TBFP 07

Chapter : 07

“Do you pity me for dying?”

Leticia disobeyed Emma’s order to just keep her mouth shut and asked a question unbefitting a child.

“Or does my survival benefit Hilda in some way?”

“……I want to help because I feel sorry for Your Highness.”

Leticia stared blankly at Hilda.

It was nonsense. And Leticia’s survival was also nonsense.

“I was ordered by Father to become a hostage of Basilinte, and the Grand Duke of Basilinte decided to kill me. How could I change a decision that has already been made?”

“Aren’t you afraid of dying? I can help you.”

“But that’s not His Grace the Grand Duke’s wish. Shouldn’t you not go against your master’s will just because you pity me?”

“My master is Her Grace the Grand Duchess. And the Grand Duchess I know would never accept a child’s life being sacrificed as an offering.”

“Do you pity me for dying?”

Leticia disobeyed Emma’s order to just keep her mouth shut and asked a question unbefitting a child.

“Or does my survival benefit Hilda in some way?”

“……I want to help because I feel sorry for Your Highness.”

Leticia stared blankly at Hilda.

It was nonsense. And Leticia’s survival was also nonsense.

“I was ordered by Father to become a hostage of Basilinte, and the Grand Duke of Basilinte decided to kill me. How could I change a decision that has already been made?”

“Aren’t you afraid of dying? I can help you.”

“But that’s not His Grace the Grand Duke’s wish. Shouldn’t you not go against your master’s will just because you pity me?”

“My master is Her Grace the Grand Duchess. And the Her Grace I know wouldn’t have wanted a child’s life to be sacrificed as an offering.”

“But she didn’t say that directly, did she?”

The ongoing argument was ended by the noise approaching from outside.

As Emma’s irritated voice shouting at the servants grew closer, Hilda bit her lip and whispered quickly.

“If Your Highness’s death is useless, His Grace will look for another sacrifice. So the longer Your Highness lives, the less likely it is that His Grace will kill someone else.”

Saying that she didn’t know who would be next after Leticia, Hilda added lastly.

“Please try to delay your death as long as possible. You want to live too, don’t you, Your Highness?”

With those final words, Emma entered with five servants, her face full of irritation.

Hilda left with a bright smile.

“Did that woman say anything to Your Highness?”

While pondering over the words Hilda had left behind, Leticia answered obediently as if nothing had happened.

“She told me about that forest. Things like what its name is.”

Emma’s raised eyebrows turned towards the forest outside the window and then back to her.

“Your Highness didn’t say anything unnecessary, did you?”

“No.”

Leticia nodded.

Emma opened her mouth as if to probe further, but seeming tired, she shook her head and sat down in a chair.

Well, even Emma would think that the fake prince who had come along so obediently this far wouldn’t suddenly start blabbing unnecessarily.

“The Grand Duke has invited us to lunch three days from now. Until then, rest, Your Highness.”

To Emma’s words mixed with fatigue and annoyance, Leticia once again nodded obediently. After all, the task given to Leticia was always the same.

To stay still. Until death.

She shouldn’t move around annoyingly, nor should she say unnecessary things.

For three days, Leticia just breathed quietly like a doll.

Thanks to this, she had plenty of time to think.

She thought about the troupe family in the Empire, then about the deal made with the Herta Imperial family.

And quite often, she thought about Hilda’s words.

‘Is the Grand Duke really out of his mind as Hilda said?’

If the curse wouldn’t be broken whether she died or the real Prince Sion died anyway.

‘Would it be okay if I tried to live?’

No, if as Hilda said, the Grand Duke wouldn’t kill someone else as long as she lived even a little longer…

‘Should I try to live a bit longer?’

Growl.

Leticia clutched her hungry stomach.

Whether she decided to try to live longer or not, that resolution didn’t really help her current situation.

She was still a hostage destined to die at the hands of the Grand Duke, and Emma, who was supposed to take care of her, still disliked her.

‘It doesn’t seem like I could live much longer even if I tried…’

Still, Hilda had asked Leticia. To a little prince of an enemy country, she had just met.

Rather than wondering what she believed in to do that, Leticia thought about how desperate she must have been.

She had been like that too. When she received the Emperor’s offer while in prison.

‘As long as Emma doesn’t find out, maybe I could… try a little.’

Leticia buried herself under the blanket and tried to sleep.

***

For three days after arriving at the castle, Leticia had eaten almost nothing except water.

It wasn’t that Emma deliberately starved her.

Leticia’s body, was weakened by the long journey, and her hungry stomach couldn’t easily accept rich food.

However, since most of the ingredients in the Grand Duchy, where fresh fruits and vegetables were scarce, were things like dried meat, Leticia vomited everything after eating meat soup on the first day.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I don’t know how to cook many dishes…”

The young maid in charge of cooking nervously mashed some boiled potatoes she had stolen from somewhere in warm water, which was all Leticia had eaten for three days.

Honestly, Leticia didn’t think it was the fault of the 16-year-old maid.

Since the Grand Duke’s castle only provided ingredients without assigning a cook, Aina, a maid who came with Emma and knew how to cook something resembling a meal, was in charge of their meals.

From the beginning, the fake prince was sent to die, so the servant composition consisted of only three coachmen for quick travel, one mortician to handle the prince’s body, and one maid to attend to Emma.

“It’s okay, Aina.”

Leticia told the maid it was fine and spent the time lying down, drinking only salted water.

In conclusion, with 12 hours left until lunch with the Grand Duke, Leticia thought she might starve to death at this rate.

She was so hungry that her stomach hurt, and she couldn’t even sleep.

She felt like she might really die if she lost consciousness now. Or she might collapse on the way to lunch with the Grand Duke.

If it had been before hearing Hilda’s words, she might have just accepted it without caring…

‘Hilda’s words might be true. If His Grace the Grand Duke starts looking for another sacrifice right after I die, wouldn’t it be better for His Grace if I stay alive even a little longer?’

She recalled the expressionless face of the white Grand Duke, who didn’t seem crazy at all. She couldn’t tell whose words were right.

So she needed to see the Grand Duke first. Not collapse here from hunger.

Leticia staggered to her feet in the pitch-dark room. Then she quietly headed to the backyard of the guesthouse.

‘What I saw earlier… Ah.’

Thanks to the bright moonlight, she could immediately find the grass she had spotted earlier through the window.

The grass growing modestly along the wall even had cute flower buds, but Leticia’s target was the roots of that grass.

‘The roots of this were edible, right?’

Nobles might not even imagine it, but for her who grew up as an orphan, digging up grassroots to eat wasn’t surprising.

Leticia frantically dug up the ground to unearth the grassroots, then shook off the dirt and hurriedly took a bite.

The thought of chewing on food after so long didn’t even make her think it was dirty.

But at that moment.

“Are you eating dirt right now?”