Chapter 1 - Countess Rosenstein (1/2)

Translator: Blushy

Editor: delishnoodles

I found the web novel again thanks to a kind reader!

I noticed that the author had made changes to the chapters, and the reuploaded version has more chapters than the previous version, so I have decided to retranslate this project. Hopefully, I should be able to translate it faster this time if the author has kept some things the same and will aim to upload twice a week (or more)!

Hope you enjoy it!

The moment I saw him smile at his lover, it was so beautiful that I forgot to breathe and stared at him in awe.

His smile was enticingly sweet, tender and full of affection.

It was the first time I had ever seen him smile, and it was a side of him that I had never known.

It was beautiful.

Really beautiful.

He was more beautiful than anything in this world, and I stopped as if I had been struck by lightning.

At that moment, my eyes were for seeing him, and all my senses were for feeling him.

Strong emotions exploded from the depths of my heart; it became a torrent that rose to my throat. It changed into heat and burnt my eyelids.

――― Is this love?

I learnt what it means to love someone; the essence of love that couldn’t be described into words, and not just the abstract concept of love.

I fell in love at the same time.

His smile stole my heart and even my soul.

On the other hand, I was also assaulted with intense regret.

――― Why now?

My feelings towards him were supposed to remain friendly, and never change.

I preferred it that way since I wasn’t supposed to love him.

I am a woman who was taken in because of sympathy, so I shouldn’t feel too much for him.

As a decorative wife, I was supposed to accept their relationship and live with it.

――― And yet, why, why am I feeling this way towards him now?

Even the strongest joy was covered by the blackest sorrow, and it was as if my heart remained black and was torn to pieces.

It was painful, heart-breaking and unbearable.

――― Why did I…

Tears were streaming down my cheeks by the time I had noticed.

The tears wouldn’t stop, no matter how many times I wiped them away.

I ran at dusk because I wanted to run away from everything.

I kept on running even when my breathing got heavy, and my heart started to hurt.

I wanted to get as far away from the two of them as possible, and if I could, I even wanted my soul to disappear from this world right now.

◊♦◊♦◊♦◊

Reference to Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Spargi d’amaro pianto.

Under the dazzling lights of a huge chandelier, a songstress covered in blood was smiling on stage.

She beautifully sang at the top of her voice about love that was proven with death. The mad melody depicted both joy and sadness.

Shed bitter tears on my earthly remains…

And I will pray for you in heaven.

Only when you join me will heaven seem beautiful.

Heaven, to me!

The songstress collapsed on the ground like a doll with broken strings when the chorus sang a sorrowful tune.

The climax was when the fallen songstress is dragged to the back of the stage by a pastor and maid.

In the end, a high-pitched sound like a death agony swelled from her throat.

Aah!

Is the reflection of her lover, who is not here, reflected in her wide-open eyes?

Her voice was full of sorrow and wrung at the heart of the audience.

When the performance ended, the audience erupted in applause, and everyone praised the songstress for doing a splendid job in singing the ‘Mad Scene’.

In the meantime, the acting continued, and the songstress was held up by the servants while the stairs at the centre of the stage slowly went up as if it was going to heaven.

As the story went on, and the male lead, who learnt that the female lead had died, committed suicide and the play ended in tragedy.

――― I’m jealous.

I also clapped loudly along with the rest of the audience while sighing at the emotion that suddenly grasped my chest.

A beautiful female lead who went mad because she fell in love and died after letting people know how powerful those feelings were.

I also want to fall into madness like her and cry out my love for him without a care in the world while holding onto an illusion, and then die.