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Chapter 3
Louisa was a proud maid who served the youngest daughter of House Ardena.
Seriel particularly hated her older sister.
‘That ugly girl. She’s nothing but skin and bones! Isn’t she the reason Father controls me even more? I really can’t stand looking at her.’
Louisa had spent the entire day putting up with Seriel’s whining, and now she had been sent out on an errand.
‘She hates chicken more than anything. I guess she’s got expensive tastes, despite how she looks. Apparently, she once got really sick after eating chicken. Let’s teach her a proper lesson this time.’
So she boiled a chicken she wouldn’t even touch without adding any seasoning at all.
She had made sure to cook it in a way that brought out the unpleasant smell of the chicken.
This should be enough to make Rosanna refuse to even touch it.
Just like always.
Whenever Rosanna was locked in the attic, they had starved her using methods like this.
Expecting praise from Seriel, Louisa opened the attic door.
“Please eat, Lady Rosanna.”
As she said this, she looked around the room with contempt.
But strangely, the woman wasn’t there.
“Lady Rosanna?”
“Ah, just put it there.”
Hearing the voice from below, Louisa lowered her gaze.
Rosanna was lying face-down on the floor, doing something.
“What are you doing?!”
She was lying flat on the floor without the slightest concern for the dignity expected of a noblewoman.
Rosanna glanced at Louisa, who was staring at her in shock, then sighed.
She staggered to her feet, lightly stretched, and muttered,
“My body is already shaking from something this easy. Where did my lovely muscles go?”
“Lady Rosanna!”
“I’m busy doing my own thing, so don’t worry about me and get out.”
Rosanna waved her hand dismissively.
Louisa’s lips puffed out in displeasure.
Rosanna had never treated her like this before.
Then, just as Rosanna noticed the food on the table, Louisa raised her chin as if she had been waiting for this moment.
“I prepared this especially for you, Lady Rosanna, so don’t leave anything behind. Lady Seriel said I should make sure you eat it.”
“Thank you so much! I was just wondering how I was going to get enough protein!”
“……What?”
Louisa stared blankly at Rosanna.
Rosanna began tearing into the chicken like a starving wild animal.
She expertly stripped the meat from the bones with both hands, without the slightest hesitation.
Was that really Rosanna?
“Wow. This chicken is amazingly well boiled. The meat just falls right off the bone. Make it like this from now on, too. Don’t add any seasoning, just like this.”
“……You’re really going to eat that?”
“Why?”
Rosanna pointed the chicken leg bone at Louisa.
Rosanna’s sharp eyes flashed.
For some reason, the chicken bone suddenly looked like a sword.
Even though there was no reason it should.
Just as Louisa instinctively stepped backward,
“Do you want some too? Then just say so. Should I leave some for you?”
Louisa’s mouth fell open at the completely unexpected, innocent question.
She swallowed hard.
Looking at Rosanna devouring the food like a wild animal again, Louisa decided to change her plan.
Apparently, Rosanna had changed hers too.
“Hmm.”
I examined the bowl and tilted my head.
I lightly poked through the large pile of chicken.
“It’s only chicken breast?”
The maid who had brought the food arrogantly raised her chin.
She twisted up one corner of her mouth and said,
“You need to think about your health. Gaining too much weight isn’t good for you, Lady Rosanna. This is all for your health, so please understand……”
“That’s perfect. Keep preparing it like this from now on. Don’t add any seasoning, cook it just this much, and bring me plenty of chicken breast.”
The maid looked displeased at my words.
“L-like this? All the time?”
“Yep. Just make it like this from now on.”
Actually, I could understand why the maid was reacting like that.
Rosanna had once eaten some dry chicken breast and gotten so sick that she was bedridden for two days.
After that, she couldn’t stand chicken.
Sometimes, when she was locked up and forced to eat chicken, she would even complain that she couldn’t breathe.
It seemed like they were deliberately bringing me nothing but chicken to torment me.
But for me, who needed to build up my leg muscles right now, this was the perfect food.
Chicken breast?
Wasn’t that basically a lump of protein?
It was something I had eaten constantly when I was building muscle.
So I was used to it.
And besides……
This was a workout meal prepared by someone else.
I didn’t even have to pay for it.
Was this heaven for exercise?
Of course, it was a little disappointing that there was no exercise equipment, but what more could I ask for?
