CH 20

Episode 20: Helplesness

Isaac, who had been staring at me with a face that looked quite similar to his colleagues, slowly hardened his expression.

He seemed to think that I am not only leaving the room freely, but also holding on to anyone and playing pitiful shamelessly. What a scoundrel.

Nevertheless, for some reason, I didn’t want to be scolded in front of Freya’s brother. Isn’t that too miserable?

So I faltered and turned.

Let’s go back to my bedroom for now. At least he’s angry, so he’ll have to come to anything. Then…….

“Madam?”

I hope that my body will endure it well, but my back hurts so badly that something caught my foot and I fell down.

It was a new dress and now it’s splattered with mud. What a waste.

I was trying hard to stand up, but suddenly my body was lifted into the air.

No! Not here, you bastard!

“You…”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“What?”

“I just wanted to give you a birthday present, so after giving it to you, I was going to go back right away. I didn’t mean to show up like this.”

I was so embarrassed holding back my tears, but instead I got hiccups. God damn it.

I’m embarrassed. I’m more embarrassed than when I had a nosebleed the other day.

I was so embarrassed that I kept crying.

I put my finger in my mouth and tried to press down against my tongue, but he grabbed my hand with a vice-like grip.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Huh?

I raised my head with a whimper. The wide-opened ruby-like eyes felt somewhat strange to me.

“I heard you said I didn’t have to go to the banquet, but I wanted to give you a present…….”

“What the hell are you talking about? What? Who said that?”

No?

That wasn’t the case? As expected, the maid lied to me!

You evil woman! At the same time as anger, relief also flooded in like a wave.

That’s a relief. The situation wasn’t that bad.

Oh, I lived. The straw is back. It’s worth the hard work!

I quickly rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand and smiled broadly.

“Then you didn’t hate to see me at all, right? Can I give you the present?”

The cold-hearted husband held on to me and just stared at me for a moment without saying a word.

If I had known him well enough, I would call this strange expression as a feeling of helplessness for some reason.

I don’t think it’s an appropriate emotion to describe this monster to be powerless, but…….

His expression was really strange. It was a complete mess; a mixed of anger, relieved, somewhat painful, and seemingly inexhaustible.

“Why are you….”

The man who opened his lips as if to say something soon clenched his teeth.

He looked like he was having a hard time.

I’m the one who’s sick, but why is he having a hard time? Such a weird fellow

It was then that there was an untimely commotion over his large shoulders.

“You bastard, you……! Did you, this crazy bastard, secretly sang the song again behind my back?!”

“Oh, no! I really only did it once….… Argh!”

“What did I say I’d do if you sang that song one more time?! Huh?!”

“That’s not what… Argh! Wait a minute! Please listen to me!”

This is it, I guess I unintentionally gave Lorenzo a big fuck. I don’t feel very sorry.

As our obedient Sir Ivan pulled Lorenzo’s ear, Isaac, who was staring at me in the distance, slowly looked back.

“What song?”

All the sound snapped to a halt. Not only the Paladins who watched the scene with a blank face, but also Sir Ivan, who was bloody swearing, and Lorenzo, who was screaming and denying, closed their mouths as if they had promised, and there was a strange silence.

Isaac opened his mouth again.

Unlike his twisted personality, his voice, which came out in a gentle tone, sounded more eerily than expected.

“What song?”

Ah, right. He was an extraordinarily strict man, not to mention a bastard.

I understand that everyone lost their tongues because the aide before Endymion was kicked out for singing such an obscene song.

Aside from wanting to give Lorenzo some more shit, I didn’t want to hear the song again.

I didn’t want this mean husband to listen to such a disgusting song either.

I’ve already been humiliated today.

Do something about it, you proud bunch of bastards!

Why do the Paladines, who say they even kill the invisible dragon, suddenly become self-conscious like an embarrassed adolescent?

“Achoo!”

In the end, I sneezed as soon as I tried to say something.

I sneezed covering my mouth with my hand, and he wrapped his arms around me.

“Are you okay?”

I didn’t expect this outcome at all.

It’s your birthday, so it seems like you’re feeling generous.

I quickly opened my eyes, taking advantage of my husband’s feeling of generosity.

“You’re so sweet.”

“…….”

“Are you not angry anymore? You don’t hate me anymore, right?”

The persistent Isaac seemed to have noticed that I was chatting non-stop and all persistent.

The arm that embraced my body was strong, but at the next moment, he took his step.

“Let’s go inside.”

Hey, wait a minute. This isn’t it.

