AWLITEB Chapter 4

Once Rosalie finished the farewell and announced the Grand Duke's carriage had completely departed the area, everyone relaxed.

Isabella finally breathed properly.

That's when it happened.

Crack—

With a sharp sound, Isabella's body collapsed with a thud.

Martha.

Isabella held her struck cheek with a dazed expression.

Corporal punishment toward Isabella was common enough, but this was so sudden that even Rosalie and Ethan looked somewhat startled.

"What's wrong, Mother?"

"Is it because of that brooch from earlier?"

Ethan and Rosalie asked in succession, but Martha remained silent, looking down at Isabella before gesturing to Emma, a nearby maid.

Emma immediately approached and roughly hauled Isabella to her feet.

"You know what you did wrong."

Martha said, swinging and stretching the hand she'd used to strike Isabella's cheek.

"Mother, are you all right?"

Rosalie worried over Martha's hand.

Isabella had been hit so hard that her right ear felt muffled, and she couldn't properly hear Martha's words.

"Don't you know what you did wrong?"

Martha asked again, glaring at Isabella.

Isabella, using the keen instincts she'd honed since childhood, roughly understood what Martha meant.

"I—I know."

"Really? Then tell me."

Martha's tone remained refined despite the circumstances.

Isabella lowered the hand covering her cheek and opened her mouth, hands folded politely before her.

"Rosalie's brooch..."

Crack—

Martha's hand struck Isabella again.

Isabella swayed, but Emma gripped her firmly, preventing her from falling.

If she'd collapsed, she could have rested even for that brief moment.

"Say it again."

"I left the drawing room without prior consultation and didn't return for a long time..."

Crack—

Isabella was losing sensation in her cheek now. It throbbed and was already swelling badly.

"Say it again."

Martha was gradually losing her refinement.

Ethan dismissed all the nearby servants except Emma.

"..."

"I said say it again?"

"..."

"Can't you hear me?"

Martha grabbed Isabella's chin sharply.

Isabella's lips remained closed, and Martha struck her cheek again.

Crack—

This time even Emma couldn't hold Isabella up. Her body collapsed limply.

"When you first greeted His Grace, you were definitely barefoot. But when you disappeared and came back, you were wearing shoes. Something happened with the Grand Duke, didn't it?"

At Martha's words, Rosalie's eyes widened particularly large. The blush of love had vanished from her cheeks, now colored instead with jealousy and rage.

"What did you say, Mother?"

Rosalie asked in a trembling voice, while Ethan grinned as if he'd found good entertainment.

"You tell us, Isabella. Tell us where those shoes on your feet came from."

Emma perceptively yanked up Isabella's skirt.

The beige shoes Genos had given her were revealed before everyone's eyes.

Isabella remained collapsed, unable to say anything, and Rosalie, unable to contain her fury, approached and struck Isabella's cheeks wildly.

Isabella's head was driven completely into the ground.

"You insane b*tch! How dare you have a private conversation with His Grace?!"

"It—it wasn't like that. I just happened to be in difficulty, and he kindly helped me out of pity..."

"Of course His Grace would do that! You should have refused! Shouldn't you? Yes, now I see! You definitely didn't wear shoes on purpose. You must have been aiming for this situation, you cunning b*tch!"

As Rosalie shrieked and tried to grab Isabella's hair, Ethan caught Rosalie's shoulder and stopped her.

"What are you doing? Let go!"

"There are listening ears around. No need to spill blood here. We have a place made for situations like this."

Ethan looked at Isabella as he spoke.

Chills swept across Isabella's entire body.

Isabella knelt in the center of the underground dungeon. Back in her shabby dress and bare feet again.

Martha and Rosalie sat regally in chairs on one side of the prison, with Ethan standing beside them.

Before Isabella stood Emma and Gina. The maids who most enjoyed this kind of "unpleasant work."

They despised the basement terribly, yet always rushed forward eagerly when there was unpleasant work to be done.

They'd probably volunteered to come here today too, Isabella thought.

"You must be punished for daring to converse with His Grace behind our backs, mustn't you?"

Martha said.

"Of course, Mother. Beat her half to death. Enough that she'll barely recover by my wedding and can just barely show her face. We don't really need to bring her to the Imperial Ball anyway, do we? We can just make excuses that she's ill or something."

Rosalie spoke and nodded toward Emma and Gina.

And the beating began.

Whoosh, crack!

"Ugh...!"

Isabella gritted her teeth and held back her screams.

She'd learned on her first day adopted into this godforsaken family that screaming only meant worse beatings.

"Stop."

Martha said.

Emma and Gina stepped back, dripping with sweat, while Isabella gritted her teeth, tears streaming down her face.

"No matter what, never commit such rude and shameless acts again. Understand?"

"...Yes, Mother."

Isabella barely answered through ragged breaths.

Martha examined her as if assessing the truth of her answer, then rose to her feet as if the pain-twisted face was too unpleasant to look at.

"Let's go upstairs."

As Martha took the first step, Rosalie followed.

"If this happens again, just you wait. I'll marry you off to someone far more violent and uglier than that widower. Remember that."

Rosalie smiled brightly as she spat the words, then disappeared up the stairs.

Emma and Gina stepped back several paces, waiting for Ethan to leave first. Ethan pulled a silver coin from his pocket for each of them.

