The servants finished their meal and hurried upstairs. Once Anastasia confirmed that everyone had left, she picked up the bowl and spoon she had used and headed toward the sink.
Fortunately, the kitchen staff had gone to the storage room to retrieve supplies, leaving the kitchen empty. Ignoring the water splashing onto her clothes, Anastasia quickly washed the plate clean, left it in the corner of the cupboard, and headed for the stairs she had come up.
The staircase Anastasia used was a servant’s passage, designed to allow movement without catching the eyes of the masters. Dragging her feet, she hurried up the stairs, opened the back door, and stepped out into the garden.
The morning sun was pouring down, and the dawn mist was gradually lifting.
‘I must hurry.’
Feeling the air grow warmer, Anastasia moved busily. Her gait was one that the servants would openly mock if they happened to see her, calling it a strange limp. However, none of them realized that the shoes beneath her skirt were far too large for her feet.
“Hah… hah….”
Only after reaching the forest beyond the estate’s garden with her labored steps did Anastasia finally stop and wipe the sweat from her forehead. Catching her breath for a moment, she entered the woods without hesitation. Even though she hadn't walked far, the trees obscured the view of the mansion.
“Whew….”
Only then did Anastasia take off her hat and lift her head. The morning sun seeped through the leaves, scattering fragments of light across the forest path. Anastasia took off her shoes and held them in her hands.
This was the only pair of shoes she had left, so she had to wear them sparingly. Clutching her hat and shoes to her chest, Anastasia headed toward the place she always went. The leaves, dried brittle throughout the winter, crunched beneath her feet.
Under normal circumstances, she might have spent the time looking at the sky or examining newly bloomed flowers, but today she could not.
‘They say a new master is coming….’
The words of the servant she had heard in the kitchen echoed in her mind. The servant who had cautiously uttered those words had kept repeating what they had heard.
They said the new master was quite calculating, so he might dismiss the servants of Edenhurst. The Countess had said she would try to ask the new master to keep everyone on. But Anastasia knew. She knew the truth: she was not included in the "everyone" the Countess spoke of.
‘What will happen to me?’
She tightened her grip on the shoes and hat she held against her chest. Even though she was wearing countless layers of clothing, a chill ran through her body.
Anastasia tried to think of the people at Edenhurst one by one. Among those who remained, there was no one who wasn't needed. Even the dog tied in front of the stables had a purpose. If one were to count every person, beast, and object in Edenhurst, and identify the most useless existence of all….
“You snake-like girl!”
The memory of the Countess’s roar from long ago surfaced, and Anastasia clutched her cheek. It had been quite a while since she was last struck, yet she still felt a phantom ache in that cheek. She did not resent the Countess. It was only natural that the woman disliked her.
When she was younger, she had felt a flicker of resentment, but after coming to Edenhurst and encountering a wider world and more people, Anastasia had come to understand. She understood why no one liked her. Why the Count had brought her here. And….
As she recalled the past, Anastasia’s body began to tremble. Eventually, she stopped walking and sat by a nearby stream.
After setting her hat and shoes aside, she dipped her hands into the stream, feeling a coldness that made her senses snap to attention. Still, spring was spring. It was a blessing that water flowed in the forest and that she could wash with it. In winter, she couldn't wash outside, so she had to sneak into the bathroom at night after the servants were done, hurriedly washing with water that had already begun to turn icy.
After meticulously washing her face and limbs with the stream water, Anastasia sat on the fallen leaves and looked at the sky, waiting for her body to dry. The worries from earlier began to coil around her mind.
That she might have to leave Edenhurst.
The mere thought made her skin crawl and left her feeling helpless. Anastasia could not imagine leaving this beautiful land.
Even if the Countess hated her, and even if Elizabeth, the Count’s eldest daughter, ignored her as if she were invisible, she wanted to stay here. Was this not the Paradise she had always longed for?
The only world Anastasia knew was Edenhurst and the barren village where she had lived as a child. She could not imagine any other place, and she did not want to. Furthermore, she remembered what Catherine, the Count’s second daughter, had said.
