“What if someone takes care of our debt and saves us? A very powerful and strong person.”
Freckles’ fairytale words were utterances that she would have laughed at in the past. But now, those very same words lit a fire in Elisha’s heart.
‘After all, I can’t get out of here, even if I die and rise from the dead, again.’
Elisha touched her neck where there was a small tattoo. It was a seal indicating that the Duke of Cartier owned her. As long as this existed, she would be followed to the ends of the earth.
Elisha once saw the end of a collateral caught running away when she was 16 years old. Two years after she ran away, she was eventually caught again.
‘Oh, no. I’m scared… … .’
She had never seen such a terrible and cruel death before or since. Several times she had nightmares.
‘What was my debt before I died? I had a lot, but… … . there was no way to pay it back.’
It was only a form of slavery, with the excuse of owing the people of the Cartier family. However, that form alone was enough to crush and destroy a person’s life. Elisha earned 100 gold coins a month, working as a secretary and aide to Jacob.
It was a huge salary, but…… It didn’t matter anyway. Since she had never really been paid the money with the intention of writing off the debt, it was outrageously not enough to get rid of her debt of 30,000 gold coins.
‘In the end, it’s money. Even if I’m the Countess… … . .in the end, without any money, you can easily become a slave,’
All of the women who became collaterals met bad ends. Even Elisha, who worked harder and suffered more than the other collaterals in her past life was met with a miserable dog-like death similarly to the others –who at least in the meantime did not die by struggling like her.
‘Will I end up living like that in this life, too?’
Becoming Jacob’s lackey would prolong her life by several years. But it didn’t mean anything.
Elisha bit her lips. There was nothing different from her previous life.
‘But now…….. I know some of the secrets and information of this family.’
Anyone interested in the duchy would covet her information. In her previous life, Elisha had considerable insights into the hidden secrets of the Cartier family.
‘I need to find a person who has a grudge against Jacob…. a person who has the considerable power to deal with him…. and a person who will pay him my ransom of 30,000 gold coins… … ,’
The answer was obvious.
‘Besides……. Lucerne is the only one inside the family who didn’t screw with me in my previous life.”
Elisha recalled Lucerne’s face.
‘Can I persuade that man?’
Elisha’s stomach twisted and turned as she recalled Lucerne’s reputation. There was a reason people were afraid of him.
‘But he is known as a person who was fond of his subordinates and would reward them. What if I begged him to use the information I got in my last life as a bait?’
Lucerne had trained famous knights, regardless of their status or gender. The Knights of the Black Lion under Lucerne were celebrated throughout the empire.
‘Because he was also considered as someone of low-status.’
Elisha swept her hair to the side, trying to organize her thoughts,
‘The information I have is explosive……. it will set off all the battles of this family’s war of succession for the head of the household. Maybe such knowledge could turn that man into a family heir. If I persuade him easily, I could even make him pay my debt…’
Elisha breathed evenly.
The only problem was just……
‘That man is dangerous. He is a man who makes plans to smash his family by joining the imperial family’s side just because he can’t be the Duke.’
However, no matter how many times she thought about it, there was no other way. If she didn’t want to die in debt like this, she had to throw herself onto Lucerne; there was no other way… … .
‘In the end, if Jacob will still be alive, I’ll never be able to escape him—instead, I have to approach his enemy and archrival.’
***
“Are you really okay? In the last few days, you keep writing things down… … . . Huh, what is this, did you even sketch a maze garden?”
In just a few days with a short pencil, Elisha wrote down so much in a notebook that there was barely any room left. If one looked at it closely, indeed, it looked like a map of a labyrinth. Elisha closed the notebook and hid it.
“Lottie.”
She remembered. Freckles’ real name was Lottie.
“Hm?”
“If you seduce someone, you’re not selfish. He doesn’t take responsibility for women; he is just an inactive coward. In the past, I thought you were foolish, but now I know you’re one of us who tried to escape this horrible situation.”
Elisha knew the future of Freckles, Lottie. Always on the prowl for new women, she would seduce Jacob. Lottie would become Jacob’s girlfriend and would finally leave this small villa.
‘It was a long time ago that we were close. Don’t pretend you know me, I’m ashamed to have known you.’
Some people change with the tide of hardship. Lottie was such a person. Once Lottie became a favorite of Jacob, she pretended not to know Elisha and laughed at her, who had become ugly.
‘I understand. At that time, I was a shabby pathetic woman who covered my whole body with a cloak and only looked for protective shade amidst the hardship I was going through.’
Due to gastritis, Elisha, in her previous life, could not eat properly. Her face was increasingly dull like a corpse. She had always lived in anxiety, barely holding to her nerves. Her expression looked as cold as ice, and there was no smile.
Jacob called Elisha a witch. Later, following Jacob’s example, everyone called Elisha, the Witch.
‘You must’ve been looking down at me like that because you started eating good food and wearing fancy clothes.’
But it was all meaningless.
Lottie lived just like that for a three mere months when she was living within Carola’s grasp, and one day, Carola tightened her grip on Lottie, and she died as food for wild dogs.
No matter how many women there were, Carola was the only wife Jacob had, and no one could match her, who was armed with her narcissism, her crazy bitch-like madness, and wealthy parents.
‘Yes, in the end, no one gets away.’
Still, Elisha was saddened by Lottie’s death. That was her last memory of her before her untimely death.
“Do you understand? Remember what I told you—If I disappear one day, you can take all my stuff. I secretly collect some silver coins. Under my bed, there’s an empty space beneath the floorboard. Take it.”