I was locked up all day in a place where I could exercise as much as I wanted.
I was filling my cardio sessions with things like running in place.
This was seriously the best!
The corners of my lips twitched.
After glaring at me with trembling fists, as if she were furious, the maid fled the room.
I stretched comfortably.
“What exercise should I try next? Leg presses? Or stretching? Cardio?”
I’d only exercised for one day, but every muscle in my body was already screaming.
Still, the pain was a hopeful sign.
The muscles that had been completely neglected were waking up again.
Besides, the only way to get rid of muscle soreness was to exercise through it.
My determination burned even brighter.
Meanwhile, in the Imperial Palace’s Grand Conference Hall of the Gradana Empire.
Kael stared coldly at the Duke of Ardena.
The Duke had his sharp chin raised, and his eyes were filled with a sly, calculating light.
Kael disliked Rosanna, but he hated her father, the Duke of Ardena, even more.
“Say that again, Duke of Ardena. Who did you say you were sending on this expedition?”
“As I said, Lady Rosanna volunteered, Your Imperial Highness.”
“Ha.”
Kael remembered his former fiancée, the sensitive and irritable woman.
She was someone who hated even getting the slightest bit of dirt on her body.
She also hated having to mingle with other people.
She was a woman who only cared about herself.
And that woman had volunteered for an expedition to save the world?
Even when Kael thought back to the two months he had spent as her fiancé because of the forceful decision of the Duke and the Emperor, she had never seemed like someone who would do such a thing.
‘So you’re trying to dump that burden on me.’
Kael swept his cold gaze across the conference hall.
Every one of them avoided his eyes and cleared their throats.
They were all thinking the same thing.
Even in a situation like this, they were carefully hiding their precious heirs and putting forward collateral children, second daughters, second sons, or people their families considered useless.
‘Noblesse oblige? Their sense of nobility has rotted so badly that it’s practically dead.’
They were clearly planning to leave all the saving of the world and all the difficult work to other people, while staying safely behind them and enjoying the rewards.
House Ardena was standing at the front of that line.
Could that skinny stick of a woman even hold a sword?
More people would probably have to sacrifice themselves just to protect the precious daughter of House Ardena.
The only person from Ardena who was even remotely useful for an expedition like this was their eldest son, Kirdel.
But there was no chance they would offer him.
Kael roughly ran a hand through his hair.
Was there really any hope for this expedition?
When he turned his gaze toward the Emperor, things looked even more hopeless.
The Emperor’s murky eyes were filled with greed.
He must have already taken plenty of money from the nobles.
Ever since the empire had fallen into this state, the Emperor had been the first person to lose his mind.
He had been somewhat useful before, but now he was no better than trash.
The Emperor was doing everything he could to avoid dealing with the situation.
He had thrown himself into a life of pleasure.
There was no hope for the Emperor.
The world was slowly turning into a garbage dump.
Even in this situation, the Empress was pressuring Kael because she was determined to put her eight-year-old son on the throne.
Kael let out a bitter laugh.
Even if they saved the empire by sacrificing noble blood and countless lives, those people would be the ones to enjoy the benefits.
It disgusted him.
Was this really a world worth saving?
Perhaps the power he had been given wasn’t meant to save the world at all.
Kael gave a mocking laugh.
What was even more damnable was that, even in the middle of all this, he couldn’t bring himself to turn his back on the people of the empire who were desperately struggling to survive somehow.
‘What an idiot.’
Kael swallowed the curse behind his teeth.
“If you’re going to act like a bunch of thugs, then you should at least pay the proper price for it. I expect solid support for our supplies.”
“Your Imperial Highness, ahem. What do you mean, ‘act like thugs’?”
“My blade does not discriminate between its targets.”
Kael spoke in a low, cold voice.
The only reason he was holding himself back was because he didn’t want to add even more chaos to an already chaotic situation.
“Either give us money or give us someone useful. Choose one.”
Kael gave them a sharp warning.
He felt disgusted all over again.
Just thinking about facing the precious daughter of House Ardena made his stomach turn.
‘I don’t eat cheap dishes made with chicken.’
He remembered the pale-faced woman who had lightly dabbed at the corners of her mouth.
‘I don’t like places that are this dirty and cramped. Let’s go somewhere else.’
He remembered the woman who couldn’t tolerate even the slightest inconvenience.
Kael swallowed his anger and closed his eyes.
