“What are you doing?”

Even though I didn’t raise my voice much, the maids could only stammer in response, unable to answer quickly.

“What are you doing?”

Betty then widened her eyes and abruptly stood up.

“Don’t you see? We’re lighting the fire.”

She was a maid with brown, ponytail hair and a face full of freckles, looking quite spiteful. Being a year older than the other maids, she usually took charge and seemed to grasp the situation quickly.

“Why are you lighting a fire after the person is dead? What kind of sick hobby is that?”

The maids, who got up from the floor following Betty, looked at me as if they had seen a ghost.

“What do you mean by that?”

Just as I was about to respond, I felt a death-like hunger. I didn’t need to think about what I had eaten. For the past three days, I hadn’t seen proper food. So, it was this sheer hunger in the bitter cold that had nearly killed me. As soon as I realized this, anger began to stir within me.

The roaring fireplace steeled my gaze.

“You… now me!”

Boom, crash, a flash of lightning flickered across my face, cutting through the dark clouds. Fear appeared on Betty’s face, who had been talking back with her head held high just a moment ago.

“Did you abuse me?”

Boom, another thunderclap and thick lightning struck the ground. Reflecting on the past three days up to my near-death, it was indeed terrifying. It was too cold and lonely.

“Did you gradually kill me?”

As I yelled repeatedly, the youngest maid screamed and fell to the ground. Seizing the moment, I rushed over and grabbed Betty’s ponytail.

“How dare you abuse the master’s daughter!”

Betty’s eyes bulged, showing the whites due to the tight pull on her scalp, and the girl sitting on the floor just trembled, unable to get up.

“Do you even realize what you’ve done?”

“Ah, Miss, please forgive us.”

“Go and bring me something to eat now. I’ll think about forgiving you later.”

With the darkness dispelled by the lamp and the deadly cold softened by the fireplace, it was time to satisfy my hunger. My hands were trembling too much to stand.

After sending everyone, including Betty, out of the room, I returned to the bed and slumped down. The fire in the fireplace, which had been fiercely flickering, now settled into a steady glow.

As I pondered what to ask the maids first, they returned, having diligently completed their task.

“Lienne Miss, we have brought you food.”

Looking around, the only thing in the room was a shelf by the window, perhaps for potted plants, with nowhere to sit and eat.

“Go and bring a chair.”

Thanks to one maid’s quick action, a floral-patterned satin chair that seemed more suited for a parlor was brought into my monochrome room, looking completely out of place.

In truth, I had already started eating ravenously even before the chair arrived. Fortunately, my starved stomach didn’t reject the food.

“Um, Miss?”

A trembling voice interrupted, and I glared at her.

“What?”

“Weren’t you… unable to speak?”

The reason the maids were so afraid of me, even though nothing had changed in the situation, was this. I hadn’t spoken a single word until now. It wasn’t that I couldn’t; I was too frightened to open my mouth, wasn’t I?

If Ricardo was the nameless child in the East Wing, then I was the mute illegitimate child in the West Wing.

So they thought they could do anything to me without fear of being reported.

“No, I wasn’t.”
I first came to this house when I was about five years old. For some reason, Count Pennel suddenly appeared and took me in. My mother had died. Naturally, I had no warm memories of her.

Memories of sitting huddled in a corner of the room, being pushed by someone’s strong hand, feeling hungry, in pain… a lot of pain.

“So be careful from now on.”

Except for the occasional visits of a tall man, no one else came into this room. I wasn’t explicitly prohibited from going out, but I seldom left the room. Going out meant facing those who tormented me.

I had no standards for what was permissible or forbidden to me.

“If the Count knows that I died because of you, he won’t stay quiet.”

I wasn’t even sure if this was true, but it seemed effective enough to silence the maids.

“Where is the Count?”

“The Count went out three days ago to visit the trading post.”

A man with silver hair and blue eyes, a man of the same colors as me. He rarely stayed in the house.

“And the Countess?”

“She’s in her bedroom.”

His wife, my stepmother, I barely remembered her face. I only recalled her looking down at me with droopy lips and eyes filled with sadness.

After some time, the room was modestly but sufficiently furnished.

It still didn’t match the floral-patterned satin chair, but a tall desk had been added.

Sitting there, I felt a dissonance between my small body and mature actions, tapping the desk rhythmically with my fingers.

If the Count and Justin left three days ago, they wouldn’t be back for a while. I didn’t know how long that would be, but I was sure this was my opportunity.

I put my clasped hands to my lips and closed my eyes for a moment.

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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