It seemed like turning back time also got her spirit to return to what it was like in the past.
Before her demise, Elisha was always on the verge of dying, invariably numb to emotions– let alone compassion or sympathy. However, after turning back in time, Elisha’s personality returned to its moral, empathic, and ordinary state; additionally with her regression came calmness and maturity.
“What is it? You are acting like someone who will die tomorrow.”
With just those words, Elisha turned her head. This favour was all she could do for her.
‘Tonight, let’s approach Lucerne.’
Luckily, there was little sewing work. Elisha quit working early, feeling her eyes blur. She waited for everyone to fall asleep without wrapping herself in a blanket and waited for the dawn to come.
***
It was dawn when everyone went to bed.
Elisha carefully rose from her bed.
All-night castle was what they called the Cartier family’s main residence. They lead a life twice as long as other people.
This was because the permanently shining spirit light stone, which did not turn off even at night, illuminated the entire mansion.
It was a mercy that was not given to the small separate building, where the lowest-class of indentured servants like Elisha lived. Elisha pulled out her candlestick from under the bed.
The girls in the same room as Elisha were silently asleep. Occasionally, only someone’s snoring occurred.
Elisha couldn’t even afford to change clothes. It would make a big commotion. It was a big deal when someone woke up to someone’s noise, which usually stirred the others up. Elisha wore Lucerne’s cloak upon her shoulders. She was planning on using the excuse of returning his cloak as an excuse to speak to Lucerne.
Elisha stood outside the room, wearing pajamas under her cloak.
She only took the pages she needed, and the notebook documenting memories of her past life were thrown into the wall stove, consumed by fire.
Tiptoeing, she reached the annex entrance, which was locked outside with a triple lock, where even a rat could not escape.
‘If my memory is correct… … .’
Elisha gained the knowledge of many secrets while working in the mansion of the Cartier family, and that included the buildings on their estate. The same was true of the structure of the annex.
‘I heard that Lucerne always stays in the room where he grew up when he comes to the estate.’
It was said that Lucerne had been treated poorly as a child and grew up in a room near the shabby stairs.
One day, Jacob’s now-deceased father visited Lucerne one day, saying that he would fix Lucerne’s habits, and locked him in the room for days.
Even now, when he was an established and proven military commander with an esteemed status, he stayed only in that room. And it was like that in the future.
‘Lucerne, are you staying there to protest me?’
There was a time when the head of the Cartier family went berserk and shouted at Lucerne out of anger right before he collapsed. The uproar was quite a big event, so she knew where he stayed.
The problem was that Elisha couldn’t just walk and knock on the door just because she knew about Lucerne’s location.
Lucerne… … . was an illegitimate child, but he was a Cartier. In the Cartier world, beings like Elisha were ones who could easily lose their tongues just by uttering a mistake to Lucerne. That was his status in the Cartier family.
‘If Lucerne kills me tonight… … . . He’ll have to pay Jacob compensation.’
Perhaps Lucerne would not be charged with murder but for hurting his cousin’s property.
‘I still have to do it.’
Elisha thought calmly.
‘If I miss this opportunity to sell him the information, he will also end up regretting it.’
The Cartier family was a gold-crazy family that would do whatever it took to make money. In their determination to distribute and sell all the goods around the world, Elisha learned a lot.
‘The Cartier family is a merchant family. I learned a little from them.’
A good merchant knew how to sell even if they had nothing. A dance between fraud and gain with a silver tongue. Elisha learned how to speak like a merchant.
She killed the noise of her footsteps and went up the stairs of the second-floor hall.
‘Please, let my memory be correct, please be here… … .’
Just above the stairs on the second floor, there was a huge painting over the living space. Elisha illuminated it with a candle.
The white snakes were twisted like lustful human bodies.
Then, there was a black serpent in the middle, twice as long and twice as big as the other snakes. Its mouth was spread wide, its fangs shown and its head raised as if ready to strike and eat the other snakes.
The title of that one was ‘Head*’. (As in head of the household)
‘Did you know? Ghosts live in this mansion. You can hear the sounds of ghosts roaming, stomping beyond the wall.’
During the first day of arriving here, the girl who showed her around told her this. A long time ago, this shabby villa was said to be the place where a most beloved wife committed suicide.
Elisha, in the past, didn’t know the rumors or what this painting meant. But now Elisha knew the secret; she tapped the black snake.
Creak
, a very small sound was heard beyond the picture. Elisha sighed. After this, she had to be more careful… … . Elisha pushed the image.
Then there was an open black space, a hidden secret passage.
‘There, there. I remembered it right’.
Elisha quickly leaned into the narrow passage and entered. Soon the aisle door was closed.
The long narrow passage was like the inside of an endless serpent. Elisha slowly lit the surroundings with her candlelight. There was a smell of damp water and something rancid.
‘Why, and who made this secret passage?’
Even though the future Elisha accidentally found the secret passage in the mansion, the question was not resolved at that time or now. But the answer was easy to imagine.
‘Because this is an ancient mansion… … ,’
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Some nobles made escape passages in case of emergency. It was said that there were many secret passages that were transmitted only through the mouths of the heads of the household. Because they were transmitted so secretly, many secret passages were forgotten by the owner.
Elisha walked carefully through the dark aisle, holding the hem of her pajamas and wearing a cape on her shoulder.
In her previous life, Elisha trembled every time she walked through this passage, but today, Elisha did not. She walked this passageway as though she was very familiar with it.