Chapter 96

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Arabella
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Arabella was discovered by the maids.

“Good heavens!”

The cleaning maid who found the youngest lady collapsed on the marble floor let out a piercing scream.

“Lady Arabella!”

Horrified, the maid tried to find Lady Ariadne, who was in charge of managing the household, but as luck would have it, Ariadne was out, and had even taken Sancha, the acting head maid, with her. Unsure of whom to report to, the cleaning maid, as a last resort, informed the butler, Niccolo, of the accident. Niccolo cried out, stunned.

“Well, what are you just staring for! Take her to her room at once!”

He hurried to the ground-floor entrance hall to attend to the fallen Arabella. He too was panic-stricken and looked for someone to report to, but both Cardinal de Mare and Lady Ariadne happened to be away. In the end, Niccolo rushed to find Lady Lucrezia.

“My lady! Something terrible has happened.”

“What terrible thing!”

Lady Lucrezia had experienced far too many terrible things recently. Her precious eldest daughter had been confined after rumors spread that she was the mistress of some capital city trash, a vixen had latched onto her son who was more precious than life itself, and to top it all off, her husband had banished her to a country estate. Lucrezia couldn't handle any more terrible things. The mere mention of it from Niccolo soured her mood.

“Well? You brought it up, so why aren’t you speaking?!”

“My lady, Lady Arabella has fallen down the stairs. She is still unconscious. Please, come quickly.”

“Arabella?”

Lucrezia's irritation soared. She was displeased with the butler for making a fuss over an unimportant child and disturbing her peace. As she followed Niccolo out of the ground-floor guest room and into the entrance hall, she saw her pale, ashen-faced youngest daughter collapsed on the floor.

“What is the meaning of this!”

Lucrezia immediately shouted. She hated troublesome things. If she blamed someone else, perhaps it wouldn't be her fault. It was an unconscious reaction.

“I-I don’t know. The maids said they heard a thud, and when they came to look, Lady Arabella had fallen...”

Arabella was motionless, her eyes closed, but thankfully, there were no visible injuries.

“Is she breathing?”

“Yes. We’ve confirmed she is.”

“Then just put an ice pack on her and lay her down in her room. She was probably just playing and fell. She’s not even bleeding.”

A little surprised by Lucrezia’s indifferent handling of the situation, the butler Niccolo cautiously suggested again.

“My lady, shouldn’t we call a doctor?”

Having been stripped of all authority over the household, Lucrezia couldn't use the household budget to call a doctor. If she did, she would have to pay the house call fee from her own pocket money. Her finances had been in a dire state recently. With no income and heavy expenses for her son, she was bleeding money. At this rate, she might have to sell Isabella’s pink sapphire tiara this month. That girl Isabella would throw a fit if she found out. The thought gave Lucrezia a headache, and she snapped.

“Are you questioning my judgment right now?”

Lucrezia’s anger exploded at the innocent Niccolo.

“Are you my man or that girl Ariadne’s! Are you now openly trying to defy me?”

“Goodness, of course not, my lady!”

His excuse did not appease her. Lucrezia even pointed a finger at him as she unleashed her fury.

“Do you think I’ll be in this state forever! Just wait until I’m back in charge, I won’t let this slide! Get lost!”

With Lucrezia acting like this, Niccolo had no choice but to retreat obediently. Frankly, Arabella was Lucrezia’s daughter, not his own child.

“As you command, my lady.”

Lucrezia returned to her room in a huff. Behind her, Niccolo instructed the maids to carefully carry Arabella to her room on the second floor. Two maids joined forces, gently lifting Arabella in their arms. As they did, Arabella’s head turned, and blood that had pooled in her ear canal trickled out. Drip, drip. The drops of blood from Arabella’s ear left an indelible trail of dots from the ground-floor entrance hall to her bedroom, staining the white marble and dark brown wooden floors. * * * Following the trail of blood down from the second floor, Isabella quietly entered her mother’s ground-floor guest room.

“Mother…”

“What is it now with you?”

