Chapter 6

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Chapter 6

T/W: Violent scenes and domestic violence.

It had been ten years since she had been Azela’s handmaid. She quickly figured out what was going on.

Ah, but what a happy maid she was. So, she must never cause trouble to her Madam. Irene lowered her head with a smile on her lips.

“Yes, I understand.”

“I, Irene!”

At Irene’s affirmation, Daniel laughed and Azela was startled.

“No, it……it was my fault.”

Azela shrugged off Daniel’s hand and hurriedly knelt down on her knees at his feet. Seeing Azela in front of her, Irene felt like she was about to burst into tears without realizing it.

She was nothing. Where was another master who can do this for herself?

“Just punish me, Daniel. Irene is…… It doesn’t concern Irene. Please…….”

Even at the sight of Azela kneeling at his feet and talking with tears, Daniel couldn’t help but feel anger.

She should have said yes to Sylvia’s suggestion that they could get close. She should have agreed when Sylvia wanted to call her Azela. It would have been better to punish a child who is like her family to take care of that little pride.

Azela lay flat at Daniel’s feet, tears dripping down her cheeks. But he didn’t care about Azela like that, so Daniel raised his hand with a cold expression. He then beckoned to the knight.

Thud!

At that moment, a loud noise was heard. Astonished, Azela hurriedly turned behind her and saw Irene clasping her head on the marble floor.

The knight standing behind her lifted his foot and pressed hard on the back of Irene’s head. Without having any time to hold on, she wondered if her nose had broken as her head was pressed so hard on the floor. In fact, there was blood dripping from her nose on the floor.

“How…… How dare you put your feet up!”

Azela, startled by the appearance of her handmaid, screamed, but the knight did not budge. The employees looked at the master, Daniel, rather than the Madam, Azela, and they served him. Azela looked at Daniel with a trembling body.

“I’m touching yours so I could set your awareness. It’s like seeing your old self, so I’m a little happy.”

“Daniel!”

At Azela’s shout, Daniel furrowed his eyebrows and grabbed Azela’s kneeling collar and pulled her closer. As they got a little closer, their lips could touch, but there was no excitement between the two of them. He growled and roared as he looked at Azela, who was trembling in fear.

“If you didn’t want to see yours get hurt, you shouldn’t have touched other people’s things. Did you forget that Sylvia was mine?”

Yours and mine. Daniel thus drew the line with Azela. There was no Azela within the fence he referred to as ‘mine’. He doesn’t love her. It became a reality that weighed on Azela every time she saw him.

“Can I just say one word, Master?”

As if she had expected something like this, Irene was calm. Daniel beckoned to the knight, and the knight, who was stepping on Irene’s head, stepped back. Irene lifted her head slowly, and her nose bone was slightly curved, and blood was dripping under it.

Azela couldn’t bear to see her handmaid like that and closed her eyes tightly. Tears flowed down her cheeks.

“Doesn’t Master wonder what the woman Master loved said to Madam?”

“…… The woman?”

Daniel furrowed his eyebrows at Irene’s title calling Sylvia. Azela didn’t know what to do with the harsh atmosphere, but Irene was not swayed by the momentum, she was not frightened, and she continued to speak.

“She said that the sense of achievement for making a man with another woman hers was thrilling.”

At Irene’s words, Daniel’s shoulders shuddered.

“She called the Madam’s name carelessly and insulted the Madam of this mansion. Nobility’s mistress is common, but none of the nobility mistresses ever insulted the family’s Madam in that way.”

Daniel seemed to be troubled by Irene’s calm tone, but then he snorted and shook his head.

“Don’t lie, Irene. A sense of accomplishment? Sylvia is a pure woman who cannot say such things. You look like you wanted to avoid punishment, but if you’re going to lie, you should have done it right.”

“Everyone present listened. You’ll find out who’s lying if you investigate. How dare I come to this point and tell my master such a lie?”

Daniel’s face was wrinkled like paper at Irene’s confident voice. She didn’t even expect the master to believe her in the first place, so Irene was calm in response to him shaking his head.

“You don’t know. Someone may have used the power of the nobility to kiss the servants of the mansion.”

