Chapter 05
Maia was standing at a crossroads of desperation.
Should she put that glossy, juicy steak in her mouth, or not?
…Isn’t this just too much?
Maia suppressed the overwhelming urge to tear her hair out.
“Take it away.”
She barely managed to squeeze those words out with her eyes tightly shut.
“His Grace has ordered that the Duchess must eat. I apologize.”
The maid standing politely in front of her answered in an unchanging tone.
In other words, she was to be tortured by the sight of that untouched, unreachable steak—like a picture of food she couldn’t eat—until evening.
That wicked Lucas Western!
Maia cursed inwardly with words she had never even dared to utter before.
With bloodshot eyes, she glared at the luxurious lunch set before her.
The steak, glistening with oil, looked especially thick today.
Beside it were beautifully grilled asparagus and other garnishes, pasta rich with fragrant herbs, and golden bread roasted in butter.
Her stomach, beyond just hungry, now ached. Maia grimaced and turned her head away.
It had been a full two days since she declared she would go on a hunger strike.
After fasting for two straight days, her patience had nearly reached its limit.
Ah. Was I always this weak-willed?
The constant gurgling of her stomach wasn’t just painful anymore—it was humiliating.
And with the maids who brought her meal still standing firmly before her, refusing to leave under the Duke’s command, the hunger mixed with shame only made her suffering worse.
Of all the things a person could endure, playing with food was the most infuriating.
To torment someone this maliciously—Lucas Western was surely going to hell.
Maia threw the book she had been pretending to read and leapt up from her bed.
“Duchess…?”
She commanded the startled maid who looked at her in surprise.
“I’m going out for a walk. Have this all cleared away before I return.”
“Wait, please…!”
Ignoring the maid’s protest, Maia stormed out of the bedroom.
“Ugh, it’s cold.”
Maybe it was because of her empty stomach, but the air inside the Duke’s mansion felt even colder than usual, sending chills through her entire body.
Maia shrank into herself. In her hurry to escape, she hadn’t even grabbed a shawl and was still in her nightgown.
“…Where should I go?”
She had stepped out, but there was really no place in this vast—no, sprawling—mansion where she could feel at ease.
That fact hit her harder than usual today.
Maia slowly turned her steps.
There was really only one place she could go.
The former Duchess’s bedroom.
It was an incredibly uncomfortable place for Maia to enter, as the current Duchess.
However, it was the one sanctuary in the Duke’s residence where the servants did not dare intrude freely.
And thanks to regular upkeep, the room still looked as if someone lived there.
Besides, going out to the garden in this attire was a mad idea to begin with.
She had no other choice.
Maia reluctantly made her way to the former Duchess’s chamber.
A heavy fog hung in the sky outside.
As a result, the path to the west annex—where the former Duchess’s bedroom was located—was shadowed in eerie gloom.
A fluttering white hem swept down the corridor.
If anyone had passed by, they might’ve mistaken the scene for a ghost.
“It’s cold.”
The white garment was merely a nightgown, and its silent wearer was none other than the Duchess of this castle.
Without making a sound, Maia quietly walked down the corridor and soon arrived in front of the room.
She felt a strange pressure, and a nervous tension crept up on her.
Carefully, Maia pushed the door open. The enormous door swung silently on its hinges.
Beyond the majestic entrance, engraved with the Western family crest, was a bed draped in heavy lead-colored curtains like a blue sea.
She had seen this sight dozens of times, yet—
“It’s so lavish…”
A princess by birth and someone like me… we really are different from the start.
The room was filled with furniture and wallpaper. Her personal belongings still remained in places, untouched.
Everything was drastically different from Maia.
She herself preferred bright colors.
In her room, she had lilac curtains, ivory wallpaper, and warm wooden furniture.
But the former Duchess, despite her dazzling beauty, seemed to favor dark tones.
Navy curtains, deep blue bedding, and furniture of black and gold.
Everything her eyes landed on breathed a suffocating, solemn magnificence.
Maia shook her head and sat on a small chair.
She doubted the maid would actually remove the food as instructed. So she’d have to hole up here for a while.
Even though she had no lingering feelings, the fact that her husband’s dead former wife’s room was the only place she could breathe freely filled her with bitter regret.
Just then—
Click.
She heard the quiet sound of the door opening.
“…Oh no.”
And as Maia’s eyes met the one who entered, she barely managed to stifle a scream.
“Head maid.”
She called out in a low voice, already having risen from her chair.
The woman, still young in appearance to be called the head maid, gazed coldly at Maia.
Maia bit her lip and forced her expression into one of indifference.
Why, of all people, did the head maid have to show up?
“I didn’t expect to find you here, my lady.”
Her voice was sharp and elegant.
“…I had my reasons. And you? Why are you here?”
“I visit this place often.”
The head maid turned her head and looked around the room as if rediscovering it.
The moment she entered, the quiet air of the room turned suffocating and rigid.
Maia scowled and stepped forward.
She’d rather go back and be tortured by inedible food than stay a moment longer with this woman.
“Well then. I’ll be going.”
She mumbled hastily and walked past the head maid.
She had just placed her hand on the doorknob—
“Lady Mary Hauer has returned to the kitchen after completing her husband’s funeral.”
Maia slowly turned her head back.
The head maid was staring at her.
“I only mentioned it so that you’re aware—we wouldn’t want a corpse of someone who starved to death removed from the manor, after all.”
She just had to add an insult at the end.
With a pale face, Maia flung the door wide open.
Cool air rushed in as if to sweep out the stifling air of the dark room.
Finally, she felt like she could breathe again.
Maia turned around, plastering a dazzling smile across her face.
“You’re right. It would be awfully unlucky for the Duke’s estate to have to remove a dead Duchess’s body twice. I hadn’t realized how deeply you cared for the well-being of House Western. How touching.”
Her voice flowed like a breeze, light and elegant.
The head maid’s iron expression twisted into a wreck.
Maia smiled even more brightly.
The flicker of hatred in the head maid’s trembling gaze was anything but mild.
Maia glanced at her face, then stepped out of the room.
“My lady!”
“It’s been a while, Mary.”
A woman with streaks of silver in her blond hair, tied up neatly, called out warmly from afar when she spotted Maia.
Maia smiled back and took the woman’s wrinkled hands.
“You look so worn. You should have taken more time to rest.”
“No, I can’t do that. I’ve still got a youngest son to marry off. I have to work hard while I still can. And you, my lady? Are you doing well? Is that head maid still bothering you…?”
“Shh, what if the maids hear you.”
The kind-faced woman, Mary Hauer, let out a hearty laugh.
“What’s the big deal about dealing with a weak little wench? I only regret not being by your side these past two months. The arrogance of those maids, I can only imagine.”
Maia gave her a vague smile, unable to bring herself to say that she had decided to divorce Duke Western.
Mary Hauer, the head of the kitchen staff, was the only servant in the estate who treated Maia with proper respect.
Even if she had fallen from grace, a noble was still a noble.
Most of the maids, despite being of poorer, lower-ranking noble blood, looked down on Maia—who came from a wealthier middle-class background—using her status as an excuse not to accept her as their mistress.
But perhaps due to shared hardship, Mary, a commoner, openly despised those maids’ behavior and became Maia’s only source of support within the mansion.
At any rate, this woman still believed Maia was the perfect Duchess of House Western.
