Translator: Nox
(32) Star Festival and the Gray Wolf (4)
“You don’t have to do anything, Princess. You don’t have to do anything at all.”
Floyd grabbed Roxana’s waist and lifted her out of the cold water.
He looked down at her white, long legs revealed beneath the tied-up skirt around her thighs. He frowned at the sight of her feet, red from the cold water.
Floyd squatted down himself, untied the skirt, picked up the shoes she had taken off, and scooped Roxana up into his arms.
“Ah…”
Surprised by his unexpected action, Roxana stared at him with wide eyes. His face, which had been far away, was now very close. Realizing that they were close enough to feel each other’s breath, Roxana stopped her startled, rapid breathing and pursed her lips.
Floyd walked with Roxana in his arms. Roxana, who had barely calmed herself, opened her mouth.
“I can walk on my own.”
“Not with those feet.”
“Your Highness, what will people think if you carry a slave yourself?”
“What does it matter what they think? They can’t utter a word in front of me anyway.”
Roxana was speechless at his absurd confidence and closed her mouth. He walked quickly, but Roxana felt that this time being carried in his arms was lasting an eternity.
The employees lowered their heads silently when they saw him, but Roxana was disturbed by their gazes and thoughts, making it difficult to calm down. The unfamiliar sensation of her heart tightening and beating fast made her feel bewildered, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
Petria, who had barely received the money from the Head Maid and returned, had been searching for the missing Roxana. Seeing her returning in Floyd’s arms, she was relieved and quietly left the reception room.
Floyd sat Roxana on the sofa, knelt on one knee in front of her, and placed her ankle on his thigh. Then, he began to rub her bare feet with both hands.
This was such an unbearably embarrassing situation that Roxana asked in a slightly higher voice than usual.
“What on earth are you doing?”
“Can’t you tell? Warming your feet.”
He spoke as if it were so obvious that Roxana briefly wondered if she was overreacting. But she soon regained her senses.
The Monarch of a country personally warming the frozen feet of a slave.
This situation was definitely not normal.
“They’re not that cold. You don’t have to do this, Your Highness.”
“Even if Torkan is a warm country, it’s cold in winter, Princess. If you leave feet that have never done hard labor in cold water for a long time, they’ll get frostbite. If you don’t warm them up in time, you’ll have to cut them off.”
He raised only his eyes and stared intently at Roxana.
“Do you want to see these pretty feet cut off? Is that why you’re doing such a thing?”
Roxana realized that this man still thought she wanted to die.
“No.”
“Then stay still, Princess.”
“That’s not what I meant…”
“Stay still. I’m in a very bad mood right now.”
His flames had no power in front of Roxana, but his hands were warm nonetheless. He held Roxana’s ankle firmly with his left hand and meticulously rubbed her foot with his right hand to warm it.
It was the first time someone had touched her feet so intently, so Roxana didn’t know how to react. She hadn’t noticed when she was arguing with him, but when she stayed still, the touch on her feet caused a subtle stimulation.
Ticklish and tingly, Roxana felt a sensation she had never experienced before, starting from her toes, running up her calves, and tickling near her tailbone.
Roxana knew that he wouldn’t stop no matter what she said, so she clenched the hem of her skirt tightly and tried to breathe slowly.
As she banished the strange sensation that climbed up to her stomach and looked at his face, she saw deep wrinkles between his eyebrows. He still looked unhappy, but Roxana couldn’t understand why at all.
‘Even if my feet are cold, even if they get cut off, it’s just the result of my own choice, so why is this man so angry? Even if my ankles are cut off, it won’t harm him in any way.’
Her frozen feet regained warmth. As her red, swollen feet returned to their original color, he put the shoes on Roxana’s feet and stood up.
Roxana thought he felt particularly large and lowered her gaze. She noticed the black boots he was wearing. He must have come to find Roxana as soon as he returned to the Grand Duke Palace, as his boots were covered in mud and a mess.
He didn’t open his mouth for a long time and just looked down at Roxana. His gaze and silence were so burdensome that Roxana couldn’t bear it and spoke first.
