“I’m not saying we should send her out right now. I’m saying we should send her out once she regains some health and finds a way to live. We can’t keep her with us forever, you know.”
“That’s the point! Where can the princess go, and what means does she have to live? If that crazy bastard Lucas finds out, he’ll do anything to find and kill her. No, it would be fortunate if he just kills her. He’ll sell her back into slavery. Is there anyone here who doesn’t know what fate awaits the princess? Are you all saying this because you really don’t know what will happen to her?”
The knights were now pulling their chairs back from the table. Amidst this, Kirshan, who had been silently standing by Floyd’s side, spoke up.
“My lord.”
“What!”
“I’d prefer if my hair doesn’t get any shorter than it is now.”
Floyd whirled around at those words and saw the ends of Kirshan’s hair singeing. He cursed under his breath and abruptly stood up. Floyd’s fierce eyes swept over the knights as he spoke.
“Pathetic bastards.”
No one could stop Floyd as he stormed out after his outburst. If anyone tried to stop him in this situation, even if blocked by a barrier, they would surely suffer burns from his flames.
The air in the office was still stiflingly hot.
Watching Arsen get up to open the window, Adrian muttered.
“I still had more to say about the water supply issue, what should I do now.”
Hexten chided him, crossing his legs.
“You should have been more moderate. Because of you, even I’ve become a pathetic bastard.”
“What’s pathetic about it? Did I think wrong? That woman will endanger our Torcan.”
“Still, she’s a poor woman who lost her country and family. As my lord said, if we just give her a few coins and chase her out, she’ll be hunted by Lucas. We all know that.”
“……”
“But you only think of chasing her out mercilessly, so it’s natural for my lord to be angry.”
Arsen narrowed his eyes.
“Hexten, you criticize us, but do you have any good ideas then?”
Hexten had nothing to say to this either. He felt sorry for Roxiana, but he understood the knights’ attitude.
However, Hexten had a wife and family, so he could imagine the grief and despair of someone who lost their family in an instant. Even if Torcan became a little more dangerous, his conscience pricked at chasing out that poor princess like this.
But he didn’t know how to make those without families understand this feeling, so he said nothing. Adrian then chuckled and spoke.
“See, even you have nothing to say. We can’t endanger the entire country for the sake of that one woman. No matter how pitiful she is, we have to think of the greater good. Besides, frankly, what ties did the Kanta Kingdom ever have with our Torcan? We never had any exchanges, so it’s ridiculous to take risks to help her.”
Arsen quietly nodded, and Cain was still having a staring contest with the wall. Adrian coldly said.
“Soon, even the capital will be plagued by water supply issues. In that situation, we can’t add another mouth to feed that only seeks luxury.”
+++
Floyd was in no mood to focus on work, so he pushed aside everything and headed to his bedroom.
If asked to name the most desolate place in this Grand Duchy Palace, it would be none other than His Highness the Grand Duke Ratean’s bedroom.
Usually, the palace owner’s bedroom is adorned with the best and most luxurious furnishings, but Floyd’s bedroom contained only a steel bed and a lone sofa.
After the incident that caused Floyd to be called ‘the cursed one’, he had rarely slept in a soft bed. Floyd’s unique constitution would rampage even while sleeping, completely burning everything around him.
It was the same now.
Since his conversation with Roxiana, a hard lump had formed in his chest. As if trying to burn that inexplicable mass, his crazed flames surged, convulsed, and raged out of control on their own.
“Damn it.”
Ignoring the flames randomly spurting from his body, Floyd headed to the window.
The Lily Palace could be seen from Floyd’s bedroom.
The reason it was built in a place overlooking the Lily Palace was to monitor the movements of distinguished guests who visited. Most came to make peace with Floyd, but sometimes there were those who hid a knife under such pretenses.
If not for such reasons, Floyd would have no reason to look down at the Lily Palace.
But now, he was glaring at the bedroom window of the Lily Palace for a different reason. As if Roxiana would open that window and jump out at any moment.
‘Go ahead and try jumping out.’
Roxiana had asked him not to allow Adelia flowers. Floyd thought that if she died like this, he would pile a heap of Adelia flowers on her corpse. So that her soul could return to God’s embrace and find rest no matter how much it struggled.
Recalling Roxiana assuming the posture of a slave before him made his insides boil. He didn’t like the lips that spoke of death with nearly lifeless eyes despite having survived.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand her desire to die.
‘Yes, they must have been kind people. Good parents and good siblings. Unlike me.’
Floyd had never had such a good family, but he had witnessed the sense of loss of those who lost a good family several times. People who lost precious family members due to unexpected accidents or war fell into deep despair and wanted to follow the dead.
But in the end, they all survived. They are living well. They laugh and find other happiness.
All of that is only possible if you are alive.
‘I’m alive too. I also crawled out of that despair tooth and nail and am living like this.’
For the first time in a long while, his terrible past came to mind.
His mother, engulfed in flames before his eyes, screaming in agony. His mother, who still embraced Floyd to save him amidst it all.
In those arms, Floyd wanted to die and wanted to live. When he saw his mother’s corpse burned beyond recognition, he simply wanted to live. He wanted to survive somehow and take revenge on those who did this to his mother.
