Chapter 5 New Life
Chapter 5
5.1
The accounts of the Aquitas Chamber of Commerce showed three huge deficits within two months.
Three large orders for spices, medicines and essential oils were successively canceled by the Castle of Oprunsi and two major buyers in Oprunsi, and the reason for the cancellation was the same: "The Duchess's personal letter clearly stated that she requested to terminate all supplies to the Aquitas family."
what does that mean?
This means that the golden passage that was once protected by the Abrad family has been completely cut off by the Duchess.
Euridice's mother, Sibor Arquitas, paced back and forth in the room with her hands behind her back; Euridice's father, Antonio Arquitas, stared blankly at his account book. The air in the Arquitas Chamber of Commerce was as heavy as if it were the eve of a storm.
Finally, on the morning of the third moonless Sunday, the two Aquitus knocked on the gate of the south wing of the Oprunsi Castle.
Of course, Oulidsi did not refuse their visit.
In fact, she changed into a beautiful pair of white trousers - the trousers she had wanted to wear for a long time, hummed a song, and sat in the living room, waiting for her relatives to visit.
"Ah," she said, "How come you only came on the third moonless Sunday? You made me wait three whole days. You're really slow."
When her mother and father saw her wearing loose white trousers, they were of course stunned.
"You - what do you look like?" The father's tone was angry.
Her mother did not blame her for her unusual attire. Instead, she went straight to the point and said, "You have angered Beatrice Caragaran, Ollie. What have you done?"
After his mother said this, his father finally remembered why they were here. He slapped an account book in front of Oulidsi.
"She cut off our entire family's business!"
"The spice workshop is shutting down, and we've returned three truckloads of raw materials."
"Even the pharmacy is in a bad state..."
"Once the amount in the account is too large, it will have a huge impact on the entire chamber of commerce."
"What on earth did you do? How could this happen?"
"Oli, Oli?"
"Oulidsi!"
"Eurydsey Arquitas!"
“…”
Olidisi waited until they finished shouting, then he picked his ears out of boredom and took out two white cotton balls.
"Hey," she said, "this doesn't seem to work. I can still hear you guys talking. It's so noisy."
“…”
After Oulidsi said this, the living room fell into silence for a moment.
The two Aquitas looked at her in shock, as if they were meeting their own daughter for the first time.
"That's enough," Euridice waved her hand dismissively. "You want to know what happened? It's simple: Beatrice Caragaran wants to kill me. That's all."
The two Aquitas were stunned, as if they didn't understand the meaning of Euridice's words.
Oledsi sat cross-legged on a chair in the living room. The gradually rising sunlight outside the window cast a shadow over her, illuminating her long, messy, rose-gold hair. She sighed softly.
"I said, 'The Duchess wants to kill me. She. Wants. To. Kill. Me.' Are those words hard to understand?"
She said, shrugging, "Hey, she tried to kill me, your own daughter. Aren't you going to do anything?"
My mother seemed completely shocked and stunned, and couldn't respond for a moment.
Olidisi looked at them and suddenly laughed softly.
"What will you do?" she said. "Obviously, you'll just watch. Oh, and maybe shed a few tears... maybe."
Before she was burned to death, her mother often said to her: "The Aquitas family started with spices and medicine, but this is far from enough. We must keep climbing up, Oli."
——“Climb up.”
This is the education that Oulidsi has always received.
Her mother and father treated her as an investment, a gamble on their path to the aristocracy.
They made her learn the so-called "lady's etiquette," requiring her to behave dignified and speak in a restrained manner. She wanted to be like an aristocrat, like a "superior person."
They said, "You are the hope of the house of Aquitas. You must become excellent and marry one of the most distinguished nobles."
Olidisi never had a choice.
She hated those boring afternoon tea parties, those greetings that were flattering but with a sharp edge, and those people who flattered the powerful and looked down on the weak.
However, she had to deal with such people.
She entered Timis College, endured isolation, endured humiliation, endured the fact that they wrote her "commoner origin" into the air countless times every day, and only devoted her energy to studying hard.
She always kept her grades in the three studies and four arts at the forefront, and worked hard to follow the master to practice alchemy, potions, and aristocratic etiquette.
Finally, she married the Honorable Lorenz Ebrard as they wished.
Olidisi suddenly laughed softly.
