Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Sylvia called his name again, but when she saw Azela nodding her head that it was okay, she kept her lips shut. After all, Daniel was no longer a weakness for her.

Sylvia looked like she had only then realized it. As she took two steps towards her, Sylvia took three steps back with a frightened face. The handmaids were just looking at what was happening with surprised eyes.

Their relationship was always the opposite. When Sylvia pressed Azela, she always had to run away. However, things were now different. All the handmaids were aware that her position was changing within the mansion.

“You know it’s my job as the Madam to discipline the lower ones, Sylvia.”

“….”

“No matter what the child did to you earlier, Sylvia, you can’t be reckless with her. Why…? Because you are not the Madam of this mansion.”

Sylvia, who had stepped back to avoid her from constantly approaching her, was blocked by the wall. She had nowhere to turn now. Biting her lower lip, Sylvia raised her head high and in a trembling voice and scoffed at Azela.

“All right, do whatever you want. Though if Daniel knew about this, he wouldn’t leave Madam alone.”

As she finished speaking, Azela swung the whip hard in her hand. Sylvia shrugged her shoulders as the whip swung at her without a moment of hesitation, wrapped her hands around her head, and closed her eyes tightly.

With a crack, the whip hit the wall behind Sylvia and bounced back. Azela meant it.

She swung her whip hard at Sylvia with sincerity.

“You did wrong.”

When Azela glanced down at the whip that had bounced off the wall, she spoke casually. In an indifferent tone, unlike her, Sylvia peered at her with terrified eyes. Her hands were trembling as they wrapped around her head.

“Are, are you crazy?”

“Am I? Or, are you Sylvia?”

Azela swung the whip hard again. The sound of the whip slicing through the wind reverberated throughout the quiet garden.

“Kyaak!”

Sylvia’s terrified scream broke out loudly as the whip bounced off the wall again. She looked at Azela with a startled expression. She went so white that her lips looked pitiful.

“…Are, are you really going to hit me?”

As she looked at the wall, where the whip marks were clearly visible, she turned to Azela with a look of disbelief.

A small laugh escaped from between Azela’s slightly gaped lips. At the same time, she ever so faintly raised the corners of her lips that made the viewer shiver.

“Scared?”

Azela whispered to her.

Sylvia didn’t want to let Azela know that she was scared. Still, she nodded her head, thinking that if she didn’t answer, Azela might really hit her with that damn whip. Tears welled up in her eyes as if her pride had been hurt for admitting it.

Azela, who watched her quietly, lightly threw the whip she was holding on to Sylvia’s side.

“The child you beat must have been as scared as you are now. In the future, when taking action, it is better to think in the other’s shoes and act.”

“….”

“If you act without thinking, what is the difference from a beast that can’t talk?”

Sylvia couldn’t refute her words. She didn’t exactly. She wanted to refute though her terrified lips never opened.

After staring at her like that for a long time, Azela finally turned around. She uttered in a firm voice as she looked slowly over the handmaids who were still huddled together, “Have you finished all the chores for today to be hanging out here like this? If you don’t do it right, you know what I’m going to do.”

At her decree, whom they thought had saved them, the handmaids bowed their heads in surprise and dispersed. Sylvia, terrified, could be heard slumping, although she didn’t look back.

As she walked back towards the mansion, the little girl who had shown the location the first time was next to Azela.

“Thank, thank you. Madam.”

“…It’s my job, not Sylvia, to discipline the mansion.”

“Thank, thank you anyway. Actually, it’s not the first time Miss Sylvia has beaten us like this… Now that Madam knows, it has eased our worries.”

Azela stopped her steps as she watched the lingering maid beside her. And, she spoke in a cold, frozen voice.

“Why me?”

“…Yes?”

Contrary to the handmaid’s thought that Azela would give a friendly answer, she raised her head in a voice that was so cold and frozen that the little girl was bewildered. Her gaze, glancing down at the little handmaid, was so dull.

She thought that their former Madam had returned, and the little girl’s face who had bright hopes turned red with embarrassment.

The Madam of this mansion has not yet forgiven them for not helping her…

“That is the path you have chosen for yourself.”

“….”

“This time, it was visible to me and I didn’t like what Sylvia was doing, although I didn’t want to interfere with what I couldn’t see.”

“Bu, but…”

“It is the path you have chosen, so take responsibility for yourself.”

It wasn’t wrong.

The mansion’s employees all abandoned their Madam, Azela, to the mistress, Sylvia, because they wanted to live. At that time, it was too blatant to ask her for help because it was difficult when Sylvia bullied her.

The little girl couldn’t raise her head and looked down at her toes for a long time. Azela, who was looking down, turned her body without saying a word before leaving the little handmaid and going up to the third floor, her bedroom.

She didn’t like the hair color that resembled Irene, the eyes, and the shoulders that were intimidated for being unable to do anything.

She did not forget the little handmaid’s crying eyes until she went back to the bedroom, took off her dress, removed the accessories, and entered the bathtub with the scent of flowers.

“…What was the child’s name from earlier.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“The child with orange hair who looked young.”

Azela, who had been soaking in the bathtub for a long time, asked, stretching her neck lightly. Seeing that, the handmaid quickly massaged her neck and traced her memory.

“Ah… Are you talking about Lina?”

“…Lina?”

“Yes, isn’t she the freckled girl with orange hair, who looks about fifteen years old and comes about this height?”

As she listened to the handmaid’s detailed explanation, the little handmaid’s face came to mind at once. She nodded briefly and got up from the bathtub, and the handmaids waiting with soft towels, perfume, and gowns hurriedly joined her side.

“But, that child… Has she ever made any mistake with Madam?”

“No, I just ran into her.”

“She’s one of the handmaids in charge of Miss Sylvia, so it’s not good to run into her.”

The handmaid answered while applying flower oil to her skin and perfumed oil to her hair. Azela, receiving the massage, gently closed her eyes as she said nothing more. She frowned at the image of Lina, who was crying, and the image of Irene shedding tears at the same time.

* * *

“…I, I really—”

Lina held the hem of her skirt tightly with both hands, holding back her tears. With wet hair and face, it didn’t look like she endured it. Ice cold water poured again over the head of the girl, kneeling on her knees.

“There’s someone who saw you talking to Azela.”

“I, I…”

“You still talk a lot.”

Sylvia, who sat in the armchair, motioned her hand across her supple legs. Then, the maids who were watching from her side put Lina’s head into a bucket full of water without hesitation.

With the sound of a splash, Lina’s arms struggled with the will to live, but to no avail.

Just as the girl’s struggles were fading away, Sylvia motioned her hand again. With a gasp, Lina lifted her wet face again. It was a pity that she was about to run out of breath, panting, though there was no one to help her little girl.

“Did you tell Azela about what I did today?”