The Serpent of Paradise - Chapter 22

Anastasia was searching through the forest. With late spring drawing to a close, the forest was more abundant than the mansion’s kitchen. People had taken all the valuable copper pots, silverware, and porcelain. Now only a few poor cooking utensils remained in the kitchen.

Anastasia’s hands moved busily as she picked small berries from a tree. She didn’t know their name, but they were edible and intensely sweet. If she didn’t pick them early, the birds or forest animals would take them. After moving around for quite some time, the pockets of her clothes bulged. Though she had filled them as much as she could, she still felt reluctant to leave and put several berries into her mouth. The sweet and tart flavor made saliva pool in her mouth until her jaw began to ache and tingle.

Then she suddenly came to her senses and carefully returned the berries she had been about to eat to her pocket.

‘I should hurry and bring these back.’

Anastasia knew that the people in the mansion had recently been struggling to find food. The remaining maid looked at the nearly empty sack of flour and worried about the countess and her daughters’ meals. After hearing her sigh, Anastasia came to the forest earlier than usual and moved about busily.

‘Will they eat them?’

Anastasia walked on while feeling the heavy pockets with her hands. On one foot, she wore a shoe Catherine had discarded long ago, and on the other, a completely different shoe she found among the belongings the maids left behind.

One was far too large for her foot, while the other was far too small. Still, she could somehow wear them and move around. Though they made her walk strangely, Anastasia was satisfied simply because they kept her feet from being injured.

Listening to the loose shoe clatter against her foot, Anastasia thought of the shoes hidden in the chapel. He must have given them to her to wear. But Anastasia had never once considered wearing them.

The first new things she had ever received in her life. Something meant only for her. Something that man had given her. If she could, she wanted to take them into her coffin when she died.

‘He said he would return.’

Everyone said Mikhail wouldn’t return. They said he had assessed Edenhurst and then discarded it. Even as they said so, no one could easily speak ill of Mikhail. Every dream they once dreamed had only been possible because of him. Instead, their anger turned toward the countess.

“Madam didn’t come out either when Lord Mikhail arrived or when he left.”

“The people who served at the meals said she kept talking around the subject and looking down on Lord Mikhail even during dinner.”

“Who does she think she is now? She was ultimately trying to sell her daughter, so why pretend to be so noble?”

People mocked the countess’s empty pride.

“These days, wealthy commoners are treated better than nobles anyway, aren’t they? But she kept clinging to the past and ordering Lord Mikhail around as though he were beneath her, so he must have grown sick of her.”

“In any case, it’s over. He couldn’t have formed any attachment to a remote place like Edenhurst, so there’s no way Lord Mikhail will return.”

After once going on about how it was the most beautiful place, they each left behind a spiteful remark before departing.

Anastasia emerged from the forest and walked along the path toward the mansion. With hardly anyone coming and going anymore, she could walk without worrying about people’s stares. When the mansion came into view, Anastasia quickened her steps. Forest berries weren’t the only things in her pockets. They also contained mushrooms and plants she often ate.

‘I hope someone will eat them.’

She only needed to eat a little anyway. Then she could bring these to the kitchen so the others could fill their stomachs a little more….

“…!”

A strange man suddenly appeared in front of Anastasia as she hurried toward the kitchen. Startled, she faltered and stepped back. Then she lowered her head deeply. Everyone usually passed her by when she did this. But the man approached Anastasia directly, reached out, and seized her arm.

“Ah!”

Startled, Anastasia flung her arm about, but the man didn’t release his grip. She couldn’t think clearly in the face of his sudden actions. Why? Why is he doing this? More importantly, who is he?

“Let go! Let go!”

“Hold still!”

Clicking his tongue, the man tightened his grip on Anastasia’s arm. As they struggled, the wild berries in her pockets fell to the ground and were crushed underfoot. The purple berries burst one after another, leaving chaotic stains across the earth. The shoe tumbling over them became stained dark red.

Anastasia turned and tried to flee into the forest, but her hand remained firmly trapped. The man’s fat, greasy hand twisted Anastasia’s wrist. Unable to withstand the strength of his grip, she screamed and collapsed.

By the time her once-full pockets were empty, Anastasia was lying facedown on the ground with both wrists restrained.

“Damn it. I thought you were completely docile. I didn’t know you’d make such a scene.”

Holding Anastasia’s hands behind her back, the man pressed his knee into her back. Even though she wore several thick layers of clothing, the pain of the gravel digging into her chest as she lay pinned facedown crushed her.

“Ah, ugh….”

Terrified of being restrained by a stranger and in pain from the weight bearing down on her body, Anastasia panicked and could only moan through her tears.

“I wouldn’t have done this if you hadn’t thrashed around. You’re going to be my wife. Do you think I’d treat you carelessly?”

“W… Wife?”

