Medieval Decay
Several hands gently caressed a woman's body.
From head to toe, the noblewoman received faithful service from the maids as they changed her chemise.
She issued no orders. The countess's lady-in-waiting spoke on her behalf.
“Everyone's grown slack lately. Haven't been beaten, I suppose.”
The sharp voice of the lady-in-waiting did not reflect her own mood. Instead, it signaled the countess's displeasure, like a bell tolling in a nearby temple when danger approaches.
The maids swallowed hard and moved even faster.
After they removed the water and towels, they gathered the chemise that had scattered from the woman's body like fallen leaves. Not a single footstep or breath could be heard.
Meanwhile, the servants who had stepped back advanced once more. They dressed the woman.
The lady-in-waiting examined the countess's attire completely, then carefully hung each piece of jewelry around her neck before stepping back.
“Shall we finish as is, my lady?”
The lady-in-waiting asked, and the woman nodded.
“Splendid.”
As the lady-in-waiting spoke, the woman completed her transformation into a noblewoman.
Gisela Spoot rose from her seat and left the bedroom slowly, accompanied by the lady-in-waiting. The sound of the lady-in-waiting summoning the maids to tidy the wardrobe drifted faintly from behind her.
Passing through the antechamber directly connected to the bedroom, she emerged into the corridor and halted to gaze at the dazzling morning sunlight.
The servants following her stopped at the exact same instant, silently, mirroring her movement.
“That woman.”
The countess did not name her, yet the lady-in-waiting understood.
“Yes, my lady.”
“She was eight years older than me, wasn't she?”
The lady-in-waiting lowered her head without answering.
The countess gazed at the garden bathed in sunlight. The light falling on Serpine felt unusually harsh, as if sensing that the saintess had overheard.
“She truly is a beautiful woman, isn't she?”
“……”
“She ought to be shining majestically atop the Mount of Light. To see her sullied by this earthly world, how would Gerka feel?”
The countess spoke while gazing at the garden.
The garden was a rectangular central courtyard enclosed by walls. The ceiling was open, so light came only from above. It suited the residence of a noblewoman.
Many people's care went into that garden. The gardener was a man, so with the countess's lady-in-waiting's permission, he and a maid under the lady-in-waiting's orders entered briefly, completed the necessary tasks, and departed.
Apart from them, the garden was tended by the maids, servants, and often with the countess's own hands.
The very essence of the garden was that without human touch, it could not exist in such quiet elegance even for a single moment.
Thus the garden resembled the countess. And the saintess resembled the sunlight, not the garden. It was open and free.
She wore clothes that were worn down to the point of falling apart, yet she smelled like a lily dried in the sunlight.
The countess recalled the gaze her husband had once directed at the saintess. It was the only gaze she had never received from him since they met.
She knew her husband and the saintess had been betrothed, but she had no way of knowing what emotions they truly felt for each other.
Back then, the saintess had been nothing more than a young girl when the king’s daughter. Moreover, she was not a person from Morihan.
If she had been a maternal relative of equal status in this region’s powerful family, it would have been easy to obtain information. She could simply summon an elderly kinswoman and listen in detail to the story of that time.
But she had come from beyond the Mount of Light. As someone from the imperial ducal family, learning every detail about her eleven-year-older husband’s former betrothal would have been impossible.
Yet this was the Serpine Count’s residence, the cradle of the Serpine family connected to the ducal palace.
“Tell Colombe I want her to see my embroidery.”
Colombe was the countess’s nurse. The count had been raised by the nurse’s milk, not his mother-in-law. When he first walked, when he burned with fever, or when he caused some woman trouble, the nurse had always stood beside him, supporting, caring, and guiding him.
The lady-in-waiting understood the countess’s words. Asking Colombe to see the embroidery was not a literal request for embroidery but a veiled command to summon the countess’s nurse to the “embroidery room,” a secret place within the countess’s own residence.
Throughout breakfast, the countess’s incessant flirting left her feeling frustrated.
Ah, men of the Middle Ages!
Today, my hatred for medieval men accumulated to one. An insane fool is flirting shamelessly right in front of his wife!
Well, the count was a typical medieval man, but Petia was truly peculiar.
The Petia I knew was harmless, oblivious, the “she’s a good girl” type. But the Petia in front of the count was not.
