Chapter 43

Chapter 43

His gaze was stuck on the letter from Princess Livia. Azela furrowed her brow fiercely at Zagnac’s casual answer. He didn’t even give her a single glance, even when she said she was going back to the mansion.

‘…What did I expect?’

Letting out a smirk, she slowly took a leisurely pace. It was a very different step from when she came to Zagnac’s mansion. Azela, who grabbed the handle of the door, stopped and turned her torso back. He was sitting still, reading the second part of the letter.

“…Are you marrying Princess Livia?”

In the end, she, unable to contain her curiosity, asked him first. It was then that Zagnac looked away from the letter and stared at her. Looking at his so calm and relaxed eyes, she felt her stomach upset more.

“No.”

His reply was short and decisive. Contrary to the usual, it seemed sincere that he didn’t even have the slightest smile on his face.

Azela, who looked at him with narrowed eyes, asked again.

“Why?”

“Do I need a reason when I don’t want to get married?”

“It’s not like that, but Princess Livia is a princess.”

“Then…?”

Zagnac, who answered in a hoarse voice, turned to the letter again. The letter had already moved to the third part.

Eventually, she walked back from the front of the study and returned to the sofa. Zagnac didn’t say anything about her actions.

“Even though she is the Eighth Princess, she’s a member of the Umperial Family… She will have more than enough wealth and power if you marry her… Also, His Majesty’s reassuring support…”

Azela pursed her lips and bit her lips.

Come to think of it, all of this was unnecessary for him as the devil. The people of the Imperial Family, wealth and power, and even the people behind the Emperor…

In the meantime, Zagnac casually threw the letter he had read to the table.

“You know I don’t need those things. It’s cumbersome… Besides, you don’t mean for me to marry a human woman and let everyone know that I’m the devil, right?”

“It’s not…”

“Besides, the other person is a young child who is only sixteen now. Even if I was a human and not the devil, I wouldn’t be tempted by it.”

As his resolute voice brought peace to Azela’s heart, her heart that had been shaking by the cute curly handwriting became as peaceful as ever. At the same time, Zagnac got up from the sofa and picked up the letter from Princess Livia that had been thrown on the table.

He hurriedly threw it into the fireplace.

“It’s okay now that I read it, right?”

“…What?”

“You said if I don’t read, you’ll be in trouble. I read it properly, so it doesn’t matter if I burn it now, right?”

Zagnac looked at the letter from Princess Livia in the blazing fireplace and turned his head. He then sat down on the sofa and started eating the rest of the dessert without a care. Seeing him like that, Azela turned her head and glanced at the fireplace.

The letter from Princess Livia disappeared cleanly.

Azela followed him, picked up the fork, and poked the sweet dessert into her mouth. The sweet taste that quickly melted in her mouth spread all over her body.

She felt strangely good. Zagnac gazed at Azela as if she was acting strangely, though she felt good nonetheless.

* * *

Azela’s steps back to the mansion were light. She ate too much dessert, and she was full, and her body was heavy, but strangely, her steps were as light as if she had wings.

However, the atmosphere in the mansion, when she returned in a good mood, was somehow strange. It was always quiet, but today was different. Even though employees have noticed Azela since the butler was fired, today was especially weird.

The shoulders of the employees raising their greetings to her were trembling thinly. As she was about to go up to the third floor, Azela stopped and turned her body to look at them. They even had tense, wrinkled faces that looked as if they were turning to her for help.

“What’s going on?”

She stepped in front of the employees, shivering with their shoulders clasped in fear. They had no answer to Azela’s question. Nonetheless, the trembling glances they exchanged with each other gave enough answers.

Among them, the handmaid, who was the shortest in stature, stepped in front and raised her head.

“Ma, Madam.”

Tears welled up in the corners of the little girl’s eyes. The figure of a helpless crying girl with orange hair was enough to remind her of someone. Azela frowned at the sight, but as if she didn’t care, the girl raised her hand without a word.

The trembling girl’s little finger was pointing outside the mansion. Something must have been happening.

“…You lead the way.”

With a nod to the handmaids to follow her, the girl led her and took her steps out of the mansion.

The little girl who took the lead arrived at a small vegetable garden managed at the back of the mansion. As the garden drew closer, the girl stopped her steps and looked at Azela with an anxious gaze.

As if she could only move this far.

“Aack…!”

In the garden behind, there was a scream that she did not know to whom it belonged to. Azela held the little girl behind her back and accelerated her pace.

As she went around the main building, she could see many handmaids gathered. All eyes filled with fear were directed towards one place. Along with the tears-soaked screams of pain, there was a roar of whips as cruel as if whipping a horse.

“…Move.”

When Azela opened her mouth in a very low voice, the handmaids were startled and cleared the way. As the handmaids who had gathered together split to both sides, the scene where the sound flowed from came into her glance.

There was a handmaid, bleeding, crouching on the floor, weeping while Sylvia was holding a horsewhip.

“…What are you doing now?”

Azela stared at her with a cold gaze. She didn’t need complicated explanations, though she still asked her what she was doing. Sylvia seemed to be momentarily perplexed by Azela’s appearance, but she soon snorted and crossed her arms with a proud expression.

“The lower one did wrong, and they are being punished.”

It was something she had heard somewhere. At Sylvia’s words, she recalled memories of when Daniel killed Irene. That time, he said the same thing to her, too. ‘If the one below did wrong, they will be punished.’

Azela closed her eyes tightly at the image of the past unfolding before her eyes.

Originally, the management of the subordinates belonged to her, the Madam of the mansion. Sylvia, a mere mistress, shouldn’t carelessly touch it. It was something she knew well as well. But even so, she said in front of her, ‘I am punishing the lower ones.’

She was ignoring Azela.

She then turned to the handmaid lying behind Sylvia. Turning her head to the handmaids who were standing behind her, she spoke indifferently.

“Take her and treat her wounds.”

“Yes, understood.”

At Azela’s command, the handmaids looked at Sylvia, but when there was no objection, they quickly left with the injured handmaid. The garden was full of silence. The rest of the handmaids, not knowing what to do, were only watching Azela and Sylvia.

“Madam, what are you doing now?”

Sylvia walked closer to Azela and uttered proudly. Her spirit, not at all timid, was still the same as before, ignoring her.

As she looked down without answering, Sylvia said with a sneer across her face.

“Is it okay if Daniel finds out about this?”

Her attacks were always about Daniel because she knew that was Azela’s weakness.

As the name came out of Sylvia’s mouth again, Azela, who had bowed her head, lifted her head the next moment. She then took the whip that was in her hand and snatched it from her without a moment’s notice.

“…!”

Startled by the sudden situation, Sylvia opened her mouth without saying anything. The round eyes were quite glaring.

Meanwhile, Azela, with the whip in her hand, looked down at it and turned her gaze to Sylvia, who was still standing on two legs straight in front of her, with an indifferent look.

“What, what?”

Her voice was trembling. At the same time, her slender shoulders trembled, stiffened in fear, just like the former handmaids.

“…What do you mean, what?”

Azela, who smiled at that, stared straight into her eyes and spoke in a sullen tone.

“If the lower ones do wrong, they should be punished.”

Seeing her pulling the whip hard to the side, Sylvia unknowingly flinched and stepped back. She seemed to swing the whip at her at any moment.

“Dan, Daniel…!”

“It’s okay for him to know.”