The Whipping Maid of House Calley - Chapter 148

When Sheila, who never backed down, started stammering, Jerry said as if to prove his point, “See? I’m right.”

“No! That’s not it!”

At Jerry’s words, Sheila suddenly burst into tears.

She cried like a child. She was frustrated that she couldn’t get through to Jerry, and even more frustrated that she couldn’t find a way to explain her own feelings.

What she felt for him wasn’t something that could be defined with a single word like ‘like.’

For a long time, he had been someone she feared. To the point that it was hard to believe she lived in the same estate as him, he was someone who inspired awe in her just by looking at him.

After becoming directly entangled with him, she both hated him and liked him. Watching his appointment ceremony, she decided she had to leave sooner, because she couldn’t bear to see another woman by his side.

And because he was someone she could never be with anyway….

But even while she was away from him, Sheila thought of him every single day. What couldn’t be filled even through self-pleasure wasn’t physical loneliness, but the loneliness in her heart.

After everything, she had finally reached a point where she could face him properly, and then he was arrested.

Sheila’s heart ached.

Whenever she saw his family after he was taken away, she found herself thinking, presumptuously, that he was pitiful.

Even though he had parents and siblings bound by blood, not a single one of them was truly there for him.

Thinking back now, when he talked about his family during their walks, he had seemed somewhat lonely.

For a family without affection, he carried a heavy burden with nothing but a sense of responsibility.

To Sheila, he didn’t seem all that different from herself.

If she could meet him again, Sheila wanted to hold him.

Just like when he patted her head, she wanted to pat him and comfort him.

But how could she define all of that in a single word?

“That’s not…, sob, what it is….”

Watching Sheila cry, Jerry muttered things like ‘then forget it.’

Jerry’s expression as he stayed by Sheila’s side was a little lonely. His face, which used to look so young, had matured noticeably over the past few months, as if time had struck him head-on.

***

“Sheila! I was wondering if I should come again tomorrow, but you got back just in time.”

“Miss…?”

When she returned from Holzeroad, Sylvia Stacy was waiting for her in the count’s reception room.

“How did you….”

It had already been quite some time since Cedric was taken away, so she couldn’t have come here on an arrangement with him, and Sylvia’s visit to the estate without him felt sudden.

“What do you mean how? I came to see you. Of all days, it had to be your day off. How was I supposed to know you’d be out?”

“Miss… you came to see me?”

At Sylvia’s rapid-fire speech, Sheila pointed to herself as she asked. There were only the two of them in the reception room anyway.

“Yeah. After hearing about Cedric, I even rushed to the royal guard, but they said he’s not allowing visits.”

At Sheila’s reaction, Sylvia quickly got to the point.

“Help me!”

The moment she heard Cedric’s charges, Sylvia realized Sheila was involved.

After telling her lawyer in Lotas to wrap up the lawsuit related to Cedric’s company, Sylvia hurried to Beloica.

Wrapping up the lawsuit meant admitting that she had falsely reported his company for embezzling taxes. It would require paying a large sum in damages and covering the other party’s legal fees, but the lawsuit had never been dragged out for the sake of money in the first place.

What mattered now was only the fact that Cedric had been taken away.

However, she ultimately failed to meet Cedric in the capital, and after speaking with Marquis, she rushed here.

“They say Cedric isn’t even defending himself and is admitting to all the charges. At this rate, it looks like he might even end up taking on crimes he didn’t commit.”

As Sylvia listed the same facts that hadn’t changed since Cedric was taken away, Sheila once again made a faint “Ah…” expression before speaking.

“But there’s nothing I can do either.”

She had already tried everything she could.

And Sheila felt the same sense of helplessness when nothing worked.

No matter how much she worried or grieved through the night, the situation didn’t improve.

The only reason Sheila wasn’t collapsing like before and was still able to move around like this was because the memories of taking daily walks with him and the things he had told her back then were supporting her.

With nothing more she could do for him, she had even gone to find Jerry today, the one who reported Cedric, and vented her resentment.

So she could understand why Sylvia came to her, grasping at straws. Sylvia didn’t even know who the anonymous informant was….

“Even if I understand why you reported him, you can withdraw it, can’t you?”

“What?”

When Sheila reacted in shock, Sylvia asked, “Wasn’t it you who reported him, Sheila…?”

After speaking with Marquis, Sylvia became certain that the person Cedric had bought was Sheila. And naturally, she also assumed that the ‘anonymous informant’ was Sheila.

