Chapter 80
Sylvia lay face-down on the floor, covering her face.
A searing pain, as if from a branding iron, engulfed her cheek.
Her mind felt bleached blank. Sylvia couldn't understand what had just happened to her.
No, her brain was refusing to accept reality itself.
Sylvia Edelheid.
She was the youngest daughter of the Edelheid ducal house, the family's darling.
She could do whatever she wanted and have whatever she wanted.
A hothouse flower who had never been hit—or even properly scolded for causing trouble.
For someone like Sylvia, it took a long time just to realize she'd been hit.
She was too shocked to speak.
Not even tears would come.
The only response she managed was to open and close her mouth in fits and starts.
"You were hiding behind the duchess and watching while I was being beaten."
Renoa looked down at Sylvia with cold eyes and began speaking.
"I still remember the expression on your face when you watched me being hit. You were definitely smiling."
"……."
"How is it now that you're the one being hit? Does it hurt? So much that you can't even speak?"
Renoa bent down.
She met Sylvia's eyes from so close their noses almost touched.
Renoa's eyes, from so close that their breaths were almost touching, had sunk black as an abyss.
Deep in those pupils glittered a dense murderous intent, like something ready to burst out at any moment.
"Remember this clearly."
The low murmur slithered into Sylvia's ears like a venomous snake.
"Don't mistake that flimsy little world you trust so blindly for something that's going to protect you forever. If you cross the line again and covet what's mine……."
Renoa's chilling gaze seemed to bind Sylvia's own eyes, as if it would swallow them whole.
"Then I'll gouge those eyes out."
"Hic…!"
A shiver of terror squeezed its way out of Sylvia's throat.
The fear of having her life threatened by nothing more than a single look.
For the first time in her life, Sylvia had faced murderous intent, and the alarm bell in her head screamed desperately for her to run.
Thick tears dropped down her bloodless cheeks.
"Waaah! Mommyyyyy!"
In the end, Sylvia's reason, unable to overcome her fear, completely shattered.
Her flimsy pride as a young lady had long since been thrown away.
With her face a mess of tears and snot, Sylvia got to her feet in a miserable scramble across the carpet.
Not caring that the hem of her expensive dress was being trampled and torn beneath her heels, she bolted out of the room.
Her hurried footsteps and suffocating sobs faded farther and farther away.
Watching her retreating back, Renoa rose to her feet.
When she was smiling, she was creepy, but now that she's crying, she's kind of cute.
Did they say true siblings take a strange pleasure in tormenting each other?
Watching Sylvia bawl her eyes out put Renoa in a very good mood.
Even if they only shared half their blood, it seemed she and Sylvia really were sisters.
"Maybe you just like tormenting people, young lady?"
"What do you take me for? I don't have such a disgusting hobby."
Leon let out a dry laugh he couldn't quite hold back.
If he could, he wanted to show her the Renoa he knew.
She'd definitely be rolling on the floor, unable to bear it.
"More importantly, what are you going to do now? Since you hit the youngest daughter, the duchess won't just sit still."
"It'll work out somehow. She's already here."
Heavy thudding rang out from the hallway, drawing closer and closer. Without even looking, it was obvious whose angry footsteps they were.
-BANG!
The door flew open again as if it would break.
"Renoa!"
Sure enough, it was Duchess Florencia. Fury poured from her horribly contorted face.
Beside her was Sylvia, clutching her cheek and sniffling.
"How dare you strike my daughter?"
"Then you should have raised her properly."
"What?"
"You barged into someone else's room without permission, and on top of that, you even tried to covet what belongs to others…."
Renoa tilted her head and let out a sneer.
"Doesn't that lack of restraint make her look just like an animal?"
"You little bitch, how dare you open that filthy mouth of yours…!"
Florencia, having lost all reason to rage, sharply raised her hand.
Her palm cut through the air roughly, as if it would rip Renoa's cheek apart any second.
But just before her hand could reach Renoa.
-thunk.
Florencia's hand was held in midair. Leon had grabbed her wrist.
Florencia's eyes filled with shock.
The escort knights all placed hands on their swords, looking ready to draw them at any moment, but.
"……."
Leon looked steadily at them.
Under that formless pressure, they couldn't even twitch a finger, let alone draw their swords.
"Y-you dare lay a hand on me!"
Florencia's roar rang out thunderously.
"I took you in because your character was admirable despite being a slave, and now you're trying to betray me like this?"
"Well, the thing is…."
Leon had stepped in because he was worried Renoa might get hit. He hadn't thought about what to do afterward.
Wasn't there a good way to get out of this?
As Leon looked around, a lightbulb suddenly went off in his head the moment he saw Renoa.
He hurriedly raised his voice, deliberately putting on a pale expression.
"Cough…. Young lady, you mustn't do this."
"What nonsense is that all of a sudden! Let go this instant!"
"I know in my head that this is wrong too. But my body moves on its own."
"Are you saying that bitch is controlling your body right now?"
