CH 1

The maid, who was leisurely eating cookies in the kitchen during the employees' break time, suddenly looked out the window.  A woman was walking across the garden.

'Who is it?'

She narrowed her eyes and glanced over the woman's modest appearance, wondering if today was the day the new maid came to her interview.  Then she looked at the little girl who was hidden by the width of her skirt and tilted her head.  She was a child who seemed to be 7 years old.

‘A child?’

I was curious, but in any case, those two people who appear to be mother and daughter are probably not the guests invited by the owner.  The owner of this mansion was a man from a great family, and the guests who came to him were also great people.  On the other hand, the mother and daughter were very poor, without a wagon or attendant.

She said, 'There's no way the gatekeeper could have sent the wrong person in.'

In any case, she was the only one to take charge of that uninvited guest. Putting down her cookies that she had been eating, she wiped her crumbly hands against her apron and got up from her feet.

When she went out to the porch, the unidentified mother and daughter were climbing the stairs past a fountain with a stunning sculpture of a lion spewing water.

"What brings you here?"

Zhang, the maid who looked closely at the woman's face, widened her eyes.  Because she was a familiar face.

"you…."

A beautiful woman with light blue-purple eyes with her black hair tied up in a neatly combed one.  She doesn't suit her calm personality, but her adorable nose, which suits her face, awakened the memories of the maid Jang at once.

She was a maid who suddenly ran away at night and disappeared 7 years ago while being enveloped in a rumor that she had an affair with the former owner of the mansion.

"How you doing?"

The woman laughed awkwardly.

She seemed to have a more calm and mature smile than when she was an 18-year-old girl who first set foot here.

There was a bit of hardship, vigilance, and anxiety in her eyes.  She must have gone through a difficult time.  However, her firm eyes were not different from before.

The maid, Jang, soon cleared her expression and crossed her arms with a chilly look on her face. 

“Daring of coming back here, I don’t know what you’re thinking.  Don't you know that my former master passed away not long ago?"

“I know.  I heard the news.”

“Oh my God, and you’re still here?  Don’t be so shameless."  

As if she had expected such a reaction, she took a letter of hers from her arms without being too offended.  Thinking that it was something like a recommendation letter that she was pulling out, the maid snorted and laughed at her.

“I don’t know what you came here for, but you had better go back before the master or the new owner finds out.  No one here would like to see each other face to face.  Don't be in vain thinking that I'll hire you again.  If you see the master, you will be kicked out with nothing but shame.”

But the woman just silently opened the letter and pushed it in front of the maid chief so that her contents could be seen clearly.

The maid, who had no intention of reading it, saw the strange word at first glance and looked into the stationery.  Soon her eyes trembled greatly.

- Yvnia Grozny co-owns the mansion of the Gelendzhik family with the next head, Arad Gelendzhik.

Seeing the maid's reaction, the woman smiled modestly and spoke softly but strictly.

“It says that I inherited this Duchy of Gelendzhik.”

The maid, Jang, who was furious that this was a nonsensical prank, hesitated when she saw the signature and seal of the former Duke of Gelenjik on the letterhead.

The woman, holding her daughter's hand, looked at the maid with a stern look.

“I and my daughter are tired from the long journey, so can we come into my house and get out of the way?” 

Seven years ago, the majesty of Yvnia Grozny, a maid who chose to escape at night while hiding her pregnancy from anyone because of obscene rumors. It was a fair return.

I was guided to the drawing room on the second floor, not the first floor, and swallowed dry saliva.  Because she knew that it was a place reserved for special guests who had to meet the owner of the mansion face-to-face.

'I thought I'd be standing there without coming in from the front door.'

The butler seemed to recognize that the seal on the letter she brought was genuine.

In fact, even she was a little relieved because she came to here with a questioning mind, thinking that the letter with the outrageous content might be a fake.  At least she was ridiculed by her, and it seemed that she would not be driven out hopelessly.

The drawing room had the same scene like seven years ago as she remembers, as if time stood still.  There was no change except for the new sofa sheets that change each season.

Not just this place, but everything in Gelendzhik.

The upright butler was a little older, but he had the look she remembered, and so was the maid.  The elegant rambres that adorned the walls, the portraits hung on them, the floor decorations, and the sculptures in the hallways all seemed as if time had stopped.

Ivenia felt as if the time she had left this place was a dream, and now she has woken up and returned to reality.

Then, she heard the voice of her child, awakening her to her true reality.

"Mom, are you okay?"

“Ranelli."

Yvnia looked at her little daughter, who looked exactly like her.

She looked as if the child is a copy of her mother, but if you look closely, she has subtly other characteristics that her mother doesn't have.

Her hair, carefully combed and tied in two, looked similar to her mother's black hair at first glance, but had a faint reddish tint.  Her clear eyes seemed to resemble her father, and it was a warm yellow, but Yvnia was brainwashing her daughter that it was a light green color.

Ranelli was a girl with an expression as mature as her mother.  She rested her head on her mother's chest with her face worried about her mother.