“It really wasn’t me.”

Sheila made a deeply wronged expression.

‘Seriously, I can’t even reveal who it was….’

Because of Jerry, how many times had she been misunderstood like this already?

Still, perhaps Sheila’s sincerity got through, because Sylvia apologized in a drained voice.

“I’m sorry. I misunderstood.”

“It’s okay, really….”

As Sheila was about to say it was fine, Sylvia cut her off.

“I also want to apologize for what happened last time. I’m sorry, Sheila.”

“Pardon?”

By last time… did she mean that?

Sheila recalled the day she went to the hotel to help Sylvia, when Sylvia dropped the tip onto the hotel carpet.

“To be honest, I was jealous. And my pride was hurt. I’m sorry for acting like that….”

Sylvia apologized again. As expected, that was what she meant.

Aside from that incident, Sylvia hadn’t done anything wrong to Sheila.

No, if anything, Sylvia had always treated Sheila well. More than any other noble, she liked Sheila.

“It didn’t bother me at all, miss. Actually, thanks to the large tip, I put it to good use.”

At Sheila’s cool response, Sylvia shook her head. “I really can’t win against you.”

Her childish behavior hadn’t affected Sheila at all. In the end, the only one who felt self-loathing and suffered over it was Sylvia herself.

“Just so you don’t misunderstand, it’s not that my pride was hurt because you’re a commoner. It was because Cedric chose you instead of me. Funny, right? I was the one talking about class and status, yet I was the one drunk on the position my parents gave me…. But I’ve come to my senses this time. I’ve decided to dedicate myself to creating a more equal world. I never really intended to marry anyway.”

Suddenly…?

Ignoring Sheila, who was taken aback by the unexpected declaration of ambition, Sylvia continued, “Oh! I don’t know if you noticed, but Cedric and I were once play partners. Don’t misunderstand. We never went as far as that.”

Here, “that” meant penetration.

“Even so, it didn’t matter. With SM play, it doesn’t necessarily have to involve that.”

Most of the time it does lead to penetration, but Sylvia preferred the play itself more than that, so she was fine with it.

No, she thought she was fine.

Not having penetration wasn’t so much Sylvia’s preference as it was Cedric’s play style, and even so, the fact that he could draw out the best play made him feel all the more special.

But when she saw the marks on Sheila’s body, her jealousy exploded. In the end, she ended up doing something childish to Sheila because of it.

Only then did Sylvia realize that she’d wanted a relationship with him.

That what made her miss him after he returned to his homeland was the regret of not going all the way with him.

“That doesn’t matter,” Sheila replied coolly again.

“Really? Ha, is this the composure of someone who has him? Anyway, listen to the rest. Since I was treated as a substitute, I have something to say.”

“A substitute…?” Sheila asked back.

She recalled the time she realized she had been someone’s substitute and felt a bitter taste.

But whose substitute for whom…?

“Cedric said this. Since he knew you before me, to him it wasn’t that you resembled me, but that I resembled you. Thinking about it now, I wonder if he saved his first for you. Ugh, let’s stop. Talking about it makes me tear up.”

After checking the time in front of a flustered Sheila, Sylvia stood up.

“Anyway, I’m relieved it wasn’t you. I heard that while admitting all the charges, the one thing Cedric requested was that the identity of the person involved in the transaction not be revealed. Even thinking that the person is you, Sheila, is just my guess. If my guess is right, and if you want to help him, I’d like you to at least write a petition.”

Coming back to her senses at Sylvia’s words, Sheila replied, “I already wrote a petition, miss.”

The idea of a petition came to her recently while talking with Rufus in the corridor. Sheila herself, as the person involved in the transaction, decided to step forward and reveal the truth of the incident.

Although the identity of the person involved hadn’t been revealed publicly, it was naturally known to the investigators.

Sheila wrote a long petition, stating her identity from the very first line.

“I sent it through Secretary Rufus, so it should arrive before the verdict.”

***

A few days later, the verdict for the human trafficking case that violated the royal decree for the first time was finally announced.

[Verdict

In the name of His Majesty King Roland III and the court that upholds the law, it is decreed that the commoner [seller] from a certain region who violated the stern royal decree and engaged in human trafficking is sentenced to 30 years in prison, and Cedric Calley [buyer], the eldest son of the Calley family, who committed the same crime, is sentenced to a fine of 100,000 solids. At the same time, as of this moment, Cedric Calley is stripped of his noble status.]