Chapter 120 – A continuation of Freya’s frustration and Ruby’s wrath
Chapter 120 – A continuation of Freya’s frustration and Ruby’s wrath
The contents of the table were swept away.
The finely prepared teacups, plates, and trays with a.s.sorted refreshments were jumbled up together and haphazardly laid scattered on the gra.s.s.
We behaved like lions in the jungle, fiercely holding onto each other’s hair with a tight grip.
“What does your dissatisfaction with your mother’s eyes have to do with me?” (Ruby)
“What… what do you know about my mother! Don’t slander her!” (Freya)
You don’t even know what my mother looks like yet you insulted her first! (Ruby)
Then, a loud knocking sound simultaneously accompanied by the sound of several people shouting could be heard.
“Madam, Madam!”
“Ruby, what the h.e.l.l is going on? Ruby!”
The greenhouse was made of gla.s.s so everything could be seen from the outside even if the door could not open.
Though the scene was partly obscured by an array of colorful, southern fountains and trees, it was still apparent that there was a commotion taking place.
However, there was no time for neither Freya nor I to pay attention to the details.
“You don’t deserve any of this! Everything you have now was mine! Iz, Ellen, and everyone else has been mine from the beginning! If only you hadn’t appeared······!”
“Isn’t it because you’re like this and not because I showed up? Be honest with yourself!”
“Who are you to preach to me? I’m of a different kind to you, my mother cannot be compared to your mother! We were born gifted.” (다고나다 – be born w/, be gifted w/, be endowed w/, be inborn). ****SEE T/N Note at the bottom about Freya’s mentality
“So your perfect, flawless mother taught you it’s acceptable to brazenly spout lies to your friends?”
“My! Don’t insult my mother with that mouth!”
“You attacked my mother first! Moreover, you’re the one that’s insulting your own mother with the way you’re acting! Don’t you feel sorry? Sorry for your friends? Sorry for Ellen who has trusted you for so many years? You don’t deserve them in the first place if you don’t feel that way for Ellen, Iz, or anyone else!”
The hands that were pulling at my hair from the roots fell off.
My hands also released their grip on her hair at the same time.
The area was strewn with my dark, knotted blonde hair clumped with Freya’s pale, dull blonde hair like tumbleweeds.
“Ruby! Open this door! Ruby! Frey! Freya van Furiana! Can’t you open this door right now?”
Elenia’s command was powerful and intimidating.
Indeed, her terrifying words immediately froze the conversation.
She’s not an Omerta for no reason.
Freya made eye contact with me and glared while everyone continued to yell.
Her expression was distorted with tears unexpectedly welling up in her blurred, purple eyes.
“What are you crying about?”
“I’m not crying”.
“Then stop it! What despicable kind of acting are you going to show us now?”
“Shut up! What the h.e.l.l would someone like you know? What do you know about me or how hard I work, what can those eyes even see?
“You have no conscience, you’re the one who first preached without knowing anything about me! Whining and crying over things like this, what would you know about things you’ve never been through that are far worse?”
“…I, ha, I…!”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t live like that! I don’t know what turned a fortunate child like you into someone crooked and heartless, but at least I didn’t commit atrocious, vile acts against anyone! I only did my best to survive every day, but unlike you, I didn’t hara.s.s people to great lengths to get what I wanted!”
“Who enjoyed seeing what happened? I, too, was in pain when I saw what he did in the mirror room! Why the h.e.l.l do you always disrupt things like that? It’s beyond common sense….why does everyone change only when it comes to you? What the h.e.l.l are you to make me change too….”
(T/N: It’s probably already pretty pretty obvious, but I’ll write this anyway, when Freya says “why the h.e.l.l do you always disrupt things like that?” she’s referring to how Ruby’s hidden trauma shook whatever misconceptions she had against Ruby and made her question her understanding of the world)
Tears streamed down her cream ladened, mangled face as her voice, which had bellowed with indefinite strength, fell low. It’s a scene I couldn’t even imagine.
“When we were at the temple, did you and your uncle plan for you to ingest the magic stone and pa.s.s out?”
