TOEFN Chapter 5

The Rabbit Caught in the Trap

Only the crackling of firewood echoed in the silent bedchamber.

Swish.

When Freya offered no response, Tesid turned his body to face her.

Clatter.

He flicked the ruby on the veil beneath his eyes with his finger, causing the small, sparkling gems to rattle. Tesid toyed with the veil as if ready to rip it off at any moment.

He then rested his chin on his hand and scrutinized Freya with an even deeper gaze, as if trying to gauge her true intentions.

‘I’m curious… I’m dying of curiosity!’

At that moment, Freya was fighting an internal battle. If Tesid’s eyes, visible above the veil, were this beautiful, how magnificent must the face hidden beneath be?

‘But.’

Freya tightly gripped her still-cold hands.

‘He distinctly said “you too” just now.’

The underlying meaning was that the previous Princess Consort candidates were also curious about his hidden face.

‘Could that have been the reason they brought about their own deaths?’

She had to be cautious of even the slightest thing that might offend Tesid.

“N-no.” Freya managed to suppress her curiosity and replied.

“You’re not curious?” Tesid sounded surprised.

The previous Princess Consort candidates were all curious about what lay beneath his veil. And after seeing his face without the veil, they were all overcome with terror and fainted.

He had hoped that this woman, who had audaciously pointed her finger at him during their first encounter, might be different.

‘But she replied that she isn’t curious about his unveiled face at all.’

Tesid asked one more time, as if confirming. “Then you would be fine with me wearing this veil for the entire duration of our marriage?”

“…Why would that be a problem?” Freya cocked her head.

‘A veil is the least of my worries right now.’

She was curious, of course.

But she might die tonight. If she could only save her life, a veil meant absolutely nothing.

“Hmm.”

Tesid rested his chin and stared at Freya. When their eyes met, he hastily turned his face away.

The small sound of the rubies on the veil rattling spread like gentle music.

‘Why is he reacting like that? Was that the wrong answer? He asked if I’d be okay with him wearing the veil, and I just said yes.’

Surprised by Tesid’s unexpected reaction, Freya quickly added:

“As long as it doesn’t make Your Highness uncomfortable.”

Was I stopping him from taking the veil off when he wanted to?

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see his bare face. It was just that he seemed reluctant to remove the veil, and had sounded resentful of people who were curious about his appearance beneath it, so she had answered that way.

‘So, whether you wear the veil or not, can you just do what you want and spare my life?’

Freya looked at Tesid with that earnest thought in mind. Then, startled by his intense gaze, she quickly looked down and added:

“But if you wish to remove it, you may do so.”

Tesid, misunderstanding the direction of Freya’s gaze, briefly tilted his head and pondered. He soon lowered his hand toward his trousers.

“…Right, if what you’re curious about isn’t my face, but this.”

“Ah, no! Not there!”

Freya shrieked and grabbed Tesid’s hand to stop him.

“Gasp! I’m s-sorry!”

Oh no.

She had vowed never to touch him first. She had just personally driven in the death flag.

‘Am I going to die now?’

No, am I going to go like this without even experiencing the rumored virility of the first night? I’ll be remembered as the Princess Consort candidate with the shortest lifespan in history.

“I’m sorry! Please spare me. I’ll do anything if you just spare my life, please…”

Freya knelt on the bed, desperately clasping her hands and begging. She didn’t want to die like this.

“Spare your life?”

But as if her plea didn’t move him, Tesid frowned, looking at Freya with displeasure. Freya grew anxious.

‘What did the transmigrators in other novels do at a time like this? Right! They proposed a deal with some information or ability that only they knew.’

Freya racked her brain, but nothing in the novel’s plot seemed particularly useful to Tesid.

This was because Tesid only appeared as the villain who declared the ‘Marriage Conscription Order’ to obstruct the protagonists’ love. There wasn’t much real information about him beyond the rumors.

‘There’s no information that would sway him, and as for my ability…’

Freya looked down at the hands she was clutching in a desperate plea.

It wasn’t a great ability, but maybe if he found it curious, he would want to keep her alive?

Freya quickly looked around, her eyes gleaming, and dashed towards the fireplace. She then boldly plunged her hand into the fireplace.

“What are you doing!” Tesid screamed, rushing toward her instantly.

First, she abruptly grabbed his hand and begged for her life in fear. Now, she was putting her hand into the fireplace, perhaps trying to harm herself. Her actions were unpredictable.

But before Tesid could grab her hand, Freya pulled out a twig that had been charred black into charcoal from the fireplace. And without hesitation, she drew a line across her cheek.

“W-what is this!”

A flustered Tesid looked alternately at Freya’s sooty cheek and the piece of charcoal in her hand.

“I’ll show you something interesting. Watch closely.”

Freya paid no mind to the black streak and red mark left on her cheek by the hot charcoal.

She then tossed the charcoal back into the fireplace and held up her empty hands.

“But before that, will you promise me one thing? If what I show you is even slightly intriguing, you will spare my life for tonight, at least.”

In truth, she wanted him to promise never to kill her, but Freya had minimal conscience. It would be difficult to captivate him with such a meager ability.

So, her plan was to not be greedy, survive tonight, and then find another way to stay alive.

“You propose a bargain with me?”

As Tesid’s eyes narrowed, Freya flinched, thinking he found her presumptuous.

But Tesid’s true feelings were different from what Freya guessed.

‘That is exactly what I wanted.’

Tesid lifted his chin, feigning nonchalance.

“I’ll decide after I see what it is.”

He couldn’t reveal his true intentions yet.

He was prepared to wait patiently until the rabbit, caught in the trap, plunged its foot deeper, unaware that it was a trap.

“Thank you. Then I’ll proceed. I have an ability called the ‘Hand of Purification.’”

Freya swallowed hard and rubbed her two hands together, which she had held up as if taking an oath. She then covered her sooty right cheek with her hands and rubbed it a few times.

“…No!”

Tesid barely managed to suppress the gasp of admiration that tried to escape his mouth as he saw Freya’s cheek become clean again, as if nothing had happened.

‘As expected. That woman possesses a miraculous ability.’

Tesid’s gaze deepened as he recalled how his own skin had become clearer after touching Freya that day.

“Th-that’s all there is to it.” Freya hesitantly watched Tesid’s reaction.

‘Will I be able to survive with just this level of ability? Will he find this interesting?’

Although she had attempted it boldly, she was worried that she might have offended him with such an insignificant ability. It was like a rabbit performing a silly dance for a tiger.

“It’s not much, but I can clean or do laundry faster and more thoroughly than others. Oh, or perhaps if you spilled food on your clothes during a feast, I could instantly make it look like new… something like that…”

Freya’s voice, as she earnestly tried to explain her usefulness, grew fainter and fainter. Indeed, an ability like this probably wouldn’t tempt a Prince of the Duchy.

And yet.

“Quite intriguing.”

Clatter.

Flicking the ruby on his veil with his finger, Tesid looked at Freya with eyes redder and deeper than the jewel.

“Really?”

Does that mean he’ll spare me! Freya’s head shot up. Her eyes sparkled with hope.

“Then, I suppose it’s my turn to propose. How I will use your ability.”

But as Tesid’s red eyes narrowed slightly, Freya’s heart pounded with a dark premonition that something was going wrong.

“U-use, Your Highness?”

Although it was her own attempt to appeal to her usefulness, his earnest yet suggestive eyes as he said “use” somehow terrified her.

‘The fate of a rabbit that danced before a tiger is…’