Chapter 27
"Where is that woman?"
Marsha's face lit up as she stood up, following Laszlo.
“She’s locked in the laundry room. I told her not to come out until all the work is finished.”
"What? Closed?"
“Otherwise, how am I supposed to punish her? She doesn’t even pretend to listen to my orders.”
Marsha's lips pout.
Without asking any further questions, Laszlo left the living room and headed towards the laundry room.
At that moment, the two maids who had been loitering near the hall exchanged glances and quickly approached Laszlo.
At the same time, Marsha screamed in a sharp voice.
"You two! How dare you obstruct the Count's path? The Count is busy, so move aside!"
However, despite the extreme tension, the two maids, Celia and Lila, stood firmly before Laszlo as if determined.
"Count! Edel is very ill! She hasn't eaten all day and has been locked in the laundry room! She has a high fever…!"
“Mrs. Bohen gave Edel an impossible amount of work! Edel had only asked for half a day off, but Mrs. Bohen refused…”
Marsha's eyes darkened upon discovering it.
“Look, Count? Just as I said. That woman is very cunning; she manipulated the naive laundry maids into becoming her followers.”
But Marsha's words no longer reached Laszlo.
"Is that woman sick?"
At this point, Celia and Lila approached Laszlo, as if clinging to hope.
“Her forehead was burning hot! Idil, who had never shown signs of distress before, couldn’t even hide it today and was gasping for breath.”
“If she continues to immerse herself in cold water in such a condition, something terrible will happen, Count!”
Laszlo hurried straight to the laundry room.
The door to the laundry room was closed with a long bar, and through the window, the inside of the laundry room appeared completely dark, without even a candlelight.
The laundry maids usually start work at around 8 am, now it's 7 pm.
"Could she have been imprisoned all this time?"
He quickly pulled the stick and opened the door.
It was so dark that he couldn't see much, but at least he knew that no one was doing the laundry.
"Bring an oil lamp!"
The servant, who had been loitering nearby, as if watching a scene, quickly brought an oil lamp at Laszlo's cry.
The scene inside the lamp-lit laundry room was as harsh as he had feared.
“Idel!”
Celia and Lila screamed loudly as they rushed towards Idil's collapsed body in front of Laszlo.
"Oh no! Idyll! Please wake up! Idyll!"
“Her whole body is on fire! Count, you will die like this!”
Laszlo, who had been staring with wide eyes, finally regained his senses at Lila's scream and approached Idil.
He placed his hand on her pale neck and was stunned. Despite lying on the cold, damp ground for a long time, her body was burning, just as they said, as if his hand would burn.
"Marco! Call Marco!"
Someone quickly brought Marco's driver, and Laszlo gave him an urgent order.
"Go to Maze Zone 3, 53 Beachley Street! Tell them it's on my request and bring the doctor immediately! Now!"
Without another word, Marco left, and ordered Laszlo Celia and Lila to take Edel to the guest room on the second floor and change her clothes into dry clothes.
Marsha watched the whole situation with a slight stunned expression.
'What on earth is the Count saying…?'
I noticed that Edel was ill. But was it so bad that she was going to collapse?
No, even if it were that bad, the servant could collapse while working, so why did Laszlo make such a fuss?
Marsha frowned unconsciously, annoyed by Laszlo's handling of the situation. It would have been better if Edel had stayed downstairs.
When Celia and Lila left with Idil, the atmosphere around Laszlo immediately became dangerous.
“Gather all the servants. I will give you five minutes.”
He spoke in a cold voice, as if he were about to cut off someone's head, then began walking back towards the hallway.
Marsha was shocked by the sudden change in the atmosphere, and all she could do was scream in panic.
"Everyone, assemble! Go to the hall! Now!"
The maids who followed her ran to the servants' quarters and knocked on the doors one after the other to summon the staff.
Fortunately, before Laszlo lost his patience, all the servants gathered in the hall.
Laszlo had never gathered all the servants together before, so everyone seemed puzzled.
"I…"
When Laszlo began to speak, a few quick-witted individuals realized that this was the right time to keep their breathing calm.
“I gave you a lot of freedom, confident that you would manage things well. But…”
The hallway was so silent that you felt as if you could hear eyes moving.
“You all seem to be very absorbed in your work, considering that you allowed someone to become a half-dead corpse.”
Someone swallowed audibly.
Laszlo's cold gaze swept over the servants and landed on Marsha, who was standing on the far left.
“Marsha.”
“Y-yes, Count.”
“Idle Lancaster… well, she’s not Lancaster anymore, is she? Anyway, what did you say about her situation?”
“Ah… you said she was a prisoner (slave).”
“A prisoner? No, that’s not all.”
Laszlo spoke slowly and menacingly, emphasizing every word.
"The prisoner whom His Imperial Majesty granted me. Do you understand what that means?"
“…”
"You've always boasted that you have relatives in the Imperial Palace and know most of the laws, haven't you?"
At that moment, the servants who hadn't sided with Marsha inwardly rejoiced. It was the day she had finally been caught, she who had always acted knowingly and looked down upon them with contempt.
On the other hand, Marsha felt the atmosphere changing in a direction she hadn't expected, so she froze to the point that she couldn't respond and bit her lip.
Laszlo looked at her and explained gently.
“If the emperor’s gift is damaged, it can be considered treason. That is why some people are deliberately given as gifts. Humans must die at some point, after all.”
Marshall raised her head, surprised by the word “betrayal”.
“What? But this is different, isn’t it? The Count told me to use her as a maid…!”
“I told you to use her as a servant, not to destroy her.”
"It's not my fault that she's sick, is it?"
Marsha continued arguing, her head filled with a sense of injustice. Her voice was full of resentment.
Laszlo could barely contain his anger.
“You locked up a sick person, and effectively sentenced her to death. Even if she had been healthy, it would have ended that way after she was trapped in the cold all day, so don’t pretend you don’t know. Unless you want to be treated the same way.”
Marsha's face turned gray.
Laszlo delivered the final blow.
“If that woman dies, under any circumstances, you will not be taken to the police, but to the Imperial Knights. What happens next is up to your imagination. If you don’t want that, you’d better pray for her recovery.”
Then he looked at the servants standing quietly, while fiddling with the ring on his right hand.
"You are all complicit, so keep your mouths shut."
The servants felt a chill run down their spines at that moment. The ring bore the emblem of the mercenary guild *Calliope*, indicating that if Lazlo so desired, the disappearance of a few individuals wouldn't be difficult.
When Laszlo left, the servants exchanged glances before silently dispersing. Only a stunned Marsha stood frozen in place.
"How did things get to this point?"
She did not even think to check how ill Idel was, so she did not expect her collapse, nor did she understand the hidden meaning behind the label “gift of the emperor,” which she rejected as being equivalent to a slave/prisoner.
But what shocked her most was the look in the eyes of Laszlo Criscis, whom she had previously considered an ignorant mercenary.
“This is bad. This man is not ignorant. He is only pretending to be.”
However, she didn't know how much he actually knew.
Marsha quickly did the math, remembering all the embezzlement she had committed.
“It’s impossible for him to know that I was withdrawing money. If he did, he wouldn’t let it slip away. So I’ll eat more and then disappear.”
As she was thinking about that, she saw Marco hurriedly escorting a man carrying a large medical bag to the second floor, and her eyes sank again.
It became clear to her that everything depended on Idil's survival.
* * *
"Yes…"
As her unclear consciousness gradually worsened, Idyll turned her head to the side.
She felt as though she had been unconscious for a long time, but she had no idea how much time had passed.