Chapter : 37. Love and Hate Are Only a Paper Apart
2023.09.06.
“Don’t you dare call my sister’s name so carelessly!”
Richter’s reaction nailed down what Ellis had been thinking.
“So it really was Iris. But of course, you’ll keep denying it until the end.”
Ellis slowly stepped back and sat down in her chair.
Karan, instead of interrupting their exchange, simply watched on with amusement. Every time Ellis wore that cynical expression, something deep inside his gut trembled.
“She has nothing to do with this.”
“Oh really? What does my sister do for you, Sir Richter? Does she hold your hand? Or maybe promise to dance with you at banquets?”
Richter kept his mouth shut. Ellis’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t tell me… you pulled all this off with nothing in return?”
“I told you, Iris never ordered me to do this!”
When Richter raised his voice, Karan immediately kicked him in the back.
Richter pitched forward and slammed his forehead against the floor.
“Ugh, ahh…”
He groaned. When Ellis turned her eyes to Karan, he stepped back and said:
“My foot slipped.”
To Richter, it sounded more like: I meant to smash your head in, but it landed on your back instead.
Ellis waited until Richter managed to pull himself upright.
“Sir Richter, do you truly believe in my sister Iris? Do you think she’ll ever repay your love?”
“I told you, I never did it expecting a reward!”
Ellis looked at him with pity.
“Then allow me to put an end to your useless love.”
Richter opened his mouth to say more, but it was no use. Karan shoved a gag between his teeth.
“Make a sound and you’ll never speak again.”
A little threat was thrown in for good measure.
“Dragging people about so early in the morning?”
“If you hate it, you could’ve just stayed home.”
Ellis didn’t even glance at Iris as she strode in through the wide-open door.
“You don’t like me, yet you still came just to check on me, didn’t you?”
“Check on you? What for?”
Ellis poured tea into Iris’s cup with a sly expression.
Iris, seeing Ellis perfectly fine, sighed inwardly.
Stupid Richter! He acted like he would do anything for me, but couldn’t even lay a hand on Ellis.
Iris had no idea about the attempted kidnapping.
And why would she? Ellis looked far too unscathed for someone who had supposedly gone through such an ordeal.
“You seem to have gotten home safely yesterday. Must’ve had a good rest too. You look well.”
If she looked closely, she wouldn’t have said that—Ellis’s dark circles were proof enough—but Iris never noticed anything beyond herself.
“Yes, I made it back. Though there was… a bit of trouble along the way.”
Iris hesitated, putting down her teacup. Ellis’s faint smile had been grating on her nerves from the start, almost as if she were being tested.
“So? What’s the reason you called me here so early?”
“Sir Richter. Do you know him?”
“Sir Richter?”
“Yes, Richter Vermont.”
“Never heard of him.”
Iris didn’t even flinch as she lied through her teeth.
“I see. He seemed quite fond of you.”
Was Ellis aware that Richter had schemed with her? Why bring him up all of a sudden?
Iris gripped her cup tightly.
“Do you think I’m like you? If I lined up all the people who adore me, they’d wrap around the training grounds more than once. Am I supposed to remember them all by name?”
“Still, Sir Richter must be a little more special.”
“I don’t even know what he looks like. Vermont? What kind of house is that? Just by the sound, it’s beneath me. Don’t ever bring up such men again. You’re ruining my morning.”
Iris drew the line coldly, not realizing how suspicious that made her look.
Ellis nodded indifferently.
“I see. I didn’t know you thought that way about Sir Richter. He looked quite earnest to me.”
“What? You actually met him?”
Ellis only shrugged.
Iris’s mind raced.
If Ellis met Richter, then he must have done something. But if that’s the case, why does she look perfectly fine? Richter’s men are infamous for their cruelty…
No, Richter definitely hadn’t touched her.
But why does Ellis keep bringing him up? As if she knows something…
“Well, I understand your thoughts. Oh, and by the way—congratulations on your engagement to Prince Chase. I’ll likely be leaving before long.”
“If it’s not sincere, I’ll decline your congratulations.”
That was as good as an order to leave. Iris rose to her feet, already planning to rush back and contact Richter.
“But I am sincere,” Ellis said, lifting her gaze without standing. “Just as sincere as you were with what you did to me.”
Iris gripped the back of her chair tightly.
So Richter had done something.
And Ellis knew Iris was involved.
“I have no idea what you’re babbling about. Must be your imagination running wild.”
Feigning ignorance to the end, Iris swept out of the room.
As silence fell, Ellis turned to the window. In the once-barren garden, new sprouts were starting to emerge.
