My Sweet Deceiver - Chapter 89

A few more days passed after that. However, the Prince, who was said to be in a nearby hotel, was nowhere to be found. Giselle did not hear any news either. Just counting the time since he supposedly went out, it was already more than a week.

In the meantime, Anghel occasionally returned to the mansion and reported to her what was going on outside. Since he had denied her control last time, Anghel had been strangely disobedient to her orders.

In fact, even before that, Anghel had been ignoring her words.

Giselle felt the apparent change in Anghel’s demeanour:

But she couldn’t do much. All of Giselle’s other subordinates were in the capital, and even they were scattered when the police department arrested Count Lemac. Like other users of the mansion.

She couldn’t understand it at first. If only she could find the Prince, if she became the Prince’s wife, wouldn’t everything be resolved? Why did they just disappear?

As the other servants continued to disappear, the head maid told her with a troubled expression, “We are hiring new people, my lady. Please bear with the inconvenience for a while.”

And yet, the new servants the head maid spoke of were not hired for a long time after that.

Finally, the last maid, who had spent quite some time with Giselle, came to her and said, “I’m sorry, my lady.”

Having said that, the head maid handed Giselle a piece of paper.

Resignation.

The paper the head maid held out to her was her resignation letter. Her mother was bedridden, her father was absent, and she was the only person left in such a situation.

Seeing that the head maid had handed out her resignation, Giselle was not even angry.

Giselle waved her hand absentmindedly and let the maid out. Then, there were only two people left in the mansion: her nanny, who had raised her since she was a child, and the nanny’s daughter, who was a maid. After passing through the pathetic and incomprehensible process, what Giselle felt was a terrible sense of betrayal.

Giselle, who looked down at her fingernails, which she had bitten so hard that she couldn’t see their original shape, finally stood up from her seat. She was going out to find the Prince. Leaving the matter alone with Anghel made her more and more anxious. Everything was slipping out of her control.

Yes, control. To regain that control, Giselle went out. On the road she walked with the maid of the mansion, Giselle looked shabby and pitiful. Compared to her usual appearance in the capital, she looked no different from a beggar. She hadn’t brought enough dresses, thinking she would only stay for a short while.

She was like that, and the funds she had brought with her were running out. When she tried to withdraw her deposit from the Lemac bank, the clerk came out and bowed her head, saying that all withdrawals had been suspended. It was absurd.

“Do you not see I’m the daughter of the bank’s President?” she said, but the clerk just repeated like a parrot that all withdrawals had been suspended and apologised for the inconvenience caused. It was an outright refusal.

So Gisele Lemac was not just a mere beggar but had become an actual beggar herself. Her short patience, not yet fully aware of her own condition, snapped.

She was able to be generous because she thought she had an advantage over others. The overflowing money and fame were covering her inherently bad personality. Her skin had been stripped away, and she was left with nothing but the flesh. Selfish and violent, her original personality.

Every day, she caused a ruckus in the Lemac mansion. Her maids who served her gradually revised her assessment of her, silently. At first, she was a sweet and kind lady who didn’t suit Prince Fabrice, but now they said she and Fabrice were a perfect match.

After haphazardly dressing up, she searched from the last gambling den where he had been seen. The employee who worked at the last gambling den where he was seen said that the Prince who had won the money went to a bar. Some said he was going to a back alley bar behind the hotel.

However, Fabrice’s activities were cut off there. The alley behind the fancy hotel was like a slum where vagrants and gambling addicts huddled together. Anyone dying there wouldn’t be noticed. And yet, the Prince of this nation wandered there.

Giselle sighed and felt anger rising at the same time. After all the effort she put in to save him. He set foot in a place like this?

“You ungrateful bastard.”

“…Pardon?”

The maid blinked and looked at her. It seemed like she thought Giselle was talking to herself. Giselle glared at the maid.

“What?”

“…No, my lady.”

Giselle did not like the maid’s expression.

“Do you find my appearance amusing too?”

“Oh, no…”

“Well, you probably wouldn’t say that to my face,” Giselle answered with great sarcasm.

“…”

The maid, as if embarrassed, buried her face into her hands.

Giselle looked out the window from the corner of her eye as they rode in the ordinary carriage. As if it was rare for the carriage to enter the back alley, people with shabby appearances came out and looked at the carriage in which she rode. Some children clung to the carriage and begged for money or food. A stench seemed to seep into her nose. Giselle habitually stroked her belly.

“Would you like to get down and look for it?” said the maid, looking at her Giselle.

Giselle kept staring with her eyes without getting off the carriage. Would the Prince be in such a place?

