Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

TL/Editor: yana/Sarcasm

Drowning was the cause of Ivan’s death. More precisely, quenching due to loss of balance.

He spoke to the Count, an old friend who had come to see him from afar, and said that he slipped on a rock when he tried to show the landscape along the river, the village’s only pride.

Although the villagers valued the coin more than the word of God, everyone expressed their condolences over the death of the pastor who had come to the village to save their souls.

Ivan’s coffin was placed in the middle of the church chapel. Since it was the freezing season now, the flowers in the fields did not bloom, so people imitated bouquets of mistletoe1 and placed them on his coffin.

Anastasia sat in the front row of the chapel, staring blankly at her father’s coffin. The headman looked at Anastasia with regret.

The child, who was always dressed in shabby clothes, was wearing something he had bought in a nearby large village on the orders of the Count. The first good clothing she wears in her life are funeral clothing. When he saw that the Count greeted the villagers instead of the young Anastasia, the headman told her.

“Thank him. Remember to be grateful to him all your life.”

“…”

Anastasia nodded helplessly instead of answering. The count was very considerate. To Anastasia and the Headman.

It’s hard to bury someone in such a cold winter. Therefore, people who died in winter were simply cremated. But they needed firewood for cremation. When the Headman said this carefully, the Count gave him ten gold coins, and then said:

“If you need firewood, then do not skimp on them.”

Ten gold coins for firewood. When the headman asked to buy firewood, people took out all the firewood from the warehouse after it was found out that they would receive money for it and they would not have to go to a large village for this. Thanks to this, a mountain of firewood had accumulated outside the village. Ivan’s body will burn very well.

But this is not the only thing to thank the Count for.

“I’ll take care of the baby.”

When they said that Ivan was dead, the Headman immediately remembered Anastasia.

If there was a child in the village, in most cases the richest person in the village takes the child. In fact, it is not at all troublesome. In this barren land, man is an important labor force that can dig up a hundred grains by eating just one potato a day. But the headman did not want to take Anastasia away.

‘I can understand why the pastor kept her locked up.’

Despite the fact that she was twelve, she is small, skinny, who looks at most eight years old. Nevertheless, in order to see off the deceased on his last journey, the villagers cast a glance at Anastasia. Especially the men.

The headman saw Anastasia’s mother. When the pastor first arrived in the village, the woman next to him was a beautiful woman even though she was sick. She was hidden deep in the church, and the next time he saw her, she was already buried on the hill.

Maybe he didn’t want someone else to see his wife? Since then, he locked her up and raised a daughter who, he thought, was very similar to her mother. Maybe he knew what would happen when she grew up.

‘Anyway, Anton has been talking a lot about this child lately.’

The headman knew that his son was hanging around the church every day, waiting for Anastasia to come out. Even the new dictionary did not interest him that much. But what if he brings Anastasia home?

‘He can’t do it.’

His son is not a rotten child in this country. He will go to a big city or to the capital and become the pride of the family. But if Anastasia is around, she will probably follow him everywhere. And then one day he might see this child lying in his son’s bed.

This was not the future the Headman wanted. He considered sending her somewhere else, but the Count said he would take her with him. The headman easily sorted out his problems.

After visiting several villagers, Ivan’s coffin was immediately placed on a pile of firewood.

The pile of firewood was lit. It may have taken a day and a half for complete combustion. The elder collected the remaining pieces of bones from the ashes and put them in a wooden box. Then he handed it over to Anastasia, who was standing in front of the carriage.

“Listen carefully to the Count.”

“Yes…”

Anastasia raised her eyes, struck for the first time by her father’s warmth. On the hill behind the church in the distance, her mother’s tombstone looked very small.

When Anastasia got into the carriage and looked out the window, the villagers, who had gathered to see the Count off, waved their hands. All the children looked at Anastasia with envy.

They could not believe that the most pitiful child in the village had become the Count’s daughter in an instant. It is an honor for villagers to work in aristocratic mansions.

