Episode 202
“Then tell this woman. Huh? What Lucerne is like now.”
Elisha opened her eyes wide.
“Lucerne?”
“Ah. Our family used that method before, even when he was in Elphirim Forest……. Back then, everyone in the family tried to kill them. You know Wizards intentionally infuse magic into magic stones to excite the monsters……. Perhaps the monster subjugation battle is getting longer……. That means in the meantime you're in my grasp.”
Jacob said with empty eyes. Only then did Elisha examine Jacob's face properly. Originally, he was a very fat man, but his bulging belly was still intact, and only the skin was on his cheek.
“How are you alive?”
Elisha asked calmly.
“I heard he died while fleeing to a foreign country.”
“My grandfather can't just leave me alone. Of course you saved me……. It's true that I jumped out of the sea, but my grandfather sent another boat. You saved me.”
“Even knowing you killed Marco?”
Jacob stopped moving.
“What does that matter, Elisha? The head of the household will protect Jacob and we will get married.”
Elisha had a headache all over her. Lottie's eyes flashed with desire. Sometimes people completely lose their reason in front of a chance to rise even a little. She was just like that now.
Lotty said nervously.
“I'm sorry, but I need to go to sleep one more time. It's not a safe place either.”
Elisha looked at Lottie calmly with her eyebrows raised. Lottie bit her lip.
A prisoner's composure would frighten the watchers. Lottie thrust the anesthetic needle into Elisha's body once again.
* * *
Again, Elisha was moved somewhere. She didn't even know how much time had passed.
When she opened her eyes, she was in an unmarked carriage. As she got off her wagon, strange knights thrust swords into Elisha's back.
The place where Elisha arrived was an old cabin.
Inside her, the person Elisha expected was waiting for her.
“I have no intention of doing anything bad. Baby.”
Elisha looked at him slowly.
The last look of the head of the household was truly devastating. He was on the verge of being beaten in the crowd.
Maybe that's why Ga-joo looked older in a few months. However, his eyes were clear as if he had regained his former intelligence. The head of a previous life that Elisha remembers. It was the same with an authoritative expression.
'Really quick recovery for an old man.'
Elisha wanted to ridicule her.
The head of the family asked politely and kindly.
“Was it difficult to get here?”
“Yes, thank you so much for being polite in this situation. In the future, I will definitely remember and tell Lucerne that the head of the family treated me like this.”
Elisha answered without trembling at all. She smiled amusedly at her demeanor.
They knew each other's cleverness, so they had a hunch that no lengthy explanations were needed.
“If you are also the daughter-in-law of our family.”
Said the housekeeper.
“You will understand how things turned out this way.”
“Oh, is that so? As far as I know, understanding is not a word used in this case.”
The family head didn't care what Elisha said.
“I only have Lucerne now. But since he doesn't listen to me, there's nothing I can do about it.”
“Lucerne has military power.”
Elisha tried to concentrate her mind. I couldn't even imagine where the hell it was. Just old and shabby……. It was like her abandoned cabin. The surroundings seemed to be a forest. However, it did not smell peculiar to the forest. On the contrary, it smelled acrid and nasty.
'This smell.'
Elisha felt ominous. She has never smelled anything like this.
“He will find me.”
“You mean you knew where you were and found you? Oh okay. You came wearing something cute. It was a well-made bracelet, but I also have a wizard. It's easy to find out about the bracelet that Lucerne cast a tracking spell on. I almost got caught.”
Elisha felt her heart warm. Lucerne erased the tracking imprint, but the bracelet Lapis and Lazuli gave her. It seemed that something had been set up there. And even that disappeared by the hand of the family head…….
Elisha bit her lip.
“I can't be Lucerne's weakness.”
Elisha tried to speak calmly.
“You know. The Cartier family is not happy with women.”
Then the door opened and Jacob entered. Next to him was Lottie, who couldn't hide her nervous expression.
“Look at Jacob.”
Said Elisha.
“She pretended not to know that Carola was being murdered, but she soon met another woman. So will Lucerne.”
Lottie glared at her at Elisha's words. Then she clung to Jacob. Gaju said kindly.
“Elisha, aren't you a luxury compared to something like that? You are the best Cartier woman I have ever seen. Undine should be at least as good as you.”
“Please? Coincidentally, all of them are women whose lives have become exhausted because of the Cartier family. Undine was really killed by the people of this family.”
Jacob vomited his pride when he saw Elisha talking arrogantly to the family head, who was like a god to him.
“You, you bitch. Don't speak ill of the head of the household. Do you know what your situation is?”
“I know. How can you not know when your body is tied up like this?”
Elisha briefly sneered. On the contrary, Gaju looked happy.
“Don't worry. Elisha. Don't you know the rules of our family people? I'm not a man stupid enough to kill a woman like you. After Lucerne and I establish the relationship between the right successor and the head of the family, we will return it. Even if I clean you up, I'll have to see the successor and kill him. For the people of the Cartier family, women have always been the opposite. Once you're crazy, you can't come to your senses. It's not bad for Lucerne to have such a human weakness.”
Elisha openly laughed at the words of her family head.
“You really don't know Lucerne? He's not crazy about women.”
“That is true. Lucerne is crazy about you.”
The housekeeper spoke briefly.
“Before Stevan died, he had exactly the same symptoms as Lucerne.”
“…… What is Lucerne?”
At that moment, Elisha felt ominous. Come to think of it, when the knights of Lucerne came……. They all tried to convey Lucerne's regards to Elisha. What were they trying to say?
