You Must Not Scream on the First Night
A week later.
“Lady Freya Laurelle, please board the carriage now.”
Following the escort knight’s guidance, Lilliana—or Freya, as she would now be called by her new name—boarded the carriage. She bid her final farewell to Marchioness Laurelle, whose eyes were swollen from crying all night.
“Don’t worry. I will definitely survive and invite you to the palace, so please wait for me.”
Before long, the carriage arrived at Bayliss Castle.
“Hello? I am Mary, Lady Freya’s assigned maid. First, please drink this nuptial wine, and then I will assist you with your bath. I’ll prepare the bathwater, so please let me know when you’ve finished drinking.”
The maid, who was waiting for Freya in the prepared bridal chamber, brought a small glass on a silver tray and spoke.
“You must drink it all. It is one of the important rituals of the first night.”
After the maid urged her once more and headed to the bathroom attached to the room, Freya looked down at the liquid in the glass with an unwilling expression.
“I have to drink this?”
The thick, red liquid looked suspicious in color, but the bigger problem was…
“Sniff, sniff, is this strawberry?”
A strong scent of strawberry wafted from the liquid in the glass.
Freya had a severe strawberry allergy that caused her throat to swell. It was the same in her previous life, and it hadn’t changed even after transmigrating.
‘I can’t possibly die a screaming death from a strawberry allergy before even completing the first night.’
Freya needlessly glanced around the empty room once more, then picked up the glass and headed toward the window. She poured the contents, leaving nothing behind, into a rose pot next to the window.
“The bathwater is ready now. Did you finish the nuptial wine?”
The maid returned to the room just then, asking as she looked over Freya’s cleanly emptied glass.
“Yes, but did I really have to drink it?” Freya asked, pretending to wipe her mouth with a handkerchief.
“Yes, Druil-nim strictly emphasized that it is the most important ritual before safely spending the first night. Oh, by the way, Druil-nim is Prince Tesid’s uncle and attending physician.” The maid added an explanation for Freya.
“I see.”
Freya nodded as if hearing the information for the first time, though she already knew it from the novel.
‘But if the nuptial wine has such an important meaning, is it okay that I didn’t drink it?’
She felt a slight pang of unease.
‘If it really worked, the other princess consort candidates wouldn’t have died up until now. It’s fine. I just need to prepare according to my plan and not worry about it.’ Freya steadied her mind.
Haa.
Even as she immersed herself in the warm bathtub, following the maid’s lead, sighs kept escaping Freya’s lips.
She had diligently planned and prepared, but when the first night was upon her, she couldn’t help but feel worried.
‘I’ll be okay, won’t I? I can survive safely, right?’
Freya tried hard to calm her troubled mind while watching the rose petals floating on the bathwater. Just then.
“Lady Freya, I truly hope you survive.”
Mary, the maid, spoke hesitantly as she poured warm water over Freya’s back.
Freya immediately looked up.
Right.
This maid must have attended to the previous princess consort candidates closely. So, wouldn’t she know more of the inner circumstances?
“Thank you. What can I do to survive tonight?”
Freya quickly grabbed Mary’s hand. She slipped off the gold ring she was wearing and discreetly placed it in the maid’s hand.
“Will you tell me everything you know? Even if I die, you can keep all my jewelry. But if I survive and become the Princess Consort, I will give you much more than this.”
“Oh, you don’t have to give me things like this. It’s not that I’m asking for this, but…” Mary swallowed, clutching the gold ring, and then unnecessarily looked around the empty bathroom.
“You must absolutely not disclose what I tell you to anyone else.”
“Of course, of course. I might not be able to open my mouth ever again after tonight, anyway.” Freya made her characteristic innocent and delicate expression with teary eyes. Mary, feeling pity well up, squeezed her hand back tightly.
“As far as I know, all the brides who died on the first night were removed with their eyes gouged out.”
“…Their eyes?”
Freya gasped and held her breath. Gouging out eyes on top of killing them? This was no ordinary cruel human being!
