Chapter 10
“Don’t… don’t ever do that again.”
“……”
He still gave no answer.
“You’re my slave, but that doesn’t mean you should get hurt because of me.”
Her thoughts were so tangled that the words came out in a jumble.
She was gratefulāgrateful was one thing, but this was a different matter. Sioana didn’t want to see Etienne get hurt because of her.
They hadn’t known each other that long. Their stations weren’t the same. And there were things she couldn’t tell Etienneāor anyone else.
But he was her friend.
Steeling her jumbled heart, she spoke in a firm voice.
“Don’t get hurt. That’s an order from your master. Got it?”
At Sioana’s command, Etienne just stood there in silence.
The dry wind of Regbel blew between them.
Mrs. Hooper’s lessons were less about etiquette and more about how to be a bride. And they were even more boring and useless than Sioana had expected.
“Lady Sioana, what do you believe are the virtues of a good wife?”
“…I’m not sure.”
As Sioana hesitated, Mrs. Hooper shook her head in disappointment.
“How troublesome that you can’t answer such a simple question. First virtue is obedience, second virtue is obedience.”
She explained that before marriage, a girl should obey her father and brothers; after marriage, she should obey her husbandāthat was the path to a harmonious family.
“…Hmm.”
Sioana felt like arguing, but it wasn’t exactly wrong. After all, she was taking these lessons because of Eli.
Pleased with Sioana’s docile attitude, Mrs. Hooper continued.
“Only a gentle, well-mannered lady can capture the attention of many gentlemen.”
As the lesson dragged on, Sioana’s face grew paler. These were things she had never once imagined while living in Regbel.
Learning how to eat macarons while fluttering her eyelashes.
“Also, whenever you go outside, you must always have an escort. And when crossing the street, you must lift the hem of your dress with your right hand, no higher than your ankle.”
‘If Mrs. Hooper ever saw me climbing Regbel Mountain, she’d faint.’
When she climbed the mountain, she used both hands to hoist her dress up to her knees.
“Lady Sioana, these are things that young ladies in the capital learn from childhood as basic education.”
Mrs. Hooper picked up a cup rimmed with faded gold and frowned. Teaching a student as hopeless as this was exhaustingānot that she had much choice, having lost her husband and needing to make a living.
“By the way, I don’t see Viscount Evgenia today?”
Mrs. Hooper glanced around unnecessarily, then blushed slightly.
“My brother went to Haibel.”
At Sioana’s answer, Mrs. Hooper looked a little disappointed.
After the carriage carrying Mrs. Hooper disappeared from view, Sioana hurriedly escaped indoors.
“I thought I was going to die of suffocation.”
On days when Eli wasn’t home, she always went out for a walk. But today, she had wasted precious hours on Mrs. Hooper’s lesson.
Before she knew it, she had reached the back garden. There, Etienne was chopping wood. He paid no attention to her arrival and just kept working. Sioana perched herself on a nearby stump.
Crack. Thunk.
Watching the simple act of splitting thick logs with an axe, her irritation began to ease a little.
‘I really hate that lesson.’
But she couldn’t say that to Eli. He would fly into a rage.
She hated the lessons, but she didn’t want to be disliked. Those two feelings warred inside her, tormenting her.
“I don’t think I can ever become a proper lady,” Sioana murmured to herself.
Some time passed.
A sizable pile of firewood had accumulated beside Etienne, and sweat soaked his forehead, face, and upper body. Wiping the sweat with the back of his hand, he raised the axe again. Sioana found herself stealing glances at the muscles bulging between his rolled-up sleeves.
‘How long is he going to keep chopping wood?’
She doodled on the ground with the toe of her shoe, paced around aimlessly, but he just kept swinging the axe.
Picking up a small stone from the ground, Sioana tossed it near Etienne’s feet. He didn’t react to the first or second throw, so she threw a few more.
“……?”
Only then did Etienne lower the axe and glance in the direction the stones had come from. Sioana had her hands behind her back and was looking away, feigning innocence.
‘…How childish.’
Letting out a held breath, he glanced around. There was already more firewood stacked than Joseph had ordered.
“Did you not notice I was here?”
