"Grand Duchess...?"
The maid who had been mumbling like that then started giggling and bursting into an unpleasant laugh.
Needless to say, the mad laughter soon died down.
Then a cold silence fell between us.
Slap-!
My head turned with a snapping sound.
A dull pain ran down my cheek.
Because it happened so quickly. I was momentarily unable to grasp the situation but soon realized that I had been slapped in the face.
Rather than being angry, I felt more bewildered and looked at the maid with a hollow laugh.
The maid looked at me with a rather smug expression.
"Don't you know who doesn't understand the topic? I wondered how great a woman you were, destined to be the savior of the empire, but it seems your head isn't working."
"..."
"This northern annex is a dark and cold building located behind the main building. It's so cold in the winter that even the maids are reluctant to enter."
"..."
"Just think about why His Highness ordered you to be locked in this cold, dark place instead of calling you into the main bedroom. Unless your head is just a pretty decoration."
The head maid continued to talk, raising her index finger and unpleasantly poking my forehead.
"Whether you were a Princess or not, you are now a puppet in His Highness's hands, and His Highness, who is your owner, has no intention of caring for you. No matter where or by whom you are beaten, he will not intervene at all. Do you understand the situation now?"
After hearing that, I couldn't help but laugh out loud.
I did something like this because I was crazy, but it seems like I did the math and thought it was okay.
Well, the maid's calculations weren't entirely wrong.
In fact, It seemed like Kishian had brought me here intending to get revenge, so he didn't care what the lower classes did to me.
Yeah, I'm upset, but it was me who didn't understand the topic well.
Even so, I had no intention of just sitting there and enduring this beating.
Slap-!
The maid, who had been letting her guard down because she was confident of victory, finally grabbed her cheek with a blank expression.
As if she didn't understand what had happened to her.
For a long time, she couldn't believe that I, who should have been trembling under her own pressure, was the one who slapped her in the face. She just looked at me with bewildered eyes.
After a long time, she finally seemed to have figured out the situation and ran towards me.
"This crazy thing dares...!"
Before the maid's hand could touch my cheek, I snatched her strong wrist out of the air.
It was possible because I had regained some of my strength thanks to taking off the tight corset.
So I grabbed the maid's wrist with that force, and she struggled to free her hand from my grasp.
However, no matter how hard she tried, it was difficult to shake it off as she stuttered with a pale face.
"Wh, what kind of power is this so ignorant..."
"Did you think I was a frail woman who had never lifted anything heavier than a silver spoon? In that respect, you are just like your master. The Grand Duke also likes to make assumptions and label people as he pleases."
"Let go of this...!"
"That's a really dangerous habit."
At least before you start to touch someone, you should have looked at them accurately and objectively. Whether they are someone you can suppress with force or not, whether they are someone you can fight back or not.....
There was one misconception that people who didn't really know me often had.
They had the illusion that I had lived a life free from violence.
Contrary to that narrow-minded misconception, I had acquired the knowledge necessary to take care of state affairs as a Princess, as well as the basic self-defense skills necessary to take care of myself.
Even though I had guards protecting me, all sorts of unexpected things happened in life. I actually got attacked a few times...
So I diligently prepared for the worst that could happen to me, and that preparedness was shining through at this moment.
"Don't be surprised. I just learned how to use force in advance because I have to discipline people like you who don't understand when I speak to them."
As soon as I finished speaking, I clenched her fist and hit the maid in the face.
Bam!
This time, the eerie sound of bones breaking was heard, perhaps because of the punch.
It had been a long time since I had seen such extreme violence, but it was still not uncomfortable.
Rather. I felt relieved.
"Uh, ah....?"
The shock from being hit must have been quite severe, as the maid could not utter a proper word and just staggered around.
Then, when I was barely able to straighten my body by holding on to the wall, I gave her one last rebuke.
"What are you doing? Don't run away like a rat caught stealing bread crumbs."
The head maid stumbled out of the room with a blank expression on her face
as if she had understood what I said.
Looking at the way she ran away, I didn't think that woman would ever get on my nerves again.
Because the fear engraved by violence was quite intense.
“Tsk.”
I was already hungry, so maybe it was because I was using all my strength? I felt dizzy.
In that cold bedroom that had finally become quiet, I closed my eyes and lay down.
The sigh I had been holding in flowed out through my lips.
***
It's already been three days since I arrived at the Grand Palace.
Life here wasn't as painful as I thought.
Contrary to my expectations, Kishian did not directly abuse me, and the head maid did not mistreat me after being beaten.
I wondered why Kishian was still there, but it was welcome to me anyway.
I wish he would just forget about my existence.
If only they could completely forget that I was staying in the North Annex, I could live in peace.
But unfortunately, my little hope was finally shattered this morning.
"You are so poisonous."
I was drinking tea in the small garden attached to the northern annex when Kishian suddenly appeared in front of me and said this to me.
I was curious as to why such a noble person had come all the way to this remote annex garden, but I asked about something else I was more curious about.
"What do you mean it's poisonous?"
"You haven't come to the main office for three days, so that means you're poisonous."
"Is that a place I can dare to go? That is where you reside."
Wasn't this a place I wasn't allowed to go to in the first place?
The only space that Kishian gave was the northern wing.
That cold bedroom was my bedroom, and this little garden was my garden.
There was no way I could just go out and get on his nerves, not knowing what would happen if I got out of there.
After hearing my response, Kishian looked at me coldly and drank some of the tea on the tea table.
"I guess being stuck in a corner annex suits your personality?"
"It's not bad. It's quiet and peaceful."
"..."
I gave him a formal smile as he stared at me, then took a bite of the cookie in front of me.
These cookies were less likely to be poisoned because I pretended to Inspect the kitchen and personally checked the baking process before bringing them back.
It didn't taste that good, but it was a moment where I happily devoured and chewed it because there weren't many foods that could fill my stomach with peace of mind.
"Ugh..."
While I was chewing on the cookie, I ended up chewing off the flesh inside my cheek.
That was because my left cheek was still swollen from where the head maid had hit me before.
Because the inside of my mouth was swollen, if I wasn't careful when chewing my food, I would end up chewing flesh like this.
As I felt a sharp pain and groaned, Kishian's gaze turned towards me.
"Is there anything uncomfortable?"
"Don't worry about it. It's just that my cheeks are a little swollen."
Kishian stared at my face for a moment, then reached out and grabbed my chin.
Then he slowly turned my face to the right and began examining my left cheek.
The marks wouldn't be visible because I covered them with makeup, but my face was still slightly swollen.
He stared blankly at my swollen cheeks for a long time.
He examined it with his eyes, carefully touched the swollen area with his fingertips, and looked at it for a long time.
It was a very long time before he spoke again.
"No matter how I look at it, it doesn't look like a collision mark... This is more..."
Kishian, who had been muttering to himself and staring at the swollen area, finally took his hands off my face.
His golden eyes, which met mine again, had become much more serious than before.
"This may be a ridiculous question, but I'll ask it anyway."
"Yes, please do."
Even after hearing my permission, he took a while to look at my cheek again before finally asking the question.
"Have you been slapped?"
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