“It’s your opinion that matters, my lady, not mine.”

“I just don’t know enough. Please, just this once. I’ll handle everything else myself.”

Elsie slid the paper toward him. She heard a faint, derisive laugh but forced herself to ignore it.

Moving on to the next document, she worked through the usual items one by one.

Donations, charitable projects, staff wages, her own allocated expenses.

The amount available for personal use had always been kept to the bare minimum. At most, she replaced a worn brush or picked up a few tubes of paint.

She gave no thought to jewelry or dresses, and when she had anything to spare, she put it toward donations.

That was simply the best she could do.

“Wait outside. I’ll pass these along when I’m done.”

Having Jasper stand beside her made her uncomfortable when the work took time.

Come to think of it, under normal circumstances Ivy Smith would be the one bringing documents, not Jasper. It was strange.

The deeper she thought about it, the more an uneasy feeling crept up her spine.

“Ahem. There’s an important event outside, so I’ll be staying until it’s finished.”

“An event?”

Elsie tilted her head at the schedule she had never heard of.

“Yes.”

Then a sharp, acrid smell began to sting her nose.

“Ah, it seems it’s started.”

Elsie reacted to the smell of something burning, and Jasper walked toward the window.

What kind of event could this be.

She glanced toward the window and saw thick smoke rising into the sky. Something was really being burned out there.

“Would you like to see?”

“Mm. I’m not particularly curious.”

“Is that so? You really ought to come and look.”

There was a chilling amusement in Jasper’s voice.

Whether it was that or something else, her heart began to beat hard. Gripped by a nameless dread, Elsie rose from her seat.

She moved to the window, and her trembling hands gripped the sill.

“Ah……”

What she saw outside drove itself into her eyes like a blade.

Something was burning. Cruelly, mercilessly.

Her heart dropped to the floor. A pain that tore her chest to pieces crashed over her, and she crumpled where she stood.

“The paintings, my paintings……!”

A pile of frames was engulfed in hellish flames.

The moment the fire touched the canvas, the paintings that had held the natural world inside them were destroyed without mercy.

“No! No……! Not those……”

She couldn’t lose her paintings again.

Elsie screamed and forced her legs to move. She ran with everything her slight body had and burst out of the estate.

The smoke had seeped into the building, and the smell stung her nose. Within it she could feel the life going out of her paintings, and the pain of a thousand things tearing apart inside her came flooding in.

The ones from before had been taken from her, but the paintings she had built up here, one by one……

Please.

She had never once called on God. Not even when she heard that her father had been executed.

But not now.

God, please.

Even in the moments when she felt she might suffocate and die within these walls, painting had been her only comfort.

And yet…… to burn that one and only outlet so cruelly.

“My lady, what’s the matter?”

“It’s dangerous. Please go back inside.”

The servants spoke to her as she stood gasping, her face a wreck.

“No, stop. All of you. Stop……”

Her hands reached out helplessly toward the flames climbing high into the sky.

“These are the master’s orders. You should step back, my lady. It isn’t safe.”

“My paintings……”

“My lady!”

The servants took hold of her as she staggered, half out of her mind.

Tears fell in heavy drops.

But her blurred vision refused to clear. The smeared flames filled every corner of her sight.

“Let go! Not the paintings, put out the fire right now!”

“We cannot. These are the master’s orders.”

Elsie fought against them, and another female servant latched onto her arm.

Mrs. Elsie Grey.

For all that title was worth, she was held down without effort by the hands of servants.

“No……”

The fire kept rising, and rising. The acrid smoke stung her eyes and the pain grew worse.

Elsie had been muttering the same words over and over in a hollow voice when she looked around at the servants gathered around the flames.

They stood there with satisfied expressions, as though burning away long-overdue rubbish.

Proud smiles, like heroes dispensing with evil.

Elsie watched them in silence, and then, with a pain like a thunderbolt, she lost consciousness.

***

It felt as though the world was collapsing.

The sensation was so terrible, like every bone in her body was being crushed, that she couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes.

My paintings.

My paintings.

