Chapter 4

The most famous person in the Hutt family was Gillian. He was a naval officer and an instructor who had grown up brilliantly. Above all, Gillian was famous for cherishing his sister Helen very much.

So he couldn’t look at Karman with friendly eyes, who had given his sister a deep wound. Things between the two families were no better than they had been since the divorce.

Gillian was the new landlord of the Hutt family, and he was unmarried. Eliana decided to grab the key to turn this game over with that man’s heart. Of course, it was only the first key.

She had to get close to another man and woman to get to him, a man of power. That was the key to get out of this Hunter family. Eliana’s plan was concrete and simple.

If she was going to be branded a stepmother anyway, she would push that path to the end.

A wicked oman. A dangerous woman. But at the same time, an attractive woman at that. Eliana had seen stories about men who were attracted to witches. It was a desire for taboos. Envy and longing for an object enough to commit all that was forbidden. Eliana decided to actively exploit this psychology.

Make every man fall in love with her, except her husband.

That was Eliana’s strategy. She was beautiful, but she didn’t believe in her looks, she believed in her knowledge. She made sure she only chose people whom she could use strategically and put them in her pocket.

The first of these people was Gillian. Eliana looked further into Gillian’s family.

The way to get to him was simple. Make a connection with Helen, the wounded woman. Eliana lay in bed, thinking of different ways to approach Helen.

Tomorrow morning she was going to be a terrible stepmother. Rumors were as easy to blow as snowballs. Eliana was not afraid of it, in fact she was expecting it. It would be the starting point of all her plans.

***

“She dared to grab Lady Sharchen’s hair and slap her cheeks? Isn’t that crazy?”

“Poor Lady Sharchen. A handful of her hair fell out.”

“Her cheeks were all swollen. How many times did she hit her?”

Eliana stared at the gossiping maids as she passed by. The maids scattered like cattle.

Lujan, who was next to her, was busy watching Eliana’s mood. Lujan didn’t leave Eliana’s side, as if she had received some form of instruction from Sharchen. Every move Eliana made was being watched. Eliana turned and faced Lujan right away as soon as the door of the library was closed and they were alone. The distance between Eliana and Lujan was no more than thirty centimeters.

“You.”

“Yes?”

“Do you think I’ll fire you? You wish I’d rather do it, right?”

Lujan’s eyes shook. She was shaking. It was becoming more and more apparent as time went on that Eliana was not normal. Eliana smiled with satisfaction and continued to speak, watching Lujan’s trembling eyes.

“No. Did you receive an order to report my every move to Sharchen?

“…”

Lujan couldn’t hide her surprise.  ‘How did you know?’ Her eyes seemed to say.

Eliana smiled even more brightly and went through the bookshelves.

“There’s a lot of fabric piled up at the workshop, right?” Dark, dull, but shiny women’s fabrics. Things that are stuck in the corner because they are not Sharchen’s cup of tea.”

There were many people who actually paid for expensive fabrics in order to look good to Karman, the next head of the Hunter family. Many of those fabrics were for noble ladies, but they were not used very often. But no one cared.

For generations, the ladies of the Hunter family had worn bright clothes that represented purity, and so did Sharchen.

She especially added bright red and ivory dresses to her pale, white skin to emphasize her pure and soft appearance. It was the opposite direction Eliana tried to choose. Lujan opened her eyes wide as if completely unaware of such a fact.

“What? No… the workshop is mainly used by the guards…and….”

It seemed that no one had tried making dresses on their own in this place where the money was full.

Eliana clicked her tongue inwardly. She had made a few dresses. When she was a child, her mother made money from sewing, and she helped her with that, as well as the fact that her own clothes were often torn and worn. Her skills were excellent.

She was going to try to use that skill to the fullest.

”I’m sure there is. Bring them in, the darker and more mysterious the color, the better. And make sure you buy dresses that resemble those colors.”

“This… this is… where the maids come and go…”

“If a maid comes to a bar, does that make the dress store a bar? If it’s not like that, buy it there. The amount allocated to me is not large.”

The previous wives were adorned with money and dresses they brought from their own homes, but it was different for Eliana.

From start to finish, everything had to be new, to make her look like a vicious stepmother.

