Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 27
A lady of nobility never directly involves herself in teaching those who were beneath her. Using others to slowly tighten the noose around someone’s neck was considered a more refined approach.
In Electra’s case, this task was delegated to the chief handmaid, Merope.
Izar had also forbidden Freesia from entering the dining area where he was present, insisting that her meals be confined to that dingy room.
Furthermore, the meals delivered were mockingly referred to as swill fit for pigs.
‘If she complains about the food, I’ll have to report it directly to the Elder Madam.’
Yet, every time, the sight of the completely emptied plates astonished Merope.
So much so that she couldn’t help but confront Freesia directly.
“You… ate this? All of it?”
“Yes, as you can see.”
Freesia smiled lightly.
While Thea left her portion, Freesia’s plate was spotlessly clean. During her days as a shepherdess, she had eaten far worse, and even at the beginning of her ‘marriage’, she had to endure such garbage.
“Please tell the Elder Madam I enjoyed the meal very much, Chief Handmaid Merope.”
“…”
Merope’s face twisted somewhere between anger and disgust.
It was obvious to anyone but a fool that this wasn’t submission.
It was mockery.
‘I underestimated her peasant background!’
So, this time, they simply reduced her meals.
Or they made excuses of being too busy to send lunch.
By then, Freesia, through Thea, had already won over someone from the kitchen.
Thanks to this, she could subsist on proper bread or ham.
‘I must keep quiet for now, not to eat anything too good conspicuously.’
This period before the tea party was the time to lay low to avoid unexpected disruptions.
As expected, no one volunteered to help her on the day of the event itself.
‘No one would dare to cross the Elder Madam so soon.’
Of course, there was the option, as in her past life, to gather help after being brutally punished by Electra.
But this time, an unknown stubbornness emerged. She didn’t want to be foolishly beaten again for no fault of hers.
Plus, hadn’t she already arranged a ‘safety net’ unlike before? Ironically, through the same Thea who had been a headache in her previous life.
“Madam, my cousins have agreed to help on the day!”
In the past, the issue with Thea lay with the fact that she had much too many relatives working there.
‘If I complained about a mistake, I’d be painted as the cruel woman punishing their poor relative.’
But this time, the strategy of taming them with gifts from the start fortunately worked.
While all other servants naturally shunned the idea of assisting in the tea party of that ‘shepherdess’, those bribed stepped up without awkwardness, using excuses like ‘for cousin Thea’s sake’ to garner sympathy.
“But they’ve never prepared a noble’s party before… Will it be okay, Madam?”
“It will be fine.”
Freesia smiled faintly.
Though the workers were novices, what mattered most was the clarity of instructions from those in charge.
“If there’s a mistake on the day of the tea party, I’ll be there from dawn to correct it.”
“Ah, yes. But the chief handmaid said she won’t assign any maids.”
Thea scratched her neck awkwardly.
Even if laborers could be bribed and mobilized by Thea, ‘maids’ were a different class entirely.
“Shouldn’t there be maids for such an occasion? To serve tea, to assist in conversations?”
“Don’t worry about that either.”
Freesia chuckled, fluttering through some worn documents. This was also the ‘insurance’ she had secured through Thea.
‘I was furious when I first learned of this.’
At the time, there seemed no use for it. However, Thea’s next words dimmed Freesia’s smile.
“Madam, have you noticed the knights polishing their armor lately?”
“…”
“They’ve just returned, and now they’re preparing to leave again?”
Thea chattered away cheerfully on her own, but Freesia remained silent, already aware that Izar and the other knights were about to depart again.
‘Soon, they’ll leave for a monster subjugation campaign.’
And they would return long after the tea party was over.
“…”
She pondered over Izar’s attitude again. The man who had put up walls throughout the ten-day journey here. Her ‘husband,’ who showed no interest in what she was doing, even though they lived under the same roof.
‘What a cold heart, truly.’
Freesia fiddled with the button necklace, harboring resentment.
Though she had experienced and braced herself for his attitude, it still deeply hurt her.
Being human, it was natural to feel wounded.
‘There were times when I wished I could just disappear…’
She still wondered if it was too much to wish for even a single tear to be shed for her.
She feared there was nothing lower to fall to, terrified by how her dignity eroded with each rejection from him.
But…
Freesia quietly toyed with the necklace.
Having a fixed lifespan and knowing she had less than a year left…
It really helped her prioritize her own life.
It had pushed trivial pride and wounds to the bottom of her heart.
‘It’s not that important, after all.’
Instead, it reminded her of what she hadn’t done in her previous life.
She had always wanted to do something for him whenever he left.
