Translator: Nox
(41) Star Festival and the Gray Wolf (13)
Petria, tidying the dress, glanced at Roxana anxiously.
'The Princess is acting strange.'
After returning with Floyd, Roxana seemed to have lost her soul. Usually, when offered help with undressing, she would say, "It's alright. I can do it myself," but today, she was just standing there like a doll, entrusting her body to Petria.
'What happened?'
When a man and a woman go out together and the woman returns with her soul lost, the reason is usually obvious, but judging from Roxana's expression, it didn't seem to be that kind of problem.
Roxana was sitting blankly with her eyes fixed on the air, occasionally biting her lower lip as if trying to swallow her anger.
'Did something bad happen with Grand Duke? But I don't think His Highness would do anything bad to the Princess…'
Roxana was lost in thought, completely unaware of Petria's worries.
'Lucas Pelure.'
She wanted to ask him.
'What were you thinking when you beheaded my family who trusted you? Was it fun? Or were you a little sorry?'
Thinking about what her family, whom she had finally accepted as family, must have been thinking and what expressions they had on their faces as they were being cut down by the sword of the man they trusted, her heart sank.
Roxana gripped her skirt to keep from screaming. She bit her lip, swallowing the sob that almost burst out.
'And Elise Hailis, you.'
Only then did she remember the last conversation she had with her friend, whom she had known the longest and thought she was closest to.
A conversation she had forgotten, drowned in the sorrow of losing her family. A conversation she had tried not to remember, fearing she would fall into utter despair. A conversation she had turned a blind eye to, not wanting to believe it.
-"You know, Princess. You shouldn't have saved me. You shouldn't have shown me pity. You should have just, just let me die with my family. Just let me go, Roxana! If you had, your family wouldn't have been killed and thrown into the well!"
'Did you really think so? Was it a problem that I saved you?'
Elise's father, Duke Hailis, had served as the Minister of Finance of the Kanta Kingdom and committed numerous irregularities and embezzlements. He was accused of squandering more than half of the national treasury on speculative ventures and of taking bribes to appoint officials to various departments.
Duke Hailis was a longtime friend of the King, but the King was in a situation where he could not turn a blind eye to his many wrongdoings.
-"It's hard, Lotty."
The night Duke Hailis and his family were taken away, her father, whom she encountered in the garden, had an expression she had never seen before.
-"Even though I sit on the throne, I am still human…"
Duke Hailis had committed crimes worthy of the death penalty, but the King eventually spared him and his family. He only stripped him of his title and decided to send him into exile to the countryside.
Many officials protested that he was showing too much leniency, but the King did not reverse his decision. The Hailis family survived, and Elise, the youngest child, remained in the Royal Palace to assist Roxana.
'I asked for it.'
She heard that the land to which the Hailis family was being exiled was barren and had nothing. Roxana did not want her friend to suffer in that place with nothing.
So she begged her father to let her stay in the Royal Palace, to make her her lady-in-waiting.
Her father, who was agonizing over whether to send even young Elise into exile, granted Roxana's request.
She was called a lady-in-waiting, but they lived like friends. Roxana tried to make sure that Elise did not feel lonely, that she did not cry in the solitude of having no family.
And then news came that the Hailis family had been attacked by bandits on their way into exile and had been wiped out.
-"T, thanks to you, Princess, I survived. Thank you."
Even as she cried over the death of her family, Elise thanked Roxana.
She thought it was genuine. She never dreamed that she was holding a knife in her voice, in her eyes, in her heart.
No one in the Franche Royal Family treated Elise, who had lost her family, carelessly. They cherished her even more than Roxana. Her father and mother treated Elise like their own daughter, and her brothers also loved Roxana and Elise equally. And Ranian also followed Elise well, calling her "Sister, Sister."
'I saved you, who should have died with your family. I treated you so well. Was that so resentful to you?'
-"I wish the Princess would die without even smelling the Scent of Adelia… That's my wish…"
'Enough to utter such a terrible curse?'
The anger and resentment that had begun once did not subside easily. Rather, it brought back many memories, and its size swelled uncontrollably.
