CH 14

Frederick’s gaze was not favorable. 

Nevertheless, their reaction to the king was similar to that at the masquerade. The maids were fascinated as much as they were terrified by the presence of Frederick Grechis. 

The gazes of the four noble ladies were filled with a craving that it was doubtful they would ever be satisfied. 

There were only two who were not in love with Frederick. One was Millicent, who was less than thrilled by male charms and the like. She looked warily and with interest at the maids who were valiantly trying to capture the king’s gaze. She wondered how much practice it would take for her to reach the point where she, too, could mimic that strange emotion. 

And the other was Jadalin. The queen only blinked her eyes as if it was her life-long wish to kill her charming husband. 

“I was just helping the queen sew shirts for the poor.” Elizabeth replied bravely. 

“I see.” Frederick flipped through Elizabeth’s sewing. “You’re very skilled.”

Elizabeth’s face at once flushed red.

“My wife is a charitable queen.” Frederick gently bowed his head in Jadalin’s direction as he pretended to admire her.

“A queen of His Majesty the King should naturally be kind.” Jadalin replied with a look of chewing on a piece of glass. 

“But don’t the young ladies want more entertainment?” Frederick cynically pointed out the nature of the sense of benevolent sewing held by the queen and her attendants. It was just a gaudy pretense.

“We were just about to have some fun with the maid who can read fortune using cards!”

Suddenly, Jane intervened. Her eyes twinkled brightly. She seemed to assume that the king had become equally bored because of the boring funeral mass. She must be eager to seize the opportunity to attract his attention. 

“Fortune-reading maid?” Frederick’s grayish gaze searched for Millicent without difficulty. “You look familiar.”

Bony words aside, the look in his eyes exuded more interest than any expression of familiarity. 

Frederick stared at Millicent among the ladies in their fancy gowns. Her crisp white hat was clean of the stain from Charlotte’s spilled wine. The dirty apron she hadn’t washed and changed after the tea she’d spilled earlier, so she lowered her eyes to avoid eye contact with the king.

“Bring His Majesty a cup of tea, Millicent,” Jadalin did not miss Frederick’s gaze either. 

He looked as if he were about to rise again, like the night he had ordered his golden goblet to be filled with wine.

Millicent tilted the teapot into the white glass. Hot steam was rising languidly.

On the way to handing over the teacup, her fingertips grazed his as he accepted. 

“Thank you, Millicent.”

The meaningless skin contact, the thank you, and the name Millicent—— strangely enough, a strange shiver went through her body. It wasn’t just Millicent who felt it. Everyone felt it. 

Ophelia’s suspiciousness, Elizabeth’s solemnity, Jane’s jealousy, and Adriana’s discomfort suddenly came rushing in.

“You know how to read fortune with cards?” Frederick asked, bringing the teacup to his lips. 

He ignored the strange wave he had given others. It was the kind of reserve that a man accustomed to his presence and influence would have.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Millicent decided to stick to the short answer as best she could. 

“Interesting.”

Frederick’s words gave Millicent an ominous feeling.

“Will you take a look at my luck, too?” Sure enough, Frederick asked with a grin. 

“I don’t have the talent to show Your Majesty the King.” Sensing an unknown danger, Millicent humbly refused.

“That would be a matter for me to judge.”

But Frederick easily broke through her stubbornness. His gray eyes never let go of Millicent. 

There was no way to escape.

Millicent had no choice but to pull the cards from her apron pocket. The crude picture she had baited Charlotte Brennan unfolded again. 

“What would you like to know?” Millicent asked, mixing the cards. 

“Does it have to be about the future?”

“The more specific the question, the more precise the cards will answer.” 

The more precise the question, the easier it was to cheat. Millicent, being only a con artist, had to lure him in the direction of probability. 

“Really?” Fortunately, Frederick readily played. “There’s a young lady who’s been on my mind lately, but I’m not sure what she’s like.”

He said it like it wasn’t a big deal, but the ladies didn’t hear it that way. 

The jubilation flashed across the faces of the ladies-in-waiting. ‘Don’t tell me you’re referring to me?’ Unfounded anticipation filled the air. 

Meanwhile, Jadalin’s dislike for her husband deepened. 

“Look for the lady.” Frederick slowly leaned back in his chair. “What’s her luck with me?” 

So Millicent had unexpectedly walked into a trap.

She didn’t know why Frederick asked such a question, not befitting his reputation for being scary and cold. 

