Chapter 35 The Legend of the Werewolf and the Witch: Humans and Pets Sleeping Together~
Heinrich opened the door sleepily and saw Lilith standing before him, dressed in a nightgown, holding a candlestick in one hand and a dagger in the other, her hair disheveled. He was startled, but quickly regained his composure.
"What's wrong?"
"A thief broke into my room. Go and move all my luggage over here. I'll sleep here."
"Are you alright?"
"Not yet."
Lilith put the dagger and candlestick aside, went back to her room, picked up the rabbit doll, and then climbed straight into Heinrich's bed, pulled the blanket he had been using over herself, and continued to sleep.
Heinrich's room was a standard single room specially designed for high-ranking noble servants, with only a small bed, unlike Lilith's suite which was much more spacious. After Heinrich had moved all the luggage over as ordered, he found Lilith already lying comfortably in bed, almost asleep.
"Where am I supposed to sleep?" He looked at his bed, which had been taken over by someone else, with a sense of helplessness.
"On the floor," Lilith said, her voice muffled as she buried her head in the blankets, "you can sleep sitting on a chair or lying face down."
"..." Heinrich reluctantly brought over the quilt from Lilith's room, spread an unused bath towel on the wooden floor as a makeshift sheet, and decided to make do for the night. Terrible accommodations were commonplace for Heinrich; even before becoming a slave, when he traveled as an armed guard for a caravan, he always stayed in the cheapest inns with communal sleeping quarters, filled with the stench of men's sweat—utterly miserable. Compared to that, sleeping on the floor of a high-class inn was a luxury.
“I used to sleep on the floor a lot when I was little,” Lilith said quietly. “Until I was seven, I lived with my mother in a cheap house that Sherlock rented for her. There was only one bed in the bedroom, and it was cooler to sleep on the wooden floor when it got unbearably hot in the summer. My mother loved to lie on the bed and tell me about all the different people and things she encountered at work.”
Heinrich was somewhat surprised. Ever since he met Lilith, she had always acted like a pampered young lady, always choosing the best of everything, to the point that he had always overlooked her birth as an illegitimate child and her past of being looked down upon. He had thought that the past related to Mauro was already painful enough, but in reality, before being recognized by the Knarro family, Lilith had lived a life even more humble than that of a "noble illegitimate child."
“But those days were few and far between,” Lilith continued, to herself. “Mother was either working at the casino until dawn the next day or going on dates with Father or some other man. But she never thought of asking the Knarro family to give her and me a proper status. She always said that noblemen were big shots that ordinary people couldn’t afford to offend, and that we were destined to spend our lives watching other people’s faces and living a life of subservience.”
"But I never believed in so-called fate. I didn't believe I was born inferior to others. So when my mother was seriously ill, I went and knocked on the door of the Knarro family myself, and got money for my mother's medical treatment. I also got the opportunity to live and study in the Knarro family. The beggar said that my greed would drag me into an abyss. But if I had never been greedy, I would never have my current status and career, and I would not be lying here chatting with the slaves I bought with my own money."
"Why are you still thinking about what he said? You should know that it's all nonsense."
“I know. I will never go back to that state where I was bullied and at the mercy of others. I will keep moving forward and clear away all obstacles in my way until the day I can control my own destiny.”
"You will definitely get what you want."
“Heinrich.” Lilith suddenly turned around, looked down at Heinrich, and said seriously, “I told you before that every slave I buy can be freed after saving enough money. Although I redeemed you early to complete the banking procedures, I can’t let you go, but once you’ve saved enough money, I will still give you true freedom. I will let you do what you really want to do.”
"...But I only want to stay by your side." Heinrich's tone seemed to carry a hint of grievance. "Are you going to send me away?"
"Of course not. I just wanted to give you the choice. Similarly, I gave each of them the choice, but they all chose to stay with me. I think maybe I'm not such a bad boss after all."
"You are a very good boss. Go to sleep, you have to travel tomorrow."
Goodnight, Heinrich. Thank you for listening.
"good evening."
Lilith tucked herself in, smelling the familiar, refreshing mineral scent of Heinrich on the blanket—a scent that made her feel at ease. She remained unaware until she fell asleep that Heinrich had kept an unfinished letter folded into a small square and hidden in his trouser pocket the entire time, never having had a chance to burn it.
Heinrich woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning. He left the room first to deal with the things he didn't want Lilith to see, then returned to draw back the curtains and wake her. Outside, it was a cloudy day, the sky a vast expanse of white, the clouds hanging low. They had to get up early to pack their belongings and meet up with the other caravan. While Lilith was washing and putting on her makeup, Heinrich retrieved the letters he had exchanged with the caravan leader from his file folder. Then, based on his hazy memory, he roughly braided Lilith's hair and draped a beautiful black lace veil over her head.
The caravan leader was a sprightly old German man who worked for the Fugger family in Germany. He had a blond beard, bronze skin, and looked capable and reliable. According to the pre-arranged contract, he arranged a comfortable carriage for Lilith, Heinrich, and their translator, Dante. That day they were to depart from the university town of Padua, heading towards Verona.
Verona, located northeast of Padua, is a strategically important military stronghold in northern Italy. Like Padua, Verona voluntarily seceded from the Duchy of Milan about sixty years ago and joined the Republic of Venice, becoming a vital commercial hub and military stronghold within the Venetian inland territory.
