I don't want to be loved

Chapter 75: Can't Fool Me Twice

(♡)

-

The Duchess, Mrs. Cesley, gave Lalisa a proper answer right away and said, "She's resting in peace. Queen, after you left for Chricton, Her Majesty retired from politics not long after. A few years ago, she moved to Burke Castle. Her Majesty thought the palace too... messy. So, it is as the king said. You need not worry too much about her, My Queen."

"...It sounds like King Jungkook drove her out."

The Duchess stopped for a moment - Lalisa too.

The Duchess, who looked around the age of forty, was a woman of mature and gentle beauty, but she did not look glum by any means. Her dark gray eyes glittered and showed unfathomable depth that seemed like it could see through all of Rihannan's thoughts. Her eyes glazed with mature age, a clear juxtaposition of a young girl who longed to break free.

But Lalisa's question prior ago caught her off guard, embarrassed her even.

When Lalisa lived in Chricton, she inherited a few traits from princess Jennie. The princess often threw wicked people off guard with questions of surprise. It showed their true colors. She'd ask sudden questions when she encountered new people. As Jennie lived in a palace full of men and women with malicious thoughts and selfish ambition, she grew up fast and learned to differentiate people's true intention or their hidden selves while unprepared.

Jennie had used this method on Lalisa once. She had ordered the silver-haired girl to work on low-level menial work. Jennie tested her, curious to know whether Lalisa had a strong ego of rebelliousness or was a dog that followed her master's orders faithfully.

But Lalisa had done something out of the tradition Jennie grew used to. Under the princess' commands, Lalisa combed her hair and said, "Princess, are you curious about who I am?"

Her questioning satisfied Jennie, and from then on, she became attached to the silver-haired girl.

Lalisa wondered what Jungkook thought of the Duchess he sent to her.

She knew the Duchess was ever faithful to Jungkook's commands, though that mattered not. The answer she sought to know was if Jungkook was trying to control her from the sidelines.

Long ago, she'd been imprisoned, deemed a criminal, a spy for exchanging letters with Vincent. Piles of evidence were strewn together incidentally and separate conclusive evidence of espionage handed to the royal family.

There, too, existed letters full of secrets between Arundell and Chrichton that were found along with her personal letters. It was not hand-written, but printed on woodblock print, so the handwriting was never revealed. However, woodblock print was used for official purposes by Arundell and thus the circumstances of the woodblock print traveling between two countries became certain.

The letters that had been found in her private stash became conclusive proof of her crimes

.

But to Lalisa, it was the first she'd seen of them. She had never exchanged letters with anyone in Chrichton other than Vincent. She surmised someone had intentionally placed those letters in her secret stash, and so she had no choice but to suspect the Maid of Honor was involved in the affair. She always had a key with her and Lalisa was unsure how she became involved with the matters. Maybe she was Roseanne's dog or she herself approached Lalisa with impure purpose from the very beginning.

Lalisa vowed that she'd never again repeat that cycle. This time she'll grasp the knowledge she never had and examine the kind of people who stood next to her. No matter how perfect a person may appear, their true self was bound to show in unexpected situations.

This was what Lalisa hoped for.

"Ha..." The duchess swiftly covered her mouth and laughed lightly. Then she bowed her head. "Oh... I'm sorry, My Queen. I made a big mistake..."

"No, it's alright. I'm no Queen right now, so there's no need to be formal," Lalisa replied coolly.

She remembered the ladies-in-waiting's ridicule and deliberately giggling and whispering menacing words in her back or close to her so she could hear... those voices of wicked laughter remained vivid and now there was nothing that could hurt her.

A lifetime of sorrow had given her strength, but it did not mean that she was immune.

🍀