Chapter 24

“Why? Try making things work with him. The doctor seems very interested in you, Judith.”

The hurt in him came out crookedly. Even knowing those words would wound her, he wanted to confirm it. That the doctor meant nothing at all to Judith.

“It’s wrong to use someone when you know how they feel. It’s the cruelest and vilest thing in the world.”

Once the words left her mouth, her heart ached. She knew Johannes toyed with her while aware of her feelings. And yet she still could not cut him off and kept getting drawn back in. Judith sprang to her feet and glared at Johannes with all her might.

“But what’s even more pathetic is the heart of the person who knows that and still can’t break away. So stop it.”

Judith forced out the words while biting down on her agitated breathing. She felt tears might spill out, but she held them back. Her chest rose and fell uneasily. Johannes only looked at her with clear eyes. As if he did not understand her at all. Judith wrinkled the bridge of her nose and scratched her lip with her fingertip. It was the same face she made when she was trying not to cry because she was afraid of being scolded by Grandmother Louise. Remembering the dampness that had once soaked Judith’s cheek not long ago, Johannes clenched his molars hard enough to make the line of his jaw stand out. It already infuriated him that she was defending the doctor, but was she really going to cry in front of him because of that man? I’m the one who wants to cry, and yet when you make that face, I can’t help but weaken.

Knock. Knock.

Just then, the Meyer family butler entered carrying a bag of belongings. Judith stormed out of the hospital room without even looking back. Johannes Meyer really was a bad man. And I’m even worse for being shaken around by him. Idiotic.

* * *

Elijah, who was soon to become Mrs. Müller, returned to Bayer earlier than expected. It was said that while passing through the Rhys Mountains, her fiancé had been bitten by some unknown insect and nearly lost his looks. Since his left eyelid had swollen so badly that he could barely open his eye, it seemed it had been a rather dangerous poisonous bug.

“Judith. It seems you caused an enormous amount of trouble while I was gone. Your grandmother has been worried sick.”

“Then what was I supposed to do? If I wanted to get back King Pirap’s old book, I had to find a man.”

Somehow, Judith ended up spilling the whole story behind King Pirap’s old book to Elijah.

“How about just honestly telling her about your grandfather?”

“It’s not that I haven’t thought of that. But until the very end, I want to try everything I still can.”

“Good grief. You really can’t do without me. What kind of nonsense is a newspaper advertisement? And that new doctor at Glory Clinic looks like the sort who’s never without a woman. Does it even make sense that he’s had none until now? I bet there isn’t a single nurse at that hospital who hasn’t had a crush on him. They say nurses and patients alike confess to him every day, so the fact that not a single rumor has spread is suspicious. He’s someone who needs a background check.”

“I don’t think we need to go that far.”

Judith did not tell Elijah that Karl had feelings for her. Elijah was the sort to be soft toward a man’s sincerity, so if she learned Karl was serious, it would only become troublesome.

“Fine. What’s the point of talking with you? In the end, I’m the one who has to step up for your sake. I’m holding a party this coming Saturday. I’ve invited not only the people from Bayer, but also the people I got to know on this trip, so you absolutely must come. I’ve already got my eye on a few decent people. One of them is a historian, for instance. There’s even someone whose field overlaps with yours.”

“Really?”

“Yes. So come dressed up.”

Turning the pages of the thick book resting on her stomach, Judith nodded absently.

Thud.

Elijah’s sharp hand closed the book. Judith glared at her like a child whose candy had been snatched away.

“You can’t have Johannes Meyer.”

“Ha.”

Fortunately, it seemed she did not know Judith had spent the night with him.

“The worst and most vicious man in the world, who ignored an innocent young girl’s confession. Who could have guessed that man would come back? I nearly fainted when I saw him at the engagement ceremony. He wasn’t even on the guest list, so I have no idea how he got in.”

“He probably came with Grandmother.”

“Good grief. That rascal’s handsome face is exactly the same.”

“Is it?”

“Wasn’t he always rather pretty? For a while, even my sisters and I were all crazy over him. Going on and on about how he looked like someone not of this world.”

Judith had not known he had been that popular. Though even if she had, her feelings for him probably still would not have stopped.

“In any case, Saturday. You can come early if you want, but don’t come late. We need time to scout people out. Understood?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Don’t give me that. You’re coming no matter what. There are only two and a half weeks left until Christmas. There isn’t much time.”

“So I’ve been thinking maybe I should just give up.”

“Give up? You’re saying you’ll hand the old book over to that hooligan Johannes in the end?”

Elijah planted her hands on her waist and huffed. That shameless man who had trampled the pure heart of a fifteen-year-old girl. She could not yield even half a bean to someone like him. She understood that Judith was unusually affected where Johannes was concerned, and she knew there were still feelings left. Which was precisely why she must not give up. Somehow, she had to find Judith a man and make her break free from Johannes. That was the most reasonable revenge. Judith lives perfectly well without you. You’re not the only man in the world. They had to show him that. Glowering at Judith, who sat there scratching at the corner of her book with her fingertip and wearing a sullen face, Elijah steeled her resolve.

“When it comes to a burning time between a man and a woman, one day is plenty.”

Knock.

Elijah flicked Judith on the shoulder with her finger, then armed herself in her fur coat. They said the Müller family was wealthy, and somehow her spending habits had become more extravagant too. Well, that must have been part of why she had forgotten even their appointment and gone off to marry into a rich family. Somehow, it all felt precarious.

* * *

Time flew by like an arrow. It was not easy finding paper material similar to that of the dancing figure painting and adjusting the areas where the thickness did not match. Judith bent her back like a bow and cracked her neck sharply. Her assistant, helping beside her, also pounded hard on her shoulders with a fist.

“Shall we stop here and rest? Do you happen to like parties?”

“I avoid indiscriminate entertainment culture. Especially gatherings dominated by the upper class. They begin with envy and jealousy, and lead all the way to longing for what one cannot have and self-criticism, making them dangerous for a common-born student like myself.”

“So you’re more Joan of Arc than Cinderella?”

“I simply want to live as an ordinary passerby.”

“How about not a passerby, but an archaeologist remembered in history?”

Only then did the assistant’s face, as she rubbed her shoulders, bloom like apple blossoms. Judith had only wanted to clear her head while sweating over the restoration work on the badly damaged dancing figure painting, but since the assistant said she disliked parties, there was no point dragging her along by force.

Judith took several bills from the notebook she had tossed on the desk and placed them into the assistant’s hand.

“If you hate parties, then go have a nice dinner with your siblings instead.”

“You really don’t have to do this every time.”

Pushing up her thick glasses, the assistant waved her hands in refusal.

“Think of it as a bonus. Or think of it as a bribe, if you prefer. In any case, let’s rest today. Then starting Monday, we’ll gather our strength again.”

Judith shoved the bills into the pocket of the assistant’s gown as she stretched. Just then, the housekeeper who had come looking for Judith hurried over.

“Miss, Mrs. Müller has sent someone.”

“Ha.”

So it had come at last. Clapping her hands together, Judith rose from her seat. Following the housekeeper back to her room, Judith leaned against the doorframe and let her mouth fall open. The sight was spectacular. A row of clothing racks beginning at the open door filled the room completely. The racks were crowded with fashionable dresses and ornaments, and beneath them, rows of dazzling party shoes seemed to stare back at her.