MHHC Chapter 4

The Funeral

It was Greta who had come down the stairs. Adelheid reflexively showed a welcoming expression, then looked up toward the stairs with a start. If the maids knew she had been standing here, they might think she had been intentionally eavesdropping.

Seeing this, Greta smiled slightly despite her tired face.

"The girls who were gathered up there scattered when I approached."

"Did they?"

"What are you doing here? Starting tomorrow you'll be frantically busy receiving mourners, so why aren't you going to rest?"

"I was just about to go up."

"Go straight to your room without stopping anywhere else. I'll bring you something to eat."

Greta yawned widely as she came down the stairs. Adelheid felt both gratitude and guilt toward Greta.

Exiled to this desolate northern region, she finished exhausting daily tasks and still looked after Adelheid's meals and sleeping arrangements when no one else cared.

Sometimes they would huddle together like alley cats sharing warmth, sleeping in the same bed.

Of course, their relationship wasn't entirely positive.

The more Greta protected and cared for Adelheid, the worse Adelheid's reputation became daily. The maids thought Adelheid was extremely antisocial and used Greta as a front to exclude them. They even misunderstood her as an arrogant person with no intention whatsoever of adapting to her new environment.

It was an unreasonably harsh prejudice, but Adelheid didn't actively explain or improve her behavior. Whenever she tried to have even a conversation with another maid, Greta would become furious.

'I've told you repeatedly! You never know what might happen, so you can't trust anyone!'

'I wasn't trusting them. But...'

'You're already being fooled, completely fooled! Especially be careful of the head maid who serves the Grand Duke. You never know how things will turn out! It would be better to attach yourself to Young Master Oskar instead.'

...Could she have somehow predicted this would happen? Adelheid followed Greta down a few steps and grabbed her sleeve.

"Um, Greta."

"Yes."

Though she had called out, facing that annoyed expression made it difficult to get the words out.

"...Well, you see."

She really needed someone to talk to honestly. About her worries over what would happen next, Oskar's meaningful remarks, and the rumors circulating about Valentin's death.

But Greta looked troubled enough even without such worries. Was there any need to burden her with Adelheid's trivial concerns?

As Adelheid's silence lengthened, Greta frowned slightly.

"Why is my lady acting like this again?"

"No. It's just that I feel sorry for making you suffer so much all this time..."

That was about all she could manage to say aloud. Greta just blinked, then smiled slightly.

"Suddenly?"

"Once the funeral ends, I'll be leaving for the convent immediately. If I don't say it now, I might miss the chance."

"...You're leaving immediately?"

"I'm discussing various things with the butler. If nothing happens, that's likely what will occur. War widows are typically sent to convents."

Adelheid paused briefly and glanced at Greta's expression.

"I don't want Greta to follow me to the convent. The butler said he'd return my dowry once the funeral procedures are finished. It's only three hundred gold pieces, but... I want to give it all to my nursemaid."

Adelheid trailed off and blushed. Looking back, her dowry was pathetically inadequate. She could understand why the Ansgar people gnashed their teeth calling it a fraudulent marriage.

Just as Greta, momentarily speechless, was about to open her mouth.

"A convent, you say."

At the voice suddenly heard from behind, Adelheid turned around with a start. Greta hurriedly came down the remaining steps and curtsied.

"Young Master."

"Your Grace is going to a convent? This is news to me."

"......"

"Now that I'm to become the family head, are there things happening in the house without the head's knowledge?"

"...Of course, I was going to inform you properly."

Adelheid hastily gathered excuses.

"I was in the process of handing over my duties to other maids one by one, so I planned to seek the head's approval once that was sorted out."

"Do you think I would believe that excuse, Adelheid? I know you're always ready to run away."

The interrogation was fierce. Adelheid opened her eyes wide and spoke clearly to hide her intimidated feelings.

"It's not an excuse. I really have been busy these past few days overseeing the funeral..."

"You there, Greta, was it? The maid seems quite at leisure. Since Her Grace is fasting, you should be busy attending to her."

But Oskar cut off Adelheid's words and gestured toward Greta with his chin. Adelheid's face instantly became haggard as she understood his intent. Though he said it indirectly, it was ultimately a demand for her to leave.

"Young Master, but..."

When Greta hesitated, he urged her again.

"Surely I won't do anything in a corridor? Hmm? With my brother's body lying right over there."

Adelheid let out an incredulous breath. It was truly shameless behavior. Just days ago in the corridor, he'd been questioning how she could be his sister-in-law.

Caught in the sudden standoff, Greta looked back and forth between Adelheid and Oskar with a troubled expression, asking what she should do.

Oskar just crossed his arms and looked down at her obliquely, as if he wouldn't back down. Adelheid bit her lip. Arguing further would only attract more attention.

'It's not like last time in a completely deserted corridor......'

Adelheid barely nodded her permission.

"Go ahead. I'll be here. If you see any guards, send them this way immediately."

