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Chapter 37
The Marquis Damian held a special place in Erne’s heart.
In the world she had possessed, he was one of the very few who had truly seen Erne for who she was.
The training to become queen was so intense, it made the elite Korean prep district Daechi-dong look easy.
In the end, Erne couldn’t take it anymore. She threw in the towel and dramatically flopped onto her bed like she didn’t care. Furious, the Queen stormed into Erne’s palace herself.
“Your Majesty!”
The Marquis Damian followed her in, trying to stop the enraged Queen from afar.
“Princess!”
The Queen roughly flung the door open and strode right up to Erne.
Her hair was a tangled mess from lazing around all day, and the Queen screamed at the sight.
“What on earth is this hobo mess?!”
It had been about a month since Erne had been brought to the palace and then pretty much neglected.
This was not exactly the kind of thing you’d expect to hear in a long-awaited reunion between mother and daughter.
Erne nodded to herself, recalling the Queen’s notoriously nasty temper described in the original novel.
‘People really don’t change, huh.’
Even though she had regained her lost daughter, the Queen’s personality remained as vicious as ever.
So stubbornly consistent, it was almost admirable.
Erne silently clicked her tongue at the Queen’s faithful commitment to her original character setting.
Meanwhile, the Queen’s nagging continued.
“If you’ve had enough fun, get up and fix that ridiculous way you walk! Why did you dismiss Madam Charlotte? I personally hired her to teach you etiquette!”
Erne hadn’t expected maternal warmth, but she also hadn’t expected to be scolded the moment they met.
Her thoughts swirled. Behind the Queen, Marquis Damian stood like a nervous puppy that needed to pee.
“Y-Your Majesty. Please, kinder words—”
“Silence! How dare you interrupt me!”
Whimper. A pitiful squeak escaped the Marquis. He really should’ve just stayed quiet.
Tsk. Erne gave her legal father a glance full of pity.
At the time, she held no particular feelings for him.
Aside from the one time he hugged her and patted her back when she first came to the royal palace, they’d barely spoken. She had no time, nor interest, in meeting him.
Erne waved off the surrounding maids. Overwhelmed by the Queen’s rage, they scrambled out of the room at her signal.
Only then did Erne, who had been silent like a mute, open her mouth.
“I dismissed her because I thought I’d go insane if I kept taking her lessons.”
“You ungrateful brat. You should be thankful to be a princess with my royal blood in your veins. Noble daughters line up to learn from Madam Charlotte. She dropped everything else to come teach you because you’re the princess!”
Did this story borrow from every single cliché in Korean dramas?
Erne sighed at the Queen’s unrelenting obsession with education, rivaling even Daechi-dong.
“Funny how someone so passionate about education abandoned me for over a month after bringing me here.”
The Queen’s actions never matched her words.
But Erne was used to it by now. It didn’t even bother her anymore.
She scowled as she remembered Madam Charlotte, known as the best etiquette tutor in Nesheld.
Calling that woman a teacher felt like an insult. Learning from her felt even worse.
‘Her Majesty became Queen by killing Princess Hestia, her own kin. Do you know what that means? If you fall out of her favor, you might not see tomorrow. You’re not expecting motherly affection from someone who was a stranger to you for nearly twenty years, are you?’
What a vile woman.
Pretending to worry, but really making veiled threats.
Trying to beat Erne into submission with psychological manipulation, to mold her into her perfect little puppet—typical gaslighting tactics.
Maybe the real Erne would have obeyed.
But this was Erne 2.0—Yoon Da-eun from Korea.
She had devoured every drama and soaked up every emotional beat Korean TV had to offer. That kind of manipulation wouldn’t work on her.
Thinking about it made her blood boil again. She muttered a dark curse under her breath toward Madam Charlotte.
Step in poop on your way home.
Then she looked back at the Queen, who was still fuming.
As much as she didn’t want to admit it, the Queen was her birth mother.
“Ha! So now you’re just going to ignore me?”
With no response from Erne, the Queen got even angrier.
Erne simply couldn’t understand why the Queen demanded blind obedience.
Her life was hers to live. Why should she eat, sleep, and study within rules she didn’t agree to?
Especially when they’d spent nearly twenty years as strangers, just like Madam Charlotte said.
To Erne, the Queen was just being petulant.
Trying to use blood ties as a trump card because she couldn’t win the argument with logic.
Well, then—
“Please assign me a new etiquette teacher.”
If she hesitated even a second longer, the Queen probably would’ve fainted from rage.
“Erne…!”
The Queen’s face turned red, then blue. She whipped around to glare at the flustered Marquis Damian.
Erne blinked in surprise. She’d been so focused on the Queen, she forgot he was even there.
“Is this how you raised your daughter? Talking back to her mother like that?!”
“W-what? Well, that is…”
They never even raised her in the first place.
“B-but Your Majesty. Perhaps we should listen more carefully to what the Princess is saying?”