“If you choose a precious dress that Sharchen wears, you’ll live with a single punishment. So go ahead and choose the dress that will hide you the best. That’s what you should do today when you report to Sharchen.”

“…”

“If you understand, go. I want it before dinner.”

“Yes, yes …”

Eliana waved Lujan out of the library. She opened the window wide and stretched as if the strategy was starting then. Then she began to take out her books again.

Today she had to dig more into Helen’s family line and look for past costumes to see the designs. It would have been clumsy to copy the dresses of the now-popular aristocratic women.

‘Fashion comes and goes.’

She had to be the center of the conversation. Her plan was to rise to the seat of such a woman whom they could neither vomit nor swallow like a hot potato.

Eliana filled the beautiful, long desk with a bunch of books. Then she began to read without rest.

Her eyes shone with curiosity and intellectual exploration. Like a worn fingerprint, she slipped through the thin pages again and again.

***

Before Lujan returned, Eliana left the Baron’s mansion and stopped by a cosmetics maker at the entrance of the market. She felt someone following her, but she didn’t care.

The store sold cosmetics made of various powders ground into different colors to be applied to the face. Eliana gave the store owner the formula she had found in the library.

“Beautiful lady, you have skin that looks great with light makeup. You have sharp features too, so if you use a strong color combination…”

Eliana smiled brightly to the owner of the cosmetic store, who hesitated to say that she would look like a bar maid if she used such a strong color combination.

“Keep doing what you’re doing.”

She put the extra money on the table.

The cosmetics that Sharchen used were from the hands of a famous person, and it was much more expensive. But this place that Eliana visited was a place anyone could come to. It was cheap but the quality was not bad.

There were only a limited number of raw materials for cosmetics. The only difference was who mixed them well and how they were packaged. It was only the reputation of the manufacturer that made the difference between selling expensive and selling cheap. Eliana was well aware of such a façade.

When the owner got the money, he opened a copper barrel without a word and started blending the fine powder. The colored powder, made by grinding shells and dried berries, was mixed on an iron plate. It was like magic powder. Eliana’s eyes glowed again as she looked at it.

***

“It’s obvious that there’s something wrong with the Baroness! She has spent all her money in the liquor store for women and comes and goes places without permission, and manufactures cheap cosmetics. It is degrading to the Hunter family! My god, Lady Sharchen!! I can’t even put this in my mouth!”

The butler used an exaggerated expression to make a snide remark about Eliana. Karman was sitting in his office and working. He was looking at the documents with a hard expression on his face, unfazed by the butler’s words, but in fact his mind was in a turmoil he had never experienced before.

Eliana was right. Not only the mansion, but even other nobles who were not supposed to know what happened in this house, sent letters to Sharchen saying that they were worried about Eliana being her stepmother.

They were comforting flowers, roses, and many letters. In the social world, Sharchen was loved like a little bird. She was kind to everyone she met, choosing only the loveliest words to say. She looked much younger than her age, which helped to make him feel like he had to protect her.

That was why there were more people who believed Sharchen’s words than Eliana’s, who had yet to make a single appearance at a party.

What Eliana did turned into a big mess. Rumors had spread that Sharchen could not get up because she was kicked and slapped dozens of times. But Sharchen didn’t correct anything. She stayed still as if she wanted the rumor to grow bigger.

Karman was on Sharchen’s side. He was her man, who had to look at everything from her point of view. But he was helpless in the face of the truth, which Eliana spat out as violently as if she had a knife in her hand. It was as if something had gone through his hidden dentition and he was powerless. What the hell kind of woman was she?

Karman didn’t like Eliana, but at the same time he was curious. She stood out in a completely unpredictable way.

“Leave it alone for now.”

“Baron!”

“She’s only been here less than half a month. You may watch her a little longer. If I break the marriage again this time, my father will really come.”

The butler felt a chill run down his spine at the word ‘Father’ that came from the Baron’s mouth. As the landlord of the Hunter family, his father was a fearsome man to anyone. When the butler fell silent, Karman asked.

“Where is Eliana now?”

“…She’s gone to the library again.”

“…”

Karman looked out the window with complicated eyes. He was looking at the library where Eliana was. The butler glanced at where Karman’s gaze was going.