“You’ve failed as a woman, that's all.”
He was Ludwig Mesurii, 71 years old. His face was heavily wrinkled, and his long white beard and hair didn’t look well-maintained with a lot of strands bent out of shape. If it wasn’t for his fine wardrobe, nobody would think he was a noble.
He was seated before Loukia who had rushed to leave Lux without permission. They were in a meager hall which was an audience hall for the Mesurii. This hall was used only when receiving diplomats and such.
Ludwig was the grandfather of Loukia and the current head of the Mesurii who ruled Vikku. Under normal circumstances, he would have retired decades ago. Alas, he did not see his son fit to rule. Sadly, even his grandson was unfit which prolonged his stay as the head of the house. Thankfully, he found his great grandson acceptable, not great but acceptable. Therefore, he was due to retire in two years and pass the baton to his great grandson who’d reach twenty by then.
“Grandfather!” Loukia attempted to defend herself to which Ludwig simply shook his head.
“Your failure to produce a male heir was the loot of the issue, is it not?”
She bit her lips in a silent protest. There was no point in arguing it. It was always women’s fault when it came to lack of male heirs.
“I have nothing left in my life, grandfather. Would you still punish me?”
“The Mesurii need the Fenchel more than they need us. I am sure you are aware of that, surely?”
In fact, the Fenchel did not need the Mesurii at all. It was them who had been sending financial aid to support their standards of living. Vikku was a small city; its tax income was nowhere enough to support the Mesurii.
“Are you implying that I should have stayed?”
“Not only did you fail as a woman, you’ve also failed as a mother. Yes, you should have stayed. If you stayed, your daughter would have been protected at least.”
At this point, they didn’t know that Icilia would be assassinated. However, Ludwig was wise and old enough to foresee the grim outcome for his great granddaughter. Without any protection from her mother, it was clear as day for him.
“However, I will give you credit where it’s due. It would have been worse if you took her with you here.”
Icilia was a child of the Fenchel. If Loukia took her to the Mesurii house, it would have become a diplomatic issue between the two houses with the Mesurii being at fault. Basically, Icilia would have been considered kidnapped by the Mesurii. Of course, if that happened, Ludwig would have sent his great granddaughter back right away while retaining Loukia for her crime. The situation would have been much worse where Ludwig might have to order outright execution to Loukia.
For her, her daughter meant little. She wanted a son and would have cared if her child was a boy. None of this would have happened if she had an heir anyway. Having not much to go on, Loukia dropped her head in defeat. He wasn’t a cold-hearted man. He did feel pity on his granddaughter. However, if he did let her go without any punishments, the Fenchel would likely raise an issue with it. In other words, it was better for him to pass her punishments through him than through a 3rd party, who would very likely slap her with harsher punishments.
“Loukia, you are hereby under house arrest for life,” He declared, “And you are exiled to the cursed villa.”
Startling, she pleaded desperately, “To the cursed villa?! Please, grandfather! Please! Anywhere but there!”
The cursed villa was located in the outskirts of Vikku. It used to be a vacation cottage for the Mesurii before an unfortunate series of murders forced them to abandon the place. That was hundreds of years ago. They attempted to renovate and revive the villa numerous times only to find whoever went there wound up going insane and eventually dead.
Thus, they started to call it “the cursed villa”. Her exile to the villa meant that her fate would be really questionable.
Ludwig stopped her by raising his palm toward her. This was the official punishment. This would be what spies would relay to their masters if there was any in this hall. As if understanding his message, she remained silent.
“That foolish girl…,” Ludwig muttered once he was back in his bed chamber. A man followed him closely. It was his advisor.
“A wise choice of the punishment, Milord,” The advisor told him, “The Fenchel won’t complain.”
The Mesurii resided in Altzell, the former capital. Their fief, Vikku, was a city with only 8,000 population. It simply did not have the infrastructure and economy to support them. Thus, they lived elsewhere. This was not unheard of as one more landed noble house resided in Altzell for the same reason.
“We need their financial aid,” Ludwig said, “As long as possible.”
One of the reasons that they were so strapped for cash was due to Ludwig’s gentle nature. He did not cull his family by setting some of unwanted family members free like the Fenchel had done. The Mesurii was covering expenses for four generations along with their extended families. In total, they were looking after approximately 60 people. In stark contrast, the Fenchel was covering expenses for around 10 people.
His refusal to cull his family was bringing the whole house to its knees as a direct result. Everyone around him knew this. Having ruled the house for more than 50 years, however, his authority was too strong to be overruled. Additionally, he wasn’t a bad ruler by any means which was evident by the fact that he was allowed to rule for such a long period especially when there were plenty of other male heirs around. Whether they liked it or not, Ludwig was the best they had, and they knew it.
