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The Acreian nobles gathered around Lady Tory while Duchess and Lady Stra sat down side by side from afar. No one came to talk to them and Lady Stra smiled bitterly. This was the same in Yapa whenever there was a feast; people flocked over Lady Tory, who was from Acreia but never around her. However, Lady Stra never felt lonely or scared because Lady Rebecca was always by her side while Poliana always kept watchful eyes over everyone from the corner.

Lady Stra said to the duchess, “This is supposed to be a party, but all we are allowed to do is just sit. Banquets in the north are so boring.” Unlike in the mid and southern regions, where both women and men were encouraged to mingle, the women were strongly suggested to remain seated in the north while the men were free to roam. Lady Stra shook her head, feeling like she was being suffocated.

The Acreian nobles sitting next to Lady Tory chatted, “Look over there, the duchess is looking at us.”

“Who cares? Haha, all we need is Lady Tory here. She is the only true lady in this room, right? Look at how quiet and lady-like she is, especially compared to those southern women.”

“I know! Did you see them walking around the banquet just a moment ago? I was so shocked!”

“Exactly, when they came to me and began to talk to me, I almost dropped my glass.”

“Lady Stra tried to make an excuse, telling me that the women are free to mingle in any parties in the mid-continent. Can you believe that? Does she not know that this is Acreia and not the mid-continent?”

Lady Tory put on a kind smile on her face and the Acreian nobles around her exclaimed and complimented her.

“Look at Lady Tory! She is a real lady!”

The men continued to talk loudly, ignoring the others who were frowning at them. The Acreian nobles continued loudly, “If things work out as we hoped, it’s going to solve so many of our problems.”

“Absolutely. And the best thing is, we didn’t have to get our own hands dirty. What luck!”

“Yes! Heaven must’ve heard our wish and decided to grant it. It must know how much we love our kingdom.”

Lady Tory’s perfect smile wavered a little, but thankfully, no one noticed it. She knew what she must do, so with a firm determination, she emptied her head and put on an even prettier smile.

These Acreian nobles didn’t expect much from her. To them, Lady Tory wasn’t much different than the maids and servants surrounding them. The only difference was that she could put on a perfect smile on her face unlike the other women, and that was the only reason why they made her the emperor’s wife.

‘Just don’t think about it. Empty your mind, Tory, just smile. That’s all you have to do.’

Lady Tory knew exactly what these men thought of all women.

‘Women have no useful thoughts.’

‘Women have no determination.’

‘Good women need to have obedience and the willingness to work.’

‘The most important part of a woman was her uterus.’

‘A woman’s purpose in life is to reproduce.’

‘Everything else, logic, intelligence, strength, and common sense, all belonged to men.’

The nobles continued to chat among themselves, “The emperor is keeping tight control over the iron mine in Acreia, which is making it very hard for us to make our weapons.”

“Well, just use the metals from the other colonies then.”

“But the best comes from Acreia. All the others are of lesser quality…”

“In addition, if we suddenly start buying the iron from other places, the emperor is going to suspect that we are up to something. Why not just go through the black market…”

The men talked about their dangers and treasonous plan as they glanced around them, making sure the other people in the banquet didn’t hear them. However, they didn’t seem to even notice that Tory was sitting right among them.

All Lady Tory could do was smile warmly. There was nothing she could do. The situation couldn’t be helped.

This was how she was raised, so that was that.

***

Unfortunately, there was no treatment or medication for broken ribs. The only thing Poliana could do was to wait patiently until they healed.

She prayed desperately, ‘Come on, just heal already!’

Poliana had never felt so helpless before. She wanted to go Yapa, but she couldn’t until her injury healed. Thinking to speed up the process, Poliana ate as much as possible. Unfortunately, the result was Poliana gaining weight rather than her bones healing faster.

“Why won’t the bones heal quickly? What more should I do? Am I not working hard enough?”

A royal doctor from the Nanaba castle asked in confusion, “Marquess Winter, what do you mean ‘work hard?’ Are you working hard to make your injury heal faster? That doesn’t make sense at all.”

Only

“Yes, it does! My ribs aren’t healing fast because I am not doing my best! I need to try harder!”

The doctor shook his head. He was the personal doctor of Duke Luzo, which meant that he mostly worked on treating hair loss. It has been a while since he was given the opportunity to see a real patient with a real injury, but it turned out that his patient, Marquess Winter, was a strange and stubborn woman.

What was she talking about? Trying her best to make her injury heal faster? Was she insane?

“…”

Poliana was so desperate that her head spun. Her despair made her annoyed and moody, and she felt like her entire body ached. Her ribs and waist were injured, but her stomach and hip felt painful too. Was there a large bruise on her body? Feeling annoyed, Poliana lifted her blanket to check and to her shock, she saw that her bed was covered in blood.

The blood that was coming from her groin.

The redness slowly but surely spread around her, soaking the bed.