Chapter 7

Translator and Editor: Effe and Yonnee

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────Chapter 7

Tessa followed the soldier out of the room and soon ran into a crowd of people in the hall. They were the servants of the Jutert Marquisate.

They seemed to have come out after the commotion between the soldier and Mani. It may have been a natural reaction for those who had to frequently check the situation on behalf of their master.

Above all, it was a fact known to everyone present that the man who attacked the territory the other day forcibly dragged Tessa away. What they are paying attention to most now is probably the relationship between the new lord and Tessa, the wife of the deceased marquis.

Then, one of the wives rushed to her alone. After that, the exclusive maid called her and followed her urgently.

“Tessa!”

The curly-haired woman who called Tessa was the seventh wife, Janet, who boldly offered her bread whenever she was imprisoned in solitary confinement. She reached her hall, holding her swollen tummy in her hands, which was close to giving birth. As she ran, her chest rose up and down wildly.

“Tessa, where are you going? Can I help you? Just tell me, I’ll help you!”

Suddenly Janet shouted in a loud voice. She lost her husband and became a widow, despite the same situation as her peers, but she was still proud and unflinching. She still was. Janet didn’t care about the soldier who was taking Tessa.

Janet looked as if asking what the soldier was for. Tessa quickly responded.

“Janet, I’m fine…! So…”

“Lies!”

Janet yelled, telling her to not hide it. She was about to separate Tessa and the soldiers. For that reason, Tessa smiled as brightly as she could towards Janet, who thought that things would get worse than before. She didn’t want anyone else to suffer because of her anymore.

“Really, I’m fine, Janet.”

“Then where are you going—”

“I’ll be back soon. Take good care of yourself.”

Tessa bowed her head to Janet and hurriedly left the place. Janet looked at her with a face full of things to say, but she didn’t stop. In fact, Tessa knew. Even if Janet had power, there wasn’t much she could do to help her.

Her relationship with Hert was something Tessa had to confront herself.

Tessa curled up the shawl and bowed her head.

* * *

The place where Tessa arrived with the soldiers was the 4th floor of the castle, the lord’s office. It made her breathless and her head dizzy as she walked from the annex to the castle. A cough rose right down her throat. Of course, it would have been fine for a healthy person, but it was a difficult road for Tessa, who had yet to recover.

In fact, while on the way, they were delayed several times because she could not keep up with the soldier’s stride. Each time the soldier stopped and waited for Tessa, his face was full of annoyance. That’s why Tessa couldn’t raise her head because of her pale face.

She couldn’t even walk properly. That’s how she was now.

“Wait here.”

Left alone in the office, Tessa let out all the coughs she had been holding back. While ignoring how her body trembled, the heat continued to seep in, and her vision continued to blur. She was in a state of exhaustion both physically and mentally from being forced to move. She looked like she could collapse right away if touched.

‘My back hurts so much…’

Most of all, the wound on her back that she had forgotten about was stinging painfully as she moved, the lacerations opening again. But Tessa put strength on her toes, trying to keep her shoulders and back from shuddering. She knew it was stupid, but she couldn’t help it.

‘You mustn’t show your nervousness.’

She didn’t want to show her pain. She didn’t want him to see her weak face any more. She didn’t want Hert to find out that she had been abused.

‘He’ll think I’m pretending to be pitiful… I don’t want that.’

Even if Hert sympathized with her, it was also unacceptable. Tessa thought she didn’t even deserve his sympathy. So she had to endure.

Tessa looked around the office slowly, hoping that focusing her thoughts elsewhere would ease the pain.

Everything was unfamiliar. She had been living in the castle for seven years, but it was her first time entering the lord’s office. In fact, it was rare that she could roam freely within the castle itself.

As if two rooms were put together, the quiet office was decorated in an antique atmosphere. Everywhere she looked, they were filled with only valuable objects, and on the upper wall of the center hung a portrait of Marquis Jutert, the previous lord. The frame surrounding the portrait gleamed with gold as if to indicate the marquis’s financial condition.

To that extent, the lord’s office was a sight that could be admired by others, but unfortunately, Tessa was not in a situation where she could take care of her personal feelings. Even the portrait of her ex-husband hanging on the wall was something she never saw with a good meaning.

‘Useless bitch.’

Her breathing was getting rough. Tessa felt her nose stinging.

At that moment, someone opened the door and entered. Tessa reflexively turned her head and looked back. Hert was standing there.

“Do you miss your husband?”

Hert took turns looking at Tessa and the portrait of the old lord she had just seen before.

“What if I killed that bastard?”