(T/N: Just to recap, Freya drank this in Ch 30 and the contents of the stone was explained in Ch 31 – “The Magic Stone was not just a stone, but an object that was used as a bait for summoning demons. One combined the Magic Stone, which was the core of a dead monster, with the Holy Spirit Stone.” Then it goes on to explain that it could only be used after putting human blood on it)
.
Freya, who was sniffling and wiping her face with her sleeve, shot me a look of surprise.
The question was half impulsively thrown at her but I received a ridiculous reaction in return.
“What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?”
“You’re going to pretend you don’t know? Do whatever you want. We’ll find out one way or another once we take a closer look at the Furianas-”
“I couldn’t just stop what was happening that time! Don’t make a.s.sumptions without having all the facts! As for my uncle, what he did was entirely for me and my stubbornness…”
“You’re amazing. I feel honored that you went so far as to endure the pain of vomiting blood just to get rid of me. Were you that ambitious to be a queen?”
“······.”
“It seems your uncle shares the same goal as you but your parents are oblivious to both of your intentions.”
“……one achievement is more important than a hundred-word plan.”
….떠 벌떠벌 늘어놓는 백 마디 계획보다 한 번의 달성이 중요한 법 이거든.
(T/N: I think the above means that an achievement takes priority over taking the time to explain your objectives as it could have been questioned and dampened before it could be executed. She probably thought it’s better to just do it and let people see the results after since she didn’t want to deal with any probing questions)
“So, do you think your plans will come to fruition? Does the marquis know that you’re plotting treason?”
“Don’t make it sound worse than it seems, are you threatening me right now?”
“What if I was?”
“……”
“Do you want to be a queen or do you have lingering feelings for my husband? Or is it both?”
“…….”
“Well, anyway, you’d better give up and withdraw. I don’t want you to feel sorry for me, but you should at least have the conscience to feel sorry for your friend for what you have done so far.”
“…I, I just want you….”
“Don’t you feel sorry for causing a disturbance that day? I feel sorry for your rude, younger brother for accusing me without knowing anything and being beaten by the marquis for it.”
Of course, I didn’t have any sympathy for stupid, pitiful Lorenzo, but I said so just to see if she would feel guilty.
Freya couldn’t say anything anymore.
It looked like she was lowering her head and sniffling.
It was then that the loud, thumping sound reverberated through the garden, which was in ruins at that point.
It seemed that Elenia broke the door.
After all, they (the Omertas) were wild northerners.
“How·······.”
In an instant, people poured in.
The room grew rowdy but it wasn’t long until my precious greenhouse became a silent haven once again.
The silence was too much.
I could only speculate how our childish actions, sitting on the floor all the while with clothes in disarray and scattered hair everywhere, must have looked like in everyone’s eyes.
Golden tumbleweeds were gently carried along by the subtle wind coming in from outside of the greenhouse and dispersed itselves around the audience
Growing fear flashed across the faces of the loyal escort knights.
The elderly butler mumbled and signaled something while Andymion, who didn’t even know why he was present, awkwardly rubbed his shoulders and gave an accidental squeak at the flying ma.s.ses of hair.
While the men were unexpectedly overwhelmed with fear, the Ice Princess looked much calmer in contrast. She wore an expression of shock herself but the b.l.o.o.d.y undercurrent made it seem closer to anger than fear.
“What the h.e.l.l happened here…?”
The eeriness of the question prompted the appearance of gooseb.u.mps on my forearm.
Freya was surprisingly quiet for someone who had mastered the art of crying to her advantage. She seemed frightened.
I carefully opened my mouth though I was a little scared.
“We had a bit of a fight…”
“It’s evident just from looking at the aftermath.”
“Don’t be angry ·····.”
“Why aren’t you angry right now? Look at your face, Ruby! Frey, why haven’t you responded?”
Freya’s shoulders shrank and she glared at me through her ugly, tangled mess of hair.
I also tried to open my eyes.
Elenia’s murderous aura grew bit by bit at our childish behavior that lacked any sort of reflection, but nevertheless, she continued to speak with grace.
“To the main building right now.”
***
“You are indeed Sir Izek’s wife!”
These were the words Andymion came up with all of a sudden as we left the Duke’s after I meticulously rearranged my appearance under Elenia’s grim, menacing gaze.
