A Debt of Life
Yoanna’s fingers trembled.
“What did you just say, Lord Kallen?”
“It has become difficult to proceed with the engagement next year.”
Yoanna stared at him with icy eyes. Despite the frost in her gaze, Kallen Addis’s face remained perfectly calm.
“Why?”
“As I told you, it is a matter within the family.”
“So you’re asking to postpone the engagement ceremony?”
“Yes.”
Silence crashed down between them. Yoanna looked at her teacup, drowning in humiliation.
“How long must it be postponed?”
“It is difficult to give a definite timeline.”
The words were no different from a declaration that the engagement was over.
Yoanna was seized by a hollow sense of defeat.
“I believed everything had been proceeding smoothly. I never imagined you would end it so one-sidedly.”
“I apologize. I will compensate Your Highness fully for any harm caused.”
“Compensation?”
Yoanna rose from her seat with a scornful laugh.
“You have devoured my time and my reputation. When I return to the Yalden Kingdom, I will suffer unbearable shame.”
“I am sorry.”
“No, do not apologize, Lord Kallen. I have no intention of forgiving you anyway.”
“As you wish.”
The answer was utterly composed. Yoanna smiled as she fixed her eyes on him.
“You do not fear me at all. My anger must seem insignificant to you.”
I will make you regret this. Yoanna turned away, steeling her resolve.
How can I get revenge?
Was there not a good way? A truly effective way to wound Kallen…
Suddenly, she remembered her recent conversation with Canna.
A few days earlier, Isabel had come to her with a ridiculously childish request.
“Could you please ask Brother Kallen to lift my grounding? If the request comes from his fiancée, he’ll listen.”
It had been absurd.
At first Yoanna refused, but Isabel had cried and stubbornly insisted.
Then curiosity had stirred.
Kallen Addis, who granted every single one of Canna’s wishes. Just how far would he bend for a request from his own fiancée?
So she had gone looking for him. When she heard he was heading to Canna’s bedroom, she followed.
And there she had witnessed the chaos.
Kallen, deranged and bloodshot over his sister’s affairs.
When they arrived, Kallen and Orsini had left the room. For some reason Isabel had burst into tears and fled as well.
“No one—not even Mother—took my side, so how could Sister…”
She had left those words behind and run away.
That was how Yoanna ended up alone with Canna. Canna had served her tea.
She had not said much.
Yet from her face, her eyes, and the corners of her mouth, Yoanna had sensed a dry, barren desolation.
Once again, Yoanna realized the truth.
That woman is truly miserable in this mansion.
Kallen and Orsini’s bizarre obsession was devouring Canna alive.
If she used that Canna, could she not wound Kallen?
With that thought in mind, she had been walking down the corridor when she ran into Elfi. The maid had been resting because she felt unwell.
“Your Highness, you have returned?”
“Yes.”
Elfi was the maid who had accompanied her from home—a childhood companion who had served her like a friend.
“Elfi, my engagement has been broken.”
“Pardon?”
“It was terminated. Unilaterally.”
“Oh heavens… how could this happen?”
There was no strength in Elfi’s voice as she answered.
Only then did Yoanna notice something strange and studied her closely.
“Elfi? Are you still in a great deal of pain?”
“No, I’m all right. It’s just… my chest hurts a little…”
The very next instant, Elfi’s body crumbled like a sandcastle.
“Elfi!”
Yoanna rushed to support her collapsing maid and gasped in horror.
Her clothes were drenched in sweat!
“Elfi! Elfi, wake up!”
Elfi gasped for breath, her shoulders shaking violently. She clawed at her chest as though her heart were in agony.
The sight sent a wave of dread crashing over Yoanna.
Elfi’s mother had been her wet nurse. And the wet nurse had died exactly like this. Just as Elfi was now.
She had collapsed without warning, clutched her chest, and died on the spot.
Elfi might die the same way!
“A doctor! Bring a doctor at once!”
Several minutes later, a physician came hurrying in and began examining Elfi at once.
“Did this maid complain of chest pain?”
“Y-yes. She suddenly said her chest hurt.”
“I see.”
The doctor clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“I am sorry, Your Highness. This is a heart attack.”
“What?”
“There is nothing we can do. I regret—”
At that moment, a woman shoved the doctor aside and stepped forward.
“Miss Canna of the Addis family?”
Yoanna’s eyes widened. The woman who had pushed her way in was Canna.
Canna examined Elfi’s condition, then placed her fingers on the maid’s wrist to check her pulse.
