IDLYITL CH 3
- Feb 19
- 8 min read
Chapter 3
• ────── ✦ ────── •
Nothing More Than A Delicious Prey
“M-Madam, are you okay?”
“I'm fine. So, there's no need to go to the Duke.”
“But...”
Anna’s heart sank at her madam’s haggard appearance. Her cheeks, which had been as white as a drawing paper, were red and raw from crying so much.
Psyche adjusted her slipping robe.
“I'd like to take a bath to clear my head. You can draw the bath water, and Anna, please prepare some soup. I need to eat something light.”
“...Yes, Madam.”
The maids scattered at her cue, and Anna also hurried to the kitchen.
• ───────── ☽༓☾ ───────── •
After finishing a bowl of cream soup and her bath, Psyche changed into a light blue muslin dress she had brought from the kingdom. Applying powder over her thin skin, she managed to cover up some of the raw patches.
Compared to her life in the royal palace, her outfit was incomparably free and light. But Psyche stared blankly at the mirror, there was no joy at all.
“Your Highness, shall we use this bracelet?”
“...Do as you please, Anna.”
Anna accidentally called her by her former title but Psyche didn't seem to mind and showed no reaction. Anna finished adorning her to her own taste.
“Do you have a specific schedule in mind?”
“I'd like to just walk in the garden for a bit. My mind is a mess.”
Anna was worried at her listless Madam, then deliberately chattered in a louder voice.
“That's a great idea. I heard there are three gardens in the ducal manor. I'm sure smelling the flowers will cheer you up.”
“I suppose so.”
“Oh! You might even run into the duke while you're there. You're dressed so beautifully, he’s bound to compliment you on how beautiful you look!”
Psyche quietly raised her gaze.
“Do you really think so?”
“Pardon?”
When their eyes met, Anna flinched slightly at her empty brown eyes.
“He's not the kind of person who would call me beautiful, even as an empty compliment.”
“...”
“I'd rather not meet the duke. Now, I just... want to rest.”
Like a puppeteer whose strings have snapped, she stared blankly into the mirror. Anna was confused.
• ───────── ☽༓☾ ───────── •
The Demiosis ducal manor had three named gardens.
They were created in the name of the empire's three goddesses, long before Ikali was adopted into the family, or even born.
In the study, where the faint scent of cigars lingered, Ikali was processing documents with an unruffled posture.
His clothes were ironed without a single wrinkle. His quill pen and ink bottle were dry without any ink stains. The neatly organized documents, arranged without the help of his servants, speaks of his character.
“So, she hasn't come out for three days?”
Signing a document, his blue eyes were revealed through the hazy smoke. Hans standing opposite him, nodded.
“Yes. I've also heard she hasn't eaten properly...”
“I see.”
Hans fell silent for a moment. In the heavy silence, only the scratching sound of a pen signing documents was occasionally heard. Ikali only lifted his head after he had finished reviewing all the urgent documents.
“She'll eat when she's hungry. She's not a child.”
“That may be true, but...”
Hans was anxious for his master. It wasn't a good look to him that his master had only worked for three days straight, without even showing his face to the new bride who had travelled for days to get to him.
“Wouldn't it be a good idea to meet with Her Highness the Princess at least once?”
“Why? What for?”
“...”
“Tell them to prepare food every hour, in case she gets hungry. If she needs anything, handle it yourself without telling me.”
“Understood.”
“You may go now.”
“...”
Hesitating, Hans gathered the processed documents, sorted them, and placed them into separate envelopes.
Meanwhile, Ikali stood from his desk to rest and sat on a wine-coloured sofa. He tilted his head back, slowly closed and opened his eyes, then pulled a cigar from a case.
He cut the tip, put it in his mouth, and struck the flint. The acrid smoke once again spread throughout the study. Rubbing his sore eyelids, he moved and walked over to the window.
Pulling back the curtains, the ducal manor's garden was in full view. The sunlight, streaming through the dim and hazy study window, landed on his pale face. The garden was full of the scenery of spring, bursting with light pink hazel roses and ranunculi.
Standing near the window, he slightly squinted his eyes in the afternoon sun.
“She's out.”
“Pardon?”
Hans was about to leave with the signed documents, turned around. Psyche was walking by a rose bush.
“Psyche is in the garden.”
“Oh, is that so? It seems the Madam has regained her spirits. That's a relief.”
Ikali's face however remained nonchalant. The princess was walking through the garden. He then followed with his eyes as she walked slowly through the garden with no particular destination, then he pulled the curtains completely shut.
• ───────── ☽༓☾ ───────── •
Although she had cried for three days and nights, a single bowl of warm soup had restored a little of Psyche's strength.
She strolled slowly through the garden with Anna by her side.
The scent of roses that bloomed every spring and the pale green bushes reminded her that she had truly regressed to the spring four years ago at the ducal manor. This was because three years before her regression, the garden trend had changed, and the rose bushes were removed to create a glass garden.