Leon grimaced and nodded.
"That's right. Because of the master-servant contract, I, as a slave, cannot go against the young lady's orders. Please forgive my rudeness…!"
At Leon's sincerely apologetic appeal, Florencia's bloodshot eyes turned toward Renoa.
She seemed to have completely misunderstood, thinking Renoa had used her slave to restrain her in order to humiliate her.
A menacing fury radiated from her.
But Renoa's gaze was fixed on Leon.
Just then, Leon's face remained perfectly calm as he casually met her gaze.
A silent conversation passed between the two of them through their clashing gazes.
"When did I ever give that order?"
"You were the one who caused this. Anyway, I stopped it before you had to suffer something ugly, so you should put up with this much. Your reputation can't get any worse anyway."
It was probably something like that.
At the slave's shamelessness in subtly shifting the blame onto his master, Renoa suppressed an inward laugh, exasperated.
Should she be grateful for his attempt to protect his master, or curse him for selling his master out?
"So that's how you're going to play it, huh?"
Then I've got an idea too.
"Make her kneel."
"Pardon?"
"I said make her kneel."
Leon stared at her as if wondering whether she was really insane.
No matter how much you disliked someone, she was still a duchess in name. If you made her kneel, it would be a disaster.
But Renoa had no intention of yielding. Compared to a lifetime of abuse, this kind of revenge was trivial.
"That's odd. Why won't she listen even though I'm giving the order? Almost as if she wasn't following my command from the start."
As if grabbing Florencia wasn't her command at all, but something Leon had done on his own.
That was the meaning behind Renoa's words. Once again, everyone's eyes turned to Leon.
"Is she really insane?"
Leon clicked his tongue at her incomprehensible way of thinking.
There are things you do and things you don't.
But Leon had no intention of coming this far just to take the blame for everything.
"Graaagh! My body is acting on its own again…!"
"Eek!"
Leon hooked Florencia's leg, and she dropped to her knees with a thud.
Florencia's panic lasted only a moment before she unleashed her fury on Renoa.
She glared at her murderously.
"Renoa! You really are mad! Can't you make your slave let go of me at once!"
"Oh dear, what should I do? I'm still inexperienced at handling slaves, so it isn't going the way I want."
Renoa covered her mouth and put on an obnoxiously shocked expression.
Yet she didn't hide the sneer slipping through those red lips.
"Since you've already gone so far as to kneel, why not spend a moment repenting for the crimes you've committed against me?"
To think she was kneeling at the feet of the illegitimate child she had abused all her life.
At that ridiculous, historic sight, Renoa felt as if the stuffiness she'd been nursing for over ten years had been washed away all at once.
"You, you vile bitch…!"
Florencia's face flushed red and blue with unbearable humiliation as she shook all over and raged.
But she couldn't shake off Leon's powerful grip crushing her shoulder.
"Ghk! My apologies, madam!"
Since things had already exploded, Leon went straight into full-on performance mode.
The master and slave duo were bizarrely in perfect sync.
"Madam. Let me give you some advice."
"What?"
"The powerless child you used to beat at will is already dead. If something like today happens again."
Renoa whispered into Florencia's ear.
"Then what falls won't be your knees, but your neck."
"You…!"
Ignoring whatever Florencia said next, Renoa spun around.
"Leon. I want to rest. Get all the nuisances out of here."
He sent all the uninvited guests packing.
The room was left with only Leon and Renoa, as usual.
Leon stood behind Renoa, massaging her shoulders.
"I'm not taking responsibility."
"You grabbed that woman's hand on your own, didn't you?"
"It was you hitting the youngest daughter that started this. Don't go blaming your slave for it just because you're the master."
The two of them blamed each other for the situation, right on the verge of bickering.
But the situation was far more serious than Leon had thought.
"So what are you really going to do? Fine, even if it's about your little sister, I've never heard of making a duchess kneel."
"That's fine too."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because the duke is basically my father and mother. Why would he side with that woman instead of me?"
The duke may be the witch, but for now he's still the Duke of Edelheid.
As long as he holds that position, no one will be able to easily lay a hand on Renoa.
Until the witch is dealt with, she had to enjoy this privilege to the fullest…….
"……."
For a moment, an unpleasant thought flashed through Renoa's mind.
"Leon, what would happen if the witch died?"
"Well, there'd be a big uproar first. The duke himself is the witch, after all."
"And after that? What would happen to the ducal house?"
"Hmm, since the duke would be gone, wouldn't the eldest son inherit the position?"
"Right."
If the duke disappeared, the head of the house would naturally pass to Cassius, the eldest son.
Then the protection Renoa enjoyed would disappear too, and her standing within the family would weaken again.
In other words, taking down the witch would, in one sense, deal a fatal blow to Renoa's power.
"Isn't there some way?"
A way to remove the witch while preserving her power.
After agonizing over it for a while, Renoa finally came up with one method.
Could she blackmail the witch?