Chapter 11
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 11
From that day forward, Thalia could hardly stomach a single bite. She simply couldn’t trust what might be lurking beneath the surface of her meals.
Her nanny, met with nothing but silence, grew increasingly irritable. She dismissed Thalia’s refusal to eat as nothing more than a child’s petulance. Without a word of explanation, Thalia survived on the meager portions of fruit and honey the nanny brought as snacks.
Solitude and loneliness were no longer her primary concerns. In the most opulent palace in the world, surrounded by unimaginable wealth, she was fighting a desperate battle against starvation.
On the days when the hunger became unbearable, she would reluctantly touch the food the servants left behind. But without fail, she would find insects, dead rats, or clumps of matted hair of unknown origin hidden within the dishes.
After enduring this several times, she reached a point where she couldn’t bring herself to put anything in her mouth. Within a few weeks, she had wasted away into a pitiful shadow of her former self.
By then, even the dull-witted nanny realized something was terribly wrong. She rushed to the Empress, making a frantic scene and wailing that her only daughter was on the brink of death.
Thanks to that, Thalia finally saw her mother’s face for the first time in months.
“How did you end up in such a wretched state?”
Those were the first words from Senevia, who had acted as if she had completely forgotten her daughter’s existence. Thalia’s eyes welled with tears as she looked at her mother. Senevia bloomed with the vitality of a summer flower, a stark, cruel contrast to Thalia’s own ruined appearance. Seeing that face—so clear it seemed almost innocent—a surge of resentment rose within her.
Thalia had intended to be angry. She had planned to scream, to demand how her mother could be so selfish. But the moment she opened her mouth, only agonizing sobs burst forth.
Wailing like an infant, Thalia poured out everything. She confessed every detail, from the horrific atrocities committed by the servants of the Annex Palace to the cruelties she had been forced to endure. Until the story ended, Senevia sat by the bed and listened in silence.
Thalia believed her mother was silent because she was suppressing her rage—that she was speechless at the terrible things her only daughter had suffered.
Trembling, Thalia shook her mother’s arm, desperate for an answer.
“Mother! Please, make them stop hurting me! You have to do something right now so no one can ever harm me again!”
“And why, exactly, should I do that?” Senevia asked, tilting her head.
Thalia froze, stunned by the response. Senevia’s face held nothing but pure curiosity. She looked as if she truly could not comprehend why a young child, exhausted by abuse, would seek her help.
“Thalia, this palace is yours, and the servants of this castle are your property. You are nine years old now. How can you throw a tantrum to your mother just because you cannot manage your own things?”
Thalia was rendered completely speechless.
Senevia cupped Thalia’s cheek with one hand and let out a sigh of genuine disappointment.
“You are the daughter of the Emperor. I truly cannot understand why you allow yourself to be victimized by such insignificant things. It is almost embarrassing that my daughter is this naive and weak.”
“M-Mother…”
Senevia gazed at the candlelight by the window, her expression thoughtful. Her terrifyingly beautiful face showed not a trace of anger regarding the abuse her daughter had suffered. There was only a hint of frustration—the look of someone deeply considering how to enlighten a slow-witted child.
Thalia felt as if she were facing an insect that had done a terrifyingly good job of mimicking a human form.
After being lost in thought for a long time, Senevia snapped her fingers.
“Let’s do this. I will leave a useful guard for you. He is a man I have thoroughly broken in over a very long time. If you handle him well, he will be quite useful.”
As if that solved every problem, she stood up to leave. Thalia desperately grabbed the hem of her dress.
“I don’t need someone like that! I want to be with you, Mother!”
At that desperate cry, a flicker of disdain crossed Senevia’s face. Thalia turned pale with shock. Senevia pried her daughter’s fingers off her dress one by one and leaned down toward her. She clicked her tongue in genuine pity.
“Thalia, all of this started because of me. And yet, do you know why people do not put rats in my soup?”
Thalia froze like a mouse before a snake, unable to offer any reply. Senevia continued softly.
“Why my bathwater is always warm and fragrant, why my table is always bountiful… why they would never dare to do to me what they do to you… Shall I tell you the secret?”
Her blood-red lips brushed against Thalia’s ear.
“It is because they fear me. They wouldn’t dream of doing such things. Some even feel a sense of awe toward me. Of course, there are countless others who feel hatred and contempt. But even they see me as a threat to be wary of, not a target for bullying. Because I am dangerous.”
She stared straight into her daughter’s eyes. Thalia could glimpse something dark and murky coiled within Senevia’s gaze. Senevia straightened her posture and left her final piece of advice.
“Remember this. That which is strong and beautiful becomes an object of fear and envy. But that which is beautiful and weak is destined to be plundered. Especially here in the Imperial Palace. If you do not wish to be ruthlessly trampled by the many beasts that will target you, you had better at least hide the fact that you are weak.”
With those final words, she departed, leaving her fragile daughter behind.
That night, Thalia chewed over those words again and again.
The weak are trampled. And it seemed Senevia had not the slightest intention of protecting her young daughter from being crushed.
She felt like a defeated soldier who had lost her last stronghold. Her entire body trembled with the terror that she might endure even more horrific things in the future. Even if she were treated more harshly than she was now, no one would protect her. Now that even her mother had turned away, would the Emperor ever spare a glance for an illegitimate child who was nothing more than his own disgrace?
She curled up tightly under the covers, anxiously biting her nails. The image of the servants' feet, which she had seen while retching on the dining room floor, haunted her mind. Those indifferent feet that had moved busily around her as she lay sprawled in misery… she could easily imagine those feet crushing her like a common bug.
Her eyes burned as if on fire. Her mother was right. Soon, she would be crushed into nothingness.
And she was in this situation because she had acted as if she were a sinner. Her own guilt had turned her into a victim.
The moment she began to take a helpless stance, as if she deserved whatever was done to her, they instinctively realized she would not resist. From her cowering gestures, her timid eyes, and her hesitant speech… they had discovered the mark of the weak and began to be as cruel as they pleased.
Finally, as dawn broke, Thalia realized exactly what she had to do.