episode_0045

Episode 45

As soon as I heard the servant’s story, I headed to the inner room of the palace. As I opened the door and entered, I heard Fehat’s voice.

“You’re here, Sarah. Sit there.”

The tone seems somehow to be dignified. What are you trying to say?

Besides Fehat and me, there was one more person there. That’s Carmel. Carmel, who was sitting next to Fehat, had an expression on her face that she had never seen before.

It is the face of a victim who seems to have suffered from harsh persecution and cold treatment. If you look closely, you can see that there are tear marks around the eyes.

I almost know what you’re thinking.

The person who can impose the greatest sanctions on the immoral act of slapping his mother’s face would be King Fehat. Carmel seems to have chosen a strategy of appealing to him emotionally.

Fehat still doesn’t know Carmel’s viciousness. To the king, Carmel is only a wise and beautiful queen. It’s also because I’ve been blocking all of Carmel’s conspiracies so far.

As I sat down, Fehat spoke in a somewhat dignified voice.

“Answer honestly, Sarah. I heard that you slapped your mother in the queen’s room this afternoon. Is that true?”

“Yes, everything is true, father.”

The fact cannot be denied. This is an incident with many witnesses. Denying obvious facts would actually be poisonous.

“Huh…”

Fehat touched his forehead in despair. Carmel still seemed to be faithful to the one-sided victim setup, but the look in her eyes seemed like she was enjoying being questioned.

“Why did you do that?”

“Mother was administering excessive corporal punishment to one of the maids. In the process of trying to stop it… I ended up hitting it.”

Fehat turned his gaze to Carmel as if confirming the fact. Carmel nodded heavily, as if it were an enormous tragedy.

“Sera, I know your kind nature well… but at best, you are a lowly maid. There is absolutely no reason to touch the body of a precious queen. Moreover, although you are an adopted daughter, you and the queen are not close friends as mother and daughter. Since you committed such immorality, everything will inevitably be your fault, daughter.”

If the stepmother wasn’t an evil woman trying to blow up this country, Fehat’s argument was completely justified. There was no room for objection.

Carmel must be smiling happily on the inside as she looks at me not being able to answer anything.

Fehat solemnly declared.

“Don’t do that again.”

“Yes, father.”

“What!”

Carmel jumped up from her seat. It seems that the situation was different from Carmel’s expectations.

Carmel doesn’t know exactly how the previous Fehat poisoning case ended. Fehat already knows that I made him drink poison. Compared to that, a slap is nothing.

The reason Fehat forgave me there wasn’t just because I was soft on my family. At that time, I had a legitimate reason: to enlighten my father for the sake of the country. Fehat is a human being who can tolerate that.

“No way! Sarah hit me in the face! My beautiful face is like the treasure of the kingdom!”

Do you usually say that out of your own mouth? Are you sticking to this character in front of Fehat?

Well, of course, the two people here would not have the slightest objection to that statement.

“Calm down, queen. Sera is probably truly reflecting, so why don’t you just forgive her?”

“Yes, mother. I am truly reflecting. I’m sorry for hitting you.”

“Ugh…!”

Even after receiving my polite apology, Carmel did not seem to be relieved of her anger. Well, it’s true that I did it to scratch my insides.

Carmel seemed to have regained her composure a little and sat down again. And he still spoke with an expression of anger on his face.

“I am not convinced, Your Majesty. As you said, the sin of immorality is never light. I would like to tell you that this is not something that should end with common sense, royal law, or a simple scolding.”

It looks like the strategy of appealing to emotions has been abandoned. Carmel pointed out my mistakes quite eloquently.

“Uh, um…”

Fehat looks quite embarrassed. It could be said that this is an impossible situation for him, who has a personality that is afraid of being hated by those he loves.

Time passes in indecisiveness, with no one willing to interrogate me or refute Carmel’s words. Fehat eventually asked Carmel back.

“Well, then what level of punishment does the queen think is appropriate?”

Carmel seemed to want to shout that her right to succession to the throne should be revoked right away. Well, you probably know that it’s impossible.

“Pension in a secluded room for 3 weeks. Of course, it should be excluded from all government affairs. I think that level of punishment is appropriate.”

