39 - The Bride of the Great Lord is a Warrior from Hell
The Grand Duke's Bride is a Hell Warrior 39
After returning from hell, Alicia's daily life completely changed.
She suffered from sudden fame and received gazes full of inexplicable favor.
She was praised to an unusual degree.
A life of attention was sudden.
She was floated up by incomprehensible words, then hit and scratched by sharp words.
"The other party dislikes milady."
Judith instantly tore down everything Alicia had ruined and laid the groundwork.
Even while talking and sewing, she was several times faster than Alicia, who only added the highlights.
Her soft-looking hands were cautious yet quick.
Alicia stared at Judith's quick hands as if mesmerized, then tried to regain her senses and concentrate.
"Why?"
It was difficult to talk while doing delicate work.
When she spoke, her hands stopped, and when her hands moved, her words and thoughts froze.
"I don't know that far. Milady must find that out. I guess they just dislike you because they dislike you."
Judith said as she moved into the finishing touches.
"So, who is it?"
Alicia asked again.
"It's obvious, isn't it?"
"I don't know."
"It's unlike milady not to expect it at all. As such, I hope you approach it carefully. It's Lady Viviana Vive Manners."
Alicia's hand stopped.
Judith moved her finished piece aside.
She looked at the crumpled cloth in Alicia's hand with a resentful gaze for a moment.
Under silent urging, Alicia slowly moved her hand.
"Viviana Manners."
Alicia sewed with her face again.
She furrowed her eyebrows and pursed her lips tightly as she embroidered stitch by stitch.
"She's the third child of Marquis Manners. Lady Mode, who entered the Imperial Concubine, is the first, and the second is a male sibling. All three are born of the legal wife, so they say the relationship is strong."
"Find out a little more."
"I understand. …No, that's not it, milady, not that way!"
While speaking, Alicia, who was confused about the direction, tried to ruin the embroidery.
Judith snatched the crumpled cloth from her bear paw-like hand.
Alicia said with a tearful face.
"This is really annoying."
Judith was about to retort but stopped.
It was difficult to grasp whether Alicia's annoyance was due to the unproductive embroidery or the sudden and unpleasant rumors.
"Next year, milady will be able to embroider her own name, right?"
Judith said softly, fixing the wrong part.
"……Didn't you say it was this winter earlier?"
"I must have been out of my mind for a moment. Winter will be here soon."
Judith, who moved her hands a few times, showed the completed embroidery.
"First, I need to send a light warning."
"A warning?"
"Send Lady Viviana a bunch of Calla in my name."
Calla was the most used flower at weddings.
It was also used to decorate funeral coffins.
A flower that decorates the new beginning of life and the end of life.
It was a good flower to send with the meaning that you know her.
"I will do so."
The Manners Marquis family has been alongside the Imperial Palace in history.
If you were to pick a place with a long history in the Imperial Capital, many people would say the Manners Marquis's residence after the Imperial Palace.
It was a prestigious family that had produced four prime ministers for generations.
Recently, the Manners Marquis family's momentum has become even higher.
The Emperor's first child, whom the Empress and Imperial Concubine had not been able to bear, was born in the Manners family.
Another young lady of the Manners family.
Viviana was enjoying every day these days.
Those who said unpleasant things or those who were blinded by jealousy and ran wild were annoying, but they were no match for her.
Viviana was born and raised in the fiercely competitive Imperial Capital Baden.
Her experience was different from those who had lived in the countryside, flaunting their noble titles.
"Miss."
At the maid's call, Viviana, who was humming a tune, changed her expression.
"What's wrong?"
The cheerful humming quickly changed to the voice of an elegant noble lady.
At Viviana's words, the maid cautiously walked into the room.
"Flowers have arrived."
"Flowers?"
She had been receiving gifts endlessly recently.
But flowers were a bit unexpected.
There was no fool who would give a trivial weed to the family that would bear the Emperor's first child.
"Yes, they came for Miss Viviana."
The maid held out a large bouquet of flowers she was holding in her arms.
"Calla flowers."
Viviana, who was sitting in front of the tea table, got up and accepted the bouquet.
Since Mode had entered the Emperor's Imperial Concubine, someone might be trying to marry her and curry favor with the Manners family and the Imperial Family.
The maid, who saw Viviana smiling after receiving the bouquet, bowed her head and stepped back.
"Who sent it…… Huh?"
There was a card inside the abundant bouquet.
There are people who use methods that were only popular in the old days.
Viviana smiled and opened the card, but her face instantly hardened.
[From Alicia Lane.]
Pure white Calla flowers, deeply colored red Calla flowers.
Calla flowers with long petioles were long and slender.
