Chapter 1552: Zinnia’s State
The rotation of the guards here was very strict and monitored, so the liability, if anything was amiss, would be clear. This was not too bad for him. As one of the new guys, his assignments were either around the palace walls or in the palaces of unpopular people.
Lady Zinnia and her family were definitely part of the latter.
As he applied for a guard position, he naturally had to take on some other jobs prior to that to gain employment history and references.
Then, when he himself entered, he also befriended a lot of the older guards. Silva was never gregarious, but he was smart and could handle himself well, so he did get into the good graces of a few superiors after a few months.
During that time, he found out a lot about Lady Zinnia’s life there.
As one of the Golds’ long-time guards, he himself did have an idea about some of the things that happened in the past, particularly when Master Otto would drink with him while they were traveling with the caravan.
For example, he himself knew that the patriarch had a sister who died in another place. The patriarch was not even allowed to attend the funeral, and even Master Otto and them only heard about this fairly recently, during one of her ’death’ anniversaries.
He also knew that the family had a placeholder tomb located in the Bleulle cemetery, and the patriarch would go there with a bouquet of flowers every year.
Now, they found out that the Lady was alive all this time, which was good news, but her life hadn’t been easy. After hearing everything, Silva—who was a mere servant and felt indignant—couldn’t imagine how the Patriarch must’ve felt, especially now that he could not go here himself.
Polygamy was widely practiced here—as with any place else—but the current Lord had dozens of women.
Lady Zinnia’s ’death’ was publicized and she was isolated, unable to attend any social events that had foreigners, and had been bullied a lot by the other wives. According to what he heard from older servants, she was pushed around, made to eat soil, and other things.
She had lost one child and almost had a miscarriage for both successful pregnancies. She survived only because, despite how soft she seemed, she was a strong woman.
No one else thought this, of course, and Silva only surmised this based on what he heard. But...knowing the Golds, he just felt it was the truth.
Eventually, after a few months of hard work, he was dutifully assigned to the outer palaces and, after a few subtle and undetectible suggestions and manipulations to the superiors, he eventually got transferred to the Lady’s area.
As with everything, the closer one served near the Lord, the higher the status was. After all, they could get noticed much faster by the Lord there. This meant that it was not too difficult to get assigned to the neglected wife’s family.
Fortunately, the oath they had him take was one of the cheapest non-betrayal oaths. Of course, this meant he would not be able to attack this place or its citizens.
He made contact during a big party hosted by Piddess, and it was something the prince did once a month to show the royal family’s prestige. They would make a spectacle out of it, and there would also be many guards there to intimidate.
Because Lady Zinnia was never in social events with visitors, it was the perfect time to approach her. While they were minding their own business in the garden, he approached them as a guard.
"Please return to your palace immediately," he said, tone cold. He had a team with him, so he couldn’t be too open. Rather, it’d be even suspicious if he treated them kindly. "I will escort you."
"That’s not fair! This place is small and no one comes here—" the young master wanted to argue, but Lady Zinnia shook her head.
The gardens in the palace were relatively well-maintained by various professionals. In contrast, the gardens around Miss Zinnia were barely tended to.
It was mostly grass, some overgrown, and the majority of the flowers were dead. There was nothing to see except to breathe a bit of fresh air.
It was the best place for these two because there were barely any other people there, and it was also a good place to make an exchange with them.
While escorting them, he managed to sneak in a letter to them, and fortunately, they didn’t react too strongly. They were also smart enough not to hunt for him openly after that.
A few days later, the Young master went to find him and punched him in the stomach, telling him he should not have the gall to treat them that way.
He also received a letter with that punch to the gut. It was also during that time that they established a signalling method, one that involved a rock and an angle.
...
"Mother, there’s another—" a blonde teenager gasped as he ran to his mother, folded letter in hand.
The first letter they received was vague and barely had anything. It was a test to see if things would work out. The first letter implied that it was ’family’ who sent it, asking to be subtle, and nothing else.
The only family she had was her children and...her brother.
Regardless, she was unsure what to expect with this second letter, shakily opening it up to see.
She breathed in a sharp gust of air, eyes immediately heating up.
Zinnia could recognize her brother’s handwriting. There were some changes—it had been decades, after all—but she wanted to believe it was really him.
There was no reason for anyone to fool her!
Even if it was, she had wanted to believe it so she did.
It was not straightforward and purposely vague, but she could read the intent.
The letter contained her brother’s heartfelt apology, his guilt, and how he will not excuse himself for incompetence.
He asked them to hang on and take care of themselves well, because they would reunite soon.
Finally, the tears that had been threatening to fall finally burst out.
When was the last time she wept like this?
Ah, it was when she lost her first child. After that, to survive, and for her children to survive, she couldn’t afford to cry anymore.
And now...she sobbed like she was a child herself.