“Shall I send a letter to Lux?”
“Make it so. Make it apologetic. It’s completely our fault, not theirs. Delay the divorce as long as possible.”
A divorce would mean nullifying the marriage contract between Edmund and Loukia, which ultimately meant the Fenchel would have no legal reason to provide the financial aid to the Mesurii. And, given the fact that it was Loukia who triggered it, a small compensation was all they would receive if lucky.
“I shall make it so,” The advisor affirmed. “Now, what of the lady?”
The official punishment was banishment to the cursed villa for life.
“Five years. If she can survive there for five years, we will bring her back under a new alias.”
On the surface, she would perish at one point during her five years of stay at the cursed villa. She would, then, assume a new identity and start anew as a widow of a distant relative. This was a common tactic. It was perhaps too obvious, but a five-year-banishment at a place like the cursed villa was a severe punishment for a woman in her late prime. By the time she was freed, she’d be middle-age with virtually no chance of starting a new family. Of course, she would never get to remarry anyway since she was once a wife of Edmund Fenchel.
There was an issue with this punishment and solution, however, the advisor felt. Ludwig was due to retire in two years. Will the new head of the house acknowledge and honor this? It was very unlikely because it was widely expected that culling would start after Ludwig stepped down. Regardless, he didn’t object. It wouldn’t be his problem, either. He was also going to retire along with Ludwig.
Meanwhile, Loukia was escorted to a guest room for the time being. As long as she was married, she was not a Mesurii but a Fenchel. She had no right to stay in any of the family rooms especially when she didn’t come here on good terms.
She sighed deeply as she began to undress herself and changed into a more casual dress.
“At least I don’t need to wear a corset anymore.”
Her first experience in wearing or attempting to wear a corset was a pure nightmare because she puked after wearing it for a moment. She hated wearing it ever since. This was perhaps the only siverlining in this fiasco.
Conveniently, there was a bottle of wine on a table in the room. She opened it, poured it into a glass, and pulled out what appeared to be a small silver rod from her breasts. She dipped it into the glass to check whether there was poison. If the silver rod was discolored, it was an indication for poison.
“No poison, good.”
She knew she wouldn’t be given a dedicated maid anymore; she had to look for her own safety from here on. She was also rational enough to know that the punishment her grandfather gave her was just for the show. Knowing him well, she knew she’d be taken back in several years. What she did not know, however, was the fact that he’d retire in two years, and her punishment period was five years.
Meanwhile, her parents and relatives were banned from visiting her, which quite frankly she didn’t care about. She barely knew them, even her own parents.
Sighing once more, she indulged in the wine.
A carriage arrived for her the next morning with just five guards. The guards themselves didn’t look very convincing either. It was a far cry from what she was used to back at the Fenchel manor where soldiers’ eyes were sharp as eagle’s eyes. She was skeptical whether they were trying to get rid of her during the journey by providing such a small number of guards.
Thankfully, her worry lessened when an additional group of four adventurers joined up as her carriage passed by the North gate. Alone in the carriage, she sighed as it moved on. She never imagined that her life would take a turn like this. When her arranged marriage with a Fenchel heir was decided, the whole Mesurii was delighted with the prospect, and she was seen as their savior. There was even a huge luxurious send-off when she left for Lux. She felt like she was a princess back then.
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And she was impressed how grandeur the Fenchel manor was. She had been to the royal party before and felt that the manor was comparable to the royal castle. The interior was even more impressive. She especially loved the sunny weather with a strong tendency to have showers at night. It frequently rained in Altzeel and it was often unpredictable with a cloudy sky.
She also did find the young Edmund Fenchel attractive when she met him for the first time. His face was refined, and his sharp eyes told her that he wasn’t probably a spoiled noble child.
A knock brought her back from her train of thoughts.
“Yes?”
“Milady, we are camping for the night. Make yourself comfortable.”
“Thank you.”
It was never easy making long trips. The threats at night, which those who hadn’t experienced it might laugh off, was real. Therefore, the Fenchel had always made sure that the guards used for trips were elites. She was pretty certain that it was not the case here. Alas, there was nothing she could do. She did bring a dagger but knew that she would be utterly useless in actual combat. Just as she was making herself comfortable, she heard a shout.
“A pack of werewolves along with several goblins!”
She grabbed her dagger from her luggage and held it firm in her hands.
“Form a format… Hey! Adventurers! Obey the order!”
