Chapter 8 - Spring blooms in winter's pavilion (7)

I had no choice but to be more desperate because I was afraid of him.

"Count Semond's wife gives me snacks if I'm tired, and Lady Shady, she's, uh, a year younger than I am, was cute."

It was heartbreaking to make up a lie, but it was nothing special.

Henriette might kick me out when he knows I have a tiny flaw. He also valued family honor in the original book.

But the more I talked, the more uncomfortable he seemed.

It was a bit of a waste there.

Wouldn't it sound a little unnatural to call her 'Miss Shady' while I were one year older than her? Maybe because she looked so loved and mature.

Even though I was beaten to death, I don't remember living in servitude. So I added one more thing.

"Shady, I've been chasing her around playing with her as a sister..."

I called her sister, she called me dog, she called me trash again and again.

Then, instead of listening to my story, Henriette suddenly rose from his seat.

"······."

He only looked at me for a while, then slowly said as he turned toward the door.

"When you're done eating, go back. As I said, no matter how hard the defenses are, there are always assassins, so don't confront them."

Is that really what you're gonna say to your own daughter?

Once again, I felt deeply regretful about the personality setting of the villain in my original novel, and ate up all the leftovers slowly.

After finishing the sandwich, I went straight back to my room.

Peina, who had been very excited for some reason, began to tell the other maids earlier.

"Well, my lord was worried about her! I thought he didn't care about her at all."

"That's a relief. But she's still his biological daughter, didn't he mind?"

"Oh, I've been worried a lot ····."

Sitting on the bed listening to the maids, I was puzzled.

Is that a concern? It sounded to me like "not to get in the way".

Anyway, I yawned satisfactorily patting my full stomach, lying on the bed.

The next morning, Henriette reportedly left for the Ecliptic again.

Maybe he has something to do? But this time, he's planning to come back earlier than last time.

In the meantime, my maids strangely began to take care of me more intensely.

Maybe because I ate and slept at dawn, I was full early at breakfast and they just handed out cookies for dessert, but Peina suddenly hugged me and said.

"Lady, you can do whatever you want from now on. Don't do any hard work here, just play as much as you want."

"That's right. Eat whatever you want!"

"You're fine with that. You're the most, no, precious person in our castle. Okay?

"Y, yes·····."

Thank you very much for saying that, but I'm more anxious to play as much as I want.

As I often heard from Countess Semond, I was about to feel like a "garbage" because I only eat, sleep, and play these days.

Even so, if I had to clean the room by myself, all the maids rushed in and blocked me.

Originally, I was prevented from cleaning or doing housework, but somehow I felt that the momentum became a little stronger.

What's wrong with you? I think I made a slip of the tongue yesterday.

It was an accident that was a little hard to understand with a child's brain.

"Young Miss, I'll go wash the blankets today. I'll bring you another snack later, so hang out alone for a while."

"Yes!"

While the maids were away to do their own things, I sneaked out on my own again.

If you want to hide from Henriette in the future, you need to figure out the castle structure.

If we avoid the wizard's workshop or places with ghosts, we would suddenly go outside as we did yesterday, and that would happen.

I won't let it happen again. And today I'm going to find the perfect place to hide.

First, the first destination was a glass greenhouse.

"Well, it look pretty today. "

There was no problem until I got out.

Thinking about what happened yesterday in the lake in the greenhouse, I was already nervous, but in fact, I had a purpose of coming here rather than looking for a place to hide.

I was wondering if the boy I saw yesterday was still in the greenhouse.

Reflecting on the seemingly different atmosphere from ordinary people, he moved more cautiously into the greenhouse than yesterday.

Then I stopped walking very quickly.

"What's this?"

I arrived near the spot where I met the boy yesterday, but when I saw it, the road to the lake was blocked.

When I saw a thin but hard glass film standing up, I patted it with my fist, but it didn't open or anything.

Someone left it like this. As her lips were about to pout in discontent, she saw a butterfly crossing her head.

"Ah,"

a group of black butterflies was rising under the ceiling of the glass greenhouse.

When the light touched, the black wings poured out reddish glitters to the surface.

Just like the color of the boy's eyes yesterday.

After watching it for a while, I was forced to go back to the castle.

"Tch. I'm going to find somewhere to hide."

Passing through the entrance of the road, I stepped into the main hall, pouting my lips.