Hey, husband, are we going in like this? I am well aware that my appearance is very disgraceful.

Surely he has a knack for ruining the good atmosphere.

“Ruby?”

As soon as I entered the noisy banquet hall, Ellenia approached immediately.

She looked quite shocked, unlike her.

“What’s going on…… How did this happen? What the hell happened, brother?”

“Let’s talk about the details later. Let’s start with her clothes. You go and tend to it and bring her back.”

Oh, he’s out of his mind. I wish I had a day when I knew his twisted mind.

So I was led by Ellenia into a room upstairs.

The maids moved busily. Fortunately, the handkerchief and letter in the sleeve were not wet, perhaps because they were tightly wrapped. They were packed separately in a silk pocket.

Ellenia put her hand on my forehead and let out a strange sigh.

“Ruby, the head maid said that Ruby was too ill to attend. When I went to check earlier, I thought you were really sick because you were fast asleep. What the hell happened?”

I’m curious about that, too. Why don’t you ask the head maid?

“I have some menstrual cramps, but I’m fine. I heard that I don’t have to attend the banquet today.….”

“What? Who said that?”

Instead of answering, I bowed my answer.

As the head maid was Ellenia’s nanny, I did not want to appear prematurely framing her.

Besides, even if I didn’t have to answer, Ellenia seemed to have already figured out the answer.

“Huuu….”

I glanced up again, and there was a complex expression on her face, which is like a piece of cold ice. What is she thinking?

“First of all… Have you taken the medicine? Does it still hurt?”

“I took painkillers earlier, but I don’t think it’s effective.”

“You there, go get some painkillers. It’s not a normal painkiller. It’s the one my brother uses.”

The one that Isaac uses?

As I tilted my head and looked at it, Ellenia swept my shoulder once as if to relax.

“He’s not sick. He just uses it when he works.”

Aha. You mean the painkiller for Paladin or something. Will it work for me?

The blue painkiller, which looked like eye candy, was very effective.

I wondered how much pain I was in earlier.

I felt much more alive after the pain of crushing my waist and pelvis went away and changing into a new soft dress. Is this a sign of luck starting to grow? I hope so.

After putting on a little makeup and calmly combing my still-dry hair, I went back to the banquet hall with Ellenia.

There was a lot of attention, but surprisingly, there was no baptism of questions expected.

“Ruby, eat something first. I don’t think you’ve eaten anything all day.”

I’ve been feeling this since the last time that Ellenia keeps trying to feed me. I appreciate her kindness, but she doesn’t have to worry about it to be honest.

“Ellen, what is going on here? What’s wrong with Iz all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know yet. I’ll go first, so look after her for me.”

Am I a kid?

I’m the same age as you guys. It’s because I’m a little short. Why am I suddenly sad?

I glanced at Ellenia as I pretended to nibble at the lemon cake.

The corridor behind the pillar felt quite noisy. The atmosphere was quite pleasant..

What’s going on? What did my audacious husband do all of a sudden?

He was a cold-blooded fellow who told me to bring me back and then left me alone.

“Madam, are you all right? I heard you’re sick, but…….”

I mean, why did you show up here?

“Well, things are a little complicated, but it’s okay now.  Thanks for asking.”

“That’s a relief. I was really surprised earlier. What happened to Iz?”

Well, I shook my head vigorously to mean I didn’t know the situation either.

Freya was reluctant to be next to me, and her eyes constantly glanced over there was a strong desire to go.

“I’m really fine, so you can do something else. There must be a lot of people to greet.”

“Oh…… or if you’re not feeling well, tell anyone right away. You got it, right?

Who would I appeal to when I’m feeling unwell?

By the way, why did my husband insist on bringing me back?

You’re not going to tell me you’re going to break up with me in this place right now.… No, no, no! Let’s not have a negative delusion.

“Madam,”

After Freya disappeared, I was about to choose a fruit cocktail, trying to blow away negative delusions off my mind.

For some reason, I turned my attention to the small voice I heard below.

“Princess Arien?”

“I thought you weren’t coming out today.”

A cute girl with red-brown hair in pigtails. It was Princess Arien.

***

T/N: Now readers let’s have some fun facts regarding history and how our lovely author researched about the rl history to write this novel

If any of you are familiar with history, you will have heard the name ‘Borgia Family’ or the very least Pope Alexander VI at least once. This real life family is the inspiration of the Borgia family in the novel. There are so many reference in the novel about the family and I will break it down for you

Real-Life!Borgia:

1. A Spaniard family who moved to Italy.

2. Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) had four children that he recognized as his – but the most famous ones are Cesare and Lucrezia.

