Ye Tang rested for a while. Once her body no longer hurt at all, she got up and changed her clothes. Of course, she did not forget to casually toss the clothes she had taken off toward the mirror hanging on the wall, covering the surface of that half-person-tall, oval-shaped mirror.
She would deal with this mirror later when she came back. It was now dinnertime, and she had to go dine with the king and Snow White—how lowly was Queen Marinfield’s status? So lowly that if she did not go to dinner on her own, there would be no dinner for her.
Her husband, Castellion’s King Leonardo Osborn, would not think to have the servants send food to the queen who was absent from dinner. Without the king’s orders, the servants did not dare to act on their own.
Marinfield came from the great nation of Saint Rubifalist. As Saint Ruby’s only princess, Marinfield had always kept in mind the ancestral precept: “Always appear dignified and noble, forever maintain elegance and pride.” After becoming Osborne I’s queen, Marinfield dared not tarnish the title of “queen.”
That was why, even when she had just married over and her husband treated her with an unusually cold attitude, Marinfield did not question what exactly he was dissatisfied with about her. Why had he married her if he was so dissatisfied, only to subject his new bride to the silent treatment?
Marinfield only dared to deliberately tell her maids that she felt unwell and would not join the king and Snow White for dinner. In this way, she threw a little tantrum.
At dinner, Osborne I did not see Marinfield and paid it no mind. He only focused on showing his fatherly affection to Snow White, praising how diligently she had studied that morning and how hard she had practiced her dance in the afternoon. It was only when Snow White asked, “Where is Mother?” that Osborne I vaguely remembered he had taken a stepmother.
When he heard from the maids that Marinfield was unwell, not only did Osborne I not go to visit her, but he told the maids: “Since the queen says she feels unwell and cannot eat, then you do not need to send food to her. The smell of food might make her feel even worse.”
No one knew if Osborne I truly thought that way, or if he found Marinfield’s petty tantrum unreasonable and saw no need to comfort a stepqueen who did not understand the bigger picture or know her place. In any case, Marinfield really went hungry that entire evening.
Marinfield’s self-respect did not allow her to beg anyone for food. She could not utter the words “I’m hungry” even if her mouth were torn open. So the next day, she still went hungry. The maids only brought her some warm water.
Even more ruthless, before dinner Osborne I told the maids: “Go ask if the queen’s illness has improved. If not, I permit her absence from dinner tonight as well. Of course, do not send dinner to the queen either, lest it worsen her condition.”
Marinfield was no fool. She immediately understood: Osborne I was punishing her in this manner. This hunger was a lesson, teaching her that Castellion was different from Saint Ruby. Here, she was not a pampered princess but a stepqueen who could only obey the king. Throwing tantrums would only lead to one result: getting nothing.
That evening, bearing immense humiliation and unable to overcome her hunger, Marinfield walked pale-faced to Osborne I’s side and sat down.
“The queen’s complexion looks so poor. It must be because her body has not fully recovered yet.”
As Osborne I spoke, he had the servants remove the small lamb chop and wine meant for Marinfield. Seeing that Osborne I was also about to have the pumpkin bread and meat soup taken away, Marinfield immediately beamed with joy, picked up her utensils, smiled ingratiatingly at Osborne I, and said: “Oh my dear, you really worry too much. My body is fine now, truly. Look—”
Marinfield had already forgotten what that evening’s dinner tasted like. She only remembered throwing table etiquette out the window, devouring her food without any of the grace befitting royalty.
She stuffed herself not just because she had been starved for a day. More than that, it was out of fear—she was afraid Osborne I would use her “illness” as an excuse to starve her for several more days.
Saint Ruby was extremely far from Castellion. As long as Osborne I blocked the news, no one in Saint Ruby would know how she was treated in Castellion. She had few allies there to begin with, and the only confidante she had brought from Saint Ruby was dismissed by Osborne I on the wedding day itself. If she did not obey Osborne I, she might very well end up “dying of illness.”
Snow White was only five at the time. The little girl, raised in a honey jar, was kind and innocent, still carrying the ignorance of the world. Seeing Marinfield devour her food, she thought Marinfield must be hungry, so she shared her specially prepared portion—the small lamb chop that even a child with baby teeth could chew—with Marin.
Marinfield had known before marrying over that Osborne I’s previous queen had left him a daughter, and she had come to be Snow White’s stepmother. With plans to get along well with her stepdaughter, how could she refuse the lamb chop her stepdaughter fed to her mouth?
