Episode 174
“You only have to be afraid of me. Others cannot touch you.”
Lucerne said.
Elisha sobbed and nodded her head. I wanted to leave everything to him like this. Wouldn't it be okay if I obeyed? Could I live on the little mercy he gives?
“The tiger is Jacob. The crocodile is Marco……. And the biggest and scariest water snake…… I was the head of the household.”
It was something that happened in a previous life. Lucerne moves independently to destroy the family. So, the householder finally pulls out her sword.
The head of household requested repayment of debts from all the imperial family and temples overnight. The temple as well as the imperial family had reached the point of bankruptcy.
-Keeping the illegitimate child alive is the beginning of everything.
Ga-ju draws such a conclusion. I don't know how or where the story started. What is certain is that all of Cartier's men have dug a trap to catch Lucerne in their own way.
The head of the household calls Lucerne into the family under the pretext of negotiating a debt with the imperial family. Lucerne appeared there.
He had to go through a dark forest in a carriage to go to the castle of the family head.
And the forest was a tomb prepared for Lucerne, a limb, and a trap.
'The relics of evil spirits, Marco brought them into the family fight.'
Marco used the poison called Evil God's Smile on Lucerne. At the time, Lucerne was blind and weak in one eye. Is that why? He fell into that trap.
Bomb sound. And the sound of birds flying in the forest. The sound of hidden soldiers screaming and running.
'You can do it. There must be a trap on this side. This is where his carriage will appear. Carola's men are ambushed here. I…….'
“The end of that fable.”
Elisha whispered.
“The black tiger runs away, bites and kills all the beasts, and then……. At the end of his weakness, he is surrounded by swarms of rats in the woods. That is why the owner of the forest becomes the mouse.”
Alas, it was. The mouse was Elisha.
“The mouse……. Eat the black tiger That's what I'm so afraid of…….”
At the time, Elisha was insane. She decided to die, she thought, now she had no future. Therefore……. Last but not least, she aspired to have Lucerne. Just one memory was enough, she thought.
'Okay? Listen to Carola. Stealing Lucerne. Carola needs the man's seed.'
Okay. There was also Carol. Carola devised a plan to swindle Lucerne from the people's attack that day.
* * *
Besides the beasts of prey in the story, there was one wildcat. The Seungnyang was Carola.
Her men, whom Carola had placed, were supposed to steal Lucerne and imprison him.
Carola was aware of the rumors that Lucerne wasn't responding to her woman. Even if she tried to force herself, she was afraid Lucerne wouldn't get excited. So she took Elisha and tried to excite Lucerne. And her seed was an operation that Carola would receive.
But Elisha pretends to be submissive to her and she stabs her in the back at the end.
At the time, the outbuilding of the streamside laundry where the collaterals lived was empty. Only Elisha lived there.
Mess. I heard the sound of him dragging himself. The dark passageways were damp and smelled foul.
Elisha sets the forest on fire. And the forest became an abyss.
'It's okay. I didn't set fire to the side where there were people.'
Elisha smiled with a half-mad face.
There was a small space at the end of the secret passage. There was a small altar in the space where dim light penetrated and the purpose was unknown. Elisha laid the blanket prepared in advance and laid Lucerne down.
– Uh, um…….
He was out of breath. His injuries were severe and he was bleeding. Elisha lay down next to Lucerne. Her tears flowed down. She had poison in her arms.
-I love you. Did you miss me? A woman like me would never be able to have you even if she went all her life. Now I don't need anything. It's just a little while. So.
Elisha whispered.
– Die with me.
Yes, she will die with him today.
Because she wouldn't have had his life today anyway if he hadn't saved it himself. So. If you're destined to die anyway
If you can't continue in this life.
I wanted to end it together.
Alas, that was her ugly, worthless love. This beautiful and perfect man, the man who has everything. She, like me, was doomed to die with him for showing interest in U Han-Chi just once.
It was so funny that Elisha burst out laughing.
She knew very well that she had gone mad. But, other than that, she didn't know how she could be by his side.
That was the only way Elisha learned to express her emotions. Her love was possession, and she Elisha didn't even deserve to own a part of him.
All she had left was to break him.
* * *
Elisha was curled up in her attic. In her diary, she wrote down all the ugly sins she had committed. Elisha just had her tears dripping.
“Now stop. Please stop……. Please get me out of here please. Lucerne. I'll do everything you say now. Lucerne, please.”
“They say they'll let you go if you tell them everything about the diary.”
Lucerne leaned over and lifted Elisha's chin.
“What were you trying to do to me?”
“…….”
“Who made me do bad things? Why did you come to me? What is your purpose?”
“I, I…….”
