“I greet you, my lord” she bowed.
“Just sit and let us start lunch”
Apparently, he also adhered to the tradition and didn’t eat before going to his wedding ceremony. She sat gracefully, waiting for the first course. She could feel his stare burn a hole in her side but she refused to look at him. If she looked at him, he would regard her with disgust. If she didn’t look at him, he would think she was being disrespectful. He was aggravating, if not anything.
The first course soon arrived. While the aroma steaming from the duke’s food was tempting, the course served to the duke’s new wife was subpar. There was evidence of the meat rotting and the sauce barely had any taste. The smell of the duke’s food covered the smell so nobody noticed anything was wrong.
Smiling, she picked up her cutlery, enchanting it with magic. The moment she touched the food with her cutlery, the rotting of the meat was reversed and it looked presentable at the very least. She dug into it and winced. It had absolutely no taste, just the gamey aftertaste and the taste of coal. Even the sauce wasn’t able to mask the atrocious taste.
If she withdrew from lunch then, the duke would be offended and find fault with her. She was still hungry so she didn’t want dinner to be worse. She ate it, hiding the shivers that went down her back as she ate. Even orphans in the capital ate better than this. It was the height of childishness.
The first course was finally over. She washed it down with water, willing the taste to disappear from her mouth. Thankfully, the water was clean. The next course was brought over and it was slightly better. It was then she got the idea.
[Why don’t I poison myself at every meal? If I just drop dead, it won’t be believable. I’ll talk to the fairy mother tomorrow]
Thinking about this, she smiled. For the duke who couldn’t see what was going on in her head, he thought this was strange.
“Is the food so good that you’re smiling?”
“For my first meal in the duke’s house, it’s delicious. I never knew meals of such caliber were made in the duke’s estate. I must thank the chef”
He narrowed his eyes at her. The chef, who was standing while they ate, started sweating. She turned to him, put another morsel in her mouth, and ate heartily. The duke looked at him and looked back down at her food.
“The food is not so different from the ordinary taste I get every day”
“Is that so? Then the duke must be so used to eating well. As expected of the shield of the kingdom. You eat well to grow strong after all”
“.......hmmm”
He asked no more questions and they continued eating. The next course was worse than the last and this time, the chef couldn’t even meet her eyes. It took all her strength to force it down her throat. Once she was more than halfway done, she stood and bowed.
“I want to thank the duke for the opportunity to dine with me but I apologize that I cannot eat any longer because there is simply no more space in my stomach. I would like to go and rest”
He stared at her and back at her food. Something was suspicious, especially since both she and the chef were not meeting his eyes.
“You may leave”
“Thank you, your grace”
She walked out briskly, passing Wilbur at the door. She ran to her room, going straight for the bathroom. She retched into the toilet, vomiting everything she had forced down her throat. She was there for an agonizing amount of time, the sound of her vomiting making her vomit even more. She regained her senses when there was nothing else to vomit, seeing as she even filled the toilet with blood. The sight made her want to start all over again.
“Haa…..Haaa…….Haa…” she flushed it down, leaning against the wall after washing her mouth. If every mealtime was like that, she would die before she killed herself. Of all the ways to die, indigestion and anorexia weren’t exactly the best ways. She already suffered enough in her last life.
“I have to deal with this chef issue. If they keep treating me like this……wait! Can’t I send for her? If she’s here, then my life will get easier. Since she happens to care for the duke a lot, she will be nice to me in public. Alright, let’s write to her”
The woman that captured the fierce duke’s heart was the youngest princess, Alana Willow Ducroft. She was the daughter of a commoner who was raped by the king and forcefully brought into the palace. Her mother died when she was young and she became the abandoned princess. Her father didn’t even remember her name or her existence.
According to what Natalia heard, she ran into the duke when she was out in the streets of the capital. How they became close was unclear but the duke was in love with her. He was unable to stop his marriage because of the king. If he got married to someone with royal blood, it would tie him to the palace indefinitely. Even if he loved her, he still put his family above her.
If she came to the dukedom, he won’t send her away since he knew how she was treated in the palace. They said she was a bright and kind child so the people in the dukedom would prefer her over Natalia. They would ignore Natalia completely and her plans would succeed. It was perfect.
She staggered out of the bathroom, going to the table where she stored her ink and paper. Using the last of her strength, she wrote the letter. It wasn’t addressed to the princess but to the one person she could trust in the capital, her brother. In both lives, he had never once betrayed her. If it was him, sending the youngest princess would be a piece of cake.
She picked a candle, lit it with magic, and burnt the paper. It was the safest way to send a letter through magic to make sure that the contents were not intercepted. Once she sent the letter, she felt drained so she retired to bed. With how much she had suffered in the afternoon, eating dinner wouldn’t be an option. It would take about three weeks for her brother to bring the youngest princess so she had to somehow endure before then.
RRRRROOOOOAAAAARRR!!!!!
[I forgot about those blasted dragons. Shut up, you mangled lizards!]
It took a while but she managed to sleep off. Her stomach rumbled occasionally and the noise from both the fae and the dragons made it a fitful sleep. She tossed and turned, trying to get rid of the discomfort. This was the sight Wilbur was greeted with when he entered her room.