It should have been a heartwarming scene of a loving mother and filial daughter, but upon seeing it, Osborne I wiped his mouth and said:
“Like a pig.”
After that, Marinfield could only eat salads made of beans and bean sprouts for nearly a month.
When Snow White asked why Marinfield ate so little, Marinfield smiled and replied that she was dieting to maintain her figure.
Beneath the mask of her beautiful smile, only Marinfield knew that these beans and bean sprouts were Osborne I’s punishment for her.
Because she—”like a pig.”
Traversing the spacious corridor where every step echoed, descending the long, cold, and very dim stone stairs, dragging her long skirt train to the dining hall. Knights in full plate armor on either side of the hall’s stone doors pulled them open for Ye Tang.
Judging from the castle’s architecture and the attire of the knights and servants, Ye Tang felt this world resembled the state of the 9th or 10th century AD.
“—I thought you would skip dinner tonight again due to feeling unwell.”
Seeing the person at the dining hall door, Osborne I’s smile faded. His eyes did not even glance at Ye Tang, lingering instead on Snow White’s face for a long time.
Snow White was seven this year. Her skin was as white as snow, her hair as black as ebony, her lips as red as blood. Just as depicted in the fairy tale, Snow White was exceedingly beautiful, to the point that anyone with eyes could not help but praise her.
In the rhetorical style beloved by island nation folk, Snow White was: “a once-in-a-billion-years absolute beauty.”
To have such a stunningly beautiful daughter, Osborne I himself was also a handsome and martial man. Unfortunately, at forty-five, he was old. Only the contours of his face retained traces of his youthful vigor. His body mostly exuded the decrepitude of a middle-aged man.
“Oh dear, Your Majesty actually cares so much about me. I truly do not deserve it.”
Ye Tang walked briskly. She reached one end of the long table, where the knight beside her pulled out the chair to Osborne I’s right. She sat directly across from Snow White and thanked the knight.
Osborne I frowned slightly.
Had Marinfield eaten something bad today? Though she had always shamelessly called him “dear” in the past, acting overly familiar with her flirtatiousness and flattery, today’s Marinfield seemed even more loathsome…
Calmly placing the napkin on her lap, Ye Tang acted as if she did not see Osborne I staring at her face.
An invisible pressure brewed into a storm in the air. The servants, not daring to breathe, silently served dinner to the king, queen, and princess. The entire dining hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
“Your Majesty’s steak seems quite delicious. Might Your Majesty trade it with me?”
However, as if unable to read the stagnant, rigid atmosphere in the hall, Ye Tang took a sip of wine and then said to Osborne I with a dignified and elegant smile.
The serving servants trembled on their shoulders. The palace chefs waiting in the kitchen for feedback on whether the king and princess were satisfied with dinner were also stunned.
“Q-Queen… the dinners are all the same…”
One maid stepped forward and softly reminded the oblivious Ye Tang, seemingly wanting her to read the room.
Ye Tang’s smile did not change, her tone unchanged: “Since they are all the same, then it does not matter if Your Majesty’s portion and mine are swapped, right?”
Osborne I truly despised his stepqueen’s nitpicking. Having ascended the throne through battles with enemies, he did not want to hear Ye Tang bicker endlessly with the servants over such a trivial matter, so he simply swapped their plates.
“Your Majesty…!!”
The maid paled instantly upon seeing this, but Osborne I had already cut into the steak on his plate.
“Such a trivial matter is worth all this whining…”
With that, Osborne I shoved the steak into his mouth.
“Cough hack!”
An unimaginably foul stench instantly filled Osborne I’s mouth. He clutched his mouth, bent over, and vomited onto the floor.
“Father King?”
Snow White only thought Osborne I had choked— this beautiful princess had no idea something like “rotten meat” existed in the world. To her, meat was always delicious, and what the chefs and servants served could never be bad.
“I-I’m fine…”
Osborne I said between coughs. He took a napkin from the panicking, chaotic servants amid a chorus of “Your Majesty, are you alright?” and “Your Majesty, are you okay?” and glared viciously at Ye Tang.
—Marinfield! She had known there was something wrong with the steak! She knew and that was why she swapped with him!
Meeting Osborne I’s furious gaze, the smiling Ye Tang leisurely cut into Osborne I’s original steak, ate a piece with relish, and happily cradled her cheeks with a long “Mmm~~.”
Panting heavily, Osborne I could not fail to understand that his stepqueen was cleverly telling him: she had been mistreated by the servants before, but she simply had not said anything.