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Chapter Fifty-Nine –
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In a small workshop in a slum, an unexpected war was afoot.
Today was the day on which the noble Ladies of Ladder distributed bread to the poor.
In the damp and dirty streets the poor were gathered in very long lines, and on the other side were the noble ladies who were not at all suited to this scene.
Of these women, Annette was the woman who didn't fit into the street scene the most.
First of all, unlike other noble ladies, Annette tied her hair back and wore a simple dress.
Except for her soft and beautiful face, everything she wore was extremely ordinary.
The news of the Grand Duke's marriage to the Marchioness was well known among the common people as well as the nobility.
So there were people stopping by for food, but there were a lot of people who came out of curiosity to see the main character of the gossip that had been rumored all over Leader for a while.
Everyone who took bread from Annette looked at her white and soft hands, regardless of their age or gender.
Her appearance was as rare and exquisite as they had heard in the rumours, but when Annette raised her voice at them firmly and asked them to respect the class, everyone naturally obeyed her words.
Because of her firmness and strength of character, the bread was evenly distributed among the poor in the troubled alley.
This was something that had never happened before.
On the other hand, the other noble ladies had long ago abandoned the spirit of service and had already withdrawn.
“Isn't that
Enough
?
Let the servants distribute the rest of the bread.”
“That's right.
The servants had better distribute the bread to these poor people.
As they should.”
We eat
We
Something
Also.”
Since the volunteer work this time took longer than expected, the noble ladies complained of hunger and began to complain.
They felt more sorry for themselves for missing afternoon tea in their garden than for the children who had been hungry for days and days.
Aside from Annette, Lacisia Zetlitz was the only woman who helped volunteer without saying a word.
She served everyone more faithfully than Annette.
Annette felt the stubbornness in the features of Lasisia's little face and the sternness in the skillful movements of her hands.
Annette realized at a glance that the reason why the Women's Association's volunteer activities were continuing, where no one was cooperating and all the noble ladies were concerned about was complaining, was Lasisia.
As the whimpering grew louder, Annette screamed again.
“
Know
You won't
You get it
On anything then
You took
Your share
Of bread already and you returned to stand in line!
Those who received
Their bread
Indeed, I have
I told you
More than once it doesn't
Stand up
In line twice!”
The ladies winced in unison.
They noticed that Annette was yelling at them and not at the poor people.
A girl, waiting her turn in line, began to look at Annette as if she were afraid of her.
Then Annette smiled at the child as if she had never been angry.
“I'm not mad at you, so there's no need
To hide
“
The girl who was frightened earlier raised her head again.
“
Angel, will you?
You scream
Because you're hungry too?
“Am I an angel?”
“When I was at the back of the class,” he said
Adults
You are too.
Only angels have such white hands
And soft
.
Do you really have wings like the angels in stories?
What angel in the world would marry a devil like Theodore?
These words came to Annette's mind, but she did not want to be the first adult to break this child's innocence, so Annette stroked the child's head as an answer to her question.
Then the little girl cut off part of the bread she was carrying and held it out to Annette.
“Will
You give it
For me?”
The little girl nodded, but Annette hesitated to take it.
The other noble ladies looked at the dirt on the child's hand, covered their mouths and turned their heads.
But Annette's inability to eat was not because the child was dirty.
This bread may have been poisoned without Annette's knowledge.
Annette was now in a position where she doubted even the kindness of this innocent child.
When the little girl lowered her hand with a slightly frowning face, Annette took the piece of bread and ate it in one bite.
She didn't die even after eating poison every day for a month.
How would she die from a loaf of bread?
The little girl smiled brightly and left the place very happy.
After the child, there was a gypsy woman dressed in rags.
For some reason, the woman did not move forward and remained pinned in place.
“Next.”
Annette offered her bread and told her to come and get it, but the gypsy did not move from her place at all.
When people around her shouted for her to move and not to disrupt the line, the woman suddenly jumped forward and violently grabbed Annette's hand.
The gypsy held her so tightly that the bread she was holding in her hands fell to the ground.
At that moment, Annette felt a strange, intense pain near her heart.
“You're just a hypocrite holding a piece of bread and living in a world of illusion, so you can't see the harm it will do
He catches up with him
Cry the biggest monster that
Follows you
“around.”
"What …."
Annette, who looked at the gypsy with trembling eyes, was so terrified that her mouth stiffened in place.
This gypsy was the same woman who had appeared at Elisia's sanatorium in her dream and warned her.
That unknown woman had actually appeared this time.
“Although I...
I warned you
�
From him, but you don't seem to understand anything.
It's not the right time
To act
Like a saint in a place like this.
Don't forget what you have to do, it's not safe to
Come closer
More from that man than this.
It is
Your enemy
“
As Annette was trembling and clutching her aching chest as if she were going to have an angina, the nearby escorting knights rushed toward her as they ran.
The gypsy woman laughed evilly and fled from the guards with ghostly movements that did not resemble humans.
As the arrogant woman ran barefoot, she repeatedly turned to Annette and laughed creepily in her face.
Annette had barely come to her senses when the noble ladies approached her and began to support and support her.
“Oh my God... these are gypsies
Fierce
Extremely.
You should get used to it
And you rest
In the carriage.”
"I'm fine."
Annette said she was fine, but she couldn't complete the volunteer work and withdrew prematurely.
The remaining bread was distributed by the servants.
Annette took a short break in the carriage and went out again.