Admiration, that I couldn’t comprehend, was present in his clear, dazzling amber eyes.
The more I get to know him, the more fascinating he is, knowing that he’s not Izek’s son.
He had been quiet so I was worried that he might have been shaken by the scene earlier, but it was a useless worry.
“I’m sorry for showing you such an ugly side of me.”
“What do you mean ugly? Sure, it was a little scary, but the more I think about it, the more impressive the scene was. I didn’t know Madam had such a fiery personality…”
Why do you keep thinking about it?
My face was burning to the point of death.
I didn’t know that that would be the kind of impression I’d leave on the opposite s.e.x….
“Uh, if my husband or anyone else asks about what just happened to me…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll gladly keep it a secret between the two of us.”
“…what is the situation right now exactly?”
***
Similar to the last time I saw it, I visited the icy forest, which was painted all over with white now, for the second time.
I didn’t see a single gnome as Andymion and several other paladins escorted me to Rom’s cave from the entrance to the forest.
Were they hiding?
A scenery of Paladins dressed in black armor and strictly monitoring the area unfolded once we entered the area of the border.
The eyes of everyone coming from all over the place and following me around were a little embarra.s.sing, but I decided not to mind it thinking that it was only natural they would react this way.
More than that, I was bothered by a bizarre sound that grew increasingly louder as I got closer to Rom’s cave.
[Kao-O-O-O-K-O-O-O-]
“Woah, whoa, whoa, whoa!”
Finally, as I climbed the hill leading to the entrance to Rom’s cave, something solemnly crying tumbled down in front of my feet, and I almost screamed.
Andymion made a grunt instead of me.
“…Kah, Sir Camu?”
The feisty Sir Camu turned away and looked up at me.
A terrible bite glimmered in his rough, water-colored eyes.
An intense expression glimmered in his rough, water-colored eyes.
**(About Freya’s Mentality) T/N: I didn’t mean for this to be long but my brain is fried and it’s been an hour yet I don’t know how to convey this concept in English. This weirdly long explanation, that’s for some reason easier to write, includes historical perspective and will compensate for the gap…This is basically how Freya feels:
I had a hard time with the above sentence, but basically, in the wake of the financial crisis of EAsia & SEAsia in the late 90s, SK being one of the most affected (including mine!…great times :’)…oh how I miss the days of rioting and looting on a national scale to the point of military interference…..), the burgeoning, prosperous middle cla.s.s within EA & SEA basically collapsed overnight and the fall consequently exaggerated the disparity in wealth between the affluent and the poor. Because the middle cla.s.s ceased to exist, people were either incredibly wealthy or horrifyingly impoverished (RIP Hong Kong). For those who survived the fallout, their mindset was gradually ingrained with the belief they survived because they were intrinsically superior. To put it simply, the rationalization devolved into “I am still wealthy because my family and I are fundamentally better” not “I am still wealthy because I am lucky, had a.s.sistance, took hold of the window of opportunity, etc.” The idea that the essence or core of a person was either “superior” or “inferior” is an att.i.tude still prevalent TO. THIS. DAY. In SK and generally EA & SEA countries, there’s a heavy emphasis on people being strictly grouped into these two categories. Though this old age belief exists in all cultures & at any time period, there is a unique cultural att.i.tude behind the power struggle present within the dichotomy of the rich and the poor of Korea due to 1) the Korean War and 2) the lingering effects of the 97-98 financial crisis (s/o to Parasite!!!). These are not the “only” events that were impactful, they’re just two of the biggest.
In countries populated with groups of diverse ethnicities, it becomes a struggle about race, but in h.o.m.ogenous countries, it’s about the uneven distribution of resources.
What’s really interesting about these royalty romance novels (or KR novels w/ foreign settings in general) is that the author is creating the ambiance of European n.o.bility and yet when they’re trying to portray a prideful, arrogant n.o.ble, the Korean verbiage used for their dialogue carries these strong, Korean sentiments born out of generational trauma w/ undertones of SK nationalism (aka the whole of Korean citizens working together to overcome distressing historical events while also dealing with the internal strife in social issues stemming from inequality within the citizens)…. Lastly, I’m aware I sound like a koreaboo but I swear I just know a bit of EA & SEA history smh. -Le_Tired