Saving The Villainous Monster From The Male Lead-Chapter 116 - 115: Marina’s Desire

"Teacher, why have we come here?" The young boy asked as he walked through the decorated streets of the capital.

His teacher quickly pushed through the crowd to an unknown location. He had a place to reach, and he must get there on time. The boy named Derrick, his pupil, followed him with unanswered questions. He looked at his teacher’s green coat which was easy to spot from any distance.

Victor took a sudden right and disappeared. By the time Derrick reached there he found him holding out a sword protecting a lady from a weak beggar.

"I will kill you." The beggar yelled with a small knife in her hand. "You ruined me."

The blond fluttering hair of the lady, Sir Victor was protecting was easy to recognize when he saw the color of her pupils. Crimson!

Eleanore Sinclair.

She had been in a bad mood all day, due to yesterday’s mishaps. If one was not enough, she had to be bashed by two. Her head was a mess and the aura surrounding her frightening. On demand of all the maids and servants, Marina agreed to somehow take her somewhere she could calm her mind down.

"My lady, how about we see the city celebration today?" She suggested, with others eavesdropping from outside.

"That’s not a bad idea. I do need a change of setting." She agrees almost immediately, making others feel strange.

However, Eleanore was just too excited to see this festival he had never witnessed. He could have gone yesterday with Stella and her brother but that would have made her the third wheel.

Eleanore was enjoying herself on the lively streets of the city, until out of nowhere, someone pulled her into a dark alley separating her from Marina.

It was a woman she had never seen. It is what she thought. Until she spoke up in a painful and disheartening tone. "How could you do this to me?"

"Who are you?" Eleanore had her suspicions, but she still tried to confirm them.

"Even you can’t recognise me. First you burned one half of my face and then that monstrous grand duke turned me blind from the other side." She screamed after that. "Ahhh!" She cried. "My parents refuse to recognise me. I am their only daughter, their only child yet they could not recognise me. The newspapers have reported me missing, but no one recognises me." She points at Eleanore. "All of this happened because of you!"

"Verbena?" Eleanore asked, completely stunned to see her in that horrifying state.

"Yes, but what do you get from this? Please, help me. Help me convince my parents that it’s me." She begs.

"No." She said firmly, angering Verbena.

"You Bitch!" She pulls out a knife ready to attack on Eleanore but is stopped at the right time by Victor.

Victor draws out his sword, forcing her to step backwards.

"I will kill you, Eleanore Sinclair. I will kill." She shouts. "You ruined me."

Verbena turns around and runs out of the alley like a mad woman, screaming and shouting cuss words for Eleanore all the way up to the next street. Eleanore could hear most of her cuss words and felt bad for her.

But does she not deserve that?

Victor turned to Eleanore. "Who was she?" He asked.

Eleanore hesitated for a while, finding it better to have him know about all of this. "That was Lady Verbena Mallory." She answered.

"What?" Victor was surprised. "How did she—" Rest of the words uttered by the victor were overshadowed by Marina.

She shoved away Derrick and immediately hugged her mistress, who had just turned her way. "My Lady! Where did you wander off to?" She asked in a shaky voice.

"I didn’t wander off, Marina. It was the crowd that separated us." Eleanore explains, hugging her back with a smile.

"I see." She let go of her mistress and then noticed Victor standing there. "Good afternoon, Sir Victor." She greets him with a bow. "Thank you for saving my mistress."

"Oh!" He feels embarrassed. "That’s my job."

Marina turns to Eleanore. "I think this much venturing is enough for the day. Let’s go back, My lady." She requests, yet it was more like an order.

"Marina. I need to talk to Sir Victor." She turned to Victor.

"Let’s change the location first." He suggests.

Marina and Derrick find a place far from Eleanore and Victor. As they sat there, Derrick feeling awkward starts a conversation between them. However, Marina’s eyes were fixed on her mistress and the seriousness in the conversation surrounding that table.

"Miss Marina?" Derrick called her. "Are you listening?"

