Chapter 75: What We Used to Be

After running for a while to escape the villagers’ remarks and teasing, Mira, Evelyn, and Elysia finally reached the bathhouse they were heading to.

As soon as they entered the building, they were greeted by a middle-aged man standing there with a book in his right hand.

His eyes were still glued to the book he was reading, so much that he didn’t notice Mira and the two girls. At least, not until Mira walked up to him.

"Grandpa Yun, we’d like to soak."

Hearing someone’s voice, the man shut his book right away and looked at Mira.

"Mira, it’s you. Who are you with?"

"Three people. Me and those two girls."

Mira pointed at Evelyn and Elysia standing behind her. The man squinted a little because his eyesight had started to blur.

"Who are they?"

"They’re the Nocturne noble daughters, Lady Evelyn and Lady Elysia."

"A noble family? Why are they here?"

"They came with my brother, Elias."

"Elias? Who’s that? And who are you?"

The old man named Yun was actually already having memory problems. Maybe it was his age, but he forgot things easily, even something he’d remembered just a few seconds ago.

Feeling it was pointless to answer Grandpa Yun’s questions, Mira just set three silver coins on the counter.

"Anyway, that’s for three people. Keep the change."

Without waiting for an answer, Mira grabbed Evelyn and Elysia by the arms and led them into the bathhouse.

Inside, there were several pools of hot water with steam rising above them.

Maybe soaking in hot water wasn’t exactly right for a scorching day. But really, who doesn’t love a good soak? Especially when your body’s tired. Hot water is the best thing for that.

"Ladies, you can wash up first before soaking. I’ll go get towels for us."

"Wait..."

Just as Mira was about to head out to get the towels, she stopped when Evelyn called her. Mira turned around, tilting her head.

"Is there another problem, Lady?"

"Um... We didn’t bring any clothes."

"What?"

"Actually, we’d already packed our things, clothes included, when we were about to come here. But..."

"Our mother took everything." Evelyn continued Elysia’s words with a wry smile.

Hearing that reason, Mira went quiet for a moment, thinking about where to find clothes for the two of them.

She thought about giving them some of her own clothes, but that was obviously impossible after seeing the difference in their sizes.

That also hurt Mira a little.

Then, when she thought about buying new clothes, another problem came up. The clothes she could buy were only ordinary ones, without the expensive silk the two girls usually wore.

Mira worried whether Evelyn and Elysia would even be willing to wear them.

As if she could read Mira’s mind, Evelyn spoke up right away.

"Anything is fine, as long as we can wear it."

Mira looked at the two girls with a shocked expression.

"Seriously?"

"There are two things to keep in mind." Elysia held up her index and middle fingers toward Mira.

"First, it has to be comfortable and not tight. Second, it has to cover our private parts."

Mira gave a wry smile at the first thing Elysia said.

She felt the last thing mentioned didn’t really need to be said, since Mira already knew that.

"Alright then. I’ll be going. You two can just go ahead and bathe."

After Mira left the bathing area, Evelyn and Elysia looked at each other for a moment before walking to the spot for rinsing off.

Of course, before rinsing off, they had to take off the clothes they were wearing.

After that, the two of them sat on the short stools provided and began splashing their bodies with refreshing cold water.

*Splash!

The sound of trickling water echoed through the whole room. Luckily, the bathhouse was empty at the time.

While Evelyn was washing her body, her eyes happened to land on a green bar lying next to the bamboo in front of her.

"What’s this?"

"Who knows. Maybe a decoration..." Elysia answered briefly before continuing, "By the way, Big Sis. What do you think about this place?"

Evelyn then picked up the green bar, about the size of a fist, and examined it curiously.

"What do I think? I don’t get what you mean."

As she lifted the bar to look at the underside, Evelyn accidentally dropped it into a bucket of water.

*Plop!

She hurriedly fished it back out and rubbed it, trying to dry it off.

"I mean, are you happy here?"

"What on earth is this?"

As Evelyn tried to dry it by rubbing it, strangely, the bar started producing white foam and giving off a sweet scent.

"You already know the answer, so why ask me? I’m happy and having fun here too. Well, even though a few things are different, I guess..."

Feeling that rubbing it was pointless, Evelyn took the initiative to blow on the bar, hoping the water clinging to it would evaporate.

*Fuu~

But when she blew on it, a tiny bubble drifted out of the bar instead.