The bouquet, made by appropriately mixing those with very long petioles, those with slightly shorter petioles, and those with relatively short petioles, was long, slender, and abundant.
Thud.
The beautiful Calla bouquet that Viviana was holding in her arms fell.
Soon, ugly feet trampled on the pretty flowers.
False rumors about Alicia continued.
She thought it was just fame, but the exaggeration of the floating words became more and more severe day by day, making it difficult to leave it alone.
Even the Imperial Palace attendants and maids, who rarely wavered, looked at Alicia, who had entered the palace, differently.
She could even hear them whispering after she passed by.
'Is it true that the Grand Duchess is arrogant?'
'Her expression is cold, but she hasn't acted mean, has she?'
'She's probably being careful in the Imperial Palace. How would you know if she changes her face when she thinks someone is below her among the nobles? It's really scary. You can't know people.'
Alicia was not immune to this kind of thing.
She would rather beat up monsters living in hell.
It was hard to endure the cold gazes and whispers that were barely audible while maintaining a calm face.
If they attacked her head-on, she would retaliate, but everyone was just keeping quiet.
Alicia, who had paid her respects to the Empress and came out, was heading to the Imperial Concubine.
"……."
From across Alicia, there was a group coming from the Imperial Concubine to the Empress Palace.
"Oh my."
"It's Lady Alicia."
"These days……."
"Let's go."
The noble ladies who were talking among themselves closed their mouths and gave a subtle smile as they got closer to Alicia.
There were four of them, and Alicia was alone.
One of the four was Viviana Manners, whom Alicia knew well.
As Alicia gave a polite bow, Viviana passed by at the head of the group.
Because she had slightly lowered her head, Alicia couldn't properly confirm whether Viviana had returned the greeting or just passed by.
The four noble ladies quickly brushed past Alicia at an almost running pace.
"……."
This was the newcomer taming of the Imperial Society that she had only heard about.
"The weather is really nice today."
"It's almost spring!"
The noble ladies, who were chattering among themselves in the distance, were wearing colorful dresses.
It was a scene that would look like a happy time for innocent girls if someone who didn't know saw it.
"What a bunch of crazy people."
The Alicia of the past would have been depressed and hurriedly left the place.
She might have been frozen like a stone by the shock of being ostracized by her peers and in a group.
"It's still cold, what spring? Are they crazy? Are they lunatics, or what."
The current Alicia was indifferent to such things.
She was displeased that she was ignored in front of her face, but she wasn't hurt enough to cry.
She was the kind of woman who would curse at those who seemed sick and couldn't even feel the weather on their skin properly and go do her own thing.
Alicia stopped for a moment, sent a cold gaze, and turned around.
Alicia, who was coming out of the Imperial Concubine, heard a sorrowful cry.
The slender voice trembled worryingly.
"I approached them because I wanted to get close, but they didn't even treat me like a person……."
The crying voice was even pathetic.
The sound of suppressing sobs was pitiful.
"They didn't even pretend to see me and just left."
The affectionate voice spat out resentment and embarrassment.
She didn't know who it was, but it seemed like she had met a very cold person.
"I was so embarrassed……."
Alicia listened to the unfortunate story and walked along with the maid.
The cliques of noble society made many people cry.
Even for just one greeting, nobles meticulously calculated their pride, hierarchy, and current situation before opening their mouths.
Just who is she to act like that?
Alicia cursed the cruel human who made people cry in her heart and walked.
Sniff, the sobbing voice was getting closer and closer.
"Oh dear, did that happen?"
"There are rumors about the future Grand Duchess, but her reputation is good in the Imperial Concubine, so I didn't believe it."
"Stop crying."
The maid who was walking ahead stopped.
"……."
Alicia also stopped at the mention of her name in the comforting words.
Could it be.
Alicia didn't immediately think that the cruel human who made people cry was herself.
It was just too absurd.
Her mind went blank.
In the Imperial Concubine, a group of people was gathered in the garden next to the Fountain of Divided Water.
Several Imperial Concubine maids and noble ladies who had come to pay their respects to the Imperial Concubine were surrounding the crying lady.
Viviana Manners, who was shedding tears with a pitiful face, hesitated for a moment.
Alicia was quietly watching the absurd scene.
The others also discovered Alicia, who was standing behind the maid with a cold face.
Everyone rolled their eyes with awkward expressions.
It was difficult to take sides with either, so they were just looking at each other's faces.
One was the fiancée of Grand Duke Tessen, whom the Emperor would support no matter what, and the other was the younger sister of the Imperial Concubine who had the Emperor's first child.
If they took sides with one, and the two resolved their grudges, the situation of those who had taken sides would become difficult.
It was a problem that was difficult to choose not only humanly but also politically.
