Chapter 44

“You seem very excited. Am I bothering you?”

Slip. An ominous shadow appeared from behind the tree, and my heart dropped in my chest with a thunk.

I recognized her existence before I neared her.

“How dare you. I have asked you a question, mother.”

“……Lania.”

After all, there was no way another person could exist in this world that harassed other people as arrogantly as she did.

“You should call me Lady Lania, if you know your place.”

“……”

“I really doubted it, but to think I would meet you here of all places.”

She made an expression as if she was both very surprised and yet not surprised at all.

Like she had predicted that I would reappear here again, she leisurely stepped closer to me.

“After the cocky way you acted last time, I never thought you would be going around however you want like this again.”

“So you’re here because…..”

When I looked past her, my expression fell in futility.

A wire fence rose behind her, seemingly encompassing the entire boundary of the Dukedom’s territory, and the side road was completely blocked by it.

It was so tightly enclosed that I strained my eyes trying to find a gap in it.

“Why? What’s with your disappointed expression?”

“……”

“Don’t tell me—were you really going to escape or something?”

Her laughter ridiculing me went past my ears, and her eyes landed on the basket I held in my hands.

Pfft. Her lips seemed to say ‘I thought as much,’ and the corners of her mouth relaxed as if she was playing with a mouse that was already caught in the trap.

“I don’t know if you developed some nerves, but I didn’t know you would be this reckless. Did you think that since you made it out once, you’d be able to do it again?”

“Stop being so rude.”

T/N: Starting from when she told her to call her “Lady,” Lania has been using informal speech with her, which is probably what Catherine is talking about by calling her rude.

“It’s you, mother, who should stop doing whatever you want and making things difficult. When I think of how big your head became just because you spoke a few words with the Emperor, you should be grateful I’m keeping you alive.”

“Hah…. So that was it?”

A bitter sneer burst out of me before I could stop it.

I had suspected as much from when she had started being sarcastic, but once she revealed herself that clearly, I couldn’t hide how drained I felt.

“Look here, Miss eldest daughter. Were you feeling that jealous because His Highness said he would view the lake with me? Enough to cut down a completely fine tree and anxiously block out a road like this?”

“What did you say?”

“Lania, I understand very well that you don’t treat people’s lives as worth any more than a bug’s, but at the very least it’s so impolite for you to use that as a way to take out your frustrations about your unrequited love. No, isn’t that just embarrassing to that dignity of yours as an oh-so-important princess?”

“Shut up, Catherine.”

“……”

She grit her teeth so hard that her cheeks were trembling.

Seeing how the girl who barely got worked up over almost anything beside herself this much, her heart towards that man must have been actually sincere.

“You better hold that tongue of yours well if you want to stay alive. It will be troubling if you plan to escape with your leash loose just because you got to do what you wanted that one time.”

“….who’s escaping!”

But I was the same, getting angry because she hit the nail on the head.

Especially when the aura around Lania sharpened fearfully, which felt like she would smash my basket to pieces at any given moment.

“Then what, were you going on a picnic all dressed up? One might think you managed to catch a fine enough man. If I didn’t know you were a cursed black swan, mother, you might have convinced me, too.”

“……”

“I don’t know what other plausible excuse you’re trying to make up, but I’ve already warned you. Your life, Catherine, will start and end at this lake from now on.”

Lania’s arrogant voice enclosed me as tightly as the wire fence around us.

A very delighted tone of voice.

She specialized in cornering people and throwing them under the bus, so there was probably no other time she would be this delighted apart from now.

“Open that right now.”

“Why should I!”

“….my, it seems like my foolish mother still hasn’t realized what situation she is in.”

Her arms crossed, Lania haughtily lifted an eyebrow. She really reminded me of your common female bully that could be found in alleyways anywhere, who had done this kind of thing many times before.

“Please don’t act as if I would try to take what little you have from you. I only want to compensate you according to what comes out of there.”

“You think I would have tried to steal your family’s things?”

“So, you’re not?”

If she was any different from those female bullies, it was that Lania had the actual power to crush a person’s life underfoot.

“My magician will be coming to see me soon. You should know them well too.”

“….Don’t tell me….”

“That’s right. It’s the very same person who generously gifted you with the feathers all over your body, mother.”

She intentionally hit my shoulder, as if asking me if I could not remember.

The truth was that when I had opened my eyes, I had already been cursed, so I had never met this magician personally. But there was no doubt whatsoever that whoever he/she was, he/she was not a good person.

“I’ve already been cursed, what more are you trying to do? Turn me into a black swan completely?”

“No. As if I could. I do still need my mother as a human from time to time.”

“…..”

She lifted her chin out, laughing ominously in a way that concealed her intentions. .

“But if I think about it, does it really need to be an intact human?”

“So what are you going to do?”

“You are likely mentally unsound already. I’m just saying, it would be much more fitting if your body was just as unsound as your mind was.”

“…..”

It was a low and dirty threat that suited her very well, but as someone hearing that threat, a chill ran up my spine unbidden.