Breeding Season - Chapter 7
The south was a place where you couldn’t survive unless you were quick-witted. It was a den of snakes and foxes, where you had to behead someone before they smashed the back of your head to stay alive.
You must obey the strong, but the weak are ruthlessly trampled in this wasteland. To go there with this dangling… It was quite a hassle.
“Take me.”
“Please take me.”
It was then.
For the first time, the woman clearly opened her mouth.
“If you take me in, I can be of help. I really can. I learn quickly, so I can work hard.”
She stammered when his gaze fell on her, but she still finished what she had to say. That was a good sign. It meant this naive one wasn’t completely stupid.
“What could you do even if you learn?”
“You haven’t tried it.”
It was quite a sight, her lips pouting, muttering as though she’d been treated a bit gently. If his subordinates, who were out there cleaning and burning corpses, saw this, they would surely be flipping over.
How dare she talk back to him. But strangely, it didn’t feel bad.
“Cooking.”
“…?”
“You said you’d do anything. Start with cooking. I want to eat food cooked by my wife.”
A task she had never done, having been born a princess.
Could she even hold a knife? Has she ever peeled potatoes?
Yet, Siren nodded.
As though she had made a firm resolution. That was so funny that he thought he’d keep her by his side for a few more days.
‘Yasamin.’
Siren only learned the man’s name a week later. It wasn’t because he told her, but because she had been listening carefully and picked up on it.
“You’re really bad at cooking.”
“…”
“How can it still look like this no matter how many times you make it?”
It’s because you keep stealing the ladle. Siren bit back the words that were rising up and lowered her head. She had committed a sin, so she couldn’t argue.
“Well, it’s not like it’s inedible.”
“Are you… going to eat it all?”
“If you leave food behind, you’ll be punished. Don’t eat this, eat something else. This is mine.”
Seven days after the fall of the Wilkeron dynasty. During that time, Siren clung to Yasamin’s side with determination. She didn’t entertain any thoughts of leaving or running away.
In fact, she was more scared of him abandoning her. On the road from the royal palace to the south, Siren felt the burning gaze of dissatisfaction directed at her.
Those stares, filled with malice and anger, were waiting for her to be discarded by Yasamin.
Siren, with the instinct of someone who had been tormented for a long time, recognized this and acknowledged that the only way to survive was to stay by Yasamin’s side.
It was the only path she could take. Because those gazes disappeared without a sound when Yasamin was in front of her.
‘Don’t go against him, don’t resist, don’t talk back.’
All she had to do was behave quietly. Wasn’t that such an easy thing?
Honestly, Siren hadn’t felt this at peace in a long time. Yasamin hadn’t gotten angry, hadn’t slapped her, hadn’t yanked her hair, and hadn’t hurled insults at her.
Though he treated her like a toy, tossing her around here and there like a giant cat playing with a mouse… still, when it came down to it, he had done most of the cooking himself.
All she had done was stand there, foolishly watching the stew bubble while holding a carrot in one hand and a turnip in the other.
Yet, Yasamin hadn’t gotten angry. Even the awful meal she first cooked, he scraped it all up and ate it.
‘He’s a good husband.’
She had never even thought of herself as a princess. She hadn’t been raised with that kind of treatment. Therefore, Siren was satisfied with her current half-maid life. She didn’t mind that Yasamin used informal speech with her.
How nice would it be to live like this in the south?
The idea might seem strange, having no pride or dignity, but on the other hand, it might just show an excellent ability to survive.
‘Breathing… is… comfortable.’
