episode_0052

[Episode 52] – Sweet Whispers

“We’ll stop at nothing if we make it so that even our mother can’t live without us.”

“What…?”

“Right? Sisters?”

But that can’t be right. Sylvia bit her lower lip, barely swallowing the words that were rising to the tip of her tongue. It was hard to understand what on earth Elise was thinking when she said that, and how on earth she could come to that conclusion. Sylvia grabbed her pounding head and demanded an explanation from Elise.

“Elise… What are you talking about…”

“I mean, literally. I want to make our mothers depend on us, and even more, I want to make them unable to live without us. I want them to be in a place where we can see them, where they can’t run away, for the rest of their lives.”

“…Are you crazy..? Are you saying you want to raise your mother…like a pet..?”

Sylvia was doubtful whether the Elise in front of her was really ‘Elise’. Elise’s blue eyes were strange. Seeing the light that had already gone beyond love and was close to obsession, Sylvia felt suffocated by the obsession that was spreading thickly.

Elise’s words sounded like nothing more than a call to destroy this relationship, the relationship between parents and children. That shouldn’t happen, and it couldn’t happen. No matter how much Elise liked her mother, Elise’s ‘liking’ was seriously distorted.

Elise let out a small breath and spoke in a quiet voice, like a snake whispering.

“After we all get married… how do you think your mother will live alone?”

“…? Well, sell this house and go back to your parents’ house…”

Sylvia also thought about her mother, who would be left alone after everyone else got married. Perhaps she would move to her parents’ house? Since her mother, who was now a widow, had no other place to leave her body, her parents’ house was the only place she could go. Sylvia didn’t think about it any further because the flow of thought was so natural.

Lily also didn’t worry too much because she thought her mother would naturally return to her parents’ house when she was left alone. It wasn’t unusual for noblewomen to take refuge in their parents’ house. Most noblewomen who were widowed and raised their children and were left alone usually returned to their parents’ house.

There was another way, but the noblewomen who lived as widows did not choose that ‘way’. It was an act that was no different from throwing themselves into the pit of hell once again. So, naturally, that ‘way’ was erased from Sylvia and Lily’s minds.

Because there’s no way my mother would choose that ‘method’.

Sylvia and Lily had no doubt that their mother, who had suffered through two marriages, would not make the choice of ‘remarriage’ again. Elise hesitated for a moment, her lips moving, and then answered in a whisper.

“No, my mother is thinking of ‘remarrying’ again.”

““…Huh?””

“When we all leave home, my mother will prepare for her second remarriage.”

But the words that came out of Elise’s mouth were unexpected to Sylvia and Lily. Sylvia and Lily looked at Elise with pale faces. Why? Why? Sylvia’s breathing was caught in her throat and her heart pounded as questions filled her head.

“What, what are you talking about..? There’s no way my mother will remarry… She’s old now… And… There’s no way there’s a place that would accept a second remarriage..? Even if there was…”

The person who would accept the second marriage of an old widow could not possibly be a normal nobleman. My mother, who tried her best to never send us away as concubines and second wives, was selling herself off as a concubine and second wife? That, that, that, that was something that absolutely could not happen.

Elise grabbed Sylvia’s trembling hand and whispered in a sorrowful voice. With eyes that were trembling as if she was sobbing, Elise slowly raised her head and looked up at Sylvia. She looked up at Sylvia as if she didn’t want to make this choice either, as if she thought this method was not right.

There was still a look of intense obsession in Elise’s eyes.

“Sister, I don’t want to do this either. Mom can find a good place and remarry. She’s a beautiful person. But… But can a ‘widow’ who remarries a second time really go to a good place..?”

“That, that’s…”

Elise lightly stroked the back of Sylvia’s hand, which she had grabbed, with her thumb. Elise didn’t necessarily mention that Trisha’s second marriage partner was Catherine’s husband, ‘the mountain corpse’. In this situation, it was a fact that her sisters didn’t necessarily need to know.

Every time she stroked her skin with her fingers, Sylvia flinched as if a snake were crawling across her skin. Just like the snake tempting Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Elise continued to whisper seductively to Sylvia.

“You always heard about it in Lady Catherine’s classes, right? How a woman who was sold as a concubine is treated by a noble who marries her as a second wife… She ends up providing sexual services to a perverted noble, and when she’s finally ruined, she’s sold into a dirty alley…”

“읏…”

The image of her mother, created by Elise’s whispers, kept coming to Sylvia’s mind. The image of her mother abandoned on the street in a horrible state, the image of her mother terribly damaged. Sylvia shook her head violently as if trying to erase the horrible visions that were flashing before her eyes.