The poor people had already left the place and the alley had long since become quiet.
“Lasissia...”
Lacisia Zeitlitz was still there as she cleaned the empty workshop herself.
“I'm sorry, I have
I messed up
Volunteering today.”
“No one worked hard
Like you
Oh Marchioness.
My work today was much easier than usual
Thanks to you
“
Lacessia still referred to Annette as the Marchioness instead of the Grand Duchess, and she was still wearing the bracelet that Annette had seen at the hunting competition.
“If
We were
On normal days, but we quickly finished due to the lack of bread.
But today, you did
By bringing
A larger quantity than it was
Expectedly
Marquise, so
We were late
In distribution all were poor
Happy
Very.”
“I am grateful that you are the only one among the nobles who is happy
At your disposal
This, Lady Lasisia.”
“Maybe I'm not
Aristocracy
Like ladies
The others
“
“Lacicia, you were a woman
Aristocracy
More than anyone else today.
The opposite of who I was
I scream
Violently in everyone's face.”
“If nobility means
keep
Your mouth
closed
And refuse to see all the things you don't want to see,
And stay
Noble
No matter the circumstances, I have always been there
Aristocracy
Since birth.
But if it was essential to be kind to others and love the weak, then I never was
Aristocracy
“
Lasisya looked empty somewhere.
Annette was puzzled that Lasisia seemed to feel guilt rather than pride while working harder than everyone else in volunteer activities.
When Annette was about to ask what was going on...
“Hello!”
The little girl who had given the piece of bread to Annette came running, waving her hand to the two.
“Will
You lost
Your mother
?
“I don't have a mother!”
She abandoned me as a child.”
The little girl was still answering with shining eyes and a bright smile.
She seemed to not care about this anymore because this question had become a question she had heard countless times.
It was clear that the ten-year-old girl heard a lot of things that she did not need to hear.
Maybe even if Annette told her she had married the devil, she wouldn't become the first adult to destroy her innocence.
This is because many adults have already scratched this little girl's tender heart.
“Will
You can
Wait here
For a minute
?
Annette looked for leftovers for that little girl.
Annette was delighted to find sandwiches and biscuits prepared as snacks for noble ladies.
When Annette picked up her portion of food that she had not touched yet, Lacicia came over and took the whole basket and gave it to Annette.
“There's only the two of us left here, so you can give it to me
My share
Of food too.”
Annette put the sandwich she was holding into the basket and pushed it towards Lasisia.
“You can.”
Give it
"It's straight away."
Lacicia hesitated for a moment after receiving the basket.
She seemed to love children to the point of going to an orphanage periodically, but seemed to have difficulty interacting with them.
Annette pushed the basket towards her again, and finally, Lacisia cautiously approached the child and held out the basket towards her.
The little girl's mouth opened in amazement when she was presented with delicious and unexpected things.
“There are two angels in this world!”
The little girl's eyes were bright.
The little girl looked at the chocolate covering the cookies like diamonds with wide, sparkling eyes.
This snack that the child would eat in the blink of an eye was more precious to her than the jewels she might wear on her finger and sell in the market.
Annette and Lacisia, who had become angels with just a small biscuit, laughed to hide their embarrassment at this sweet talk.
In due course, some servants came to the workshop and expressed their gratitude to the two ladies, saying that they would finish the cleaning themselves.
The two women moved to their own cart while dragging their dirty clothes.
Annette was sure that she had gotten even a little closer to Lasisia today, so she didn't miss the opportunity and tried to strike up a little more conversation.
“You must have been doing all this
By yourself
“When I wasn’t participating in volunteer work.”
“The ladies
The others
They do more valuable work than me.
I can't afford to pay the same amount
He pushes him
Others, so I try to compensate with physical effort.”
“Don't be silly.
If it's a good deed
Easy
To this extent,
I would have been
May
I submitted
More donations than anyone else.
“I have confidence that I can push harder than anyone else in this empire.”
No one in the women's community had more money than Annette.
Therefore, her words were mocking people who brag to others that they make one or two donations a year.
The two women were teasing each other in their own way, so the two laughed lightly.
After Lasisya stopped laughing briefly, she said as if she was expressing her inner thoughts.
“However, if they weren't
They show
This empathy
Fake
That would be the number of days
Starving
Where these children are
Starving
has increased.
I'm not rich enough to make huge donations every time, so the person who buys the bread may be more important than the person who makes it.
By distributing it
“
“You seem to care
A lot
“With children.”
Annette asked cautiously.
Lacisia Zetlitz famously never had a child after miscarrying her first child years ago.
This was a secret known to everyone.
Lacicia was sterile and unable to have children.
“If you want to
You ask me?
about something,
So get up
By asking the question directly.
I don't
I answer
About people’s twisted questions.”
Lasisia's expression hardened.
Compared to the obstacles and humiliations she had already experienced over the past years, this level of questioning was extremely weak as if it was only tickling her skin.
“I know you're curious.
You
You think that in this big world, there is...
Fathers
They want
Children
And children
They want it to be theirs
Fathers
So why can't they live?
As parents
And children
,isn't it?
You
You wonder
Why don't I get up?
Adopt me
Simply a child, isn't it?
“You
Right
.
But it seems like this
Difficult
For you, right?”
“You won't understand my feelings because you don't have any children yet.”
Lacisia looked at Annette's slim waist.
Annette was surprised by the sudden change of subject.