Chapter 2
That evening, following the Count’s orders, Elai, Sioana, and the red-eyed child sat at the same table. Having been washed clean, the child looked better than before, but the exposed pale skin only made the eerie feeling stronger.
“Father, why must I dine with this lowly creature?”
Elai asked, his displeased expression barely concealed. The Count smiled benignly at his son’s complaint.
“Elai, the higher our station, the more we must look kindly upon those beneath us.”
But contrary to his words, Twain Evgenia was far from a man who genuinely cared for others. He was obsessed with amassing greater wealth and fame. He had no intention of remaining a stagnant noble stuck in this backwater.
“Sioana, what do you think? I dressed him in your brother’s old clothes. Doesn’t he look quite decent now?”
At the Count’s question, Sioana gave a very small nod.
Her father didn’t seem to see the child’s split lip, the result of her brother’s beating. The child was shaking so badly it seemed he could barely sit upright.
“He looks like he could be a noble from the Pasa region.”
The Count, intoxicated by his own good deed, appeared to be in high spirits. But Sioana wasn’t pleased at all.
‘I have no appetite.’
Her father, whom she hadn’t seen in a long while, hadn’t even looked at her face properly. She had braided her hair into two neat tails to look presentable, but it was no use. She had also read many books and grown taller since they last met.
‘He’s obviously forgotten the present he promised to bring me.’
In truth, it wasn’t about wanting the gift. She just wanted him to acknowledge that she was here, in this desolate Regvel. Even if he didn’t say a loving word, he was still her father.
‘It’s all that child’s fault.’
Sioana glared fiercely at the child who supposedly looked like a Pasa noble. He couldn’t even hold his fork properly because of the beating from her brother Elai, and she quickly turned away when he gritted his teeth every time he moved his hand.
‘He must have done something to deserve it.’
That was what her brother Elai always said whenever he raised his hand against her. That her own laziness or slowness in learning was why she got punished.
‘Staring at a noble like that – it was only natural.’
Sioana kept her head down over her plate and forced herself to eat.
“Hey, you little beggar. I wonder if you’ve ever even eaten something like this.”
Breaking the silence, Elai tossed a tough piece of lamb across the table to the child.
“Go on, eat. You wouldn’t dare ignore a noble’s goodwill, would you?”
At Elai’s threatening tone, the child’s hands trembled as he tried to pick up his fork.
‘If he doesn’t eat properly, Brother will hit him again.’
The shadow of looming violence darkened Sioana’s expression. She abruptly interjected, her voice cold.
“Here, you eat this instead.”
She irritably pushed her soup bowl toward the child and pulled the meat platter in front of herself. In doing so, her fingers briefly brushed against the child’s, but Sioana was too tense to notice.
“Girls these days, always so greedy for food.”
Elai seemed to think she had acted out of greed for the meat. Fortunately, the meal ended without further incident, but Sioana’s shoulders kept shaking until she rose from the table.
Two weeks after returning home, Count Evgenia set off once again. He said this time he was leaving to handle matters concerning a trade ship heading east. He boasted loudly that he would soon make a fortune.
“Sioana, I will definitely bring you a present this time. What was it? A toy pony?”
“…Thank you.”
She gripped the edge of her shawl tightly and whispered. She was long past the age of playing with toy ponies. Besides, it wasn’t her who had liked them, but Elai.
The carriage carrying the Count soon disappeared from sight, and Elai began preparing to go out as usual.
“Sioana, stay put inside the mansion and don’t you dare move. Got it?”
Now twenty years old, he practically lived at the gambling den whenever their father was away.
Watching her brother deteriorate day by day, Sioana’s eyes grew troubled. Though it was far more comfortable when he was away, being alone in the large house with neither father nor brother sometimes frightened her.
Time in Regvel felt both fast and slow.
The landscape here rarely showed signs of changing seasons. And there was not a single child her age nearby. Here, lifeless thickets outnumbered people.
Having been alone since birth, one might think she’d know how to handle loneliness, but Sioana had yet to learn that skill.
“…Hah.”