"Go upstairs."

"Pardon?"

Emma asked in confusion.

"I said go upstairs."

As Ethan held the coins closer, Gina quickly took hers and Emma's too, then pulled Emma's hand.

Once both had climbed the stairs and vanished, Ethan spoke.

"I thought I wouldn't get a chance like this for a while. I guess there's no law saying you have to die."

He breathed heavily. Already excited, he tilted his head back.

Isabella bit her lip watching him.

Ethan had a perversion.

Quietly, everyone in the great mansion knew this fact. And everyone knew that Isabella sometimes became a sacrifice for him.

"You've had a hard day too, so I'll go easy on you. Understand?"

"..."

"I'll take that as agreement."

Ethan grinned slowly and began walking.

Step. Step.

At the footsteps echoing through the underground prison, Isabella's body instinctively curled in on itself.

Isabella slowly struggled to sit up.

"Brother."

"Mm?"

Ethan smiled kindly.

"To—today, could you, just a little, forgive me?"

Ethan stared at Isabella quietly, then burst into loud laughter. He crouched before her and grabbed her chin.

"Do I look like I have compassion?"

"..."

Ethan's mouth stretched wider, his smile deepening.

The moment she felt her life threatened, Isabella shoved Ethan's body hard.

As Ethan tumbled backward, Isabella ran like mad and bolted up the stairs.

"You little...!"

Ethan immediately recovered and chased after her.

Isabella climbed all the stairs and quickly locked the padlock.

"You crazy b*tch! Open this!"

While Ethan shrieked and pounded on the door, Isabella ran for the mansion's entrance.

Soon the maids would hear Ethan's yelling and come running to stop Isabella's escape.

Isabella ran barefoot like a madwoman and passed through the estate's main gate.

Thanks to Martha dismissing all the guard knights for the Grand Duke's visit, Isabella escaped the mansion without hindrance and kept running.

The night road was dark and quiet.

Because it was the Day of the Witch's Birth, not a single pedestrian was visible.

Isabella hid briefly in a back alley far from the mansion. Her heart was trying to leap from her mouth.

After catching her breath for a while, her whole body finally began to hurt. Isabella couldn't even make a sound as she curled up. She felt like she might just die like this.

That's when it happened.

Thump—a large hand landed on Isabella's shoulder.

Isabella started and whipped around to find some drunk staring down at her with a sleazy grin.

"Hello there?"

The drunk was an old man with white hair.

Isabella rose slowly in confusion. Even this small movement felt like her whole body was splitting apart.

"Hard making money on the streets, isn't it?"

The drunk asked.

"I—I don't know what you mean."

Isabella stepped backward. She wanted to run away, but her body had frozen and she couldn't.

"Playing dumb, are we. Anyway, how about spending time with me tonight? It's the Day of the Witch's Birth, so there won't be anyone else but me anyway. Mm?"

The drunk giggled and reached toward Isabella.

Isabella instinctively swatted his hand away and shook her head.

"You've—misunderstood. I'm not a street woman."

"Who do you think you're fooling? Times are tough for men and women alike, so girls like you come crawling out. No need to be embarrassed..."

"I—I said I'm not that kind of person!"

Isabella shouted.

The moment her voice rose, the smile vanished from the drunk's face.

"This b*tch is getting cocky!"

The drunk's hand struck Isabella's cheek.

Isabella collapsed to the ground again as she had so many times today, and her already swollen cheek burned even more painfully.

"Acting above your station!"

The drunk shrieked and climbed on top of Isabella, strangling her.

Isabella choked and grabbed his forearms, but nothing changed.

Her vision gradually narrowed into white.

"Ugh... ugh!"

"Die, die! You filthy..."

A stream of vulgar curses followed.

The drunk's vile curses tore mercilessly through Isabella's mind.

Then the faces of Martha, Rosalie, Ethan appeared—Gina, Emma, and all the maids and butlers' contemptuous faces filled her head.

Wicked! Vicious! Cruel! Filthy! Ugly and useless...! The contemptuous epithets they'd hurled at her seemed to echo like hallucinations too.

Stop...

Isabella thought in agony.

The faces filling her mind hurt a thousand times worse than the suffocating pain.

Stop... please, disappear... disappear!

"Disappear!"

In that moment.

A blood-red light exploded from Isabella's hand like rose petals.

The light burst out like fireworks, striking the drunk's face and punching a hole right through the center.

The drunk collapsed beside her, blood pouring from the hole in his face.

Isabella recoiled in horror, shoving the drunk away and pressing her back flat against the wall.

As the drunk's blood flowed toward her, Isabella jumped up and pressed her back against the opposite wall.

After staring at the flowing blood for a long moment, Isabella looked dazedly back and forth between her hands and the drunk's corpse before shouting.

"...It worked!"

Isabella screamed and bounced up and down.

"Finally! My wish finally came true!"

Isabella stamped her feet wildly in celebration.

Her whole heart swelled hotly as if she owned the world. She didn't even hurt anymore.

"This is so good, so so goo—"

"Lady Isabella?"

Stop—

Isabella's frenzied dancing body froze.

Her head slowly turned, and there...

"Your... Your Grace."

Grand Duke Genos Perdian was standing there.