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After that uproar, Talia began staying exclusively inside the detached palace.
However, thanks to the maids whispering endlessly as though they had never once pretended to be mute, she learned that the boy who had beaten her was the Empire’s Crown Prince and her half-brother.
And that the black-haired girl she had seen in the birch forest was her half-sister as well......
She also learned that it had not even been six full months since the two of them had lost their mother.
Which meant that she and Senevier had entered the imperial palace barely three weeks after Former Empress Bernadette died.
Senevier had even erased every trace of the former Empress the moment she entered the palace.
Perhaps that small garden behind the main palace was one of the few remnants of Bernadette her mother had failed to destroy.
She looked out the window.
Summer rain poured over the garden her mother had painstakingly cultivated. The plants, heavy with moisture and exhaling the dense scent of wet grass, looked like hideous monsters to her.
She drew the curtains shut over the window.
Then she curled up atop the bed and recalled the Crown Prince’s hatred-filled eyes, along with the face of her half-sister gone deathly pale with fear.
And the blue-eyed boy glaring at her while shielding that girl protectively in his arms......
“Varkas Laedgo Siorcan......”
Staring blankly at the ceiling, she murmured his name.
At last, she knew the boy’s name.
But it did not make her happy in the slightest.
Because she had realized he would never smile at her.
Former Empress Bernadette had come from House Oristein, one of Osiria’s most prestigious marquis families, but her mother had been a noblewoman from House Siorcan.
The late Empress and Varkas had therefore been distant relatives.
More than that, Bernadette had personally cared for Varkas after he entered the imperial palace at a young age to undergo brutal training.
Perhaps he viewed Senevier as an enemy.
‘And me as well.......’
The moment she remembered those ice-cold eyes staring at her, for the first time in her life she resented being Senevier’s daughter.
Even the appearance she had always proudly thought resembled her mother now felt shameful.
Talia did not want to feel that way.
I’m the one who got beaten horribly, so why should I feel guilty?
The one who did something wrong was the Crown Prince.
I truly didn’t know anything. What exactly did I do wrong? I’m not bad. I never did anything wrong.
Talia repeated those words to herself without pause.
But whenever she found herself surrounded by the servants’ cold stares, those thoughts vanished without a trace.
Talia understood perfectly what lay behind their harsh hands whenever they touched her.
Bringing her bathwater cold as ice and scrubbing her skin so roughly it turned red, pricking her flesh with tweezers whenever they changed her clothes, dragging combs through her hair so violently her scalp split open, serving meals gone cold at every meal......
All of it was their own form of punishment.
She knew she was hated.
But it had not been much different while living under House Taren, so she had not paid it much attention.
Whenever she became timid, Senevier would hold her tightly in both arms and whisper that ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ she was the result of true love, that it did not matter what anyone else said.
Talia had believed those words and always tried to behave proudly.
But now her mother was no longer beside her.
And all around her were whispers about how kind and gentle Former Emress Bernadette had been, and how she had lived in terrible suffering until the day she died.
Talia became visibly dispirited.
The head she had once always carried high gradually shrank down like a frightened turtle’s, and her gaze naturally drifted toward the floor. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
And the servants, keenly sensing that change, grew increasingly cruel.
Neither the Emperor nor even Senevier paid much attention to her anymore, and it seemed the servants had stopped fearing punishment altogether.
To begin with, Talia was not an imperial princess in their eyes.
She was merely the existence that had broken the heart of the Empress they had loyally served for years, and living proof of a filthy affair.
Whenever she walked through the corridors, she could hear them whispering about her.
It felt as though her head might split apart.
Every time she heard words condemning her, resentment and indignation surged through her chest.
But since her very birth had supposedly caused so many people suffering, part of her felt this sorrow was only what she deserved to endure.
Still, their torment eventually reached a level she could no longer withstand.
It was around the time two seasons had passed since she entered the imperial palace.
Talia descended to the dining hall for breakfast and was suddenly seized by a strange sense of dread.
Far more servants than usual had gathered to attend her that morning.
The sight of the maids lined up along the walls filled her with the ominous feeling that something terrible was about to happen.
Yet contrary to her expectations, the servants behaved politely, and the table was laden with unusually abundant food.
Talia stared blankly at the silver plate before her.
Instead of the rock-hard bread she usually received, the kitchen maid brought freshly baked golden bread with butter.
Soon afterward, roasted quail and steaming hot stew were placed before her.
For months she had eaten nothing but horrifyingly miserable meals day after day.
Seeing a hot stew filled with ingredients instead of the thin soup cold as rainwater nearly brought tears to her eyes from sheer humiliation.
Talia slowly looked around at the servants.
Dozens of eyes were watching her reaction.
Perhaps they no longer wished to punish me.
Maybe they had finally decided to forgive my existence and show me kindness.
Talia picked up her spoon.
Then she scooped up the steaming broth and put it into her mouth.
The rich flavors of butter, milk, and vegetables spread warmly across her tongue with a soft sweetness.
The taste of warm food for the first time in so long awakened a violent hunger inside her.
Forgetting all dignity, she hurriedly shoveled the stew into her mouth.
How long had she continued eating like that?
Suddenly, she tasted something strange.
The foulness was far too revolting to be dismissed as meat odor not fully masked by spices.
Frowning deeply, she stared down into the stew.
At that moment, giggling laughter sounded behind her.
Talia whipped her head around.
All the maids had their eyes lowered expressionlessly.
But she could clearly see the corners of their mouths twitching.
Cold sweat instantly spread down her spine.
After hesitating for a long while, Talia used her spoon to stir through the bowl.
As she pushed aside the large chunks of food, she saw something heavy sunk at the very bottom of the deep dish.
Something like a lump of meat.
No.
It was not meat.
Talia lifted the blackened object with her spoon and froze in horror.
Inside the thick broth, a swollen gray rat dangled limply with its mouth hanging open.
She could not even scream.
She tumbled from her chair onto the floor and vomited up the stew.
Even after throwing up more than she had eaten, the retching would not stop.
The disgusting smell filling her nose only grew stronger.
It felt as though the taste of the dead rat had fused permanently to her tongue.
Jamming her fingers into her throat and scraping at her tongue, she desperately forced out bile long after there was nothing left to vomit.
How long had she remained collapsed on the floor retching?
Through tear-blurred vision, she saw a pair of feet moving around the dining table.
Talia slowly lifted her head in a daze.
The maid in charge of the kitchen calmly cleared away the dishes as though nothing at all had happened.
The other servants also busily moved around the table, wiping it clean and collecting the plates.
As though they could not even see her sprawled over her own vomit.......
