WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Malfoid

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Fragments of Thorns and a Cradle ◈

Chapter 29

──────

Content Warning: sexual exploitation and slavery.

On the morning of the banquet, Henrietta bit her lip anxiously. The curtains ordered from the workshop had not arrived. After taking charge of the banquet that the female slave had prepared and replacing most of Marie's work, Henrietta had barely slept for days.

Because Lucrezia had entrusted it to her, she wanted to do far better than a slave like Marie. She wanted to fill the banquet with only more elegant and precious things. So she replaced every item used for the banquet and ordered even the smallest ornaments from the kingdom's most celebrated artisans.

"Marchioness, the curtains have not arrived yet. What should we do?"

One of the ladies helping her asked worriedly. Henrietta immediately turned to the window. The curtains meant to hang beside the family banner had not come.

"How long until the banquet begins?"

"A little over two hours."

Cold sweat ran down her. Below the stairs, maids and attendants moved busily, decorating tables. The windows remained bare. The family banner had not been hung either, making the room feel terribly empty.

Henrietta had changed the tableware, candlesticks, potted plants, and curtains. The curtains Marie had chosen had been designed from silk Marie personally selected two years ago. They had been well received, which was why they were to be used again.

When Henrietta heard Marie had spent five years sewing the banners by hand, making each one like a crafted work, she had wanted to replace the curtains and banners above all else.

"If no one comes from the workshop in an hour, would it not be better to hang the curtains and banners Marie made again?"

Lady Doljea asked carefully. Henrietta did not answer and looked down at the maids and attendants below.

Marie's curtains had been burned. Henrietta had torn up and discarded all the banners. They could not be hung.

She had heard that all the curtains decorating the banquet hall had been selected by Marie. Except for the winter velvet curtains, Henrietta had torn up and burned them all. She could not bear to look at things cultivated and tended by the marquess's slave.

"In truth, the curtains Marie made herself were made for banquets, so they are perfect for an occasion like today. Whatever else you changed, there was no need to replace those..."

"You must really want to defend that girl."

Henrietta turned with a twisted face. Lady Doljea flinched. Henrietta stared at her, then abruptly looked away. Marie. The women who had worked with that slave gathered together and did nothing but chatter, "Marie, Marie."

It might have been troublesome to begin the banquet preparations again when more than half had been finished. Henrietta understood that. But once she had taken charge, should they not follow the instructions of the person responsible?

'Still, they know my mood has soured. Why do they speak of that girl in front of me?'

Henrietta restrained the rage boiling within her. She had heard Lady Doljea acted like Marie's hands and feet. However low-ranking a noblewoman she was, how laughable that a daughter of nobility would serve a mere slave as if she were a mistress.

She knew without them saying it. The things she had chosen were worse than what Marie had chosen. Though every item was expensive and fine, they did not harmonize.

Even the dress she wore seemed shabby and unattractive. It had been ordered a month ago and made from the finest silk.

Marie would likely be more beautiful than Henrietta even in rags. Naturally, Henrietta could not surpass her in beauty. She steadied her breathing, trying to calm the heat of inferiority rising in her face.

'Of course. She must play the marquess's whore because she is pretty enough.'

❖ ❖ ❖

In the end, the curtains did not arrive on time. If Lady Blovens had not rushed to her own castle to fetch the curtains she had ordered for the previous summer, the banquet would have gone on without any.

Lianna de Doljea could not help thinking of Marie. As the wife of a knight, she knew how inconvenient female slaves could be. It was fortunate if one could simply live with them distantly. There were women like Henrietta, who could not rest until they had devoured them.

But Henrietta had choices. Though Kailak had a system of concubinage, concubines were not taken for granted among all nobles. It was limited and restricted. Henrietta could have chosen as Lianna had.

Lianna looked at Henrietta's displeased face as she examined the dark gray curtains Lady Blovens had barely managed to bring. Contrary to appearances, Henrietta had an irresponsible, childish side.

Before marrying the marquess, Lianna had thought Henrietta had sufficient character and patience to suit the title of marchioness. She had thought that a woman who enjoyed more than others and possessed precious things would have deep character and consideration.

'This will not be easy.'

'Pardon?'

'Lady Nestro.'

Two days before the marquess married Henrietta, Lady Blovens had spoken coldly to Lianna.

'The good days are over for us too.'

'Lady Blovens.'

'Do you think Henrietta has what it takes to be marchioness?'

'You should not say such things...'

'Of course you do not think so.'

'We cannot know. Lady Lucrezia will surely...'

'It was the marquess who chose her himself. It was also the marquess who insisted on bringing her to San Arzok, despite his mother's opposition.'

