Chapter 32
Chapter 32
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: Abandoned Dog
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The Pheneios Empire faced its greatest crisis since its founding.
The Emperor was bedridden, and the Crown Prince had marched off to the battlefield amid a border dispute with Asala. At present, there was no one in the imperial family to lead the empire.
Once he fell ill, the Emperor refused to see anyone for some unknown reason and only accepted the Empress's care. Rumors spread that he had gone mad with frenzy, endlessly calling out someone's name.
A full month after the Crown Prince's departure, the Empress Kallista, who had come from a foreign land, became the true power behind the Pheneios Empire.
Kallista was governing the empire alongside the Turbul Ducal House, whom the Crown Prince had designated as regent. Naturally, the Empress was treated almost as an equal to the Emperor. But this had nothing to do with Daphne.
By some stroke of fortune, the Emperor who had lusted after her was now too sick to cause her any more harm. The creeping threat had vanished, allowing her to become an ordinary maidservant.
Though she had earned a bit of resentment.
“You, clean the stove today.”
In the Imperial Palace, regular servants had fixed duties. Daphne, however, was the exception. She was always assigned the dirtiest jobs.
Had her tasks been as routine as before, she might have found some peace of mind, but the constant changes made it exhausting.
Daphne coughed as she scrubbed the soot-covered stove. Normally, small children handled stove cleaning, but Daphne received “special treatment.”
Naturally, she was also forbidden from leaving the palace. The one small mercy was that her days off were guaranteed.
She was exhausted, but not to the point of death, and on the surface, it even looked like she had some rest. A pittance of a wage came with it, too.
She didn’t know why they paid her, but she saved every coin diligently. People still pointed fingers and shunned her, but it wasn’t as bad as before.
Olga, whom she occasionally ran into, just glared at her—likely due to the infertility drug. Daphne knew why she was stuck with all the grunt work.
Olga was close to the head maid. Whatever she had said had put Daphne in the head maid’s bad books.
“Daphne, eat this.”
The one bright spot amid the drudgery was Sara. Sara would bring her bread now and then after outings.
Lately assigned to kitchen cleaning, Sara brought desserts meant only for senior maids and shared them willingly.
It was a long-lasting reward for the nice dress she’d given. In return, Daphne planned to buy her a gift with her jingling coins.
That was when she approached Sara’s lodging.
“Why do you keep being so nice to her?”
She overheard Amanda grumbling.
“Sara. Why are you so nice? You don’t have to. She’s…….”
“Amanda, I’m fine.”
“…….”
“This is the best it’s ever been, and I’m fine.”
“…….”
“And, she’s pitiful.”
Hearing Sara’s voice, Daphne’s smile faded.
“You’re something else. Does feeding that pitiful thing make you happy? Do you think of her as a friend?”
“Amanda, do I really need to answer that?”
Not a close friend, but a pitiful girl. Someone worthy of pity.
She was a person starved for even that pity. Yet why did her heart feel so empty?
Her already shrunken heart crumbled further. Daphne leaned against the wall and looked up at the sky. She couldn’t breathe. It felt like she was suffocating to death.
There had been a day when guilt over Fabian made her tremble. But time had dulled that guilt. She’d considered ending her life, but right before she could, Asherad’s threats flashed in her mind, stopping her.
For Fabian’s family. Was that still a valid reason now, as she gradually forgot him?
Staring at the wrists she couldn’t bring herself to cut, Daphne thought. She wanted to be happy. A pathetic hope that maybe, someday, she could be……
News of Asherad trickled in sporadically. He kept sending victory reports. He occasionally sent spoils to the imperial family, but nothing for Daphne.
Of course. She knew the answer.
Daphne simply wasn’t the kind of person he’d give such things to. She’d been discarded. Yes, that was exactly right. Asherad had just wanted to trample her, to sate his lust.
Yes, that had been the most effective way.
Daphne realized her situation anew. She had been Asherad’s pet. Now, she was just an abandoned dog.
On a verdant summer day, Daphne walked in the garden.
Three years had passed. She was one year past twenty, older, and her sense of self had worn thin.
Golden sunlight beautifully illuminated the green trees. Looking up at the sky out of habit, something plopped onto her forehead. A raindrop.
The sun shone beautifully, yet the rain fell relentlessly.
Standing in that rain, Daphne thought of the man who had chased after her that day. The man who had pursued her despite her being beaten by Kallista and fleeing in terror.
It was a cold autumn rain, just like then. The pounding drops drummed against glossy leaves. Closing her eyes in the downpour, Daphne admitted it.
Though she hated to, time had wearied even her hatred, leaving just one emotion behind.
She realized her own patheticness anew. Daphne’s heart was still bound to Asherad. She still loved that man from back then.
She couldn’t forget his bright smile. She would never forget him amid this fox rain.
Tears or rain—she didn’t know which—streamed down Daphne’s upturned face. Her black maid uniform soaked through as she foolishly gazed at the sky.
Having recognized her feelings for him, Daphne thought.
This isn’t normal.
Run away.
I want to run.
I have to run.
It was because she’d been tamed like a dog, left with only a submissive self. Asherad wouldn’t care about someone like her anymore. That thought tormented Daphne.
Like an abandoned dog.
His interests had clearly shifted elsewhere.
Daphne had been punished enough. She wanted no more lingering attachment to this love.
She would leave everything behind and get out of this place.
She wanted to die. Yet more than anyone, she wanted to live.
Smiling happily, as her mother had wished on her deathbed, as Fabian had hoped. That was Daphne’s greed.
She wanted to escape this prison-like Imperial Palace. Otherwise, she’d be no different from a dog waiting for its master.
Daphne didn’t want to keep waiting for him.
“Sara, I have a favor to ask.”
So for the first and last time, Daphne asked her “friend” for help. She didn’t know how it would end, but for freedom. That was what she hoped for.
Sara hesitated, then helped her. It felt like exploiting her pity and kindness, but……
Daphne was that desperate.
The day Asherad returned in triumph, Daphne chose to flee. Never dreaming he would catch her.
The moment he’d entered in victory, Asherad had known she would run, tracked her to the inn, bribed the owner, and waited in advance.
Only then did Daphne realize.
Whether three years prior or after, Asherad had no intention of letting her go.
* * *
And now, she returned to reality.
Daphne gazed at Asherad. The man’s breathing was so quiet as he slept peacefully. She blankly recalled the past.
Perhaps because she’d half-resigned herself somewhere along the way, she didn’t despair at being caught again.
Emotions had strangely revived upon their reunion, but the moment she felt powerless, they rapidly drained away.
She didn’t know why. Maybe she’d already gone mad.
Daphne let out a hollow laugh.
What happened to Sara? She knew she was dead. She wanted to at least retrieve her body.
She was still living in that squalid room, her routine unchanged. In that ambiguity, they continued their physical relations once more.
I want to run.
But it’s impossible.
Suppressing the urge, Daphne rose from the bed. She threw on some clothes haphazardly. Asherad slept deeply. This was a first.
Daphne tiptoed out of the room.
She knew she couldn’t leave the Imperial Palace. She just…… wanted to get away from him. He always left her sleeping after they slept together.
Even after becoming Emperor, Asherad did the same. She recalled her wretched past. Her mother’s scandal, being forced into the palace by the Emperor. Fabian, Asherad.
The faintly innocent days were long gone, leaving only a woman who had accepted everything.
The cold dawn air chilled her body. Daphne clutched her clothes tighter and returned to her dingy room. That filthy place even Asherad avoided, where she sought solace like in a coffin.