Impatient, Sioana spoke to him first. Etienne put the axe back in its place and turned his back to her.
In fact, he had known she was in the back garden even before she arrived. Footsteps always resemble their owner. He had also heard every single complaint she had murmured to herself, and he’d had to stifle a snort of laughter.
‘Well, she wasn’t wrong.’
Sioana was far from the elegant ladies he had known.
She climbed hills without hesitation, and she kept treating himāa slave no better than a sewer ratālike a human being.
But it was precisely because of that that Etienne had to keep his distance from her.
Sioana, on the other hand, was taken aback by his cold response.
‘I thought we were getting a little closer… Was I wrong?’
She wanted to know more and more about him. The longing grew until sometimes it was almost uncontrollable.
‘Do I have to beg him to show me his face?’
Watching him still standing with his back turned, Sioana’s expression darkened. Frustrated, she clenched her fistsāand then she saw something black crawling near where Etienne stood.
‘A viper.’
The snakes of Regbel were highly venomous. One bite would kill even a large horse.
Without even time to warn Etienne, her body moved first. Sioana grabbed the axe and brought it down on the snake’s head.
It all happened in an instant.
“……!”
Etienne stared blankly at the snake, now split in two, and at her, gasping for breath.
“I saved your life again,” she said.
At her words, that night he had tried to forget replayed in his mind. Sioana forcing medicine into his mouth after he had refused it.
Yes. He definitely owed her his life.
And that wasn’t all. Raw, suppressed sensations wrapped around his entire body.
Her flushed cheeks from climbing the mountain. Her straight nose as she sniffed the rose scent. Her pink lips calling his name.
Dizzy with these sensations, Etienne’s legs wavered for a moment.
“What, are you scared of a pathetic little snake?”
Her shoulders squared, Sioana laughed at him.
At her words, he only let out rough breaths.
“……”
What filled Etienne’s confused eyes was fear.
It wasn’t the snake’s severed corpse lying on the ground that frightened him.
The quiet of Regbel began to stir.
For the first time in over a decade, guests had come to the Evgenia estate at Eli’s invitation. They mostly played poker or went hunting. For days, the forest echoed with gunshots and the flapping of birds.
Martha hummed a tune as she unpacked a large box.
“The young master’s friendsāthey’re all so dignified and handsome, I can’t even tell you.”
Her voice was thick with undisguised excitement.
Young men visiting Regbel, where it was rare to see new facesānot just Martha, but everyone was abuzz.
“Who said I was curious about that?” Sioana retorted indifferently.
Martha paid no mind to her retort.
“Oh, how pretty our young lady would look in this?”
She pulled out a newly tailored dress from the box and arranged it in the wardrobe, grinning from ear to ear.
“Still, no one cares for you like the young master.”
The dress, commissioned from a top-tier atelier in Haibel, was truly beautiful. The soft fabric was delicate and fluttered like butterfly wings.
“Right,” Sioana said with a snort, watching Martha through the thin fabric.
‘How can she be so mean to the young lady?’
Just the other day, she had been cursing Eli, and now she was defending him.
“Anyway, it looks terribly expensive…”
It was her first time wearing such a fine dress. But knowing all too well the financial situation at Regbel, she couldn’t simply be happy. Where had Eli found the money to order all these dresses, shoes, and hats?
‘Surely not…’
Shaking off all the grim thoughts that rose up, Sioana tried to focus on the book in her hand.
“Our young lady, worrying about the householdāyou’ve really grown up now.”
“Martha. You do know I’ll be coming of age soon, don’t you?”
Sioana snapped, and Martha bowed her head repeatedly.
“Yes, of course. I misspoke.”
“Good, as long as you know.”
“Miss, I’ll go downstairs and fetch you some refreshments.”
After Martha finished putting away the dresses and left, Sioana quietly stood up. She had pretended to read the whole time, but in truth, not a single word had registered.
“…Phew.”
Her mind had been unsettled lately.
Her heart pounded, but at the same time, a sudden, inexplicable anxiety weighed on her chest. Everything definitely felt like it was changing, but she couldn’t make sense of it.
“Everything will be fine.”
Sioana pressed a hand to her fiercely racing heart and murmured
