"What the hell is the meaning of this?"
With an audible clack of her clenched teeth, Katie sneered at me.
Panicked by the nanny's exclamation, Alicia didn't know what to do in this situation. She didn't dare look squarely at Katie, and since was still sitting on the ground, all she could do was fidget with her skirt.
Judging by the blank look on Alicia's face, it seemed like she had drowned everything out, neither seeing nor hearing anything.
At this, my eyes grew cold.
With an impartial smile on my lips, I stared up at the nanny indifferently as she clutched my chin. In spite of herself, Katie shivered under my emotionless gaze. She felt as if she was a rat facing a huge bird of prey.
'This can't be, this can't be!' Katie thought. 'There's no way I would feel inferior to that Rosetta!'
The source of terror should come from this side, not that. This was how it'd always been. She had worked so hard for 13 years to condition the two princesses of the Valentine Duchy, making it so that Katie stood above them completely.
It started when they were both six years old, until the present day before their adulthood at nineteen years of age.
Katie could not believe the situation she found herself in. It didn't make sense that she was frightened.
Resentment and unfairness washed over her to rebel against those cold eyes, however, she couldn't shake off the fear that had already set in. Her entire body shuddered as her heart pounded loudly, and her first instinct was to escape.
She felt it in her bones that she wouldn't be able to fight against this unknown force, yet she consoled herself by thinking that this would be the only day she'd allow this behavior.
Katie repeated this to herself, believing so strongly that this was only a fluke, and then motioned to pull back the hand that gripped the other's chin, but her body wouldn't budge.
She couldn't move.
Before she knew it, slender fingers slinked over her wrist and held her in place.
'What power . . .'
The grip over her wrist was light, but it felt like her arm was being crushed by a massive force.
At that moment, Katie saw a strange delusion—the wrist holding her hand grew larger and darker, turning into a pitch black shadow that was about to devour her whole.
"Le-let go of me! Let go of me now!"
Flailing her arms, Katie desperately tried to shake off my hold on her wrist. She no longer felt unfair, no longer felt resentful.
Now, all she felt was fear for her life.
"AHH! LET ME GO!"
Katie suddenly screamed like a banshee, and Alicia let out a small shriek as well, taking a step back.
Everything was thrown into chaos.
". . ."
With my lips forming a straight line, I watched the entire situation as if it was entirely separate from myself, like I wasn't involved at all.
In fact, I was as surprised as everyone else.
However, the reason was a bit different.
'What the . . .'
My gaze, which had been on Katie, hurriedly shifted to inspect my own body.
Hands, shoulders, chest, stomach.
'This is obviously . . .'
"Let go of me! Please . . . Please just let go!"
Katie's previous words of hostility completely turned into desperate pleading. Her free hand flailed around wildly and scratched my face.
Light drops of blood trickled down the thin wound.
Compared to my scratched, stinging face, Katie looked much worse.
How hideous.
As the nanny wished, I finally loosened my already light grip. At this, Katie's body lurched backward and fell down.
"There. I let go because you told me to."
Rising from my seat, I looked down at the woman lying on the floor with emotionless eyes.
"Are you alright, Nanny?"
I spoke kindly, but it seemed that it was still difficult for her to form a response. Katie was splayed on the ground, convulsing violently as she hyperventilated.
Nobody here was concerned for her well-being.
What a funny sight.
I only held her wrist. I never showed any aggression, and didn't even lift a finger.
With my gaze still on the struggling figure on the floor, I passed by Katie with a small smile on my lips, then sauntered straight to the door.
The lesson seemed to have finished already, so there was no reason for me to stay.
As I walked leisurely towards the door, what was left in the room was one empty teacup rolling around on its own and two distressed people not knowing what to do with themselves.
I placed my hand on the doorknob and asked, "Aren't you leaving?"
I said this without turning back to face Alicia, but she knew that my question was directed at her.
Alicia anxiously scanned her surroundings. Whilst everything in the room was a mess, the nanny was still shivering on the floor frantically.
It was the first time Alicia saw such a scene in all nineteen years of her life.
Squeak. Thump.
The door screeched open and shut behind her. She was left behind before she knew it. She looked at the door with bewildered eyes and inched toward it, hesitating.
'Can . . . I really go?'
Whatever their nanny said was absolute. She had never gone against her nanny's words in her whole life.
Was it alright for her to leave like this?
Despite her reservations, her older sister's actions from earlier kept replaying in her mind—the way the retreating figure stood tall as she asked that question.
