Looking for My Fiancé’s lover – chapter 29 (spin-off 2)

(Flung open).

“Ugh, the weather is really going crazy.
How did you get here, Nezar? I thought the carriage could have been overturned.”

The owner of the voice, walking through the open door, was no other than Lockherd.
Nezar was still staring intently through the window without answering.
Soon after, his crazy friend approached him.

“What are you looking at?”

His good-for-nothing friend, Lockherd, standing next to him, narrowed his eyes and stared out the window.
Nezar gestured at the brightly burning embers with his chin.

“What is that?”

Lockherd also rested his forehead against the window beside him.
A short laugh followed.

“That’s my youngest sister.
No wonder she was quiet today, so turns out she was preparing for that.”

“That?”

He took a closer look at the fire.
He did not know if it was an illusion, but it did seem like there was blond hair fluttering nearby.

“I think some maid did the laundry secretly because the doll she hugged during her sleep was so dirty.
She hates people touching her stuff.
Still, that maid washed it without knowing that the seams got ruined along the way, so it came back looking ragged.”

Nezar was lost.
He had no idea what a broken doll had to do with a fire in the middle of the garden.

“She then heard that the dead are cremated and laid to rest.
The maids will come down and drag her up soon anyway.
It’s not the first or second time Kate has done something like this.”

Kate.
He hadn’t heard that Lockherd had a sister, but it was certainly a name that anyone could tell it’s used for a woman.

As Lockherd said, it wasn’t long before a commotion broke out near the fire.
Now he could clearly see her face.
Eyes glaring fiercely and teeth clenching tightly.
There were also the plump cheeks protruding, dissatisfied.
He couldn’t tell whether her face was red because of the fire, or because she was fumed with anger.
What was certain was that, unlike other noble ladies, she did not look like a flower in a greenhouse.

“You said you are siblings but why is it that you’re referring to her as if she’s some stranger?”

At those words, Lockherd, seated on the sofa, replied in a calm tone.

“We’re siblings, but we don’t actually talk to each other.
She doesn’t like people.”

“How do you know that if you don’t even talk?”

“Well, if someone tries to get just a little closer, she would expose her teeth and tend to bite, is that something human-friendly?”

“How can a kid do something like that?”

“You tell me, Nezar.
I can still feel yesterday’s bite on my finger.
In any case, you shouldn’t approach or mess with the kid.
Since Kate is so sensitive, she gets ticked off by the smallest things.”

The fire went out.
Nezar had no way of knowing whether the girl had been dragged into the castle, or she had fled further outside because of the darkening sight.
Shortly after, Lockherd, who had scattered cards on the table, called him.
Their initial plan was to soothe the boredom of the late night with a card game, but Lockherd dozed off throughout the blackjack and had to go back to his room.

After kicking him out, Nezar threw himself onto the bed and skimmed through the books he had prepared.
Somehow, he couldn’t forget those green eyes that blazed brightly near the fire.

 

It snowed the next night as well.
As soon as the sun went down, Nezar let Lockherd freely cling to his horse’s back.

The second son drove a horse every deep snowy night, and the youngest set fire to a cotton doll.
At this point, it might seem that the Count and Countess Ezellot were the culprits, but the couple seemed surprisingly sane and normal at dinner.

Though the wife’s temperament was a bit demanding.
Like most ladies, she was sensitive to upper-class etiquette.
So were their eldest son, Eden Ezellot, and third son, Rick Ezellot.
Or maybe they were just showing the universal family charade in front of him.
What was surprising, however, was the fact that the cotton doll arsonist did not attend the dinner that was meant to welcome his visit.

Sure enough, smoke rose again from the window just after dinner was finished.
Nezar, who found the fire on the way back to his room, slowly changed the direction of his steps and headed out.

Thanks to the weak wind, the view was clear even in the midst of the snow.
On a dry dirt road about ten steps away from the garden, there heard the sound of wood crackling and the faint smell of burning.
Nezar made eye contact with the girl.
Green eyes like the colour of a coniferous forest, which were stuck on his mind, pierced through the night.

