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LOS 64
The driver stepped on the accelerator with a hurried yet skillful touch to escape the swarm of tedious reporters. In an instant, the journalists and the hospital that had surrounded me receded into the distance via the rearview mirror.
We crossed through Holstein, the capital of Beldam. I gazed out the car window at the scenery of my home country, seeing it for the first time in my life.
As Giles had said, the landscape wasn't much different from Ipswin. Large and small buildings and plazas were distributed around a massive cathedral.
People walked the streets nonchalantly, as if they had never experienced a great war. I found myself wondering why there were so few traces of war to be found.
“It seems Holstein didn't suffer much damage.”
“The capital had to be the final stronghold. Beldam put a great deal of effort into protecting Holstein. In exchange, some cities had to be sacrificed to a certain extent.”
“Are there many cities that didn't survive?”
“To the point where the refugees who flocked to Holstein and its adjacent areas still haven't been able to return.”
I simply nodded. The situation in Beldam was clearly more disastrous than I had imagined. Then again, it wasn't surprising, given that they had lost not just any war, but a Great War.
It was no wonder they were so desperate to divert people's attention by playing the trump card of Giles Hessen. The price a defeated nation had to pay was substantial. If the desperate people began to point their fingers at the state one by one, it might not only be the Beldam nobility who fell.
While it would take time to restore destroyed buildings and people's lives, there would have been a definite need for a target to vent their anger upon in the meantime.
I wonder what Giles is doing right now. Is he in the capital too? Perhaps, at this very moment, is he collapsed and bleeding inside a cage?
The servants wouldn't know such things. The only person who could tell me something would be Arent, but it was uncertain whether he would answer readily if I asked.
Unable to bear the silence, I asked.
“What is your name?”
“I am Josef.”
“Josef, did my father visit Beldam often?”
“He visited several times before the war broke out, but most of those visits were for business. He preferred staying in Ipswin over the family estate in Beldam.”
“He's a nobleman of Beldam, so why did he settle in someone else's land?”
“I don't know much, but I believe he stayed there because it was a time when many companies and factories were moving to Ipswin.”
“It would have been better if he had visited Beldam more often. Then I might have been able to rest for a few days.”
Josef seemed not to understand what I meant. I kindly added for his benefit.
“My father beat me mercilessly. I needed some time to rest, too. The problem was that he didn't think so.”
“Uh...”
Both the driver and Josef could not hide their flustered expressions. Not knowing how to react, they only glanced at each other. I, finding it quite enjoyable to expose the Count's shames in front of the servants he had employed, spoke.
“Why? Wasn't this in the newspapers?”
“That... since we have always lived in Beldam, we aren't well-acquainted with the things that happened in Ipswin.”
“Still, you must know everything about me. A nurse gave me an outdated newspaper, and when I read it, they were openly blabbing about my life story. Don't tell me you haven't read it?”
There was no answer from Josef. He probably wasn't ignoring me, but rather truly had nothing to say.
I didn't want to be mean to the poor servant any longer, so I shut my mouth. Then again, what did he have to do with the Count? He was merely an employee.
“What I can tell you is... we are sincerely glad that you have returned, My Lady. As you know, most of the people who were the owners of the estate we managed have passed away. If a suitable heir hadn't appeared, the estate would have been put up for auction. We would have lost our jobs.”
“Come to think of it, who has been paying the salaries all this time?”
“Actually, we once filed a lawsuit because of that. Currently, it is being deducted from the assets the Count left behind.”
“That's good.”
I wasn't particularly curious about how much property had been inherited by me. It probably wasn't as much as one might think.
The House of Count Bismar was a noble family in decline. That was why they were so anxious to maintain the engagement with Duke Meier's house by any means. Furthermore, the Count had moved busily to find business ventures to revive the family.
Still, the assets that the madman couldn't take with him to the afterlife were now mine. I let out a scoff. Look, in the end, I won.
While those who tried to dry me up and kill me became corpses, I survived and took all their exclusives. Considering how much they had stolen from me, this was nothing.
The car was now driving out of the city. Josef said that although the Count owned a townhouse within the city, considering my situation of being the center of media attention, he decided to guide me to another hidden estate in the outskirts.
After passing through a dense forest for some time, he finally spoke.
“We have arrived.”
I leaned forward to look. An antique mansion, similar to the one built on the private land of Salzburg, was drawing closer.
As the car attempted to enter, someone opened the massive iron gates. Now we were inside the estate.
Despite it being a place where the owner hadn't visited for a very long time, it was a mansion that gave the illusion that someone was still living there.
The well-maintained garden and the extravagantly large tawny building were fitting for assets owned by a Count's family. I felt the illusion that I had returned to Ipswin. Coming here, I felt I could fully understand how steadfast the Count's tastes were.
I stepped out of the car. It felt strange to be treated as a noble lady while dressed in a plain blouse and skirt. A few servants had come outside to greet me.
Josef escorted me inside the mansion. Everything, from the main hall leading to two sets of stairs to the crystal chandeliers, was similar to the mansion in Salzburg. Although the Count was dead and gone... my mood was not particularly pleasant.