From then on, the old noble families of Verona always hoped to establish marriage ties with the urban nobles of Venice. Mauro's wife, Maria, was from Verona. She originally planned to return to a sanatorium in Verona to spend the rest of her life after ending everything in Venice, but she was still killed by Lilith, and her body and soul were left forever in the murky Venetian lagoon, never to return to her homeland.
Lilith leaned lazily against the carriage window, munching on tasteless nautical biscuits for lunch while listlessly gazing at the gray, pastoral scenery outside. She hadn't slept well and was so sleepy. If it weren't for the presence of the stranger Dante, forcing her to maintain a dignified appearance, she would have loved to lean against Heinrich and catch up on her sleep.
While it wasn't unusual for a widowed noblewoman to keep a gigolo for her amusement—her good friend Sophia made no attempt to hide it, and Lilith didn't see anything wrong with it either—she honestly didn't feel that her relationship with Heinrich was primarily based on sex.
In her eyes, Heinrich seemed no different from Cecilia and the others. Her fondness for Heinrich stemmed from his efficiency, strong learning ability, and responsible character. That's why she regarded him as a capable subordinate and an important partner.
In Lilith's evaluation system, this was the highest praise she could give a man—"as good as a woman." If one had to point out a difference, the biggest difference would be that he was more robust and larger, making him suitable for training as a dog or riding as a horse.
To pass the time during the boring carriage ride, Lilith continued to ask Heinrich to read her stories. She soon drifted off to sleep to the sound of reading. When she awoke, the carriage had stopped, and it was very noisy outside, a mixture of voices and rain, and what sounded like someone wailing. Neither Heinrich nor Dante were in the carriage. Lilith drew back the curtains and looked around, finding that dark clouds covered the sun and it was pouring rain. Feeling lost, she could only sit in the carriage and call out Heinrich's name towards the window.
“Madam.” Heinrich, holding an umbrella, hurried through the chaotic crowd. “I just went to get some information from the captain.”
What happened?
"A riot has broken out in Verona. It is said that the old nobles from the Duchy of Milan are attempting to overthrow the old regime and have led a group of mercenaries to start the war."
"What?!" Lilith was instantly jolted awake.
"Don't worry. The rebels are just a rabble; they'll be quickly subdued by the Venetian army. Only a few remnants remain scattered around Verona. The captain said we'll detour north into the forest, a slightly longer route, to avoid them, but it'll probably take a day or two."
"forest……"
Lilith immediately recalled the beggar's words—"Don't go into the forest!" He had shouted it three times, without explaining why. Lilith hadn't taken it seriously, dismissing it as the ravings of a madman. The original itinerary followed well-established trade routes, with no section requiring her to venture into deep forests.
“I want to come down and take a look,” Lilith said to Heinrich, her brow furrowed.
"Madam, it's raining outside, and the ground is all muddy."
"Then come and hug me."
Heinrich had no choice but to open the door, holding the umbrella in one hand and bending the other to wrap his arm around Lilith's thigh, letting her sit on his forearm. Lilith kindly took the umbrella and held it in her own hand, so that Heinrich could hold her with both hands without expending too much effort.
They stopped in front of the caravan captain's carriage. Lilith immediately spotted Dante standing in the rain, soaked to the bone, arguing loudly with the captain in German. His clothes and hair were already drenched, but he seemed oblivious to the cold, glaring and yelling at the captain—a far cry from the image of the skinny, weak scholar she had previously formed of him.
"What happened?" Lilith patted Heinrich on the back, signaling him to put her down.
“Mrs. Schmidl, please listen to me.” Dante turned around solemnly and shouted to Lilith, “Please, whatever you do, do not enter this forest!”
"Why?" Lilith was taken aback. Dante's words echoed the advice of the mad beggar. One person's words could be considered nonsense, but when two people said the same thing, it became somewhat believable.
“Compared to the nonexistent ghosts in the forest, the real threat lies with the deserters and refugees outside.” The caravan leader spoke to Lilith in heavily accented Italian, his brow furrowed. His expression suggested he was quite impatient with Dante.
“I grew up in this area, and the elders all say that this forest is the habitat of werewolves and witches, a dark forbidden zone that must never be entered!”
"Oh? Tell me about it."
"Legend has it that long, long ago, a group of wicked witches were drawn by the bestiality of demons. They hated human men, cruelly devoured newborn babies in the village, and even poisoned the food of ordinary pregnant women, sparing not even the unborn children of others! Later, these witches were driven out of the village and ran into the forest to hold wicked rituals, mating with wild wolves and giving birth to this cursed race that became their apostles! Since then, this place has been the territory of werewolves, and all the unfortunate ones who have strayed into this forest have been devoured by werewolves, leaving only skeletons!"
"I see." Lilith breathed a sigh of relief. "In that case, Captain, let's follow your plan and take the path into the forest."
"What!?" Dante exclaimed.
“Mr. Translator, if you don’t want to come along, I’ll settle your wages for the day right now, so we can part ways amicably.” Lilith smiled and took out a few silver coins from her pocket, tossing them into Dante’s hand like a beggar’s hand. Then she put her arms back around Heinrich’s neck, gesturing for him to carry her back to the carriage.
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Author's Note: Because it has been selected for seedling cultivation, if any readers or teachers are interested, they can find "Lilith's Ledger" in the app's "Discover" - "Activities" - "Seedling Cultivation" - "Cultivation Base" to cultivate it~ [Let me see]
On a side note, a reader messaged me on XHS saying the original copy was too short and suggested I make it longer. I took their advice and lengthened it slightly, but it's still quite short. What do you all think? Is it better than the previous minimalist version?
More updates tomorrow!
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