Chapter 7 Violence at the Funeral Attending one's own funeral is a first...
Heinrich had attended many funerals before, but this was the first time he had attended his own.
The Holy Roman Empire was constantly at war. Many people who might have been laughing and joking at a dinner table a year ago were now dead on the battlefield, their remains never found, and they were buried in their clothes from their lifetime. The cries of relatives and friends were endless, the priest's sermons were solemn and dignified, and everyone was shrouded in a somber and sorrowful atmosphere of mourning.
The funeral in Venice, however, was quite different. Perhaps it was because none of the attendees actually knew the deceased. Or perhaps it was because the weather in Venice in March was as sunny as ever, making it impossible to associate it with the somber theme of death.
Heinrich styled his short, golden hair into a neat side part, and wore a black robe, which made him appear tall and slender. The knife wound on his left eyebrow had completely healed, leaving only a faint scar. He stood at the edge of the crowd, his mind in turmoil, his gaze fixed on Lilith's siren-like red curls, watching his mistress and the funeral guests chat and laugh.
Today, Lilith wore a beautifully crafted black satin gown, its neckline and cuffs adorned with crocheted lace from Burano. She forwent her overly ornate emerald necklace; her only accessory was a ruby ring on her left ring finger, a testament to her status as the deceased's widow. A sheer black veil obscured half her face, making her youthful features appear even more mature and elegant.
Heinrich wasn't very good at handling such situations in his current capacity. Some single noble ladies, seeing that Heinrich was a stranger, took the initiative to strike up a conversation and ask which noble family he belonged to. He could only awkwardly tell them that he was Lilith's attendant while quickly searching for his mistress in the crowd.
Since the funeral was to be held on Friday, Cecilia needed to stay at home to oversee affairs, so Lilith asked Heinrich to accompany her. The funeral was held in the chapel that the Knarro family had long sponsored.
Since the deceased theoretically died in a shipwreck and had never lived in Venice, and the letter from the Knarro family to Frankfurt was delayed, they didn't even have Heinrich's "life" clothes. They could only use the skull model that Lilith had liked to hold as a substitute for burial—of course, the sapphire embedded in it had been removed. Heinrich had been genuinely curious and privately asked Lilith where the bone came from. Lilith told him it was a toy Tata had bought for her at the market to cheer her up.
"Hey! You're the pretty boy Lily just bought?"
Suddenly, a young woman with a heavy Roman accent called out to Heinrich from behind. He turned around, somewhat surprised, and saw a chestnut-haired noblewoman, slightly older than Lilith. Behind her was a well-built young man dressed in strangely tailored clothing; the man seemed to be carrying something, which was hidden behind the woman's skirt.
"Sophia! Why are you so late?" Lilith saw her from afar, quickly made her way through the crowd to her, and hugged her tightly. "Please don't make fun of me."
Heinrich then realized that this passionate lady was the Marquise Sophia Ester, whom Lilith had mentioned.
"Hey, you've been eating well lately, haven't you?" Sophia teased with a mischievous grin, glancing at Heinrich behind Lilith. "I was thinking of getting you a handsome guy to cheer you up, but I didn't expect you to treat yourself so well and already have one. And a serious-looking blond guy at that. So this is your type."
"No, actually I bought him to help with the accounts..." Lilith blushed and explained somewhat awkwardly.
“It’s alright, no need to explain, we both understand.” Sophia smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Since you already have plenty of handsome men, I’ll keep them for myself. Don’t worry, I’ve also prepared another gift for you to add some fun to your life and to comfort you in your grief over the recent loss of your husband.”
Her life after her husband's recent death was full of pleasure, without a trace of suffering. Heinrich thought to himself with a sneer. Then, the man behind Sophia stepped forward and showed Lilith what he was holding—a small black and white rabbit in a wire cage.
“This is a Dutch rabbit, specially kept as a pet. They say it was hard to get it all the way from Northern Europe, it’s quite rare,” Sofia proudly introduced. “Do you remember when we were at the monastery school, there was a time when someone’s pet rabbit somehow wandered into the garden. You played with it for a long time, and only when the owner came to your door did you reluctantly return it.”
"Actually, it's because the school food is too vegetarian every day, and I really want to eat meat. I'm drooling just looking at that rabbit," Lilith replied with a mischievous smile. "But I'll definitely take good care of the rabbit you gave me. Thank you, Sophia. As usual, I also have a gift for you."
Heinrich took the rabbit cage from the other person and placed it at his feet. He then took the velvet jewelry box that Lilith had entrusted to him for safekeeping from his pocket. Lilith opened the box, inside which was a box of eight uniformly sized Persian Gulf seawater pearls.
Each pearl here is worth 10 ducats, and eight pearls together are worth a full 80 ducats. That is to say, this small box of pearls could buy one and two-fifths of Heinrich. Such a valuable gift has its purpose—it is not only a gift, but also the interest Lilith is paying on the funds Sophia has deposited with her.
Sophia was Lilith's first depositor and, to date, her largest depositor. She entrusted Lilith with her entire dowry of 1000 ducats when she married Marquis Esther, and now her total deposits have increased to 4000 ducats.