The gallery her father had taken her to as a child had been like another world entirely. Young Elsie had stared at the gleaming works and wondered, could I make something like that too.

She had pestered her father until a brush was placed in her hand, and she had moved it, clumsily at first.

Now, all that remained was painting. The relationship with Kaiden she had thought was her whole life had fallen apart completely.

“Hup……”

Afraid that reality might hit harder than the truth itself, she couldn’t open her eyes, and began to sob.

“Hmm, hk……”

She was afraid her crying might be heard outside, so she couldn’t even weep out loud.

She wanted to cry like a child, loudly and without restraint.

She cried until she was soaked in tears, until she felt she might melt into the bed. In a space where no one cared about her, she spent the entire day doing nothing but weeping.

***

She cried until she was too exhausted to continue, then slept, then woke. She had no idea how many times she had repeated the cycle.

A terrible, burning pain surged from her lower abdomen.

“Ugh……”

She let out a hoarse m*an and gripped the blanket with both hands. Elsie clenched her teeth, trying to endure the pain that twisted and dug into her lower belly.

“Is, is anyone…… anyone there?”

She writhed and struggled to lift herself up, turning toward the door.

In that moment, a horrible sensation came from below.

She couldn’t find the courage to look and see what was happening.

Knock knock.

“My lady, may I come in? I brought soup in case you were hungry.”

“Ugh, Nina……!”

“My lady?”

The moment she heard Nina’s gentle voice, she called out to her with desperation.

She needed someone’s help. A terrible premonition was stabbing at her chest without mercy.

“Ma, my lady!”

Sensing something was wrong, Nina threw the door open.

And then.

“……My lady!”

She gasped and dropped the wooden tray in her hands.

Crash!

The dish shattered against the floor. But Nina’s eyes were not on the floor. They were fixed on the bed.

A white blanket, stained a horrifying crimson, came into view.

“Blood…… look at the blood…… My lady! Are, are you all right?”

The white blanket had soaked through and turned bright red. Nina stood frozen in horror, stamping her feet in helpless distress.

“Hk, Nina, my stomach, it hurts so much……”

“Wait just a moment! I’ll call the doctor. Just a moment!”

A tearing, unbearable pain tormented Elsie.

Nina moved with urgent steps, leaving Elsie behind as she clutched the blanket in both fists and struggled.

How long she waited, she didn’t know.

Cold sweat had soaked her through, and a chill she couldn’t fight swept in, making her lips tremble.

“It’s worse than that! Hurry!”

“It’s probably nothing serious.”

Nina’s frantic voice was met with the doctor’s indifferent reply.

But stepping into the room, he went silent.

“……Oh.”

In that moment, Elsie’s vision flashed white.

***

“My lady, how are you feeling?”

She managed to open her eyes and found Nina looking down at her with worry.

“Would you like some warm water?”

Elsie shook her head. She was thirsty, but she didn’t want to drink.

“……The doctor?”

“He said he’d come back later. You still have a fever.”

Nina pressed her hand gently to Elsie’s smooth forehead.

The hand was pleasantly cool. She felt sorry for Nina’s concern, but strangely it also settled something in her, and she closed her eyes in peace.

She thought she wanted to disappear just like this. She was so exhausted, she wanted to rest.

She wished that closing her eyes would end everything, and she could leave this weary world behind.

Knock knock.

“I’ll come in.”

The doctor entered just as Elsie was wishing for a death as gentle as falling asleep.

“I’d like to speak with the lady alone.”

“Oh, yes. I’ll step out.”

At the doctor’s cautioning words, Nina gave Elsie a worried look and left.

She would have liked Nina to stay, but she couldn’t bring herself to say so.

She felt strangely small in front of doctors. Though the truth was, she felt that way with most people.

“I’m afraid this is difficult news, but I believe it should be said.”

The doctor cleared his throat with a hmm and began with an uncharacteristic care.

Whatever it was, he was taking his time. Elsie tilted her head weakly toward him.

“Tsk. It would have been better if you’d told me the details sooner. A shame.”

She had already told him multiple times that something felt wrong, that something was off. He simply hadn’t listened.