“This is a month-long shopping list of items used in the castle.”
A servant handed over the documents to Arya. Arya nodded and said, “Well done, giving a gold coin to the servant.”
Then he went straight into his bedroom. It has always been the case for the Empress to check the purchase list alone, so the maids did not care.
Coming into the room, Arya immediately sat at the table and took out a letter from among the papers.
At first glance, the letter appeared to be a letter of thanks for using their merchant association every time. But the truth was that it was a letter from a Castroite. That was why it couldn’t be seen by anyone.
“He is so impatient.”
Arya frowned nervously while reading the letter.
After losing the war against Leipsden, the Castro Empire had to pay a huge war compensation. Under the agreement, the amount was supposed to be repaid over five years, but they were hoping that somehow they would not pay the compensation through Arya. But as long as Carl was an emperor, Arya could not use her strength as easily as before.
“So why lose the war…”
She sighed deeply. Normally, she would have torn the letter apart, but she couldn’t, because of the signature “Guardian McPauline ” written at the head of the letter.
He was a renowned Marquis in the Castro Empire. And a lover of Arya’s mother, Melina.
Melina was one of the people that were called witches. Originally, she was a daughter of a Castroite aristocrat, but after she received spirits, she was not able to stay there any longer.
She traveled from place to place regardless of the border, blessed many with songs and dances, and used her knowledge of herbs to treat those in need. Because she could not stay in one place with the fate she had received, she had to wander from place to place away from her beloved fiancé in her home country.
Then one day, after stepping on the land of the Panacio family, trouble arose.
Melina had a beautiful appearance that would fascinate anyone. It was not easy for a beautiful woman to wander from place to place, so she usually painted her face with charcoal and hid her glossy hair under a ragged cape. But a man recognized her disguise.
“A witch. I’ve never seen one before. I wonder if under that smelly cape there is a dirty face full of scars, a horrid horn like a rumor, or a divided tongue like a snake. Take off her cape. If she is going to offend my eyes, I’ll have to skin her face and put on a face that matches that sensual body, hahaha.”
It was Marquis Adeine Panacio, the Lord of the Panacio family. He wandered about the territory heavily drunk with the knights and said to Melina, who was helping the women in a brothel.
She refused to show her face, but it was useless. Soon the cape came off the hands of the haughty knights and her face was revealed.
Panacio and his knights could not shut their mouths in astonishment. Even if it was rubbed with black charcoal, her beautiful features could not be hidden. Lustful Adeine Panacio forced her into a castle and made her into a concubine.
Nearly a year after her confinement, Melina noticed that her health was deteriorating and her life was numbered. But she was worried about her newborn baby.
She sent a letter to Marquis McPauline, her real man. But it was unclear whether the letter could reach Castro.
Then she died not long after. It was when Arya was 13 months old.
Marquis Adeine Panacio did not take care of the young illegitimate child. Arya grew up under harsh conditions, being looked down upon and ignored by the maids.
As she grew older, she could not hide her beauty even at a young age because she resembled her mother. The clever girl used her face to easily win the hearts of other people and receive the things she needed to survive, so although barely, she managed to live.
It was in the year she turned thirteen that she was called in by her father, Adeine Panacio. After the Marquis’ only young daughter died, he called Arya because she wanted to take her place.
It was obvious that he was not attached to his daughter. As soon as he saw Arya, he said, “What a fierce look this little b*tch has. She looks just like her mother, who was not bad looking. I think you would be more useful than that ugly daughter who died. No matter which noble family I send you to, you’ll get a hefty dowry.”
He glanced up and down at the young girl with eyes full of perversion and greed. Arya thought that she had lived fearlessly, but in front of his eyes, she felt like she would urinate in fear.
“So, what’s your name?”
She couldn’t answer easily. When Adeine though she couldn’t speak, said angrily, “What, I thought you’d be okay because you have a pretty face, but you’re dumb. So I can only receive a prostitute’s money, not a dowry? Even if you’re pretty, if you can’t talk, you can only be useful on the bed.”
Arya replied with great astonishment at his words.
“No, it’s not that I can’t speak. I don’t have a name, so…it was because I didn’t have a name.”
Only then did Adeine nod his head with a happy face.
“Your year’s name is Arya from now on. Arya Panacio, that’s your name.”
It was the first day she received a name. Apart from the fact that the name had been owned by another girl for 13 years, she was glad to have it. That’s how she became Arya Panacio.
