Chapter 172: That Girls' Novel
Although Rachel said she would do her best to help Evelia and Armand’s relationship, she also knew deep down that you can’t force love, it won’t turn out well. She couldn’t just use alchemy to make some kind of love potion, right? Feelings like this needed the right timing and luck.
Even though she really wanted to bring them closer, because the closer they got, the better her own chances of survival. She still had to think carefully about how to do it.
If she messed things up, she might lose her head for it.
This was way more stressful than working for the second prince back then. After all, she didn’t know back then that the second prince would try to silence her after the job was done. At the time, she was still dreaming about what kind of materials she could buy with the money she’d earn.
“……”
Rachel sat cross-legged on her little bed, looking troubled. Not far from her, sitting on the big bed, was Evelia.
Normally, during the day, Evelia wouldn’t be in her room. When she had to work, she would stay in the manor or by Armand’s side. When she was resting, she would go to the shared lounge to listen for any interesting news she might need.
At night, to avoid looking suspicious, she would return to her room as usual and not stay out too late.
When Rachel wasn’t in the room, Evelia would do some basic exercises. But when Rachel was there, like now, she would sit on the bed and read by the firelight. She was reading a novel, of course, “The Maid’s Knight”.
Because this novel was super popular with women, the author followed the idea of “if there’s money to make, make it” and wrote an extra volume.
How did Evelia find out about it and get a copy? Well, it was because she often visited the maids’ lounge. The maids loved stories and always tried to get others to read their favorite books. Their motto was basically, “Come and love my favorite couple!”
Unlike the main story, which was sweet and romantic from beginning to end (so sweet it could make your teeth hurt), this extra volume was written differently. The author did a reader survey and found out that some people liked drama and sadness too. So they made this version half sweet, half sad, split into two books (part 1 and part 2), with each story being separate, like mini-dramas. That way, readers with different tastes could find something they liked.
If these sold well, the author would probably keep writing more while the book was still hot.
Of course, Evelia wasn’t interested in the tragic stories.
She wanted a happy ending with Armand, so she would never look at stories with sad or cruel endings. Evelia might not be very good with emotions, but she still knew the difference between a good ending and a bad one.
If she wanted to win Armand’s heart, then she had to make him happy!
Evelia had already made up her mind.
If things had been different, if she had grown up normally, Evelia might have become a responsible man. But sadly, now, even if she still had a little sense of duty, it was no longer possible for her to be male.
While reading, Evelia was very quiet. Actually, she was usually a quiet person.
She leaned against the bed, wearing a new pair of white stockings. She had bought many pairs, so white stockings had basically become disposable for her.
She still hadn’t taken off her shoes. Her long pink hair was tied up high in a ponytail to make washing easier. Her bangs were also clipped back using a hair clip, one that had been gifted to her by the other maids. They noticed that the beautiful Evelia always had wet hair in the mornings.
Some other maids had even given her some curling clips, saying it would be nice to try a different style sometimes.
Evelia didn’t really understand how to use those things, so her first attempt turned her hair into a total mess. Armand’s comment was, “You look like a lion that just got blown up by dynamite.”
Since then, Evelia never thought about curling her hair again, because she didn’t want to look like a lion that had been blown up with dynamite.
Evelia kept flipping through the sweet part of the novel. She read very fast because she had the skill to take in ten lines at once. The quiet room was filled with the sound of her turning pages quickly.
Maybe the firelight was a bit too bright, or maybe the sound of Evelia flipping pages was too fast, or maybe Rachel was just too stressed, whatever the reason, even though it was already late at night, this little girl didn’t feel sleepy at all.
In short, she was the only one among the three of them who looked like they weren’t having trouble sleeping. But now even she was close to having insomnia too.
You really had to admit it, anyone who got involved with Evelia somehow ended up losing sleep.
“……”
Rachel didn’t want to think too much about complicated stuff before bed, so to pass the time, she looked over at the other book lying next to Evelia, the second volume of the novel, the one filled with sadness.
Its cover was black, with a white title. It looked more like a funeral book. Just from the outside, Rachel felt like reading something like this before bed might give her nightmares.
But hey, she was over a hundred years old already, it was just a novel. Even if she did have a nightmare, she wasn’t going to wet the bed from fear.
Besides, she had already tasted plenty of the bitter parts of life.
After all, she was this old now. Even though she rarely talked to others, she had seen, heard, and experienced many sad stories.
To joke a little, wasn’t being killed by Red Crow a kind of “bad ending” in her own life too?
If she were in some kind of fantasy novel, she’d probably be sent off to another world by now.
Rachel looked at Evelia, then looked at the book. She reached out her small hand and tried hard to grab the edge of the black-covered novel. In the end, Evelia gave the book a little push with her finger to help, and Rachel was able to pull it onto her own little bed.
That small act of help from Evelia was minor, but it still surprised Rachel a bit. She suddenly realized, when Evelia acted normally, she actually seemed pretty normal.
Under Evelia’s silent gaze, Rachel opened the thick book, one that was a bit of a challenge for her size, and laid it flat on the bed. She started from the preface, turning one page at a time.
Then, by the time she got halfway through the first chapter, Rachel started to feel a bit of stomach pain.
Just as the inside cover had warned, this second volume was pretty much made for readers and the author to suffer together. It was like the author wanted to use every sad twist they could think of. There was the classic “dying young” storyline, and the super cliché “amnesia” plot.
The two main characters were separated by life and death so many times, and several times they even ended up fighting to the death. For them, dying together seemed like the only kind of happy ending.
This second volume really showed off the author’s full evil potential. Rachel only read a few chapters before she already felt full, like she couldn’t take in any more.
“……”
Still, after lifting her head to take a few breaths of fresh air, Rachel couldn’t hold back her curiosity. She lowered her head and kept reading.
After all, she was a girl. Of course she was part of the target audience for girls’ romance novels. She couldn’t help it; it was like “I’m just a silly dog who loves this stuff.” Since this was a side story completely unrelated to the main plot, it didn’t feel like too much pressure. Even though she kept complaining in her mind about how old and overused the story twists were, her eyes honestly kept reading anyway.
Evelia, watching Rachel read so seriously, seemed to notice something. After being quiet for a moment, she asked,
“Rachel, you can read?”
When Rachel heard that, her hand froze awkwardly and nervously in the air.