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24.
"Where is Zeppelin?"
Rebecca asked Robert ‌‌as she returned through the dog door of the Count's Mansion, brushing dust from her clothes.
Robert stood precisely at the appointed time in front of the dog door, waiting for her.
The moment he saw Rebecca's bright face, he exhaled a sigh of relief.
"The Count hasn't ‌‌‌‌returned yet. But please, I beg you—no more ‌‌‌‌reckless stunts like this. I feel as though my life has been ‌cut in half."
"I couldn't help it. He's far too important to entrust to anyone else. I'd never forgive myself if something went wrong."
"In any case, return to your room ‌‌quickly. Dinner will be served soon."
"Understood."
Robert glanced around before leading me into a secluded storage room. Inside lay a maid's ‌‌‌uniform, already prepared.
"You'll ‌‌need to change into these clothes first, then enter the mansion. As long as the head maid doesn't spot us, we have a chance."
Robert wiped his face.
I ‌‌‌quickly changed into the maid's uniform and pulled the hat ‌‌‌‌low, concealing my hair color completely.
"What are those flowers for?"
I asked, noticing the bouquet Robert held in one hand.
Robert spoke cautiously, surveying the surroundings.
"Insurance against unforeseen circumstances. Here, take this first."
Robert had me carry a tray with a teacup. Then we passed through the servants' entrance and into the mansion.
Fortunately, everyone was busy preparing dinner, so no one paid us much attention.
'Just up the stairs and we're home free...'
That's when someone blocked our path.
"Robert, I haven't ‌seen you in a while. Where ‌‌have you been?"
The voice was glacial.
Cold sweat trickled down Robert's back as he identified the speaker.
Grace stood before them in a black dress buttoned all the way to her neck, her gaze fixed upon us with quiet intensity.
Upon seeing Grace, I quickly lowered my face.
Grace was someone who wouldn't tolerate even a single picture frame being askew.
That's precisely why Zeppelin trusted her ‌most.
There was no way someone like Grace could fail to recognize me, regardless of the maid's uniform I wore.
Robert held up the flowers and spoke with composure.
"Ah, you had requested flowers, so I was in the garden retrieving them."
"I see. But this girl..."
Grace raised one eyebrow and swept her gaze across me rapidly.
Robert hastily blocked her line of sight and spoke urgently.
"I was on my way to ‌‌‌bring tea to your room."
Grace stared for a moment at my hands, which gripped the tray tightly.
Her pupils wavered briefly before ‌‌settling back into their characteristic coldness.
"I ‌‌‌see. We mustn't ‌‌‌‌keep the lady waiting."
Fortunately, Grace ‌‌‌seemed not to have noticed anything amiss.
Robert and I climbed the stairs, ‌releasing inward ‌‌‌‌sighs of relief.
"Oh, wait a moment."
At the voice calling them back, I held my breath for a second.
Robert turned his head toward Grace instead of me.
"Yes, sir?"
"While you're going up, tell the lady that Fabiola will be visiting tomorrow."
"Very well, sir."
Fabiola was coming? ‌‌
My face stiffened instantly.
My hands began to tremble.
Fabiola—merely hearing her name made my throat constrict.
Suddenly, terrible memories from the past surfaced, and I ‌‌clenched my teeth.
'I can't ‌let this happen. I need to accelerate the divorce plan as much as possible.'
* * *
Fabiola Devonshire. She was Zeppelin's mother and my mother-in-law.
Zeppelin had never particularly liked his mother.
Fabiola was an obedient ‌‌‌‌wife.
Whatever her patriarchal husband, Joachim Devonshire, ‌‌‌said, she bowed her ‌head.
She even forced her submissive attitude upon Zeppelin.
'You must listen well to Father to be a good son. You should uphold the Earl's authority, shouldn't you?'
Zeppelin despised such words from Fabiola with a passion. Yet he maintained basic ‌‌‌respect toward ‌‌‌‌his mother.
Except for his fanatical obedience to his father, Fabiola was a mother who loved her son dearly.
But everything changed after Zeppelin declared his intention to marry me.
At Zeppelin's confession, Joachim flew into a rage.
'Beautiful women are everywhere! You're trying to bind our family to some unknown house that's ‌‌rolled around who knows where! There's a princess in the Fortina Kingdom beautiful enough to satisfy your heart. Marry her instead!'
Fabiola, as always, took Joachim's side and came forward to persuade Zeppelin.
That was when Zeppelin's contempt for her began.
'I will have everything I desire. Anyone who stands in my ‌‌‌way will not be spared. Not even if they are my mother and ‌father.'
It was not long after that when Earl Joachim Devonshire died in a riding accident.
Fabiola instinctively knew ‌‌‌that her son had killed her husband.
But she was not particularly surprised.
Fabiola had long observed the sinister glint in Zeppelin's eyes whenever her husband disciplined him.
She had vaguely anticipated that one day Zeppelin would kill his father.
Thus, Fabiola's ‌obsession and fear, now without direction, naturally turned toward Zeppelin.
To such a Fabiola, I was merely a rival to be eliminated.
Zeppelin and I lived together with Fabiola at ‌‌the Count's Mansion for several years after our marriage.
The room she occupied was now the one Alicia inhabited.
During that time, Fabiola tormented me relentlessly.
Fearing Zeppelin's retaliation, she could not ‌‌harm me physically.
But she ceaselessly attacked me mentally.
Having endured a lifetime of suffering at her husband's hands, Fabiola was confident in tormenting others.
