Chapter 8 & 9

Author: gucchi

TL: N. Irene

(Surprise!)

Chapter 8:

“I apologize, Grandfather.” I bowed.

“I don’t feel well, may I excuse myself first?”

“Yes, that is fine.”

“Make sure you rest properly, understood?”

“Yes, thank you.” I bowed once again at left the room, not looking at my uncle’s face.

The old servant who brought me there had already left.

Normally, when I return to my room, some of them still accompany me.

While the servants were horrified with what I had done, I went back to my room alone as usual.

Bang! The door banged open to reveal…

Eliza.

“What the hell was that all about!” she yelled loudly.

I thought I was the only one who left, but it seems that Eliza had left the room too.

I wonder what she came for?

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you call His Majesty ‘Grandfather’?!”

“Oh… he told me to call him Grandfather when he visited me this morning.”

“That can’t be true! You’re lying! He told me to call him ‘Your Majesty’!”

“Why would he even tell you to call him ‘Grandfather’ if not me?!”

“That’s because Eliza is not royalty.”

Grandfather told you that earlier, but you still don’t realize it.

Since you have become a vassal, you must be treated as a member of the nobility.

Besides the crown prince and his wife, the second prince remains in the royal family,

The third prince, who became a duke, will never ascend to the throne.

That is why you have to behave as a vassal…

Eliza kept ruining her hair and getting angry.

She’s two years older than me, taller and seems to grow up faster.

I wonder why she is so immature.

She must have been educated since she is a noble.

Eliza looked around in frustration, “There’s nothing here to throw at you!”

Eliza throws things at me whenever she felt angry with me.

I got used to get things thrown at me, but there was nothing left in my room to throw.

The few things I had in my room were all destroyed by Eliza.

Eliza started complaining about the lack of things to throw, even though it was all her fault.

I’m sure the guards monitoring her for the report are surprised.

She acts so good-natured in front of the public.

But now, no matter how you look at it, Eliza had none of the grace of an aristocratic daughter.

I must have been even worse before I remembered my previous life.

Now I remember the etiquette I had when I was a countess.

Though it was annoying, I decided to let her curse as usual here.

“Good Lord! You may be a princess, but you are just a failed princess!”

“You’re not beautiful, you have shaggy, dull hair, a thing bone-like body, and you don’t know anything about the ouside world!”

“You think you can be a queen?”

“Ha! Unfortunately, you can’t be. You never will!”

“…….”

I don’t think Eliza can be the queen either.

Eliza has no control of her emotions and they show completely on her face. Her face twisted in an ugly way.

Eliza’s dull chestnut hair and brown eyes are not the colours of royalty either.

She is slightly fat too.

But it is true that I am a bit skinny for a girl, and my hair is dry and grey,

I originally had silver hair and blue eyes, the same as Grandfather.

The Crown Prince and the Second Prince both of have blonde hair and purple eyes.

They resemble my late grandmother, the empress.

My uncle, with chestnut hair and brown eyes, is said to resemble the queen.

The queen had died soon after she gave birth to my uncle.

Grandfather has been working all the time without a empress or queen ever since.

In truth, Eliza would probably want to be loved as a grandchild, too,

But if Grandfather allowed Eliza’s attitude to get the better of him… he’d be in big trouble.

I wonder what Grandfather is going to do when he hears the report…

“Hey, are you listening?”

I was awakened by a splash of water on my head.

I was in a daze and hadn’t heard much of Eliza’s complains.

My one and only dress was soaking wet, and I was soaked completely.

There wasn’t carpet in my room, so I can leave the wet floor to dry.

But what should I do? I can’t wash the dress.

If I take it to the laundry, the maids will think I’ve stolen it.

‘It’s cold…’

“Hmm. I feel better now.” smirked Eliza.

“…I said I wasn’t feeling well today and Dr Renkin might come by later to check on me.”

“…! You should’ve said something like that earlier!”

“This is your own fault, you screwed up and splashed yourself in water! Do you understand?!”

“Don’t tell him! You know what I mean!”

After saying that, she quickly left the room.

Good grief, I thought, taking off my dress and wiping my hair and body with a cloth,

I changed into the shabby clothes I usually wore.

There’s no way Dr Renkin will come, so let’s go to bed.

I’ll think about my wet dress tomorrow.

My uncle and his wife won’t come either since they must have heard from Eliza that Dr Renkin is coming.

I locked myself in my room and got into my bunk.

Tomorrow… how long will it take to gather enough evidence?

My body, tired from everything that had happened, fell asleep quickly.

In my dreams, I lamented that my elderly body was hard in my witch days,

I laughed when I woke up and wondered if my current body was better than that.

