Chapter 48: Walking In On

Early the next morning.

I didn’t sleep…

Sylvie got up early, hurriedly slipping out of Utia’s deadly embrace, putting on her clothes, and running away.

Her eyelids were heavy with dark circles, and she herself was both tired and sleepy.

What “have a good rest”? Your body is as cold as an ice block—being able to sleep in your arms would be a miracle!

If she slept any longer, Sylvie felt like she was going to get sick!

“Ah la, planning to leave just like that? Won’t you linger with Sister a bit more?”

Just as she reached the door, Utia’s sweet voice, mixed with a hint of grievance, came from behind.

Sylvie’s hand rested on the cold doorknob. Upon hearing it, her movements stiffened. She took a deep breath, didn’t turn back, and replied in as steady a voice as possible, though unable to hide the tired hoarseness.

“…Lady Utia, Sylvie needs to take care of Nia and the others.”

From behind came a rustling sound, as if Utia sat up.

Then, that sweet voice with a hint of lazy teasing rang out again, closer than before.

“So diligent, even though you rested so hard last night… Sister really enjoyed your company.”

“Come again next time, oh~”

Sylvie’s body tensed for a moment. Without turning back, she slightly nodded.

“Yes, Lady Utia.”

She left after giving a flawless answer as usual.

…………….

“You couldn’t… have been waiting all this time for that girl named Sylvie to come back, right?”

Cassia’s body stiffened. She slowly turned her head, her widened eyes trembling slightly, but then, as if forcing herself, she made her gaze become indifferent and empty like before, yet that panic still etched on her face.

“…I haven’t!”

A denial almost panicky squeezed out from Cassia’s tightly pursed lips.

Dry, urgent, like the embarrassment of having one’s thoughts suddenly exposed, forming a stark contrast with her previous icy silence and emptiness.

The emptiness in her blood-red eyes was disrupted by a panicked emotion, her pupils slightly contracting, even her breathing becoming rapid.

“She is just… just a mere blood livestock! A lowly… slave! Something that doesn’t even have the qualification to look at me directly!”

Cassia’s voice unconsciously rose, as if emphasizing something, as if the louder the voice, the more she could convince herself and this meddlesome human before her.

“I gave her life… gave her the right to live! Everything she has is given by me! She should feel honored! And she should give everything for me! This is the most rightful ‘devotion’ a blood livestock can do!”

Her words were logically chaotic, not at all like the calm queen from before, but more like an ordinary person whose tail was stepped on, eager to deny something.

“How could I possibly… care about that kind of guy? She’s just a… noisy, annoying… beast that understands nothing, knows nothing!”

However, the more she fiercely denied, the more she tried to use derogatory words to distance herself, the harder it was to hide the true emotions underlying her words, which completely mismatched her intense reaction.

“…I don’t care about her life or death at all! To me! She’s just a handy tool, nothing more!”

Cassia almost gritted her teeth, using all her strength to say this cold, heartless sentence.

However, the moment her words fell, as she tried to complete this self-deceptive rebuttal with the coldest words.

Her breath suddenly hitched.

From the corner of her eye, she caught the slim figure that had quietly appeared at the door at some point, standing silently.

Sylvie.

The girl she had been constantly belittling and mocking was standing there, under the dilapidated doorframe, wearing that slightly oversized, dust-stained cloak.

Moonlight slanted in from behind her, outlining her thin and clear silhouette, but not illuminating her lowered face.

The room was deathly silent.

The previous intense denials, cold disparagements… all words froze in the air at this moment, also freezing in Cassia’s suddenly contracting pupils.

Cassia could clearly see Sylvie’s slightly lowered head, her hair weakly scattered on her shoulders.

See her shoulders slightly… sagging a bit.

No questioning, no anger, not even lifting her head.

Only a silent quietude.

It was a calm more despairing than any intense reaction.

Sylvie slowly raised her head.

Her emerald-green eyes looked over.

There was no anticipated hurt, anger, or despair—only a bottomless fatigue and understanding.

As if Cassia’s earlier intense and ugly denial was already within her expectations.

Sylvie’s lips moved slightly, seeming to want to say something, but after a pause, she just said as usual.

“Lady Cassia, Sylvie is back…”

…….

Sylvie walked into the room on her own, carrying something on her back, her face unusually calm, as if she hadn’t heard the intense belittlement at all.

She came to the side of Cassia, who no longer said anything, stiff on the bed, then unloaded the thing from her back and said calmly.

“This is a thicker bedding Sylvie found for you. The weather is very cold; this bedding is warm enough.”

“…”

Her blood-red eyes followed Sylvie’s movements, watching her carefully spread out the thick bedding, smoothing out the wrinkles.

Sylvie’s face showed no expression—no grievance, no resentment, not even a trace of extra ripple.

Only in the depths of those emerald-green eyes lingered an unshakable, almost numb fatigue.

After doing all this, she took out a dagger from her bosom, unwrapped the white bandage, revealing the slender arm covered in hideous scars beneath.

The blade pressed against her wrist, then without hesitation, sliced down.

Blood slowly flowed along her arm into the cup. The girl was silent throughout, just quietly finishing it all, gently placing the cup half-filled with blood on the bedside.

She slightly bowed, saying calmly.

“If Lady Cassia has anything, feel free to tell Sylvie. Sylvie will leave first.”

After saying that, she turned and walked to Shiluo, who had been watching this scene.

“Has Lady Shiluo’s body improved?”

“Ah… Yeah, much better than before.”

I feel like the atmosphere is a bit awkward…

Shiluo nodded somewhat stiffly, her gaze sweeping back and forth between Sylvie’s pale, calm face and Cassia’s still stiff back, her blood-red eyes staring fixedly at the cup of blood on the bedside.

The air was filled with a suffocating oppression.

Sylvie seemed not to mind this awkwardness. She merely lowered her eyelids, as if hesitating about something, and said.

“If Lady Shiluo has time, could you come with Sylvie? I have some things… I want to tell you.”