Rebecca endured Fabiola's torment without uttering a single complaint.
But there were no secrets in this mansion.
Eventually, word of Fabiola's misdeeds reached Zeppelin through the household staff.
And he banished her far away.
In truth, he merely sent her to a luxurious estate in the Capital, yet even that was enough to make Rebecca feel as though she could breathe freely again.
Fabiola had initially protested, but she soon grew content with the glittering life in the Capital.
I heard she threw parties every night.
Yet she occasionally visited the mansion without warning.
Of course, there was always a reason for her visits.
'Then this time, Alicia must be her target.'
Rebecca alone was troublesome enough, but now that Alicia had entered the picture, Fabiola would be anxious.
Fabiola lost sleep worrying that ‌‌‌her two daughters-in-law might persuade Zeppelin to cut off her allowance.
* * *
"Rebecca, just rest today."
Zeppelin sat on the edge of the bed and whispered softly. Despite arriving late last night, he showed not a trace of fatigue.
"But I heard your ‌‌mother is visiting today."
"The servants have been gossiping again, it seems. It doesn't matter. There's no reason for you to see that woman."
"Then, will you receive your mother?"
"Hardly. I ‌‌‌‌have another wife, don't I? Alicia."
Zeppelin spoke in a flat, detached tone, as though discussing someone else.
He lifted a strand of Rebecca's hair and brought it to his nose.
He exhaled deeply, as though intoxicated by the subtle fragrance clinging to her hair.
"Ah. I wish you would recover soon. Your arm ‌‌‌can move now, can't it?"
"It's still uncomfortable, though."
Watching the way Zeppelin gazed ‌‌at her as though he could devour her whole, Rebecca found ‌herself contemplating whether she should simply leap from the rooftop next time.
"Ah, that's right. I've prepared a gift for you."
"A ‌‌‌gift?"
"You'll see when we get there."
Zeppelin lifted Rebecca into his arms and strode out the door. The servants attending to ‌their duties froze, their eyes widening as they beheld their master and mistress.
They took in the sight of Rebecca, who lay in bed all day yet was impeccably groomed from head to toe.
They watched her ‌‌limp arms and legs dangle helplessly in his embrace.
She resembled a beautifully crafted marionette.
It was shameful.
She had even considered resisting.
But Rebecca chose instead to nestle quietly against him, like a lioness stalking her prey's weakness.
* * *
Zeppelin walked Rebecca to ‌‌‌‌the mansion entrance and ‌‌‌seated her in the wheelchair that awaited them.
"How is it? Comfortable, isn't it? You enjoy walks, after all. Your physician said it's not good to lie in bed for too long."
Rebecca gazed down coldly at the wheelchair adorned with various jewels. ‌‌‌
A long chain was attached to ‌‌‌‌‌the wheelchair. Its length extended precisely to the perimeter of the Garden.
'As expected.'
Zeppelin settled Rebecca into the wheelchair.
"It's a custom-made ‌‌‌wheelchair, one of a kind in the entire Empire. See these jewels embedded in it? Of course, they're not nearly as beautiful as you."
Rebecca gazed silently at the chain hanging beneath the wheelchair. Even the chain had been gilded in gold.
Zeppelin approached her and knelt on one ‌knee, bringing his eyes level with hers.
Then, with eyes brimming with rapture, he traced every contour of Rebecca's face bathed in ‌‌spring sunlight.
Rebecca regarded him ‌‌with an unreadable gaze.
'Those eyes I once loved....'
For a moment, her heart trembled with a chill.
Her heart had already shattered in Zeppelin's hands. Yet the fragments left behind in that distant past mercilessly pierced her still.
Zeppelin brushed back a strand of ‌‌her fallen hair behind her ear and spoke.
"All you need to do is ride in this, and you'll be free. You can go anywhere in the Estate."
'Free?'
That single word pulled Rebecca back from the sentimentality she was nearly drowning in.
He hadn't changed. He never would.
In that instant, I realized that no matter how many times I regressed, my end with him could only be destruction.
Sparks ignited in Rebecca's eyes. Now even the dregs of remaining emotion scattered into the void like broken grains of sand.
With a face frosted over by the depths of winter, Rebecca spoke.
"Do you truly believe I look happy?"
Rebecca's blue eyes had grown cold and hard as glacial ice.
Zeppelin rubbed his eyes, wondering if he'd misread her expression.
Fortunately, when Zeppelin lowered his hand from his eyes, Rebecca had already returned to being the gentle Countess.
'Just now....'
"My Lord!"
At that moment, a servant came rushing over breathlessly.
Zeppelin, ‌‌‌‌visibly irritated at having his rare time with Rebecca interrupted, demanded curtly.
"What ‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌is it?"
Upon seeing Zeppelin's menacing expression, the servant hesitated for a moment before continuing.
"F-Fabiola has arrived, my Lord."
"Damn the timing. Rebecca, let's go inside. There's nothing good about running into her."
Rebecca paused in thought, then shook her head.
"It's all right. I've received such a wonderful gift—I should fulfill my duties as a wife. I'll go see Mother."
The runaway Countess had returned.
E-book publication.

January 12, ‌‌‌2022
Author.

Long Night Sky
Author.

Desert Fox
Publisher.

Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd.
Submissions.

naver.me/54VzzLSn
Blog.

blog.naver.com/wj_fennecfox
Twitter.
‌‌
@wjt_fennecfox

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