Tessa sucked in her breath at the terrifyingly cold voice.

A cruel face appeared. The man’s scornful face, not even a sliver of friendly warmth left, choked Tessa’s breath. Even if he didn’t say it, she could tell what he was thinking.

That’s not it, I…

“Her…”

Unknowingly trying to call Hert’s name, Tessa found a strange man following him into the office and bit her mouth.

“Sire, why are you standing there… Ah.”

Lange let out a low sigh as he saw the guest in the office. Then, in the subdued atmosphere of his superior, he naturally shut his mouth. After all, when he received the letter from Marquis Borwen, his superior seemed to be in a bad mood the whole time. Lange thought of sneaking out of the place, closed the door, and disappeared.

“Geoffrey.”

Before he could put his thoughts into action, Hert called Lange. Goodness, he’s like a demon.

“Yes, sir. Non-commissioned officer, Lange Geoffrey is here.”

“Why didn’t you clean that up?”

“What… Oh, you mean the portrait of the dead marquis? That’s something I don’t usually clean–”

“Put it away. And what is that thing?”

“Yes?”

Lange was bewildered at the words of his superior who called the lady ‘that thing’.

“I didn’t tell you to bring a corpse.”

At Hert’s cold reply, Lange shut his mouth for a moment. As the superior said, the woman standing in the office was ridiculous. Her skinny body and the corpse-pale face made it impossible for anyone to tell whether she was a living person or a ghost. He heard she was ill, but did he bring her up too soon?

‘No, but he said to bring her as soon as she wakes up.’

Lange glanced at his superior’s eyes.

“…Shall I send her back then?”

“Never mind. Get out.”

“Me, you mean?”

Hert looked at Lange without saying a word. Lange quickly shook his head at that eerie feeling.

“Oh, okay, me. Yes, I will go away. Please continue your conversation.”

Tessa stood there and lowered her gaze while Lange quickly pulled himself out. She looked down at her feet with a broken pen holder that she did not know when she stepped on it. When she thought that it was no different from her current situation, her eyes widened with tears.

Don’t cry, you said you don’t deserve to cry. Tessa bit her lower lip desperately to hold back the tears.

As the door closed and the man’s shoe nose suddenly approached her feet, Tessa trembled. Now Hert wasn’t scary. Just like weeping when you’re sick, when a strong man approaches you, you wither. It was just her reflex.

“Lift your head.”

Hert ordered the woman in front of him. Just like the first day, she wore a single shawl over her nightgown. She trembled like a mouse in the face of a predator, and she was frankly—if looked at at her appearance, she looked terrible. He did not go too far in describing Tessa as a corpse to Lange. Rather, it was a kind enough description…

“I, I’m sorry…”

The woman’s slender eyelashes fluttered and shook, revealing her dark green eyes. Strangely, the moment Hert saw it, one side of his chest twitched. Damn it.

Perhaps it was unpleasant. He was sorry that the woman who abandoned him was doing something like that. Here it goes again.

‘Why are you being like this when you sold me and became a noble?’

On the first day, he was blinded by hatred and did not have time to look at Tessa properly, but not today. In Hert’s eyes, an unusually thin and powerless woman appeared bare. In addition to the pitiful appearance that made anyone look back at her at least once.

Hert got up. He didn’t know if that woman was aiming for this kind of reaction. Pretending to be pitiful, getting sympathy, and hoping that she would not be harmed. Because Hert in the past was often swayed by Tessa because she was weak.

‘No way.’

She was a clever woman. She was no longer the girl he knew. Hert remembered this and twisted his lip crookedly. Whenever she asked to be killed, she was blatantly shameless, but now she was wishing for compassion.

But, strangely, from the moment he met those trembling eyes, there was no strength in his grasp.

Why? Why?

Hert felt a little queasy. He had nothing to wish for now. His own eyes confirmed that she had betrayed him. Why did his throat clench like he swallowed something he shouldn’t have swallowed?

Maybe he still had expectations of her? Hert’s face contorted involuntarily.

“You…”

“…….”

“You still have nothing to say to me?”

Hert thought it would be of no use, but he decided to give Tessa another chance.

If she were to be honest with him now, if she told him why she betrayed him, he would be willing to be a little tolerant of her. Or, if she cried and apologized and sincerely begged for making a mistake, he could give her money, which was not much, and send her to a place of her choice.

Since once they cared for each other the most in the world, he could do that for the last time.

So, tell me.

Hert clenched his hands into fists.

“Tell me, Tessa.”

It’s your choice. What should I do with you?

“Why did you betray me?”

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