Breaking the Cage (6)
A way back ago, when Larissa used to live in a different cage and flower bed, there was someone she relied wholeheartedly on. Someone who supported her like an unyielding fortress whenever she felt weak and low.
Her salvation, her abyss.
But now, that person had completely become her abyss.
Larissa spent the night stroking her beloved daughter steadily. Deep inside, she crumbled, thinking about a woman she once loved—the one she ever loved—but whom she shouldn’t brood over.
The palace was seized, several nobles were arrested, and the revolutionaries took control of Parliament.
The King, Queen and their children were imprisoned in their quarters and awaited their trial by Parliament–becoming an unprecedented history.
An order was issued for the Kingdom’s army in the near border, who were engaging in attrition warfare, to return promptly.
Houses of loyalists were set ablaze, not only in the cities but also in rural areas. Political prisoners who had been imprisoned for opposing the royalists were released with some of them returned home and some of them headed straight to the Parliament.
Yet, those events, for a certain woman who had spent the night with wide eyes locked in her guest room, seemed like only tales from a faraway place.
To begin with, Larissa had no idea about what was happening in the outside world. No one taught her and she never asked. After all, who would she ask in the first place?
She recalled the immense–so immense it crushed her–hostility she got from last night. Among them were not only outrageous, lewd stares but also pure malice toward her.
Simply because she was a noble, because of her delicate and white hands that seemed untouched by a single drop of water.
Although trembling with fear, her daughter was eventually able to drift into a peaceful sleep. She laid Paulina on the bed and, to ensure the child wouldn’t get cold, covered her with the military jacket that wrapped around Larissa’s body before.
It felt strange, to wrap her own child in clothes imbued with the warmth of her past love.
Larisa absentmindedly fiddled with the jacket, but as if bitten by a snake, quickly withdrew her hand. Guilt suffocated her.
‘At least to you, I am a dreadful disaster that should not be approached.’
Sleep was far from coming. Her husband was taken away before her eyes, she narrowly escaped being plundered, and amidst chaos, she had an unexpected reunion with her long-lost first love. Through the night Larissa remained awake easily.
Before she knew it, morning had already come.
Someone knocked on the door and entered without waiting for Larissa’s response. She had no energy to even lash at the audacity to barge in without permission.
As the Duchess, she retained her poise and looked coldly. The person in question was the dark-haired woman who had walked alongside Scarlet yesterday.
“It’s breakfast,” announced the woman calmly, neither rude nor friendly, neither polite nor impolite. Upon closer inspection, she was carrying a tray.
Under Larissa’s watch, the woman placed the tray on the table in the center of the room then removed the cloth covering the dishes on the tray. A pleasant aroma wafted through the air. Larissa’s eyes sharpened.
“Commander Scarlet personally ordered for it to be prepared, so our comrades made it this morning. Please enjoy,” explained the black-haired woman named Edith; though Larissa didn’t know–and didn’t want to–Edith’s name.
Skeptical written on Larissa’s face. Receiving the wary gaze, Edith readily elaborated. “The Commander said if she wanted to kill you, there are many ways to do it without messing up your food. So, you can eat with peace of mind.”
‘Wow, that’s truly reassuring,’ Larissa thought sarcastically. She kept silent while observing.
As if on cue, Paulina stirred–tossing and turning–as she opened her eyes; perhaps because she heard voices or caught a whiff of the food smell. As soon as she discovered the food, her big eyes widened with delight.
“Woah! It’s breakfast!”
Looks like Paulina was hungry from crying last night.
MoonStar 
Leave a comment