When Pride Fell At My Toes - Chapter 92



Only Krnovel

#92. Bad smell
2024.04.01.

Actually, talking about the body was impulsive. However, I thought that if I brought up this kind of story, our relationship would end, so I talked to Enrico about pride.

I thought that if Enrico really ran into me, my swaying heart towards him would be completely shattered and my lingering feelings would disappear. I said it with mixed feelings in order to be free for future revenge.

Despite saying that, Enrico didn’t even look for me, putting me on the back burner, and I kept repeating the word ‘sincerity’ that he had said whenever I had the chance.

‘… … I must be mistaken. I must be confused because I am experiencing this situation for the first time.’

The movement of turning my ankle gradually slowed down. Emilia, who had been staring into space while holding onto her ankle that had stopped, chewed her lower lip.

‘What if he is sincere? What would I do if he is sincere?’

Emilia sighed deeply.

‘Even if he is… … .’

Is that important now? In the face of revenge, worrying about things like romantic games seemed like a luxury.

Even if Enrico was sincere, she would still have to wait for him in a corner of that large mansion.

Realistically, there was no way he would seriously date her and think about marriage, and even if he did, there was no way the meeting with such a difference in status would end well.

Of course, if she entrusted everything to him and took revenge on her parents, her body would be at ease.

But would her mind be at ease? The image of her leaving her work to Enrico and just smiling quietly as his puppet?

Accepting him now was nothing more than giving herself up to a moment of comfort. At

first, she had vowed revenge with the determination to risk her life, but inside, she felt bitter that she was being swayed by an easy path.

“The performance is about to start. Please stand by!”

Emilia got up from her seat, chasing her thoughts as she heard the voice of the staff member echoing through the hallway. As her vision rose, she saw two large bouquets of flowers on the table.

It was Enrico and Alessandro who had sent it.

Enrico, whom I hadn’t seen since the first day of the performance, either

at the mansion or on my way to and from work, would always come to visit me on the day of my performance, and Alessandro was the same. The only difference was that Alessandro had sent me flowers for the first time today. I thought he had sent them because it was the last stage, but I had a feeling that he might come to my dressing room after the performance today.

“… … Let’s finish this performance successfully.”

Emilia tapped the toes of her toe shoes alternately and opened the closed dressing room door. From afar, she could hear the sound of an orchestra playing.

***

Thump, thump.

Sweat was dripping down the woman’s dirty face, unlike the weather that had become quite cool.

The woman, who was dressed in shabby clothes like someone who had just come from the slums, quickly hid behind the curtains at the sound of footsteps coming from downstairs.

“… I told you so? Huh? Don’t you smell something?”

“Smell? Oh, what is it? This musty smell.”

“Is there mold?”

“Doesn’t it smell like garbage instead of mold?”

“Ugh- What did the cleaner do?

It’s fortunate that there’s no one coming and going here today, really.” “Let’s go quickly. I don’t want to come back here.”

The two covered their noses and mouths with their clothes and held their breaths as best they could and quickly went upstairs. Soon, the sound of the emergency door opening and closing was heard, and the woman standing behind the curtain slowly revealed her body.

‘Those who took care of me… …’

Christina’s eyes, distorted as if in shame, sank gloomily. It seemed disgusting that those who used to run errands and decorate the stage behind the dancers were pretending to be clean by talking about the cleaners.

Christina looked over her tattered clothes and swept back her hair, which was dark red from sweat and oil.

She hadn’t been in the workhouse for long, but she had experienced the worst time of her life during that short period.

In the workhouse, people were treated like animals and everything was punished with a whip. Her once smooth body was covered in wounds from their whipping.

‘I’m going to kill you. I’m going to make it really hard for you to breathe.’

Her resentment grew deeper day by day, as she was now in a worse situation than the slum dwellers she had so disgusted.

The wretched Peter had the audacity to approach her, but it was a hard-to-live-in workhouse.

Christina had cleverly maneuvered the guards so that they would notice her nonsense, and had already planned for Peter to disappear.

‘Now, all I have to do is deal with Emilia.’

She was uncomfortable with her dirty clothes and her whole body ached, but she had gritted her teeth and escaped the workhouse just to come to this theater.