Extremely displeased, Lucrezia snapped even at her eldest daughter.

“Mother…”

“What is wrong with you too! I’m already upset about Arabella falling down the stairs. One girl after another, why do you all trouble your mother so much!”

“It’s all Arabella’s fault!”

Isabella finally shouted back at her mother’s irritation.

“Arabella was talking back to me, and when I said something, she got angry and ran off, and she fell because she was so worked up!”

“What?”

“She got angry all on her own and ran off, what was I supposed to do!”

Feeling guilty, Isabella was babbling, saying more than she needed to.

“So Arabella fell while the two of you were fighting?!”

“I told you no! She did it all by herself!”

“She did it by herself, right? You didn’t do anything, did you?”

“You don’t trust me?! Ugh, why did I even come to you… Fine, I’ll never tell you anything again!”

“Why is this girl needlessly picking a fight! I’m distraught right now! Don’t provoke me! It’s true you didn’t do anything, right?”

“It’s true!”

“Then get out!”

* * *

‘Ugh…’

The world was blurry. Arabella struggled to blink her hazy eyes. Objects seemed to melt and flow like soup.

“Lady Arabella? She’s awake!”

Someone’s shrill voice cut through the air. Her hearing was so muffled she couldn’t tell whose voice it was. Her head felt like it was splitting, and she just wanted to cover her ears. The owner of the voice, who had screamed when Arabella’s eyelids fluttered after hours of unconsciousness, was her personal maid, who had been watching over her. She ran like the wind to deliver the joyous news to Lady Lucrezia, Lady Arabella’s mother.

“My lady! My lady! Lady Arabella has woken up.”

“Why are you making such a racket.”

But Lucrezia, who should have been happy about her daughter’s safety, snapped with irritation. Isabella, who had been curled up like a cat on the sofa in Lucrezia’s room, also shot her head up in surprise. Lucrezia had been wrestling with a guilty conscience, wondering if she should have called a doctor. However, the time to call one had already passed, and the more she dwelled on it, the worse a person she became. Lucrezia’s mood only continued to sour. That Arabella had woken up was a great relief, but Lucrezia didn’t even want to see the result of her own mistake. Still, even the foolish Lucrezia could guess what people would say if she didn't even go to see Arabella.

“Stop being so undignified and noisy!”

After taking her anger out on the innocent maid, she heaved herself up and made her way to Arabella’s room on the second floor. Fearing the consequences of her actions, Isabella followed her mother with quick, short steps up to the second floor. The door burst open! The loud noise was not at all helpful to a child with a head injury. But for Lucrezia, her own feelings came first. Seeing her youngest daughter lying in bed with a pale complexion made her feel even worse.

“You! I knew this would happen, you reckless thing.”

Arabella’s ears were ringing, and her thoughts were clouded. Lucrezia’s words didn’t register in her mind with any clear meaning. She struggled to blink, trying to understand her mother.

“Who told you to talk back to your sister? You reap what you sow, you reap what you sow!”

Sister, reap what you sow…

“I knew a day like this would come, ever since you started talking back to your sister!”

Behind Lucrezia, she could vaguely see her sister, who had the same hair and eye color as their mother. Her own sister, who followed their mother around like a duckling following its mother duck. The one who was loved no matter what she did.

“You’re not good at anything, just causing trouble all day long! Why did I even give birth to you? I’m so upset!”

Tears streamed from Arabella’s clouded green eyes.

“If only you hadn’t been born, my life would have been better than this! Better than this!”

