CH 8

After crossing the bridge, the scenery of the city changed.

The streets lined with old and shabby buildings were disorganized as they were not properly maintained. Weeds growing between the broken flagstones of the pavement, carelessly discarded garbage, and advertisement flyers for labor offices looking for day laborers and maids swayed along the river wind.

Odette took a moment to catch her breath as she held the bag of groceries in her arms. The setting sun was dyeing the whole city a rosy color. The poor residential area on the outskirts of the city was no exception.

When the pain in her throbbing arms subsided, Odette began to walk again. The spring flowers that were overwhelmingly beautiful just this morning now make her feel very sad. So did the dirty shop windows and dull passers-by, as well as faintly audible curses and shouts from somewhere.

“Who is this? Ah, the daughter of the beggar duke.”

As Odette turned the corner, she heard giggles and sarcasm.

She recognized the owner of the voice without bothering to turn her head. He was the man who ran the grocery store on the ground floor of the building. When they first moved in, she shopped at his store, but stopped because he often made vulgar jokes for the sake of fun.

“It seems like you’re having a hard time carrying that heavy thing. Is it that the food in this town is so disgusting that you don’t even want to put it in that pretty mouth?”

The man who had come to the front of the store with his fat body looked at Odette with shining eyes. It happened every time she passed by this place.

Odette just looked ahead and silently quickened her steps. If it was just the ramblings of a mean-spirited bugger, she would just listen and that would be the end of it. It was nothing to worry about. Still, the resentment she hadn’t seen before was probably the result of an overly exhausting day.

When the man’s voice, which had been gradually fading, could no longer be heard, a building with rented houses appeared.

Odette crossed the threshold with weary steps. As she faced her own reflection in the old mirror hanging over the entrance, she let out a long sigh she didn’t know she was holding.

She looked like a clown dressed in ridiculous makeup. The man’s opinion would not have been different. If she could, she wished to erase the memory of this morning when she had set out on the road in a nice outfit. 

“I was just here.”

As soon as she took her eyes off the mirror, she heard a familiar voice. It was Mrs. Palmer, the wife of the building superintendent.

“I think another fight broke out in that house. It seemed serious, so hurry and go up!”

Mrs. Palmer gave her lightning-fast news with her eyes wide open.

Contemplating, Odette started running up the stairs frantically. Her dropped items were scattered around, but there was no time left to care about them.

“Tira!”

Reaching the top floor, Odette hurriedly opened the unlocked front door.

The first thing that caught her eyes was a broken vase. The remains of shattered glass and ruined wild flowers lay all over the living room floor. These were things Tira had brought for her sister a few days ago.

“Can’t you get it out of here?!”

The roar from the two sisters’ room reverberated throughout the house. Odette, intuitively aware of the meaning of the sharp scream that followed, hurriedly ran to the scene of the commotion. The sight unfolding beyond the open doorway was far more shocking than expected.

“Sister!”

Tira, who found Odette, burst into a scream-like cry. Crouching in the gap between her closet and the wall, Tira defended a small box with her whole body. It was where the two sisters kept their emergency money. Odette’s gaze, which followed Tira’s disheveled hair, swollen cheeks, and torn, bloody lips in sequence, turned to her father. Duke Dissen, with his face red from drunkenness, raised his arm, ready to hit Tira again at any moment.

Odette ran to Tira without hesitation and hugged her. At the same time, a dull thud sounded. It was so strong that the damaged hat with the decorations she was wearing blew to the far corner but Odette did not let out a single small groan.

“Odette! Why are you…… .”

Embarrassed, Duke Dissen hesitated and took a step back.

Odette caught her breath while holding Tira deeply in her arms and slowly raised her head to face her father. His half-dissolved hair ran down the sides of his flushed cheeks.

“Please leave this room immediately.”

Odette gave the order clearly and forcefully. Eyes filled with anger and contempt shone coldly in the setting sun.

“This, it’s all because of that cheeky girl. Seeing you get vulgar day by day. You have your mother’s blood alright.”

Swallowing dry saliva, Duke Diesen mumbled lame excuses with a broken spirit. Even at that moment, his both eyes were watching the emergency fund box.

“No. It is all thanks to father’s blood that I am shallow!”

Tira raised her head and shouted in anger. In the wind, the wild curses that the excited father poured out again mixed with Tira’s jabs, which she did not lose and gave back. 

“Stop!”

Opening her tightly closed eyes, Odette shrieked sharply. Only then did Odette slowly rise from her seat while the two of them held their breath.

“Don’t touch Tira again. If this happens one more time, I won’t put up with it any longer.”

“What if I don’t?”

“The thing father fears most will happen.”

“You dare to threaten your father?”

Even facing Duke Dissen, who was shouting ferociously, Odette did not show any emotional agitation.

Odette knew very well that as long as she had the pension, her father would never let her go. For even the last connection with the royal family must not be lost. The day she learned this, Odette realized another fact that she could be her father’s greatest weakness.

