Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 196
‘Even though I haven’t changed at all.’
Freesia silently smiled as yet another retainer’s family eagerly approached to greet her.
There had been a time when she dreamed of becoming a respected Duchess like this.
A foolish era when she believed that if she bled and toiled hard enough, she could peel away the label of ‘illegitimate daughter’ and gradually earn the respect she deserved.
‘But now I understand.’
Human beings were inherently worthless, and life was merely an empty stretch of time one endured because they had been born into it by chance.
Yet, one thing did intrigue her.
It was seeing Elder Madam Electra repeatedly dabbing her tears with a handkerchief as she groveled at Freesia’s feet, begging for mercy.
“Your Highness, please do not forgive me.”
Charles had confessed that he acted on Electra’s orders, but there was no tangible evidence to prove it. Anything incriminating had long since been burned to ash, and a thorough search of the castle turned up nothing.
Still, before all the circumstantial evidence could tighten around her neck, Electra had offered up a sacrificial lamb.
“My head maid dared to harm Your Highness! Such a despicable and disgraceful act…”
“Hmm.”
“It is shameful that her misguided loyalty to me led to this atrocity…”
Electra used her handkerchief to hide her trembling lips.
It was the first time in her life she had debased herself so thoroughly before another. On this land, she had always been the loudest, most authoritative woman.
Yet now, all the authority she once wielded as mistress of the household had shifted to this shepherdess.
But wasn’t her opponent the emperor’s granddaughter? Everyone whispered that if this woman so much as sneezed, the emperor’s wrath would fall upon the duchy.
Freesia smiled gently at the desperate Electra.
‘Humans truly are ingenious when it comes to survival.’
Her former head maid, Merope, had been dragged to prison without even understanding what was happening. She would soon be executed, taking the blame for her master’s sins.
‘The retainers probably prefer this resolution, too.’
Executing the previous duke’s second wife would have been unseemly, even if it was justified. Despite the uncomfortable gazes from the retainers, Freesia nodded magnanimously.
“Lift your head, Electra.”
“Your Highness…”
“While you are guilty of failing to manage your servants, surely you didn’t command them to harm your stepson’s child?”
“……”
“No person of conscience could do such a thing.”
The implication that she was being compared to livestock made Electra’s lips twitch, but Freesia maintained her radiant smile.
“I have no choice but to punish the head maid… but I wish to live peacefully with everyone from now on, including you, Elder Madam.”
“Such… Such generosity… How can one be so merciful?”
Electra forced a smile while biting her lower lip repeatedly.
For now, her life had been spared, and she had ingratiated herself well enough.
‘But I can never trust that woman.’
The illegitimate wench wore an angelic smile, like that of a saint, but Electra had already heard about the gruesome fate of the women of the Antares family. How could she feel at ease?
Above all, she could never forget the look in Freesia’s eyes when she had arrived with an armful of thorny branches.
‘Everyone is deceived. This venomous woman rebels even as she sacrifices herself.’
And now, she had even claimed the “Duchess’s Chambers” as her own.
Electra, as the previous duke’s second wife, had never been allowed to step foot in that room!
Though her life was spared, the sense of loss and humiliation burned inside her.
‘I have to uncover what that woman is scheming. She must have some sinister plan.’
No matter her status as an imperial descendant, if Electra could expose motives that no title could excuse, the situation could be overturned.
‘…There isn’t much time.’
She had to uncover why this woman was playing the role of a hypocritical saint as soon as possible.
* * *
Before Izar returned to the castle, he gave the first order to renovate the “Duchess’s Chambers”.
“You’ll stay here from now on.”
Izar held Freesia’s hand and personally led her to the room.
After his mother’s disappearance, he had deliberately ignored the room. It had been left as a mere symbolic artifact of the family’s long history.
But now, he had it remodeled to suit Freesia’s tastes, and the thought made him strangely anxious.
Even Freesia, who rarely showed much interest in such things, reluctantly nodded as she inspected the room.
“…It’s lovely.”
Perhaps it was because the season was growing colder and the daylight shorter, but the room, designed to evoke the feeling of an early spring day, was undeniably beautiful.
It was far better than the gaudy, overly extravagant quarters the emperor had arranged in the palace in his bid to win her affection with jewels and treasures.
However, the more Freesia examined the room, the more oddities she noticed.
‘Are those extra bars on the window?’
It was obvious that this was not part of the original design.
When she looked up more carefully, she nearly sighed in exasperation.
The large overhead fixtures, the kind that could hold ropes, had been removed entirely. Even the canopy hooks on the bedposts were gone.
It was as if someone had gone out of their way to ensure there was nothing she could use to hang a noose.
‘He must’ve taken my story to heart.’
Even the corners of every piece of furniture had been excessively rounded. Nothing in the room appeared fragile enough to break into sharp pieces.
It was a room meticulously designed to prevent even the possibility of self-harm—a suffocating manifestation of obsessive concern.
