When the door closed, the strength left my legs.
My body collapsed.
My entire body trembled.
I slowly caressed my collarbone.
It was still hot.
How long had passed since I wiped away the tears streaming down my face?
I heard footsteps nearby.
I forced myself to wipe away my tears.
I couldn’t remain lost in my emotions forever.
The fingertips wiping away my tears touched the scar on my collarbone.
I could distinctly feel the name 𝓒𝓪𝓮𝓵𝓪𝓷 etched across my skin.
The hot sorrow cooled and turned into anger.
This brand would become my vow of revenge against him.
To do that, I had to know everything.
I began slowly turning my thoughts to Mary.
Only Mary and I remained in this room.
And Mary sympathized with me.
It was the perfect situation for extracting information.
I couldn’t let such a good opportunity slip away because of my emotions.
I slowly exhaled to calm myself.
The trembling subsided a little.
I stood up on my trembling legs and looked at Mary.
I slowly approached her as she was taking the branding iron out of the fireplace.
“I…”
The branding iron slipped from her flinching hand and fell back into the fireplace.
She was wary of me.
"May I call you Miss Mary?”
“Y-yes! Ah… I’m sorry.”
She turned toward me and lightly bowed her head.
“I thought you were Lord Kaelan.”
She was afraid of Kaelan after all.
“I’ll… just call you Mary.”
“…Yes.”
I studied Mary as she continued to watch me warily.
Trembling hands and reddened eyes.
A face that looked as though she had been crying.
“…Mary, thank you for earlier.”
…
“For holding me.”
I raised my hand and touched my collarbone.
Mary’s face crumpled.
“…I’m sorry… I should have stopped him… but the young master was so frightening.”
Her voice trembled with tears.
“No. It wasn’t your fault, Mary. Even I couldn’t have stopped him.”
“But…”
“If you hadn’t held me… it would have been even harder.”
When I took her hand and gently comforted her, she began to cry.
‘…Good. She’s opened up to me.’
“Mary… do you know where this room is?”
Mary froze at my cautious question.
Her eyes wavered as she glanced at the door.
She looked wary of speaking.
“Please. I… I can’t endure this place. Help me.”
I pleaded.
Sincerely, to a girl even younger than me.
Tears welled up.
They were real tears, not false ones meant to persuade her.
I felt guilty for using her.
‘I’m sorry, Mary.’
But to survive and take revenge, I had no choice.
“…Mary.”
“…All right… This is Count Daker’s estate. This room is on the second floor of the south wing.”
The second floor.
A height I could easily jump from.
“The count and his sons are in the east wing.”
“His sons?”
“Yes. I heard there were originally four. But apparently the eldest young master died when he was young. The longtime servants say that ever since then, the count has kept the third young master at a distance.”
The eldest son had died, and the third had been estranged ever since.
I recalled Muen and Kaelan’s conversation.
The count and Kaelan had been on bad terms.
Could the third son be Kaelan?
If so, could I use the count?
I shook my head.
Involving a noble was too dangerous.
“What about the second and fourth young masters?”
“I heard the second young master serves in the Imperial Knights. He’s an important person, so someone like me has never even seen him. I’ve only been employed at the estate for a few months, after all. As for the fourth young master, I’m not sure. Everyone avoids talking about it, but there seem to be some bad rumors. There’s even a rumor that he’s an illegitimate child. No one has seen the countess since the eldest young master died.”
Not particularly useful information.
What I needed right now was information related to escaping.
“Are there walls around the estate?”
“There’s a wall around the garden. But… the garden wall is high. It must be about three meters.”
At three meters, I couldn’t get over it.
If I couldn’t climb over it, the only option left was the main gate.
But shaking off the guards and escaping through the main gate was nearly impossible.
Just then, Mary came closer and whispered.
“But the western wall. It isn’t well maintained, so it’s covered in ivy.”
If there was ivy, I could climb a three-meter wall.
The western wall.
I engraved those words in my mind.