Her vision began to darken. The sight of her angry mother and her sister clinging tightly behind her was the last thing Arabella saw in this life. * * * Upon arriving at the San Ercole Basilica, Ariadne first delivered the wage pouches for the household staff dispatched there. After that, she had personal business to attend to. She requested a meeting with the nun in charge of music education. Their conversation, including trivial greetings and pleasantries, took about an hour. When Ariadne asked about the entrance exam results, the nun smiled broadly and said, “Accepted!” She explained that on the list of applicants received in advance from Padua for administrative purposes, ‘Arabella de Mare’ was listed as the second-highest scorer. The nun hinted that a messenger was currently delivering the individual notices, so the official letter of acceptance would arrive at the house in a day or two. After finishing the meeting, Ariadne couldn’t wait to get home and share the good news with Arabella. *Arabella! You got in with the second-highest score! And you’re the youngest to be admitted!* But on the way home, as the carriage passed through the main gate of the mansion, Ariadne sensed a disordered, unsettled atmosphere. For one, one of the two gatekeepers who should have been guarding the entrance was missing.

‘What’s going on?’

With a sense of foreboding, Ariadne entered the front door and asked the footman who took her travelling cloak.

“Has something happened in the house?”

“Lady Arabella… Please, go to the grand hall, my lady.”

The ominous feeling crept closer. Cardinal de Mare had returned home before Ariadne. That, too, was unusual. As Ariadne approached the grand hall, she saw Cardinal de Mare in the distance, dressed in his red formal attire. Beside him, servants bustled about, filling the hall with white flowers.

‘White flowers? Out of nowhere?’

The doors connecting the grand hall to the corridor, which should have been closed, were wide open. The entire house felt anxious and chaotic. Something was seriously wrong.

“Father.”

Ariadne greeted Cardinal de Mare as she entered the grand hall. Next to him stood a restless Lucrezia and Isabella, whose complexion was ashen as a corpse. Arabella was nowhere to be seen.

“Arabella…?”

Cardinal de Mare answered curtly in a dry voice.

“She’s dead.”

Ariadne asked back without thinking.

“What?”

He relayed the fact tonelessly.

“She stopped breathing this afternoon. They say she was playing on the stairs and fell headfirst.”

Cardinal de Mare gestured with his chin toward the center of the grand hall. There, on a dais raised about a foot and a half high, lay a coffin that was far too large for Arabella’s small frame. It was an imposing ebony coffin.

“This can’t be…!”

Ariadne scrambled frantically onto the dais and looked inside the black coffin. Lying within was her youngest sister, looking as if she were merely asleep, her clear skin unblemished, her long, flaxen eyelashes cast down over her closed eyes.

“Arabella? Arabella?”

Ariadne reached out and touched Arabella’s chubby cheek. The face that should have been warm was now growing cold, its life gone. The once resilient and soft cheek felt strangely like rubber to her touch.

“Ah… Ah…”

The reality of it, which she couldn’t grasp just by hearing or seeing, finally hit her when she felt the cold skin. Nevertheless, Ariadne didn’t give up and persistently tried to talk to Arabella.

“Arabella, wake up. Look at me, please?”

Her cold sister did not answer.

“Arabella, your acceptance letter arrived… You got in with the second-highest score, you know?”

Tears finally welled up in Ariadne’s eyes.

“You have to go to Padua, you wanted to go. Arabella, you have to go to the big city and study the music you wanted to, right?”

Ariadne’s hand fumbled, searching for Arabella’s. It was a small hand that needed to be held tightly. Arabella’s two hands were crossed peacefully on her stomach, but her left hand was unnaturally clenched into a tight fist. Ariadne noticed nail marks on it.

‘What is this…?’

Just as she raised her right hand to turn Arabella’s left over for a closer look, images began to flood into her head. It was the same ability she had experienced at the Rambouillet Almshouse.

“Agh…!”

Scenes flashed before Ariadne’s eyes. It was less like watching a video and more like the facts themselves were being forcibly injected into her brain. Lucrezia’s shouting and rebukes as she lay in her room, the scuffle with Isabella behind the stairs, Isabella, who she thought would catch her, snatching the human hair wig from right in front of her instead.

‘Ari would like this if I brought it to her!’

Arabella thinking of the iron clasp.

‘When the acceptance letter from the music conservatory arrives… I’ll call her sister.’

Arabella, making a promise to herself. Trickle. Uncontrollable tears streamed down Ariadne’s face. She clenched her fists tightly.