The Peaceful Life Of A Maid Who Hides Her Power And Enjoys It - Chapter 150

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 150

He turned his back to me and walked away.

…Ah.

Is that how it is.

In the end, was it a relationship that couldn’t be salvaged?

‘I was thinking too optimistically.’

Now that I was being cast aside, my heart felt heavy and painful as if it had been hollowed out.

Should I not have said anything?

Should I have pretended not to know until the end? If I had, would Raphael have pretended to overlook it too? Could we have barely maintained this relationship and checked on each other’s well-being?

‘No, that would be a cowardly deal too.’

I can’t give up here.

This guilt was karma I had to bear. I didn’t want to pathetically shatter my relationship with Raphael out of fear of such a small amount of karma.

“…Wait.”

I had to clear up the misunderstanding.

“Wait! Just wait a moment, Raphael! Please listen to what I have to say!”

I rushed forward to chase after Raphael.

At that moment, the heel of my shoe broke.

The problem was running with steps unskilled in heels. By the time I realized it, it was already too late – my ankle twisted and my vision tilted sideways.

“Ugh.”

Reflexively, I reached out my hand to grab the bridge railing and tried to balance myself. The bridge crossing the waterway was installed for garden decoration, so low that it only reached knee height.

But the problem was that the hand I used to grab the railing was the one that had been caught by Raphael.

‘Huh?’

With a sharp pain, the wrist that should have supported my body weight went limp.

I tried to grab the railing with my other arm, but it was too late a judgment. Since the distance between the bridge support and the water surface was about two spans, I fell into the water before I could even extend my arm.

With the scene of Raphael turning his head as the last thing I saw, I was submerged in the waterway.

I was surprised by the unexpected situation, but that was all. I just needed to climb back up to land. I was a soldier and inspector who had rolled around battlefields for 10 years. This much was nothing. This much was….

But strangely, my body wouldn’t move.

This bone-piercing cold.

Was water originally this cold?

Even if it was near the end of autumn, this degree of cold didn’t make sense. The sensation in my fingertips and toes hardened like they were frostbitten. No matter how hard I struggled, my body, heavy as a mountain, couldn’t rise above the water surface.

My heart hurt.

I was weak.

‘…Right, the vessel was broken.’

When I cut down demons, I moved so well. But in truly urgent situations, I’m as worthless as paper.

It was the same during the oath. It seemed I had become particularly vulnerable to sudden changes affecting my body.

‘…I shouldn’t have threatened Lu not to interfere.’

At some moment when my consciousness was becoming hazy.

A strong force pulled my body up from the darkness.

“Gasp.”

While I was gasping for breath, heavy clothing wrapped around my upper body.

“Andert.”

A large hand reached out and swept back my disheveled hair.

Raphael’s face came into focus in my gradually clearing vision. The man continuously stroked my cheek with a face full of fear. Such an expression didn’t suit him.

“Andert, Andert.”

I could feel Raphael’s hand trembling faintly through my ice-cold skin. I was the one who almost died, yet it was as if Raphael was the one who had returned from the brink of life and death.

The fear he felt was transmitted completely through our touching skin.

Suddenly, I thought of Raphael who had to watch my final moments on Quin Island. The guilt Raphael must have felt that day would have been incomparably greater and more painful than the guilt I was feeling. I grasped Raphael’s hand as if to comfort him.

“Haa, haa… Calm down. It’s okay, I’m here.”

I didn’t die this time.

“I just fell into the water for a moment. Though I almost couldn’t get out forever.”

Only then did Raphael’s trembling subside.

I thought he had regained his composure, but I was wrong. The resentment that had accumulated layer by layer was pouring out from deep within his sunken eyes.

What Raphael was staring at blankly was the scar that emanated a vivid presence through the half-torn and stretched clothing.

I wondered why the dress I had struggled to put on was in such a state, but it seemed to be because Raphael had grabbed and pulled it with his hands just before dragging me up from the water.

“…Damn.”

He swallowed the curse and pulled the tattered fabric to cover the scar. I became worried seeing his noticeably unstable appearance.

“Raphael.”

“There’s no problem. Just for a moment… I just felt maddeningly pathetic.”

Raphael wrapped his uniform over the wet dress to cover the scar, then pulled me strongly into his arms.

As warm body heat was transmitted, relief came over me. My heart rate, which had been beating anxiously fast, also began to gradually slow down.

“Are you really Andert? Did you come back alive? Really?”

After resting my chin on his shoulder for a while and catching my breath, I slowly answered.

“Yes, it’s me.”

“How did you end up in such a state?”

“I didn’t end up in such a state. Cough, I was originally in such a state.”

Raphael maintained a brief silence as if trying to gauge the meaning behind my words.

Eventually, he stood up and entered the Imperial Palace while holding me. After walking here and there through maze-like corridors, he approached a man standing in the light and said.

“Weatherwax Baroness fell into the waterway. Please provide a room for rest.”

“The waterway? Oh my, to fall in on a day with weather like this. Please follow me.”

The chamberlain who confirmed my face dismissed the surrounding servants and quickly moved his steps.

“It’s an incident that often happens on banquet days. Still, it’s fortunate that Duke Jenail was nearby.”

The room the chamberlain guided us to was a drawing room so spacious it was sickening. As soon as Raphael seated me on the sofa, servants who emerged from the back door lit the fireplace and disappeared.