The perfect season to begin anew.
“The perfect season to change one’s heart, too.”
Ellis crossed the room and opened a small side door. Richter stumbled out, his hands bound in front of him, tears streaming down his face.
She removed his gag.
“Uuugh… Iris, Iris… she would never… she could never do this to me.”
He sounded like a man who had just been dumped. Ellis sighed.
Wicked as he was, his love at least seemed painfully genuine.
But that didn’t excuse what he had done.
“You see now? Choose. Will you take the blame and rot in prison? Or will you bury this incident and work for me?”
“What… what do you mean?”
“Stay by Iris’s side. Watch her. And when you learn something useful, bring it to me.”
Ellis would soon be leaving Bedroca.
Her plan was to build her foundation step by step in Titrice and return stronger than ever.
But while she was away, Iris and Chase wouldn’t just sit idle.
Their greed would only drive them to grow their power further.
Honestly, Ellis had underestimated Iris—thought she had only beauty and magical talent.
But seeing Richter changed that.
Iris knew how to use people.
She must’ve exploited her followers in the past too. Was Chase one of them?
If left unchecked, Iris could swallow all of Bedroca the moment Ellis left.
That’s why Ellis needed someone to keep tabs on her sister.
Someone who wouldn’t look suspicious lingering near Iris.
And someone Iris herself might still use.
After meeting Richter, Ellis was sure—he was the perfect choice.
“I won’t wait long. I’ll give you until tomorrow evening to compose yourself.”
“I… I… what do you want me to…”
Richter looked like he had much more to say, but Ellis simply pointed back at the small chamber where he’d been confined.
On his knees, Richter shuffled back inside.
Click—the door shut.
He slumped in the darkness, drained of all will, and closed his eyes.
Since he was eleven until now at twenty-four, his eyes had only ever been on Iris. And now, she had betrayed him.
He had finally believed she noticed him—so the knife of betrayal cut even deeper.
Iris… why would you…
In that cramped little room, Richter longed for her, hated her, loved her, and then cursed her.
A full day passed that way, and when night fell again, he knocked weakly on the little door.
His body parched, his throat cracked, he rasped out:
“…I’ll do as you say. What do you want me to do?”
Two weeks after the banquet—
“They say people are lining up at Lady Jasmine’s shop.”
The news alone was delightful.
“Really?”
Ellis listened as Regina reported the latest.
“The Font newspaper ran a sketch of Lady Jasmine’s hairpins. People as far as the provinces are placing orders! Lady Dvois must be truly clever to think of putting that illustration in the paper.”
“Print advertising.”
“Pardon?”
“Promoting goods by publishing them in newspapers. That’s called print advertising.”
“My, how do you even know that, my lady? I’d never heard of it before.”
It was Ellis who had taught the idea to Dvois and Jasmine.
A method that could make the press wealthy and powerful—or the opposite, depending.
But Dvois should manage it well.
“And as for Lady Iris—she’s been pestering Lady Jasmine with letters, apparently. But Lady Jasmine never replies. I heard Lady Iris is desperate to get her hands on the accessories. She even asked me secretly if I could obtain one for her.”
Jasmine had begun selling the smaller trinkets she’d crafted, and they were wildly popular. People saw them as rare, unique pieces.
And the designs are unusual too.
She pieced together fragments of gems like tiles, creating colorful accessories.
Each shone differently, with its own hue and shape. People even began naming the light and shadows reflected by them.
The Rabbit of Light… The Guardian Angel of the River Rivil…
Just like children naming shadows in their play.
That trend spread quickly, and now anyone without Jasmine’s accessories was quietly snubbed in society.
No wonder Iris was restless.
“Perhaps today I should wear the earrings Jasmine sent me, Regina.”
“An excellent choice, my lady.”
How amusing Iris’s face would look when Ellis passed her flaunting those earrings.
Her mood lifted slightly.
“It makes me happy to see you smile again, my lady. You hadn’t, for some time.”
“Me?”
Ellis glanced at her reflection. Just as Regina said, a smile curved her lips.
“Yes. It’s been well over a month, but your face was shadowed for quite a while. Has that problem that troubled you then been solved at last?”
Ellis knew which time Regina meant—when she had just returned after her regression.
It had been a month and a half already, yet so much had happened it felt like ages ago.
“My lady?”
Ellis shook herself from her thoughts.
“Sorry for worrying you. I’ll smile more often from now on.”
And she would—because she had reason to.
Soon, she would be leaving Bedroca.
At last, it was spring. A new land, a new beginning lay before her.