“You must be tired, so I will tell them to prepare bathwater.”
“It's fine. I can handle a bath on my own.”
“The maids will assist you.”
I also had memories of being served during baths by maids during the time I lived as Eloise. But I was no longer a noble lady. I was merely an heir who inherited property as a blood relative.
If I imitated that wretched Bismar family even slightly, I was sure I would feel nauseous first.
“I'm really fine. I'll handle it myself.”
Josef did not press me further. He simply informed me where the bathroom I was to use was located and then left.
I looked around the bathroom. Josef said no one had used it since the Countess last did, but perhaps thanks to the servants' steady maintenance, it was believable that someone had bathed here just yesterday.
Before taking off my clothes, I filled the tub with warm water. While I was checking the temperature with my hand, someone knocked on the bathroom door.
“Yes?”
“My Lady, do you truly not need assistance?”
From the sound of it, it seemed a maid had come up. Scratching the back of my head in awkwardness, I opened the door. A short, brown-haired maid was looking up at me, holding a basket of clothes.
“I told Josef I could do it myself.”
“No, well. I just couldn't believe it. What if Josef miscommunicated it to me? I mean, the Countess or Lady Elizabeth never once said they didn't need assistance.”
“That's because those people are nobles.”
The maid didn't seem to understand my words. Ah... who could fathom this feeling of having to explain everything from the beginning? I first let the maid into the bathroom.
The nameless maid began preparing for the bath with an expression that seemed to say, 'I knew I was right.' When she tried to undress me, I politely pushed her back.
“I'll take off my clothes myself.”
“But...”
“I'm a bit different from the group of nobles you've experienced until now. If one is an adult, they should know how to undress themselves.”
She looked confused, not knowing how to act. It was as if she were witnessing an employer behave this way for the first time in her life.
“What is your name?”
“It's Adele.”
“Adele, while you were dressing those people one by one, did you never think this? What era is this that they are still imitating the past and acting like high-and-mighty noble excellencies? The times have changed. The ones who hold real power now are the citizens. To ask for help dressing and undressing, the denial of reality should have a limit. Don't you agree?”
“You aren't speaking seriously, are you?”
“I am. I think the Countess wanted to go back into a cradle.”
Adele blinked a few times and then burst into a fit of giggles. She laughed so joyfully that I was almost surprised.
“My goodness, are you truly the Count's daughter who grew up in the same household? You haven't been swapped with someone else?”
“To be honest, that's half true and half false. I am also the daughter of a maid.”
“What?”
Throughout the process of washing my body, I poured everything out to Adele. From the fact that I was an illegitimate child, to the fact that I hadn't seen my father's face until I grew older, and that I was raised as a substitute for the escaped Elizabeth.
And I told her everything I had experienced after that. However, I subtly omitted the part where Giles appeared. I wasn't sure what Adele might think of him.
Adele sat by the bathtub, completely absorbed in my story.
“Is that true? That Lady Elizabeth ran away?”
“She said she didn't want to marry Duke Meier.”
“Then who on earth did she marry? To throw away a man of a Duke's standing?”
“The third son of some Baron...”
She gasped in disbelief and covered her mouth.
“That's impossible!”
“It might be possible. Since that bastard did such trashy things, she probably cast him out of her heart. I suffered too. That man openly tried to strip me and touch my breasts.”
“Most men are like that. Where is there a man who doesn't want to touch a woman he likes?”
“That's why the class system collapsed. They're just full of vanity; how are they any different from ordinary people? The way they want to swing their crotches is no different at all.”
Adele was surprised that such vulgar expressions poured from my mouth, yet she clapped her hands and laughed.
“My Lady!”
“My name is Anna. Not My Lady.”
“I should call you Lady Eloise.”
“Am I not the employer? Just call me Anna. I don't mind. I have absolutely no intention of imitating a noble.”
“Is that really okay?”
“I'm calling you just Adele, aren't I?”
“But...”
Adele eventually nodded. Now, she was no longer a maid I had to look down upon, but more like an equal friend.
In the first place, I was someone who didn't need a maid to serve me. I could do everything myself, from brushing my hair to dressing.
“I can't believe it.”
“What?”
“The stories that My Lady—no, Anna—told me are so different from what I read in the newspapers. The newspapers said Anna was an ordinary lady who lived happily in the Count's family.”
“Then those people made up lies.”
“Why would newspapers make up lies?”
“I don't know. I suppose it's because, in the end, provocative lies make more money than plain truths.”
“Then I can't trust newspapers from now on?”
“Just don't believe everything at face value.”
I truly thought so. Only after reading the articles about Giles and myself and gauging how much of the complete truth was in them did I realize it.
Whether it is truth or a lie does not matter. Truth is so subjective that even if it is a lie, if people want to believe it is the truth, it becomes the truth.
Even if there is an obvious truth, what use is it if no one wants to listen?
That is why people who want to tell the truth always have sore throats. Because they have to scream at the top of their lungs at a world that turns away.
However, I was fully prepared to do just that.
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