Chapter 40

I held up the biggest spoon in the mood of playing with dolls. It was the biggest of all that lay, but smaller than a teaspoon. I tried to scoop up the soup with it, but it was only a rat’s tail.

Fork couldn’t even lift the lettuce from the salad. The knife, which is good in size, was so slow that it could not even penetrate the surface of the meat that was baked smoothly.

‘This is interesting.’

I took turns lifting the utensils as if I were playing a joke. And I touched the steaming food in front of me with them. I wanted to see if I can’t eat it.

‘How on earth did Emily fly the food so hard when the kitchen was in such a bad situation?’

Come to think of it, it was. Even if rotten food is distributed, employees working in the kitchen are poorly treated.

Emily has brought me a whole bunch of healthy food since I threatened her. In addition, sometimes when I talk about the food I want to eat, she even made it awkwardly.

‘I should give her a prize when I get back to my room.’

In the meantime, I felt a little sorry for Emily for setting up an iron wall. In addition, I thought, looking at the dishes that had been randomly shriveled on the plate with my eyes.

‘You’d better kill the flag.’

After all, I couldn’t eat a single bite properly. As expected, the Duke and the two brothers had no idea whether I was eating or playing with food.

This was Penelope’s position.

“The festival is already over.”

It was when the meal time was somewhat ripe. The Duke opened his mouth with wine. But I was the first target.

“You’re not going out on your last day?”

“Yes.”

In a state of irritation, I answered bluntly.

Penelope must have been out on the last day of the festival.

I didn’t want to do that, and I didn’t want to please the Duke because I couldn’t even touch these delicious things in front of me.

However, my cold attitude instantly turned the eyes of the first and second. I’m blinking in favor

‘Oh, you swordsmen.’

I looked back at The Duke with a smile that had not come out.

“I’m on probation.”

“Well, He’s been using his word of duty for a long time.”

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The Duke kicked his tongue as if my answer was disapproving.

“I’ve never seen a cripple claiming to be on probation because of a single slave.”

Leonard was sarcastic. No one responded as if it were ever happening. I didn’t even expect anyone to shut his mouth, so I didn’t care and threw a stop to myself.

“There’s other reason why I called you to have lunch today…”

Meanwhile, the Duke told me the real reason why he even called me here.

“Because of the upcoming hunting competition.”

‘………. Hunting Competition?’

I pondered over the contents of the game. It didn’t immediately occur to me whether there was such a thing.

“It’s going to be held again in the northern forest of the palace.”

In the meantime, The Duke gracefully laid down the tableware and continued to speak.

“As you all know, this hunting competition is significant. The crown prince decided to release rare animals representing each country, including royalty and aristocrats from the country that was subjugated by the war.”

“………”

“The eyes of those who support the crown prince for not participating in the war are not favorable. At times like this, it would be better to consolidate our status.”

“So, last night, at a meeting of the nobility, Eckart also expressed his intention to attend the hunt.”

They were words that had nothing to do with me anyway. While half-heartedly listening to The Duke, I suddenly remembered the “hunting contest” in the game.

[The Inca Empire holds a hunting competition every quarter. To impose indirect pressure on rare creatures or slaves in each defeated country.]

I have seen a brief background explanation while playing Normal mode.

However, FL was not able to attend the hunting competition at this time. This is because Penelope secretly fed poison to the returning “real princess” who was jealous of the attention of the male leads.

FL, who couldn’t go to the hunting competition because she was wandering, instead raised Eckliss’s favorability left in the mansion. It was the moment when Penelope’s last hope left.

Since then, the hunting competition has disappeared as a woman like a relative who has failed to see the evil deeds of the cruel empire persuaded the crown prince.

And at the end of Crown Prince Root, Penelope is simply tortured as all the atrocities she committed against the FL are revealed.

It was a torture of freezing the heart alive so that it could not die and feeding the poison that had been fed to the FL one by one. Penelope’s face, which had been cruelly melted by the poison.

Ugh!

I shuddered reflexively as a series of vivid illustrations emerged. It was then. The Duke, who talked about the aristocratic meeting, suddenly turned to me.

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“Penelope.”

“Yes, yes?”

I didn’t listen at all to what he said, but I was stunned and stuttered like a fool. Fortunately, The Duke  take it lightly.

“A vote was made at the meeting to lift the ban of woman participation.”

“Participation…banned?”

“Yeah… what are you think about it?”

I couldn’t answer the Duke’s question right away.

‘What’s that about?’

I didn’t know what kind of violence Penelope had in the hunting competition. I felt uneasy.

As I hesitated, The Duke asked me again whether I would participate.

“If you’re going to participate, I’ll tell them to trim your hunting gear as well.”

“Father!”

It was then. Boom, pink hair pounded the table violently and shouted violently.

“That crazy bitch, no, that girl, she did something last year, and she’s going to do it again!”

“Leonard.”

The Duke kicked his tongue and called out his second son.

“When I think of the time when aristocratic’s daughters were flocking around and begging me that it’s like keeping them in prison at every hunting contest.”

But despite the Duke’s dissuasion, Leonard stared at me furiously until the end and shook his teeth. His eyes were looking at the bandwagon.

First of all, we need to figure out what the situation is. I went out as brazen as Penelope.

“What did I do?”

“Do you ask because you don’t know?”

‘Then if I know, do you think I’ll ask?’

The words I wanted to shoot at Leonard, who had a sneaky answer, filled my throat. But I had to put up with it. We need to know the whole story by provoking him.

But the answer I really wanted came from an unexpected person.

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“I asked other ladies to make a crossbow that they didn’t care about.”

The calm voice compared to Leonard made me turn my head. The first one stared at me with blue eyes and whispered softly.

“You must have already forgot, even though it was dangerous, you took it with you, overpowered the guards like a  beast and running around to shoot and kill Countess Kellin and her flock at the tea party.”

“So for a while there was a rumor that someone was teaching the crossbow to a crazy chimpanzee in Eckart.”

As soon as Derek was finished, Leonard smiled coldly and sarcastically.

‘I’m going to get ruined…’

I couldn’t answer anything back because of the enormous violence that I couldn’t get rid of. But it wasn’t as surprising and shocking as I was prepared.

‘Yeah, she’s the worst villain in the game, and she should have done that.’

It was not as drunk as some of the truths you see at the opening meeting, but it was a sufficiently manageable line.

“Stop it. I’m sure she had regretted enough.”

While I was silent, the Duke stopped two men who peeled me off in a quivering voice. It was not a bad timing, even though I had already been reprimanded.

As the two sons shut up, the Duke looked at me with a grave look and warned.

“You still remember that Eckart’s mouth is heavy, Penelope.”

“Yes, you won’t be disappointed this time, Father.”

I answered promptly. I heard the sound of grinding my teeth from one side to see if the medicine was getting better.

“Okay, that’s all I’m going to say.”

The Duke lightly struck the bell on the table, as if all the words had been said. Then the door of the dining room opened and an servant with a cart pulled in. It was a dessert.

‘I didn’t even eat, what kind of dessert is that?’

I looked at the servant with gloomy eyes, each laying down a different dessert.

A middle-aged woman named Mrs. Donna has long been in charge of the Duke’s kitchen. And that’s how much they understood their taste in food.

In front of Duke and Derek were tea cups with black tea, and in front of Leonard a plate with handmade cookies.

It was my turn next. I didn’t mind anything because I originally like desserts.

‘What is it?

However, I had no choice but to frown at the plate placed in front of me. It was a mellow milk pudding.

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