You are at the End of the Downfall

She was one of many who claimed to be from northern nobility and to have raised Peon personally. She was overflowing with pride for Lusenford and believed it was her duty to instill Lusenford’s traditions in the Grand Duchess.

“…I’ll inform the chef for now.”

There couldn’t be a head maid who insisted when the Grand Duchess said no.

Kaela, lacking both the will and energy to respond, merely looked at the head maid, who stepped back slightly startled. However, the head maid would only ‘inform’ as she said, not actually change the menu. She was a person of extreme stubbornness.

‘Not bad.’

If all the northern nobles were gathered tonight to celebrate the Grand Duke’s marriage, it wasn’t a bad situation.

After dismissing the head maid, Kaela looked around her new room.

It was a stiff, dogmatic, hideously unfashionable room decorated entirely to the head maid’s taste. Every object in the room seemed to shout at Kaela, ‘You must be chaste and docile!’ – outdated virtues.

She smiled weakly, then sat on the hard chair and began writing her first and last letter to her father.

****

The girl born in Ostein who had risen from a humble background to become an errand runner for the Princess Ostein solely due to her intelligence and diligence was named Marie, a common name.

Marie, the youngest and lowest-ranking of the three dedicated maids who had somehow followed the princess to the cold Lusenford, stood in line with the other maids, anxiously watching Her Highness the Princess attending the evening banquet.

For Marie, the titles ‘Her Highness the Princess’ or ‘Miss’ were still more familiar than ‘Her Highness the Grand Duchess’. And once a Princess of Ostein princess, always a Princess of Ostein. There were no exceptions other than eventually becoming Her Highness the Duchess of Ostein.

[Marie, if you happen to return to Ostein, please deliver this letter to my father.]

What could Her Highness be thinking, giving the letter to Marie of all people? Marie prayed for the swift return of His Highness the Grand Duke, who had taken such good care of the princess throughout their long journey to Lusenford.

But His Highness the Grand Duke was currently out with the knights, performing a ceremony of lighting fires.

So Her Highness the Princess, left alone, was now silently listening to the northern nobles unanimously expounding on ‘how historically significant and delicious’ this dish called ferenco or peco or whatever it was.

It started like this. Her Highness the Princess, no, Her Highness the Grand Duchess now, hesitated upon seeing that dry and unappetizing-looking meat dish and called for the head maid.

“Didn’t I say I can’t eat tour berries?”

Her Highness the Grand Duchess asked very quietly and with dignity.

Of course, Marie and the other maids from Ostein were seeing these tour berries for the first time and had just learned that their long-served mistress couldn’t eat them, so they could only stare with wide eyes.

“Ahem, Your Highness the Grand Duchess!”

However, the head maid, taking advantage of the Grand Duke’s absence, suddenly raised her voice.

“Ferenco is a traditional dish eaten by the people of Lusenford, imbued with our pride! Although it’s cooked with tour berries, can’t you just remove them and eat it? Now that you’ve come to Lusenford, you should rightfully eat the dish we’ve prepared with such care!”

In an instant, all eyes turned this way, and Marie was terrified. With the knights momentarily gone, the older nobles and ladies who remained looked this way, and one nearby northern noble asked,

“What’s the matter? Does ferenco not seem like an interesting dish to you?”

To Marie, this was such a blatant trap question that even the princess’s maids were visibly shocked. But the princess, known for her intelligence and wisdom in Ostein, strangely gave an honest answer.

“It’s not that, it’s just that tour berries are uncomfortable for me to eat.”

“Why is that? It’s a fruit that grows in cold places.”

“When I eat it, my body itches and it’s hard to breathe…”

Before she could finish, all the loud-voiced people gathered at this banquet began unanimously extolling how good tour berries were for the body, which was honestly shocking to Marie.

Even so, to openly contradict the words of the Emperor’s niece and future Duchess of Ostein! Is this not the Cranian Empire? How can they be so rude to such an esteemed person?

“It’s good for your health!”

“Of course. Eating ferenco brings peace for a year. It’s an important dish for praying for peace in Lusenford.”

“Uncomfortable? What’s uncomfortable? Oh, that’s just because you’re not used to it! Eat more! You have to eat a lot to overcome it!”

“Yes, that’s right. You overcome it by eating, don’t you? Your Highness the Grand Duchess should learn brave courage first upon coming to Lusenford!”

“Eat! Please eat! If you slowly empty one plate, bite by bite, you’ll soon be able to eat a whole basket of tour berries. Right?”

“Of course. All this talk about not being able to eat certain things is just doctors’ sales tactics to sell medicine.”

Amidst the clamor about ferenco and tour berries, all sorts of admonitions disguised as encouragement poured out. It seemed as if something terrible would happen if she didn’t eat.

The maids from Ostein were shocked and gaped. This was extremely rude treatment towards the princess! The northerners were large in stature with booming voices, and it seemed the small and delicate Kaela might be swept away, or rather, crushed.

No, to Marie, it looked like the princess had already been crushed. Her face was pale and expressionless.

Even more chilling was the head maid’s declaration, like a judge, in the silence that fell after the nobles abruptly stopped their barrage.

“Please don’t disregard our sincerity, Your Highness the Grand Duchess. It would deeply hurt us. Aren’t you becoming a person of Lusenford now?”

How could such a thing happen? Cecile, the most senior of the maids who came with the princess, was about to step forward, but the princess stopped her with a gesture under the table. Marie could only pray for the Grand Duke’s swift return.

“I am a person of Lusenford too. I just hope there won’t be any severe illness from eating. That would be embarrassing.”

The princess pulled up the corners of her mouth in a smile, her face deathly pale. The three maids, unable to move without orders, didn’t find it funny, but loud laughter erupted.

“How bad could it be? If you’re a person of Lusenford, you’ll overcome it bravely!”

“Of course! What’s a little illness compared to the cold of Lusenford?”

“Even if you’re embarrassed, we’ll pretend not to notice!”

The word “Lusenford” was tacked onto the end of every sentence, enough to make one’s ears ring.

Knowing well that the people remaining here had particularly loud voices, Kaela moved her fork. She put the dry meat, soaked in tour berry preserves and juice, into her mouth and chewed.

“How is it? It’s fine, right? You were worried for nothing.”

“When you come to Lusenford, your courage increases! It must have been a bit difficult in the South!”

The maids from Ostein were speechless at this incredible scene.

Kaela repeatedly put the tasteless meat into her mouth and chewed slowly, her expression blank. When she first married, she had taken a small bite, realized something was wrong, immediately spat it out, and never touched it again.

The Grand Duchess had been firmly branded here too, all because of one dish that was cooked in mountains once a year and mostly left uneaten.

No matter how much she said it made her throat sore and breathing difficult when she ate it, everyone insisted that “the weak and cowardly southerner dares to disrespect Lusenford.”

Thinking about it now, she should have just eaten it all and died right there. What foolish dream had she been dreaming? It wasn’t even funny that she had the stupid thought that God had taken pity on her and brought her back to life.

This place was still the same, and she was just a young Grand Duchess. No matter how hard she tried, the gaze of the head maid and the chef was always terrifying.

The young Grand Duchess, who found it difficult to adapt, had no adults to turn to for help and struggled with her first experiences.

After enduring and enduring, she regretted watching the maids she had brought from Ostein fall ill one by one from the cold, with one eventually dying of fever. She should have just sent them back home.

Perhaps now she could send them back.