Chapter 8 – [Part 1]

Upon arriving in front of her room with the middle-aged woman, Min-ha opened the door first, walked in, and sat on the soft chair.

Then, Min-ha glanced at the middle-aged woman who had a frightened expression on her face. Shortly after, she looked around and noticed Min-ha, and as soon as she met her eyes, she stiffened.

Min-ha looked at the middle-aged woman and spoke as if she was looking at her first.

“Is there anything you want to say to me?”
“…..I’m sorry.”

At Min-ha’s words, she apologized. At the sight of her, Min-ha sighed briefly after. The middle-aged woman’s shoulders trembled when she heard Min-ha sigh.

She was probably afraid of what’s to come.

‘You don’t have to do that. Even though Minase Persen would’ve usually gone on a rampage.’

Min-ha spoke to the middle-aged woman who looked at her with fear and vigilance.

“No worries. As long as you apologized. Don’t do it again next time.”

“…..Pardon?”

“Don’t do it again next time. Aside from cleaning the wrong place because I was lost, other people had a hard time looking for me as well. My god. Even the Duke is making a fuss about me meeting with someone secretly behind his back at the moment.”

Min-ha shrugged her shoulders after saying so.

In all honesty, I hated her for intentionally giving me the wrong directions and made me fight with the Duke for no reason, but in this situation, I felt as though I had to be the bigger person.

If I pick on her for nothing, I’m no different from Minase Persen. If I said something against her, it would have added to my bad reputation.
Besides, I want this matter to pass on quietly without making a fuss as I’m going to leave soon anyway. More importantly, I want to get help from someone to fix this doll.

She made her decision with that in mind. Meanwhile, the middle-aged woman looked up at Min-ha with her eyes wide open and said in a trembling voice.

“……Won’t you punish me?”

‘Punish?’

“I don’t mind you beating me up, but…..please don’t kick me out of the mansion. Ma’am, I beg of you…..Please don’t do that.”

Do you think I’m a sadist?

Min-ha shook her head at the middle-aged woman, who was shaking in fear.

“…..Oh, no! No way!”

“Really?”

“Of course! You have already apologized for what you did wrong, so why would I punish you? Don’t worry about it.”

When she said such words and laughed, the middle-aged woman looked at her blankly as if she was shocked. Min-ha coughed in vain once she noticed the middle-aged woman looking at her with such eyes.

No matter how vicious Minase Persen was, I don’t think it’s appropriate for her to look at me with such eyes that were clearly asking, “Did you eat something wrong?”. Such eyes were a little burdensome, so I hurriedly changed the topic.

“…Well, you don’t have to look at me that way. In fact, there’s something I have done that I feel sorry about.”

“……What do you mean?”

The face of the middle-aged woman, which had come loose at Min-ha’s words earlier, suddenly hardened. As I looked at her firm face, I could see that she was clearly thinking, ‘I knew it was unusual of you to let me off with just an apology, so I wondered what else you were going to do’.

Thereafter, Min-ha showed her the broken lion doll in my hand and said,

“I want to fix this…..Can you lend me a needle and a thread if you have one?”

“Huh? A needle and a thread? Does that mean you’re going to fix this yourself?”

“Yes. Actually, I promised to fix it by tomorrow.”

“…..Oh, alright, Ma’am.”

As Min-ha asked her desperately, the middle-aged woman nodded with a puzzled expression.

After the middle-aged woman gave Min-ha a response, she left the room, and after a while, she showed up with a small basket.The inside of the basket contained colorful threads, pieces of cloth, and a wad of cotton to fill the inside of the broken doll.

‘Oh, I think I’ll be able to fix it perfectly with this.’

Min-ha accepted the basket and smiled broadly.

“Oh my, thank you! You brought the right things. I can start right away. Hmm. Should I fix this part first? Oh, you can go out now. Thank you!”

“………”

Min-ha then put the dirty lion doll in her basket, threaded the needle, and began to repair the doll.

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────