NTBYRI 07

Chapter 07

Elsie grew even thinner.

Nina prepared the things she usually liked and tried somehow to help her regain her strength, but she couldn’t eat anything.

If she forced something down, her stomach would soon turn over and dry heaves would burst out.

“Madam, at this rate something worse will happen.”

“Whenever I eat, it keeps coming back up. So just take it back.”

“Madam…”

Seeing Nina’s eyes growing moist, Elsie hesitantly parted her lips.

Had she heard something from the doctor?

Nina kept wanting to do something for her.

Elsie shifted her gaze beyond the window. Sunlight was coming in, faintly illuminating the room.

“Could you help me leave this place?”

“…What?”

“I want to get some fresh air. I want to see the sea I saw as a child again. I’ll go and see a distant relative in the east as well.”

“A distant relative, you say…”

“I don’t know if they’re alive.”

They would have either defected to another country or lost their lives caught up in the whirlwind of the revolution.

But it didn’t matter. The relative was just an excuse.

She wanted to see the open sea. She wanted to sit before the waves and paint the rippling ocean.

Elsie slowly looked around the empty bedroom. It was a barren place without a single painting.

“…That would be nice. Nina, I’m sorry to ask this of you. But the only people I can ask are you and Parker.”

Her voice was low, as if steeped in despair.

“Tomorrow… Tomorrow the master returns to Eldenmarch. Everyone will be busy preparing to welcome him.”

Nina, having read the desperation in her words, answered with a choked throat.

She quietly took Elsie’s hand. Her fingers were so thin and frail.

Touching the knuckles that seemed like they would break with just a little pressure, she opened her mouth as if she had made up her mind.

“Using a car would be difficult, but a luggage cart might be possible. The gardening carts come and go frequently, so no one will find it strange.”

Elsie nodded weakly.

“I’ll speak to Mr. Blair.”

Nina continued in a raised voice, as if planning something enjoyable, to lift Elsie’s spirits.

At her tone, which sounded like she was humming a tune, Elsie nodded again as if satisfied.

—

As the day of Kaiden’s return from the capital, Aldermain, to Eldenmarch approached, the mansion grew busy.

Within it, only Elsie was still. Only she seemed stopped, left out of all of this.

After Elsie collapsed, the servants began to ignore her even more thoroughly. As if trying to erase her very existence.

Meanwhile, Kaiden stayed at a hotel in Aldermain, attending strategic composition meetings and directing border training.

The more he was away, the more mercilessly the servants ignored her.

But paradoxically, because of that, Nina and Parker could move easily without worrying about others’ eyes.

And so Elsie prepared to flee to the sea.

And today.

The day Kaiden would return to the mansion after noon.

Nina carefully entered Elsie’s room carrying a small leather bag.

“Madam, are you ready?”

Elsie, dressed in outdoor clothes, took her hand firmly.

“Go carefully.”

Her farewell was not “Have a safe trip.”

“You said you wouldn’t take anything with you, madam.”

“Yeah. Because there’s nothing of mine here.”

“Is that so?”

At Nina’s tilting-head response, Elsie bit her thick lower lip.

The only thing she had held affection for—her paintings—had been engulfed in flames and vanished.

Then what remained was…

Elsie fiddled with the small jacket pocket. She had disposed of all other accessories, but this one thing she couldn’t bring herself to part with.

Only this ring, which Kaiden had given her when he proposed, saying it matched the color of her eyes exactly.

“Take this.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ve packed everything I need.”

Nina firmly held out the small, worn leather bag.

“You need money outside. Anywhere, anytime.”

And she pressed the bag firmly into Elsie’s hand.

“Whatever you do, madam, you’ll need at least this much.”

At her firm voice, Elsie couldn’t bring herself to meet her eyes and only nodded.

Actually, she was on her way to die. But she swallowed her words because she mustn’t let Nina, who cared for her this much, see her true feelings.