She calmly scanned the roses blooming on every bush.
“I really came back.”
Walking along the dense bushes and the large wall that ran alongside them led to the main gate. Anna scurried after her as she walked confidently along the wall.
“Your Highness, it seems you've visited the ducal manor many times without me.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Because you seem to know your way around. I thought the manor was so big we wouldn't even be able to find this rose garden...”
As Anna said, Psyche had already looked through the three named gardens and was now passing the rose garden.
“You’re just imagining. I'm just walking wherever my heart takes me. The roses are beautiful though.”
“They really are. So vibrant and fragrant.”
The first year after Psyche married into the ducal manor had been a series of depressing days For half a year, her husband treated her like a ghost, suddenly left for war without any notice.
The vassals didn't like her. It was natural, as she hadn't earned the duke’s favour. For four years, she had drifted like an uninvited guest.
Sometimes, seeing the roses blooming beneath her window, a sorrow would rise in her like nausea. The vibrant red roses that bloomed in summer were so dazzling they seemed to be sucking the life out of her, she just kept withering away after she married into the ducal manor.
They were truly unpleasant memories.
After walking along the wall for a few minutes, the manor's main gate came in to view. Beyond the gate, a carriage was parked, and a gatekeeper was having a dispute with someone at the barred front gate. It didn't take Psyche long to figure out who owned the carriage.
The gatekeeper was talking to the noblewoman standing on the other side.
“I'm telling you, a visit is impossible until the duke grants permission. He explicitly said not to let you in!”
“You insolent thing. Have you already forgotten that my husband was once the duke? Everyone in the empire knows that, that lowborn, Ikali, stole the ducal title from my husband and my son!”
“Even so, Madam...”
“How dare an orphan be so ungrateful to the one who raised him.”
The noblewoman snapped, her black hair tied in a bun and gritted her teeth. Her green eyes blazed with fury, but the gatekeeper’s resolve was firm.
“I apologize, Madam. But I cannot go against the Duke’s wishes.”
The noblewoman gritted her teeth in frustration. As she venomously glared at the gatekeeper through the bars, seeing the figure standing in the distance and her eyes widened.
“Princess Psyche!”
The noblewoman shouted venomously.
“Madam Tilly.”
She was Madam Tilly, the former Duchess of Demiosis. She was driven out after Ikali Demiosis seized control of the ducal family. And if Ikali had not beheaded the former Duke, Psyche would have been destined to marry her biological son, Warren Demiosis, and become her daughter-in-law.
“What a coincidence to meet you here, Princess Psyche. How is your little game of Duchess going?”
Madam Tilly smirked with a twisted expression. The target had shifted from the gatekeeper to Psyche.
“I hope you are well, Madam Tilly. It has been a long time.”
“I'm sure my appearance doesn't suggest I'm well, and since I have something to discuss with Ikali, I would be very grateful if you would open this gate immediately.”
Madam Tilly was disgusted just by having to speak with Psyche through the bars. When she demanded that the gate be opened, Anna standing behind her, retorted with an indignantly, pointing out Madam Tilly's behaviour.
“That's very rude of you, Madam. This person is the Princess of the Kingdom of Dawson and is now the current Duchess of Demiosis. Please mind your words.”
Madam Tilly laughed, she found it ridiculous.
“You were merely sold in a transaction. Do you really think you're still a noble princess and a fine Madam?”
She sneered and looked Psyche up and down.
“Princess Psyche. If your royal family hadn't grovelled to Ikali, you would have been married to my son, Warren. You haven't forgotten that, have you?!”
Madam Tilly bellowed, her anger had boiled over.
“If your royal family hadn't abandoned me, our family wouldn't have been stolen by that orphan!”
“...”
“Of course, since your kingdom is a failing one, it probably didn't matter if you were sold to a real duke or an orphan who killed his foster father, as long as you got the money. What does honour matter to a royal family that sells its daughter to pay off its debts?”
“...”
“Is that not why the King of Dawson could sell his daughter to a murderer, an orphan who was ungrateful to the one who raised him?”
At the blatant insults, Psyche looked at Madam Tilly with a pale face. But nothing she said was wrong. Although she was now married to Ikali, her real fiancé had been Warren Demiosis, the biological son of the former Duke and Duchess. In the first place, it was they who had offered to pay off the royal family's debt in exchange for marriage to the princess.
Madam Tilly wore a victorious smile while looking at Psyche.
“If you have any shame Princess, you wouldn't keep me standing outside like this. Open the gate at once. Now, hurry.”
The shrewd Madam Tilly already knew that Psyche was a frail woman.
She knew that fragile children would pretend to give in and listen to an adult's words after being threatened harshly, only to be sweet-talked with a promise of candy.
To Madam Tilly, a girl like Psyche was nothing more than a delicious prey.
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