“Sister, I grew up as a commoner… but I know the culture of the nobles better than anyone else. Some of the maids in my house were noble young ladies who ran away from home because they didn’t want to get married. So naturally, I heard a lot of stories about the nobles from the maids.”

“Elise…stop…”

“No, Sister. You should know that Lady Catherine’s lesson is a sanitized story. The reality of the young ladies who were sold for money is much more cruel and brutal than the story you know. ”

Elise poured out the harsh reality to Sylvia and Lily, adding a little exaggeration and the truth. Elise told her sisters the stories she had heard from the maids without holding back, and her mind was filled with cruel scenes. The story of the young lady who was sold to a nobleman who enjoyed mating with beasts, the story of the downfall of the second wife who was pushed out in the family’s political strife, Elise continued to unfold.

As the story continued, Lily covered her ears and closed her eyes as if she didn’t want to hear any more, and eventually burst into tears. Sylvia turned her head away from Elise’s story, but Elise continued to tell her story without stopping. It was a terribly cruel and terribly disgusting story.

The more Sylvia thought about the fact that the protagonist of such a cruel story would soon become a mother, the more her heart sank. Why would her mother choose to remarry? After a brief moment of contemplation, the answer she came up with was an obvious one.

It must be because of ‘money’ and ‘us’.

“Sisters, I was originally a commoner, so I can’t understand my mother’s obsession with being noble. I don’t want to see my mother selling herself out for being noble. Even if her actions are for our sake.”

Elise held Lily’s hand with one hand and Sylvia’s hand tightly with the other. Elise, who looked at her sisters with a soft and gentle expression and smiled, looked like a devoted daughter who thought of her mother. Sylvia and Lily, who were moved by Elise’s appearance that only wanted her mother’s happiness and seemed to be able to do anything for her mother, were soon listening to Elise’s voice.

“Now, instead of relying on our mothers, we need to help them rely on us. Just as much as our mothers loved us, we need to prove it by loving our mothers. We love our mothers. That’s how we will gradually change our mothers’ minds.”

Elise spoke in a firm voice to Sylvia and Lily in front of her.

“The idea that we have to get married to be happy, that we can be happy just by ourselves.”

“But… how can we…? We have no money… and we don’t know anything..?”

Lily slowly raised her head and looked at Elise with anxious eyes. There was nothing they could do. They didn’t have the ‘money’ to live with their mother, and they didn’t even know how to do ‘business’. As Elise said, wanting to continue living with her mother was just greed, and a more specific and systematic plan was needed. Elise smiled at Lily’s curiosity and answered.

“You don’t have to worry about anything. If you don’t have enough money, I can sell this house, and I have a little bit of what my father left me. And Lady Catherine will help me with the rest. This ‘plan’ is being prepared by Lady Catherine and me. So you don’t have to worry about anything. Just love your mother. Love your mother and make her depend on you.”

When they heard that Catherine was helping, Lily and Sylvia felt that Elise’s plan, which had sounded like nothing more than greed, was turning into a systematic plan. If their teacher, Lady Catherine, was helping them, it really seemed possible. Catherine was a trustworthy adult to Lily and Sylvia enough to make them think that way.

If Lady Catherine would help…

“I want to… continue to be with my mom. I honestly don’t want to get married or anything. I’m not interested in being noble or anything. I just want to… continue to live with my mom and my family.”

Lily said with a trembling voice, looking back and forth between Elise and Sylvia. She had always wanted to live with her mother, but she had put it aside because she had to get married soon. But, if she could continue to live with her mother and her family…

Lily grabbed Elise’s hand without a moment’s hesitation. As if responding to her answer, Elise also held Lily’s hand tightly and smiled softly. Elise was simply grateful that Lily acted as she had expected. Elise turned her head and looked at Sylvia with a gentle gaze, whispering in her ear.

“Sister Sylvia, as you are our eldest sister, I believe you know very well what choice is best for your mother. You always put your mother and us first, right? With you and us, we can definitely make your mother happier than she is now. Sister, think about the class. What do you want to do for your mother?”

Elise looked at Sylvia with a gentle smile on her lips and the corners of her eyes arched.

Sylvia just rolled her eyes and followed Elise.

What do you want to do with your mother?

“I-”

As a daughter, I wanted my mother to be happy.

As my mother said, I believed that marrying a good person would make my mother happy.

But, what if, contrary to what my mother said, our marriage does not lead to her happiness?

If that leads to mother’s misfortune.

“I……”