Anastasia was horrified by the man’s words. Wasn’t that what married people called each other? Then why was this man saying such a thing?

“Yes. I paid the countess to take you. She demanded a high price because you bear the Lauderdale name, even though I heard all about how you were taken in. They say you don’t resemble the former count at all. Then it’s obvious why men of high standing take in little girls.”

The merchant bound Anastasia’s wrists with one hand, then snatched off her hat with the other. The red hair she had tucked inside spilled onto the ground like a waterfall. The merchant grabbed her hair and pulled it, forcing her to raise her head.

“I’ve heard about this. They say red hair is the color of witches and whores, don’t they?”

Red is a rare hair color in Novgod. People tend to weave fantasies around things they rarely encounter. The fantasy woven around women was steeped in lust.

Unable to resist properly through the pain of her hair being pulled so violently, Anastasia moved wherever the merchant’s hand led her. Her hair was pulled back, revealing her face. She remembered what she had been told after coming to Edenhurst. The words of those who had frightened her when she was young.

Never reveal your face or your body, Anastasia.

That was what those dead people told her. They said her coloring was the color of a serpent. That it tempted people. That it was therefore her fault. Her father, the count, and….

The merchant reached out, seized Anastasia’s chin, and turned her face. He saw Anastasia on the day he hurriedly delivered goods to Edenhurst and left. A sudden gust of wind had blown away her hat, and she ran after it to catch it. The face revealed through the wind possessed a strange allure that stirred a man despite how wretchedly thin she was.

Red lips revealed between strands of red hair. A deep red that looked certain to make anyone gravely ill if they ate it. Yet it was the color of temptation, one that still made a person reach out.

The merchant was satisfied. He had paid the countess a great deal of money, but this was worth it. Perhaps someone had already reached for her, but taking one bite from a fruit didn’t diminish its flavor.

The merchant looked around. Even though hardly anyone came and went at Edenhurst anymore, he was still reluctant to take a woman on the road in broad daylight.

When he tried to drag Anastasia into the forest beside the road, she resisted even more violently. Her bare foot, having lost its shoe, kicked at the dry earth. Red blood seeped from her toes after they struck a stone embedded in the ground. Like the earth smeared with crushed berries, Anastasia’s feet were becoming mangled once more.

“You little…!”

The merchant released her hair and swung his hand. Smack! Anastasia’s face snapped to the side with a sound like something tearing. At the same time, her body went limp.

‘Did she faint?’

The merchant grabbed her cheek with one hand again and turned her face toward him. She hadn’t fainted. Her unfocused eyes were merely streaming with tears. The merchant shouted harshly at Anastasia.

“I’m sorry….”

The merchant smiled at her murmured words. If he had known this would work, he would have disciplined her with a beating from the start. The merchant dragged Anastasia toward the forest like a piece of luggage.

“You should’ve behaved like this from the beginning. Then it would’ve been easier for both of us, wouldn’t it? I was going to wait until I took you home, but there’s nothing wrong with doing it once before we leave. We’ll be doing it often from now on anyway.”

Anastasia didn’t know what he intended to do, but she was too frightened even to speak. Because the man had seized her hair again and was dragging her along, she had no choice but to follow him, half dragged across the ground. Otherwise, his fist would strike her again. The fear of violence she had forgotten for a time stripped Anastasia of all will. She went limp like a puppet with its strings cut.

Having decided to take her outside, the merchant became impatient. As soon as he walked several steps into the forest, he threw Anastasia onto the grass and hurriedly began removing his clothes. Clatter, clatter. At the sound of a buckle coming undone and metal buttons striking against one another, Anastasia squeezed her eyes shut and prayed.

‘He said he would take me home.’

The only people who lived at Edenhurst were the Lauderdales and their servants. Therefore, this man’s home was outside Edenhurst. It was a world she couldn’t imagine at all.

‘I don’t want to go.’

This place was her paradise. Aside from the small village where she lived as a child, Edenhurst was her entire world. To think she would have to leave this place.

‘I don’t want to.’

No matter how frightened, terrified, or hungry she was, Anastasia was happy. Because she lived in paradise. But if she had to leave….

A fear greater than anything a beating could cause surged through her. Pain was momentary. If she endured it, it would eventually disappear. Even if some pain lingered for a long time, it would end someday. But if she left paradise. If she could never return here again.

Anastasia prayed desperately. God, please. Send me your soldier. I’ve believed and obeyed the words you bestowed upon mankind my entire life. So please. You sent a golden carriage to guide me here. So please let me remain here. Please. Please. Please. Take pity on me and send someone to protect your lamb….

She saw the man approaching while licking his lips. His trousers dragged along the ground. Anastasia instinctively felt disgust and squeezed her eyes shut.

Thud!

A dull, bursting sound echoed through the forest.