Chapter 21

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Chapter 21

After a while, Zagnac turned and left Count Todd’s mansion.

Azela, seeing his back moving away, bowed her head with a bewildered face and glanced back at the bag of bread in her hand.

“You shouldn’t have let guests into the mansion until I got my permission!”

“I’m, I’m sorry. Master… Du, Duke Ferial pushed in recklessly…”

Daniel vented his anger at the butler, who was just innocent, and exhaled harshly. He couldn’t believe he suffered a humiliation like this for nothing else, but bread!

Then, he turned toward Azela with a narrowed gaze. It was all her fault. If she hadn’t received such bread in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened.

“Damn it!”

Daniel spat out a small curse and turned around. Seeing that, Sylvia, who had anticipated abusive remarks towards Azela, seemed bewildered by his return, ‘Huh? Huh…?’ she shouted and hurriedly followed after him.

Azela looked at the two of them and went up the stairs to her bedroom.

Strangely, her heart was pounding.

“Have you changed recently?”

Azela left the window sill wide open tonight, hoping that Zagnac might come. She thought he might get hurt as he jumped over the window sill, so she laid out a fine towel. Though on the dark night, it was not a pleasant person that visited her bedroom.

“I never asked you to come in.”

Azela wrinkled her face as she combed her hair in front of the vanity. Sylvia acted like the Madam of this mansion. Whenever she visited her bedroom, she would just come in without knocking and just slammed the door open. It was like there was nowhere she couldn’t go.

“You don’t think Daniel likes you anymore, so you switched to Duke Ferial, did you?”

At her words, Azela put down the comb and turned her body to look at her. Proudly standing with her arms crossed, she seemed to be saying that she was the Madam.

“Why can’t you answer me…? Is that what’s going on? Ha, you were a smarter person than I thought, Madam.”

“Sylvia.”

As Azela calmly called her out, Silvia bit her mouth. ‘Listen to me and see what I have to say,’ she seemed to be shouting with that look on her face.

“Get out.”

However, the words that Azela pulled out of her mouth were short and simple. It was because she didn’t want to talk to her. She didn’t even want to have a conversation with her again.

Sylvia furrowed her brow as Azela calmed down. Normally, she would have cried or looked hurt.

“I never allowed you to come into my bedroom.”

Sylvia bit her teeth at the calm voice.

The last few days Azela had been different than usual. She thought it was from when Azela handed out the divorce papers to Daniel. She thought it was just a trick, but Azela was really different. That was the first thing, Sylvia, as a woman too, could notice.

She had a gut feeling that Azela was still calm. Probably, because she had a place to believe in—just like how Sylvia trusted Daniel and acted like this. So, it must have been someone better than Daniel.

Sylvia furrowed her brow with a wretched expression and then snorted at her.

“The reaction seems to be true… How could you do that to Daniel?”

Even if she told her to go out, she didn’t go out. Even if she called the employees, they certainly wouldn’t be able to take Sylvia out.

Grabbing her throbbing head, she shook her head as she glanced at Sylvia. Azela got up from the chair and walked to the bed. Angry at the apparent disrespect for her, Sylvia hurried closer and grabbed her arm tightly.

“You don’t even feel sorry for Daniel?”

Azela, who had been ignoring Sylvia, turned her head and stared at her. Sylvia’s shoulders twitched at the calm, luminous gaze.

At the same time, she suddenly remembered herself howling madly when Irene died a few weeks ago, and she lowered the hand that Sylvia had grabbed.

“You think I should have pity on Daniel?”

“What, what?”

“Even when Irene died, you came to tell me that it was not his fault.”

Azela turned around and grabbed Sylvia’s wrist. Her wrists were much thinner than she thought. Sylvia’s eyes widened as if surprised by the grip, which was stronger than she expected. It looked like she was trying to shake off her, although it wasn’t easy.

In an instant, Sylvia’s slender wrists were swollen and red.

“Sylvia, you haven’t changed since then.”

Her lips trembled at Azela’s cold tone and insignificant gaze that looked at her like a worm. Her white face grew even whiter. She looked strangely frightened.

…No, was this acting?

“I don’t even wonder where you came from, what you were like before…”

“Let, let this go.”

“It’s difficult if you see me as the same as you. As I said before, your status does not allow you to look at me like this, nor to enter my bedroom without permission.”

Unlike before, Azela spoke with a strong, low tone that made Sylvia ashamed. It wasn’t wrong. She was different from her birth, and she was not the Emperor’s mistress but, at most, a noble mistress who could be abandoned at any time.

“If things like today continue to happen, I will have no choice but to tell you to the Emperor.”

“….”

“Of course, as a ‘mistress,’ you will not receive any punishment, though you are well aware that ignoring the dignity of the nobility is a great sin.”

Sylvia covered her face with her trembling left hand at Azela’s cold gaze.

The madly quivering eyes seemed somewhat unstable. It was even bizarre as it was like seeing herself when Irene died. It was a big difference from Sylvia, who was usually confident and proud. She looked somewhat anxious.

Sylvia’s body trembled as if frightened.

‘…Why is she doing this? Is this also acting? Does she even need to act like this in front of me?’

Sylvia’s body was shaking so badly that it was as though she was having a seizure if to say it was a performance. Azela, who sensed the strangeness, was about to let go of her wrist and ask, ‘Are you okay?’

Dropping the vase that was placed next to her with unfocused eyes, the vase fell to the floor with the sound of glass breaking and shattered.

Glass shards splattered recklessly on the marble floor of the bedroom.

“What are you doing now…!”

Azela was speechless. It was because Sylvia quickly picked up the piece of glass and, without hesitation, put it over her palm. She didn’t even have a chance to stop it.

Startled by the bizarre thing that had happened before her eyes, she stared at Sylvia with a bewildered expression.

She also looked at Azela. Then, a twisted smile was drawn on her lips.

And…

“Kyaaaaakk!!”

Sylvia started yelling with all her might. Azela’s brow furrowed as her ears were pierced by her scream. She didn’t understand what was going on.

The red drops of blood dripping in her bedroom once again reminded her of Irene’s death, making her stomach churn.

Within minutes of screaming, loud footsteps were heard outside the bedroom. It seemed clear to her what was going to happen next. Azela tightly closed her dizzying eyes, and the bedroom door swung open.

“What is this about?!”

Daniel, rushing into the bedroom with the employees, glanced at Azela, who stood with her mouth covered with a complex look, and then, once to Sylvia, who sat down and wept, tears flowing.

He seemed to be trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

“Daniel!”

Before he could grasp the situation, Sylvia ran and hugged Daniel who had a bewildered expression. He gently patted the crying Sylvia on the back. He suddenly found blood flowing from her palm, and with startled eyes, hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief and stopped it from bleeding.

The smell of blood filled the bedroom to the point that her head was dizzy, and Daniel gazed at Sylvia for a moment, puzzled.

Eventually, he turned his gaze away and looked at Azela with eyes full of surprise and disgust.

“What the hell is this, Azela?”

It seemed that his grasp of the situation had already ended one-sidedly. That was why she didn’t want to deal with it from the beginning.

Azela let out a big sigh as she stood with the bedside table next to her, thanks to her trembling legs. She didn’t explain here and there because she knew the ending was decided no matter what she said, anyway.

…No, she didn’t even think of doing it in the first place.

Who would believe the story of the mistress, who entered the Madam’s bedroom recklessly, was angry and trembled all by herself, broke the vase, picked up the glass fragments, and hurt herself?

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