The Queen hadn’t cared why Erne wanted a different teacher.
But the Marquis had asked her the reason.
Why did you feel the need to make that choice?
That small effort touched Erne deeply.
It was the first time she really took notice of the Marquis as a person.
Despite being caught between the Queen and Erne, despite clearly about to collapse from the pressure, he never took the Queen’s side.
A man trying to truly listen to her—of course she felt warmth toward him.
“What did you just say, Marquis?! Whose side are you on?!”
Before her poor father got scolded even worse, Erne jumped in.
“Please just assign me a new etiquette teacher. It’s not that I don’t want to learn. I just don’t want lessons from Madam Charlotte.”
“Do you even know how respected she is in Nesheld?!”
“If you won’t replace her, then I won’t learn at all.”
It was practically a threat. As expected, the Queen’s gaze turned icy cold.
It felt like she might strangle Erne then and there. But Erne wasn’t intimidated.
She stood her ground and stared the Queen down just as coldly.
“Th-then just change her teacher! The Princess isn’t refusing to learn, she’s only asking for someone else!”
The one suffering the most in this mother-daughter feud was the Marquis.
He foolishly got involved, and now the Queen was glaring daggers at him.
Then, finally, the Queen broke the icy silence and spoke to Erne.
“Oh, Erne. You’re so stupid, I can hardly believe you’re my daughter.”
As the two bickered without a shred of kindness, the Marquis inched toward the door on trembling legs.
All he wanted was to open that door and escape.
Survival instinct kicked in.
“I agree, it is amazing. I mean, it’s impressive how someone like me—so kind and mentally sound—came out of your womb. I must say, I’m very proud of myself for turning out this well, considering.”
Zing. Round two had begun.
Just as the Marquis reached the doorknob, wiping tears from his eyes and trembling, it happened.
BANG.
“We’re talking here!”
“Can’t you see I’m in the middle of an important conversation with Mother, Father?”
His hand slipped, and the door creaked open slightly—causing both women to instantly shoot death glares his way.
Their razor-sharp voices followed.
“I-I-I was just trying to leave…”
Gulp. The Marquis held his breath.
Unable to handle their furious glares, he finally burst into tears.
WAAAHH. I’m scared!
＊＊＊
That was how weak and fragile the Marquis was—he cried just from being caught between her and the Queen’s power struggle.
Like a herbivore trapped among carnivores. That was the Marquis Damian to a T.
Windsor once tried to reassure her, claiming the Marquis was stronger than he looked.
But Erne couldn’t agree.
To her, he was like fragile porcelain—ready to shatter from the slightest nudge, shedding big fat tears at even mildly harsh words.
At least, that’s how she remembered him.
So she couldn’t help but worry.
Windsor had done his best to comfort her the entire way to the Douglas estate, assuring her everything would be fine.
Meanwhile, Erne was summoning all her self-control to hold back tears.
“What are you thinking about?”
Back from her memories, Erne heard Windsor’s voice from across the carriage.
Thanks to his help, she had left the palace without anyone realizing her true identity.
They’d even chosen a carriage without any crest to avoid suspicion. The ride wasn’t great.
Erne felt queasy, but she couldn’t complain to her helper, so she just smiled.
Whatever her smile meant, Windsor’s face darkened.
“Are you uncomfortable?”
“Huh? Oh, no.”
She forced a tired smile and slowly shook her head.
To Windsor, she looked like she might collapse at any moment—especially after the news about the Marquis.
The princess was already frail.
Her pale face convinced Windsor she was hiding her discomfort to spare him worry.
“You don’t have to hide anything from me.”
He clenched his teeth, trying to steady his voice.
He didn’t want to make her feel worse, so he did his best to be subtle.
Then he felt Erne’s big eyes on him.
“What do you mean?”
Her innocent eyes and tilted head nearly broke him.
He balled his fists to hold back tears.
“Anything. If you’re feeling unwell… or even just your thoughts. You don’t have to keep it in. I’m on your side, after all.”
Erne didn’t reply. She seemed to be weighing how genuine he was.
Windsor grew nervous.
What if she didn’t believe him? What if his sincerity didn’t reach her?
Just as he started to panic, she mumbled softly.
“Oh, you asked what I was thinking, right? It’s nothing big, really…”
He leaned in, eager to catch every word.
The pink flush on his cheeks made her look almost shy.
Erne scratched her cheek and gave a sheepish smile.
But seeing his eager expression made her feel pressure to meet his strange expectations.
She tried to change the subject, but it was no use.
With a small sigh, she gave up and finally answered.
“I was thinking… when my father gets out of prison, I should give him some salt water. That’s all.”
“Salt… water?”
Confusion bloomed on Windsor’s face, and Erne avoided his eyes, offering only a dumb smile.
She had her reasons.
“I mean, there’s no tofu here. So I’ll just give him salt water and tell him to drink it. You know. For good luck or whatever.”
There was no way she could tell him it was supposed to be a replacement for tofu.