It looked filthy. She didn’t want to get off. Behind the makeshift shelters, people were lying dead or sleeping, but the beggars who showed interest in the carriage didn’t even seem to care, as if it was a common occurrence.

“Would you like me to get off at such a filthy place?”

“Oh, no! So, shall we look elsewhere?”

“You get down and look for him.”

Giselle pointed her chin outside the carriage. The maid’s face turned red in surprise.

“What? Alone?”

“Then? Is anyone else here?”

“Well, there are, many criminals living here, and, so, it’s a bit dangerous…”

“Yes. Would it make sense for a noble like me to get off in such a dangerous place? Isn’t it more reasonable for you to look?”

“What? Yes…”

The maid hesitated, then got off the carriage. When she got down, the children crowded around her, begging for money or food, preventing her from moving forward.

This way, will she be able to find him today?

“Sigh…”

Giselle sighed and got off the carriage. Then she handed Fabrice’s picture to the beggars.

“Here. Have you seen this man?”

Then the faces of the beggars came close to her to see the picture. The smell of filth emanated from their breath. The beggars looked at the picture carefully, and shook their heads.

“I’ve never seen a face like this before.”

The beggar’s breath smelled unbearably foul. Giselle held her breath and pulled her maid by the arm.

“It’s okay. Then let’s go.”

“Give me some money and go!”

“I have nothing like that!”

“Give me money! Money!”

The beggars clung to her and held out their hands, but Giselle shut the carriage door and locked it. Then the carriage started slowly. The beggars looked at the carriage with a sad expression.

Filth seemed to cling to her whole body. She stroked her belly slowly, as if to placate her frightened child. It seemed that it was slightly swollen somehow.

“Are you uncomfortable too? Let’s get out of here quickly.”

Giselle muttered to herself, knowing that no one would listen. The maid looked at her as if she was crazy.

* * *

The plan went smoothly. The New Year’s banquet begins at noon and ends before midnight. And from midnight, New Year’s prayers begin. There are about thirty priests involved in the New Year’s prayer.

Tehez planned to sneak into the palace during that time gap. Since there were also female priests, there was nothing difficult or impossible about wearing priest’s robes. She intended to enter the Hall of Sun as if participating in the New Year’s prayer and get the Prince out of the palace.

But why was she feeling so nervous? Was it because she had never done something like this before?

She had only given orders from the back room before. It was her first time personally involved in this kind of experience. So it was natural for her to feel so nervous.

Before entering the temple, she remembered how many times she had struggled to get past the maids who tried to hold her back. She absentmindedly touched the necklace. Then she looked at the priestess’ robe lying in the room. It was hard to believe she would meet him in just a few hours.

Knock-knock-

“Come in.”

Then a short priestess entered the room.

“I heard you didn’t have dinner earlier, Your Holiness.”

On her hands was a small tray.

Tehez quickly accepted the tray. On a tray lay was steaming hot soup and bread.

“There’s still plenty of time left until midnight, so I thought you might as well grab a bite.”

“You don’t have to go through all this trouble… Thank you, Sister.”

Tehez thanked the priestess for her kindness, who did not know she was starving on purpose.

“You must be very nervous, right?”

The priestess’ face showed concern as she looked at Tehez. She knew the reasons behind Tehez’s nervousness.

“I admit it is… but I’m fine.”

The priestess lightly placed her hand on Tehez’s shoulder and offered her blessings.

“I wish for your wish to come true, Your Holiness.”

“Thank you.”

Tehez sincerely thanked her. Even though accepting her into the temple would be advantageous, the priest’s heartfelt blessings were greatly appreciated, knowing that if her presence among the priests were exposed, it wouldn’t benefit the temple.

Of course, the bishop had made a capital-friendly conclusion and accepted her, but it was still an uncomfortable matter for the other ordinary priests. They could feel ill at ease with her being politically exploited.

Unknown to her, there were differing opinions even among the priests. Some looked at her with uncomfortable eyes when she roamed the temple.

Nevertheless, the priestess standing before her showed genuine concern for her. That fact impressed Tehez quite a bit.

Then Tehez took a bite of the bread the priestess had left behind. The rough texture of the bread was chewy. Since it was a meal prepared on purpose, so it would be right to empty it clean. She chewed the bread slowly and swallowed it.

After contemplating for a long time while eating, she sat back down and reviewed the plan in her mind. Late at night, the temple would start to get noisy.

“We’re about to depart soon, Your Holiness.”

“Yes.”

She stood up from her seat. It was time to go and save her husband.

(To be continued in the next episode)

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