3. Rodrigo was known to be an opportunist and bribed his way up to his Pope position. He is known to be a corrupt Pope.

4. Lucrezia had been married off three times. The first time the wedding didn’t happen because Rodrigo ‘get rid’ off the groom. The second time the marriage was annulled. The third time, Lucrezia stayed in a happy marriage.

5. Lucrezia and Cesare had a ‘toxic’ relationship and were rumored to be lovers.

6. Lucrezia was rumoured to help his family poisoning their enemies and helped to gain power for her father and brother (Cesare).

now let see the Borgia and Rudbeckia in the novel

1. Rudbeckia in past life (before she got isekai’d) was adopted into a Spanish family -> then she woke up to be in Rudbeckia’s body.

2. Rudbeckia’s homeland is Romagna – which is a historical place in Italy.

3. Rudbeckia’s father is the Pope and he had mistress and lovers (Rodrigo Borgia was known to sire illegitimate children – he sleeps around a lot).

4. Rudbeckia had annulled her marriage twice before she married Isaac

5. Rudbeckia has a toxic relationship with Cesare – he abused her physically.

6. In the OG story – Rudbeckia was known to help her family to poison other people (Isaac’s sister) and helped her corrupted family

Rudbeckia may not be Lucrezia – but her situation mirrored Lucrezia very much. With the context of the novel, the author chose to name MC as ‘Rudbeckia’ which is a very odd name but it has a lovely meaning.

Rudbeckia is a flower name which in the flower language means: Encouragement and Motivation. It derived from the flower’s history which was able to survive after being moved from one place to another

now, on to the Britannia…

Just based off the name Britannia is inspired from real-life Britain. All the names that you seen in Britannia Kingdom in the novel are connected to real-life Britain one way for another.

However, upon further digging there are more to it than just a simple level surface connection. If you noticed, in the novel, the relationship between the Church in Romagna and Britannia was not quite good. Everyone in Britannia was tensed and ready for a war at any time with the Church while the Pope was trying to gain favour with the King in Britannia. In real life, the only time that Catholic Church has problem with Britain was during Henry VIII’s reign. Funnily enough…. the timeline actually match (almost – at least).

In real life, Pope Alexander VI was in his position from 1492-1503. During this time, Henry VII (father to Henry VIII) was in throne. Henry VII took English throne after being exiled to Brittany (now Welsh) and claimed to be the king of Welsh and Ireland. He allied with the French then fought for British throne. During his reign he was amicable with Catholic Church but unlike other monarchy, the Pope wasn’t able to take much part in the day to day work of the church in England.

In the novel, the relationship between Henry VII-Catholic Church was portrayed with how the Paladins are detached from the church and under the King’s jurisdiction. Britannia (in the novel) didn’t have their own knights, but use paladins instead. Usually, paladins are more associated with church or any religious group because they are knights who has divine power. In the novel, it was also mentioned that the Paladins were ready to side with the Royal Family if any war break out with the North (the church). This is a great nod to Henry VII’s autonomy of the church in england.

Of course, in real life, the conflict between England-Catholic Church only happened during Henry VIII’s reign, but author (probably) decided to use the animosity to give tension and plot in the story.

There are few more (fun)fact that can support the theory of the King in the Novel (I keep forgetting his name) as a nod to Henry VII.

1. The Queen (in the novel).

We are told that the queen is from a lowly class – a dancer of sort which cause the court not able to give Princess Airen the title of being ‘princess royal’. Well, in real life, Henry VII’s wife, Elizabeth of York, was also not welcomed by his court due to her family history. Elizabeth of York was the daughter of Edward IV, but upon the death of her father, the parliament under Richard III order, had deemed the marriage of her parents to be illegitimate. This cost Elizabeth her position as royal princess and any prospect of marriage. She only had her position as York Princess instead. Henry VII married her despite Elizabeth ‘low’ status and his court protest (his mother wasn’t happy about it). However, they did end up having a good and ‘loving’ marriage.

2. The palace name.

In the novel, the palace is called ‘Angevin’. Historically Angevin is an Empire that took possession of England during 12th and 13th century. Angevin itself is a French empire origin. We can assume that this is a nod to Henry VII’s history of allying with the French during the coup to take the throne.

honestly…. I truly applaud the author for coming up with all the names for the character that if you google the name you can find them to be related one way or another to either the Borgia or Britain.

[Huge credits to my dear friend for providing me this info she is a huge history and tudor era lover]