Even a daughter of the prestigious Dandolo family in Venice, like Sofia, had no right to inherit her maternal family's wealth. Even her dowry, set aside as personal property at the time of marriage, often ended up being completely squandered by her husband's family.
Traditional banks, run by men, naturally only do business with men. To avoid offending the husbands, fathers, and brothers of women, they dared not help women deposit their money. Lilith, however, took a different approach, providing a safe haven for women in high society to preserve their personal assets. Through various methods such as jewelry loans, they facilitated the circulation of money, profiting from liquidity and creating value.
Of course, since receiving interest is legally illegal, the ladies of high society couldn't openly charge interest. So Lilith cleverly disguised the act of paying interest as a polite gesture of gift-giving among noblewomen by presenting jewelry.
"You're too kind. Come to my house for dinner tonight."
Sophia chuckled, tucking the pearl box into her handbag and pulling Lilith's hand as they walked into the crowd. The young ladies she'd met at the convent school had gathered in a circle, chattering about gossip from high society. One of them, newly engaged to a young master from another family, was eager to discuss the storage of her dowry with Lilith.
Suddenly, a loud slap shattered the lighthearted atmosphere of the funeral, and the crowd fell silent.
"What's going on?" As the deceased's closest family member, Lilith was the first to speak up to maintain order, walking towards the source of the sound. Heinrich followed closely behind.
Lilith saw a thin woman holding her swollen, bruised face and weeping silently. The woman was Lilith's sister-in-law, Maria.
The man who hit her was a thin, short, and unremarkable-looking young man, even described as "honest." He had the same green eyes as Lilith. Heinrich later learned that this man was Lilith's half-brother, the son of a direct descendant of the Knaro family, a persistent nightmare—Mauro Knaro.
"My God!" Lilith instinctively rushed forward to shield the woman who had been hit, exclaiming angrily, "Mauro! How could you hit someone in front of God, the priest, the dead, and so many guests! This is outrageous! It's an unforgivable crime!"
"Liliana? You're just an illegitimate child. What business is it of yours to interfere in the affairs of the Knarro family?" Mauro was so angry that his face turned red, as if he had been publicly humiliated.
“This is my husband’s funeral. How can I not stand by and do nothing about you hitting someone at the funeral!”
“I hit my wife. It’s a husband’s right to discipline his wife. How dare she talk back to me in public? What’s wrong with me giving her a lecture? Liliana, do you think you’re someone special just because you got married and moved out of the house? Let me tell you, you’re just a worthless piece of trash that nobody wanted. First, you caused your mother’s death, and now you’ve caused your husband’s death. You—”
Mauro suddenly fell silent. Lilith looked up and saw the broad back of a blond man blocking her way. Heinrich easily grabbed Mauro by the neck and lifted him up.
“You are offending Mrs. Schmidl now.” His tone was cold and serious. “Even though her husband is dead, she is still Mrs. Schmidl. Watch your words.”
Only after saying this did he release Mauro and put him down. Mauro sat down heavily on the ground, panting heavily. Heinrich didn't intend to pay any more attention to him. He turned around and escorted his mistress away, only to find that Lilith's face, which was covered by a black veil, was covered with tears.
She said nothing, but walked forward on her own until she reached a secluded spot behind the church, where she sat on a granite bench and silently wiped away her tears.
Heinrich was utterly astonished and bewildered. How could a few casual words from someone he could easily deal with make Lilith shed tears?
He instinctively wanted to comfort her, but didn't know where to begin. This was the first time he had seen Lilith cry in the week they had spent together. She was clearly a girl who loved to laugh, whether it was a fake laugh or a genuine one, she always laughed like that, sweetly, and never cried.
"Is there anything I can do to help you?" Heinrich handed her a clean handkerchief, knelt on one knee in front of Lilith, and asked gently.
Lilith remained silent, only sobbing. After a long while, she finally spoke, murmuring in a voice too soft for a third person to hear:
“I was too weak… I thought that by moving out of the family home and having my own business… I could forget all those things, forget all that terrible past… But he only scolded me a few times, and I…”
“You are not weak at all,” Heinrich told her firmly. “These are perfectly normal emotions; anyone would feel pain if attacked like that. If you were weak, you wouldn’t have stood in front of that lady in the first place. You are very brave and very strong.”
"But I still have to rely on my deceased husband's reputation..."
"Please forgive me for misspoke," Heinrich said with a wry smile. The situation had been so sudden that he had almost forgotten the role he was playing. "In my eyes, you are simply Liliana, my mistress. My work for you has nothing to do with your father, brothers, or husband. It's simply because you chose me and bought me. Whatever happened before, with me here now, he can no longer harm you."
Lilith blinked her teary eyes and looked down at Heinrich with suspicion. Just then, Sophia rushed over in a panic. She sat down next to Lilith, hugged her friend tightly, patted her back with one hand, and wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief in the other.
A note from the author:
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While writing this chapter, all I could think of was that blond, white man making a peace sign next to the tombstone – that's exactly how Heinrich felt.
In addition, if only simple interest is calculated, Sophia deposited 4,000 ducats, and Lilith paid her 80 ducats in interest every quarter, so the annualized interest rate is 8%.
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