The chamberlain, who had drawn back all the blackout curtains and finally lit calm crimson lamps, looked back at Raphael.

“Your Grace….”

“Since my sister is new to the Imperial Palace, I will take good care of her and help her return home.”

“Understood. Then I’ll have people cleared from this area. Please rest well until you recover, Weatherwax Baroness.”

With warm milk placed on the table as the final touch, only Raphael and I remained in the drawing room.

Raphael opened the display case in the drawing room without hesitation and poured what looked like expensive liquor, handing it to me.

Alcohol again?

“I’ve been drinking sickeningly much today.”

Hearing my lament, Raphael furrowed one eyebrow instead of answering. I obediently emptied the glass and set it down on the table.

“Ugh.”

Was this such strong alcohol? It felt like a fireball had fallen down my throat, and my cold body began to heat up instantly.

‘It’s fortunate that after crossing the wall, I became a body that doesn’t get poisoned easily.’

Raphael filled the glass I had emptied with alcohol and poured it into his own mouth. Afterward, he shook the empty glass several times in the firelight before speaking.

“You must have something to tell me, Andert.”

That’s right.

Where should I start? First, I should probably point out the most definite error.

“I’m not Andert.”

However he received my opening words, Raphael’s expression hardened quite menacingly.

“You are….”

“No, no. Keep listening. That’s not what I meant. Andert isn’t my name, it’s the name of my sibling who I thought was dead.”

“Sibling?”

“Mephistopheles drove that child to death. I borrowed Andert’s name and body to avenge my sibling.”

I began the story of the past 14 years, long if you considered it long, short if you considered it short.

It was a memoir of past days that I had never once spoken of during the 10 years I spent with Raphael. Even as I spoke, I found myself amazed.

Such a long, such a difficult life could be summarized this briefly?

Such a wretched, such an absurd life could continue in this way?

‘What a damn ridiculous life. What if he doesn’t believe me?’

I was anxious about being branded a liar once again.

After much deliberation, I put down the uniform I had been covering myself with. I lowered the torn and stretched clothing around my shoulder area, revealing the small wounds scattered across my entire back.

“Here, see the wounds on my body? You’d recognize them. These are wounds from the Mage War. They weren’t there originally, but as my physical body broke down, they started appearing one by one…”

“Stop!”

It was a shout that could only be described as sudden. I looked back at him with hunched shoulders.

“What? Why, why are you acting like this?”

Raphael picked up the uniform coat and roughly covered my shoulders with it. Then he reproached me with eyes clearly showing displeasure.

“Are you insane? Exposing your body so carelessly in front of a man…”

“What nonsense are you spouting now? Do you think you and I have been living like strangers for 10 years?”

His hesitation was brief. A bitter smile appeared on Raphael’s lips.

“Ridiculous. Are you mocking me? That’s an answer that doesn’t suit your current situation at all, isn’t it?”

“…I fully understand your inability to trust me.”

“You ignored my request and died as you pleased.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize when you don’t mean it. If you truly cared about me, you wouldn’t have worked as a maid in Midwintry.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“And yet now you come saying you don’t have much time left to live, that your vessel is broken!”

Bang! The table shook violently from his slammed fist.

I caught the precariously swaying glass and placed it back on the table. Raphael generally shows little emotion. When he expressed anger this intensely, I deliberately said nothing. If I said the wrong thing, I could end up receiving a barrage of lectures.

Raphael, having quietly composed his anger, glared at me.

“Andert. No, Daisy Weatherwax. Are you really going to die?”

“Don’t say such unlucky things. I’m working hard to find a way to live.”

“Duke Jilhark won’t hand over the inheritance willingly.”

“I know. Just thinking about that man’s face makes my head feel stuffy. Cough, cough. …That aside, what happened with the demon that appeared at the hunting festival? The investigation?”

He crossed his arms, leaned back against the sofa, and snorted with an incredulous expression.

“You’re in that state and still asking such questions?”

“Because it’s connected to Natasha.”

After a brief silence, a much calmer answer came.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow morning. Instead, stay in this room with me tonight.”

Tomorrow morning.

“I appreciate the consideration, but that would be difficult. There’s someone waiting for me tonight.”

Without waiting for Raphael’s reaction, I stood up. My limbs were terribly stiff, but not to the point where I couldn’t move.

As I neatly folded his uniform and walked toward the door, Raphael called out to stop me.

“Andert.”

Raphael spoke while gazing at the quietly burning fireplace.

“If I told you not to go… would you not go to him?”

“…”

“If I said I would protect you, would you stay here?”

“No.”

I am no longer Andert.

Daisy, who was once a maid and is now the Weatherwax Baroness, has her own path. There are duties to be responsible for and people to protect.

And Lu, too.

“Thank you for not pushing me away, Raphael. I mean that sincerely. I still have many things to tell you… I’ll see you later.”

Click.

As I closed the door and came out, air as cold as early winter wrapped around my skin.

I continued walking like a drowned rat. I went down the stairs barefoot, stepped on the cold marble, and moved to the banquet hall.

The enormous hall where music never ceased. A man stood in front of that hall. It was Lu.

“You must have killed him, right?”

He approached in one step, embraced me, and whispered.

“Otherwise, there’s no forgiving this wretched state you’re in.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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