“…… My Madam spends every night in tears.”

Just by calling her Madam, made her choked up. Irene held back the tears that were about to come out and continued her words.

“She buries her face in the pillow and cries because she was afraid I might be worried…… You don’t know how pathetic it is to not be able to cry.”

Irene couldn’t stand it anymore and ended her words with a burst of tears. Whenever she thought of her Madam, Azela, tears fell first like this, as if thinking of her mother. She couldn’t stand it, thinking of her Madam who was always patient and enduring.

“The one who Master once loved, the one I serve is the Madam of the Todd family. Did you stay by her side even just once out of ten times when Madam is crying?”

“…… Irene.”

“Madam…… I want to see you smile.”

Before Irene could even finish her words, tears flowed down Azela’s cheeks. She didn’t do anything good, but at a young age, she met the wrong Madam and made her suffer. To Azela, Irene was a sister, friend, and family.

“Is that all?”

Daniel looked at Irene and Azela, who were weeping alternately, and said coldly with a smirk. Seeing that, Azela was convinced. Daniel is different. The former Daniel she loved was nowhere to be found.

“Yes, that’s all.”

Irene sniffled her nose and wiped the tears with the back of her hand. Daniel, with an indifferent expression on his face, raised his hand sullenly, and the knight nodded with a look that understood his gesture. Anxiety spread from Azela’s chest again.

Maybe he wanted to take Irene somewhere and torture her? If not, was she going to get kicked out of this mansion and not to be seen at all?

Azela looked at Daniel with anxious eyes. Feeling that gaze, Daniel also looked at Azela and smiled beautifully. Anxiety spread all over her body.

And at that moment, it happened.

Along with the eerie sound of skin being ripped apart, the disgusting smell of fishy blood filled the bedroom. It was because the knight pulled out the sword from the scabbard that was attached to his waist and pierced it straight into Irene’s chest. Irene’s red blood dripped down on the white carpet.

“I, Irene?”

A large sword pierced through Irene’s small and delicate body. Azela held her breath unknowingly at the bizarre sight that unfolded before her eyes. Maybe she was dreaming now? She strained her stiff neck and looked at Daniel in front of her.

“Wh, what?”

Azela’s gaze lost her focus, and Daniel’s pretty smile was on it.

“I told you.”

Daniel, who answered in a friendly and clear voice, erased his pretty smile and continued his words with a sullen look.

“You will pay the price for touching other people’s things.…… And you will be punished too.”

Azela turned her head again and looked straight ahead. The carpet was now completely red. Azela lifted her trembling hand and pulled her hair off.

“Ah…… Ah…… Aaaaah!”

The only sound in the bedroom was the sound of Azela’s wailing and screaming. Following Daniel beckoning, as the knight drew his sword, Irene fell helplessly forward. Red blood dripping from her body stained the floor of the bedroom.

‘It must be a dream, it must be a dream. This cannot be real.’

Azela slapped her cheeks hard with her trembling hands. Although she could feel her cheeks tingling, her gaze lost focus and was only on Irene.

“You think it’s a dream.”

As if laughing at Azela, Daniel’s voice coming from the side was so realistic.

It’s not a dream. It’s a reality.

Azela, who had been stroking her red, swollen cheeks, lifted her head and looked at Daniel. And without realizing it, she raised her hand and slapped him hard on the cheek. Daniel’s head turned to the other side. Her tingling hand and her bitten lower lip hurt so much.

“Ho, how…… How could you to Irene!”

“You shouldn’t have touched her in the first place.”

It was the first time she had hit Daniel with all her hatred. Caressing the cheek that was hit, he said to Azela in a dignified tone. Even when things got to this point, Daniel only thought of Sylvia.

‘You shouldn’t have touched it in the first place.’

He showed no regrets, no guilt, no remorse for his actions. Tears were constantly flowing from Azela’s eyes.

He’s right. She shouldn’t have touched her. Even if Sylvia called her name, slapped her on the cheek, Azela shouldn’t have touched Sylvia no matter what.

If it had been so, Irene wouldn’t have become like this. So all this was her own fault.

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