Tears fell from Elisha's eyes.
“No one sent me. I came to you on my own. Because……. I……. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Please forgive me.”
Elisha felt her guilt run through her body. She said that she was a crazy woman. She wasn't herself She was an ugly woman who was intoxicated with the feelings she claimed to be love. She was just a dirty rat.
“Tell me what you're sorry about.”
Elisha looked at him with her face, her breathless.
“Because I love you. I.”
Elisha muttered.
“I was going to kill you. 'Cause I can't have you Because our identities are different. So together……. I wanted to die. But I couldn't. Because someone like me has you…….”
Lucerne's face became expressionless.
“Is that all?”
Lucerne said.
“Show me everything.”
Elisha's eyes turned to the box. She just couldn't say it. Never, she could never say.
She'd rather die.
“Lucerne. Please stop.”
Elisha pleaded weakly. When she raised her head to look at him, he didn't even move.
'No.'
Elisha saw the box at her feet before she knew it. This was a bigger secret that couldn't even be compared to the diary.
'No, I don't want to open it.'
But I couldn't stop her hand. It was the most painful memory that I hid until the end. Elisha sobbed and shivered and opened her box.
'Ah…….'
No. I don't want to remember.
I don't want to know. No way. No…….
But she opened the box. Inside it came out a bloody cloth. It was a blanket-like fabric that wasn't big enough to cover an adult's body. Tears flowed from Elisha's eyes.
“Elisha. Come on tell me What is your secret?”
Elisha looked at her desk. She ran and banged her head on her desk. I would do anything to get out of this nightmare.
* * *
'Because I love you. I.'
'I was going to kill you. 'Cause I can't have you Because our identities are different. So together……. I want to die.'
'Lucerne. Please stop.'
Lucerne doubted her ears at her words from her Elisha.
“What do you mean? Tell me more.”
Elisha was lying on the bed in a drowsy state. She's probably seeing her fantasies in her head. As she lay out her confession, half unconscious, she suddenly began to have a seizure.
“No, no, no!”
“Elisha!”
Elisha struggled in a half-delirious state to get away from him. She and she crawled out of bed. Her lucerne caught her. Bang, Elisha's body slammed against the table.
“Stop it!”
“No, no, no…….”
“…….”
“I'm sorry.”
Lucerne pressed Elisha's body. Elisha's frenzy did not end when her interrogation was stopped.
“I'm sorry…….”
Her body trembled Lucerne looked at her in dismay. He couldn't interrogate her any longer.
* * *
Elisha imprisoned Lucerne in a secret passage. He was in a coma for several days. Elisha took care of him with all her heart. She wiped his face, applied her medicine, and moistened her mouth with water.
She was fortunate enough to last a few days just in case. She had food, soap, cloth and clean water stored. This secret passage also functioned as a hiding place, and was equipped with some facilities for a life of escape.
Elisha looked at Lucerne's face under the dim light of the lamp. She slowly put her cheek on Lucerne's chest.
'When you open your eyes, you'll hate just having an ugly woman like me next to you.'
But, at this moment, she was blissfully happy. Before he can open his eyes, he will take poison and die. You will finally be freed from this hellish world.
Elisha touched the poison in her bosom.
However, just a little more like this. She wanted to be happy even for a moment.
But she couldn't. After spending a few days like that, Lucerne started to show improvement. Elisha wakes up from days of delirium.
'What was I trying to do?'
Elisha felt her tears overflowing.
Her world was full of people who bullied her and brought her down. Only Lucerne was the first person she had longed for and affection for as a foreigner.
Even he would have forgotten who she was. But what crime did she commit to die with him?
Elisha realized at that moment that she would never be able to be with him. She wet Lucerne's face with clean water one last time and wiped it off.
“Go. I will show you the way out.”
Elisha whispered in Lucerne's ear.
“I must have been crazy.”
But in those few days she was very happy. It was a time when the ugliest little mouse in the world had the one everyone wanted.
Lucerne was trying to regain consciousness. She leaned over to him.
“This is connected to your room. Look out.”
That was the moment. Lucerne grabbed her wrist.
* * *
Even if I thought about the incident at that time, I did not recall it in detail. Lucerne grabbed her wrist.
'It must have been you.'
Elisha was embarrassed and she really shuddered like a mouse.
'I knew it was you from the start. Came here today……. I think it was because I wanted to see you.'
'You are such an idiot. There are no advantages. He's very wary, and he doesn't know how to be brave.'
'I want you. Even I can't understand it, but yes.'
'Enough to see you even in my dreams. I've always been desperate for you.'
'Why is it you?'
'Maybe this is what you were hoping for. I've wanted you for a long time.'
And it happened.