She said, "Yes, marriage... You sat together, negotiating terms and exchanging benefits one by one. The Aquitas family provided funds to support the Ebrard family in disobeying the queen's orders and forming a private knightly order. In exchange, I, the daughter of the Aquitas family, could marry the eldest son of the noble family, receive their protection, and give birth to their heir."
Euridice Arquitas is such a beautiful bargaining chip, a "contract" that binds the interests of both parties.
But--
"She burned me alive at the stake," said Oledsi, "and you just watched."
"What burning at the stake?" the father cried angrily. "Nonsense! Are you crazy?"
"Oh," she shrugged, "Am I crazy?"
As Oulidsi spoke, he stood up and picked up a ceramic vase by the window.
It was a handicraft from the Royal City that my mother had sent me last month. The porcelain was delicate and exquisite, with even and appropriate shades of color. There were few such precious items in the entire Aquitas Chamber of Commerce.
"Mother, Father," Euridsi said, "Why did you train me, send me to the academy, and require me to learn the art of alchemy and potions?"
As she spoke, she held the vase and tilted her head, as if she was really confused.
"Is it because you want me to distinguish right from wrong, understand principles, and learn skills? Is it because you hope that even if I rely on you alone, I can live well on the Void Continent and be able to create a good life for myself?"
She said, shaking her head, "Oh, no, that's not what you're doing."
Olidisi tossed the vase in his hand slightly into the air and then caught it casually.
"You trained me to be a qualified 'noble wife'.
"You let me study, not for myself, but for my 'future husband'.
"I am not a 'person', I am a commodity. I am the property of a man who is of use to you.
"You let me learn so that you can increase the value of this cargo."
As Oulidsi said this, he held the ceramic vase in one hand, pointed at himself with the other, and smiled gently.
“I am like that,” she said, “and there is no difference between me and this vase.”
As she spoke, she suddenly loosened her fingers!
The exquisite ceramic vase fell to the ground and shattered into pieces in an instant.
"Oh," Ollie exclaimed in a suit, "What a pity! The vase is broken. It can't be put back together."
Olidisi's mother looked at all this and seemed to have realized something. She fell silent. Olidisi's father's face turned pale and his hands shook with anger: "You...you..."
Olidisi stood in the center of the debris, his expression returning to indifference.
"I was burned alive at the stake, and you just watched, neither contributing nor stopping it. You were just an indifferent spectator," she said. "So, when the Aquitas family was burned to ashes, I just watched, just an indifferent spectator - oh, is this what people call 'retribution'?"
As Oulidsi was speaking, he suddenly started to giggle nervously.
"What happens to Aquitas' business has nothing to do with me. What happens to me has nothing to do with Aquitas. This is retribution, and there's nothing wrong with it. Gods, it's truly fair."
Oulidsi looked crazy, but her logic was strangely fair.
Her father was shaking with anger, but her mother looked at her and suddenly whispered, "Oli...Oli Desi."
“…”
"I lost you, didn't I?"
Ouliidesi suddenly paused and stopped smiling.
She said, "Yes."
The mother shuddered slightly. Olidesi said indifferently, "The life you gave me was burned to death on that stake. My current life is a second chance given to me by the gods of the Ethereal Continent. It has nothing to do with you. Mother—this is the last time I will call you mother."
“…Ouli.”
"We lost each other," she said. "Goodbye."
5.2
When Sibor Aquitas left Oplensiburg, his back looked somewhat desolate.
Through the carved glass window of the castle, Olidesi looked at his mother's leaving figure, without saying a word or moving for a long time.
Only when the two figures had completely left Oplensi Castle and could no longer be seen did Olidesi gently wipe the tear marks on her cheeks with the back of her hand.
"I've returned these tears," she said quietly. "I owe you nothing."
Suddenly, the hurried footsteps of a maid were heard outside the door:
"Madam, Madam—"
Olidisi's expression quickly turned cold.
"What's wrong?" She wiped her tears and said lightly, "What's the matter?"
The waitress said happily, "It's Lorenz, the Count, the Count has returned early!"
Olidisi's fingers paused slightly.
The waitress didn't notice Euridsi's abnormality and continued to talk non-stop, "In another week, the Earl's troops will arrive at Fort Oplensi."
"Oh, it turns out that the Count is back." said Euridsi.
Her voice was very gentle, but the waitress didn't know why, she paused, swallowed the joyful words in her mouth, and dared not speak again.
Olidisi looked at her and smiled gently.
"Lorenz is back..." she said. "Oh, I can't wait to see him."
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