“How could that be possible? That person entered the Grand Duke’s palace very proudly on their own two feet.”
“That person? Hmm… I heard that the uninvited guest has a brand on their shoulder. There are widespread rumors that His Grace the Grand Duke has been enchanted by a slave and is having them serve him at night.”
As if that could be true. They must have imagined it all on their own.
Suppressing the urge to snap back, Eledrun spoke gently.
“Madam, it’s best not to say things that others might misunderstand. The honored guest at the Grand Duke’s palace has no brand whatsoever. You must have mistaken the shadow cast on the guest’s shoulder.”
“Hmm… It didn’t seem like an honored guest… I heard that everyone who has to serve that person in the Lily Palace is very dissatisfied…”
Still smiling, Eledrun called a maid and told her to summon the cooks, maids, and servants of the Grand Duke’s palace. Eledrun asked the summoned employees:
“Are you all very dissatisfied with serving the honored guest of the Grand Duke’s palace?”
The quick-witted head chef stepped forward.
“How could that be? The honored guest is so kind and wonderful that we are all serving them wholeheartedly.”
“That’s right. They are such a kind and beautiful person.”
“It’s our honor to serve the honored guest.”
Eledrun knew that the attitude of the Lily Palace employees had changed after Roxiana treated the pollution victims.
After dismissing the employees, Eledrun said to Countess Tibrang:
“Does that answer your question now?”
“I suppose a woman is a woman after all. What kind of relationship does that woman have with His Grace the Grand Duke to occupy the Lily Palace for so long?”
“How rude of you, Madam. To try to dig into matters that His Grace has ordered to keep quiet about, are you perhaps trying to defy His Grace? Would it be alright if I reported this to His Grace?”
Unable to find out anything, Countess Tibrang’s face turned red and blue. Carrie couldn’t raise her head, embarrassed by her mother’s vulgar behavior.
“Hmph! We’ll see if those words are true.”
“What we’ll see is your attitude. You should think twice before opening your mouth, Madam. If those vulgar and vile imaginings in your head start spreading as rumors, I will report every detail of today’s conversation to His Grace.”
+++
I cannot die like this.
I must retrieve the bodies of my family members abandoned in the well.
Once I had a goal, it was hard to stay cooped up in the bedroom. Roxiana could do anything for her family.
It would be nice if she could use her power to help Floyd, but there was no need for this power right now. She couldn’t pray for people to collapse from magic again either.
‘How can I make the Grand Duke want to help me?’
−”Princess. A woman’s weapon lies in her beauty. You don’t need to wield a sword; you can seduce a man, win his heart, and ask him to be your sword instead.”
That’s what Elise said to Roxiana, who used to follow her elder brothers around asking them to teach her swordsmanship whenever she had time.
−”So Princess, don’t think about learning swords, but learn the skills to win Lucas’s heart. Use these hands to caress Lucas, not a sword.”
Roxiana wanted to ask Elise:
Is that how you won Lucas’s heart? Did you make Lucas your sword and swing it at my family?
She calmly suppressed the emotions welling up inside her. Now was not the time to recall past relationships and be angry. She had to find something she could do and do it. She couldn’t remain an unwelcome guest in the Lily Palace who couldn’t do anything.
Elise had given various advice on how to win a man’s heart, but Roxiana had always ignored it, so she couldn’t recall many methods.
‘Ah, there is one. She said to pretend to be drunk and lie on the bed as if I accidentally entered the wrong bedroom.’
It was so absurd she couldn’t even laugh.
She couldn’t even imagine herself waiting for him in provocative clothes in his bleak bedroom without a single curtain.
So Roxiana decided to do something that suited her position. She changed into comfortable clothes, rolled up her sleeves, and asked the maids for directions to the laundry area.
Originally, laundry and cleaning were tasks for slaves. It was something that someone branded as a slave should naturally do, but the maids at the laundry area were shocked.
“Princess, you shouldn’t be doing this here.”
“We’re more than enough to handle the laundry.”
Ah, there’s nothing for me to do here either.
Roxiana was discouraged, but instead of turning back, she crouched down at the laundry area and watched the maids work.