“You terrible thing.”

Duke Dissen, who had been glaring at Odette for a long time, uttered a word of contempt and turned around. As the sound of rough footsteps receded, the silence deepened in the messy room.

Odette finally relaxed and turned around. Tira embraced the emergency fund box she devoted herself to protecting.

She was still weeping bitterly.

Odette first helped Tira up and sat her down on the bed.

“From now on, just give it to him. It’s better than getting hurt.”

“No!”

Tira shouted and shook her head vigorously.

“I won’t let someone like father take a penny from me. I’d rather be beaten a few times.”

“Tira.”

“Don’t force me to behave as noble as sister. How can an illegitimate child born by a maid have the same thoughts as Her Highness’s daughter?”

Pushing away Odette’s hand to check her injured face, Tira cried out.

“Sister knows nothing. But how can an older sister who can dress up in pretty clothes and play princess thanks to the imperial family know how I feel?”

Tira, who had sharpened her blade and made a sarcastic remark, quickly passed Odette. It seemed that she had not left the house, judging by the loud sound of the warehouse door closing.

Odette stood there, staring at the night view of the Prater river through the window. A large ship was passing under the drawbridge. It was a warship heading for the dock of the Admiralty.

Gently opening her closed eyes, Odette took off her ill-fitting clothes. Her mother’s memento, a water-blue dress, was confined deep in her closet, along with memories she didn’t want to recall. The fate of her cherished shoes and gloves and broken hat were no different.

Dressed in her old cotton dress, Odette first straightened her messy hair after being beaten by her father. The flowery Wednesday sun set as she cleaned up the mess and fetched the groceries strewn across the stairwell. The door to the warehouse where Tira was hiding was still firmly closed. It seemed like she needed a little more time alone.

Odette stopped the bleeding from the cut from the broken glass and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Princess’s play was over.

Now it was time to return to the Odette of Dissen.

***

“And here is a letter from the imperial palace.” The butler, Lovis, perplexed, made a final report.

Bastian, who had just signed the checkbook, slowly turned his gaze to the letter Lovis had delivered. An empty envelope and a wax seal stamped with the imperial coat of arms. It was a letter whose sender could be recognized without opening it.

Bastian opened the envelope with an unlit cigarette between his lips. When he opened the letter, which smelled strongly of perfume, he saw the name exactly as he expected. Princess Isabelle. She was the immature child who caused upheaval in his cruising life.

The shock of her marriage. An apology. But still an unrequited love.

Bastian read the letter, which was not different from what he expected, with a ruthless gaze. The princess was obsessed with her love imitating the old court love poems about a princess and a knight. Reading the letter he had the same feeling to be able to understand the Emperor who had lost his reason in worrying about his daughter.

“I’m sorry, Master.”

The butler bowed his head and apologized.

“I tried to refuse to receive it, but Her Imperial Highness gave me strict orders to make sure to deliver it…”

“Nothing to worry about.”

Bastian lit a cigarette and laughed nonchalantly before standing up from his desk.

The princess had been sending letters through her own maid for years. It had been a long time since he didn’t even reply formally anymore, but her tenacity showed no signs of faltering.

Crossing the study, Bastian tossed the letter into the fireplace. The western sky seen through the window was dyed red by the setting sun. 

***

Bastian had a long-awaited leisurely evening.

After a leisurely smoke, he changed into his workout clothes and left the house. After he ran through a park in the heart of the city, the night had fallen.

Bastian made his way home by following the promenade leading to the back door of the townhouse. As he came out of a longer-than-usual shower, he heard an urgent knock.

“Come in.”

Bastian answered while tying the belt of the robe he was wearing.

“This is a letter from the imperial palace.”

The butler approached with quick steps and said in a trembling voice. Bastian opened the bedroom window facing the garden and slowly turned around.

Two letters in one day.

The butler delivered the unexpected letter just as the irritation the Princess had given him reached a critical point.

“It’s an invitation to the ball to celebrate Her Majesty’s birthday. You are now a guest in the imperial palace, master.” The old butler’s eyes turned red with emotion.

Bastian opened the colorful envelope with an expressionless face. On the invitation to the imperial ball, the name Bastian Klauswitz, who had been completely ignored in their world, was clearly engraved. It seemed like a reward for agreeing to the marriage proposal.

“Your mother in heaven will be very pleased.”

Lovis, who wiped away tears, whispered softly. Bastian nodded and put the invitation down.

There was no way to know his mother’s heart, but he could imagine the feelings of his stepmother in Ardennes. She probably would not be able to sleep at night. It wouldn’t be strange if she fell ill because she couldn’t overcome her anger.

With a satisfied smile, Bastian turned his head toward the garden where the cool night breeze blew. The face of the woman (Odette) he would soon see again floated briefly over the blooming spring flowers and disappeared.

If that was the case, it was not a bad reward.