Jadalin had no wish other than the death of her husband and the ladies. The ladies only wanted to hear nice things about themselves, exerting silent pressure…All of them were annoying.

Anyway, ordinary people have too many emotions and that was a problem. Millicent presented a deck of cards, all mixed together, with a “Be as good as you can” mindset. 

“Just pick one card, Your Majesty. ” 

There was no point in choosing more than one card, since all she was about to say would be a bunch of gibberish anyway. 

Frederick was different from Charlotte. There wasn’t even a hint of worry. He just chose the first card that caught his eye and turned it over on his own before he was told to. 

“Death…” He read the words on the card.Then he smiled. “Tell me what it means.” 

Frederick ordered as such, though his mind seemed to already have a predetermined meaning.

“It seems that Your Majesty and that lady won’t have a good relationship.”

The death card, of all cards, had come out. It could not be roughly packaged like other abstract cards. 

“Well, it’s better to just let it pass.”

“What kind of person is that lady?” Frederick stared at Millicent intently. The look in his eyes was similar to the one on the night he had assured her he would find out one more thing about her the next time they met.

This caused Millicent to interpret the death card as her own story.

“She’s a little different from the average ladies.”

“For the better?”

“No, on the bad side,” Millicent shook her head. “Absolutely not someone who can feel the same emotions that Your Majesty feels.”

“Then what does she feel?

“Death.” 

She stared blankly at the card Frederick had drawn. Six skeletons hanging at the bottom. The Grim Reaper, stepping on them and lifting his scythe high, dressed as white as Millicent’s hat. 

“…a person who can only feel death.” 

“You mean someone who will die soon?” 

Frederick did not follow Millicent’s gaze. His eyes were fixed exclusively on her.

“Death can mean many things.” Millicent bowed her head. The long cloth of her hat coming down to her shoulders hid her expression. 

“Besides simply dying.” She lowered her eyes as well. If there was any emotion she could not yet hide, she did not want it to show. “Only Your Majesty would know what death means in this card.” 

Nonetheless, it was an unfamiliar and dangerous feeling to be unable to hide anything from his gaze.

“What’s her initials?”

The atmosphere was getting stranger and stranger, and Jadalin interrupted. 

“I heard you gave Lady Charlotte that initials?”

It was not a very favorable interest. She had no interest in enjoying the entertainment. The queen wanted to know who the king was referring to as much as the ladies. At the same time, she wanted to create confusion in the minds of the ladies, who hoped it would be them. Before 

Millicent could answer, Frederick abruptly said, “It’s AB, isn’t it?”

“AB?” 

For a moment, Millicent’s mind went white. Ann Belvard’s initials were not fit to come out of the king’s mouth. 

“Hmm, the wrinkled hem on the Grim Reaper makes it look like an A and a B.” Frederick pointed to the picture of the card. 

Very much like that outfit worn by the Grim Reaper in the card, or whatever it was, it didn’t even look anywhere near the alphabet. It was just a hopelessly wrinkled depiction of clothing by a terrible artist.

What, simply stupid? Millicent relaxed.

“Is Your Majesty’s character surprisingly susceptible to superstition?” She clicked her tongue. “Oh, no no no! I meant to say that you have an excellent spiritual eye!”

Millicent finally remembered that she was committing fraud with her cards. “I’m sure it must be so.”

Millicent decided to continue with her vague reply. “The answer to the card is up to Your Majesty’s heart.”

“That’s pure bullsh*t.” Surprisingly, Jane Grant saw right through Millicent’s game. “They say fortune tellers are one of a kind, but this girl really just cheats.”

Adriana helped. “Surely you’re not the clown who couldn’t even see the death that loomed right in front of Lady Charlotte when you looked at her fortune.”

She did not forget to sneer. “A foolish maid, wanting to stand out, has resorted to nefarious tricks.”

“Never mind her, Your Majesty,” Ophelia added, not to be outdone. 

“In a way it is only natural. How dare a mere maid preempt the holy will of the Creator Mother?” Finally, Elizabeth drove a wedge. 

“It was interesting.” It was Jadalin who sided with Millicent, who was beaten mercilessly. “She had a point.”

“Did you think so too, my queen?” Frederick smiled.

“The card struck my heart very accurately.” (Jadalin)

Millicent was as dismayed as the ladies at the favorable response. 

Frederick stood up, shaking his shoulder cape, “Because I have just come for one of the ladies.” 

His well-muscled, well-proportioned chest was prominent under his riding clothes. 

“Lady Adriana!” 

Adriana jumped at the sudden call of her name by the king.