Just Leave Me Be

Chapter 7

“Is this the one?”

“She really does look a lot like that dead girl.”

The grown men were talking about her like she wasn’t even there.

Adele puffed herself up. “What are you doing!” she yelled.

At her sharp cry, a few street urchins poked their heads out to see what was going on, but nobody came to help—probably because they had all noticed the swords hanging at the men’s waists.

Two of the onlookers snickered. Those boys had harassed her every chance they got. Adele had kicked them in the crotch and chased them away several times in the past.

She suddenly felt uneasy. Years later, she would look back and regret that she hadn’t run away right then and there.

“Let’s grab her and get out of here before she causes a scene,” one of the men said before grabbing her by the neck.

Adele was already much skinnier than other kids her age, so there was no way she could have broken free from the hands of such highly trained knights.

The men handled her roughly—as if she were nothing more than an old doll—and Adele writhed fiercely in a futile attempt to loosen their grip.

Later on she would learn that the men had not been given any instructions to show her mercy. The knight who had grabbed Adele held onto her with one arm as he mounted his horse. Now high enough to break something if she fell, Adele squeezed her eyes shut, trembling all over as the horse carried her toward an unknown future.

The horse slowed to a stop and the knight dismounted, Adele still under one arm. Then, for the first time in her life, she found herself stepping foot in a house filled with warmth. The air itself was toasty—a sharp contrast with the dreary coldness outside.

Is this a nobleman’s house?

Adele felt herself shrink.

Nobles were dangerous. They were vile creatures. If a noble’s carriage hit you, the aristocrats inside would do nothing more than lean out to spit in disgust before carrying on with their lives.

Adele had seen many children fall victim to various nobleman’s carriages. Some had died brutal deaths—their necks snapped grotesquely out of shape. She also saw one kid who survived but needed to have his leg fully amputated.

Adele cowered as she stared at the imposing man, who introduced himself as Duke Viphta, standing in front of her.

“Wh-what is happening?” she stammered.

“I bought you,” the duke said. “From now on, you will no longer live as Adele, but as my daughter, Karena Viphta.”

The duke’s face seemed cold to Adele, his expression reluctant. His voice, however, was oddly gentle. Adele looked up at him, her lips pressed tightly together.

“Your Grace...?”

At first, she couldn’t understand anything. Who had he purchased her from? What did he mean by “living as his daughter”? Everything was one big mystery to her.

I might be able to find a way to escape!

“It is impossible for you to run away,” Duke Viphta said, as if he read her thoughts. His voice was still friendly.

“What kind of crap... I mean, what are you talking about?” Adele blurted.

His eyes narrowed. “I dislike stupidity, you know. So, I sincerely hope you turn out to be a clever child.”

She was just a girl from the slums. How smart was he expecting her to be?

Duke Viphta looked tired as he furrowed his brow.

“What are you...” Adele started.

“I saved you from the people claiming to own you,” Duke Viphta said kindly with a smile on his face.

“You could have lived the rest of your life as scum. I saved you from that fate.”

He saved me? And what did he mean by “own” me? Who said they owned me? Adele’s face twisted.

“It doesn’t matter to me who you are,” the duke whispered. “You’ve lived a miserable life, haven’t you?

Here you can live comfortably. If you do as I say, I’ll give you everything my daughter never had.”

Adele’s eyes grew wide.

“Whatever you want,” Duke Viphta added, brushing Adele’s cheek with a gloved hand.

He spoke to her warmly with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Adele knew he wasn’t telling her the truth, yet she couldn’t help falling for his sweet lies.

“And you can have your freedom back whenever you’d like. Along with enough money to never need to work ever again,” the duke finished.

“…”

Adele tried to think rationally. It seemed she had nothing to lose; she could spend the rest of her childhood in comfort here and could go back to her old life any time she wanted.

“Can you do it?” Duke Viphta asked.

Adele nodded before she could stop herself, and the duke smiled at her.

“What a good girl.”

Keeping his leather gloves on, he stroked her hair. His touch was tender, as was his voice, but it was the coldness in his eyes that gave away his lie.

To Adele, however, everything felt new and exhilarating. She knew taking the deal was dangerous, yet she craved it desperately.

She was well aware that she needed to break free. She should just refuse it all and run. She had to stop herself from being trapped. But she could do none of those things.

Throughout her entire life, the only real encounters she had with other people involved adults chasing after her with clubs or wishing her dead.

Adele had never known what it was to live in a good home, and so the Duke’s honey-coated lies were like poison to her.

The young girl stared blankly as the duke pulled his hand back from her hair. Though his explanation was business-like, she had caught a fleeting shadow of warmth in his brief smile—it did not matter to her if his sincerity was barely balanced on a thin sheet of ice, ready to crack at any moment.

It would take years and years for the girl to grow up and fully understand the truth.

“Starting now, your job is just to become Karena Viphta,” the duke said as he tossed his leather gloves into the garbage can.

“Oh. One warning, though. Do not expect a single thing from us. All you need to do is keep quiet and stand in for Karena without a word. If you can do that, you’ll be able to live the rest of your life without going hungry, and you won’t have to return to that pathetic life of yours.”