“Acute myocardial infarction…”
She muttered under her breath, then took a small round container from her pocket. From it she lifted a long, needle-like instrument.
Yoanna recoiled at the sinister tool.
What did she intend to do with that long needle!
“What are you doing right now!”
A sharp voice rang out. It was Duchess Chloe Addis.
“Stop it at once, Canna!”
“If we leave her like this, she will die.”
“Have you forgotten what Kallen said the other day? I heard he ordered you not to intervene without explicit permission.”
Chloe panted as she looked down at the dying maid and shook her head.
“This is a critical patient. You have not received proper medical training. This is no place for you to interfere, Canna. Step aside and leave it to the professional physician.”
Canna ignored every word Chloe spoke. Instead of answering her, she turned her gaze to Yoanna.
The moment their eyes met, Yoanna’s shoulders trembled. Those eyes burned like black flames.
“Your Highness, what is your decision?”
“Pardon?”
“Will you leave your maid as she is? Or will you entrust her treatment to me?”
Yoanna’s thoughts tangled into a hopeless knot.
Treat her? With that strange needle?
While she hesitated, Chloe cut in again.
“Your Highness, please leave this to the Addis family physician. We cannot entrust the life of your precious maid to an amateur.”
Yoanna’s mind went blank.
Yes. Elfi was like a friend to her. She could not hand her over to an amateur.
But the Addis doctor had just said there was no way to save her…
Her decision was swift.
“Yes. Please treat my maid, Miss Canna of the Addis family.”
“You must not!”
Chloe recoiled in horror at the command.
“You must not, Your Highness! That girl is—”
“Be quiet!”
At Canna’s irritated shout, Chloe clamped her mouth shut. She glared at Canna with murderous eyes.
But Canna no longer spared her even a glance. In one fluid motion she flipped Elfi onto her front and tore open the maid’s top.
What on earth was she doing?
Why was she removing her clothes?
While Yoanna stood bewildered, Canna drove the long needle deep into the area around Elfi’s shoulder blade.
“W-what are you doing!”
That was not all. She took out another needle and plunged it into Elfi’s hand as well.
“What are you doing! Seize Canna at once!”
At Chloe’s cry the servants hesitantly grabbed Canna by the shoulders.
“Hurry and drag her away!”
The servants yanked Canna roughly at Chloe’s command.
“Your Highness!”
Restrained by their hands, Canna shouted.
“Look at your maid! She is dying before your eyes! Will you simply stand and watch?”
The words jolted Yoanna out of her daze.
Canna was right.
Elfi was dying, and the Addis physician had admitted he had no cure.
They had to do something—anything. Even if it was only a straw to clutch at.
“Release her this instant!”
At the princess’s command the servants froze. Chloe tried once more, her voice desperate.
“Your Highness, Canna has never received proper medical education! Moreover, recently Lord Kallen—”
“She is my maid, Duchess Addis!”
The declaration made it clear she would tolerate no further interference. Chloe finally fell silent.
Yoanna drew a deep breath and looked at Canna. Then she bowed at the waist.
“Please save my maid, Miss Canna of the Addis family.”
“I owe you a debt.”
That night.
Yoanna gazed down at Elfi, who now breathed in steady rhythm, and murmured softly.
“I have incurred a debt to the young lady.”
After a fierce struggle, Elfi’s breathing had finally returned to normal.
Yoanna was so relieved her legs still trembled.
She had nearly lost Elfi the same way she had lost her wet nurse. Without Canna, the maid would have died.
Yoanna glanced behind her. Canna sat resting on the sofa, her face exhausted.
She was an extraordinary woman. Yoanna could not forget the concentration Canna had displayed.
In that chaotic corridor.
Even while Chloe nagged beside her and the doctor kept insisting it must not be done, Canna had continued the treatment without a single falter in her breath.
The situation had been so urgent there had been no time to move to a proper location. They had only brought Elfi to this bedroom a short while ago.
It was a mysterious art of healing.
Why was such talent being allowed to rot inside these walls?
In the Yalden Kingdom she would have received the family’s full support and practiced as a physician.
Instead she was withering away beneath her brothers’ strange obsession.
She was a woman far too valuable to waste in the Addis family—in the Aslan Empire.
“I am someone who always repays her debts. Therefore, tell me what you desire. Whatever it may be, I will make it reality.”
Even as she spoke, Yoanna already knew what Canna would ask for.
Their eyes met. Canna smiled.
“Thank you for those words, Your Highness. What I desire is…”
At that same moment, Kallen Addis purchased a small island in the south.
It was a modest but beautiful resort.