"Ah yes!" She smiles at him. "I heard you are Sir Victor’s pupil and that you’d soon be joining the National Academy." She repeats his ten-minute-long paragraph in one single sentence.

"That’s right." He says in excitement. "What about you?"

"What do you mean?" Marina was puzzled.

"Are you not joining an academy or something?" He asks.

Marina didn’t know how to answer that. Derrick isn’t young, he is probably just two or maximum three years younger than her and yet he doesn’t know the ways of the world. A woman can do a job but only as a maid for some noble lady. She can never go to any Academy to become a scholar. No Academy in the world accepts female students.

"I am Lady Eleanore’s personal maid." She answers, with a hint of sadness visible on her face. This was her only identity. She had no name, no identity of her own in this world.

"Do you not wish to study?" He asked.

Marina Chuckles. "There was a time I cried for days to my father, when my schooling was completed. I wanted to join a prestigious Academy to study ahead. But they just wouldn’t take female admissions. Thus, I had no choice but to settle down to this role of being Lady Eleanore’s Personal Maid. That’s my identity."

Derrick looked at her with pitiful eyes. He had no words of comfort to offer to this poor woman. Society is cruel and they have been the worst to women. Every restriction they could think of were put on them and removed as per their convenience.

Victor ordered two cups of coffee for the tea. Eleanore didn’t like coffee very much but she needed it at that moment.

When the coffee arrived she drank it hot, burning her tongue only to finally realise what had just happened. Verbena’s face bore two injuries. One side of her face was borned, probably in that tower. The other side had a sword mark. It stretched from her forehead to her chin, crossing over her right eye. She probably lost that eye too.

Where on earth did that injury come from?

Eleanore remembered her mentioning the grand duke. Did Caelestis—

"Elle?" Victor called her. "What happened to her?" He asked.

His question made her realise that he had no knowledge of this incident. When did Caelestis even do this? How did Victor not find out?

’It must mean that at that time Victor was not in the Lancaster Mansion. Did I perhaps get that notification of task completion because Verbena was refused to be recognised as a Mallory? Then did Caelestis also attack her on that day?

More than that, why did Caelestis attack her? For me? No for Stella? But how does he know she was poisoned by Verbena?’

Eleanore was very confused.

"Elle?" Victor called her again and she heard it this time.

"I have a very important piece of information to give you, Victor." She places the cup down on the table and leans forward. "I have said this to no one."

Victor smiles. "Is that so? That’s exciting."

"Everyone knows, Verbena had kidnapped me, but there was another person involved. I think there is a spy in Lancaster mansion."

Victor’s eyes widened, "How do you know?"

"That day I was on a stroll, in the maze-like garden. I heard Verbena having a conversation with a man. He had poisoned Stella and they were planning to put all the blame on me to get me out of the picture." She leaned back, and tapped her index finger on the table, several times.

"Verbena was supposed to bring poison, win the trust of grand duke and perhaps become a spy closer to him for the rebels." Her gaze was fixed on her tapping finger. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"The rebels? How do you know about them?" He asks, surprised that Eleanore even knows about their existence.

Eleanore’s eyes shifted to his face, filled with a strange emotion, acting as if she was insulted just now. "Can I not know?" She tilted her head, as her face turned stiff.

"No,I —"

"My brother didn’t tell me." She looked away. "I just know it. I don’t know much about who these rebels are but I do know that they are trying to bring down the crown." She speaks, as her gaze lands on Marina and Derrick on the table far from them. It looked like those two were having a discussion as serious as them.

"I didn’t mean to offend you."

"I know." She turns back. "Victor, I want you to investigate the Lancaster Mansion and find that man."

"Elle, don’t you think the spies could be planted in Sinclair Mansion as well?" He suggested.

"Yes, I have a fair share of doubt in that too. Don’t worry. I will look into that myself." She calls the waiter to bring the bill. When it arrives she pays for it. "Farewell, then."

"Elle?" He got out of his chair. "Are you all right?" He asks.

Eleanore’s stiff face melts down, as a smile erupts on it. "Yes. Don’t worry about me." She turns around and gestures to Marina to come along.