Chapter 185: Servitude
Morning had already arrived, and sunlight shone gently between their brows.
Since then, it was unclear how much time had passed.
To everyone's surprise, Rachel woke up early today. She tried tying her hair into two little pigtails with a hair tie, but they came out messy and uneven.
Of course, she had really tried her best to make it neat, but her hands still weren’t very coordinated, just like any child, so even with all her effort, her hair still looked like a scarecrow pecked by birds.
But that was okay. Today, the maids and Grandpa Butler would help her get dressed and do her hair, just like always. In fact, helping dress up little Rachel had become something the staff competed for. They would use all their tricks to make her look like the brightest, cutest child around.
Originally, the maids also wanted to help Evelia dress up a little, but she directly turned them down.
Yes, the three of them were going out today, but it wasn’t anything formal. They weren’t going to a grand ballroom like before, just something casual. A visit to the newly opened Book Street event.
Apparently, the event was organized by a publishing house to sell leftover stock from the previous season. They turned the whole street into a book market where people could also trade secondhand books.
The publisher's selection covered everything. Fairy tales for children, novels for young people, textbooks for professionals, and old classics loved by the elderly. You could really find all kinds of books there.
It just so happened that Evelia had accidentally torn a book she had borrowed from a maid, and she hadn’t replaced it yet. So Armand took this opportunity to invite Evelia and Rachel to go together. He also planned to pick up some beginner learning materials for Rachel, who’d recently been saying she wanted to study.
Rachel, knowing Evelia didn’t really care much about kids’ outfits, sensibly went ahead to find the maids and get her hair done nicely before going out. After greeting Evelia, she stepped out with purpose.
Evelia, meanwhile, stayed in her room and glanced at one corner.
Last night, the “Falling Leaf” once again brought an order from the Second Prince.
Although this time he didn’t ask her to do anything specific, he asked in detail about what she had been doing recently.
Even now, Evelia still couldn’t disobey the Second Prince’s orders. Even though she couldn’t see his face, just hearing his voice made her heart tremble.
She answered his questions, taking the chance, while Rachel hadn’t come back yet, to tell him everything she’d been doing these past few months. She also reported what Armand had been doing during that time. But since she still wasn’t allowed into the knight corps, Evelia felt like she couldn’t give the Second Prince a full picture of Armand’s activities.
After her report, the Second Prince responded like he always did, with just a single quiet “Hmm.”
Then, as if sensing something, his calm voice said, “You must remember, you are the Red Crow.”
At that moment, Evelia instinctively nodded. Only after a second did she remember, he couldn’t see her, only hear her, so she quickly replied aloud.
“I understand, Your Highness.”
There was a short silence from the other side. Then, with a soft hum, the Second Prince’s voice grew colder.
“Don’t forget who you are.”
“...I wouldn’t dare.”
His voice was so sharp and commanding that Evelia instinctively dropped to her knees. Even though the Second Prince couldn’t see her, he could clearly hear the thud as she hit the floor.
Evelia knelt there in panic. Just a few words were enough to make cold sweat run down her back.
She still hadn’t escaped the shadow he cast over her. Even now, even after she had embraced the moonlight.
She was still the same, so timid it felt hopeless.
After more than ten years of being controlled, Evelia had long lost the ability to truly resist.
She knelt on the floor, clenching her fists tightly. She looked at the shadow cast on the ground by the moonlight falling on her body. She wanted to stand up, but realized her legs had gone weak.
The thought of “I want to stand up” might have been the first time such words had ever appeared in her mind. In the past, kneeling like this had always felt normal to her. But now, for the first time, she wanted to rise.
Unfortunately, she had been kneeling for far too long. Now, getting up was just too hard.
She gritted her teeth, her breathing quick and shaky. In the end, she still lost to her fear.
Maybe after not hearing from the Second Prince for a while, her fear of him had lessened a bit. But the moment she heard his voice, she realized how wrong she was. She couldn’t resist him at all. Deep down, she still felt it was only natural to obey his orders.
She really was nothing more than a slave to the Second Prince. Just looking at her powerless legs said everything about how low she saw herself.
The Second Prince didn’t even scold her, he had only said one short reminder. And yet Evelia had panicked like this.
The mark on her soul wasn’t something that Armand and Rachel could erase with just a few kind words.
After saying only that one sentence, the Second Prince’s message had vanished. Just like the leaf that turned to ash in the corner of the room. But Evelia couldn’t calm down for a long time.
She took a deep breath and stayed kneeling. Now that she was a woman, at least she didn’t have to kneel so stiffly. Sometimes she could sit in a way that let her body relax a little.
‘...Your Highness... why would you say something like that to me?’
‘Don’t forget who you are’—what did that mean, really?
Evelia’s heart grew uneasy.
The balance in her heart, one that had always tilted toward the Second Prince, was starting to waver these past few days.
‘...Is this really the right thing to do? Is what I want right?’
Everything she wanted used to need the Second Prince’s approval first.
But now... now, she... she just—
“Eve!”
Lost in confusion from remembering the night before, Evelia suddenly heard someone calling her name.
She snapped back to reality and realized she was no longer kneeling on the floor like last night. She was sitting on her bed, and the moonlight had turned into morning sunlight.
Just remembering how she felt last night was enough to make her hands soaked in cold sweat.
She stood up and walked to the window where the voice had come from. She opened it and leaned out, the wind brushing through her long, uncombed hair. Through the gaps in her messy hair, she saw Armand and Rachel waving to her from down below.
“Eve! We’re waiting here for you. Once you’re ready, let’s head out together!”
—Yes. It was time to go.
Evelia nodded and turned away from the window. She, Evelia the coward, chose to run away.
Between the feelings she had built over the past few months and the chains the Second Prince had put on her for over a decade, Evelia chose to avoid facing the conflict inside her. She pushed her confusion aside and focused only on what needed to be done right now.
But the heart that had always been calm and loyal to the Second Prince was no longer so sure.
If this inner conflict kept growing, it would one day reach a point where she couldn’t ignore it anymore.
If facing her true feelings meant pain and heartbreak, then—
Even Evelia would no longer be able to hide from it.
One day, she would have to choose.