Duke of the Beast and the Vicarious Bride - Chapter 15

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※ This work contains depictions of coercive relationships, explicit language, and other graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.

“It can’t be helped, because of the wedding. The Grand Duchy being in such a place…”

At the timid maid’s words, someone snorted loudly.

“Ha, some wedding! From what I saw, the young master handled all the complicated matters, and the groom didn’t even show his face. I’ve never seen such a wedding in all my life. Everyone says so, don’t they? This is just like offering a bride as a sacrifice to a monster…”

“Meg.”

The short maid, who had been nervously eyeing Fiona, finally felt compelled to interject. At her warning, the maid called Meg also glanced towards Fiona. Only then realising that Fiona had ears to hear, Meg muttered in a much smaller voice, still pouting.

“Why must you make such a fuss about everything, Marie? It’s not as if I made anything up…”

An awkward silence passed before the bathroom finally grew quiet. Lacking the energy to mind their every word, Fiona resolved simply to ignore it all.

By her usual nature, she would have grabbed the most sharp-tongued Meg by the hair, but she was tired, and besides, the maid’s complaint about being dragged here because of her was not entirely without merit. Since becoming entangled with the Count’s manor, she had found herself pretending not to hear, pretending not to see, and letting things slide far more often. The temper she had suppressed might one day explode, but it need not be today.

“Come to think of it, from the outside I thought it would be a terribly old castle, but I never expected such things in the bathroom.”

Marie, lowering her voice further in the now-quiet atmosphere, whispered to another colleague beside her. Fiona herself had been wondering about the unfamiliar structure attached to the edge of the bath. The downward-curving metal pipe seemed to be a device that, when the handle beside it was turned, produced warm water automatically.

“Well, that’s true. Perhaps because it’s a cold place? If you turn this, warm water comes out. Is there somewhere inside to boil the water separately? But how do they put the firewood in?”

Watching the maid tap curiously at the tiled wall, Fiona turned her gaze back to the device. At the Count’s manor, fetching and heating water was one of the maids’ main tasks. Fiona herself had developed calluses on her shoulders from hauling water daily at the butcher’s. Yet here was a thing that made such labour unnecessary… It was both wondrous and suspicious.

Beyond that, this castle had many peculiarities. Despite the bitter cold outside that would freeze one’s breath, the interior of this vast mansion was strangely warm. While the maids had undressed her earlier, she had felt no chill at all. In the Count’s domain, far warmer than this, they had to stoke fires heavily just to avoid freezing in winter, yet here there was not even a proper fireplace to be seen.

“Hmph, never mind all that. I just wish I could return home quickly.”

“Still, at least you’ve been spared some hardship. Just endure a little longer, Meg.”

Once Fiona’s wedding was concluded, some of the maids were to leave this place, accompanying the Emperor’s retainers returning to the capital.

Yes, let them all leave. It would be far better to live quietly alone.

Fiona, submerging her face entirely in the water with a gloomy feeling, thought to herself. The time for the marriage bed drew inexorably nearer. Bold as she was, she could not help but be tense.

If only time would stop here.

But her wish was not to be granted.