I briefly considered running away and going into hiding, but even if I escaped, most people would be caught again soon, and I wouldn’t be able to go out and do anything right away.

I thought that if it was going to be like this, I would rather grab Emilia’s ankle and drag her down, who had ended my life, so I came here immediately.

And Christina, who barely returned and hid in the theater, thought that it was a good thing she came after seeing Emilia shamelessly standing on stage as the main character and even getting attention from people.

I can’t just leave Emilia happy like this. Who did I do this to…?

As Christina gnashed her teeth, the image of Enrico Michele crossed her mind.

She couldn’t do anything to that noble noble, but when she thought back to how he had stood up for Emilia, she thought that just ruining her would make Duke Michele very unhappy.

‘It’s hard to do anything grandiose…? You said you’d help me once, right?’

For some reason, the black masked man who helped her escape from the workhouse had promised to help her once.

At first, she thought about asking for clothes to disguise her identity, but since she was going to kill Emilia and die anyway, there seemed no need to make such a grand plan.

So she decided to get the masked man’s help so that she could kill Emilia more perfectly.

‘Let’s fall into hell together.’

Her yellowed teeth were exposed, and her chapped lips were split open, revealing blood.

Christina, who was now smiling as if she didn’t even notice the sting, kept thinking about how to kill Emilia with an excited face.

Killing her on stage would make her look like a tragic ballerina, so killing her in a place where no one would know would suit her… …

Christina searched through her clothes and took out the thumb-sized object the masked man had given her.

‘You said I could just stick it outside the window, right?’

She put her hand through the crack of the window so that it wouldn’t be seen from outside, and stuck the object on the window.

Then suddenly, an unidentified blue smoke flowed out from the object. She looked at it startled, then quickly hid herself inside the curtain and waited quietly.

The moment when her wish would be fulfilled.

***

Emilia walked to the center of the stage toward the audience who were giving her a loud applause. Her colleagues who had entered first for the curtain call left the center empty and waited for her to come to the center of the stage.

Everyone’s faces looked happy. The stage ended successfully to the point that no one could deny it, and perhaps it was a performance that proved that the Avaliante Ballet could make a bigger leap forward.

Emilia greeted the audience and unknowingly glanced at the box where Enrico was standing. Enrico’s gaze, standing in place and clapping slowly, looked hot even from afar.

Even on stage, she could feel his fervent interest, to the point of feeling burdened. In the end, she closed her eyes tightly once and opened them again as she walked to the center.

‘… … Why can’t I see the box so well today? I usually have to look closely to see it.’

Emilia felt anxious for some reason when she saw Alessandro, who was smiling and congratulating her from afar like a flower in full bloom.

She didn’t know he wouldn’t approach her throughout the performance, but now that the stage was over, would he come to visit her?

‘But I wonder if I’ll have time to talk to him separately because of Enrico.’ She

felt uneasy because she had a feeling that Enrico would chase her if she returned home late. The applause didn’t seem to diminish, and the audience’s cheers continued even when she disappeared behind the curtain.

Emilia quickly greeted her colleagues and thanked the staff. She heard them tell her to gather for the after-party, but she didn’t feel like it, so she didn’t answer right away.

She had to go because she was the main character, but Emilia dragged her heavy body to the dressing room as if she sensed that the performance was over.

The hallway was quieter than usual, as there were many people who were still in the afterglow of the performance or who were leisurely preparing to leave work on the last day.

“I… … .”

Then she turned her head at the sound of a faint voice calling her from the corner. A boy wearing a hat holding a single red rose caught her eye.

Emilia blinked and approached the little boy hesitantly. It wasn’t a child she had never met before.

As she approached, recalling the time Enrico had delivered a note through an errand boy, the boy handed her a flower as if embarrassed, and secretly handed her a note just like that time. She

heard people passing by laughing as if they thought it was cute.

“Lady, thank you for the beautiful performance!” As soon as he

handed her the flower, the boy gave a spirited greeting and ran down the hallway. Emilia watched the boy’s back as he quickly disappeared, furrowing her brows and secretly reading the note.

– To the emergency stairs on the third floor.