Jealousy (1)

By the time Supanita finished her work at the Rose Palace and returned to the Chrysanthemum Palace, dusk was settling like damp fog, and the crimson sunset painted the western sky a fiery red. Her footsteps, as she led the maids of the Chrysanthemum Palace back, were heavy and listless.

Mullaba had been relentlessly piling on work, leaving her no time to slack off, so the Chrysanthemum Palace maid’s face was soaked with fatigue, and her limbs felt heavy. She wanted nothing more than to collapse onto her bed in her room, but unfortunately, there was still work to be done, so she forced her flagging spirit to straighten up.

After dismissing the maids, Supanita headed alone into the depths of the Chrysanthemum Palace. Standing before the Main Chamber, Padrentia-nim’s residence, she knocked on the door according to protocol, raising her voice. The doors of the Main Chamber, where the royals resided, were thick, so she had to raise her voice for it to be heard properly inside.

“Princess-nim, it’s Supanita. I have now returned from the Rose Palace.”

“Enter.”

She quietly opened the door to the Main Chamber. The heavy texture of the wood felt weighty on her fingers, all the way up to her wrist and arm. The Chrysanthemum Palace’s Main Chamber was very different from the Rose Palace. Mirabilis-ssi’s Main Chamber was remarkably bare for a royal, not at all what people would imagine as the residence of a Princess. Of course, there were many clothes and accessories, but those alone couldn’t decorate a Princess’s residence. Once, when Mullaba had asked about it, Mirabilis-ssi had replied:

“Imagine. You change your clothes and are about to lie down in bed to sleep, but some chatty fairy comes in and keeps blathering on and on next to you. Wouldn’t that be really annoying, Mullaba?”

“Well, I suppose so…”

As Mullaba trailed off and nodded, Mirabilis-ssi finished her thought casually but firmly.

“To me, decorating the room is like having a chatty fairy. I want to relax in my residence, but I don’t want to bring anything noisy like that inside.”

But Padrentia-nim’s personality was different. The Empire’s only Princess strove to imbue every corner of her residence with the dignity of royalty. The gilded bronze candelabra, shaped like two lions supporting it, was elaborate and majestic, but as heavy as its dignity, so maids and attendants would grunt and groan as they moved it for cleaning.

The marble table had legs shaped like plant stems winding around and blooming into flower buds, with gold plating on the petals, literally making golden flowers bloom. When sunlight streamed through the windows during the day, Padrentia-nim’s Main Chamber sparkled with gold and primary colors, like the scales of freshly caught fish.

Padrentia-nim had put particular effort into the paintings. She had various paintings in the Main Chamber and hung them appropriately to enhance the visual elegance. She bought so many paintings that she became a major patron of the capital’s art galleries and even developed her own discerning eye.

In particular, a painting depicting a warrior in armor, drawing a long sword and single-handedly defeating a giant, was intense. In the canvas, the hideous giant with two heads and long teeth bared, flexed his bulging muscles and tried to swing a club, while the warrior faced the enemy with a long sword, receiving light as radiant as jewels in the darkness. As if pierced several times by the warrior’s sword, blood foam gushed from the giant’s body like a bellows, painting the entire picture a dark reddish hue.

It was an intense piece that would have been more fitting in a general’s office than a Princess’s residence, but it blended in with the decorations and other paintings Padrentia-nim had arranged, hanging on the wall as if it were only natural. If you asked anyone who had ever entered Padrentia-nim’s Main Chamber, “What was most impressive?” they would all talk about the warrior’s painting.

Mirabilis-ssi rarely invited outsiders into her Main Chamber. But Padrentia-nim often, especially if she considered them important, almost always invited them to her Main Chamber to chat, so the Chrysanthemum Palace’s Main Chamber was like a second reception room.

Overwhelmed by the images created by the decorations and the dignity of the title ‘Princess’, people who met Padrentia-nim in the Chrysanthemum Palace’s Main Chamber were unable to converse properly and were led along according to her wishes. The Princess secretly enjoyed this pleasure, which combined hobby and practical gain.

In this flamboyant atmosphere, only the snow-white porcelain stood out in the Main Chamber, providing a stately, quiet, and simple visual device. Perhaps, because of the excessive flamboyance, Padrentia-nim kept such pure white tea sets nearby to rest her eyes.

“Mirabilis-ssi’s reputation has improved?”

The owner of the Chrysanthemum Palace took out her favorite cup, placed it before her maid, and personally poured tea from a teapot. Padrentia-nim’s movements were so precise that her eyes were on her maid, yet the tea filled the cup to just the right level. Supanita, feeling grateful, couldn’t look her mistress in the eye and took the soft teacup with both hands, bringing it to her lips. As the fresh scent of the tea brushed her nose, the maid seemed to relax a little.

“It is said to be thanks to Serina-ssi. Whenever the Princess-nim is angry, he steps in to soothe her, and she always calms down, so the Rose Palace staff are very happy that the atmosphere has become softer these days.”

As Padrentia-nim quietly furrowed her crescent-shaped eyebrows, her brown eyes beneath her long eyelashes flashed with dignity.

“Didn’t you say that Mullaba-ssi kept piling work on you last time, so you didn’t have a chance to talk properly?”

Supanita, in a respectful posture, slowly bowed her head forward, moving her words to the tip of her tongue.

“Even so, after working there for a few days, I became acquainted with the people and was able to hear the stories the attendants were telling. It was a slip of the tongue, but I also overheard about the place that handles the Princess-nim’s hair.”

“That’s fortunate.”

Padrentia-nim smiled as if greatly pleased, but Supanita couldn’t smile sweetly like her mistress. Seeing that expression, the Princess slowly stopped smiling.

“Is there something you haven’t told me yet? Your face is twitching as if it wants to say something different from your mouth.”

The maid, looking apologetic, carefully opened her mouth while watching the Princess’s expression.

“Actually, I managed to seize an opportunity to talk to Serina-ssi today. It was thanks to the fact that the path I was walking overlapped with his route…”

“It was thanks to?”

Supanita picked up the teacup in front of her and sipped the brown tea swirling inside. The feeling of her lips touching the cup was as smooth and soft as a child’s skin.

“I was going to talk to him in the Rose Palace’s courtyard, but the Princess-nim came out herself and separated me and Serina-ssi. So I couldn’t talk to him properly, but…”

“…I see, that in itself is noteworthy. Mirabilis-ssi has always been very lonely.”

Padrentia-nim pondered, tapping the table with her right finger. Tap, tap, tap, Supanita’s eyes flickered up and down as the white finger moved up and down. From where she sat, the painting of the warrior fighting the giant behind the Princess’s head seemed to cast a halo.

“More than I thought… it seems that the child named Serina-ssi is quite important to Mirabilis-ssi.”