Chapter 12: Hostess of Roam

“Maypool, Sylvinaire, Verlotte Rega, and….”

Andrew Harrison said, looking at Siegfried’s beautiful profile.

“It’s ……Kelbermes”

His finger wrapped around the trigger. Soon, bang! Harrison’s eardrums shook. It was a hit. Siegfried’s hand that gripped the revolver slowly fell, then Harrison took a deep breath and muttered.

“It’s a strong contraceptive.”

“Really?”

He spoke with a usual face. But Harrison read the cynicism in Siegfried’s raised lips.

“Yes.… It is strong enough to harm the body, but it is a certain contraceptive.”

“All right.”

Siegfried once again focused his gaze on the muzzle. Soon the second bullet hit the center of the target in the distance.

“Your Excellency.”

Siegfried turned to Harrison’s voice and looked at him.

“I think it would be better for your wife to use a separate room today.”

“…….”

“It is presumptuous, but to maximize the effectiveness of Kerbermes medicine it is necessary to avoid sexual contact for 24 hours after taking it….”

“Ah.”

Siegfried’s smile grew stronger.

“Then what happens if the opposite occurs?”

“On the contrary.”

Harrison’s neck felt a chill.

“Rather.”

When he didn’t respond well, his blue eyes scanned Harrison’s eyes. Harrison said in a hurry.

“…It will have the result of engraving the mark of the man on the woman’s body. Because it is when she is at her weakest…. Of course, the drug works, but as a result….”

A low laughter was heard. The sound of laughter was unexpectedly cheerful, and Harrison shivered.

“Harrison.”

Siegfried said, looking at Harrison.

“I want a cigar.”

“Yes.”

Harrison quickly pulled an iron case out of his neat jacket and handed the cigar to Siegfried. Then he pulled out a well-faded oil lighter from his inner pocket and ignited it.

At the same time, a strong flame broke out and the cigar burned at the end, and the lighter disappeared again into Harrison’s inner pocket.

[T/N: below two Paras are from Harrison’s pov]

It was said that the oil from the lighter would ruin the flavor of the cigar, but he was reluctant to use a match, saying it was a hassle.

Once accustomed to the work of his master, his aristocratic appearance and seemingly petty taste sprung out, reminding him of how wild this man’s temper was at times.

***

“Milena!”

Jane visited me one more time before dinner. Standing at the door, she had the face of a child caught stealing candy in secret. Her voice, asking for forgiveness, continued.

“I was really tactless.”

“Pardon?”

“I can understand why Milena doesn’t play with me. Ugh, how stupid I was.”

She said while shaking her head. She seemed to be talking about closing the door in front of me earlier, saying she wanted to rest.

“You were going on a date with my brother, but I didn’t even know that!”

“Ah…”

A date. Jane seemed to have the ability to make ordinary words sound strange. The words that flew out of her lips always struck me as unfamiliar.

“I’m sorry for interrupting. Because my brother was more generous to Milena than usual, if he had taken me along, I wouldn’t have been able to raise my head in front of Milena right now! I just thought it’d be nice to go out together…. Are you mad?”

She looked at me with her flamboyant eyes, hoping that I was not mad. She had a face that would have made me forgive Jane even if I was really angry for what she said. Her eyes asking for mercy were innocent, and her strained lower lip was curled in a lovely way.

“Not at all.”

At my words, she let out a small exclamation and rejoiced. When she asked if she could come in for a moment, I nodded and let her in.

I sat down at the tea table listening to her usual chatter. If this voice had been in the quiet carriage, I think that the outing would have been a more peaceful memory. As soon as I sat down, I felt cold as I tried to arrange the hem of my dress.

It was because of the teapot sitting on the table.

“Ugh, the scent is bitter!”

Jane lifted the lid of the teapot and tried to smell it, but she frowned right away.

“How does Milena drink this? Ugh, I respect your taste, but it’s not my cup of tea.”

“Neither mine.”

I murmured while looking at the medicinal ingredients in the filter net that gave out blood-like red flakes.

“…it’s my first time drinking it today.”

I took the lid of the teapot from Jane’s hand, who was looking at me, and put it back where it was. The ugly medicinal material that appeared was covered in darkness and disappeared.

“It’s a scent that I don’t want to enjoy often.”

I smiled at her looking at me.

.

.

.

.

I drank a lot of wine at dinner to erase the bitter taste of tea. Roam’s cooking was as wonderful as ever. The well-roasted lamb with fresh vegetables, tender sea bass, a number of dishes centered around them glistened under the chandelier light. Gorgeous cutlery was arranged neatly on the side of the tray, and each one of them seemed like a work of art to simply call mere cutlery for a dining table.

The candles on the silver candlestick, which attracted attention with their delicate craftsmanship, burned beautifully, and the sound of Jane’s chatter filled the dining hall. Trying to find something that didn’t sparkle here, I met eyes with the Phoenix decoration on the ladle for the soup.

‘Who the hell uses rubies for ladle decorations?’

I looked into the Phoenix’s ruby eyes and drank another glass of wine. Jane begged her brother to hold a ball for her one day in Roam, and persistently asked when her debutante would come.

Jane had not made her debut until now when she was 19 years old because of her health.