She hated Lucas and Elise. Piercing resentment swept over Roxana.
-"But still, Princess, I'll save you. If you meet a good master, they'll probably put you in the Coffin of Adelia. This is the last gift I'm giving you as a friend."
'Yes, just as I saved you and you resented me, now you have saved me and I have come to resent you. Is that what you wanted, Elise?'
If she could, she wanted to run to them right now, grab them by the hair, and make them kneel before her. She wanted to make them beg and lick her feet in front of her.
And then, as they did to her family, she wanted to cut off their heads one by one and throw them into the well.
'If that's the case!'
A wind blew into the room with the windows closed.
'I'll have to do just that!'
The gentle breeze that had started subtly created a whirlwind around Roxana, strong enough to sweep away everything in the room.
Whoosh-
The sudden wind caused the fire in the fireplace to burn wildly, ashes to fly, and blankets to soar, causing Petria to step back in fear.
Even though she didn't know what kind of power Roxana had, Roxana was calm in the middle of the vortex, enough to know that it was a strange phenomenon that started from her.
While all sorts of things were flying around in the room, Roxana was sitting quietly on the sofa, staring straight ahead without moving a single strand of hair.
"Princess, I'm coming in."
Then, Floyd's voice was heard from outside the door.
The raging wind subsided quietly as if nothing had happened.
Only after Floyd entered did Petria realize that she had not been breathing all this time.
Floyd calmly looked around at the maid who was gasping for breath and the room that was a mess with ashes and broken glass, and then walked towards the sofa as if there was nothing wrong.
Roxana was sitting in the middle of the sofa with her back straight and her hands neatly placed on her thighs. Roxana did not turn her head even after Floyd came right next to her.
"Krr."
Only after she heard a strange sound in her ear did Roxana show any movement. Roxana slowly turned her head towards Floyd, and then her eyes widened when she saw what was in the basket he was holding.
Inside the basket was the gray wolf cub she had seen earlier.
"This is…"
Before Floyd could explain, the wolf jumped out of the basket and ran towards Roxana.
Floyd hurriedly reached out his hand, fearing that the wolf would attack Roxana, but the wolf jumped onto Roxana's lap, exposed its belly, and wagged its tail.
Floyd chuckled in vain at the affectionate appearance that was hard to believe was the same ferocious creature that had been baring its teeth and growling a moment ago.
"Hexter brought it as a gift for the Princess. If you're okay with it, you can raise it."
"Ah…"
"I was going to tell you to be careful because it's a ferocious creature, but looking at it now, there's no need to give you any warnings."
The wolf cub was licking Roxana's fingers with its belly exposed. Roxana unknowingly tickled the wolf's chin slightly. The wolf narrowed its eyes and purred as if it was feeling good.
'I was just a little concerned…'
It was a concern so small that it would have been completely forgotten in the hatred for Lucas and Elise. Yet Hexter did not simply overlook that small concern.
A small heat bloomed in her heart, which had been frozen cold with anger. The heat illuminated her eyes, which had been obscured by resentment, even if only a little.
'I can't do anything that would harm Torkan.'
There were many good people here. She could not let innocent people shed blood because of her desire for revenge.
Her revenge was solely her own. So the blood shed must end with her alone.
'But I can't reach them without any help.'
To receive help, you must first become someone who gives help.
Roxana raised her head and looked at Floyd. For some reason, he was glaring at the wolf with a displeased expression.
'The reason why that man is being so nice to me is probably similar to the reason why I feel like I can do anything for this wolf.'
The moment the wolf cub, who couldn't get along with anyone in the cage, jumped on her and acted cute, Roxana thought that she could do anything to help this wolf grow up healthy and strong.
Wasn't Floyd the same? The moment he saw Roxana trapped in a narrow box, didn't he resolve to take care of this woman in every way until she became healthy and strong?
Thinking that way, she could understand the many considerations he had shown her so far.
People naturally want to help those who are hurt and weak.
'But I can't stay hurt and weak forever. First, I have to win the Grand Duke's heart.'
