A young boy was holding a puppy in his arms on top of the tall wall. He was looking down with terrified eyes.
Adelina approached the wall because the boy looked like he'd fall at any moment.
"Shouldn't you bring the child down this instant? Why are all of you merely watching?!"
"That child belongs to the Semu caste, so… Isn't there a saying that those with blue eyes bring bad luck?"
At the servant's answer, Adelina raised her head and turned her eyes back to the child. As the servant said, the child's eyes were as blue as clear jasper. The servants merely tapped their feet and watched the child on top of the wall. They did not make a move to approach him. Seeing this, Adelina looked back at the child.
"His eyes are merely different. What are you so afraid of?"
Not only did the servants' eyes widen but so did the child's.
As she walked through the group of servants, Adelina glanced up at the wall where the child was standing so precariously. If the child had managed to climb the wall, then there was no reason why Adelina couldn't do it either.
The only problem was her long sleeves and skirt that were obstructing her limbs.
"Mistress, how can we do all this for a mere blue-eyed child…?"
Riiiip.
Before the servant could finish speaking, Adelina began to rip her swaying sleeves. Seeing Adelina's sudden movements, Mona let out a shout.
"Mistress!"
Adelina ripped her skirts so that she could move more comfortably in them. Then she smiled up at the nervous child on top of the wall.
"Hold on tight until I get up there."
"You mustn't do this! Mistress!"
"This can all be solved by someone who doesn't bring bad luck. Just stay here."
Adelina looked all over the wall as the onlookers began to tap their feet. Then Adelina began to slowly climb the wall.
For the past two years, she had lived without servants and did everything she could have done alone. The tall wall was a bit scary, but she felt like she could climb it.
At first, she slipped a few times, but once she managed to get a good grip on the stone, she found herself already halfway up the wall.
Although it wasn't easy, Adelina kept her eyes on the child and continued to push herself.
"What is going on here?"
As Adelina continued on towards the child, the terrifying voice roared out around her and seemed to wake her out of her trance. The faces of all the servants down below who were tapping their feet grew pale.
Adelina turned her head towards the sound and bit her lip.
She wasn't sure when he had arrived, but he was glaring up at Adelina with sharp eyes. She didn't have to ask him to know that Ethan was absolutely enraged. Adelina stopped breathing.
However, that only lasted a moment. She swallowed her fear and looked up at the child.
"Ah!"
Unlike Adelina, who had managed to overcome her fear of Ethan, the child's face turned ghostly pale. Tightening his grasp on the puppy, the terrified child moved.
"No!"
The child began to stagger. At the same time, Adelina threw herself at him.
Before the child fell off the wall, Adelina grabbed him and held him tightly to her chest. Feeling herself fall, Adelina squeezed her eyes shut.
Instead of falling headfirst into the dirt, she felt a warmth envelope her body.
"Ah!"
Having expected to feel a dull ache throughout her limbs, Adelina opened her eyes at the unfamiliar touch. The first thing she saw with her dim eyes was the child who was calmly in her arms. The next thing she saw was Ethan, who was holding her in his embrace.
When the child saw Ethan, he held onto his puppy and ran into the crowd. Watching the child disappear, Adelina hurriedly got up.
"Ugh."
As Adelina tried to stand up, her brows furrowed. When she fell from the wall, it seemed that she had scratched her knees. Her skirts were stained red with her blood. After taking a look at her wound, Adelina left Ethan's arms and got up.
"Thank you. And are you hurt at all…"
"If the Mistress of the residence is acting so frivolously, what will the servants learn from you?"
Adelina did her best to endure the pain of her wound and asked if he was hurt, but all she got in return was a cold rebuke. Although she knew that he hated her and that there was no reason for him to be kind to her, for some reason, she felt so despondent at this moment that tears began to well up in her eyes.
She had acted rashly, but she didn't do anything wrong.
She did end up falling from the wall, but if Ethan hadn't looked at them with those eyes, everything would have turned out fine.
"The child was hanging from the wall. Isn't it a situation where one must act quickly?"
Ethan's eyes flinched at Adelina's reply.
She never let things go easily. If it weren't for him, she might have fallen from the wall and gotten seriously hurt. And yet she still acted as if she hadn't done anything wrong and talked back to him.
He had only wanted her to keep out of his sight, but ever since that day, no matter where he looked, he kept seeing her around.
"If you fell and got hurt, then all the ones here who didn't pull their own weights would have been punished."
"..."
"If you would like to set an example for the servants, then just obediently stay in the inner residence. Did you think they'd follow you if you did something like this? They'll merely wonder why the Mistress of the house is doing strange things like this."
After hearing Ethan's words, Adelina calmly lowered her eyes.
Did that man have someone he could comfortably relax around? Even if he did, Adelina didn't think she'd ever be one of them.
Even if she didn't know how Consort Min had lived, Adelina didn't think she'd ever be able to live that way.
"Seeing as how the child was in danger, I felt that those who could do something should do something."
"Is that why you didn't think to order a servant to do it? Is that why you took the lead and did something you shouldn't have attempted? And if something had happened, the one who will be responsible will not be you but them. If that isn't self-indulgence, then what is?"
"But!"
"Your job is to act as the Mistress of the house and stay in your place."
"Just like Her Highness, Consort Min?"
When they heard Adelina's rebuttal, Ethan and everyone around them looked completely astonished. She had just uttered the taboo name that mustn't be said in this residence as she glared at Ethan.
However, this only lasted a moment. MoonWoon quickly lowered her head. Although she hadn't done anything that deserved praise, Ethan's order to live in the inner residence as if she were dead was too difficult to bear.
All the things she had done to do her best had ended up being branded as frivolous and self-indulgent. After having consoled herself all this time by telling herself that she was fine, Adelina suddenly felt drained.
"I'm sorry. I'll take my leave."
As she began to walk, Adelina bit her lip as she felt the stinging pain at her ankle. It seemed that her knee wasn't the only part of her body that had been injured. As she tried to walk, she felt a sharp pain travel up her leg like a knife.
"Mistress?"
When Adelina saw that Mona was trying to help her, she shook her head.
The puppy and the child were safe and sound. What Ethan said wasn't wrong, and the fact that they kept running into each other wasn't very pleasant on his end either.