“How pitiful. If you weren't in Edenhurst, you would already be dead. How could an idiot who knows nothing go out and live in the world? You’d be lucky if you didn't meet a terrible fate or starve to death within days. Take this.”
Knowing that Anastasia still could not read or count and possessed no skills, Catherine had sighed as if truly at a loss, then handed her a pair of shoes that were too small for her to wear anymore. The shoes Anastasia had placed beside her were those very ones.
It wasn't just Catherine’s words. The servants, too, said there was no place in the world as good as Edenhurst. Anastasia looked around the forest. The servants must be right. Where else in the world could there be such a beautiful place?
She wouldn't dare ask for a room in the mansion; if she could just hide at the edge of this Paradise and continue to breathe, she would ask for nothing more….
‘Should I hide?’
Edenhurst was a vast estate. Moreover, the forest where she spent most of her time had become a place no one else entered, as the Countess had dismissed the gamekeeper after the Count passed away. So, if she hid here, no one would be able to find her. As proof, had she not gone years without ever encountering a soul in these woods?
As she felt happy for having found a good solution, Anastasia’s shoulders soon slumped.
She could live in the forest through spring, summer, and autumn. But could she survive in the forest when winter came?
It was impossible. No matter how grand Edenhurst was, she could not spend the winter outside.
While Anastasia was lost in thought, her body had dried to some extent. Rising to her feet to return to her original destination, she put on her hat and reached for her shoes. At that moment.
*Crackle.*
The sound of leaves being stepped on came from a short distance away. Startled, Anastasia turned around. A man she had never seen before was standing there, watching her.
“Ah….”
Her feet felt nailed to the ground, unable to move an inch. Anastasia stood frozen, staring at the stranger who had appeared so suddenly.
His short-cropped platinum blonde hair was neat, and his face was equally clean. Through hair that swayed slightly in the breeze, eyes with delicate lines framed deep blue irises. The sharp corners of his eyes gave him a cold impression, but Anastasia thought it suited him quite well.
While the lines of his face might have been sharp, the lines tracing from his jaw, down his neck, and across his body were thick and powerful. Anyone could tell that his frame, wrapped in an expensive suit, was incredibly broad and solid.
Absurdly, Anastasia thought he was beautiful as she looked at him. Until now, the only beautiful thing in her world had been Edenhurst, but for the first time, something appeared that could rival it.
As Anastasia stared at the man, forgetting even her own situation, he opened his mouth.
“What are you.”
A deep, low voice mixed with the sound of leaves rustling in the wind. It was a voice so deep and heavy that it felt incongruous with his delicate face, creating a momentary sense of dissonance. Yet, that gap only made the man’s presence more intense.
Anastasia felt a tingling in her fingertips and her body began to tremble. How long had it been since someone had spoken to her? But this sensation was not merely because someone had addressed her. Then, why on earth….
“…!”
Then, Anastasia realized. Just as she was staring at him, he was also looking at her. That the gaze of those blue eyes was directed straight at her from the start. And in those eyes, there was only curiosity, not the contempt and disgust she had always faced.
At that unfamiliar gaze, Anastasia realized what kind of situation she was in.
Her eyes, quickly avoiding the man’s gaze, darted wildly. Noticing Anastasia’s agitation, the man spoke again.
“There is no need to be so afraid. I only wish to ask which way the Edenhurst estate lies.”
At the man’s question, Anastasia did not lift her head, but instead raised a hand with great effort to point in the direction of the mansion.
“The estate is… the estate is….”
She just needed to say that he should go that way. Because it had been so long since she had spoken to anyone other than herself, she was flustered and could not get the words out properly. Just then, the man suddenly moved. He had only taken a single step, but because of his long legs, he had closed the distance and was standing right in front of Anastasia before she knew it.
“Would you mind taking off that hat for a moment?”
The man said this and reached out toward Anastasia. At that moment, a high-pitched scream rang through the forest. While the startled man hesitated, Anastasia turned and ran deeper into the woods.
She heard a voice calling her from behind, but Anastasia could not bring herself to look back.
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