Chapter 6
“Hehe.”
“Let me say this again, Rowena. In front of the Grand Duchess, you must mind your manners…”
“Hehehe.”
“…And if you don’t behave properly, you’ll be severely scolded. Understood?”
“Of course, teacher!”
Inside the rattling carriage, Rowena answered energetically.
Normally, she would have let the caretaker’s nagging go in one ear and out the other, but today she listened carefully to every single word.
Her sparkling eyes shone just as brightly as they had on the day she got to eat an entire special apple pie by herself.
Which was only natural.
She was getting another chance to meet Grand Duchess Hayworth—the woman she had thought she would never see again!
‘Even if the official reason is just that I’ve been summoned to keep her company.’
Still, the important thing was that she’d been given another opportunity!
Excited, Rowena swung her short legs back and forth while humming to herself.
‘Grand Duchess Hayworth definitely likes cute behavior.’
Maybe it was because Rowena reminded her of her dead daughter.
After all, the Grand Duchess had once been a mother too.
Rowena had no intention of wasting this chance. Learning from her previous failure, this time she planned to make her “request” properly.
‘I’ll show her my ultimate three-step cuteness attack.’
It was a secret weapon she only pulled out when chocolate was served as a snack at Townsend Orphanage, but this time she had no choice.
An orphanage full of children was basically a battlefield.
Kids that age were less like well-trained humans and more like starving beasts.
No one would literally cut off your nose in the blink of an eye, but snacks left on your desk would mysteriously disappear. And while no one would stab a knife into your chest if you let your guard down, the shiny button attached to your shirt might vanish before you noticed.
That was the terrifying reality of orphanage life.
‘And I survived there for ten whole years.’
Not only that, she was one of the top students too. Ahem.
Anyway, with her “Ultimate Three-Step Cuteness Set,” there was nothing to fear.
At last, the carriage stopped in front of the Hayworth estate. Rowena hopped down and entered the mansion.
Now all she had to do was meet Grand Duchess Hayworth and everything would—
‘…Huh?’
Rowena abruptly stopped in her tracks.
The mansion, usually so quiet, was strangely chaotic today.
People hurried past in panic, while worried whispers echoed from groups gathered together.
‘And that person running over there…’
He was carrying a doctor’s medical bag.
Rowena had once been close enough with the old doctor who treated her illness to sit beside him and share boiled eggs.
Because of that, she knew very well about the indispensable medical bag doctors carried.
“All my medicine is inside here. It’s my lifeline.”
“But they’re all glass bottles. Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Exactly. That’s why doctors must never run, no matter how urgent things are.”
If a former imperial physician said so, then it had to be true.
Which meant that if someone was running while holding a medical bag, a very serious problem had occurred.
Quietly, Rowena followed after the man.
Pressing herself against the wall, she carefully peeked around the corner.
Several people were gathered in front of a room, all wearing worried expressions.
Among them was someone she recognized.
‘The uncle who gave me cookies!’
The man whom Grand Duchess Hayworth had called “Henry” or “butler”!
At that moment, “Henry or Butler” spoke with a troubled face.
“Why does this keep happening to the Grand Duchess…?”
“This is already the third time this month. She doesn’t even have any major illness, but at this rate I’m worried something terrible might happen.”
“We asked if there was anything troubling her, but she refuses to tell us. If she collapses again…”
Hearing their conversation, Rowena’s heart dropped.
Because what they were saying could be summarized very simply:
‘Grand Duchess Hayworth collapsed?!’
Just yesterday, the Grand Duchess had not looked sick at all.
Sure, she had a pollen allergy, but no one collapsed from something like that.
Unless they were the kind of child who desperately wanted an excuse to stay in bed.
It wasn’t a convincing reason for the Grand Duchess to faint.
“Do you think it’s because of that incident after all…?”
“But it’s already been over a year since then. Besides, the Grand Duchess remained perfectly healthy afterward. It’s been too long for that to suddenly become the cause of an illness.”
The “incident” they referred to was simple.
It was the death of the Grand Duchess’s daughter, Rose.
At Henry-or-Butler’s words, the middle-aged woman nodded.
“That’s true. Thanks to how steadfast the Grand Duchess was back then, House Hayworth managed not to collapse.”
“Exactly. If that incident were the problem, it would’ve shown itself long ago.”
“She’s always been so strong, so what in the world is troubling her now…? That’s what worries me more.”
“The family physician said it seems to be a sickness caused by emotional distress.”
“Then I wish she’d at least tell us something. If even the Grand Duchess collapses, what will happen to House Hayworth…?”
The two continued speaking anxiously until the doctor emerged from the room. Then they left together.
As the head butler and head maid responsible for managing the Hayworth estate, they were people who normally noticed everything happening in the mansion.
But this time, so focused on the Grand Duchess’s health, they overlooked one thing.
After they left, a tiny shadow slipped deeper into the corridor.
Step by step.
A set of footsteps so soft they could barely even be called footsteps cautiously approached the bed where Grand Duchess Hayworth lay sleeping.
As the owner of the footsteps tilted her head slightly, her twin pigtails swayed like rabbit ears.
‘Her breathing sounds steady.’
The old doctor had once told her that if someone’s breathing was even, then things were usually alright for the moment.
Leaning against the tall bed, Rowena looked down at the Grand Duchess, who seemed to have fallen unconscious rather than merely asleep.
Even in sleep, Grand Duchess Hayworth wore a slight frown.
It suited her strict personality.
But at the same time, it also meant that even in sleep, she could not find peace.
‘Actually, Grand Duchess Hayworth barely appears in the original story.’
She was only ever mentioned when discussing Seymour, the hidden villain.
Usually in lines like:
“If only Grand Duchess Hayworth had still been healthy at that time…”
In short, by the beginning of the original story, Rowena wasn’t the only one no longer well.
Grand Duchess Hayworth spent the entire story bedridden.
‘But that was supposed to happen seven years from now. I thought she was still okay at this point.’
Apparently not.
Or perhaps this illness gradually worsened until it eventually drove her to her death.
The question was: what was causing it?
‘They said it was an illness of the heart.’
“Henry or Butler” believed it had nothing to do with the accident from a year ago, but Rowena disagreed.
‘In the original story, the Grand Duchess’s condition briefly improved after she met the heroine.’
The heroine of The White Lions was said to resemble the dead Rose astonishingly closely.
But by then the illness had progressed too far, and even that resemblance wasn’t enough to bring meaningful recovery.
In the end, Grand Duchess Hayworth died from her illness.
And considering how, after Rose’s death, the Grand Duchess became increasingly strict and obsessed with perfection, it wasn’t hard to guess the nature of the sickness eating away at her heart.
‘She just can’t show it to anyone.’
Because if even Grand Duchess Hayworth faltered, all of House Hayworth would falter with her.
The green eyes of the child gleamed strangely as she sank into thought.
‘In that case…’