“No, we will do our own thing. You do your stuff.”
“What the -” The guard clicked his tongue. “Fine, forget it. Men, form a formation!”
She sighed while overhearing their conversation. Teamwork and team cohesion were very important. She learned it during her stay at the Fenchel manor. Edmund personally trained guards frequently as it was a good way to train himself while at it. She observed him from afar in her room through a window. They spent more time building team cohesion than actual training.
She was startled by a painful scream at one point.
“Uuuugh! It… got me!”
She wasn’t sure whether it was one of the guards or an adventurer.
“Damn it! We will avenge Michael!”
Soon her carriage shook violently. She realized immediately that someone or something was trying to open the door. With her heart pounding hard, she aimed her dagger at the door with both of her hands. What she saw next was a bloody sword piercing through the wooden door of the carriage. The blade was dripping dark blood from its tip.
“Milady, are you safe?” A voice asked her afterward.
“Y, yes!”
“We’ve lost a man, but the situation is under control.”
She could feel her tension withdrawing from her shoulders at once. Exhaling probably the longest breath in her life, she fell back to the comfort of the carriage couch.
“That was so close…,” She whispered to herself as she relaxed.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end of her nightmares because, by the time they finally arrived at Vikku, only two guards and an adventurer survived. That was a loss of seven people. She was flabbergasted by the fact that there was such a large loss during the trip. This would have never happened if the Fenchel was in charge. Losing a person could be seen as a fluke, but losing more than half? It was a matter of standards. It was this moment that she felt the clear difference between the two houses.
Well, she was in for one more shock.
“What… is that?”
After getting off her carriage, she stared at what appeared to be a ghost house in front of her. It wasn’t just an abandoned house. It was outright a ghost house. It felt haunted. Vines dominated its visibly cracked walls, its roof was in utter tatters, all of its windows were broken. She found it amusing that the main entrance door was intact somehow, given the fact that pretty much everything else seemed to be broken in one way or another.
“Milady.” A guard approached her. He looked tired and beat. “This is to be your residence from now on. Our job ends here.”
“Is anyone living there?”
“No, Milady.”
Grimacing, she slowly turned around to face the guard.
“Are you implying that I am to live there all by myself?”
Overgrown bushes, trees, and weeds were all over in its vicinity. It was clear that nobody had been living there for God knows how long.
“No, Milady. We are going to hire a maid and a cook today, and they will start working for you by tomorrow at the earliest.”
Placing her hand on her waist, she rubbed her temple with the other hand.
“What… have I gotten myself into?” She uttered and sighed with exasperation.
She had everything in her grasp as the wife of Edmund Fenchel. Granted, she failed to give him a son he desperately wanted. However, he was willing to keep her status quo. She gave up on everything for what?
“A moment of madness…,” She whispered to herself as she dragged her luggage bag with her toward the “villa”. The carriage as well as the guards departed already at this point, leaving her completely alone and unguarded.
Sadly for now, there was no time to lament. There appeared to be some hours before sunset. She had to get a room prepared at least before darkness would embrace the land.
The villa was a two-story house that hadn’t been looked after for years if not decades, perhaps even hundreds of years. As soon as she opened the front door which creaked loudly as it motioned for the first time in a while, spider webs and heavily stagnant air welcomed her. There was some furniture; at least she thought so because they were covered with something, akin to moss.
“My word…”
She dropped her luggage and stared at … nothing. In her entire life, she had never done any of the house chores. Yes, she had seen maids performing those tasks, but that didn’t mean she was capable of doing it.
It took her a while for her to snap back to reality at which point she checked out each room to select her room. There were two rooms downstairs and four rooms upstairs. There was one unusually large room upstairs which she figured was the master bedroom of the house.
“This floor will hold my weight…, won’t it?”
The floor was making a lot of creaking noises, and there were signs of water damages which translated to roof leakage.
She sighed with exasperation once again. There was so much to do that she didn’t know what to do; she knew one thing for absolutely certain however. There was nothing she could do. She wasn’t fit for it. Upon reaching that conclusion, she left the “villa” after grabbing her coin pouch from her luggage. She had brought some money with her when she left Lux, exactly 25 silver coins. She wanted to bring more, but this was all she could muster on a short notice back in Lux. With the money in her possession, she decided to stay at a local tavern for the night.
Vikku as a settlement was only slightly more advanced than Laufeld. Having no walls, its defense was probably worse. While Laufeld was a major wheat producer, Vikku was known for its grapes and, therefore, wine.