Seeing that, Evelyn’s eyes lit up in amazement. She tried touching the bubble with her index finger.

On the other side, when Elysia heard Evelyn say a few things had changed, she tilted her head, confused and curious at the same time.

"What do you think is different, Big Sis?"

*Pop!

When Evelyn’s index finger touched the bubble, it burst right away. Her eyes lit up again before she broke into a bright smile.

Then she tried blowing on the bar in her hand again, hoping to make tiny bubbles like before. While doing that, she answered her sister’s question.

"The most obvious changes are Mira and this village. Not just that, you, me, and Elias are different from before too."

Hearing her sister, Elysia tilted her head again. She felt Evelyn’s words were too vague.

Elysia knew that she, her sister, and everyone Evelyn mentioned had changed. But she still didn’t understand what exactly had changed about them, Elias included.

Realizing her sister was still confused, Evelyn smiled a little before blowing on the bar in her hand again.

"We shouldn’t be here right now. And that alone is already something different, you know."

"What we’re doing right now is something different. Something that isn’t the same as before."

"Why are we able to be here? I don’t know either. Maybe it’s because of our ’Promise’ back then, or maybe it’s just our determination..."

Evelyn then blew on the bar gently. She hoped to get lots of tiny bubbles like before, but what she got was one big bubble the size of a little kid’s face.

*Fuu~

Seeing its size, Evelyn’s face showed amazement before she smiled wide.

As the bubble was about to fall, Evelyn quickly touched it with her index finger, making it burst right away.

*Pop!

"Did you know, Elias isn’t the same as the one we knew."

Hearing her sister, Elysia was obviously confused. She raised an eyebrow before walking behind Evelyn and rubbing her back.

"No way... There are a few things that feel different. But I think he’s still Elias."

Evelyn’s face turned red right away from enjoying the rub on her back.

The girl was really savoring the feeling of Elysia’s soft fingers moving across her back.

"He’s still Elias, yes. But from the ’Orb’ we saw when we were little, Elias wasn’t like this. The Elias we knew back then wouldn’t have dared to talk to us. He couldn’t even look us in the eye."

Elysia raised an eyebrow, like she was remembering something after hearing her sister.

"Ah, right. But he was like that because of how we treated him, Big Sis."

"Well, you’re not wrong. Back then we really did play with other people a lot."

What Evelyn meant by playing with other people was that the two of them often toyed with the people around them.

Evelyn tended to prefer teasing guys, giving them false hope before finally humiliating them cruelly.

Some of the guys who got heartbroken from losing Evelyn and were humiliated by the other nobles couldn’t even bear the pressure.

Evelyn’s usual gentle-looking smile was one of the ways she melted men’s hearts.

And one of her victims was Elias himself.

Evelyn once teased Elias, who back then looked like a nerdy guy with a skinny, hunched body. Of course, Elias walked right into the trap Evelyn set.

It all peaked at a party hosted by one of the high-ranking noble ladies.

Elias was humiliated and harassed by Evelyn. She ordered him to strip off his clothes in the middle of the party and dance around like a monkey.

"Look at that guy..."

"Haha! Dance harder!"

"Disgusting!"

"He’s so pathetic."

"Lady Evelyn’s next victim."

"Elias, you’re a good dancer."

"Thank you very much, Lady."

Strangely, after that incident, Elias understood that his pride had been destroyed. But he still smiled and kept being Evelyn and Elysia’s Caretaker.

"Remembering that incident really makes me hate myself. How could I do something so vicious to him?"

Evelyn then touched her own mouth.

"I even hate seeing myself smile when I think about it."

"Big Sis..."

Realizing her sister was starting to worry about her, Evelyn smiled right away and turned to face Elysia.

"Alright, don’t think too much about it. Ah, take a look at this green bar."

Evelyn held the green bar in her hand out to Elysia. She was trying to change the subject.

"A sweet scent comes out when I wet it. Is it really just a decoration?"

Elysia then examined the bar in Evelyn’s hand carefully until her forehead creased.

"I don’t know either. And it seems like it’s gotten smaller than before, Big Sis."

"Ah! You’re right!"

Then, when Evelyn accidentally clenched her hand, the bar shot up out of her palm and hit the floor hard.

Evelyn and Elysia stared at the bar for a moment before looking at each other.

"Wanna play?"

"Just this once."

Whatever Evelyn and Elysia were about to play with, it would clearly leave Mira, who was on her way back, shocked once again.

* * *