OAP 08

Chapter 8

“Yes. There’s no point worrying now. What’s done is done…”

Sioana, who had spoken in a low voice, fixed her gaze on Etienne as he watched the rain.

His broad shoulders were the first thing she noticed. The arms extending from those shoulders seemed three times thicker than her own. Over the years, Etienne had grown even taller. She had to crane her neck further back just to look up at his face.

His rain-damp bangs clung flat against his smooth forehead, and in his red eyes—eyes that Martha so disapproved of—the open fields were reflected. Below his sharp nose, his moist lips finally caught her attention.

After staring at Etienne for a long while, Sioana cleared her throat.

‘What am I doing?’

No one had seen her staring, but nonetheless, flustered and embarrassed, she quickly turned her head away. Martha’s usual nagging rang in her ears over the sound of the rain.

‘Milady, please don’t get too close to that wretch. What if some nasty rumor starts? Besides, who knows what improper intentions a strapping man like him might harbor?’

Martha had loathed Etienne from the very first time they met, and with time, her opinion hadn’t changed one bit. Whenever that happened, Sioana would flare up and retort that she was talking nonsense.

‘I’m sorry, Martha.’

It seemed the improper intentions weren’t the slave’s—they were hers.

Somewhere along the way, she had grown increasingly conscious of him. Whenever she faced Etienne, her heart would react.

It was a secret Sioana could never share with anyone.

‘Who could possibly be that handsome?’

She hadn’t met many people, but she knew enough to recognize that Etienne’s looks were exceptional. She also knew that usually, he deliberately kept his face partly hidden.

‘As if he’s only showing it to me…’

That was why, unless they were alone together, she never called his name. She wanted him all to herself, to be the only one who called him.

“Hey, Etienne.”

He then turned his gaze from the fields and looked at her. As usual, there was no trace of warmth in his expression. But she didn’t mind; she stepped closer and rose onto her tiptoes.

“……?”

Seeing the puzzlement in Etienne’s eyes, Sioana reached out. Her fingers brushed across his cheek and the corner of his eye.

Startled by the sudden touch, he stepped back. That made Sioana, who had been wobbling, lurch even closer to him.

Now almost leaning against his chest, Sioana’s cheeks flamed bright red.

Surprised, Etienne parted his lips to say something, but Sioana quickly swept his bangs back and then stepped away.

“I was just fixing your hair.”

She turned her back in a hurry and fanned her face with her hand. The sensation of touching his body—so firm, so different from her own—was still too vivid. Her heart felt like it might burst.

“……Ha.”

Etienne had been holding his breath for so long that a long sigh escaped his lips. His forehead, where her fingers had touched, burned as if scalded. His whole chest, where Sioana had leaned against him, itched like a swarm of bee stings.

“Etienne, I think we should go back.”

The unfamiliar feeling burrowed into both their hearts like the falling rain.

＊

Fortunately, she managed to arrive at her etiquette lesson not too late. She hadn’t had time to change out of her rain-soaked dress, so she greeted the instructor looking somewhat disheveled.

“Lady Evgenia, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Beatrice Hooper, and I shall be your etiquette instructor. You may call me Mrs. Hooper.”

Mrs. Hooper had her red hair neatly pinned up; she was said to be a viscountess who had lost her husband in the war. The first lesson was short—they had tea and introduced themselves.

“Viscount Evgenia, from now on you may leave the lessons entirely to me.”

“Mrs. Hooper, do take care on your way back.”

Eli’s kiss on the back of Mrs. Hooper’s hand was as flawless as something out of an etiquette manual. As the carriage carrying her drove away, the smile that had lingered on Eli’s face vanished without a trace.

“Sioana. Don’t you have something to say to me?”

At her brother’s chilly tone, Sioana’s face went pale. She had to say something in excuse, but her lips wouldn’t move.

“Didn’t I tell you to wait quietly in your room since it was your first lesson today?”

Eli hated nothing more than having his plans disrupted. And right now, the most important problem right before him was his younger sister.

‘I have to mold her into a proper, presentable lady and sell her off for a high price…’

Yet, on the very first lesson, she had shown up in a wet dress, dragging the family name through the mud. Sioana looked down at her still-damp dress, her face burning with shame.

“Brother, I just went for a short walk…”

Her voice, struggling to hold back tears, trembled.

