NTBYRI 06

Chapter 06

Elsie’s trembling hands clenched tight as she approached the window.

“Ah…”

The scene beyond the window stabbed into her eyes like a blade.

Something was burning. Cruelly and ruthlessly.

Her heart plummeted to the floor with a thud. As the pain of her chest being torn to shreds crashed over her, she collapsed as if crumbling.

“My paintings, my paintings…!”

The haphazardly stacked wooden frames were engulfed in hellish flames.

The moment the fire touched the canvas fabric, the paintings that had captured nature disappeared cruelly.

“No! No…! Not that…!”

She couldn’t lose her paintings again.

Elsie screamed and forced strength into her legs. She ran madly on her slender legs and burst out of the mansion.

Perhaps smoke had seeped into the building, because the tip of her nose stung. In that smell, she could feel her paintings burning, and a pain like her chest being torn into a thousand pieces rushed over her.

Though the ones from the past had been taken from her, at least the paintings she had completed one by one after coming here…

Please.

She had never once sought God. Not even when she heard her father had been executed.

But not now.

God, please.

Even in moments when she felt like she would suffocate to death here, paintings were her only comfort.

And yet… to burn that sole breathing hole so cruelly.

“Madam, what’s the matter?”

“It’s dangerous. Please go inside.”

The servants spoke to Elsie, who was gasping for breath with a ruined face.

“N-no… Stop. Everyone. Stop…”

Her hands flailed toward the flames soaring high into the sky.

“It’s the master’s order. It’s dangerous, so please step back.”

“My paintings…”

“Madam!”

The servants grabbed hold of her as she staggered, half out of her mind.

Tears poured down.

But her blurry vision wouldn’t clear. It was just that the flames that smeared her entire field of view filled it.

“Let go of me! Not my paintings, put out the fire right now!”

“You can’t. It’s the master’s order.”

When Elsie struggled, another female servant clung on and grabbed her arm.

Madam Elsie Gray.

She was suppressed powerlessly by the servants’ hands, so much so that such a title was meaningless.

“No…”

The fire surged endlessly, again and again. As the pungent smoke entered her eyes and added to her pain.

Elsie, who had been blankly muttering the same words in a weakened voice, looked around at the servants surrounding the flames.

The servants surrounding the flames wore satisfied expressions, as if burning away old garbage.

Wearing proud smiles like heroes punishing evil.

Watching that silently, Elsie lost consciousness completely with a pain like being struck by lightning.

—

It felt as if the world was collapsing.

She couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes due to the terrible sensation of her whole body being crushed.

My paintings.

My, paintings.

The art museum she visited with her father as a child was no different from paradise. Young Elsie stared intently at the artworks, wondering if she too could make something so sparkling.

She pestered her father, took a brush in hand, and moved it clumsily.

What remained now was all paintings. Her relationship with Kaiden, which she had thought was her life, had broken down miserably.

“Sniff…”

Afraid reality would come closer more terrifyingly than the truth, she began to sob without opening her eyes.

“Huuhk, heuk…”

Lest her crying leak outside, she couldn’t even cry loudly.

In her heart, she wanted to wail like a child.

She cried, soaked in tears, and beyond crying, cried as if she would melt into the bed. In a space where no one paid her any attention, she shed tears all day long.

—

She cried until she was exhausted and slept, then woke. How many times had she repeated crying again after that.

A terrible pain like burning rushed from her lower belly.

“Ugh…”

Letting out a groan in a hoarse voice, she gripped the blanket tightly with both hands. Elsie gritted her teeth to endure the pain digging into her lower belly as if squeezing it.

“A-anyone… Is no one, there?”

Twisting her body, she barely lifted her waist and looked toward the door.

At that moment, a terrible sensation was felt below.

She didn’t have the courage to check what was happening right now.

*Knock knock.*

“Madam, may I come in? I brought soup in case you were hungry.”

“Agh, Nina…!”

“Madam?”

The moment she heard Nina’s gentle voice, she desperately called out to her.

She needed help from anyone. Because an ominous premonition was mercilessly stabbing at her chest.

“M-madam!”

Sensing something was wrong, Nina threw the door open.

And then.

“…Madam!”

She dropped the wooden tray in her hands in shock.