Chapter 9:

I woke up to find that the dress I had taken off and left wet yesterday had been dried and put back in the wardrobe in a clean state.

Apparently, one of the guards attached to me by my grandfather can use magic.

When I think about it, there was no other way to monitor and escort me without being seen, except by magic.

Although I had no intention of using magic myself for the past month,

I’m glad I didn’t use it by accident.

It would be too suspicious if I am suddenly able to use magic, no matter how much I want to.

As usual, near noon, a male servant come kicking my door open.

Without saying a word, he roughly placed a tray with soup and bread on the bed.

He then left the room without a word.

I thought about eating, but I saw that today’s meal was rotten.

Is this payback for yesterday’s dinner party?

The soup smelled funny and the bread was mouldy and had turned green.

As expected, this was inedible.

But if I left it like this, I would be blamed for leaving the meal behind wasting it.

I had no choice but to open the window and throw it outside.

The outside of the West Palace is a wild grassy area and no one passes by at all.

I poured the soup out of the upstairs window and threw the bread far away.

When I returned with the window closed, I found a table with some chairs in the room.

On the table was a small basket.

I looked in the basket and saw that it contained baked goods and a bottle of milk.

There was also a small wooden cup in it.

I guess it means that I am allowed to eat it, but I wonder if this was also an instruction from my grandfather.

Although I can tell where the guards are by the movement of magic, I am a seven-year-old princess who can’t do anything right now.

I looked up around the ceiling as if searching, and thanked them in a small voice.

“I don’t know who you are, but thank you. They look delicious.”

A single thump sounded in reply to my voice.

It made me smile because it made me feel kind of happy.

The baked goods were crispy and I could eat as much as I wanted.

Still, my body wasn’t used to eating too much so after I ate three pieces and drank a cup of milk, I was full.

I hid the basket under my bunk, thinking it would be bad if anyone found it.

I’ll eat the rest again when I’m hungry.

It was time to clean up and go to the laundry.

I removed the bed-linens from the bunk and was walking down the corridor to go to the laundry,

When I was suddenly pushed from behind.

The force was too much for my body so I fell down.

The man who pushed me was a servant, someone I had never seen before.

“You dirty brat, what are you doing here?”

“I’m going to do the laundry, why did you push me?”

“I was told to push children like you when I see them.”

“Who told you that?”

“I don’t know. I know it was someone with a high status but why should I tell you, anyway? Now get on with your work.”

He didn’t seem to want to do anything more with me, so he just said that and left.

I thought it was better that I hadn’t been trampled, so I walked on to the laundry room.

There, as usual, the low-level servants were spreading out their laundry.

I didn’t dare to go closer, knowing that if I get too close, I would be sprayed with water.

They would get angry if I spread out the big sheets to wash them, so I would fold them small and step on them with my feet.

That’s the reason why I had chapped feet as well as hands.

I can’t use the fancy detergents which were only used for the royalty.

Instead, I use the leftover detergent from other washings and tread on the bed linens with my feet over and over again.

The water was cold and the skin-irritating detergent soaked into my feet.

As I stomped repeatedly to clean off the stains, I was splashed with water from behind.

“What are you doing! You’re getting in my way so leave!”

There were other washing areas, and it won’t make much difference even if I leave.

But they probably still find it annoying that I only had to wash the sheets.

The low-level servants had a lot of laundry to do.

I picked up the bed linens that still had detergent on them and went to run them under water.

All the while, my wet clothes got cold and it made me shiver.

It seemed impossible to dry the bed linens today.

I had no choice but to wring out the wet bed linenes and went straight back to my room.

When I was about to in my room, suddenly, someone pushed me from behind once again in the corridor.

It was an old maid.

She stomped hard on my feet, and I screamed in pain.

The maid who pushed me ran away in a hurry, surprised that I had screamed.

…Come to think of it, I never raised my voice no matter what they did to me until now.

As I had expected, they probably thought it would be bad if someone found out what they had done to me.

When I entered my room, I took off my wet clothes and changed.

The clothes left behind by the servants were not for children, so I had to cut the long parts with a pair of scissors.

I placed the bed-linen and my wet clothes on the table.

The sheets and clothes were dry and folded bfore I even noticed.

“‘Oh, thank you.”

I thanked them, and then I heard another thump on the ceiling.

…It seems Grandfather gave me a very dependant guard.

I was worried about whether the guard monitoring me will be able to stand this for a month.

I nibbled on some leftover baked goods.

This might be the first time I’ve eaten twice in a day.

I muttered to myself, when I heard a loud clatter somewhere.