She had seriously underestimated the final villain in the novel. Should she have just run away as the Marchioness advised?
‘Is there any way for me to get out of here right now?’ Freya nervously rolled her eyes.
“Whatever happens, you must not scream. That is what Tesid-nim hates the most. All the Princess Consort candidates were thrown out of the chamber right after they screamed.”
“Screaming? Why scream in the bedroom…?”
Freya, who was muttering to herself, made eye contact with Mary.
“That, I cannot tell you…”
Seeing the maid quickly avert her gaze, Freya needlessly cleared her throat.
‘The third rumor, which I thought was the most ridiculous, was true?’
The rumor that Tesid was so excessively virile that the brides couldn’t handle it and died. Was that really true?
But setting aside Tesid’s virility, he kills his bride and even gouges out her eyes just because he doesn’t like her screaming?
“…Is he a pervert?”
Freya, startled by the thought that had escaped her mouth, clapped her hands over it.
“Th-that much, I don’t know.”
But seeing Mary blush and bow her head even lower, Freya’s heart grew even heavier.
A little later.
‘What do I do now?’
Freya, sitting meekly on the large, lavishly decorated bed, nervously fiddled with her fingertips.
‘So, what I have to do is… hold on without screaming as much as possible.’
Freya rubbed her palms together anxiously, recalling her conversation with the maid. She always had cold hands and feet, but today they felt even colder.
Moreover, wearing only a thin negligee beneath her gown made her feel a chill, and her entire body trembled. It was the dress Mary had ‘specially’ brought from the royal wardrobe for Freya.
“I hope this negligee works wonders.” Mary had spoken to Freya with a resolute expression while helping her into the garment.
“Wonders? What kind of wonders?” Freya asked back, her face showing she didn’t understand.
“Oh, you know…” The maid waved her hand, blushing.
“Ah…”
Freya was usually confident and quick to make suggestive imaginations. But now, with her life on the line, she felt absolutely no excitement.
‘I’ll be satisfied with reading about a hot first night in a novel. Please just let me survive. Please.’
Click—
Just then, the door opened.
Tesid, stepping into the room, paused slightly when he saw Freya.
Unable to even look at him, and already feeling like she was about to scream for some reason, Freya was biting her lip hard.
‘Will he recognize me?’
After her bath, the maid Mary had meticulously applied her makeup. Afterward, her reflection in the mirror made her look so different that she barely recognized herself.
‘He wouldn’t think the person he briefly encountered in a disheveled state under a cliff is the same person, would he?’ Freya desperately hoped so. The fact that Tesid had specifically ordered a woman with ‘platinum blonde hair and green eyes’ was a persistent worry.
The first night was already precarious, and recalling their bad first encounter wouldn’t help matters.
Tesid, who was slowly observing Freya, narrowed his eyes slightly. Then he sat down heavily on the bed opposite where Freya was perched. The bed rocked with his large body.
“…It’s hot.”
Hot?
His voice showed no sign of recognizing her. Freya secretly let out a sigh of relief.
Freya finally lifted her head slightly and looked around. Logs were crackling fiercely in the large fireplace in the center of the wall.
‘There was a fireplace…’
Embarrassed that she had been blaming the shaking of her body on the cold, Freya averted her gaze.
“…Gasp!”
She had tried not to look that way, but her gaze stopped at the silk gown that was slowly slipping down Tesid’s back. His broad shoulders and back were so wide that it felt like an eon passed as the gown fully dropped.
Freya’s busy eyes, which had been tracking the sculpted muscles revealed as the gown was removed, also stopped.
‘Oops.’
What was I looking at?
Startled, she belatedly snapped her head up, only to meet the eyes of Tesid, who had turned his head over his shoulder and was staring at her with interest.
Shimmer.
The veil draped over Tesid’s face lightly swayed as his lazy red eyes lifted and fell.
“Are you also curious about what I look like beneath my veil?”
