ALPL 04

Chapter: 04

The next morning.

Luise went to visit the marquis again, but, as expected, it was in vain.

The marquis had not returned. This time, even his eldest son, Pietro, had gone to the police station, so Luise had to turn away without receiving any additional explanation.

She could no longer postpone the funeral. Luise finally resolved to give up the pearl.

She had to retrieve the promissory note and 3 crowns she had carefully hidden under the floorboards and go to Helden’s pawnshop. She would have to hand over the money and note and declare that she wanted to sell the pearl.

She felt terribly sorry for her mother, but there was no other choice.

However, Luise’s eyes widened as she hurried down the hill. The old front gate had fallen off and lay sprawled in front of the house.

Her heart pounded.

Normally, even if a thief broke in, there was nothing in the house worth stealing. But now it was different.

Luise dashed inside. Her modest household belongings were in complete disarray.

She anxiously checked under the floorboards. It was truly hidden, a secret space that could even deceive her mother.

But there was nothing.

“Ah.”

Her breath caught. Her heart felt like it was being torn apart.

“Ahhh…”

She scratched at the sand beneath the floorboards with her nails.

The precious gold coins meant for her mother’s funeral.

The single sheets of paper exchanged for her mother’s keepsakes…

Not a single one remained. Nothing at all.

Only her lifeless mother remained in this miserable house.

“Huh….”

The painful tears came belatedly.

She clasped her mother’s hand, covered in cloth. Cold and stiff, like a piece of winter wood, she held it tightly and let out a bitter cry.

Her sobs filled every corner of the chaotic house.

How long had she cried like that?

In the midst of unending pain, a voice reached her.

“Luise?”

Through her blurred vision, she saw Mrs. Smith holding a white bouquet.

Startled, Mrs. Smith dropped it as if throwing it, and white petals scattered down like snow.

“Ahhh…”

The snow-like petals fell weakly, like Luise’s tears.

The friendly face of the pawnshop owner disappeared like a lie.

He said he would never return the pearl, no matter how much money was brought, without the promissory note. Even seeing Luise sobbing did not move him an inch.

If she wanted to retrieve her belongings, he added, she should not forget to pay interest until the note was recovered.

Nothing would change, no matter how frustrated she was.

Ultimately, Luise had to call the funeral director that Mrs. Smith had mentioned to cremate her mother.

When unfamiliar men approached her mother’s body, Mrs. Smith tied a black cloth over Luise’s eyes to keep her from seeing anything.

Luise screamed and wailed.

That her mother—the daughter of Rineu and the mistress of Ermolie—had to leave the world in the humblest way possible.

No one except Mrs. Smith attended this humble funeral.

A different kind of farewell.

Though commoners might be forced to cremate loved ones due to expensive funeral costs, this was explicitly against doctrine.

According to the church, a human had to return to the earth after death. They could not be scattered in the air as ashes or smoke. Burning the body was considered a shameful act reserved for hell.

The church, fattening itself on absurd funeral fees with the emperor’s approval, could not openly scold or report commoners forced to cremate their families.

They only emphasized that the deceased had to be buried in the church cemetery to reach heaven.

The more the doctrine insisted, the more anger and grief burned in the hearts of those cremating their parents.

Her chest burned and throbbed as if she had swallowed fire. Though her eyes were covered, she felt the black smoke.

The flames engulfing her mother.

The flames consuming her innocent mother and growing in strength.

All of it was her own incompetence and foolishness.

If only it were a horrible dream—that she had called the undertaker herself to burn her mother’s body.

She smelled burning.

Her mother’s flesh burning.

Ah, her mother’s flesh burning.

She retched repeatedly, despite having eaten nothing.

Through the covered eyes, it seemed as if blood spread across her vision—black turning red, red turning black, repeating.

After several cycles, darkness swallowed Luise.

Mrs. Smith wept over the unconscious Luise, holding her. “Poor thing… wretched thing…” she cried.

“Have you eaten anything?”

Three days after the funeral, Mrs. Smith visited. She searched the kitchen for signs of cooking. Behind her, the image of Luise’s healthy mother flickered.

Before Mrs. Smith could turn, Luise glanced at the cobwebs on the ceiling.

Her weakness had been evident enough. Mrs. Smith had taken a day off to care for her when she fainted at the crematorium.

After the dew of tears in her eyes had dried, Luise answered.

“I’ve eaten. Don’t worry.”

“Eaten? You think thin porridge is enough?”

Mrs. Smith scolded her as she lifted a sack from the floor.

From the sack came some fallen flour and pale yellow pumpkins. Judging by their size, they were clearly for a family of three.

Luise muttered apologetically.

“…Why do you keep bringing things? I can’t eat all these pumpkins by myself.”

“It’s plenty. That’s why.”

Mrs. Smith waved her hands dramatically. It was, of course, a bright lie given her own circumstances.

“You must feed Vanessa well. She’s growing.”

“Growing? That girl takes after me and only grows sideways! It would be better if she grew tall like you, Luise!”

Mrs. Smith downplayed the kind daughter for no reason, then pulled out a newspaper left in the sack. Luise’s eyes widened this time.

“What newspaper is this?”

“Oh, my husband brought it from the market. He can’t read, so he told me to have you read it and learn any important news.”

Luise forced a smile and unfolded the newspaper.

The previous day, she had gone to Engel Street but heard about the curfew. Sure enough, the marquis still had not returned.

Pietro seemed ready to flee in the night with his siblings if things went wrong, clearly following the marquis’s instructions.

Of course, Pietro did not hide this plan because he hoped Luise would keep her distance and avoid trouble with them.

Having lost her mother, she had effectively lost her livelihood too.

She hadn’t spoken of this yet, but the newspaper Mrs. Smith handed her happened to be folded so that the personal ads page was on top. It was too coincidental to be just chance.

When Luise hesitated, Mrs. Smith urged her.

“Why aren’t you reading it yet?”

Even if she couldn’t read, she could recognize an advertisement page—it was divided into tiny sections with many numbers, unlike the other pages.

“…How did you know?”

Mrs. Smith pretended not to know.

“Start with this one! Ads with bigger letters are placed by the wealthy. Don’t ignore it. I know everything I need to know.”

The ad she pointed to included a small illustration:

“Three-story house for sale in Kerten. Beautiful front door with fan-shaped skylight, windows that open up and down…”

“Fan-shaped skylight? That’s this one! Amazing, but next.”

Mrs. Smith smoothly moved on. Several more irrelevant ads had to be read before reaching the job ad she wanted.

“Arnoncourt Boarding School. Want connections among the upper class? Then…”

“I don’t want that, next.”

Luise sighed.

“A tutor wanted.”

Finally, Mrs. Smith’s eyes widened.

“Household tutor wanted at the Burck Marquis residence. Highest-level treatment promised, noble background preferred. Send a reference to the following address to arrange an interview.”

Though she could not read herself, Mrs. Smith watched intently as Luise read the ad, as if trying to detect any trick hidden in the letters.

“So, this is the address?”

No, she just wanted to find the address.

It was meaningless. To send a letter to the Burck residence, there was no need to know the address—the most remote post office in the empire would know where Burck was.

Luise sighed again.

“How did you know that I couldn’t work at Engel?”

“How would I not know! You went out yesterday and came back immediately. I thought the marquis house was out of reach now. It’s unfortunate for our lord, but you can’t starve too.”

Mrs. Smith chuckled and poked Luise with her second finger.

“They promise the highest-level treatment. You’ll send a reference, right? Luise, you are from an extremely noble family, aren’t you?”