Beast King's Crippled Mate-Chapter 241: Banquet of Sacrifices (III)

"L-Live in this mansion?! But w-why? I-I’m not a servant here, Milady..." Meredith stuttered as she was surprised.

She felt uncomfortable because she knew that the aristocrats were different from the regular peasants. She doubted that Lady Aria—who was a former Royal Princess—would be generous enough to let her live in a mansion for no reason.

"I was thinking about inviting you into the mansion as a maid. But since you don’t seem to want that, then I guess I will just invite you as a friend, then?" Aria said.

"F-friend?!" Meredith gasped. "M-Milady, I-I am just a peasant. I-I don’t think I’m allowed to make f-friend with you..."

Aria didn’t expect this woman to be very similar to Swan. Not only did she talk like Swan, but she also had the same mindset as her.

Normally, a peasant would be honored to be invited into a noble’s mansion, especially as a friend, but Swan would always act nervous or scared whenever Aria told her to be ’friends’.

So, she had to put up a sad expression to convince Meredith, "Is that so? I... I don’t see myself as a Royal Princess anymore. Since my mother has abdicated, I thought I could finally make at least one friend in my new home."

"I noticed that you are very lively and seem to be a fun-loving person with your family. I thought you could be my friend since it is very lonely here," Aria added. Just as she expected, Meredith began to pity her.

Meredith didn’t expect a woman who seemed to have everything she ever wanted would be so lonely in her big mansion.

"I-I don’t think I can live in this expensive mansion, Milady. I-I still have responsibilities at home. My mother is sickly, so I-I am the one who works as a s-seamstress..."

"Oh, don’t worry about your family. I will pay them ten gold coins for you to stay in this mansion for a week. How about it?"

"T-Ten gold coins?!" Meredith almost had a heart attack when she heard that. She had never seen a gold coin before, let alone ten!

With that amount, her family could live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

"Yes, ten gold coins aren’t much for me, but friends are. Why don’t you live here for three days at least, and I will reward you with that money," Aria proposed.

Meredith gulped. Her mother was sickly, and it was difficult to support a family as a seamstress. This could change her life forever!

Hence, she nodded, "I-I will stay in this mansion for three days, Milady. Uhm... t-thank you very much for your generosity..."

"I should thank you instead," Aria grinned. "You’ve made my dream come true, Meredith. Now, why don’t we start our friendship with a glass of wine? I’m sure you’ve never tasted an expensive wine before, right?"

"I-I never drink w-wine, Milady. T-the only alcohol I ever drink is b-beer..."

"That’s perfect! This will be a new experience for you!" Aria sprung up from her bed and then poured the wine by herself. She made sure that she poured the drink with antidote from Lady Jade, and then handed it to Meredith. "Drink this. For our new friendship!"

Meredith stared at the wine and drank it slowly.

Little did she know, the wine had just saved her life... temporarily.

*

The banquet ended before dusk, and everyone left the mansion with full stomachs. They thanked Baroness Anastasia and Lady Aria as the hosts.

The children were even happier because they were allowed to take as many candies and cookies as they wanted. So many of them went home with a handful of sweets.

Anastasia felt accomplished and joyful as this was the first time she ever hosted a banquet for a good cause.

She stared at the back of the children who rushed to their parents and muttered, "It would be nice if you could get married soon, Aria."

"Me too, Mom. I want to get married soon..." Aria turned her head towards her mother and her smile deepened. "With Gale, the Beast King, of course."

Anastasia gulped as she felt that her daughter’s obsession over Gale Stormfront was getting worse, "Aria, maybe it’s time to let him go and move on. I know he is handsome and very strong, but he’s obviously in love with Swan, and there’s no point in trying to make him cheat."

Aria knew her oh-so-kind mother would say something like that, and she had prepared the right answer, "I’m not a weakling like you, Mom. My goal is not just to be the Queen of one small kingdom. I will be his only wife, and since he is so strong, we could conquer the world together. Swan is an idiot for not using his overwhelming power to be the Queen of the World."

"Aria..."

"Oh, and before you try to give me your nonsensical peaceful talk again. I will tell you that I don’t plan to back down. I WILL win against Swan in the end, no matter how many sacrifices I have to make."

Aria turned around and left her mother who could only gaze at her back.

’This is my fault,’ Anastasia blamed herself. ’I shouldn’t have taught her about cruelty, and shouldn’t have ignored all the horrible things she did to Swan back then.’

**

Three days had passed, and there was a strange outbreak in the village.

Everyone began to feel sick, and they got dysentery. The village elders thought that their drinking well had been contaminated, but after they investigated, the water inside the well was still clean.

On the second day, the dysentery was getting worse, and almost a quarter of the villagers already died from dehydration.

On the third day, half of the population was already dying or dead, and some of them couldn’t even eat or drink because they began vomiting their literal guts out.

Some of the surviving villagers finally couldn’t hold it anymore and went to the Baroness’ mansion, asking for help.