'He must cherish Lady Nestro very much.'

'My.'

Sylvia had looked back at Lianna in surprise, as though asking why she pretended not to know. Lianna had turned away and bitten her lip. She knew it too. The marquess had only Marie. Conflict with the woman who became marchioness was inevitable.

When their season of youthful infatuation ended, knights sought daughters from respectable homes. Female slaves were often abandoned or driven out in the process. Unlike noble maidens, they had nowhere to go. The most tragic end was marrying the men who bought nights at brothels.

Otherwise, female slaves lived as quietly as dead mice. Rather than being driven away, they became ghosts of the castle. They became people who had never existed, shadows remaining in the castle. If their masters felt like visiting them at times, it would not be as it had been before.

That was Marie's life. Lianna sometimes pitied Marie. No, she pitied her terribly. So much that she wished the marquess would never marry.

But he could not remain unmarried forever. Lucrezia and the council of elders would not allow it. For such a great noble, even postponing it this long might have taken courage.

Feeling pity for Marie made Lianna pity the female slave in her own husband's household at Doljea Castle. That was why she had turned a blind eye when the girl carried on an affair with an attendant. Lianna thought how lonely she must have been.

But Henrietta was not like Lianna. She did not have to be, but was there any reason for a woman raised to the position of marchioness to spend every day grinding her teeth in inferiority over a mere female slave? Sylvia's words came to her again.

'It will not be easy. Not for us either.'

'It is not good to think only pessimistically about the future.'

'Must you experience it before you know?'

'What makes you so certain?'

'Who knows.'

Sylvia had answered vaguely. Lianna did not press further. Yes, it would not be easy. Not merely because the marquess loved Marie too much, but because Henrietta's shallow, selfish character would surely provoke the marquess's temper.

But Lianna had not known it would become so exhausting this quickly. Four days before her mother-in-law's birthday banquet, Henrietta stopped everything the previous mistress had done. She sent back the southern ingredients and prized fish prepared for the food. She even sent away the chefs requested from House Durak for Lucrezia, who had been born in the capital.

She replaced everything Marie had prepared, from tableware to vases. She had even burned the family banners because they bore Marie's touch. It was impossible unless she had gone mad with jealousy.

With only four days remaining, of course the noblewomen working under her would not welcome her. Who did she think she was? Like them, she was born the daughter of a low-ranking knight. Until recently, she had smiled brightly and spoken to them as though they were sisters.

Naturally, in appearance she could not compare to Marie, who was called the most beautiful lily in San Arzok.

'Then again, if Marie is the standard, very few women would survive comparison.'

In any case, Henrietta was a reasonably pretty young lady.

Since her girlhood, she had lived in the capital where her maternal family resided, making her prouder than her position warranted. She acted polite and flawless until she thought someone had less than she did. Then she openly disregarded them.

Proud women were common in society. One could pretend not to notice their subtle insults and boasts. But Henrietta had a more twisted inner nature than the women Lianna had known.

It took only a few encounters to see how much of a mess lay beneath the surface and how little refinement she possessed. Lianna felt wretched at the thought of having to serve such a woman and worried about Marie.

'Marie worries me.'

Lianna said this while twirling her parasol. Sylvia did not answer, but seemed to acknowledge that the days when Marie led them had been better. Marie had character as excellent as any noble young lady.

If only she had been born a noble. If she had had a good mother and father, and been the daughter of a family noble and modest enough for the marquess to take as his wife, they would have tried somehow to make her marchioness.

Unfortunately, Marie was too low in rank even to be considered.

'Let us worry about ourselves.'

Sylvia answered with a sigh. Lianna said nothing more. They had at least one layer of protection. But Marie had nothing but the love of a capricious master.

"Lady Blovens."

"Yes?"

"Will Marie be attending today?"

"Who knows."

Coming back from her thoughts, Lianna asked Sylvia. As the castle gates opened and people began to fill the banquet hall, she had thought of Marie. Sylvia shook her head. Henrietta had already gone downstairs with the other noblewomen to receive the guests.

Lianna sighed at the Gwendel family banner that had been hurriedly arranged. It looked precarious, as though they had pulled out a banner used fifty years ago. The family's coat of arms had changed through marriages over those fifty years.

'How can she smile as if this is all right?'

If Lianna had been the mistress preparing this banquet, she would have been breaking into a cold sweat, not smiling. It was not Henrietta's own birthday, but a birthday celebration for her mother-in-law. It was her first event after marriage, a chance to display the mistress's manners and competence.

"If you do not want people saying you are worse than a mere female slave, do not act like such an idiot."

Lianna was sick of it. She turned around to find Marie.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried