Chapter 46

Her heart pounded furiously, each beat echoing in her ears. The fine hairs on her neck prickled as her sharpened hearing caught the sound of wet footsteps amidst the steady rhythm of rain. Slow. Deliberate. They were closing in.

Odelliana had already inhaled a fair amount of the scent—too much. Lost in her swirling thoughts, she had failed to notice the subtle, poisonous aroma mingling with the candle’s smoke. A critical mistake.

Was it paranoia, or had the poison begun its work? Her body felt unnaturally rigid, her limbs unresponsive. The footsteps grew louder, nearer, until they stopped just beyond the door.

The creak of hinges shattered the fragile silence as the door opened. An uninvited guest entered without hesitation. Their movements lacked the precision of a trained assassin—no care to mask their steps, no effort to conceal their presence.

Or perhaps they didn’t feel the need to be cautious around a woman with crippled legs. Yet their erratic, labored breathing told a different story. Whoever they were, they were agitated.

“…The woman who ruined me.”

The murmured words hit her like a blow, familiar and venomous.

Recognition struck, and the stiffness in Odelliana’s body eased, though only slightly. Her eyes fixed on the figure now stepping into the dim candlelight—a woman drenched from head to toe. Long strands of wet hair clung to her face, dripping like seaweed onto the floor. Water trickled down her cheeks, mingling with the ragged breaths escaping her lips.

Odelliana’s gaze locked on the grotesque scars that twisted the woman’s mouth, partially hidden beneath the clumps of sodden hair. The disheveled state of her intruder was almost laughable.

“Do you have any idea where you are to just barge in like this, Adella?”

Odelliana’s relief that the intruder wasn’t a trained spy was fleeting, quickly replaced by irritation at the unwelcome disturbance. She shot a sharp, disapproving glare at the woman, who appeared to be teetering on the edge of madness.

Adella, drenched and ghostly in appearance, rolled her eyes back with an unsettling jerk of her head, before suddenly bursting into manic laughter.

“Hahahahahaha!”

The laughter rang through the room, more disturbing than the cries of a beast preparing to feast on its prey.

Odelliana’s eyes narrowed, a chill running down her spine as she realized just how far from normal Adella’s state truly was.

“Because of you, my life is ruined! Because of you! Look at what I’ve become!” Adella’s voice cracked, the desperation clear.

As expected, the scars around her mouth were grotesque. The wound, far from healing cleanly, had left uneven, bulbous ridges that marred her face, making her look like something other than human.

“…You ruined me. You destroyed everything. So, I’m going to ruin you, too! Only by destroying you can I survive. I can’t live like this anymore!” Adella’s words tumbled out in a fevered rush, her eyes wild with pain and rage.

Odelliana’s lips curled into a cold smile. “Let’s get something straight. I didn’t ruin you; you ruined me. I told you before—don’t expect to ruin someone’s life and walk away unscathed.”

“Shut up!” Adella spat, her voice rising with hysteria. “What did I do? Did I deserve this? Did I commit some crime worthy of this punishment? It was just a harmless prank!”

“A harmless prank?”

Odelliana’s gaze turned ice-cold as she locked eyes with Adella, her patience wearing thin. “You ruined someone’s life. I may have destroyed your face, but you crushed a woman’s youth. You trampled on someone’s existence, and you dare call it a prank?”

Adella sneered, her face twisted with bitterness. “Ruined? You think I ruined your life? Your life was already ruined from the moment you were born! Why blame me?”

Adella continued, her voice a venomous hiss. “Who told you to be born a cripple? You’ve been a parasite from the start, burdening everyone around you! Did I cripple your legs? No, you were broken from the beginning! Just like your useless body, your life was hopeless from the start!”

Her words were laced with resentment, venom dripping from every syllable as she ranted about the struggles of serving a disabled mistress, her fury bubbling over into madness.

Feeding, housing, and clothing Odelliana had been nothing short of a burden, Adela claimed. A “worthless bug” who could only take and never give back—Odelliana, in her eyes, could never understand the hardships of others. Adela even lamented that tending to a sick person wasn’t a task for anyone with dignity.

How consistent she was. The saying that people never change rang true.

“You really haven’t changed,” Odelliana said, her voice low and tinged with bitterness. “I thought you might have reflected, but here you are, still blaming me for everything.”

Adela’s expression twisted with fury. “It’s because of your cursed birth! Your curse ruined all of us! It’s all your fault! You dared to step beyond your place, cursed as you are, and now—”

Her voice broke as tears streamed down her face, each word laced with anguish. The anger that once burned in her seemed to have drained away, leaving behind nothing but the hollow shell of a woman. Her eyes were dull, lifeless—like the vacant stare of a dead fish. The lines etched into her face, deep and sagging beneath her eyes, made her appear a decade older than her years.

