Every time she moved her feet, persistent, silent stares clung to her.
It was Asha’s first meal since entering the palace, and she was famished, but there was hardly any food left in the dining hall.
It seemed the servants had deliberately cleared the leftovers before she arrived.
However, Asha, without complaining, scraped up what was left and put it in a bowl, and as she walked back to the door, she said,
“I will withdraw, so please enjoy your meal at your leisure.”
Asha returned to her private quarters, but as soon as she opened the door, she was once again stopped in her tracks by the scene that unfolded.
The private room the chief steward had given her was ransacked, as if a thief had been there.
Clearly, someone had deliberately made a mess while she was away.
Even her personal belongings had been tampered with; all the drawers were open.
Asha, who had brought nothing with her, gave a bitter smile.
Though she was upset, she knew she could not expect good treatment for a minority in the imperial palace. She should have been thankful just to have gotten such a nice private room.
Asha nonchalantly dined alone in her room.
It was a meager meal, but her hunger from a long day’s hard work made her eat in a frenzy.
She didn’t even notice whether the cold soup and hardened bread were going down her throat or into her mouth.
In the minority village where she lived as a child, food was always scarce. She had never had a proper meal, let alone warm food.
“It’s nothing,” Asha tried to convince herself.
It was all expected, and perhaps even for the best. Being busy and not having to face him actually made her feel more comfortable.
But as soon as she finished eating, someone opened the door without even knocking.
In the doorway stood a woman with a very imposing expression.
Asha remembered the other servants calling her the ‘chief maid.’
From what she heard, the woman used to be in charge of cleaning the emperor’s bedroom before Asha arrived.
With her arms crossed and an annoyed face, the woman said,
“Come out and clean the outdoor bath now that you’re done eating.”
Asha asked curiously,
“Do we clean the bath too?”
“Of course! It’s the servants’ job to clean the bath thoroughly for the next bath after His Majesty takes one.”
Asha obediently followed her.
But at the dark hour after sunset, no one was in the outdoor bath.
“Then clean up and come back.”
The woman dumped the bathroom cleaning tools on the floor, left Asha alone, and walked away.
Asha’s eyes widened as she realized that the servants had deliberately passed on their work to her.
Normally, cleaning the bath was hard and took a long time, so the servants did it together before bed, but since she arrived, no one seemed interested in doing it.
Asha looked around the dark bath for a moment, lit by the spilled moonlight.
It was terrifyingly vast to clean alone.
She didn’t know if she’d have to spend the whole night cleaning it.
[This is the time separator]Late at night, a screamlike yell erupted from the emperor’s bedroom.
Durani, who had been guarding the door, immediately kicked it open and rushed inside.
“Your Majesty, what’s wrong!”
On the bed, Karaf sat up, clutching his head with both hands, gasping for breath.
He breathed heavily and roughly unfastened the sweatsoaked front of his nightgown.
Durani hurriedly came to his side, knelt by the bed, and asked worriedly,
“Did you have a nightmare again……”
As he quickly handed over a handkerchief, Karaf wiped the sweat from his neck and chest and let out a hollow laugh.
“It’s really disgraceful……”
Karaf, remembering the large butterfly in his dream, choking his neck, and thinking of his mother, touched his neck with trembling hands.
He was bound by the thorns I had created all over his body, unable to move, and without a voice, he could not ask for help anywhere.
Durand looked at the book lying next to the bed with a pained expression.
It was a history book containing all the deeds of the past butterflies.
He looked like he had stayed up all night reading the book and had just fallen asleep.
Durand’s expression darkened.
“Now, there’s not much time left for the ‘moonless night’… It happens to overlap with the flowering ceremony…”
‘Sak’ meant ‘the day the moon does not rise,’ but for Karaf, the meaning was different.
He scowled and muttered obsessively.
“I cannot show Vanessa such a disgraceful state before the flowering ceremony. Not now. Somehow, I must delay it.”
Karaf opened the drawer beside the bed, poured more than his usual dosage of medicine into his mouth at once, and gulped down the water.
It was the medicine he always took since he had been cursed.
Holding the cup, his hand trembled, and a stream of water dribbled down his throat.
Seeing this, Durand got up from his seat and began to make tea. Karaf still asked with a harsh voice,
“What are you doing? You can order the servants to do that.”
Durand spoke calmly as he brewed the tea.
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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