As she stared at the faded wallpaper beginning to mold, she heard the sound of carriage wheels, and soon the garden became noisy. Her brother Elai must have returned from Haibel.
Grabbing her shawl, she stepped outside to find Elai laughing like a madman.
“Sioana, take a look at this. Isn’t he pitiful, like a drowned rat?”
The slave their father had brought was standing in the middle of the garden, drenched from head to toe.
Seeing the wooden barrel rolling on the ground, Sioana’s shoulders began to tremble again. Whenever her brother acted so cruelly, she couldn’t help but be terrified.
“Come here, quickly.”
Hesitantly approaching at his gesture, Elai grabbed her shoulder tightly.
“I didn’t like those eyes of his from the start, and then when I arrived, he didn’t even greet me properly.”
On this already cold day, having cold water thrown on him—it wouldn’t be surprising if he died of shock.
“Go on, give him a kick. If you don’t trample on lowlifes, they’ll get arrogant and crawl right over you.”
Elai shoved her hard in the back, nearly making her stumble forward. Sioana had no desire whatsoever to hit a slave. But she didn’t want to fall out of her brother’s favor either.
‘If I hit someone so badly injured, something terrible might happen.’
The wounds from Elai’s own beating probably hadn’t even healed yet.
It wasn’t that she was especially kind—it was a feeling anyone normal would have. She hesitated, unable to act either way, and Elai yelled.
“Hurry up! Straighten your back and spit on him!”
At his roar, her back flinched.
‘If I don’t do something, this chaos won’t end.’
He opened his blurred eyes, breathing heavily. Clenching her fists, she whispered very quietly.
“I’ll pretend to kick you. You fall over backwards. Understand?”
Between the strands of black hair dripping with water, his red eyes narrowed at her voice. Taking that as a signal, Sioana lightly lifted her skirt and kicked out hard. The boy collapsed backward limply.
Thud.
Sioana turned her back slowly, ignoring the pain in her foot. Elai was cheering wildly, waving his cane.
“Sioana! You’ve got some spirit too. Come here. Let me show you what I brought.”
Over Elai’s beaming face, the slave groaned in pain.
That evening, Sioana couldn’t fall asleep easily.
She didn’t want to kill anyone. Nor did she want to simply watch someone die. The image of the slave kept flickering before her eyes.
The lifeless look in his eyes reminded her of a dying wild animal she’d once seen.
“I can’t just stay here.”
Tossing and turning, she suddenly sat up. She threw on a cloak and grabbed a few medicine bottles Martha had set aside. Then she stopped by the kitchen and secretly put some food into a basket.
‘How dare that beggar act cheeky! Go on, kick him!’
Her brother’s spiteful voice kept echoing in her ears. Though it happened less often these days, she too was frequently scolded by him. Sometimes she was beaten, sometimes locked in the annex.
‘It’s an awful feeling.’
Violence was something one never quite got used to. That was why every time the child her father had brought was hit, her own heart sank as well.
‘This time, he might really die.’
Martha always said, like a mantra, that life and death always walk together. But Sioana was truly afraid of death. Dying seemed like the end of everything. Especially when she thought of her mother, who had died giving birth to her.
‘I don’t want to die.’
Consumed by that single thought, Sioana quietly slipped out of the mansion.
In the dead of night, Regvel was silent, not a single bird stirring. The hem of her dress, wandering through the dark streets, lost its way and fluttered in the wind.
But soon, Sioana realized she had no idea where the boy was.
‘Make sure you never let that brat into the mansion!’
Remembering Elai’s words, she looked around. In front of the barn leading to the back garden, she paused. It was a place she had never stepped foot in except as a very young child, when she used to follow Martha.
‘I wish someone else could go in my place.’
But in Regvel, there was no one to tend to a slave. Joseph was her brother’s man, so she couldn’t ask him. Elderly Martha was unwell.
Besides, Martha always said the red eyes were ominous and refused to go anywhere near the child.
‘Miss, listen to me carefully. You must never, ever meet those red eyes. They’ll gobble up your soul.’
Pushing aside Martha’s terrifying words, Sioana pushed the old door with all her strength.
