Chapter 74
“You are learning quickly. This is the moment when you should look into your partner’s eyes. You are performing exceptionally well.”
“Ah… since the teacher is good, that’s normal.”
Idil smiled slightly.
Laszlo could feel his heartbeats becoming increasingly noticeable, so he took a deep breath and raised his hand that was holding Edel's.
Then Idil turned around smiling, as if a flower had blossomed, and moved away a little before turning back and circling him again.
'She is beautiful.'
Laszlo thought to himself unconsciously.
He used to think that the dance of the nobles was just a game for entertainment, but now he felt sad because the music was about to end.
The dance, which seemed destined to last forever, ended when the musician reached the last note.
Idil stepped back a step, removed her body which had been pressed against him, and naturally released his hand.
Does one feel this way when the butterfly that was sitting on one's hand flies away?
"I did well."
Laszlo snapped out of his reverie with a polite greeting from Edel.
"No need to thank me. It was very enjoyable."
Although Idell's cheek looked slightly red, she quickly turned away and turned her face towards Linnea.
“Miss, are you starting to understand the steps?”
Linnea, like Laszlo, was in a state of astonishment.
“Wow… she was amazing, Idil! And my brother danced well too! I was surprised!”
She clapped enthusiastically and ran towards Idil.
After that, Linnea's dancing skills improved a lot.
She was not as perfect or natural as Idil, but she was still better than she had been. She could follow Idil's movements in her mind and perform them well.
After the exercise was over, Linnea was returning to her room with Laszlo, but she had a dreamy expression on her face and then she whispered.
“She was like a princess… I’ve always imagined a princess twirling around in my imagination since I was little.”
If it had been at another time, Laszlo would have ridiculed her, but on that day, he could not help but agree with her words.
However, he felt embarrassed to talk about Idil, so he decided to change the subject abruptly.
“And you too were a princess in my eyes.”
"What…?"
Linnea opened her eyes in surprise; she had never heard such strange words from her brother before.
"What? Do I have to escort you to your room? Go now."
Laszlo realized his mistake too late, but he didn't even look at his sister and rushed into his room. No, he ran away!
Linnea stood in front of his room door, and after a long while, she burst out laughing.
“It seems I will live long enough to see this…”
She laughed softly, but her cheeks flushed with happiness. Her brother's sincere words and embarrassed expression were a moment she would never forget.
***
Adele was managing the entire Crissis family and preparing for the family's first party.
Even servants who had worked for other families were amazed by Idyll's skill, to the point that servants who worked in the palace were amazed every day.
“I didn’t know that Edel, who used to do the laundry with me, was someone like that.”
“We may have forgotten in the past, but Edel was a duchess, wasn’t she?”
Celia and Lila were thinking about who Idil was, and a sudden chill ran through them.
If the Lancaster family hadn't been destroyed, it would have been impossible for us to have any contact with someone like her. It would have been unrealistic to think that in the past we would have asked her to do our laundry and we only knew her name.
Daisy was in the same situation.
“Dad, I can no longer call Mrs. Edel ‘sister’. I don’t think we can call her by that name.”
“It is now clear that Mr. and even Miss Young are unable to move in the face of Mrs. Edel’s words.”
But everyone loved this change.
Laszlo, who did not usually appear at the palace, began to appear at the palace frequently, and even his face, which was always expressionless, began to show smiles from time to time.
The person who changed the most was Linnea, who sometimes lost her temper unbearably.
Linnea no longer bothered the servants or threw things violently. Her facial expressions became brighter, and sometimes she would laugh loudly.
“I don’t know how we lived before Mrs. Edel came. Those days have become blurred in my memory.”
“Oh, I don’t even want to remember! When I think about that wicked maid who was causing us trouble… Ah…”
Daisy, who had almost been accused of theft because of Marsha, nodded vigorously in agreement.
“God said he would punish the wicked, but I didn’t expect to see it happen before my eyes. It was her own trap that brought her to torment, and she deserved it.”
“Yes, that’s true. But let’s stop talking about that woman. Let’s try to be lucky.”
“That’s right! We don’t have time to talk about such negative things now.”
The warm family began talking about how delicious their dinner had been that evening. Quickly, the memory of Marsha Bohen faded from their minds.
***
But Marsha Bohen could never forget the Crisis or Edel families.
How could she forget? The mansion on Noble Street, which had been her dream, had vanished in an instant.
Not only that, but she had to sell almost everything to pay off her debts, and because she didn't have a letter of recommendation, it was difficult for her to find work, whether as a housekeeper or even as a regular maid.
Eventually, she managed to find a job as a washerwoman in a private laundry, but because of her previous habits of a life of luxury in Crisis, her daily life became an unbearable hell.
“Edel, that damned girl! Does she think she’ll stay young forever? Once she gets old, the Crisis family will abandon her! Her fate will be sealed! She’ll definitely be sold as a prostitute, what a wretch!”
Marsha, who had become extremely poor, cursed Idil every day. It was Laszlo who had expelled her, but it was Idil who had created those circumstances.
“If that girl hadn’t existed, I could have easily controlled that mercenary! That entire palace was mine! Ah, how wronged I feel!”
Her vanished fortune danced before her eyes every day. Each time, she felt hatred for Idil and couldn't bear to see her. She was always thinking of revenge.
At that moment, someone came looking for Marsha.
“Marsha Bohen?”
"Who are you? Why are you looking for me?"
“Talking to you won’t be anything bad, I just want to talk to you a little inside the carriage.”
"How can I believe that?"
Marsha was trembling like leaves in the wind, but she was watching the person coming.
He was wearing a hooded robe that covered everything under his eyes, so she couldn't tell, but from the shape of his eyes she could guess that he was very handsome.
However, his cold gray eyes, which looked very harsh, inspired a sense of awe.
“You were the head servant in the Crisis family, but you were fired, weren’t you?”
“How did you know that?! No, I’m innocent! This was all the work of that vile, caterpillar-like woman!”
“I am not here to punish you. In fact, I came to help you. Don’t you have a desire to take revenge on Count Crisis, who ruined your life?”
When Marsha heard the word "revenge," her eyes flashed. She stopped thinking about who this person was and gripped the hem of his robe tightly.
"Revenge? Do you mean I have a way to take revenge?"
When Edmund saw Marsha rushing towards him as if she had been waiting for this moment, he smiled slightly.
“Of course. It’s not difficult. All you have to do is sell me the information you have. And I will pay you a good price.”
When Marsha heard that she could earn money for the information she knew, her eyes widened in surprise. She was in a situation where she desperately needed the money.
"I'll sell it! I'll tell you everything I know!"
“I’m glad we understand each other so well.”
Edmund got into the carriage and began asking her about many things.
“You previously said that you were deceived by a ‘caterpillar-like woman’, who is that woman?”
“Edil! That woman who was the ruined wife of the Duke of Lancaster!”
“Aha, it seems that Edel Lancaster had a lot of power within the Crisis family, didn’t she?”
Marsha gritted her teeth angrily.
“She is just an ordinary woman, but she used her beauty to be taken advantage of. Although she was of noble birth, she abandoned her dignity and became the mistress of that mercenary. And then she used her power to expel me!”
Edmund was impressed by Marsha's description of the name she had given Laszlo, "that mercenary." He seemed to understand exactly what she was going through.
He nodded in understanding and asked her again.
"I understand. But were there reasons that compelled that woman to expel you?"
“She needed to control the Count family, and I was the only person in that family who discovered her sinister intentions! Do you know how clever and greedy that woman is?”
When Edmund recalled how everyone admired Edel Lancaster, his eyes widened slightly as he heard this explanation, which differed from what he had thought.