A Stepmother’s Marchen

Chapter 12

I’m perfectly familiar with staying awake during this time when the huge Neuwanstein Castle is immersed in the quiet darkness and the children are sleeping

If there is anything different from the past, instead of squeezing my downing eyelids and looking into more files in daze, I finished paperwork quicklier than at that time…

“Madam…”

Robert, the butler who had been silently assisting me, opened his mouth carefully while I processed various reports worth two days at a rapid pace.

I sat with one hand on my chin and asked in a straightforward manner, “What’s wrong?”

“Why don’t you take a rest?”

“You go rest. I have a lot on my mind.”

The butler with the candlestick stayed by the door.

I felt the shaking look clearly.

What’s wrong with him? Is it because I’m dealing with the papers too quickly that he doubt whether I understood them.

I just turned my head and looked at Robert. The butler seemed to flinch, and then made a completely unimaginable sound with a grim look as if he had made up his mind.

“Madam, with all due respect… ..are you okay?”

“Well, what wouldn’t be okay? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I’ll take a rest.”

After making me confused, the butler left. I tilted my head a little, and then went out of the study room.

The mansion at mightnight was literally rat dead. In the past, I used to count empty rooms as I wandered around this huge place every night.

If a banquet was held on the first floor and a murder accured in one of the countless rooms on the upper floor, no one would notice.

Of course it was impossible for that to actually happen. Not even an ant could pass by the knights who patrolled day and night.

The ones who I met often in the past were neither the children nor the employees, but the knights.

Aside from status and social position, if there is a decisive difference between employees and knights from the perspective of householders, it is probably hard to hire a large number of loyal employees, but it is even harder to have loyal knights.

Knights who swore their allegiance and wore golden seals, whoever they worked for, were still Neuwanstein’s claws. Even if their faithfulness was directed at children, not at me, it could never be counted with money.

“Aaah!!”

It was none other than cold water that greeted me as soon as I came out to the front yard past the knights who seemed to silently bow.

From the top of my head, my whole body froze for a moment.

Ah, my dead husband, my God! I haven’t felt this for a long time.

When I looked up, there was, of course, a bucket over the long balcony railing and the twins’ faint golden hair disappearing inside.

It was amazing to see that. Yeah, yeah, I’ve been wondering why you’ve been so quiet for days!

“What happened?”

“Madam!”

“Madam, are you okay?”

Thanks to my scream, the place got noisy.

This kind of uproar happened in the middle of the night because of the nasty little kids.

Scared out of my wits, I raised my hands to the knights who came out and ran into the road.

“What’s the matter?”

“Ah, young master…!”

What the hell is he doing up this late? Jeremy, still dressed in casual clothes, came into my sight while I was wet to the bone and trembling.

I was reluctant to deal with the man who was both embarrassed and surprised, so I tried to walk past him quickly, but he held my arm.

“The twins again?”

I wanted to retort, “Who else is there besides them?” But the words I said that hit me were completely different, “I, I’m dying…”

What a pathetic sound to hear for my ears.

Jeremy looked extremely bewildered, but without further ado, he walked with his arms around my shoulder. It was possible because he was already much taller than me.

“Gwen!”

Gwen, who rushed out at Jeremy’s shout, hurriedly set fire to my place and offered warm tea.

It was still cold even after changing, so I had to curl up in front of the stove wrapped in a blanket and inhaling the hot tea.

But…

“Are you all right?”

…Why is this guy not leaving?

“I think I’ll live.”

It’s hard to talk because my teeth are chattering.

It was my fault that I didn’t expect the little devil twins to stay up and arget me.

I’m sorry, I’ll never ignore you guys again….!

When I glanced sideways while swallowing the tears of grief, the extremely serious boy sitting on one knee was staring at me.

Perhaps because of the fire, his dark green eyes looked as bright as mine.

“Don’t let them do that again. It always happens because you keep letting it slide.”

Well, no matter how I deal with it, your siblings will be like that until the very end, just like you.

I couldn’t say it out loud, so I just curled up in the blanket without saying a word.

After he stayed for a long time staring at me, he left. Finally being free from the mysterious gaze, I stood up, approached the squalid bed, and fell powerlessly.