Time-Limited Saintess, You've Been Caught by the Tyrant Once Again - Chapter 66
Chapter 33.2
As the maids giggled and pulled her along, Ellin shook her head.
“I’m fine, really.”
“Come on. Don’t turn down this opportunity.”
“It’s all right.”
“Come on. The maid will be angry if she finds out that you rejected her favor.”
“No, I… Her Royal Highness—”
“Jamila will be taking care of her this morning. Don’t overdo the work.”
Upon hearing this, Ellin couldn’t say anything more. Perhaps sensing that, someone else spoke up.
“The maid says she’s going to give us a big scolding if we smell, so Ellin better wash up quickly.”
“….”
“Ellin, we need to get to know each other.”
It was the first time they had treated her warmly.
In the end, Ellin was forced to go to the main bath. Not only had she never been to the main bath before, but she also wasn’t used to standing naked in front of other people. Of course, being naked in front of attendants was different.
As she approached the bath, the smell of water became stronger.
The maids exchanged glances with each other and looked at Ellin, who seemed timid and hesitant, as if she was afraid of something.
“Alright, Ellin, take your clothes off here.”
After putting clothes and underwear in the box provided, they began to undress. Ellin undressed passively, casting glances around.
“Kyaak!”
Someone pulled her clothes.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and take them off.”
Ellin knew they were looking at her. She sighed and unbuttoned her button.
The maids’ gazes soon became tinged with disappointment. It was because of the black spot right above her chest. At first glance, it looked like some sort of shape.
“…I’m sorry, I’m embarrassed by this.”
As her face turned red and she stammered, they looked disappointed. They tried to figure out that she was a slave, but they were mistaken. It was an unpleasant misunderstanding.
Ellin smiled awkwardly, unaware of the sudden chill in the air.
“I’ll go in first.”
They looked at her back.
Her skin, awkwardly covered by a cloth, looked fair, and naturally, there were no slave stigmas on her body.
“What, you said we could find out if we took a bath together.”
“But there wasn’t.”
They looked at Ellin. To their dismay, her eyes were closed in a relaxed manner, oblivious to the cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.
Even though it was possible to temporarily cover up the sigil, it consumed a lot of energy.
As time went on, a tingling pain occurred, and the longer it was covered, the more painful it became. Ellin personally called this ‘divine punishment.’ It was a sacred decree from the gods, and the idea of covering it up made the gods angry.
‘I’m glad I didn’t get caught.’
She took a bath, trying to look nonchalant. To her relief, no one spoke to her. Although the atmosphere had become cold, she wasn’t in a situation where she could dwell on it.
After enough time had passed without arousing suspicion, she stood up and looked for her clothes.
“….”
However, the clothes she had brought were soaked through. Ellin looked at them for a moment and was taken aback.
‘I must be hated.’
Was this why they asked her to bathe with them? As she looked around, everyone else was playing around without looking back at her.
‘…So, they brought me here just to show me this.’
Ellin thought weakly.
In the end, she couldn’t fit in here either. To think her past life and second life were exactly the same… It seemed she was too greedy.
Her strength suddenly drained out of her, and she stumbled out of the bath, clutching her wet clothes to hide her miserable heart. At the same time, the burns on her skin felt like they were on fire, and her fingertips tingled. Her head was spinning.
The sigil kept appearing and disappearing as if her body couldn’t stand the pain.
Was the god still angry? Her body ached.
‘It’ll get better. Today, I’ll read a fairy tale to Charlotte.”
As Ellin headed towards the Princess’s palace, she realized that her condition was worse than she had thought. Her vision blurred, and she knew she was going to lose consciousness.
‘No, if anyone finds me, I’ll never…’
She could feel the sigil appearing and disappearing as though she had no power left to control it anymore. Still, she couldn’t let others see her defenseless. With weary steps, she headed towards a familiar place before the buildings of the Princess’s palace soon came into view.
It was her limit now.
Ellin found a place where no one was around. As soon as she set foot there, her body collapsed.
̊ · : * ✧* : · ̊
When going to see his sister, Arkan dismissed the guards since Charlotte disliked seeing unfamiliar faces. Because of this, the guards who guarded the Princess’s small garden were kept as far away from the main palace where the Princess resided as possible.
“She occasionally looks for Your Majesty as well.”
Ellin’s words about Charlotte looking for him lingered in his mind.
Arkan occasionally watched over Charlotte while she slept. Today, he promised himself that he would see her when she was awake. From what he had heard, it seemed that Charlotte had become stable and was quickly learning how to speak and listen lately. The big contribution there was probably…
He tried to erase the figure that kept coming to mind.
“Who’s being foolish?”
He had almost forced Ellin to come with him. Whether she worked here or died, she treated the sister of an enemy who threatened to kill her and was jumping from joy at being her nanny…
He properly understood his position through the words of Marquis Kasmin and Bronn.
Even though she was so happy, she calmly suspected that his favor was poison. She was truly inscrutable to him. If he could grasp something, his d*mn curiosity might cool, and he might stop paying attention to her. If the conclusion turned out to be that she was an obvious character, it would be boring, and he could kill her.
But instead of wanting to kill her, he found himself doing such a stupid thing because he wanted to see her smile.
‘She must be inside.’
Arkan thought of Ellin reading a book to Charlotte. Strangely enough, as he thought of the two of them, something indescribable stirred within him.
“….”
It wasn’t a bad feeling, but rather a strange one.
A peculiar combination of his sister, whom he thought he would lose, and the fearless woman who didn’t avoid looking into his eyes.
Was that the reason? Arkan wandered around the Princess’s palace under the pretext of ‘checking if everything is well maintained.’ If he were to enter now, he would have to leave immediately after the ‘business’ would be done. Like postponing eating something delicious to savor for last, he postponed seeing that warm scene as long as possible.
It was a childish corner he didn’t even know about.
As Arkan pondered, he drew his eyebrows together.
There were traces of intrusion—someone’s footprints were in a well-maintained place in the garden. The hired gardeners wouldn’t have stepped on the lawn…
He walked in silence, holding his breath with his hand on the hilt of the sword on his waist.
There was only one intruder, and they seemed to have small feet.
Was it a woman? As he started to analyze, an unexpected scene caught his eye. Seeing a person lying on the ground with long hair sprawled out, Arkan initially thought it was a corpse. However, upon closer inspection of the woman, he realized that the fallen figure was Ellin.
“Ellin!”
As he called her name, Arkan found himself running towards her and embracing her without even realizing it.
Her body was soaked wet, and cold sweat was streaming down her face. Even the buttons on her clothes weren’t properly fastened, so as he lifted her, the garment fell lifelessly.
What on earth happened?
Arkan’s mind raced as he looked at her disheveled appearance. It was when he was about to set her down again, thinking of covering her body with a coat.
At that moment, something caught his eye on Ellin’s chest as she lay down there.
His face hardened.
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