She acted politically. She knew the count was completely smitten with her and pretended not to notice while cleverly using it to her advantage.
It surprised me anew that Petia could behave this way, so I kept glancing at her. Suddenly a complaining voice came from beside me.
“Eat. You’re staring too obviously.”
Kek.
I quickly tore off a piece of bread and put it in my mouth.
“Anyone noticed?”
“Definitely. Look at that snake brat next to you.”
I glanced over and saw the second son looking at me with disbelief. Or rather, I was the one completely bewildered.
“He’s not eating because he’s watching you either.”
Then Damien clicked his tongue and gave me a serious look.
“Do you want me to treat you the same as those northern bastards?” The priests of Demia’s temple, including Anselm, all wore expressions of contempt toward me. They had forgotten that I was a northern girl, the daughter of Danier.
I remained silent and continued eating without mentioning it.
Compared to the countess’s husband who schemed in every way, she was very quiet.
Dining gracefully was like a painting. I pretended to wipe my mouth and quickly cast my Status Window.
[ Gisela Spoot ]
Spoot?
I didn’t know the name, but it didn’t feel unfamiliar. Where had I heard it?
I searched the Status Window thoroughly until I understood where.
[ Born third to Duke Inbert II Spoot and Adelwhite Merden ]
The Spoot ducal family…
Ah, now it clicked.
The Spoot ducal family belonged to the empire. In this age, while most were not fully imperial subjects, they were at least tied to the empire. This medieval world was truly one where “neither friends nor foes are eternal.”
Even the Spoot family was like that. The Spoot ducal house held a different position from the Serpines. Their ducal title could be confiscated at any time by the emperor.
Unlike Serpine, which had refused to meet the king’s envoy because it was beneath them to request troops with documents instead of the king coming personally.
Serpine was a count, Spoot a duke, but in terms of power balance, Serpine was clearly stronger.
Moreover, Spoot had sent her own daughter to marry into Serpine. Who would have arranged it? Naturally, the emperor.
By sending his own daughter to marry into Serpine, the emperor showed that “Serpine stands behind me,” preventing the emperor from wielding him as he pleased.
Of course, this was possible because Serpine had also needed to form external alliances.
The king despised Hamilcar. But he was angry with Serpine. Unlike Hamilcar, Serpine was stronger than the king.
The Serpine count had constantly clashed with the royal family, and the king wanted to devour him.
Serpine was stronger than the king, but the king held moral superiority.
If the king created a frame to imprison Serpine and established a moral justification for punishment, Serpine would have no choice but to submit. Lord would have no choice but to obey a clear royal order. There was no room for argument.
However, a frame had to be erected across the entire board. In other words, as the board grew larger, it became harder to establish a frame.
Serpine had grown the board by pulling in the Amein Empire, making it harder for the king to set a frame while checking the king’s power.
Originally, noblewomen like the countess were entrusted with this role. That was why Gisela’s name still carried the “Spoot” in it.
She could not simply be a Serpine. She had to exist as a Spoot, proving the union between Spoot and Serpine while standing in Serpine.
After breakfast, I headed to the workshop.
To buy clothes suitable for Petia, of course a custom fit, but considering the heir’s wedding was in two days, I would have to buy ready-made and alter it for her.
Fortunately, thanks to the steward’s reservation in the count’s name, we could enter the most famous workshop in the city right away.
Clearly someone who had been pushed aside by the count’s name…
“I made the reservation first!”
There she was.
The moment I stepped down from the carriage, I saw the victim pushed aside by the count aggressively protesting in front of the workshop.
“Miss, I must remind you again, this is a reservation by the Serpine family.”
“What does that mean? I also have a reservation from the Serpine family! Don’t you know who I am? When that person marries, my status will change! I, Serpine’s—”
“Miss!”
A woman confronting the lady called her sternly. Then she glanced around and met my eyes.
She bowed her head with a face full of despair and quickly whispered something to the woman. The woman turned to me sharply. Her brown eyes burned with enmity.
At that moment, I had already called the woman’s Status Window.
[ In a romantic relationship with Amori Serpine ]
Amori Serpine was the name of the Serpine heir. The man who would walk atop the Chador in two days and be perfectly confirmed as the heir in the god’s halo that even the king had never experienced.
[ Currently pregnant with Amori Serpine’s child ]
Hah. It was so absurd that laughter burst out. The medieval world truly never ended.