“Well, that’s a bit harsh…”

“Not excessive at all, Your Majesty. Rather, I made a lot of concessions.”

“Uh, um…”

You’re going to tie me up for three weeks and do something in the meantime? It’s a choice that Carmel would choose.

If you have that much time, you are confident that you can turn the situation to your advantage.

But I had no intention of playing along that trick.

Rather, we should take advantage of it.

“Okay, mother. I will do so with a reflective heart. However, there is one thing I would like to ask of you…”

Carmel immediately became elated when she saw my low attitude.

“Are you aware of the position you are in now, Princess Sera? You are being punished for committing a serious crime. That condition makes me question whether it’s really true that I’m reflecting.”

There was quite a bit of momentum. The composure is evident in his voice, as if he has already won the finale of victory.

“Of course I am reflecting, mother. So that’s what I’m saying. Is it okay if I use my mother’s room as the place where I will be detained for three weeks?”

“…You want to stay in my room? With me?”

“Yes. I want to stay with my mother, restore our somewhat awkward relationship, and learn a lot from her. It may be presumptuous to say this, but I think your mother can learn something from me.”

Carmel’s face when she heard those words was quite a sight to see. Not only was it a surprise, but it seemed like he was subconsciously thinking about what would happen to him if he ended up in the same room as me.

The moment Carmel, who was dumbfounded, was about to say something, Fehat’s powerful voice struck him.

“Good idea! Let’s do that!”

“…to?”

“Even so, I was always worried because it seemed like the two of them didn’t get along well. Um, but if you spend time together, you’ll naturally become closer. The queen will also be imbued with Sera’s beautiful personality. Hmm, you have a bright eye, Sarah.”

“Thank you, father.”

Carmel hurriedly leaned forward and said. The space from earlier was already reduced to dust.

“Anyone can do whatever they want… I-I didn’t say I would accept it!”

“Uh, why? Isn’t it a good opportunity?”

“Well, that is…”

Carmel glanced at me and then looked away. I won’t be able to tell Fehat the real reason why he doesn’t want to share a room with me.

‘Princess Sera, who looks like an angel, is actually targeting my mother, my body. Of course, in a sexual sense.’

Even if you say that, you will only get pitiful looks. They might think they are possessed by a ghost and call a priest.

“Ugh…”

Carmel seemed to be desperately searching in her head for a valid reason to reject me. But there is no reason for that.

What justification is there for rejecting a wonderful daughter who wants to improve her relationship with her mother?

Carmel, who had been looking at the desk the whole time, turned her gaze to my face. With a humble smile on my face, I asked Carmel one more time.

“Give me just one chance, mother. Please do me a favor.”

Again, words that scratch my insides. Carmel was about to burst out crying but could barely hold it back.

And barely nodded.

“Okay… Instead, you shouldn’t forget that you have a pension. Never go out and stay uninvolved in anything. You know, right?”

“Yes, mother. Sure. Please take care of me starting tonight.”

Me smiling brightly and Carmel glaring at me with an angry face.

I didn’t know which side was being punished.

* * *

“…What are you thinking?”

Carmel’s room, no, now, as soon as I entered her room, Carmel asked in a different voice from before.

“What are you thinking? It’s just like I said before, mother. I want to get a little closer to my mother.”

Carmel was glaring at me with intense eyes. As if he wanted to catch the thoughts that were passing through my mind with those intense eyes.

“You… could it be that you saw this far in the split second you were embracing that maid?”

To be honest, that’s not the case. At that moment, I just acted based on my feelings. In fact, it is still the same today.

The main reason why I decided to live on a pension here was to satisfy my personal desires.

But there’s no need to be honest about that.

“What if you say so?”

Carmel’s expression became even more uncomfortable. In Carmel’s view, I am now in a situation where I have invaded his space, even giving him a penalty of not being able to do anything for three weeks. It must be frustrating because you don’t really understand what the intention is.

“Well, we’ll talk about it later. It’s already late… Why don’t you just go to sleep?”

“Sleeping? Wait, no way…”

There is only one bed in Carmel’s room. That means that they inevitably have to sleep together. I don’t know if Carmel has the spirit to do well on the floor.

Carmel’s expression quickly hardened.