The End of Your Arrogance - Chapter 5.1

Sophie was the first to come back to her senses. She approached her mistress and extended her arms. “My lady, please pass the young master to me.”

Evelyn’s face had turned pale. She did not move.

“My Lady, please,” insisted Sophie.

Evelyn snapped back to reality and handed the child to Sophie. With the baby in her arms, Sophie left the room quickly.

The baby wailed when separated from its mother. The cry faded along with the hasty footsteps of Sophie.

“Where is the bedroom?” asked Ilya. He pulled on Evelyn’s arms. She couldn’t say a word. She was still in a daze.

“Are we walking? Or should I carry you?” he asked.

“I can walk,” said Evelyn, finally finding her voice. Her voice cracked.

She walked to her room silently. Ilya followed behind and closed the door once they were in the room. He looked around her room and pulled Evelyn towards the fireplace.

“I can see you’re quite the princess. Are you cold?”

Princess? Who? Me? Evelyn did not understand what he was implying. She just looked at him blankly.

“You’re shivering. Sit down.” He sat down in the spare chair and added firwood to the fireplace. When it began to burn, he used the poker to stir up the flames. Then, he turned towards Evelyn.

“I am not going to bite you again,” he said. “Don’t worry. I am here because I have something to ask you.”

“Go on.”

“Your fourth older brother, Odin Maduse. Tell me about him.”

That caught her off guard.

“I remember you said you didn’t mind providing me with answers. That you can act like a spy, if needed. Were you not serious?”

The Maduse castle was so confined that it was even difficult to send spies. She understood what he was getting at.

“I heard people were talking about a wedding.”

“This is news to me. How did you hear about this? Did the Marquis send a letter?”

His usually calm voice was sharp. She noticed that the information was of some interest to him.

“Of course not,” she said. “I know you check everything that comes for me. You would have known about the letter before I did.”

This place was no less than a prison for Evelyn. She was treated as such. But she knew many people who helped her.

“Very well. Let’s get back to that later,” he said. “So then, who’s the bride?”

“Probably someone from the house of Marquise Vashili. That’s all I know.”

The unification of the Center and the East… Ilya was fascinated. Give the devil his due, Ayatollah Maduse’s political scheming was indeed incredible.

“Does Marquise Vashili have a daughter?  I wouldn’t be surprised since he had been with so many women.”

Hearing him talk about Marquise Vashili sent chills down Evelyn’s spine. If she hadn’t made the deal with this man, she would’ve been sold as one of Vashili’s women.

“Impressive, my lovely wife,” whispered Ilya sweetly. Evelyn smiled at him weakly. She felt empty inside.

Ilya stood up from his chair and walked to where she was seated. He pulled the chair she was sitting on and leaned over her.  “Is there anything you want? Anything you wish for?”

“Nothing. We made a deal, after all. This is part of it.”

It was hard to look him straight in the eye, so Evelyn turned her head away. Ilya smirked, then grabbed her by the chin and turned her to face him.

“Do you want a hug?” he asked.

Tears welled up in her eyes. She really didn’t want to cry in front of someone like him.

“Why are you crying? I thought you liked it when I hugged you?” He leaned down and touched his forehead to hers. “I still remember the time you arrived in the North. I couldn’t even see the end of the wagons that carried the food as wedding gifts. I had never seen anything like it. It was impressive.”

She remembered it, alright. She knew he wouldn’t even have known she was there if it weren’t for the wagons of food she brought with her. That was all that had mattered to him.

“I told myself that I would treat my princess well with all my heart,” he said. He kissed a light kiss on her wet eyes. “Maybe I treated you a little too well, since we got an unexpected baby out of it.”

Evelyn, who had been quietly listening to him, pushed him away hard. Her arms were trembling. Ilya smirked. “At first, I thought it wasn’t my child that you carried.”

Evelyn glared at him. A dead silence fell in the room. Tears fell from her eyes. “I hate you,” she said after a long while.

Ilya lightly wiped the blood from his lips with his fingers and left the room. Evelyn crawled up next to the fireplace. Evelyn was used to cruelty from others. She learnt very early that crying doesn’t help anything. It doesn’t change things. She hadn’t cried when her husband hadn’t replied to her endless letters. She hadn’t shed a tear when her newborn baby was cursed by the people of her husband’s land. She didn’t even cry when she found out that her father had sold her again.

But today… her sorrow erupted with a force. She wailed like a child until Sophie ran into the room and calmed her down.