“Shall I wipe the mud off your boots?”
“No one.”
He said in a voice suppressing his anger.
“No one in this Grand Duke Palace calls you a slave, Princess, so why do you insist on calling yourself a slave? What are you dissatisfied with? Are you trying to protest because I didn’t kill you?”
Roxana was taken aback and looked up, not expecting Floyd to think that way.
“Of course not. I don’t think that way, Your Highness.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
Because I want to be a useful person. Because I want to be someone who is needed. So that the act of entering the Kanta Palace, which has become a colony of Gania, to find the bodies of my family and return them to the embrace of God, will be seen as something I must do.
Roxana didn’t voice the words swirling inside her.
She didn’t know what would happen in the future. She might be kicked out of this Torkan. This man wouldn’t be on her side forever.
So she had to bring it up after she became more useful, after she became a better person, after she became someone more needed.
She couldn’t tell just anyone the disgraceful story of her family being thrown into a well instead of being placed in Adelia Hall, and the dangerous plan to secretly enter the Gania colony to retrieve the body discarded by the Crown Prince.
‘I don’t know this man yet.’
Roxana had no idea whether Floyd was trustworthy, whether this kindness came from his whim, and if so, how far he would indulge his whim.
In a situation where she knew nothing, there was nothing more foolish than revealing her entire situation. So she had to hide it for now.
“I’ve only caused you trouble and wasted food since you saved me, Your Highness. Now that I’ve recovered my health thanks to your care, I just want to do something to help.”
“You eat as little as an ant’s eye and what trouble? This is the trouble, Princess. It troubles me that you’re forcing yourself to do things you don’t have to do. Do you understand?”
“Then what do you want from me, Your Highness? You told me to live for a year. During that time, should I just lie in bed and breathe? Should I wander around Lily Palace like a ghost, eat when it’s mealtime, and sleep when it’s bedtime?”
“Yes, do that. Eat well-prepared food like a noble lady, wear pretty clothes, stroll around, and do what you want to do.”
“What if what I want to do is laundry?”
Floyd chuckled.
“That’s impossible, isn’t it? Who in the world wants to do laundry?”
“I do. I found it fun. It clears my head.”
“You’re really stubborn, Princess.”
“No, I’m…”
“Well, fine. Okay.”
Floyd plopped down next to Roxana, causing the sofa to bounce. He swept his hair back as if annoyed and asked.
“You want to do laundry. What else? What else do you want to do?”
“Cooking.”
“And?”
“Gardening, cleaning the stables, sweeping and mopping the Grand Duke Palace floor, assisting noble ladies and carrying luggage, I want to do everything that a slave has to do, and I can do it.”
“Princess!”
“Roxy!”
Roxy raised her voice.
“Your Highness. I’m not a Princess now, I’m a slave. Please, please, stop calling me Princess.”
Floyd, who turned his head at her desperate voice, looked down at the slave mark engraved on her collarbone. The mark on her white skin was particularly noticeable.
He narrowed his brow slightly and stroked her mark with his thumb.
A bumpy burn scar seared by a hot iron.
“Did it hurt?”
Roxana, who had been flustered by his sudden touch, didn’t understand his question.
“Pardon?”
“When they branded you with this, did it hurt a lot?”
“I don’t know. It probably hurt, but I don’t remember. My escort knight died in front of me, and my dedicated maid was dragged away somewhere. My family was all dead and my country was destroyed. What pain could this mere burn have given me to someone like me?”
Roxana gently grasped his thumb, which was touching her collarbone. His hand flinched slightly.
“My father always said. It’s unlikely, but to prevent it from happening, if the Franche Royal Family were to be destroyed, then start by accepting your situation. Nothing is eternal, and if something rises, something falls, so even if you become a commoner, don’t be heartbroken for too long, accept your situation, and then look for something you can do.”
Floyd recalled the King of Kanta, who had taken him in when he had been rejected by everyone and had to wander around. He remembered the kind face of the benevolent King, who had straight and virtuous eyes.
“Okay, I understand your thoughts roughly, Princess. But there’s one thing I’ve been curious about since before…”