Unlike when she had to hide in the kitchen and search for food containers or beg for food, now she sat at a dining table and ate and got a room full of precious clothes. The maids who ignored her before now bowed their heads.
She felt like she had everything. Arya realized how beautiful it is to have power.
But a happy life did not last. A life of luxury clothes, delicious food, and sleeping in a fluffy bed continued, but a new hell has begun. It was because of Madame Panacio.
Before she could overcome the grief of losing her young daughter, the wife of Marquis Panacio had to face a girl who had come to wear her daughter’s clothes, occupy her daughter’s room and use her name. Moreover, she was close to the miniature version of a woman who took her husband’s heart.
“How dare you! I can’t believe you stole Arya’s everything! Thief b*tch! Dirty, lewd, and creepy like your mother!”
She flogged and spat at Arya and poured hot water into her face. No one helped Arya while she was being abused. Adeine Panacio’s just advised not to pour hot water on Arya because her face could be damaged.
Because of that, Madame Panacio did not touch Arya’s face. At that time, when Arya saw that his wife could not disobey his words, she thought that she needed to stand at the peak of power to avoid such a thing happening ever again.
Since then, she had tried to be a strong woman, not an underdog. She learned how to write secretly. Then she thought she could read the letters left by her biological mother, but she couldn’t. The letters left by her mother were written in Castro’s language. Arya was disappointed that she couldn’t read the letters, but she couldn’t help it.
And over the years, the little girl, who had been small and thin, became a young lady. She blossomed in her beauty like a flower full of water.
“Mother, I’m here to visit you.”
“You b*tch! Cough-cough-cough. How dare you, cough, call me your mother!”
“Oh, my… the disease must have invaded your head. Then what would I call you? Would you like me to call you a mother or a crazy b*tch?”
The wife’s yellow face was full of anger. Arya said, turning her white-colored hair behind her ears.
“How do you like feeling helpless? You can’t move, you can’t swallow or eat your food without borrowing someone else’s hand. It’s a pity that you have to borrow someone’s hand even on doing your business.”
“You brat!”
As Madame Panacio screamed, Arya burst into laughter.
“Fortunately, that mouth of yours still sounds very healthy.”
Arya said to her, who was brimming with anger.
“Your mouth may be alive, but you must not be able to smell yourself. Your body smells like awful sh*t right now. Well, no one can serve a tiring master whose only mouth is still alive. Rather than live this miserable life, I would have bit my tongue and killed myself if I were you.”
“Shut up! There’s nothing a young little sh*t can’t say.”
“There’s nothing I can’t say? There’s nothing I cannot do either. What do you think is the reason you’re lying down even now?”
The wife’s brow frowned. It could not have been a little 15-year-old girl who did this to her.
“You liked Cocaine tea. Instead of giving it to anyone, even the Marquis himself. So I mixed some drugs into it. A drug that is tasteless but paralyzes the limbs and slowly stops breathing.”
Arya took a small bottle out of her arms as the wife gazed in astonishment.
“I enjoyed watching your miserable life and tried to take it slow, but now, the fun has waned. And this disgusting smell from you is terrible.”
Arya spilled the liquid from the bottle into her mouth. When the wife turned her head not to drink the liquid, Arya blocked her nose and spilled more of the drug.
“It’s time to clean up the garbage.”
That night, the wife died quietly. No one cared about her death in the Panacio house. Even her son did not mourn her death.
Arya thought her life would be so comfortable, but it was her illusion. Her beauty grew ever brighter, as a water-soaked rose. It was more elegant and fragrant than her beautiful mother.
At the age of the dead Arya she was officially 18, but in reality a few years younger. But her father started visiting her bedroom, who was her blood. He had never visited his wife since she got sick, but he had a relationship with the young Arya, using the grief of losing his wife as an excuse.
And that did not last just one day. Arya could not reject the divine Panacio Marquis, who owned all the lands of the Panacio territory. Such things continued until the Marquis finally collapsed.
Arya’s life was a pretty decent one on the surface. As the only daughter of Marquis Panacio, who has a wide plain in the southern granary, she seemed to enjoy everything. But her life was like hell.
Meanwhile, Arya heard that a minstrel entered the territory of the Panacio family. Thinking that they might be able to read her mother’s letter if they walked around without borders, she called in a minstrel.
Luckily the minstrel she met could read the language of the Castro Empire. Arya found that her mother had written a letter for her to her fiancé in the Castro Empire asking for salvation.
She asked a minstrel to write to her mother’s fiancé. Desperately hoping to save herself from this hellish place.