Chapter 326
“You say you staked everything, and yet you still failed?”
“T-That’s…”
If the oat porridge the rat had been put into had been distributed, they could have damaged Duchess Bayern’s reputation.
But far from proving herself useful, hadn’t she missed a good opportunity?
‘…Should I cast this woman aside, or not?’
Rebecca had given her a chance despite the risks of taking in a noblewoman who had become a laughingstock.
She was contemplating how to handle Countess Coventry, but at that moment.
“What is that?”
A strange sight caught Rebecca’s eyes.
One priest wearing a white robe, and four sturdy men carrying a stretcher.
They were talking with Nina.
“…It seems someone died in that house.”
“Someone died?”
“There’s a person on the stretcher, and their face is covered with a white cloth, isn’t it? Seeing as she called a priest, it looks like she’s going to hold a funeral for them.”
At Countess Coventry’s explanation, Rebecca frowned.
The targets of prayer visits were people who had difficulty moving.
They were old and sick, or disabled and unable to move, so it wouldn’t be strange to come across a corpse during a prayer visit.
“From now on, you lead the way.”
She might end up seeing a corpse.
She wanted to refuse that much, at least.
“Yes, Madam.”
What good sight was that to keep watching?
Just as she was moving her steps with a frown, as though even imagining it made bile rise in her throat.
“…The weather’s been harsh these past few days, so I guess the old woman in that house finally died.”
“Don’t say something so unpleasant. They said prayer visits start today, so isn’t that why they came?”
“Come now, do you think a priest comes in person just because it’s called a prayer?”
“Then why did a priest come here?”
“I told you, he must have come to hold a funeral.”
“Come on, who would hold a funeral for people like us?”
The poor didn’t get to enjoy the luxury of being buried in a public cemetery.
They were thrown outside the capital, buried together in pits, or burned.
Their lot was to be discarded like trash.
“Wait, but isn’t that Duchess Bayern?”
“If she has pink hair… that’s right.”
“It seems you were right, and she really did come because of a funeral. Duchess Bayern is famous for bestowing benevolence, and they say His Majesty praised her greatly at the last event too.”
“To call a priest to a place where people like us live…”
Rebecca bit the inside of her mouth as she listened to the poor people’s conversation.
That virtuous image would soon become the noose that tightened around Nina’s neck, but even so, she couldn’t help finding it irritating.
At that moment, Countess Coventry, who had been anxious that she might be cast aside, whispered with a crafty look in her eyes.
“…Madam, please give me just one more chance. This time, you won’t be disappointed.”
“A chance?”
“Yes, we can’t just leave things be so that only Duchess Bayern’s reputation rises, can we?”
Her grandfather had told her to quietly devote herself to volunteering and wait, but there was no harm in hearing what the method was.
“Do you have a method in mind?”
“…As you just saw, the slums are the sort of place where it isn’t strange for even one person to die, aren’t they?”
A vicious smile spread across Countess Coventry’s lips.
* * *
“I keep getting sleepy…”
Marsha’s voice scattered faintly, like a candle with its wick burned down.
How could Nina not know that if she closed her eyes like this, they would be parted forever?
Holding Marsha, whose body was stiffening like a block of wood, Nina pleaded desperately.
No.
No, don’t sleep, please.
You’ll leave me behind.
Please don’t leave me alone…
“I’ll… sleep for just a very little while…”
It was a lie.
After those words, Marsha never opened her eyes again.
Nina burst into sobs and opened her eyes.
“…Madam, are you alright?”
“Marsha, Marsha…”
Nina thrashed with her whole body.
Her vision was blurry, and her mind was hazy, but she could think of nothing except that she had to go find Marsha at once.
“Madam, it’s alright. It was all a dream.”
“A dream…?”
“Yes, a dream.”
Nina wiped the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand and caught her breath.
Had the events of the day stimulated her old trauma?
It had been a truly terrible nightmare.
‘…It might have been better if an incident had happened instead.’
Perhaps today simply wasn’t the day, because the incident she had expected hadn’t occurred, but maybe because she had seen a corpse, she was suffering mentally.