“How wonderful it would be if people came to Roam’s beautiful mansion! Yes? Milena, please ask my brother. Wouldn’t it be too bad to keep this place to ourselves? It’s too big for three people.”

Jane looked at me with her hands clasped together, and Siegfried’s eyes also turned to me. I, who was having a staring contest with the Phoenix at the head of the ladle until just now, looked at the two and was surprised by the unexpected focus of attention.

Jane, who asked me to be on her side, and his eyes which asked me what I would do, looking at them I took a sip of the wine.

“…I’ll try.”

“Not under my roof.”

Siegfried answered coldly, then turned his head and fixed his eyes on the food.

My shoulders trembled at the coercive answer.

Did my opinion not matter to him in the first place?

He bought me jewelry, but he only did that as a favor after threatening not to allow me to leave. It wasn’t really my opinion.

I thought we had a deal, but after all, he and I were not on equal footing. I suddenly felt it.

I devoted myself to this mansion, and I thought I was recognized a little, but it was my own illusion. It was just the suffocating pride of the prey.

I wasn’t a useful spouse, I was only recognized as a useful tool.

Of course, there was no place for my opinion in this mansion.

With a sullen face, Jane dropped her shoulders and poured her anger on the lamb who became today’s dinner. The knife of anger seemed to be capable of cracking not only the soft, well-cooked flesh of the lamb but also the plate.

Of course, in reality, her fragile two hands were not enough to do that.

“This ball….”

I spoke to Siegfried. As his eyes turned to me, the accumulated alcohol went straight to my head. I kept drinking it because it smelled good, but the wine seemed to have been quite strong.

“I can open it without difficulty.”

As the hostess of Roam, I swallowed the words. The lips that were forcibly moved, trembled.

“That’s right!” Jane’s gaze, who had raised her voice, moved once again from Siegfried to me. The playfulness faded from her face.

“I mean, it’s not that I don’t really know how to do that.”

I felt strange. Perhaps because of the alcohol, the words that I had only thought about came out of my mouth without going through calculations.

I couldn’t understand why I felt so insignificant when I claimed that my efforts could benefit Roam..

“I know.”

Siegfried’s answer was neat and cold.

“You’ve been working on this for the last two years, so you know it.”

“…….”

“Still.”

His delicate hands cut the lamb’s skin slowly and gracefully. The splendidly sparkling knife looked particularly sharp.

“Not under my roof. In Roam.”

The tip of the fork stabbed slowly into the lamb.

“Because I can’t be sure I won’t ruin Jane’s debutante.”

Blood spurted over the three clear holes in the meat surface. Then the blue eyes swept over me.

Seeing Jane’s incomprehensible gaze, I put down my fork and knife and quietly headed upstairs.

“You’ve been working so hard on social activities, so you can catch the eye of another bastard, didn’t you?”

Control wrapped in obsession was just an extension of a secret deal wrapped in affection. I had lost my appetite thinking that the jewellery I received today was only a price for this. Really, I hate arrogant men.

“Madam, if you need anything.”

“I don’t feel well.”

I walked past the crowd of maids and looked at the daunting door before me. And I stood there for a while. I wanted to slam the door and bury my head in the bed, but I didn’t even have a room where I could do that. Even the bed sheets smelt of Siegfried.

My gaze turned to where the room was. The room. Even though I was married, sometimes I felt like I was a guest in Roam.

The feeling of being completely alone in this luxurious and spacious place always penetrated into this silence and left a scar. It made me look small. I took a deep breath and tried to move towards the room.

Then I heard footsteps behind my back. I was afraid to look back at the sound of the maids stepping aside.

“Open it.”

I flinched at the command of the arrogant voice. The maid stepped and opened the tightly closed door wide. Soon the sound of neat steps passed by me.

What if I walked in there? He might try to convince me. Or maybe he would talk about my unrequited love that didn’t even exist like he did in the restaurant. He might hug me again, lay me on the bed, and then do what he wanted.

According to his temperament.

He would try to control and handle me as a tool.

“Come here.”

He said kindly. reaching out to me. His voice was much softer, but in the end, it was no different from what he did to the maids earlier in terms of orders.

I said, looking into his blue eyes.

“I don’t want to.”

“…….”

“Even if you fill the cart full of jewels and scatter them at my feet.”

I didn’t know.

“I don’t want to.”

I lived obediently as Roam’s hostess for two years.

He said he knew he didn’t want children. I stayed up all night practicing because I didn’t want to be looked down on because of the things I saw for the first time.

I didn’t want to look shabby when I showed up at a ball without my husband, so I tried to grind my bones so that I could not be ignored by anyone.

Not only did I learn a language that I didn’t know, but I worked hard enough to acquire specialized knowledge from it, and healing techniques blossomed at my fingertips. I raised the child he had neglected with my own hands.

I became his sister’s companion.

The price I had to pay to live was big, and I tried to be a competent person. Carrying the heavy name of Roam on my back, I stood in my place.

“I am the hostess of Roam.”

So, I receive a nice leash for Roam in recompense for such a worthy sin.

“Not your dog.”

I refused to give up.

If what he wanted was a deal, I would have to re-examine the terms of the contract.

I couldn’t live with my husband who treated me in this manner.

It wasn’t reckless.

But.

I was convinced that I was useful to him enough to have him follow me here.

It had been two years since I confirmed that, and I was speechless.