At first glance, Anastasia could not even say hello, and while she hesitated, the Count lifted the leather screen that served as a window. Anastasia closed her eyes. She didn’t know where she was going, but this golden carriage seemed to be taking her to a more colorful place.

The villagers bowed their heads as the cart pulled away. Much later, when they raised their eyes, the carriage was already leaving the villages of the city. The great event of the Count’s visit to the little village is over.

When the cart completely disappeared behind the hill, the people returned to their homes. From tomorrow, the boring routine will begin again.

There was a story that they could tell about the great event of the Count’s visit. But this season there is no ground with enough snow melted to slip. Even if it did, there was no river thawed enough for people to flow down the bed.

Everyone will remember this forever, the Count’s visit, without thinking about it.

***

“Uk …”

In the swaying carriage, Anastasia opened her mouth. Then she lifted her head and looked at the Count. Three days after the carriage ride, he was still erect and elegant.

Calmed down, Anastasia pressed herself against the carriage cushion. Her father’s remains, which she had in her arms when she left town, were no longer in her arms. This is because shortly after she and the Count left the village, he took them and threw them out of the wagon.

The remains, which were buried in Ivan’s hometown, were abandoned in an unknown land. Anastasia got up in surprise, but she had no choice but to sit down again, seeing the Count’s cold gaze.

Not that she had affection for her father. But she was associated with him by one surname …

The count, who had been cold for a while after throwing away her father’s ashes, became good-natured again after a while. He began to talk about her mother in the presence of Anastasia. Thanks to this, Anastasia was able to learn about her mother that she never knew.

She was not from Novgorod, but from Ils, as evidenced by her name Chloe. It is said that her boat sank while crossing the North Sea, and the fisherman Ivan saved it by holding on to a floating bag. The family members who were traveling with her died and she had nowhere to go because she had no other relatives to contact, and a year later Chloe married Ivan. And a month after the wedding, she met the Count of Lauderdale, who went on vacation to a villa near the beach.

“It was a good time. Your father visited the villa every day because your mother did not return home.”

At these words, the noble smiled softly. Despite the laughter, Anastasia shuddered. The smiling aristocrat was a little frightening. After three or four short stories, the Count said nothing more.

The difficult and awkward journey continued. Then, when the carriage suddenly drove onto a less wobbly road, the coachman said that the mansion was nearby. In the voice of the coachman, the Count turned to Anastasia.

“You will need a new name.”

“New name?”

“Yes, I also come from the glorious Ils. Therefore, those I care about in this city, I call them the names of Ils. So, I’ll give it too.”

These words lingered in Anastasia’s ears.

Then the horseman’s voice was heard again.

“We’ve arrived.”

Then the Count opened a screen that had been set up along the way.

“Ah!”

Anastasia closed her eyes from the sudden stream of sunlight. Such bright sunlight created darkness in her eyes. That is why Anastasia did not see anything for a while. Instead, she felt something else. A warm wind that cannot be called winter, the smell mixed with it, the sound of a beautiful bird she had never heard.

Her eyelids opened slowly, and then the landscape began to take shape. As soon as the spot became clear, Anastasia jumped up and went to the window, forgetting that the Count was nearby.

“But…”

Anastasia could not say anything, except for a short exclamation when she saw what appeared in the field of view.

A few days ago, she was in a deserted frozen village, but it was spring outside now. A vast pasture full of grass, sheep grazing in places on it, colorful flowers shimmering quietly in the sun, and a huge mansion behind them.

The count did not blame Anastasia for being rude. Instead, he spoke with pride.

“This is my land, Edenhurst.”

Anastasia’s eyes turned red at his answer. Ah, finally …

A little further off, there was a large stone engraved with the name of the place.

Anastasia silently shed tears and engraved this name in her eyes, in her head and in her heart.

Edenhurst.

That was the name of the paradise that Anastasia hoped for.

______

1 I think they wanted to use mistletoe because of its immortality, rebirth meaning, but this plant blooms in April. In addition, there are constant frosts in the village, as far as I understand.