Chapter 29

Translator and Editor: Effe and Yonnee

“That b*tch and you are the same! Dirty and filthy bastards! No matter how much of a dog you are to Marquis Borwen, I’m the Young Marquis of Jutert! You think the nobility can let of?! Let me go! Let go!”

While being led by the knights, Ferdale screamed.

Either way, Hert walked over to where Tessa was and looked at her. Fortunately, the wound on her neck didn’t seem as deep as it seemed, and the blood had stopped shortly after. But the other conditions did not look particularly good.

“Why is her face like this?”

Hert, who had just discovered that one cheek was swollen, asked Lange as if chewing on it. In fact, not only her face, but her complexion as a whole wasn’t good either. Her whole body was cold. He eventually pushed Lange away and hugged Tessa.

“Call the doctor. Right now!”

* * *

From a distance, a woman’s voice began to take shape and be heard.

‘I don’t understand.’

Tessa lifted her messy head and looked in front of her. A maid stood in front of her holding a lamp. It was a familiar face. She had never exchanged words, but her face and voice were familiar as she was one of the maids serving the meal when she was in prison.

‘Well, what are you doing staring at me like that?’

The maid came closer to Tessa, with one of her feet tied. She escaped the Barony and ran to the orphanage, and since her arrest, Tessa has been tied tightly, hands or feet, somewhere. Because of this, her hands and feet were always stained with red scars. The maid looked at the wound with pity.

‘I really don’t understand, so I’m asking you. Isn’t this a good opportunity for you? You said you used to be an orphan. When will you be able to go to such a place, to wear precious clothes, use good things, and eat delicious food?’

‘…go.’

‘What?’

‘Then you go!’

Tessa screamed. The maid, startled, took a few steps back. Don’t shout. Do you know what time it is? The maid warned in a low voice as she looked around for a moment. Then she saw no one approaching, so she knelt down on her knees and pulled something out of her pocket.

‘Give me your hand. It’s even better if you stick out your feet.’

‘…….’

‘I don’t mean to hurt you, so give it to me.’

‘Why, why me?’

Tessa looked at the maid with a vigilant face, then curled up on her body. The maid said she knew it, and she forcibly grabbed Tessa’s arm and pulled her towards her. This, let go… Before long, a cold liquid splashed over the wound on her wrist. For a moment, the stinging of her wound began to subside, along with a tingling sensation.

‘It’s the medicine I mainly use in my hometown. Even if the herbs are cheap, they have a great calming effect.’

‘…….’

‘More than that… You are very stubborn. Have you not heard of such a thing?’

The maid said this as she was applying the medicine on the wound on her other wrist. Tessa shut her mouth and looked up at the maid. She had no way of knowing why the maid was healing my wounds. At that moment Tessa made eye contact with the maid. Then the maid smiled and started talking abruptly.

‘My family was poor. I was lucky if I could earn and eat for a day. It was such a busy house that I was starving every day. Still, I had a good relationship with my family. So maybe that’s why I was able to survive.’

‘…….’

‘But one day, a plague struck my hometown. My mother was the first. Then it was the youngest of my three siblings. Do you know what happened to the two of them? They died. Because I didn’t have money, I couldn’t get them treatment. They could have survived if they had received treatment on time…’

There was bitterness in the maid’s voice. Tessa quietly listened to the maid’s story.

‘Anyway, the other house also suffered from the plague. The whole town was plagued by the plague. People with some money could get treatment and live, but poor families like me could not even dream of treatment and just died. By the way. There was the prettiest girl in our town.’

The maid’s gaze rested on Tessa for a moment. She reached out her hand and tidied up Tessa’s messy hair.

‘She was the same age as me, and we’re not very close, but we exchanged greetings warmly. The girl said to me all of a sudden. She got married to a rancher from a neighboring village. The rancher was famous for being rich in this area. There were children among the people who were older from his dead ex-wife, but… After all, the important thing was that he’s rich.’

‘Then…’

‘That’s right. Her house was poor, too. And her brother got infected with the plague. What was she gonna do? Her family is dying right now. So she had no choice but to marry the rancher. It could be said she is being sold, to be exact. But do you know? Do you know what I was thinking when I saw her?’

The maid let out a sigh briefly.

‘I wish it was me.’

‘…….’

