The Contract Marriage for Attilenta's Revenge - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Atilenta’s Contract Marriage for Revenge — Episode 2
Even if Mother possessed some unusual Magic Ability, trapped as she was in that remote palace, she had no room to act on it, no matter how much she might have wished to.
Mother understood that returning evil for evil was beyond her reach.
“I… I seem to have failed as well…….”
I stammered like I had in childhood. I could already hear Jaema’s voice scolding me for looking inadequate, unbefitting a princess of the Kingdom.
“Jaema…….”
Even now, I was thinking of my nursemaid Jaema?
Fresh tears spilled down my cheeks.
“I’ve lost my mind. Of course Jaema was on Selena’s side.”
The days when Jaema had cared for me remained vivid in my memory. Suddenly, I grasped something else.
After all, Jaema must have envisioned Selena marrying Antonio. So why had she been so kind to me?
“She was selling me out. That was it.”
Selena’s claim that she’d never met the Duke before must have been a lie as well. I could trust no one anymore.
I curled up slowly, like a small insect folding in on itself.
“Why did you… give birth to me……? If you were going to leave me alone in this place, then why……?”
Tears streamed down my face, and with them fell a bitterness that could never reach anyone.
That’s how I spent the dawn with eyes wide open. By any measure, I was a wreck.
“Your Highness, Your Highness! You’re awake!”
I wiped away the tear stains with trembling fingers, rose from bed, and opened the door. The servant sent by the King thrust something at me.
“Your Highness. Please receive this.”
I took it without thinking. It was a letter from my nominal father.
I clung to it as my last hope.
Foolishly.
With shaking hands, I unfolded the letter to find only two sentences written there.
As a princess of the royal household, do not lose your Dignity.
The moment I read the first line, my breath caught. Gasping, I read the next sentence: it merely told me that a Tutor would be sent so that I should not neglect my studies as a lady.
“Ugh… how… how could he……?”
I slammed the door shut and cursed like a madwoman.
“What, is he trying to sell me off again?”
I tore the King’s letter to shreds as I thought. How could he devise such a plan?
Rumors were rife throughout the Capital’s social circles that I was a woman who could not conceive.
Back then, no matter how hard I tried, there were no children. The Duke’s Family physician often advised me that I needed to eat well so my womb would grow strong.
Antonio had expressed regret from time to time, and others whispered that I was failing in my duty. So I came to believe it was my own inadequacy.
I was busy using my abilities to spy like an agent. Missing meals didn’t matter. Antonio and Selena were taking care of me.
“Without knowing it was all deception…… Ah, how foolish.”
Antonio had told me I was charming. Yet all the while he was discarding me like a worn rag, planning to marry Selena…….
Why the King wanted to sell me off was obvious enough.
Base blood or not, a princess’s Status still had value. Sell me as a second wife to some aging nobleman, and I’d fetch a fair price.
“Why… why did I ever… hold onto hope……?”
Betrayed by those I believed were family, I shattered — my heart, all the sincerity I had poured into the past, the hope that I would have a place in the future, everything.
“All I wanted… was to build a family.”
Brooding over days that already felt like a distant past, I withered away, slowly and completely.
My appetite dulled further than before, and the food was terrible. I pushed aside even dry bread and thin soup, lying about in listless despair.
The Kingdom, having concluded the border skirmishes safely, enjoyed peaceful prosperity. Certainly even the lowliest servant ate better than this.
“Why did you… do that, Mother……?”
I muttered emptily to myself. Though I was in the same situation as she had been.
My circumstance had not changed.
It would not have changed.
If not for what the Tutor the King sent had said.
“Your Highness. Please wake up.”
The Tutor, entering my room without hesitation, spoke in a very stiff, upright manner.
“I shall begin your Bridal Training.”
I stared at her with dry, tired eyes.
“Why should I learn such things?”
Sprawled lifelessly across the bed, I expressed the defiance I could not hide.
“Your Highness. Have you not heard the news of Earl Saten? His wife passed away long ago, and now that his children have all settled into their positions, a place has fortunately opened up for you.”
Just days before, my place had been as the Duchess. I asked impulsively.
“What does the Duke say?”
“My goodness. The Duke himself recommended this. You know he has had deep dealings with the Earl for many years. You didn’t know that?”
In that moment, something inside me began to boil.
Atilenta, the way the two of you clung to each other at that banquet supposedly held in my honor—it spelled everything out plain as day.
“The Earl is a man of exceptional character. You must become a wife worthy of him. Right now you’re far too thin, and your bearing is hardly that of a lady…….”
With each word the Tutor spoke, I felt as though I’d received a death sentence.
“How can you say such a thing when you know my situation?”
I couldn’t suppress the resentment rising in my chest.
“Your Highness. It is unbecoming to look at your teacher that way.”
At the Tutor’s gesture, a servant immediately seized both my wrists. Another servant promptly raised a cane.
“Wait, let go—”
Crack! Before I could even resist, the cane came down on my leg.
“Aah!”
“You must not make such unrefined sounds. It is unbecoming of a princess.”
The servant holding me down struck the same spot again. Crack! My calf felt as though it would split open.
“Ow!”
The sharp pain drove my body forward. With my face pressed into the bedding, I looked like the vanquished.
“I told you to be quiet, Your Highness.”
I could offer no resistance to those who treated me like a criminal. I’d bitten my lip so hard that I tasted blood.
Crack, crack! The blows continued for several more strikes.
I would have welcomed numbness spreading through my legs. Instead, a sharp, stinging heat revived with each fresh strike, tightening around me.
“Now you understand what I’m saying.”
At the Tutor’s cold words, my eyes—which had burned with resentment—blazed crimson.
Tears welled up, but I lacked even the strength to let them fall. Reality was cruel. I was alone here.
“I trust you will reflect on today’s conduct. You are to fast for the next three days.”
The Tutor, who had come for Bridal Training, finished her beating and withdrew. The heavy door creaked shut behind her.
Tears fell onto the floor—plip, plip. I gritted my teeth and scrubbed at my eyes with rough, angry motions.
“My fate hasn’t changed, has it?”
That was nothing but a foolish delusion.
I now understood completely: my fate had fallen to unprecedented depths. I was livestock. A beast meant to be twisted and turned at their whim.
“You people… you’ve lost your minds…….”
Fire kindled inside me.
“I am not a beast.”
Why must only I be broken?
“If only I could…….”
Rage toward Antonio and Selena, who had dared to cling so tenderly before me; resentment that burned at being deceived by those I’d trusted; and bitter fury at realizing they saw me as nothing but merchandise—all of it churned together until I finally spoke.
Every emotion poured out in those words.
“If I could, I would destroy all of you the way you’ve destroyed me.”
You shattered me, after all.
The words left my mouth and echoed back to my own ears, awakening something fierce within my heart.
“I won’t just endure this passively.”
I crawled to the head of the bed and drew out a mirror.
It was old and tarnished, small—my mother’s sole keepsake.
I polished it vigorously with my worn sleeve, as though wiping away my tears.
Despite all they had done to me, like a creature in a pen, there was one secret I had guarded absolutely.
They believed my ability was merely reading the future.
Fundamentally, my Magic Ability was an inheritance from my mother. This mirror was an artifact that showed me guidance—how to act to bring about the future I desired.
My mother had made me swear to keep this secret. As I cherished this keepsake, so too did I honor that last wish with unshakable resolve.
I let out a small sigh.
“Sigh……. What would I have done if I didn’t have even this? Foolish Atilenta.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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