For such a coldhearted statement, his voice sounded deceptively sweet, his whispers tickling her ears.

They were in a well-heated office belonging to a high-ranking aristocrat, but Adele shivered as if she were out on the frozen tundra. She couldn’t understand a single thing. Her head was filled to bursting with new information that she didn’t have the means to fully comprehend.

She didn’t even ask any questions. She couldn’t because moments later the maids took her by the arms and began dragging her out of the room.

“Treat that thing like Karena from now on, and make her look the part,” the duke ordered.

That was the last thing Adele heard as the maids pulled her out, the big doors swinging shut behind them.

She replayed the words she’d heard through the crack between the doors in her head over and over. It was almost as if she were hypnotized.

Why did I nod?

Realizing too late what she had done, Adele gaped in horror.

“We’ll wash the dirt off you first,” a maid said.

Adele shrunk back. Her muddy and soaking wet clothes were pulled off—nobody bothered asking for her permission.

The water in the bathtub was much too hot for Adele’s skin, which was still cold from the rain, but it was once she was in the maid’s arms that Adele finally snapped out of her reverie and began to thrash in place.

“I can wash myself! Let go!” she screamed.

The maid held down Adele’s flailing arms with a firm grip. Adele was speedy and agile—skills she’d picked up stealing food—but sadly she had no muscles to speak of.

“You cannot raise your voice like that from now on,” the maid said sternly.

“Then just let me...!”

“The head butler will fill you in on the details once you’re clean.”

She had never felt the warmth of another person’s skin on her own before, and she decided that she didn’t like it. It rubbed unpleasantly and irritated her skin. Adele flinched each time the unfamiliar warmth touched her. Trembling all over, she gritted her teeth and let out a low growl.

The maid forced Adele, who was struggling with all her might, into the tub and began to scrub her. Her movements were not rough, but they were firm enough to prevent the little girl from running off.

If she’d just let her hand up...!

Adele would be able to slip away if only she could free herself from the maid’s grip, but that was seeming more and more impossible.

I need to run away now before it’s too late...

But despite the child’s squirming and struggling, the maid did not let go.

“What a good girl.”

Just then, the duke’s voice rang inside her head. The moment Adele hesitated, two maids quickly pounced on her. It was easy enough for two grown women to handle a single child. Thrown in an unfamiliar environment with unfamiliar people, Adele couldn’t make sense of what was happening.

She shouldn’t have been shocked; this was how aristocrats normally treated orphans. Actually, this was how everyone treated orphans. Nobody cared whether they disappeared or even died.

“Lady Karena, please turn around.”

Am I Karena...?

So that’s how it is now?

“If you do as I say, I’ll give you everything my daughter never had.”

“Whatever you want.”

The duke’s words kept playing in her head, over and over.

Whatever I want…

Did such a thing even exist?

Meanwhile, the maid’s hands had begun groping at her body, and Adele trembled.

“I told you I could dress myself!” she yelped.

“You cannot raise your voice like that,” the maid replied mechanically.

Adele’s face crumpled. She bit her lip and turned away. Having grown up on the streets, Adele was quick to read the room. Right now, she could see that she was on the lowest rung of the ladder. She thought about her chances of making it out of here alive and decided that her best bet would be to just do as she was told. Only once she had been cleaned and dressed in silk pajamas for the first time in her life was she allowed to leave the bathroom.

The maid kept a tight grip on her arm. Adele had to quicken her steps to keep up with the woman as they passed several rooms before finally reaching the bedroom that would belong to Adele.

“Welcome, Lady Karena.”

The head butler was waiting for her, smartly dressed in a tailcoat. He bowed to Adele, then sent the maids away. Then he sat Adele down on the sofa and told her many things that the duke had not.

Adele learned that the real Karena Viphta had died from an incurable disease called Callot. If the news became public it could cause a serious scandal, so the Viphta family needed to find a substitute—Adele.

“The person who brought me here told me I was purchased, but I’m an orphan. Who was I bought from?”

“As I understand it, from your brothers.”

“I don’t have any bro—”

Adele suddenly recalled the two boys who snickered at her, and she clenched her fists.

“Son of a...!”

Those boys were mean bullies who had tormented her and took her things each time she’d managed to find food. For some unknown reason, Adele had become a regular target, and they came and harassed her at every opportunity. It had gotten so bad that Adele, who was surviving on pure grit alone, actually considered moving to a different street.

“Now that you are Lady Karena Viphta, you must learn the proper etiquette of a lady,” the butler said.

Adele paled. She had not thought things would get this complicated.

“I... I can’t do it. We can just pretend this never happened...” Adele said as she shook her head.

The butler shook his head too, looking sorry for her.

Taken aback, Adele stared up at him.

“Why! Look, mister, I can’t do that stuff. So just...”

“You’ve already heard the story, so you’re involved now. If you leave, I’m sorry to say that you would not be permitted to return to your old home.”

Adele stiffened. She understood exactly what he meant.

He was threatening to kill her.