With just that determination alone, he had come this far.
So you should be the same, Roxiana. Even while playing the role of a brazen seductress, what you want to obtain should not be death, but revenge. You should live with the thought of bringing down the hammer on the bastard who did that to you and your family. That’s only right.
“My lord.”
From a short distance away, Kirshan’s voice was heard, though Floyd didn’t know when he had come.
“Please calm down.”
“Did you come to nag?”
“Why are you so angry?”
“Do I look like I’m not angry right now? I went through the trouble of saving a poor princess, but my subordinates are making a fuss telling me to chase her out, and that princess is making a scene saying she wants to die. Should I raise a toast and sing a song?”
“My lord, we are just worried about Torcan’s safety. If you order us to protect the princess of Kanta, we will duly follow. But it’s only natural to worry about the problems that will follow afterwards.”
Floyd laughed coldly.
“Don’t worry. Fortunately for you all, the princess wants to die. There are already a bunch of bastards who want to chase her out when she already wants to die, so won’t she bite her tongue soon? When that day comes, you’ll all throw a party. I’ll give the toast.”
Floyd mimed making a toast as he spoke.
“Oh, my benevolent and brave knights who trembled in fear of the storm that the poor and pitiful woman would stir up.”
Floyd had a habit of being sarcastic when his anger reached its peak. Kirshan took another step back, not knowing when flames might spew out.
The astute Kirshan guessed that his lord’s anger seemed to stem more from Roxiana’s attitude than from them.
“My lord, the princess of Kanta needs time.”
“Time.”
“It’s only natural that she’s not in her right mind now, having lost her family and been dragged around as a slave without even a chance to grieve properly.”
“So she wants to die? Death solves nothing.”
“When you’re steeped in a sense of loss, you don’t think about having to solve something. Not everyone is as strong as you, my lord. So give the princess time to compose herself.”
+++
Several of the skilled cooks working in the Grand Duchy Palace were selected to work in the Lily Palace.
At any other time, entering the Lily Palace’s kitchen to serve distinguished guests would be a great honor, but this time was different. Because the story had reached even the cooks that the person occupying the Lily Palace was the princess of a ruined country and was even branded as a slave.
The cooks were dissatisfied with having to use precious ingredients to make high-class dishes for a slave, but they couldn’t ignore the Grand Duke’s orders, so they put their heart and soul into making the dishes and sent them up.
However, it had been four days since those dishes were returned intact, and the cooks exploded in anger.
“Really, what’s lacking that she doesn’t even take a single spoonful?”
They tried stir-frying, deep-frying, and grilling fresh vegetables and seafood. Thinking she might dislike the fishy smell, they also cooked with high-quality meat. Thinking she might hate chewing, they tried making soup and cream with freshly squeezed milk.
But Roxiana didn’t touch any of the food, and the dishes the cooks painstakingly made were returned as is and became the property of the servants.
The cooks were more concerned about their hurt pride than Roxiana’s condition of refusing to eat or drink.
“Just how amazing were the dishes she ate while living as the princess of Kanta that she won’t touch our food?”
“Were Kanta’s cooks that skilled?”
“No matter how much she dislikes our cooking, she’s in no position to be picky now. Why can’t she break free from her past glory?”
While the senior cooks grumbled angrily, Jackie, an apprentice cook, rolled her eyes and reached for the returned food. Jackie was just grateful that thanks to Roxiana recently sending back the food, she could eat precious dishes to her heart’s content.
Seeing Jackie grinning as she put cheese and ham on soft bread and ate it, a senior cook smacked the back of Jackie’s head.
“Tsk, you little punk with no sense of pride.”
Jackie smirked with the bread in her mouth.
“Why, it’s nice. To be able to eat this kind of food to my fill. I’m glad the princess came to the Lily Palace.”
“Princess, my foot. That woman is no longer anything like a princess.”
“Once a princess, always a princess. Petria says she’s incredibly beautiful. Her hair is so flowy, like a fairy. Ah, I want to see her in person.”
The cooks clicked their tongues at the immature Jackie and rolled up their sleeves.
“Fairy or whatever, if she doesn’t eat the food we make this time, let’s all quit together. I don’t want to cook while receiving this kind of treatment.”
Male lead first thought she played hard to get, only to realize she
really disliked him
Short intro:
What she can’t stand the most is the streets full of effeminate men, especially that so-called top beauty whom she avoids at all costs.
Shen Yaoxing looks at Jiang Mingyue, who keeps approaching her with coy shyness.
Shen Yaoxing: Bro, don’t be like this, I’m really about to throw up!
She fears nothing in heaven or earth, except for him getting close to her.
*
At first he thought she was just using the trick of feigning indifference to attract his attention. Later, he learned that she truly despised him.
This dealt a heavy blow to Jiang Mingyue, and he vowed to make her, like everyone else, fall at his feet in worship!
***
Synopsis:
Before transmigrating, Shen Yaoxing only wanted to find a reliable man to spend her life with. Who knew that after transmigrating, she would become a reliable woman herself…
A forced misandrist, highly skilled, and reliable female lead
vs.
An initially aloof and arrogant, later morbid, obsessed male lead
_____
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