15
Chapter 15
“…Your daughter…?”
Julia blinked slowly, her expression dazed.
“Yes. My daughter,” Diana replied, glaring at her.
Julia tilted her head sluggishly, then opened her mouth as if something had finally come to mind.
“…Ah.”
“Speak. You know where she is.”
Could it be she really didn’t know? Diana swallowed nervously, staring at the dazed Julia.
“She… ran away.”
“What?”
Diana’s hands trembled. Ran away? Then that meant her daughter had been in the mansion all this time.
“If she ran away…”
Just as Julia was about to say more, she suddenly began giggling as if she’d gone mad, mumbling fragmented sentences.
“She was… in Lady Catherine’s… room.”
“In Catherine’s room…?”
“Hehehe… made her a maid… used her like a servant… Can you believe it?”
The soft giggles turned into open, twisted laughter. Diana’s emerald eyes went cold.
“You think that’s funny? Is that amusing to you?”
Watching Julia laugh so hard her shoulders shook made Diana’s skin crawl. Alicia, Julia, even Catherine—every last one of them looked like beasts.
They took someone’s precious daughter and forced her to live as a maid… and found that amusing?
“…Ha.”
A hollow laugh slipped through Diana’s crimson lips. She could hardly breathe.
Julia’s laughter grew louder, filling the entire room.
It was a disturbing, spine-chilling laugh that made Diana want to cover her ears. She wanted to choke that woman right then and there. But there were still things she needed to ask.
“What… did the child look like?”
“They said… pale platinum hair, emerald eyes… like yours.”
Eyes like mine. Hair like mine. A child who looked just like me.
Diana shut her eyes tight.
All she had was a description of the hair and eyes, yet when she closed her eyes, she felt she could see the child’s face.
A child like her, smiling brightly back at her.
“But… she ran away.”
‘Of all times…!’ Diana’s brows creased slightly.
And yet, how hard must it have been for that child to risk her life and run away?
Julia, oblivious to Diana’s turmoil, continued laughing as if it were all the funniest thing in the world.
“Heehee… Just thinking about it is hilarious! You know how Lady Catherine must’ve treated her!”
Yes, it was obvious. Flames sparked in Diana’s eyes. She had learned all she needed. There was no point in listening to this garbage any longer.
Someone who laughed at another’s suffering instead of feeling pity wasn’t human.
“Belinda!”
Diana shouted for Belinda, who stood outside in the hallway.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
A single tear fell from Diana’s eye.
The uncharacteristically sharp tone had Belinda rushing in, blinking in surprise at Diana’s tears.
But the next words from Diana’s lips stunned her even more.
“Kill her for me.”
“…Pardon?”
Belinda’s mouth fell open in shock at Diana’s unexpected command. But Diana meant it.
This wasn’t a statement made in emotional frenzy. It was genuine.
Would she feel this way about slaughtering a cow or pig? The creature before her didn’t feel human at all.
She was trash—heartless, devoid of empathy. And trash belonged where it should.
“Please… just remove her from my sight…”
Diana covered her face with both hands and sobbed. Julia, meanwhile, kept laughing.
“So funny, so funny! That’s why I liked Lady Alicia! So cruel, so vicious!”
Drugged by the truth serum, she continued her mad rambling.
Diana’s tearful eyes turned to Belinda. Once more, she pleaded.
“You said you’d do anything for me, Belinda…”
Belinda turned toward Julia, who was still muttering nonsense like a madwoman.
Then, as if making a decision, she clenched her teeth.
After a brief hesitation, she gripped the sword at her waist.
Without hesitation, in a swift motion, she cut Julia down.
“Ugh!”
Julia collapsed on the spot, blood gushing from her mouth.
Even as she died, cut down by the sword, she smiled—as if watching a hilarious comedy.
“I’ll take care of it right away, Your Highness.”
“Thank you, Belinda.”
After hearing the full story from Belinda, Shane and Milan quickly cleaned up the area.
Once they finished, they looked at Diana, whose expression was full of turmoil, then quietly left the room.
Diana’s trembling eyes were swirling with a mix of emotions.
For nobles, punishing a maid—or even ordering their death—was not an uncommon act.
There were even many servants who died from being tortured by nobles.