Unlike her, who had no hope, Nina seemed to be keeping impossible hope in mind, which made it even more so.

“…Thank you.”

“Not at all. Let’s go now. Follow me carefully.”

The two, holding their breath, slipped out of the room.

Following the path Nina had scouted in advance, they amazingly didn’t encounter a single servant.

When they emerged into the area where laundry hung in abundance, a shabby cart was visible in the distance.

Judging by the separate space that could be treated as a passenger compartment, it could perhaps be called a carriage.

“Parker.”

“Madam, this way.”

Parker stood before the carriage, clearly tense.

He opened the door to the compartment loaded with goods. The compartment, smelling of earth, was piled with gardening tools.

“I apologize. But I thought this would be best.”

“It’s fine.”

Parker bowed his head in apology. Elsie gently smiled at him.

She was deeply grateful that they had gone to such lengths.

“Madam, I hope you feel better on your outing.”

Nina offered her farewell toward the closed compartment. She never once said, “See you again.”

That was the same for Elsie.

—

The windowless carriage shook violently.

Her stomach churned to the point of nausea, but she covered her mouth with her hand and endured it.

Quite some time later, the carriage stopped and the compartment door opened. A train station in the city center spread out before her eyes.

“The train station is across the street. I hope you have a pleasant journey, madam.”

“Thank you for everything, Parker.”

Elsie quietly accepted his final greeting and stepped down from the carriage.

And slowly walked toward the train station.

‘Shall I go.’

After taking a deep breath, she moved her feet toward where Parker had told her. She didn’t know what to do or how, but for now, going there should be enough.

Awkwardly weaving through the crowd, Elsie entered the station.

So many people were moving busily that her vision grew dizzy.

‘How do I get to the east.’

When her father was alive, she rode in new-model cars. Sometimes she used splendid carriages.

Either way, Elsie had never gone anywhere alone.

No, in fact, she had hardly ever done anything alone.

Elsie walked toward a man in uniform with an uncertain look.

At her words that she was going east to see the sea, the employee offered to guide her to the ticket office.

“Thank you.”

“But I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere… Ah…!”

Tilting his brimmed hat askew upward, the man stared intently at Elsie.

Soon he parted his lips as if something had come to mind.

“Elsie Lesles, isn’t it? Lesles’s daughter.”

The man clicked his tongue. Disgust was plainly evident in his demeanor, and Elsie involuntarily flinched.

“Going to the east alone? Seems you’re off on a solo trip at this time of year.”

The once-kind man’s tone had flipped.

“I just… wanted to see the sea.”

“You’re still living that privileged life, how enviable.”

Elsie closed her mouth.

She knew well from experience that no matter what she said, the other person’s irritation would only grow.

“Haah, whatever. I’ll guide you anyway.”

The man moved his feet again.

“You can buy a ticket to Ernest from here. If you’re going to the eastern center, that station is the largest.”

The man who guided Elsie to the ticket office ended with a brief explanation, then coldly turned his back and returned to his original post.

After that, she barely managed to buy a ticket with the ticket clerk’s help.

She was poor at calculating money, so the clerk helped her, and at that moment her face burned hot with embarrassment.

“You just need to go to Gate 3. The train is waiting, so you can board right away.”

Elsie gave a light nod and headed for the gate.

And at that moment.

A familiar silhouette came into her view.

‘Kaiden?’

Surely not, it couldn’t be.

Her heart began to pound wildly. Elsie blinked her eyes and clarified her vision.

The man’s presence, standing out even among the crowd, was unmistakably Kaiden.

Had he already chased her all the way here?

She felt Kaiden approaching her. He wore a face as if he could snap someone’s neck in one go.

He was the one who had mercilessly slaughtered her father and the men who worked under him.

The baron who had managed her father’s private soldiers as head valet had also become dew when Kaiden pulled the trigger.

As such memories surfaced, a chill ran up her spine.

Hah, hah.

Gasping for breath, Elsie ran madly toward the gate.