Episode 17 What We Want
I poured the tea carefully with trembling, hands from the teapot to the teacup. Eris’s screams filled the drawing room.
– You did it on purpose, didn’t you?
– Th-that can’t be true.
– You know I’m meeting you, and you do it on purpose, right? How dare you… to me!
Eris slapped me in the face at once. My cheeks swelled up in an instant at the harsh touch. But it didn’t hurt at all.
Oh, I’m a coward, a coward. What a miserable, stupid life this is. The act for Eris now was, in fact, cowardly self-satisfaction. Tears poured out when I thought about it.
– What….what the hell are you crying about? You always look like that.
Eris looked at me, who was crying, and twisted her face and grinded her teeth in bewilderment.
– You think you can be forgiven for crying or laughing with that pretty face. What’s the difference between a pet animal in the royal family and you? Do you ever do anything that requires thinking?
– I’m sorry, I’m sorry……. I did it wrong…….
Her contempt came to me like a tidal wave. I thought so, as I accepted the
waves.
You know, Eris, this is my first time in life, because I’m low-class and I’m brainless… that I’ve only learned how to laugh. So let me know if you learn more than I do.
Do we have a different future? Will we ever have a day like that when I’m not pretty and you’re not hated?
No matter how hard I try, I can’t escape from the future of the snake as long as I’m allowed. If I smile, I look pretty, and if I don’t smile, they’ll come to me and ask me to smile. (P/N: Snakes symbolise a prosperous future.)
Actually, this wasn’t what I really wanted. I have no choice but to fall in love.
(T/N: Helena’s POV ends here)
Since the imperial family said it was the coming-of-age ceremony soon, I was also preparing for the region of Bonitaeo where the new priest in question lives.
The Bonitaeo region is quite far from the capital, and it was a mountainous area that required a 15 days by round trip. When people are in difficult times, they go to the countryside and the priest there helps them with their needs.
It doesn’t matter the time it takes to go after the coming-of-age ceremony anyway.
Priest Prometheus was the high priest who became famous for the prophecies related to Jason, and unfortunately, he has no contact with Eris. Besides, Bonitaeo was really ‘Kangchon’ in slang.
Why would I go on a trip to a place like that? It does seem like I’m going to see Priest Prometheus.
Moreover, in the Bonitao region, there was no villa for the Misérian Marquisate. I can’t lie about going to a place where there’s no villa, and…
After I was troubled while looking at the map for a long time, the maid looked at the map and she said,
“It’s summer soon, so would you like to go on a trip?”
“Ah, yes”
“Then, it turns out that the Magico Train will open soon. It is quite fast and it can ride a lot of people.”
Magico train? My maid drew with her fingers from one end to the other end of her map. Her fingers crossed Bonitaeo.
“It’s a train powered by magic engineering. They have been building the railroad tracks for a while, and the cost was so negligible, and there was a lot of talk about it. They said that the trial operation has ended and it will officially open at the end of this month.”
“How fast is it? Listening to the story, it seems to be slower than a carriage.”
“Oh, but it’s faster than a carriage. Don’t carriages rely on horses? Magico trains don’t have to and are at least three times faster than carriages.”
This is it. I wanted to cheer, but I held back. Instead, I called Anakin after my maid had left. I have a job his younger brother can do. Anakin listened to me and nodded his head.
To avoid suspicion, this plan requires one more person. Soon after, the voice of the maid rang over the door.
“Miss, the royal family sent you the dress for the coming-of-age ceremony.”
“Tell them to come in.” The Crown Prince didn’t declare the breakup with me in the end. That’s fair enough, considering the events ahead. The question is how to deal with the situation……..
Teven thought of destroying the event entirely, but if I thought about the causality, it seemed that I couldn’t get out of it anyway.
Most of all, it was annoying. It’s not even worth caring about, but I had to do it anyway. I was just going to give them a round of applause and ask them to play Janggu. (T/N: The janggu (or janggo; also spelled, changgo) or sometimes called seyogo (slim waist drum) is the most representative drum in traditional Korean music. It is available in most kinds, and consists of an hourglass-shaped body with two heads made from animal skin.),
“Lady Misérian, I’m going to make you the most beautiful lady in the world. Come on, breathe in.”
“Ha-eup!”
I’d rather beg Madame for time to put my mind to it…..Ugh, I don’t like corsets. I’d rather die than get sick.
Finally, the day before the coming-of-age ceremony came. Adult ceremonies in this country have the custom where one cannot sleep at all for a day. Something about God’s protection being released for a while on coming-of-age day, and when you fall asleep, evil spirits occupy your body?
In the past, it started at 12 midnight and lasted 24 hours, but these days, I just go to the temple early in the morning to pray and receive blessings from the priest and stay up from the banquet until the next sunrise.
Since my coming-of-age ceremony is organized by the royal family, it was said that sleeping in the Imperial Palace the day before would be good in the interest of saving time.
Since the prince and the marquis only have to attend the night party anyway, I was ordered to enter the palace with only Duet, my maid, and Anakin, my knight.
‘It was fortunate that I was allowed to enter the palace after dinner at the Marquis’ mansion. If I ate with the imperial family during dinner, I would have an upset stomach.
As I rode in the carriage, I stared out the window blankly and suddenly asked Anakin, who was sitting opposite me.
“What was your coming-of-age like? No.. Did you have an adult ceremony?”
“The shrine regularly does relief work, which includes giving divine blessings to children in the slums.”
“So?”
“Anyway, the slum children become adults earlier. Because they have to make a living. Most of the children attend to receive food and clothes at the end of the ceremony.”
“I’m not interested in other slum children. I want to hear your story.”
Anakin looked at me silently, then sighed and said.
“They woke us up early in the morning…. gave us an unusual thing to eat, made us pray, put some holy water on our heads and harassed us by hitting the floor with a hanging pole so that we couldn’t sleep. There wasn’t a banquet or anything.”
“No matter how poor it was, you lived in the capital, so there must have been a lot of support?”
Anakin lived in the neighborhood last time. ‘If it is, it means that a coming-of-age ceremony was held at a temple in the capital. The temple in the capital would be the largest and richest in the empire… Someone must have been embezzling it.
“I don’t know that. The important thing is that I received clothes and food at the
end.”
“If they perform it with money, they’re afraid it would be stolen.”
“Even if they gave us an item, there were many people who would take it from us and sell it.”
“What about you?”
“I sold it before it was taken.”
We made eye contact and smirked at the same time. I know how you feel. The hurry to get his hands on it before it’s taken away. It’s happiness that you can taste even though you know it’s going to disappear soon. The New Year’s money | received as a child was just like that.
The money was all in my savings account, but how unfair it was that it was taken away by my mom when I was young and only one 10,000 won bill was left in my hand.
When my friends bought what they wanted to buy, saying they received New Year’s money, I couldn’t even spend it because I would be wasting the 10,000 won in my pocket.
“Was there anything you wanted enough to sell off clothes and food?”
“I wanted a sword. It wasn’t made by roughly cutting out branches, but a sword with a blade and weight…”
Tasked when we almost arrived at the imperial palace because his face was so cute.
“If you want a sword, can I buy you a good
one?”
Anakin looked a little surprised and then shook his head.
“Thank you for your kindness, but a familiar sword is more comfortable when it comes to protecting someone.”
He said so and followed me silently. He always walks about three steps behind me. He is not close enough to feel uncomfortable, but he can be there at once if someone tries to hurt me……. Such a distance.
I liked the distance. Even if you don’t look back, you can check it with shadows.
***