"Is it cold?  Mom's hands are cold. Your face is also pale.”

Only then did Yvnia realize that she was putting on a face that was too nervous, and she forced a smile.

“Mom is fine.  Rather, Ranelli, what do you say when people ask your age here?”

"She said now that she just turned six."

“Yeah, right.”

“But I'm seven years old…  …  .”

Ivnia was startled and covered the child's mouth slightly and looked towards the door.  She made her firm expression as she made sure no one was there.  The child flinched and rolled her eyes.

“You know that the seven-year-old was too big to be with her mom,” she said.  If they find out you are 7, you might be sent to boarding school while mom is here.  Did you know?”

Ranelli nodded her head with her frightened face.

She did not want to scare the child, but Yvnia had no choice.  She somehow made some scary words and she had to scare the kid so she wouldn't speak the truth.

She had something for her.  Because the father of her child is in this mansion.

If he sees Ranelli, he will look at the child's age and will suspect that she may be his child.

Yvnia trembled in fear that she might lose Ranelli, her child and to her dad in the worst case.

[Erase the child.  Then there will be nothing between the two of us.  As if nothing had happened.]

[The child…  …  I just can't tolerate that.]

I still couldn't forget the way he spoke in an unfamiliar voice, so coldly that I doubted it was the man I loved.

Seven years ago, she disappeared without her appearance, not because she was swept away by her obscene rumors, but because she wanted to protect the child in her belly.

The father of the child did not want a child from the beginning.  However, if Yvnia, who had disappeared, now suddenly appeared in front of him with his child, she would have been misunderstood.

'I didn't want to bring her here because she was afraid that he would hurt Ranelli, but...  …  .'

She looked down worriedly at Ranelli's crown.

Yvnia had an unavoidable circumstance that she had to bring her here.  A huge secret that cannot be told to anyone in this mansion.

Ranelli crawled up onto Ivnia's lap.  Yvnia was accustomed to hugging her child and exhorting her.

“Mom, when are we going home?”

“We are going to stay for twenty nights and go home.”

“Twenty nights?”

Ranelli counted the numbers with her fingers and stuck out her tongue.  It was because it was an unimaginably long time for her child.

Her child asked as she fiddled with her fingers the ribbon that was tied around Yvnia's chest.

“If I stay here for twenty nights, will Ranelli not get sick anymore?”

“…  …  .”

Embarrassed by her unexpected question, Ivnia kept her silence for a moment, then smiled calmly.

“Why did you think that way?”

“I heard mom talking to grandmother.  There's a way to cure Ranelli.  So she has to leave right now.”

She seemed to have heard Yvnia's conversation with her mother the night before she came to Gelendzhik.

“I thought you were asleep, but were you listening?”

“I woke up to hearing my name.  Can I get better now?”

"Well.  That's what I was trying to tell you when I'm a little more certain."

Yvnia pondered if she could explain how she would make her child understand.

Ranelli was ill.  It was a terrible genetic disease that gradually eroded the mind into madness.  She's still young and her symptoms aren't severe, but it will get worse soon, and sooner or later she'll be caught up in madness.

But Yvnia believed that she could cure Ranelli's illness and she firmly believed that.  

Although known as an incurable hereditary disease, she knew of one person who was treated and is living well.  It was Ranelli's father.

And that was another secret, intertwined with the huge secret that Yvnia had to take the risk and bring Ranelli here.

‘In the first place, this mansion is not greedy.’

It is not known why the previous duke inherited this mansion to Ivnia.  Known as an eccentric, he was a person that even Ivnia could not understand.

So, the reason I came here after receiving a letter of inheritance was not really to believe in him and receive the inheritance of the Gelendzhik family.

But she just wanted to see  Ranelli's father with her own eyes, who was living a normal life.  And I wanted to get a clue to cure Ranelli.  The inheritance letter was a good excuse to come back here, nothing more, nothing less.

Yvnia, carrying all these heavy facts alone, secretly, gave Ranelli a bright smile as if she had no worries.

“Ranelli, this wonderful mansion contains a medicine to cure Ranelli. Mom came here to find it.  As long as she finds some medicine, Ranelli won't be sick any more."

It was like a voice retelling a mysterious fairy tale.  Ranelli was lost in her mind and imagined her mother wandering the mansion with full of adventures and secrets, finding her hidden medicine.

"really?"

"Yes.  But it's so big here, it's going to take some time to find the medicine.  In the meantime, if you want mom and Ranelli to be together, you have to keep it a secret.”

Ranelli put her index finger to her lips and lowered her voice as far as she could.

“Age and disease?  Ranelli won't tell anyone that she's sick.  I'll say that i'm six years old."

"okay.  Are you promising to mom?”

Yvnia smiled softly and held out her little finger.  Ranelli's tiny fingers intertwined trustily.

At that time, a heavy voice intervened between the two, who put their heads together and had a strategic meeting.

“You are back, Ivnia.”