Chapter 29: The Lady Klein part 1
If only I had been born as the sole heir of this family. No, that’s not it. I wish I had been born here from the very beginning, not in the cursed, remote viscounty. If only I had been born as Tiana Marietta Klein, the untouchable young lady of this house! Then, I wouldn’t have had to endure all of this!
As her intense fury twisted her neck slightly to the left, Duchess Klein, her voice tinged with tears, asked, “Were you Dorothea all along? Or… were you not?”
“What…?”
What in the world is she saying?
Startled, Dott looked up to see a surprising sight. The Duchess of Klein was weeping openly beneath her black veil.
No… Could it be…?
Back when Dott had accidentally discovered that an item belonging to Morgana had originated from the Klein estate, she felt a chill when the timelines of Morgana’s tale and the disappearance of the Lady Klein aligned.
‘Even back then… yes, even then, the one who embraced me and wept uncontrollably after the temple’s oracle declared me to be the missing young lady was none other than Duchess Klein. But this… this doesn’t make sense. I haven’t revealed anything yet, so how did it come to this?’
Not entirely sure of the situation, Dot chose to remain silent.
I can’t afford to speak recklessly now.
The Duchess fiddled with the small floral embellishment on her veiled hat.
“This hat was sent to me by my family. Long ago, they told me to let go and forget. To bury all thoughts of Tiana in my heart, for no news of her would ever come again.”
Dott’s tightly pressed lips trembled slightly.
“But I couldn’t do that. When His Grace received an oracle from the temple’s saintess saying Tiana would be found, I was overjoyed. But the wait… the wait was so long….”
The Duchess’s endless lament turned both mournful and suspiciously tender.
Could it be?
“…”
When Dott continued to stay silent, unable to bear it any longer, the Duchess rose to her feet and pulled something from a fragrant wooden box.
“This… this belongs to you, doesn’t it? If you can remember when and how you got it, please, tell me.”
Oh no! It was Morgana’s silk robe! The one Dott had hidden so well in her wardrobe, ensuring no one would find it! And now it was in the Duchess’s hands? How could this be? Dott had never revealed its location to anyone!
Momentarily panicked, Dott masked her fear with a calm exterior. Inside, however, she was terrified and on the verge of breaking down.
‘If she found it on her own, it’s all over. The perfect timing for my plans to unravel everything will be ruined!’
If merely possessing the Klein young lady’s belongings was enough to secure her position, Dott would’ve casually let slip about it to a servant she had befriended early on.
But that wasn’t the case.
The Grand Temple….
I can’t devise a plan to pass their verification with my current means. How can I possibly convince Morgana to cooperate? I don’t even know where she is, and she suspects I stole the silk robe from her!
‘This is bad. This is so, so bad. Even if I confess now that the robe belongs to Morgana, she won’t defend me.’
Even with her cleverness, Dott had no cards to play in this predicament.
What to do? What should she do? Her mouth went dry as she recalled her poor parting with Morgana.
‘Morgana could claim the title of the young lady herself and push me out of the way. Hah!’
Dott had disliked Morgana before, but now, her hatred for her burned hotter than ever.
Why do you keep hindering me, even after traveling back in time?
The wretched Morgana, who had the audacity to approach at that very moment, asking, ‘Is that you, Dott?’ when she couldn’t even enter the grand Arcadnia Hall due to her pitiful state.
‘Focus, Dottricia Karris. You were thrown into a burning carriage with no escape. The only way forward is to survive on your own.’
As before, I must overcome this predicament on my own.
‘If that’s the case, I have no choice but to run endlessly! If I don’t want to live forever as Dottricia, constantly fleeing from others, I must carve out the path to becoming Tiana Marietta Klein myself!’
With that, Dott spun a desperate lie to evade her current crisis.
“That… that’s mine. But please, promise me first. Promise me you’ll keep what I’m about to say a secret from anyone outside this room.”
“Hm?”
At this second critical juncture, Dott clenched her small fists and spoke as she had once before. Only this time, she avoided mentioning another item not present here.
One wrong word now could spell her doom.
“It’s… it’s my belonging. I believe I used it as a child, but I don’t know the details. When I fell unconscious from a head injury, it was lying beside me.”
“A head injury as a child?”
Duchess Klein closed her eyes tightly.
On that cold, windswept ground, not a strand of Tiana’s hair remained. Only bloodstains from her head wound and the faint footprints of her small shoes, along with horrific traces of her attempt to crawl away, had been found.
Oh, my poor Tiana! Where did you run to, trying to escape the bandits’ blades? Stop wandering and return to me. This mother has waited long enough.
“Yes. I can’t recall much of the past because of the injury. It’s such a dark story that I don’t even want to hear others talk about it. So, please, keep this a secret as I’ve asked.”
“I see… so that’s how it is. Very well. Leave the rest to me.”
“And so… I…”
Before Dott could finish, a shadow fell over her. A knight had approached her from behind and lightly tapped her back. She collapsed instantly.
……
(T/N: It will be better if she doesn’t wake up, right? 😈)
ynabispo
Não esperava por essa