She didn’t want to fall out of Eli’s favor. He was her only brother, the person closest to her in the world.

“You’ll be of age soon. How long are you going to be this childish?”

“I’ll do better from now on.”

“That’s only natural. But first, you must be punished for today’s mistake.”

Eli summoned Joseph and ordered him to lock her up in the basement of the annex. At his words, Sioana frantically folded her hands and begged. She was usually fearless, but what she feared most after rain was that room in the annex basement.

“I was wrong. It won’t happen again.”

“Joseph, drag her there at once. And not a single breadcrumb is to be taken to her for the entire day! If anyone disobeys, I will personally flog them.”

At Eli’s threat, all the servants bowed their heads deeply. Only Martha whimpered, “Oh dear, milady…”

Joseph grabbed Sioana’s arm and locked her in the basement.

“Joseph! Please don’t lock the door. I won’t try to leave. All right?”

She pleaded, but Joseph clicked the heavy padlock shut.

“……It’s fine.”

Alone, Sioana tried to act calm and leaned against the wall.

“Been a while since I was last here.”

As she spoke, the musty, stagnant smell unique to the basement filled her lungs.

The last time she’d been locked up here, she must have been around ten years old. Was it because she’d been caught secretly reading one of Eli’s books? Her memory was hazy.

The basement contained only an old, narrow bed and a moldy desk. Sioana walked over to the window blocked by iron bars and peered outside.

Because she was underground, she couldn’t see the sky. A line of ants was busily marching somewhere.

“When will I ever be as free as them?”

Maybe once she left Father and Eli behind, she might be a little happier.

She sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the dust motes floating in the air. Books said that all living things were precious.

“Then why do I feel like that dust?”

To her father, she felt invisible. To Eli, she was a thorn in his side.

How long had Sioana been curled up like that?

Crash—boom!

Outside the window, now shrouded in pitch darkness, lightning flashed, and soon a thunderclap roared as if it would split the sky wide open. The flickering light and the deafening noise made Sioana’s eyes fill with fear.

“No, no!”

She clamped her hands over her ears and began to tremble violently.

This place, she’d heard, had once been used long ago to lock up prisoners. Several prisoners had died while imprisoned here, and at night their ghosts wandered the place.

“No, there’s no such thing as ghosts.”

She kept muttering to herself, but her eyes fixed on the rattling door. The old door shook in the wind as if it might collapse at any moment.

“Martha, Martha, please let me out.”

She called out the only name in this house she could lean on, then dropped her head.

But she couldn’t ask Martha. If she did, Eli would drag Martha away and whip her.

‘She wouldn’t survive that kind of beating.’

Sioana began biting her nails and murmured over and over that it was all her fault.

“Being locked up like this… it’s all my fault.”

If only she had done exactly as Eli said, none of this would have happened.

Just then, the iron bars on the window creaked. Unable to bear the fear any longer, Sioana started to scream.

Eek!

Then a rattling sound came from under the bed, and someone’s hand suddenly shot out. Sioana believed it was the ghost of someone who had died here, come to take her away.

“No, no!”

She scrambled off the bed and pressed herself tightly against the opposite wall. Too terrified to even look at the intruder, she squeezed her eyes shut.

“…….”

The ghost that had broken into the basement seemed to be standing close to her. She could feel the cold aura emanating from it, her teeth chattering.

‘I mustn’t open my eyes.’

Just as Martha had said, if she met its gaze, her soul might be devoured.

But when the entity made no further move, she began to wonder.

‘This scent…’

Mixed with the smell of rain was a familiar fragrance. Cautiously, she opened her eyes.

“E-Etienne.”

She didn’t know how he had gotten in, but it was unmistakably him. Perhaps the way in had been difficult; Etienne’s arms and face were covered in scratches.

Relieved that he was not a ghost, she simultaneously felt a surge of fear.

“If you’re caught, you’ll be in huge trouble.”

In fact, it might not end with just being scolded.

‘He won’t let you live. I’m sure of it.’

Several of the employees at Regbel had met with “accidents” from time to time.

Martha had said young Sioana didn’t need to know the details, but Sioana understood that those incidents were not unrelated to Eli’s violence.

‘I have to stop that from happening.’

Barely managing to keep her trembling body under control, she pushed against Etienne’s shoulder.