Chapter 21
The carriage, now separated from the emperor’s entourage, kept moving deeper into a silent, secluded corner.
Perhaps they were only now planning to kill her quietly in some hidden place. Frightened, Lena could not bring herself to step outside even long after the carriage had stopped.
Yes, even after being humiliated to this extent, she was still afraid of death.
“Please come out, Princess.”
Click. As the door opened, Lena scooted backward on her bottom to the opposite side of the doorway and curled herself up as small as possible.
“Oh my.”
A woman with her brown hair neatly pinned up reached out her hand, her manner considerably more cautious.
“Here now.”
Her eyes were green, and very clear. Only after seeing that gaze was Lena able to relax her guard a little.
Stepping outside, she found herself at the back of a grand building built of cold, gray stone. Lena followed the brown-haired woman up a steep stone staircase and entered through a side door set in the flank of the building.
“From now on, you are to stay here.”
The moment she stepped into the room she was guided to, Lena frowned.
The smell that always clung to that man. His scent saturated the entire room.
The layout of the room was simpler than she had expected, and the interior decorations were sparse to the point of roughness. Yet the scent faintly permeating the air made it immediately clear that this was the emperor’s room.
“Here… I am to stay here?”
“Yes.”
“But this is…”
Lena began to protest but only bit down on her lip. The woman before her was at best in a position to relay the emperor’s orders. What use would complaining to her be?
‘He has no intention of letting me go yet.’
She had endured shame and despair and come all the way to a foreign land, but it seemed he was determined to use her as a plaything. How much longer would this bleak life continue?
“…Um, Princess.”
As dark clouds gathered on Lena’s face, the woman with green eyes bowed her head with a respectful attitude.
“My name is Melgardi. His Majesty the Emperor has commanded me to attend to you with the utmost sincerity.”
“…”
“As I have received the imperial order, I shall serve you devotedly. First, please allow me to assist you with a bath. Once you ease your body in warm water, you will feel much better.”
“…Fine. Very well.”
She still utterly despised the thought of having to stay in that man’s room, but Lena could not refuse Melgardi’s request.
It was because, among the Taringians, no. Even in Aitalos before the nation fell, there had been hardly anyone who had so kindly looked after her feelings.
When Lena nodded, Melgardi led her to a bathroom attached to one side of the room.
The bath was filled to the brim with water, and fragrant steam rose thickly, as if scented oil had been added. As she immersed her body in it, indeed, just as Melgardi had said, her nerves eased considerably more at ease.
Even if the worries tightly knotted in her heart remained as they were.
Melgardi kneaded Lena’s body to soften her muscles, then scrubbed every inch with a brush made of boar bristles. After a massage with milk infused with crushed flowers and herbs, her skin became milky white and supple.
The thought that all of this was ultimately done to please that man made her feel gloomy, but each time, Melgardi would offer light chatter as if to comfort her.
Lena came to learn about Melgardi’s hometown, this year’s spring wheat harvest in Taringia, and the minstrel who had entered the court last winter and was expelled after getting a noble lady pregnant.
When she came out wearing a robe, the table was set full with a meal. Among the unfamiliar-looking Taringian dishes, there were bowls here and there containing familiar things.
“This is…”
Lena approached the table and hesitated. She saw a few plates of clumsily prepared traditional Aitalosian food. It looked as though a Taringian, who had never once tasted Aitalosian cooking, had made it simply by listening to the recipes.
Even so, the familiar scent of food wafted from those bowls. The moment she recognized it, Lenasia felt a hunger she had not experienced once in over ten days.
The first thing she reached for was a plate topped with a whitish, lumpy substance. It was a fermented milk dish called gauti, and when she put it in her mouth, the taste was quite similar.
“…!”
Lena felt a relatively clear sense of delight and emptied the small plate entirely.
Once she had done so, a rumbling sound came from her belly. She sat before the table and hastily stuffed the food into her mouth.
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