“They call psychopathologists, get treatment, and live on drugs. His personality was bad, but he was like that even before Stephen, who was clever, died.”
Elisha hesitated.
However……. Lucerne, which I sometimes see, looked so fine. Elisha recalled the image of Lucerne, which was thinning out.
For the first time, Elisha's hands trembled.
“However……. He……. It looked fine. I…….”
“The story is already over.”
Said the housekeeper.
“If you give me back, Lucerne will pay any price. Okay. He said he would write an insulation book and become a paladin like Merha. Isn't it amazing When he was presented with the same conditions when he was young, he endured without writing a letter of isolation until the end.”
Elisha's hands trembled. For the Cartier family, writing a letter of isolation meant giving up all family rights.
Merha is the only surviving son of the head of the family, but because he belonged to the temple and wrote a letter of isolation, he was never nominated again during his lifetime.
No matter how tattered the Cartier family was from external attacks……. Still, all the wealth of the world was hidden in that family. It wasn't just words this time. It really means giving up the family.
'Why the hell? Lucerne. You had a goal in your life of revenge. You had a stronger hatred for your family than anyone else. Why are you making such a foolish choice when you can rule this family as you please, and the goal is right around the corner?'
It was something that couldn't be explained with logic, and it gave Elisha a shock that made her head spin.
But he made that choice. Fourteen subordinates. Those who taught him the human heart……. Lucerne, who pretended not to know that he was dying in the next room, gave in. Only for Elisha.
Elisha's eyes turned red. She was angry and angry.
“This place.”
She barely had to speak to contain her emotions.
“Is this the family hideout? How many places must there be?”
“You are a genius. Okay. You are a genius. Maybe that's why I'm so quick-witted.”
Gaju nodded. The housekeeper's eyes were full of satisfaction.
“There are several hiding places like this. But Lucerne has most of it figured out. He did the same with Jacob. He couldn't leave Jacob alone. A lot of my agents were being caught by Lucerne, so I needed someone new.”
“Is that Lottie?”
“Okay……. Right.”
Gaju nodded.
“Jacob was hiding in the basement of Lottie's house. For half a year. And me and Lucerne have been at odds all these years.”
Elisha felt a chill. As Jacob imprisoned Elisha before. Like a filthy sewer rat, he hadn't stepped out of the basement of Lottie's house for half a year. With no trace left in the world, it was natural that Lucerne's men couldn't find Jacob.
“What are you going to do with me?”
Elisha gradually calmed down. The householder acted generously towards Elisha.
“You will be by my side for two or three years. When things clear up enough, you'll be able to go back too. But first of all, it would be to evade Lucerne's pursuit.”
“Are you sure you want to send me back to Lucerne? Why? Do you think I will be useless as a hostage in a year or two?”
Elisha felt the most foreboding. When the Cartiers showed mercy, it was worse than cruelty. For their benevolence was only an appetizer before the greatest cruelty was revealed. The patriarch nodded his head.
“Marco and Arien tried to use cute poison on you……. But the poison I use is much gentler. It hurts a lot less than what they wrote, but the dependence is great. You will become a body that cannot survive without the drugs I give you. But it takes time……. So now your life is mine, and through it I will catch Lucerne's weakness.”
“…….”
“But don't worry. I don't want to lose my most precious grandson. You will live a long time too.”
“Then what about roti?”
The gaze of the head of household followed Elisha. And the head of state saw Lottie. It looked as if something like that existed in the world.
Elisha asked calmly.
“Rorty seems to want to be the daughter-in-law of the Cartier family, so why don't she give that woman a chance.”
The family head tilted her head and spoke kindly.
“Jacob. You'll have to sort that out now, so get away. You don't really believe that you can marry a collateral, do you?”
Jacob widened his eyes.
“But, my lord. Lottie took good care of me when I had nothing. This woman is very smart…….”
Elisha had no intention of listening to Jacob's stupid words. Above all, the smell of oil in her room made vibrations.
Elisha knew this smell. This oil stinging her nose ignited better than the others. I've smelled something similar in my past life.
“You're thinking of faking my death, right? You must have been on the defensive quite a bit.”
The family head slowly looked at Elisha. He was the eye of a student with a hundred points.
“What do you mean, Elisha?”
“Lotty is the same height and build as me. He's going to kill Lottie today, burn this place down, and make one charred corpse. And you're going to make Lucerne believe I'm dead? You think it's going to be hard to get away without turning Lucerne's attention to it. Oh, it's a bonus that Lucerne gets a mental hit. Lucerne resembles the head of the household. After losing Elona-nim, the head of the family was also insane, for a while.”
Jacob seemed shocked to hear of the plan. Lottie trembled and stepped back.
“Now, Jacob?”
Jacob held on to Lottie. Even bugs and animals love. Elisha felt the realization that the crisis in her life was truly shocking.
“You are right. Elisha.”
The householder nodded.
“Luzerne is going crazy, so I'll have to cover my sights for a while.”
“…….”
“You really know how to think like us more than anyone from our family. Elisha. You always impress me.”
At the words of the family head, Elisha felt disgusted. She didn't want to be like this. The thing that made her now and taught her the way demons think. It was the people of this family who made me struggle for life.
But Elisha wasn't angry. Now was not the time to be agitated.
“What is Jacob going to do?”
Elisha said calmly.
“Is Jacob next to Lottie?”