🔊 TTS Settings
chapter 3
What… is that?
Rubbing her eyes, she looked again, but the letters were gone.
They had been written on a translucent golden background, decorated with something ornate and old-fashioned.
‘Did I lose my mind because I felt so relieved?’
She had genuinely wanted to smash that damned saintess statue.
“Have you truly lost your mind? What disgrace is this in front of the saintess?”
Her palm, scraped by the axe handle, burned.
Felix paid no attention to her state and focused only on twisting the hand axe away from her.
As a result, the raised grain of the wooden handle stabbed her delicate palm once more.
“Are you alright, Saintess?”
“I… I’m fine. But madam seems to be… a bit… erratic.”
Biting her lower lip against the pain, Iona, at the very moment Felix turned to speak to the saintess, charged the statue with her whole body.
“……!”
Before Felix could react, the statue wobbled and toppled.
Crash!
The saintess statue shattered delightfully, breaking into countless pieces and scattering across the shabby garden.
Her hair came loose, sweat ran down, she panted—but inside, she felt refreshingly free.
“Yes. This is it.”
Muttering coldly, she glared at Felix, who was still speechless.
There was no need to explain what day it was or talk about emotional desires. They had been married for years; had she never tried to talk to him?
‘Anyway, that bastard wouldn’t listen, so why should I waste my words?’
Conversation was for people who actually listened.
“Saintess, are you unharmed?”
Felix, who had glared at her as if to kill, finally calmed himself and attended to the saintess.
Knowing he would do that, Iona smirked and turned away.
The hand axe was gone, but her sense of victory overflowed.
Besides, she still had two hands left, didn’t she?
“Madam?”
“Madam, what are you… ugh!”
“Kyaaa!”
Crash! Crack! Thud! Bang! KRAAASH!!!
‘You want me to act crazy? Fine, I’ll make a proper mess.’
Yes, she would utterly trash this damned house!
“Is it a crime… for me to be beautiful?!”
Screaming, Iona threw a painting from the hallway.
It had been a horrific life of a daughter-in-law.
No one in the Teresia family had liked her.
They criticized what she ate, wore, walked like, and even how she breathed.
Even her beauty was considered a sin!
Her mother-in-law forbade her from using lotion, buying new dresses, wearing clothes with jewels, or applying lipstick.
She was only allowed plain, outdated dresses and a bare face.
Born a puppet of her father, Iona had always lived adorned in splendor.
For her, frugality was an alien concept—but she tried to adapt.
‘I endured everything.’
The stingy excuses to withhold budgets, the fasting under the guise of asceticism—she had endured them all.
‘I had nowhere to return to.’
Even returning to her family home wouldn’t bring happiness, so she endured here.
‘Then why? Why should I endure?’
Especially if the future promised her such a miserable death.
“What… what is going on!”
Her hair completely undone, she stomped like a madwoman and turned with eyes full of fury.
Leading the cowering servants, the real power of the mansion appeared:
Griselda Teresia.
“I thought you might have learned your place recently, but no. Those who believe in Isis are hopeless. If not for the emperor’s command, I would never have allowed someone so beneath me to marry my son!”
“Hah.”
“Look at what you’ve done. What kind of outrage is this?”
Griselda, furious to her fingertips, pointed at her.
Iona, catching her breath, rubbed her ear with her pinky.
“That… that rude woman! Bring the rod immediately. I’ll show her!”
Griselda Teresia, silver hair wound tight, wore a dark dress buttoned to the neck.
The style looked like it had been out of fashion twenty years ago—utterly tacky.
But following Baldur’s teachings, Griselda believed frugality was the supreme value in life. She firmly believed that frugality equaled beauty.
‘She’s old-fashioned; she probably doesn’t realize how society views her family.’
The issue wasn’t just tackiness; society mocked the Teresia family as low-class nobles, sneering at their stinginess.
‘Of course I deserved that ridicule.’
No one dared speak in Griselda’s presence.
‘But it’s unfair. They called me extravagant, unable to save money. Yet the Teresias are the stingy ones?’
Truth hardly mattered. As long as someone had a reason to scold, that was enough.
Meanwhile, Griselda scowled, spotting all of Iona’s supposed faults.
‘She spends money recklessly!’
To her, Iona’s extravagance was unbearable.
‘So vulgar from birth.’
Her blond hair wasn’t tame or modest. Even when the household reduced upkeep to teach frugality, she spent all her money on luxurious beauty. Griselda despised the shiny hair and the expensive products that made her skin glow.
Even lotion was forbidden.
“Madam Teresia.”
“What?”
Griselda blinked in disbelief at the title. Not mother, not the mistress, but Madam Teresia?
It reminded her of her “slightly demoted” position—not the mistress—and made her very upset.
“Who exactly is trying to discipline whom with a rod?”
And how dare this girl act so boldly?
Until yesterday, Iona had kept her eyes down, and Griselda treated her like nothing.
But now, Iona stood tall, chin up, eyes fierce.
“I understand that I am the mistress of this mansion. Did you marry my husband, Madam?”
“What? How dare you!”
“I just thought, seeing you so arrogantly trying to teach me, that perhaps I was intruding between my husband and the Madam.”
“Don’t speak such vile nonsense! My son… my son would never do such a thing!”
Griselda, horrified, leapt in anger.
The servants froze in the middle of this sudden clash of the great mistress and the young mistress.
Whether to bring the rod or not—
Seeing the usually obedient servants hesitate, Griselda panicked inwardly.
Iona, having anticipated this, smirked.
‘Like master, like servant. Everyone tiptoes and watches, cowardly to the core.’
In truth, Iona’s rampage had reason.
To overthrow a household, one cannot be vague.
It must go to the end.
No one wants to provoke a truly mad beast.
Besides, this is a dream, isn’t it?
‘Anyway, it’s a dream. Whatever happens, it’s a dream.’
So she decided.
“Bring the rod immediately! She really seems mad!”
“Try bringing it here. I’ll show you a hell you can’t imagine. I can make you beg for your life!”
While Griselda’s neck veins bulged, Iona calmly smiled.
“You called me a villain, extravagant and frivolous, a wicked servant of Isis. You said it so much, maybe it’s time I truly act like it.”
The terrified servants whispered and hesitated, unwilling to act or face her, passing glances to one another.
‘The young mistress has completely lost it.’
‘Well, it’s understandable.’
‘Before marriage, there was a rumor about the young mistress. Her social rival suddenly disappeared, found dead downstream. It’s said the young mistress arranged it.’
‘Scary. What if that happened to us?’
The punishment from the elder mistress would be frightening, sure. But at worst, it meant skipping dinner, writing a reflection, and being locked in the chapel.
‘But the young mistress—who knows what she’ll do? That’s scary.’
The servants froze, unwilling to act. Griselda fumed.
Iona stood crooked, arms crossed.
A posture Griselda utterly despised.
“Mother, these days, you must consider your daughter-in-law’s stance.”
“……!”
“You should have acted moderately.”
