Saintess - Chapter 36
Chapter 36
Translator: Yonnee
—
‘Am I truly going back home…?’
It was definitely something to be happy about, but for some reason, Agnes couldn’t feel glad about it at all.
It was the house that she had always wanted to return to.
Once she returned home, her family was going to welcome her back.
She’s sure of it.
Agnes tried hard to recall the bright smiles of her family in the dream she had not long ago.
Perhaps it’s because she couldn’t sleep prior to this, but she unknowingly fell to the depths of slumber in the middle of the carriage ride.
When she opened her eyes, she was still inside the moving vehicle.
Before she knew it, the morning sun had already permeated through the carriage window.
“……?”
And she felt a warm touch upon her face.
Raon was gently caressing her cheek.
Her heart was strange. It felt as if it was melting as he touched her ever so tenderly, as though she was his beloved.
Whispering quietly, in a voice full of grief, Raon spoke.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why… Why are you saying that to me?”
Her voice cracked as she answered back.
When the count did not reply, Agnes asked again with a clearer tone.
“Do you truly feel remorse for me?”
Why, she asked, even though it had already dawned on her that he constantly saw his departed younger sister through her.
At that moment, tears fell on the back of Agnes’s pale hand.
She didn’t know why, but she started crying.
She couldn’t find the reason.
Sorrow washed over her.
Against what he was clearly feeling, Raon smiled.
His blue eyes shone with a hollow light.
“Please… do not forgive me.”
With those final words, Raon opened the carriage door wide.
And what’s soon revealed was this: the house that Agnes had been wanting to return to so desperately.
* * *
The count left Agnes, all alone.
The house that she wanted to go back to so much was right there, but all she did was stand there blankly.
As though she was an abandoned child, she watched as the carriage left.
Then, when the carriage had completely disappeared from her view, reality gradually sunk in.
Right.
This is my home.
This place, which was so starkly different from the large and magnificent manor of the count.
This was her reality—a dilapidated shack on the verge of collapse.
Being clean and comfortable.
Having a delicious meal.
Servants attending to you…
That was a luxurious experience that she would never experience again.
Dispirited, she fiddled with the pouch.
The gold coins, which had been given to her by the count.
With this kind of money, she’d be able to buy a small house at a countryside estate. She’d even be able to hire someone to help her take care of her husband and mother-in-law.
At the very least, she would never have to worry about going hungry again for the rest of her days.
This luck that she happened upon was one that she couldn’t have imagined having before.
She moved slowly.
As she walked towards the house, she couldn’t find it in her to be completely happy. Even so, she pulled up the corners of her lips to make a bright expression.
“H-Honey! Mom…! I’m home… It’s me, Agnes…”
She knocked hard on the door, but…
There was no answer.
Her husband had difficulty moving, so of course he wouldn’t have been able to open it for her. But on the other hand, even though her mother-in-law was blind, her ears were sharp. She should have heard Agnes’s loud voice.
But the house remained silent. As if there was no one inside.
Creak—
She pushed it only slightly, but the old door opened without resistance.
The moment Agnes was about to take a step inside…
“Uuurk…!”
A terrible stench beyond imagination blew into Agnes all at once. She could do nothing but balk at the onslaught.
It was the putrid amalgamation of scents consisting of bodily excretions that had not been properly dealt with, rotten food, soggy mold, and—the most unbearable of all—the smell of her husband’s decaying flesh.
She had smelled it every day in the past, but as she had no resistance to it anymore, it was just utterly unbearable.
“Uuuuurk— cough, cough!”
Agnes retched constantly.
From now on, she would have to live with this stench for the rest of her life?
She’d have to live like this for the rest of her life…?
Her face turned deathly pale.
Then, she heard someone cackling loudly behind her.
It was a woman hiding underneath the table—Agnes’s mother-in-law.
Crouching into herself while keeping her head down, the old woman laughed maniacally.
“Wretched girl. You left your husband behind, but you look good, eh? Hahahahaha.”
“…M-Mom…?”
“Yes, it’s your Mom, child. Welcome home.”
The old woman crawled on all fours and drew closer to Agnes. Then, she spat something out at her feet.
“IT’S NOT YUMMY! I’M HUNGRY!”
It… It was not food.
What came out of the old woman’s mouth was… was the decomposed thumb of Agnes’s husband.
As though she had been nailed to the ground, Agnes stood there, unmoving. She looked like she was about to faint at any given moment.
“I’M HUNGRY! I’M SO HUNGRY!!”
The old woman groaned and fumbled on the floor. She picked up the digit she had once spat out and put it back into her mouth.
Crunch, crunch—
With a horrific sound, the finger in her mouth was crushed.
“AHHHH!”
A scream broke out of Agnes’s mouth.
It was much too late for her to realize one thing.
This place was hell itself.
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