“She even changed by herself to her nightwear. Is she not planning to eat dinner with the duke? Has she forgotten about the wedding night? Whatever it is, this would be very interesting to tell the duke” he cackled, leaving the room.
Once he was gone, she rose from the bed, an annoyed expression on her face. She almost forgot about the wedding night. In the past, it was nothing short of horrifying. The duke wasn’t gentle and it hurt for days. She dreaded the days he entered her room and thought about killing herself ever since then.
“Even if I don’t want revenge on you in this life, I won’t suffer like that again”
For the wedding night, Natalia had to go to the duke’s room. As she walked through the dark corridors, the fear of past and present merged, making her steps falter. She held fast to the object inside her sleeve, trying to calm herself. It was bad enough she was dizzy and still had to use magic in that state.She reached the door and it was opened for her by the duke’s guards. They stared at her with dark eyes, like they could devour her at any moment. She knew they weren’t human. They were beastkin, the reason why dragons hoovered on the roofs of the castle.Her heart beat faster as she entered the familiar room. It was just like her room, huge and depressing. He wasn’t there so she had time to set up. She took the object out of her sleeve and set it on the bedside table. She waved her glowing fingers over it and it lit with
It had been a week since she got married and got contracted to Madaline. The effects were immediate. She felt lighter and could use magic with so much ease, it was ridiculous. With power like that, it would be easy to get away with poisoning herself and escaping.The situation in the dukedom was as she expected. Even Wilbur forgot about her existence. No one came to assign the duties of the duchess to her and she was left alone, save for mealtimes. They were as dreadful as ever but it brought her closer to her goal. If they treated her nicely, it would be difficult to implicate them when the time came.“I slept well again today”The duke was convinced they spent the first night together and no longer called her to his room. In her past, he only did it once every three months to avoid the eyes
{You want a poison that will make you seem like you are dead?} “I want to slowly escape this place after all. I want to go somewhere without the reach of my family or this kingdom. The best place to go is the Empire of Illumine. This is the reason for my contract” {You changed your mind about dying?} “If I die, it will change nothing. I want to get rid of this regret first” {You know
Since she spent the better half of her first married year looking up and down for the elusive man, she could recognize him and his route even in her sleep. No one was assigned to help her so she bent her back to find and persecute Cage. Even the lowly guards of Traisen mocked her, the duchess who chased after another man. There were rumors that he was her secret lover. The descent of her reputation started from there. “I wish I were his lover. He is a better man than Fredrich would ever be”When she finally met Cage, he eluded her grasp more than one. He said his hobby was messing up noble ladies, seeing them descend into depravity, giving them the pleasure their uptight husbands couldn’t give. Because she was so intent on finding him, it made her his next target. Natalia fell for his sweet words and started to look forward to seeing him more. She had her dignity as a noble so she didn’t fall for him but the pleasure that Fredrich couldn’t give her tempted her. It was
The stuffy air of the carriage was hard to endure when the breeze was fresh outside in the city. Everything the man in front of her harped entered one ear and came out of the next. It was okay to ignore him, especially as she searched the crowd for familiar faces. Even after 10 years, her memories were still fresh, making her mission easier.“Milady, we would alight here. Please hold on to this”“Thank you” she smiled, taking the tablet. It had traces of fae magic which in the past, burnt her fingers when she took it. It was one of Wilbur’s many pranks. In the past, she flinched whenever she touched it but when she took it, even after a burn appeared on her hand, she didn’t flinch. The carriage door opened and she got down, leaving the stunned butler inside.It was the
“Who are you and what do you want from me?”“KNEEL”He fell to his knees, the dagger dropping from his grasp. Her heels rested on his head, pushing it into the ground. He felt her cold eyes rake over his body and the chill that accompanied it. “This is the last time I would tolerate such behavior from you. I am your master and you serve me. I don’t need to answer your questions”“I do NOT have a master,” he grunted, struggling under the hold. “If you defy me one more time, you will be granted the chance to lose an arm. I’m sure that would be quite unfortunate going through the forest of damnation” she quipped. He was immediately calm, clenching his teeth. “Good. Let's try this again. I am Natalia Adamantine. Just a few days ago, I was married to the Duke of Kristen. I have enslaved you for one purpose only, to get out of this hell hole. You have two options, get me out and I free you from your hold or die right now and I take over your little squad. I can
{Do you need me to heal that for you?}“No, that’s not the reason I called you, Madaline. You live in the forest of damnation, right?”{Do not call our home with that terrible human name}“......I apologize”{Yes, I do live in the forest of Telra. Do you need anything in particular?}
"Congratulations on solving the case, your grace. Thanks to you, the illegal trading ring had been uncovered and the town's peace had been restored""There is no need for thanks. I was just doing my job. Make sure to handle this well so his grace is not disturbed with such petty matters again""Yes, your grace"Natalia finished the pleasantries and returned to the Duke's mansion. She looked up to the skies and thought even if they were a bit gloomy, it was still a nice day. Why? The Duke's beloved was arriving that day!"You seem pleased, my lady. I'm sure his grace would reward you for a job well done""I don't really need a reward. I'm just relieved that I made the lives of the citizens a little better" she smiled brightly. Wilbur could almost see a halo over her head, inspiring a feeling of guilt and disgust in him."I'm sure the citizens are glad that you're the duchess""Please, I'm not deserving of the title yet. U