Soaking large bedsheets in water, scrubbing them with soap, stomping on them with feet, and rinsing them in clean water seemed like hard work, but it didn’t look difficult.
After watching several times, she quietly took some laundry nearby and soaked it in water. The maids wanted to stop her, their lips quivering, but they closed their mouths when they saw Roxiana’s determined expression.
Roxiana was about to soap up the laundry and step on it when she realized her dress might get wet, so she pulled her skirt up to above her knees and tied it there. Exposing her legs was unbecoming of a noblewoman, but.
‘I’m not a noble anymore, so it doesn’t matter.’
Stepping on the soaped bedsheet was much harder than she thought. The water was too cold in the chilly weather. Her feet felt like they were freezing, and muscles she hadn’t used screamed in protest. She almost fell several times when her feet got tangled in the bedsheet.
The work was so hard that she had to grit her teeth and concentrate, leaving no room for other thoughts.
Father, mother, elder brothers and their wives, nieces and nephews, younger sibling, my country. And Lucas and Elise.
The numerous thoughts that had stained Roxiana’s mind with darkness and blood were pushed away by the grueling work.
When was it? She remembered running into her father one night when she had slipped out of her room to go to the garden. Father was startled to see his daughter at such a late hour, but soon smiled and held out his hand.
−”This father of yours can’t sleep, so would you like to keep me company?”
Roxiana loved her kind but busy father very much, so she happily took his hand and walked with him.
The place Father headed was an open space beyond the stables. After dismissing the people, he picked up a carelessly placed axe and began chopping firewood.
Roxiana found this unfamiliar side of her father interesting and amusing, so she watched him work with wide eyes. The thud, thud of the axe. The crack of splitting wood. She happily listened to sounds she had never heard before.
After a while, Father put down the axe, sat down next to Roxiana, and wiped his sweat.
−”Unfamiliar work is indeed tiring.”
−”Why are you doing this kind of work, Father?”
−”Sometimes when I have a lot on my mind, doing hard work makes my body so tired that my mind becomes blank. After sending away my worries one by one like that and becoming clean, I can sleep soundly and regain the strength to ponder again.”
She thought it was difficult to understand. At that time, she didn’t understand the meaning of those words and didn’t try to.
She just laughed because the state of the firewood Father had split was so messy, and she really liked it when Father patted her head as she giggled.
It was just an ordinary incident that she had forgotten, but it came back vividly in this moment of physical exhaustion.
−”Roxy, Dad will do everything to support you so you can live happily without any worries, but if you ever have a big problem that’s hard to solve, try chopping firewood or doing laundry like Dad, doing unfamiliar work to escape from painful thoughts for a while.”
−”Will that lead to a solution?”
−”Even if it doesn’t, what does it matter? At least that night you’ll be so tired you can sleep without even dreaming.”
Is that really true, Father? But I want to dream tonight. I hope Father, Mother, and my siblings will visit me in my dreams.
I want to be lost in a dream where nothing happened and no one died, never wanting to wake up.
I don’t want to think or worry. I’m not strong or resolute like Father. I’m just a foolish and weak woman who has only been protected, unable to even protect her family.
The despair that had momentarily disappeared due to the hard work once again stained Roxiana’s heart black. Just as she was about to burst into tears and bit her lower lip hard.
“Who on earth made the Princess do this kind of work?”
An angry voice boomed.
The maids bowed their heads and shrank back. Roxiana stopped her feet that had been moving busily on the laundry and turned around.
Like another sun shining red under the pouring sunlight, a huge beast strode across the laundry area. He stopped in front of Roxiana, looked around in disbelief, and grabbed her arm.
“Tell me, who told the Princess to do such a thing?”
His eyes glaring at the maids burned as if he wouldn’t let anyone off if caught. The maids turned pale as if about to faint and bowed their heads even lower.
“No one.”
At Roxiana’s calm voice, Floyd shifted his gaze from the maids to her. She raised her head to meet his eyes and said:
“No one told me to, Your Grace. But it’s work that someone has to do.”
Floyd wrinkled his nose.
“But that someone shouldn’t be the Princess.”
“If I can’t treat people, can’t join the subjugation, and can’t even do laundry, what am I supposed to do?”
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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