The Lady Wants To Rest - Chapter 7

“Does it hurt?”

“Oh. No, it does not.”

“Are you vexed? No, are you angry and resentful? Do you want revenge?”

The head maid paled and lowered her head.

“That is not so. How could I dare….”

I extended a hand towards the head maid.

“Your Highness?”

“Take it.”

The head maid made a befuddled face. What I had in my hand was a copper coin.

“Use it to treat the wound on your cheek. Since it is not severe, it will heal quickly.”

There was confusion swimming in the head maid’s eyes. It was as if she was questioning how she was to interpret my actions.

I placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Instead, take today’s incident as a lesson. If you scrutinize it long and hard, in a day far from now, it will be less likely for you to be abused by some unbecoming incident.”

This was sincere advice.

If I was that maid, I would not have persecuted Princess Rubia as she did. It wasn’t because I was kind, rather I feared the consequences that would return to me like a boomerang.

Just then, I sensed someone’s presence just outside the hall. Soon the doors opened, and a knight in armor walked inside.

“I greet your Highness, Princess Rubia.”

Was it the chivalry of knights? Unlike the servants, the knight addressed me politely.

“What is it?”

At the difference in my tone of voice, the knight’s eyes slightly shifted.

“His Royal Highness, the Grand Duke, calls upon your Highness.”

His Royal Highness, the Grand Duke, would be my father.

“His Royal Highness? Right now?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

I crossed my arms. It was clear why the father who never searched for me had called for me suddenly.

‘That’s great. I, too, have something to say to the Grand Duke.’

“I understand. Please lead the way.”

On the east side of the continent, there is an idiom that advises striking the iron while it’s hot. Just as well, in the west, there exists an idiom that tells one to cut the Gordian knot.

T/N:
Striking the iron while it’s hot – taking advantage of an opportunity when it comes to you.

Cutting the Gordian knot – When a knot looks impossible to untie, and can only be undone by force (cutting it).

In other words, she uses these two idioms to say that she will take advantage of the current situation and cut off the relationship between her and her family.

Without any hesitation, during this meeting with his Royal Highness, I resolved to cut this knot, this dysfunctional family, from myself.

***

The Roxanne Grand Duchy was a small state under the West Empire’s governance.

Though a little too small to call a nation — about the size of an earl’s jurisdiction — there was not a person who would overlook their household. After all, they controlled the West Empire’s key financial and raw resources through the Destan River Delta.

A small state, but too important to overlook, that was exactly the Roxanne Grand Duchy.

“……”

The overlord of the duchy, Grand Duke Jourdian was looking down at the Destan River from the window of his study which overlooked the river and its surroundings.

“I have brought her Highness, the princess.”

At the knight’s words, the Grand Duke turned around indifferently.

I looked at the Grand Duke’s face, and let out a quiet exclamation.

‘A Grand Duke is not a Grand Duke without reason.’

Seeing the state of such a broken family, I had thought he would be a half-witted figure of authority.

Like father, like son, the looks of the Grand Duke matched that of Viscount’s Sabien. This meant he was rather handsome.

As such, Rubia’s beautiful looks were not simply from her birth mother; the Grand Duke’s own genes held great influence.

More than anything, those eyes left the greatest impression. Within those blue eyes, one could feel intense pressure.

Just from his aura, it could be felt that there was not even a fault in him as the overlord of the Roxanne Grand Duchy.

‘He is indeed a man of great character. Why had such a figure turned a blind eye towards the stepmother’s temper tantrums?

For the moment, I folded my questions, and politely greeted him.

“First daughter Rubia d’Grandia la Roxanne greets his Royal Highness, the Grand Duke.”