A trembling hand took hold of the doorknob and opened the door. Somehow, the air that was let in felt fresh. Alicia couldn't believe that only a thin door hindered her from it.
Thump.
The door closed quietly behind Alicia's back.
Meanwhile, Katie remained paralyzed on the ground after the two sisters left the room.
The whip was on the floor, broken.
It was the older sister who broke this earlier, deliberately stepped over as she walked out the door, but Katie did not witness this.
Screech.
Long nails scratched the floor. In an instant, her incapacitating fear turned into an unbearable rage.
'How dare! How dare you how dare you how dare you! How dare you do such a thing!'
As her shoulders shook in indignation, denial flooded her senses as she couldn't accept what happened just now.
A once passive young lady who acted like an impressionable sheep suddenly became ferocious. She couldn't believe it.
But what Katie couldn't accept even more was that she had felt afraid in that young lady's presence.
"I won't let this go . . ."
Her disgrace would surely be repaid next time, was what Katie thought.
This pitiable woman didn't have the intuition to act accordingly.
* * *
After leaving the room, I stayed in the hallway for a little while.
I thought it might be better to let Alicia gain the confidence to leave the room by herself, so I went out first. If she kept delaying, I would have gone back in and pulled her out of there myself.
Before long though, I heard the door open and close.
At the sound of the dragging footsteps stepping farther away from the door, it seemed to have been Alicia. I only motioned to leave once I heard her footsteps approaching.
As I walked back to my room, I had a lot on my mind. The sight of Katie falling to the ground was quite spectacular, but there was something else that bothered me.
My actions today were too impulsive.
Rather than taking a stance against Katie today, I wanted to make sure that the hateful nanny would be fully kicked out of this house one day. I was determined to make this happen, but today wasn't the day.
I was very well acquainted with people like Katie. Thanks to my role as the female lead in my third transmigration, I had met many villains.
I knew that all Katie wanted was to trample over me, but she couldn't see that no matter how much she tried to plot revenge and sink her teeth into me, she didn't have the fangs for it.
Katie was the kind of villain who thought she was a snake, but was only an earthworm.
It would be easier to deal with this kind of person properly, once and for all. Which was why what I did earlier was pointless. It only angered Katie unnecessarily.
'That was stupid. Why did I do that?'
I just put myself in an awkward position.
But when I gripped Katie's wrist, where did that strength come from?
Surely that was . . .
But before I could continue the thought, I stopped in my tracks. The quiet footsteps that kept following me grated on my nerves. When I stopped walking, so did the other person.
I turned around to see Alicia taking a peek at me as if she was a child who'd been caught doing something wrong.
Honestly, she was the last person I wanted to see right now.
"You didn't go to your room?"
"Well . . . I wanted to talk to you about something," she mumbled, her face still pale as if her shock from earlier hadn't gone away yet.
Ah. Just go to your room and rest. We have nothing to talk about.
It was obvious anyway, that she wanted to thank me again, tears and all.
I waited for her to relay her gratitude, but what came out of her mouth was completely different from what I had predicted.
"Sister, from now on, don't do something like that again," Alicia said firmly, raising her head to look directly into my eyes. Her voice shook but did not hesitate.
The emotion laden behind her eyes made me realize that she really meant what she said.
Ha!
I almost burst out laughing.
It's true. What I did was completely unnecessary. Thank you for letting me know that.
I never planned to get closer to the female lead in the first place anyway. As I'd said, minimal involvement was enough. I did not wish to embody the role of an ally or a real sister.
Even back then in the garden, I regretted going out of my room. And now when Alicia called out to me, I regretted turning around.
It all rooted from the same reason why I didn't want to see Alicia's face right now.
Even if I closed my eyes and pretended to be blind, I knew that my impulsive behavior was all because of Alicia.
Because I sympathized with her, I couldn't control my heart and did something useless.
All because of her.
Crying, surrendering to her aggressor like that, sticking out her arms oh so obediently.
She kept on . . .
"Why should I."
Her shoulders withdrew even further as she winced at my blunt response. She flinched at the slightest rise of anyone's voice, but now she was telling me not to mind her business.
The corners of Alicia's eyes quickly turned red like she was about to shed tears.
Avoiding my gaze as she stuttered through her words, she said, "Your . . . your f-face was cut . . ."
". . . What?"
"I know you were only trying to help me but . . . your face . . ."
After struggling to say what she wanted to say, buckets of tears welled up in her wide eyes.
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