Swan Grave - Chapter 12

Rothbart might deny it, but he always gave an extra glance to women from the eastern continent. As if he were trying to draw something out of their faces.

And Rose was not the only one who noticed the Marquess’s special treatment. Because Rothbart was usually indifferent to others and harsh in his demeanor, that one extra glance stood out all the more. Many eastern maids tried to cross the line, hoping to become a substitute for the Marchioness, and in the end, they were thrown out in disgrace.

Whenever Rose saw such scenes, she mocked them as fools who didn’t know their place, but deep inside, she was anxious that Rothbart might choose one of them.

So whenever she saw eastern maids or pretty maids, she would torment them as if to vent her fury. Unable to endure Rose’s bullying, the maids all left the mansion before three months had passed, and only then could Rose feel at ease.

‘But that wench…’

Rose thought of Anna. What a venomous girl she was. No matter how much Rose trampled her, she only lowered her long, thick lashes and pretended not to hear. She acted troubled, feigned embarrassment, and pulled every sly trick. She endured like that for months, and in the end, she was still in the mansion even now that Rothbart had returned.

And a few days ago at dawn…

Rose’s steps suddenly halted as she strode down the corridor. She recalled what she had seen on the dawn of the day Rothbart returned.

The Marquess, upon arriving at the mansion, shut himself straight into the Marchioness’s room. It was nothing unusual, but she could never feel at ease about it. To vent her anger, she had gone looking for that eastern maid.

But the maid was nowhere to be seen. An inexplicable impatience drove her, and Rose ended up pacing her room until dawn without sleeping.

At that moment, through the window, she saw the maid hurrying down the corridor. With ink-black hair and exotic features, she stood out even in the dark.

She hadn’t been seen all day, and now, at this hour, where could she be going?

Rose’s eyes followed her to where she appeared. It was in the direction of the Marchioness’s room.

No way… Strange imaginings filled her head. But she quickly shook her head and cast off her fears. No. Nothing could have happened. How sacred was that room to him…

Even as she tried to persuade herself, she couldn’t rid her heart of the vivid foreboding. Rose wanted to know the details, and several times she considered asking Rothbart what had happened that day, but in the end she held her tongue.

She knew well that he hated being bothered with personal questions, and she didn’t want to bring up the maid to his attention if nothing had happened, only to create trouble.

Instead, she had questioned the maid. But because of Svanhild’s interference, she failed to get any information, and when she went to Rothbart, she heard the shocking words that the experiments were to be suspended.

As Rose stood alone in the corridor, shadows crept over her face with the setting sun.

Until now, she had endured by thinking that at least she was useful to Rothbart. I am different from the other women. My master will not abandon me…

But now she had fallen from that special place. She was only a governess. She was no different from those eastern maids who had been driven out. She too was someone who could be cast aside at any time…

The thought made her skin crawl. In the darkness, her face twisted. Rose stood there for a long time, chewing over the thoughts that rose within her.

***

‘Up close, she really is beautiful. Even her haughty side is tempting.’

Sehyun swallowed as he watched Rose’s back growing distant. He had been annoyed at the butler for constantly saddling him with bothersome chores, but to think it would lead to him running into Rose like this.

His girlfriend Anna was pretty too, but only by the standards of an ordinary college student. Compared to her, Rose could be likened to a Hollywood actress or a model.

On the outside, Sehyun seemed like a diligent and respectable young man, but in truth, he was far from clean.

At orientation, he had noticed that Anna was the prettiest among the freshmen and marked her out. He quietly pressured others to isolate her, but Anna paid it no mind and attended school alone.

He wondered how he could make that stubborn girl depend on him, and right then, Anna’s mother passed away. Sehyun did not miss the chance.

‘If I could make her mine with just a day or two of effort, it was cheap enough.’

In the end, Sehyun became Anna’s boyfriend, but that was all. Anna was fairly conservative when it came to relationships between men and women, and she rarely gave him any opening. The farthest she allowed was a kiss, and even then, it happened only once because Sehyun had pestered her.

But Sehyun waited patiently. After all, there was no shortage of women to take care of his lower needs, and conquering Anna had become a sort of game to him. He planned to work on her step by step.

‘Now she acts like she’s some precious daughter from a wealthy family, but just wait. She’ll end up clinging to my leg, crying that she has no one but me!’

But then, they were suddenly transported to another world. He thought she would cling to him all the more out of fear, but instead, she became even more guarded.

So Sehyun grew restless.

Dissatisfied with being treated as an outcast foreigner, he desperately wanted to return to his original world, but with no way of knowing how, it remained a distant dream. And so Sehyun’s eyes began to wander.

Other maids were fine enough, but the most attractive woman in the mansion was undoubtedly the governess, Rose. Before returning to his world, wouldn’t it be nice to have a little fun with her? If he could manage that, perhaps the humiliation and hardship he had suffered since arriving in this world could be remembered as nothing more than a memory.

‘If Anna finds out, it’ll be troublesome…’

But he could always say it was unavoidable, that he had done it to gather information. Anna would understand. Besides, they weren’t really tied down as a couple anyway.

And the people in the mansion believed that Anna and Sehyun were siblings. Whenever they secretly met to share information, being siblings was easier to explain away as brotherly affection. But if they were known to be lovers, it could easily be seen as sneaking around.

So there was no problem at all with him making advances on Rose. Rationalizing it that way, Sehyun snickered. In his head, he was already entangled with Rose, both of them writhing in pleasure.