Crash!

The dishes hit the floor and shattered to pieces. But Nina’s gaze was directed not at the floor, but at the bed.

The white blanket horribly stained crimson caught her eye.

“B-blood… I see blood… Madam! A-are you alright?”

The white blanket was soaked in blood and turned bright red. At the horrific sight, Nina didn’t know what to do and stamped her feet.

“Huuhk, Nina, my stomach, my stomach hurts so much…”

“Please wait a moment! I’ll call the physician. Just a moment!”

A terrible pain as if something was tearing tormented Elsie.

Leaving her behind as she clutched the blanket with both hands and struggled, Nina urgently moved her feet.

How long had she waited.

Her whole body was soaked with cold sweat, and soon an unbearable chill rushed over her, making her lips tremble.

“I’m telling you it’s not just that much! Hurry!”

“It’s probably nothing serious.”

The doctor replied indifferently to Nina’s urgent voice.

But once he actually entered the room, he lost his words.

“…Oh.”

At that moment, Elsie’s vision flashed.

—

“Madam, how are you feeling?”

As she barely opened her eyes, she saw Nina looking down at her worriedly.

“Shall I bring you some warm water?”

Elsie shook her head. She was thirsty, but she didn’t want to drink.

“…The doctor?”

“He said he’ll come again later. You still have a fever.”

Nina carefully placed her hand on Elsie’s forehead as she lay flat.

That hand was pleasantly cool. Sorry for her worry, yet strangely relieved, she closed her eyes comfortably.

She thought she just wanted to disappear like this. She was so exhausted she wanted to rest.

If she closed her eyes, everything would end and she would leave this tiresome world.

*Knock knock.*

“I’ll come in.”

When Elsie was wishing for a comfortable death no different from sleep, the doctor entered.

“I wish to speak only to madam.”

“Ah, yes. I’ll step out first.”

At the doctor’s warning-laden words, Nina looked at Elsie worriedly before leaving.

Actually, she would have liked Nina to stay by her side, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud.

She strangely felt intimidated in front of the doctor. No, it was the same with anyone else.

“It’s a regrettable thing to say, but I think it’s right to tell you.”

Clearing his throat, the doctor adjusted his throat and, uncharacteristically, carefully began.

What was he saying that made him hesitate so. Elsie weakly tilted her head toward the doctor.

“Tsk. It would have been better if you had told me in detail earlier. What a pity.”

She had already told him several times what was wrong, what was strange. He just hadn’t listened.

Elsie mumbled and stopped. Because saying it would obviously be useless.

“It seems it was early pregnancy. It was something that could happen depending on the circumstances, and…”

“Preg… nancy?”

“Yes. It’s common in early pregnancy. It’s regrettable, but it’s an unavoidable part. For now, it would be best to focus on recovering your health.”

The doctor explained in a flat voice like reading an uninteresting book.

“Last time you said it would be difficult for me to conceive…”

“Yes, because your body is so frail. But it’s not that there’s no possibility at all. Be careful next time.”

It was as if he was attributing all of this to her.

Elsie blinked her eyes slowly.

So she had been pregnant. The form of family she had once so desperately hoped for, that she had dreamed of, came to mind.

A child laughing merrily between Kaiden and her. Walking through the garden together, going to see the sea.

Spending the day as three like that, then eating dinner. After sharing what each liked, lying in bed with the child in the middle and reading a fairy tale book.

Kaiden’s pleasing low voice would fill the bedroom and she would pat the child’s round belly.

A day would end perfectly like that.

But the Kaiden of reality, and the family she had dreamed of, were like an illusion that could never come true.

“I’ll prescribe good medicine for your body. I hope you’ll take it without fail.”

The doctor turned his back as if he had finished his work.

Elsie was only blankly blinking her eyes. Her body seemed to have broken down, unable to accept the physical and mental pain that had risen to the top of her head.

She couldn’t think of anything.

She couldn’t feel anything.

Clear tears began to well up in her dazed eyes.

One drop of hot tears pooled at the round corner of her eye, then fell down her cheek.

“I want to, stop everything now…”

She wanted to stop everything. There was nothing left anymore. No matter how much she struggled, nothing changed.

She just wanted to end it.