‘If only I had married the rancher on behalf of that girl. Then my family would no longer be hungry or die without treatment. In the corner of my heart, I still picture my youngest brother who was holding me and begging for life. What was the sin of that little boy, that he had to die in such a way. I live thinking about it all the time.’

‘…….’

‘I don’t know what your name is, but I wish I could have been sold to the old Marquis on your behalf. But I don’t have ginger hair, I don’t have fair skin, nor do I have a short stature like you. You are the perfect substitute for the Lady that the Baron was looking for.’

The maid had risen from the spot. Tessa looked up at the maid and looked up at her endlessly. Why does she say things like that to her? To be lucky enough to accept it without complaining? Tessa caught her breath. But she never wanted all this.

‘I … I never wanted it.’

‘Yes, I’m sure. So that’s why you’re so desperately in denial. But there are people like me. If I were you, I wouldn’t have done something so stupid. Rather, I must have tried to make the most of the circumstances given to me.’

‘I… I don’t want to be a whore!’

Tessa couldn’t stand it and yelled at the maid. Whore. It was a word that had been hanging around her neck the whole time. Tessa was in tears. No matter how much she was born with a life abandoned by her parents, she didn’t want to throw everything away like this. If she threw away even her body, then there really would be nothing left.

Then the maid’s cold voice came over her head.

‘That sounds very strange. If you get married when you don’t want to, like you’re being sold, are you a whore?’

‘…….’

‘And why do you hate whores? Are they dirty? What was the standard for a whore in the first place? Who calls them whores, and why so many women are called whores, do you know why?’

‘…….’

‘You don’t even know that, yet you speak of it so easily.’

When Tessa didn’t say anything, the maid walked slowly to the door. She said, clutching the handle tightly.

‘Don’t say anything weak. Accept reality. That’s the way we live in this world.’

With those words, Tessa was thrown into darkness.

* * *

As she slept, Tessa’s face was so calm that she almost looked like a dead person. Because of that, Hert’s heart pounded like it was going to explode whenever he looked at her pale complexion without moving. He felt a little reassured only when he checked Tessa’s faint breath with his fingertips.

‘Sir, the Madam is heavily fatigued right now. Moreover, she experienced quite a shock, so her pulse and breathing are unstable. She needs to rest, even for the time being, with absolute stability.’

The doctor said that Tessa needed careful management and care. Otherwise, it could lead to serious illness.

Hert bit his lower lip and stared at Tessa, laying motionless for half a day. Damn it, damn it. Curses were pouring out of his mouth incessantly. His mind was confused and he was unable to do anything at all.

“…….”

To Hert, Tessa looked like she was going to die right now. To the extent that it felt like a miracle that she had survived this far with that slender body. Hert rubbed his face roughly with both of his hands. When he held onto such a body and remembered what he had been doing in the meantime, his mind went blank.

‘Bastard that’s no better than a beast.’

It was already the second time. After coming here, he blamed himself.

‘There are different ways to ruin me.’

Hert’s head was spinning. He didn’t know what the hell to do with the woman in front of him. Why was that girl showing him this? Hert glared at Tessa, but before long he lowered his head uncontrollably. He felt pathetic about leaving a sickly person.

‘If you sold me and came here, you have to live well. Why are you like this, why again!’

At first, his heart was heavy at the thought that she was dying, but this time she was completely lying down. With the face sick as if dead. She couldn’t do this unless she was determined to drive people crazy. Once again, he felt like he was the perpetrator and not the victim.

Hert was absurd and spit out a laugh inwardly.

‘What did I do wrong, why are you doing this to me?’

He just wanted to know why. The reason why the person he loved most betrayed him. He finally got a chance to hear that answer. But the other side kept her mouth shut every time. There was no way he wouldn’t go crazy.

‘It seems like I’m getting revenge from this.’

Hert now smiled self-pitifully and shrugged his shoulders.

Of course, he didn’t do any research at all. Hert has personally tried several times to investigate Tessa, but each time he has failed, something is blocking him. In the end, he had no choice but to wait for the help of the Marquis. He didn’t know the Marquis would throw that woman at him like this.

‘Tessa Jutert…’

Hert looked at Tessa who was sleeping again. He reached out and touched the cold woman’s cheek.

“Don’t die.”

Please.

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