Somehow I felt a little sorry. I wanted to get close to you.

In this life, I've never made a friend properly until this age, but I've also been able to see a child my age who treats me better for the first time.

Shady's friends used to come to visit me when I was at Count Semond, and they treated me like a maid.

Even if I try to shake off bad memories quickly, they stick to me and leave marks.

Thinking so, I suddenly felt strange and stopped while walking with my shoulders drooping.

"······? Hold on."

Originally, the first floor was supposed to be decorated with lavish statues or ornaments in a slightly brighter atmosphere.

But what I see now is a dark hallway, covered with dark blue wallpaper and gold carpet.

Only then did I turn back in a hurry, and the front door disappeared before I knew it, and only the stairs were spread out behind my back.

"·······."

The spine was chilling.

I forgot for a second, but this definitely happened yesterday. The wizard's workshop or ghost was not the problem.

I rushed downstairs to point out the railing.

This time, a very colorful hallway appeared, with ivory wallpaper, antique statues and masterpieces perched on every wall.

Above my head, the lights of the chandelier were overflowing. I've got my brows raised at this point.

Let's see, as I recall, this is a·······.

"········ the right hallway on the fifth floor."

The place where my room is located is the left hallway on the third floor.

Trying not to panic, I went down the stairs again.

There's something wrong with this.

I struggled down the stairs and came back to the floor where my room was.

However, there was another embarrassing scene where the third floor was supposed to be located.

This time, a corridor filled with luxurious red wallpaper appeared.

I sank for a moment in vain. This is the top floor of the castle, as I recall.

It just came to mind, this is the castle of the wizard.

The garden was opened as soon as I left the magic workshop yesterday, and even now. It was obvious that it was all due to Henriette's magic.

In other words, I am lost now.

"...*sniff, hiing …."

Thinking that I became a lost child alone in this wide castle made me cry.

Desperately trying to find a room, I began to wander alone, but the landscape of the hallway only changed every minute.

When I went up the stairs and saw a completely different hallway, I used to see a different hallway than where I had just been.

Oddly enough, not even a single servant was seen in the castle.

I don't think I can go back to my room forever.

When I thought of that, tears sprang up more, so I didn't even know where I was going anymore and just took a walk.

By the way, it was a weird magic.

I opened any room to find the servants first, and suddenly the wizard's workshop appears again.

I was scared that ghosts would talk like then, so I got out right away.

Some rooms were filled with jewels and precious objects, and some rooms were walls and ceilings full of mirrors.

Then, when I opened the white door at the end of the hall, a long corridor appeared this time.

The walls revealed between the columns were full of pictures. It was a spectacular place, decorated with gold or jewels.

"Sniff·····."

With a crying face, I looked inside hoping for people this time, but there were no signs of servants coming and going here either.

At the end of the corridor, I saw the door again, so I walked along the long corridor and looked at the painting decorated on every wall to stop the tears from flowing.

Most of them were portraits.

I wonder if it's the people of this family. None of them were smiling, with a cold, expressionless face.

Besides, because I was looking straight ahead, I was scared that the paintings seemed to be watching me.

A cold-eyed woman with red curly hair, or a short-haired man who closely resembles Henriette with a smiling but cold face.

And Henriette, who is not smiling at all in any picture. This is obviously his castle, but his portrait seemed to be few.

When I tried to walk fast, my legs were twisted and I kept stumbling.

Then I casually stopped walking in front of the largest painting on the end of the corridor.

It was the only painting that contained the face of a smiling person between expressionless and cold faces.

"…w, wow."

I looked at the painting for a long time without realizing it, forgetting what I cried for a moment or what scared me.

Inside the biggest painting was a family portrait.

Henriette, who looks more lively in this picture along with his three sons who look just like him and have beautiful pale faces. And

A woman with fresh light green eyes, with her long, curvy pink hair hanging under her shoulders.

Full of spring flowers, dressed up in a white dress, smiling like a little girl with an elegant face ·······.

'…if she were alive, she'd be very pleased. The fact that you're back in this castle ······.'

The story that Peina told me a while ago suddenly came to mind.

'You look just like your mother. Like you, your mother had hair that looked like the color of the summer rose.'

The beautiful woman in the painting was my biological mother, the hostess of this family who died seven years ago in the tragedy of the Duchy of Wensgrey.