“Who are you?”

Her tone was much more aggressive than expected, too.
Even if she had less common sense than normal people, how could she not know who he was? Nezar, clicking his tongue inwardly, answered in a slightly begrudging tone.

“Your brother’s friend.”

His white shivering breath gently wrapped around his vision and disappeared.

“My brother? Eden?”

If it was Eden, she must be referring to the eldest son of the Ezellot family.
There were a total of three brothers, and yet, the name that came out was only Eden.
Apparently, the girl did not consider Lockherd as her real brother.

“Not that one, but Lockherd Ezellot.
The blood and flesh who you bit on the finger.”

“We’re not of the same blood.
We’re just men and women living in the same castle.
We  don’t pay much attention to each other.”

The girl, who looked only ten years old, had a very strong tone of voice, unlike her small figure.
Nezar shifted his gaze and stared at the kindling that she was holding.
It was as though the inner pages of an old book had been torn apart and rolled together.
In front of her, a simple collection of wood pieces was burning brightly.
Seeing that it did not emit an acrid smell, it seemed the precious cotton doll had not yet been burned to death.

“What are you looking at? Can’t you see that I’m in a bad mood here? Why don’t you just go away?”

The girl seemed busy showing her hostility.
Perhaps the stranger’s interest had made her uncomfortable.
This must be what Lockherd meant by ‘showing her teeth’.
Nezar walked toward the fire, shaking off his watery hair as the snow melted.

“Don’t you think that if there are more guests, your grizzly bear, which is destined to be burnt to death, will be more happy?”

The girl, whose expression was twisted using every muscle on her face, took a couple of steps back.
With that, Nezar noticed a worn-out teddy bear lying behind her heels.
It seemed to be the stuffed toy that was soon to be sacrificed.

“It seems that Lockherd talked of me as a fool, but I am fully aware that this teddy bear is an inanimate object.
So don’t spout nonsense and get out of here.”

“Ah, Miss!”

At that moment, a young woman’s cry was heard from not far away.
It was obvious that she was a maid.
Seeing that, the girl’s eyes began to blaze as she stared at Nezar.
If he were to roughly interpret its meaning, it would be, ‘I’m in trouble now because of you’.

The maid freaked out as soon as she saw the light, hence, she came out barely wearing her maid uniform properly.
Her panting breath turned foggy from the chilling cold and dissipated.

“You were scolded so much by Mrs Morcada, yet again…”

“That’s why I started a fire in the middle of nowhere without trees! Don’t make a fuss and go back.”

For a kid who acted rudely and selfishly, she was doing quite a good job herself.
The girl, who glared at the maid with her sharp eyes, threw the yellow papers she was holding into the fire.
It wasn’t that funny, but strangely, Nezar kept smiling.

“Miss, you may not be well aware since you are still young, but you have to be careful with fire in winter, especially on a dry day like this.
If the fire spread to the garden… ”

“Daisy, will you keep ignoring my words? Shall I strip you off your clothes and push you into this fireball? So that noisy mouth of yours could shut up?”

T/n: Jesus, this girl is beyond savage.

Not only did he not interfere but he almost even had the urge to cheer the girl on.
In fact, she had a level of venom that Nezar could not have imagined.
Should he wrap her up and steal her back to the Imperial Castle? The number of people that could say something that harsh could only be limited to the number of his fingers.

Perhaps she heard the sound of him holding back his laughter, the girl, who had been yelling at the maid, turned to look at Nezar.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that? Are you both going to be off anytime soon? There is a degree to which you can piss people off!”

Nezar pressed down the corners of his lips that were about to rise again and turned his head, pretending nothing was wrong.
It was the first time in his life that he had seen a girl as crazy as Katrina Ezellot.

The girl, who had gone mad for a while, eventually became exhausted and returned to the castle.
The maid, who was pretty much helpless at the sight, let out a sigh of relief.
The teddy bear the girl threw away and the disposal of the fire eventually became her responsibility to handle.
It was extremely insane.
Seeing that the fire had gone out, Nezar clicked his tongue and went back to his bedroom.