Forced Marriage: Thirteenth Wife
31. Slaves Unobedient

"He looks angry." Arkas muttered looking at the empty air Roxanne was passing through as she left. "But he accepted it without saying much anymore."

Arkas leaned his back on the sofa and sighed. His eyes looked at the ceiling with a mind baring.

"Eirene." Arkas covered his face with an arm. "Whose brother is right?"

Either Arkas did something wrong or Elios did it. Either he was currently running everything as Eirene wished or not.

But Arkas hopes his sister keeps smiling as usual there.

*

It was not that Roxanne never thought she had taken the wrong path in life.

It was not that Roxanne never thought that she could do things differently from everything she had done so far, long ago.

But in the end Roxanne did not follow that voice. Whisper that something else is more fun, more free and more appreciative.

"Because I always thought I didn't have time." Roxanne again clenched her hand that grasped the medicine. "I always thought finding another way meant waiting longer for results."

And trying without success is really annoying. Seeking freedom from an uncertain bondage where that leads sucks.

"What's that, Roxanne?"

Clearly Roxanne was surprised someone saw the medicine in her hand, breaking her mind. But Roxanne quickly lies without leaving a trace of suspicion.

"Sleeping pills." Roxanne can't be too panicked. "First Young Master said I should take care of Young Master so for a while don't get sick."

Incidentally, around the eyelids Roxanne blackened due to lack of sleep. So that's a pretty good reason.

Even then it will seem like it was given special attention by Arkas.

"I understand." Diane passed as if that was all she wanted to say.

Roxanne stared at Diane's back in silence. Actually at the beginning Roxanne did not care much for anyone including Diane. But, after everyone was hostile to him, he came to understand that friendship should be maintained.

At least for personal gain.

"Diane—"

Not taking care of yourself, but taking care of your life, is it?

In retrospect, the relationship between brothers was left in this residence. A sick man is not given medicine, a husband wants to kill his wife but his wife who gets hatred.

Then it's possible that all of Elios' wives had the right to kill Roxanne.

"I had doubts." Roxanne stared at the medicine in her hands fixedly. Acknowledging that he did not want to use this thing and felt very inappropriate to do it.

But, in the end Arkas did not speak without thinking. He knew that Roxanne had no one. So if he doesn't become someone who owns the Owner of Everything, Roxanne will be left alone.

"It's funny" Roxanne muttered, suddenly smiling. "Have anyone ever liked me as myself? To be someone else."

Seems as far as Roxanne's memory goes.

"I know you're innocent, Eri." Roxanne walked across the empty passage alone. "But I'm sorry I hate you."

People who don't have everything have no choice but to hate those who have everything.

It feels like it's the law of the world.

"Mrs." Roxanne knocks on Elios' door and asks Graean for permission.

After she showed anger, Roxanne dared not speak to her except to call her Madam.

"You can rest" Graean murmured as he sat by Elios' bedside. "I'll take care of Young Master tonight."

Looks like if Roxanne forces him, he'll make a really annoying impression.

Roxanne accepted it obediently, withdrawing from the room that did not receive it. But Roxanne didn't go back to her room.

He stood by the door of Elios' room, silent until morning.

No one told him to do that. No one told him to do anything.

Roxanne is invisible to anyone's eyes, as she is Elios' disobedient slave.

*