Just then, footsteps sounded from the other end of the hallway.
My heart sank.
I held my breath and looked toward the door.
Fortunately, the footsteps passed by the room and faded away.
We lowered our voices even further.
“Were there people like me here before?”
“I… I’m not sure, but apparently there have been for a long time. The young master’s toys. They say they were usually people whose disappearance wouldn’t matter, like vagrants or prisoners of war.”
People whose disappearance didn’t matter.
People like me, whose every connection to the world had vanished.
“What… happened to those people?”
“…Most of them died.”
Silence.
Terror flashed through me at the thought that they had all died, but my reason focused on the word most.
Not all of them.
It meant someone had survived.
“If it was most of them… was there anyone who escaped or survived?”
“There was… one person who escaped.”
I focused on her words so I wouldn’t miss a single syllable of a story that was certain to help me.
“When I… first came to this estate, there was a woman here. As soon as I arrived, Lord Kaelan assigned me to serve him, so I often ran into her. She was a thief. She had been sentenced to death for stealing various valuables, but the young master got her out.”
“Why?”
“Because she had blue eyes.”
Blue eyes.
The shelf covering one wall of the room, filled with them.
Was Kaelan obsessed with eyes after all?
I remembered what he had said when he tore out my eye.
He had thought it was his own unique color, but I had that color too.
Navy blue, similar to blue but different.
Everything had gone wrong because of this color.
If not for that, I might have died alongside Noah that day, or carried out my plan to be sold to another noble and seduce him without a hitch.
“She… escaped through that window.”
She looked toward the window behind the table.
The window I had been considering for my escape.
“What… happened to her?”
“They said she got out of the estate… safely.”
It was a hopeful story about successfully leaving the estate.
But Mary’s trembling voice made it impossible to expect a happy ending.
“But… when Lord Kaelan returned a few days later from searching for her, looking excited, he was alone. He looked like a predator returning from a satisfying hunt.”
…
“And… one more pair of eyes had been added.”
Mary’s eyes were fixed on the shelf.
The shelf was filled with glass bottles containing blue eyes.
One of the eyes there belonged to that woman.
I felt nauseated.
“I’m sure… they’re hers.”
In the silence, my mind continued racing.
She had escaped the estate safely, but had eventually been caught.
And even though his own toy had escaped, he had seemed excited instead.
A satisfying hunt.
This room really was a trap.
Like a hunter releasing prey into the forest to enjoy the hunt, he had left our door open for his toys to escape, waiting for them to be caught.
Even so, I had to do it.
The mere fact that someone had gotten outside the estate was good news.
“Ella… don’t run away.”
Mary clutched my hand and pleaded.
“If you run, you’ll definitely die.”
She was right.
There was a high chance I could die.
But staying here meant dying too.
“You said most of the people who were here before died too. I’ll die even if I stay here.”
“No. He treated the woman before you differently from you. He spent a great deal of money treating you and left a mark proving you belonged to him.”
I touched my collarbone.
The brand.
“He didn’t do that to the person before you. So you can survive.”
Mary’s rebuttal contradicted what I said.
But even staying here wasn’t living.
A life worth less than a dog’s, performing tricks for food.
And there was something I absolutely had to do.
Revenge.
“Thank you, Mary. Thank you, truly. But I’m going to escape. Even if I stay here… this isn’t living. I’d rather resist and die.”
Mary began to cry.
She sobbed bitterly.
“…All right. I’ll help you… with whatever I can do.”
“Thank you, but no. You’ll be in danger too.”
“I don’t want to watch someone I know die for another person’s amusement again, like that woman.”
“…All right.”
I felt I could understand her feelings at least a little.
I squeezed her hand tightly.
“Mary… thank you so much.”
Tears flowed from my eyes as well.
We cried together.
How long did we cry?
“…Get ready. To escape. I’ll help you.”
Once she had calmed down, Mary spoke.
I nodded quietly.
It was the beginning.
I would succeed, no matter what.