Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 87
Animal cage
After receiving the priest’s blessing, the day for Freesia to make her first appearance at a noble event had arrived. It was a banquet hosted by her parental home.
‘It still happens exactly like before.’
Izar had discarded several invitations, but this one could not be easily ignored under the name of the Arcturus family. Unlike other families, the House of Antares held equal standing in the capital.
She considered it fortunate that there’s no excuse for the ‘bastard daughter’ not to attend, as strange as life was.
‘I don’t like it, but let’s consider it a good thing.’
If she conducted herself properly at this event, even if Izar disliked it, there would be a reason to take her to the imperial palace.
That’s why she had been thoroughly preparing for this day.
“Madam, everything is ready!”
“Thank you, Thea.”
Preparations started early in the morning. Usually, only Thea attended to her, but Freesia smiled faintly at the other maids in the room.
“And everyone else.”
“Ah, not at all, Ma… dam.”
The three awkwardly exchanged glances, using the awkward title to address her.
They despised serving a bastard, but half out of curiosity and half out of jealousy, they recently attended to Freesia, spurred by Thea’s boasting.
<See this? This is a silk ribbon. Isn’t it pretty? The Madam gave this to me.>
<What? She gave you something like that?>
<Yes. Our Madam is quite kind, don’t you think? Just serve her well, and such rewards keep raining down.>
Since Freesia had said she could boast as much as she wanted, Thea happily showed off a few trinkets she had obtained until now.
‘Having more people has helped in gathering information.’
She needed to remember exactly what was trendy in the capital, as it was difficult for her or Thea to go out all the time.
At that moment, Thea looked at Freesia and genuinely admired her.
“Madam, the dress you chose this time suits you so well…”
“Really?”
“Yes! It’s similar to what you wore in Deneb, but this style really suits you.”
Surprisingly, even the maids who had joined with different intentions nodded automatically. They were keen to flatter the emperor but feared the father-in-law’s generous dowry.
Thanks to him, even Electra, who pointed out numerous faults in the first year, did not pick on the dowry.
‘Luckily, it included a lot of expensive clothes…’
The dress she chose this time was a new venture.
Made lavishly with pale gold satin and tulle, it was lighter than the others, revealing the shoulders and collarbones in tune with the season. The thin satin sleeve hung loosely from the elbow, and small topazes shone like stars around the neckline.
But she hadn’t chosen this dress because it was beautiful.
‘I have to wear something that exposes as much skin as possible.’
Previously, when she went to the House of Antares dressed conservatively according to Electra’s tastes, she ended up with bruises in unseen places.
“Haa…”
Freesia sighed as she looked at her reflection in the mirror.
‘At least with the Elder Madam beside me back then, there was the pretext of training.’
Inside the Arcturus territory, the Elder Madam joined with other ladies-in-waiting to ridicule Freesia, but she couldn’t stand to see her humiliated by outsiders. Even when she wasn’t called officially as the duchess, she took great pride in being ‘associated with Arcturus’.
She taught Freesia manners and etiquette overnight, had her recite court poems, and refined her speech and behavior as if filtering out impurities.
So, generously speaking, that discipline had positive outcomes.
‘But Madam Antares was different.’
The first year Freesia let her guard down, she experienced how terrifyingly Lady Antares could change during the banquet.
At the House of Antares’ banquet, noblewomen flocked around Freesia.
No matter how quickly she learned to retch with manners, she couldn’t possibly understand all the questions poured out by the noblewomen from the first year. She was like a small animal ridiculed by the claws of predators.
When Freesia was trembling with fear, as if she would be devoured, Lady Antares approached her.
<Oh my, don’t scare my daughter too much, everyone.>
The duchess patted Freesia’s shoulder and smiled even more broadly.
<Freesia, our Ducal Lady of Arcturus. If you needed help, why didn’t you call me, your mother?>
Calling the person who killed her own mother as “mother” seemed like a foolish mistake in hindsight.
But the nobles mocking her were so frightening that she called the person before her ’mother’, as if she was her only lifeline.
During the event, Freesia was led away by the lady’s maids to a ‘storage room’.
<Who allowed you to call me mother?>
You did. You told me to call you mother.
She couldn’t get the words out right, not just from fear, but because they had put a hood over her face so that passersby couldn’t hear her screams.
In case Izar, who was conversing with the men separately, would come out if the bastard girl caused any trouble and catch her.
<You should respectfully call me ‘madam’. Where does a w***e’s daughter get off being so impudent?>
Along with the chilling laughter in the darkness, the beating continued relentlessly.
The beating itself wasn’t painful.
No, it was painful, but not as harsh as Electra’s ‘discipline’. What was unbearable was not knowing where the next hit would come from because of the hood.
After a long session of what was meant to be a disciplinary beating, Freesia was released. She had bruises all over her body, covered by her clothes, making it painful to walk, but Izar didn’t know at the time.
Electra and Freesia rode back in the carriage together.
<Tsk, stupid wench.>
Electra scoffed disdainfully as Freesia writhed in pain every time the carriage shook.
<Did you really believe what that woman said? Which woman would tell her husband’s scum to call her mother? It’s utterly disgusting.>
<…>
<Remember this well. You’re nothing. You’re just a tool for those people.>
‘Yes, thanks to that, I understand very well. In their beautiful world, I am nothing more than a ‘bastard’. An animal.’