But for Diana, this was the first time she had ever ordered someone to die. It was also the first time she had ever seen someone die in front of her.
Of course she was confused.
The sound of raindrops tapping against the window started to echo softly. Soon, a downpour followed, its roar filling the air.
Diana slowly turned her head toward the window. The endless stream of rain looked exactly like how she felt inside.
She stared blankly out the window, taking in the garden drenched in rain.
Raindrops clung to the blooming roses, dripping down in silence. Despite the sorrow, it all looked so achingly beautiful.
Her hands were still shaking. Diana clenched her fists tightly. She couldn’t allow herself to waver like this.
She had decided—she would throw away the name of saint. She would become cruel—ruthlessly cruel. She swore it.
If she crumbled over something like this, how could she bring judgment to the scum still left in this mansion—those even worse than Julia?
At that thought, her trembling slowly stopped. A clear light returned to Diana’s eyes.
Strengthening her legs, she stood and stepped out into the hallway.
“Your Highness.”
Belinda, Shane, and Milan, who had been waiting outside, looked at her with concern.
Diana smiled faintly to assure them she was all right, then slowly parted her dry lips.
“Tell Catherine to meet me in my room.”
“Lady Catherine?”
“Yes. Tell her to wait for me. That I have something important to say.”
“Understood.”
With that, Diana turned and headed toward Catherine’s room. But instead of entering, she quietly slipped into the empty room next door.
She perked up her ears, listening intently outside the door. Soon, she heard Milan calling for Catherine.
Not long after, the sound of Catherine’s footsteps followed, echoing down the quiet hallway.
Diana carefully opened the door and stepped out. Then, she quietly slipped into Catherine’s room. Thankfully, the door wasn’t locked.
“…She said the girl worked as a maid in Catherine’s room.”
That’s what Julia had said. There had been no trace of the child in the servants’ quarters. Which could only mean one thing: there was a hidden space somewhere inside Catherine’s room.
Diana searched the room thoroughly. But she found nothing out of the ordinary.
Just then, a faint blue light caught her eye—seeping from between the bookshelves.
“…What is that?”
She cautiously approached the shelf. A light was leaking through a narrow gap between the wall and the shelf. Diana lifted the shelf slightly and pushed it aside.
As it moved, a small hidden room was revealed.
It was barely big enough for a single child to fit.
“…Ha.”
They built this secret space to hide her—locking the child in such a moldy, decrepit place.
Diana slowly turned her head.
On the hard floor lay a thin mat, barely enough to be called a blanket, and a filthy basket pushed into the corner.
Inside the basket were rock-hard scraps of bread and a half-bottle of spoiled milk.
She was speechless. No words would come out. Not even a defeated enemy’s slave would have been treated this poorly.
As Julia had said before she died, it was all too clear how Catherine and Alicia had treated her daughter.
Knowing their vicious personalities, she could only imagine how much they had tormented the girl.
And despite being treated like this… she brought me bread? My sweet child…
Overwhelmed by rage and sorrow, Diana furrowed her brow. A child like hers wasn’t meant to be abused in a place like this, eating such vile scraps.
She was a child who should have blossomed beautifully—grown up loved and cherished more than anyone.
Diana carefully searched every corner of the small room, hoping to find some trace of the girl.
Eventually, she found herself hugging the thin mat—sure the child must have slept under it—and broke down in sobs. Her weeping flowed endlessly, like the rain she could still hear outside.
“…How much did it hurt? How scared must you have been…”
She bit her lip to stop the sobs from escaping. In that moment, her emotions stirred her mana.
She had been practicing mana release lately, and it seemed her magical sensitivity had increased.
As her mana leaked from her body, the floor inside the hidden room slowly began to freeze.
“…Oh?”
Startled by the unintended release of magic, Diana reached out to suppress it—but then she saw something.
Her tear-filled eyes turned to the wall, where something had suddenly appeared.
Letters—written in a way no one without magic could ever see.
If her mana hadn’t been released just now, she wouldn’t have been able to see it either.
“…This can’t be…”
As she slowly read the letters, Diana covered her mouth in shock.
Glowing clearly in a vivid blue light, the message read:
“Mother, I miss you.”
