Egg goes crack! (3)
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“W-What do you think you’re doing…!”
Brodie turned pale and retorted.
Even though she tried not to think about it, she still remembered the knights whose eggs were crushed.
How could someone be so cruel!
Brodie looked at Aristine with detest.
However, Aristine was actually looking at Brodie with a strange look in her eyes.
“I’m just eating an egg?”
Her tone seemed to say, ‘you’ve never seen someone eat an egg?’.
“The, the egg is…”
“Is?”
“It’s…broken…”
“Of course, it’s broken. Am I supposed to eat it with the shell?”
To be treated like a crazy person by none other than a princess who was disregarded and treated as a lunatic, made Brodie feel aggrieved.
Her face burned red with shame. However, she couldn’t say anything.
‘Don’t tell me…she really doesn’t know what happened yesterday?’
After hearing what happened to the knights, Brodie naturally thought that it was done on purpose to humiliate them.
‘So now I’ve just become the weird person here?’
Brodie tried to compose her expression and arrogantly raised her chin.
“It seems you don’t even know what happened to your knights because you were lazing around until the middle of the day.”
Regardless of what Brodie was saying, Aristine feigned attention while going to smack her egg. The cracks in the shell grew longer and deeper.
Brodie’s eye twitched when she saw that.
“Princess!”
“What?”
Tak!
The silver spoon cracked open the soft egg.
Seeing Aristine bring it her mouth and munch delightedly, Brodie couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Are you doing this because you know what situation your knights are in right now?! How can you even eat that?”
At those words, Aristine swallowed and the egg in her mouth went down.
The fresh egg was savory, soft, and very delicious. It was seasoned properly, and the yolk was cooked just enough that it was not dripping but not too dry either.
“I can eat fine though? This is delicious.” (Aristine)
Brodie’s lips trembled when she heard that casual response. She wanted to fire a sharp retort but didn’t even know what to say.
Aristine whirled the spoon in her hand then she asked.
“What exactly happened that you’re acting like this?”
“…”
Brodie couldn’t bring herself to say that the eggs of the knights were broken. Such words were too vulgar to come out of the mouth of a noble lady like herself, no matter how she packaged it.
“…Those barbaric and violent Irugo warriors caused trouble. Our knights were heavily injured.”
“Ah, you came to find me for just that?”
“Just that?! The knights serve the Princess with all their sincerity and naturally, Princess must take care of them.”
If they served her with any more of their ‘sincerity, they would become sex offenders.
Aristine slowly leaned back in her chair, twirling the spoon between her index finger and thumb.
The reflection of her expressionless face flickered back and forth on the curve of the spoon.
“I believe I turned down your request to be you guys’ nanny last time.”
“Excuse me?”
“Right now, you are saying the knights got hit, so I should go and scold the other party.”
Brodie’s mouth flew shut.
When Aristine put it like that, it made Brodie seem like a very childish person.
“That, that’s because the Knights are people who serve you, Princess so first of all, the Princess…”
“Right, they serve me. I do not serve them.”
Aristine who had only been watching the spoon spin indifferently, raised her head and looked at Brodie.
The moment Brodie met those emotionless purple eyes, she unconsciously swallowed dryly. For some reason, she felt chills running down her spine.
In a subconscious effort to avoid that gaze, Brodie began to look around, but she flinched.
All the court ladies in the dining room were coldly staring at her with impassive expressions.
Their faces were so cold that it was hard to imagine that they were the same lewd bunch that was cackling at Aristine’s story just earlier.
“And here I was wondering who would dare to open the door to Her Highness’ dining room without knocking while Her Highness is eating.”
With that as the trigger, the Irugo court ladies began to speak one after the other.
“It seems the home handmaid who should be the most considerate of her master doesn’t know how to show respect to her master.”
“Since she doesn’t even know basic manners, I doubt she even knows how to be respectful.”
“A-Are you talking to me right now?!”
Brodie’s face flushed red as she questioned the court ladies.
“Is there anyone else here other than you, Miss?”
“Her intelligence is too low to learn proper etiquette so apparently, her judgment is slow as well.”
The Irugoian way of speaking was much more direct than that of Silvanians.
The court ladies looked down at Brodie and laughed.
Before yesterday, Aristine was not Tarkan’s wife.
Although they were soon to be married, the wedding hadn’t happened yet. Hence, the court ladies basically treated Aristine like a noble lady they were close to.
Naturally, they couldn’t reprimand or say anything to Aristine’s maids. Because such actions would be disregarding Aristine.
However, it was different now.
Aristine was a princess of this country, the hostess of this palace, and their master.
They could criticize these handmaids who didn’t know their place and dared to act up anyhow they wanted.
When the Irugoian court ladies with a much bigger stature, looked down at Brodie with sharp glares, Brodie couldn’t help but shrink back.
Were they staring at her like that the whole time?
Brodie had no idea when this even started. She was so agitated when she rushed into the room and was only thinking about getting angry at Aristine.
‘I, why should I even…to these barbarians…!’
Her pride wouldn’t allow her to simply back down in front of these barbarians.
Brodie clenched her fists and took a step forward.
“I, I am the Princess’ handmaid from her maiden home. How dare you insult me when I am the c, closest maid to the Princess, the Princess will soon…”
Although, you couldn’t really say she was making a stand for herself because she was trembling so hard that it looked pitiful.
“Hmm, technically speaking, you’re not really my handmaid.”
Aristine shrugged, “You never helped me do anything when I was in Silvanus, did you?”
“That…”
“That said, since you followed me all this way to serve me, I should treat you with the appropriate respect. Both you and the knights.”
Aristine mumbled then she got up from her seat.
Brodie’s body was tense as she watched Aristine.
Those words definitely sounded good for her but why did she feel so anxious?
Aristine ordered the court ladies.
“Prepare some eggs for the knights.”
Hearing that, the court ladies bowed their heads without uttering a word.
Meanwhile, Brodie’s complexion turned white.
“W-Wait!” Brodie grabbed Aristine’s arm, “You can’t possibly want to give eggs to the knights now, right?”
“Why not?”
Aristine looked at Brodie with puzzlement in her eyes, “You asked me how I could eat an egg when the knights were hurt.”
Brodie opened her mouth slightly when she heard that. But nothing came out.
“I want to give the knights delicious food ro comfort them as you wish so what’s the problem?” (Aristine)
“No, that, the knights are…”
She couldn’t bring herself to say that they had become eunuchs.
Aristine studied Brodie while Brodie remained silent then Aristine’s gaze fell on her wrist which was being clutched.
Startled by that, Brodie hurriedly released her hold. And right away, she was inwardly shocked by her own actions.
‘I, how can I…! How can I back down to…to this kind of princess!’
And the princess didn’t even say anything to her, but she got scared by herself and stepped back.
Brodie bit her lips heavily.
“These are delicious so I’m sure they’ll like it if I give it to them. As you say, they are loyal knights who serve me with their utmost sincerity. Of course, I should take care of them.”
Aristine smiled brightly and left the dining room.
Behind her was an accompaniment of court ladies who were bringing along a bunch of boiled eggs.
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