Adela looked almost unrecognizable—her once vibrant face now gaunt, her cheeks hollow as though they belonged to a skeleton. It was clear now: Adela had suffered some misery so profound that perhaps death itself might have been a kinder fate.

“I’ve carried these scars since the moment I was born,” Odelliana finally said. “Do you understand now? Can you even begin to grasp the weight I’ve borne all this time?”

A cold gleam flickered in her lifeless eyes, the same bitterness still lingering.

Odelliana smirked, her gaze sharp and calculating. As Adela’s trembling hands shot toward her collar, she met her with an icy smile.

“And to think,” Odelliana murmured with a hint of cruelty, “I only tore your mouth. You deserved to have all your limbs ripped apart, too.”

“You should have! You should’ve torn me to pieces instead! Ha! Ha! Ha! Or killed me outright!” Adela’s voice rose in frantic hysteria. “How could you leave someone’s face in such a monstrous state? You vile witch! You dog! You wretched demon!”

Odelliana’s gaze remained cold as she raised an eyebrow. “Done with your little self-introduction?”

She had no intention of indulging this absurd tirade any longer. With a swift motion, she leveled the tip of her dagger against Adela’s hand, which still gripped her collar.

“Let go, unless you’re eager to lose both hands.” Her voice was a chilling whisper. “My patience is at its limit, and I won’t tolerate any more insolence.”

The blade’s cold, gleaming tip pressed lightly against Adela’s trembling hand. The contact made Adela convulse violently. Her eyes rolled back, and foam began to form at her lips.

Odelliana, unfazed, reached for the small bell beside her bedside and rang it. It was connected to the annex where the servants stayed—surely, someone would come.

But Adela merely sneered, her expression twisted in deranged amusement.

“No one’s coming, my lady,” she taunted, her voice dripping with malice. “Everyone’s in a deep, deep sleep!”

“…What?” Odelliana’s brow furrowed in confusion.

Adela’s laughter echoed through the room, cracking like splintering wood. The sound was unnervingly grotesque.

“Hahaha!” Adela staggered, her laugh morphing into something more sinister. “You! You, you, you! You deserve to suffer even more!”

With a sudden, crazed burst of strength, Adela lunged at Odelliana, knocking her off balance. Though Adela wasn’t large, the weight pressing down on Odelliana was enough to steal the air from her lungs. Her frail, weakened body—poison coursing through her veins—left her utterly defenseless.

Odelliana struggled, her hands trembling as she tried to push Adela off, but the half-mad woman proved shockingly strong. Cackling like a lunatic, Adela bent down, her teeth sinking into Odelliana’s neck with brutal force.

“Argh!” Odelliana cried out in pain as flesh tore, blood spilling freely from the wound.

Adela, her face smeared with blood, grinned wickedly, her eyes alight with madness.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” she hissed, her voice venomous. “Feels awful, doesn’t it?”

Odelliana’s vision blurred as she fought to stay conscious, but Adela’s deranged laugh echoed in her ears, a sound more nightmarish than any pain. She had become the embodiment of madness itself.

Adella’s attacks were frantic, focused on Odelliana’s face, as if she were determined to ruin her as thoroughly as her own face had been destroyed.

Odelliana raised her arms, desperately shielding her face from the onslaught. A chilling thought flickered through her mind: at this rate, she might actually be torn apart alive. Fortunately, Adella’s lack of combat training made her attacks clumsy and uncoordinated.

But Odelliana knew exactly where to strike to end a life. She bided her time, each moment waiting for the right opportunity to land a decisive blow.

When she finally saw her chance, Odelliana gathered all her strength and drove her dagger toward Adella’s neck. But in the blink of an eye, Adella wrenched the weapon from her grasp, her unexpected surge of strength taking Odelliana by surprise.

The shock that coursed through Odelliana wasn’t just from Adella’s strength, but from her own weakness. How could she, poisoned and frail, fail to overpower a mere maid?

Both of them had been exposed to the same poison, yet Adella seemed utterly unfazed.

“You need to suffer,” Adella hissed, her voice dripping with venom. “You need to be far more miserable than I ever was. Do you understand?”

Odelliana’s fingers closed around the dagger, desperately trying to wrest it from Adella’s unyielding grip.

Thud.

The sudden, sharp pain made Odelliana’s vision blur. Adella’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction as she shoved the blade deep into Odelliana’s thigh.

“If I make your other leg useless,” Adella sneered, “you’ll be even more wretched, won’t you? Hm?”

As she pulled the blade free, blood spurted from the wound, drenching both women in the crimson tide. But Adella wasn’t finished. She raised the dagger again, her eyes wild with madness, this time aiming for Odelliana’s calf.

Just then, the door burst open with a deafening crash.

A figure rushed in, and in a single, powerful motion, sent Adella flying into the wall with a heavy blow, leaving her crumpled on the floor.

“…My lady!”

Odelliana’s breath caught as she recognized the voice.

It was Malena.