"...Then I'll be right back."

Adelheid watched Greta's rapidly departing figure with longing eyes. At that gaze, Oskar couldn't help but burst into laughter, and Adelheid stepped back several paces from where she stood.

Such needless wariness. Every action Adelheid took seemed both ridiculous and endearing to Oskar. Her naivety in thinking guards could somehow help was almost delightful.

As he approached, the delicate face of the anxious woman froze. The more she reacted this way, the deeper Oskar's smile became.

"......"

Even with such a rigid attitude, Adelheid was quite beautiful. When she first came to Bitzleben at seventeen, there had been nothing at all to catch one's eye, but she had bloomed like rising sap with each passing year.

Whether the frigid northern air suited her constitution well, or something else.

By now, just having those moist eyes look at him made his chest feel tight.

"You cannot go to the convent."

"I don't understand what you mean. It's already decided. The butler also said that according to law and procedure..."

"Having been born and raised in the prosperous south, I understand your continued ignorance of northern culture. Do you know why the Bavarians call us barbarians?"

Adelheid's eyes widened at the incomprehensible words. Why indeed? Frozen barren soil, monsters constantly attacking the walls, savages who barely survived by hunting and built this land with blood.

Having never known abundance, unable to let go of anything once grasped, even in death.

Suddenly, Adelheid's complexion turned deathly pale as she grasped something.

"Surely not......"

"The north is a place where the system of a man taking his dead brother's wife is still legally guaranteed. It's a relic of the old days, but I find it quite appealing."

Oskar's snake-like narrow eyes slowly examined Adelheid. From head to toe in turn, like swallowing her—that base, sinister, vile, and persistent gaze.

"I'll give you sufficient time to mourn until the funeral ends."

"......"

"After that, Adelheid, you'll need to consider what's best for survival."

'He's insane.'

Adelheid couldn't overcome her agitation and jumped up from her seat. Unable to keep still, she paced around the reception hall again.

What Oskar wanted was clear. And it was not just rude but horrifying.

'He intends to propose to me. He'll force me into a position where I have no choice but to accept.'

She was a woman who had once sworn marriage vows with Valentin. Morig was a god who considered divorce one of the most terrible sins, so whether alive or dead, her husband was Valentin alone.

Even if it meant being buried alive in Ansgar's underground stone chamber.

Yet suddenly she was supposed to accept another man. And her dead husband's brother at that.

'He's out of his mind. What on earth is he thinking...!'

In the past era when monsters constantly attacked, it might have been a necessary custom to maintain bloodlines, but Adelheid had grown up under southern sunlight. Though she hadn't lived a pampered life, she couldn't fully understand all of the north's harsh realities.

Adelheid's lips trembled at the excessive immorality.

'He'll go to hell. Lord Morig could never forgive this.'

Terror instantly engulfed her entire body. Adelheid gnawed at her fingertips until they bled without realizing it. Because she was easily intimidated by others' criticism, she had always followed etiquette thoroughly, but now she couldn't even maintain composure.

"Grand Duchess Your Grace."

She looked up with a start and reflexively hid her hands. She had been so absorbed in thought she hadn't noticed the door opening.

"Wh-what is it?"

Had he seen her biting her nails? She carefully examined old Hermann's expression. But the butler faced her with his usual stern expressionless face.

"It's time for the final prayers. After tonight ends, His Grace will be interred in the underground tomb."

"Have the priests all arrived already?"

"Yes. I just received word that their carriage passed through the main gate. Your Grace must maintain your position until the very end and display proper dignity."

"I understand. Um, but......"

Hermann, having finished his business, stopped mid-step as he was about to leave the reception hall.

"Please speak."

Tomorrow morning, once the funeral procedures officially ended, Oskar would ascend to the Grand Duke's position.

'And then he'll make that ridiculous claim.'

Then there would be no way to reverse it. She had to find a way to escape Ansgar territory before that happened.

Adelheid bit her lip. Of course, asking Hermann about escape routes would be the easiest method. But whether she could trust him was a separate matter.

"......"

Hermann was from a family that had served Ansgar for generations. Between the Grand Duchess viewed as a fraud and the Grand Duke's blood relative, the object of his loyalty was clear. If she shared her plans and they reached Oskar's ears, she might foolishly waste even this last chance of escape.

Adelheid barely swallowed her accumulated saliva.

"...Never mind. I guess I was just nervous."

At her words, Hermann raised one eyebrow as if finding it bland.

"Then prepare yourself."

Not long after Hermann left, the castle tower's horn sounded long and low. The priests who would conduct the all-night vigil then entered the reception hall. The final night consisted of night-long prayers honoring the deceased's spirit.

Adelheid knelt at the prepared altar with a long veil draped down.

'I'll escape at dawn when everyone's distracted with the chaos. If I can just reach Regenbach Forest... I can find the way.'

However, problems arose in the middle of the night.