Lady Devil - Chapter 34

#34

Yes, if it was Griselda, it would have been fortunate. I was rather more terrified that Winfrid’s little rat might be someone other than her. The black shadows with their faces cut off, them with only red mouths open. The guards? The maids? Johannes’s knights I had seen from afar coming and going?

No, perhaps everyone except Johannes and me.

Those who might have whispered behind my back, in places I wasn’t, places I didn’t know, seemed almost within reach, visible to these eyes.

Oh, what to do, what to do…! Just how many people know, how much do they know…! There were too many things that made my back tingle, and I couldn’t even estimate the scale and scope of the rumors. I couldn’t even control it.

But I declare that I wasn’t afraid of the humiliation of being on others’ lips. Just, what if it reached Father’s ears? I was so afraid that all my plans would come to nothing that I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t help but heave my whole body.

“…Sister doesn’t need to know.”

At that moment, I heard a small, awkward mumble unlike Winfrid. His gaze half-fallen downwards, as if lost in thought for a moment. Soon returning, with a creak, Winfrid’s head tilted to the side, and a look of contempt for me slowly blossomed.

“So, sister, since when?”

Freezing then burning, then freezing stiff again. My lips that had been so frantic parted suddenly.

“I asked first.”

I asked back, suppressing my trembling insides. But Winfrid ignored me.

“Was it just a momentary attraction?”

“Who… told you?”

“Just playing around for fun? Curiosity or something?”

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