It was easy for her to locate the local tavern because it was the only place that was packed to brim at this hour. It was also loud from casual chatters. Even from a distance, she could easily spot the place. She paused at a distance, mentally preparing to enter the place; she had never been to a tavern. A noblewoman had absolutely no reason to visit one after all. Taking a deep breath, she resumed walking toward the tavern.
The moment she took her step into the tavern, several men glanced at her. While she wasn’t wearing a luxurious dress, it was still a pretty dress which was something a peasant woman wouldn’t wear unless she was a prostitute.
“Yo! We got a new face here today!” A tipsy man at a table whistled with his mug in the air, mistaking her to be one of those women.
Loukia was a fine-looking woman. Despite her being in the 30s, she was a noblewoman, meaning her skin was still near perfect with neatly combed hair. To commoners at the tavern, she looked like an angel.
Ignoring men’s stares as best as she can, she approached a man who was behind a counter and asked for a room. He looked up and down on her while cleaning mugs with a dirty towel.
“I haven’t seen you around here. Are you a noble?”
“I am. How much for one night? Give me your best room.”
“Where are your guards?”
She was tired already. She just wanted something to eat and have some sleep.
“No more questions. Just give me your best room. I will give you a whole silver for that.”
The man’s eyes became alert at once. He called for a waitress.
“Hey, get this lady the best room we have.”
The waitress was wearing a skimpy dress which revealed her bare legs up to her knees which made Loukia frown at the sight. It was an unthinkable sight for nobles. The only time a noblewoman revealed their legs to an opposite gender would be in bed with her husband.
Where the waitress led to a room for about four people since there were four beds lined up along a wall. It was a pretty large room, definitely too big for a lone woman to spend a night with. Of course, she was used to such a big room like this. There was even a personal bathtub, albeit made of wooden planks behind a room divider.
“Do you want me to deliver some food for you?” The waitress asked.
“Would you like me to,” She corrected.
“What?”
“I beg your pardon.” She corrected her again. Soon, she made a frustrated sigh. “Sure, get me some food.”
“Okay? Fine.”
There was a round wooden table in the middle of the room with four wooden chairs around it. Even in her eyes, this room was fairly decent. If she could somehow renovate the villa to this level, she would be satisfied, she thought. After waiting for a bit, the waitress brought something?
“What is this?”
“It’s a roasted rabbit leg with a bowl of veggie soup,” She explained. “This is one of our best dishes.”
There was a spoon and that was it.
“Where is cutlery? How am I supposed to eat the rabbit leg? And where is the gravy?”
The waitress tilted her head upon hearing gravy. “What’s gravy?”
“Nevermind gravy. Answer me. How do I consume the rabbit leg?”
“Um.., you hold it? Like in your hand?”
She grimaced upon hearing that she would need to hold it with her bare hand.
“Do you have a knife and a fork?”
“Yeah, do you need it?”
“YES.”
After the waitress left to get the cutleries, she had to sigh.
“What a barbaric way to live…,” she remarked.
Fortunately, the roasted rabbit leg and the soup weren’t too bad. It was a very simple meal but did the job, and the bed was passable. In the end, she survived her first day in Vikku.
She departed the tavern around noon after taking her time with a long bath and breakfast. Energized, she walked toward the villa to finally find a maid and a man. The man was currently working on a broken window.
“Milady, where have you been? I’ve been looking all over you since last night!”
The maid was old, probably in her 50s or more.
“Do you honestly think I could have stayed in that … place? I stayed at a tavern. Who is the man?”
He wasn’t a butler for sure. She was told that a maid and a cook would arrive. He didn’t look like a chef, either. With a muscular build, he looked more like a carpenter.
“He is our cook, and he will do various chores around the house to improve this place,” The maid replied.
“You have been inside, correct? How long do you need to get this place up to the level I deserve?”
The maid was clearly reluctant to answer.
“Milady, besides our wages and a small amount to take care of you, there is no additional funding. Kevin will do what he can with materials around him. However, asking anything more than that is…”
“I do have some money.” She pulled out her leather pouch. Opening it, she handed over two silver coins. The maid’s eyes widened.
“It won’t be enough probably but should be enough to improve the immediate situation, yes?”
The maid received the coins with both of her hands as she bowed.
“Certainly, Milady. Am I allowed to use this to improve our meals as well?”
“Yes. Use however you see fit. However, the focus is improving the villa. Am I clear?”
“Yes, Milady.”
She had 22 silver coins left. She swore to use it wisely because she didn’t know how many years she’d be stuck here.
She planned to return to the noble society, somehow. For the time being, she had to survive however.