Chapter 98 Maya, that lady is stupid!
The news of Lila's punishment spread through the palace like wildfire. By evening, every servant, guard, and noble knew that the cursed woman had been sentenced to warrior training under Keal's command while maintaining her full servant duties.
It was a death sentence dressed as mercy.
No woman in the Northern Kingdom's history had ever been conscripted into military training. The physical demands alone would break most men. For someone as supposedly weak as Lila, survival seemed impossible.
Lila walked through the servant corridors and felt the shift immediately. People who'd merely ignored her before now actively avoided her. They pressed themselves against walls as she passed. Conversations stopped mid-sentence. Eyes followed her with a mixture of pity and satisfaction.
She was already dead in their minds. Just waiting for her body to catch up with the inevitable.
"Cursed," someone whispered as she passed. "Finally getting what she deserves."
"My brother died in the plague. She should suffer more than this."
"Keal will destroy her. He's never shown mercy to anyone."
Lila kept her head down and continued walking, trying to ignore the voices. Her hands trembled slightly as she clutched the cleaning supplies she'd been assigned.
"Lila!"
She turned to see Maya rushing toward her, the only face that held something other than contempt or fear. Maya's eyes were warm, concerned, completely at odds with every other person in the corridor.
"Maya, you shouldn't—" Lila started, but Maya grabbed her hands firmly.
"I don't care what they say. You're not cursed. You're just..." Maya struggled for words. "You're caught in something you don't understand. But I'm going to help you figure it out."
"There's nothing to figure out." Lila's voice was flat with exhaustion. "I'm being punished for my crimes. That's all."
"That's not all." Maya pulled Lila into an empty alcove, away from listening ears. "Listen to me. I want to tell you a story. About a woman who fell in love with a king who was already married."
Lila's brows furrowed. "Why would you tell me—"
"Just listen." Maya's voice was urgent. She narrated the story to Lila but Lila wouldn't listen until the finish, she stopped at when this lady was being accused falsely.
"The girl in your story is very stupid," Lila cut her off sharply, pulling her hands away. "For falling for a man she could never have. For wanting something that belonged to her sister. That's not love. That's betrayal. And she deserved whatever punishment she got."
Maya's face fell. "Lila, that's not…"
"Why are you telling me this?" Lila's voice rose slightly. "What does some fictional stupid woman have to do with me?"
Before Maya could answer, Aria's sharp voice cut through the corridor. "You two! Stop gossiping and get to work. Lila, you're being reassigned. Follow me."
Maya shot Lila a desperate look but couldn't say more. Not with Aria watching. Lila followed the head servant down a different corridor, her mind spinning with the strange story and her own harsh reaction to it.
Why had she felt such strong anger at a fictional woman? Why did the story feel like it was reaching for something buried in her fractured memory?