A Stepmother’s Märchen Prologue 0.2

Black-headed*¹ brutes are not meant to be taken in.

….. But Jeremy is blond so he isn’t black-headed. So how does this make sense?  

That’s right, I don’t need those brutes anymore after I raised them. As expected, our forefathers were wise. Even after I raised those little jerks well, it was all bullshit! 

“Madam, are you alright?”

“No, Gwenn. I really can’t live anymore. I feel like I’m going to die.”

“Madam….”

“………the world’s worst, evil jerk! You mean, unscrupulous a**hole! How did I raise you?! How can you do this to me! Ugh, Gwen, I’m so sad that I think I’m going to die……!”

I’m holding onto the maid and crying my eyes out so badly that I’ll lose all my hair. But I can’t help it. I am in a situation where I don’t have a single suitable friend to complain to.

Haa, I have lived such a wretched and pitiful life. I hadn’t known because I’ve been running all this time without a moment to look back, but now, I’m beginning to realize just how lonely I am. But who is to blame? I am the one who made it this way.

“How can they do this to me!”

They are truly heartless as neither Elias nor the twins, Leon and Rachel, showed any signs of trying to persuade Jeremy. On the contrary, they stealthily glanced at each other before saying the words ‘who knows, it’ll be funny if you insisted on showing up even when you were told not to, and embarrass yourself.’ 

I was so dejected that I thought I would go crazy! No matter how hard it was, I still raised these people so how can I not be allowed to witness the wedding!

If I don’t go to that wedding, then that’s it. But going there isn’t the problem; rather, it’s how they perceive me!

I’m in such turmoil that I don’t have the appetite to eat. Instead of having dinner, I am sitting, leaning against the window with a blanket crumpled at my feet as I stare blankly at the sky.

It’s been a long time since I last felt this wretchedly shaken. Maybe it’s because of my mood, but it looked much like the night sky when I had first arrived nine years ago. Those countless twinkling stars embedded into the ink-black night sky….. I didn’t know at the time that those innumerable stars were the amount of tears I would shed here.

Whenever I recall my childhood, the same scenery always flashes through my mind: a father who was obsessed with gambling and dogfighting; an extravagant mother, too busy with turning a blind eye on the tatters that were our harsh reality; and the likewise, libertine older brother who was the desired young sprout*² of the family. Meanwhile, I was the only daughter of the local viscount with snowballing debt and whose name was the only thing left in the family fortune.

Ironically, it was on my fourteenth birthday when my parent’s wish to somehow marry off their only daughter to a wealthy family as soon as possible came true. To be exact, my mother, who was anxious to have me enter the capital’s social circles, had attended a banquet held at my aunt’s mansion in Wittelsbach.

A man there had said I looked uncannily like his first love. The man was of my father’s age and had even experienced grieving for a late wife, but he was also ‘that’ Marquis Neuschwanstein. In return for marrying me, he offered the condition of settling all of our family debt, to which my family immediately agreed while jumping for joy. 

……. Yes, that’s right. I was sold by none other than my family to a silly widower who still couldn’t forget his first love even at his age! And the great*³ people who then beat me for crying and begging not to go, saying I was a wench who didn’t know my place- those people were my parents.

To make matters worse, the husband had four children with the wife who had passed away: the eldest son, Jeremy; the second son, Elias; and the youngest being fraternal twins, Leon and Rachel.

From the first day I stepped into this house, the hostility and anger in their eyes were difficult to express in words. Jeremy, who openly treated me as if I was a ‘something’*⁴ from the beginning was, nevertheless, a young master**⁵. Elias often used to harass and bully me under the guise of pulling mischievous pranks, and the twins would demand me to go fetch their real mother while playing all sorts of wicked tricks on me. Ugh, only god knows how much sari***⁶ I have accumulated in my body over the years I have lived with them.

I had been sold like a sheep to the slaughterhouse, how could I possibly love my husband? He was old enough to be my father, and the only reason why he had his second marriage with me was because I resembled his first love.

Nevertheless, he was kind to me. Always excessively kind and profoundly thoughtful, no matter when. Even though we were married, he never once touched my body, solely because I didn’t want it. He did this even though he had essentially bought me. I have never received such consideration and respect even from my own family.

Even though I didn’t love him, my heart is filled with gratitude and respect for him. Until he passed away from pneumonia just over two years after our marriage, our relationship had remained both friendly and gentle.

It was I, his young wife, who wrote down his will after he repelled his relatives who came upon hearing the Marquis’ critical condition, and even sent away his children. Maybe it was his last consideration for me. It was a step he took to ensure that I, the young novice whom no one treated as the Marquis’ wife, would be respected as the Marchioness even after his death…. 

A heavy responsibility was placed on me. 

I still remember each and every word clearly. 

All authority as the head of the family is to be temporarily entrusted to Marchioness Shuri von Neuschwanstein and is to remain valid until the eldest son, Jeremy von Neuschwanstein, comes of age and is married. 

Marquis Neuschwanstein added a brief postscript stating that should the Marchioness pass away before that, everything is to be absorbed by the imperial family.

It was only a natural step to overturn the vigilant, auxiliary people*⁷, because the authority and tremendous power that comes with being the head of the house differed from a simple inheritance. Under the imperial law, the authority was solely passed down to the eldest son, or down to the son-in-law’s successor**⁸. If the successor is too young, then one of the uncles***⁹ would act as the representative authority-figure until the Coming-of-Age Ceremony. Besides, just where was there ever an ordinary Neuschwanstein aristocrat?

And yet, with the Marquis’ handwritten signature and seal stamped on the will, all authority was entrusted to the young wife who barely reached adulthood to not only move knights but also directly intervene in all matters large and small, as well as have a seat in the noble council and speak up at the meetings.

Everyone said he must be insane. Before he died, I too wondered what was going on in his head.

My husband asked me to take care of ‘my’ children before he passed. I found it ridiculous to have the children call me mother- even the magnificent marquisate that was left entirely to me didn’t suit me. He asked me to protect the marquisate at all cost from the wildlings who, as if waiting for him to die, were watching vigilantly for a chance to swoop in and swallow everything up. Vehemently made me promise.

There was too much faith to call it foolhardiness. And I think I kept my promise in return for that faith. 

I will not be divulging just how petrified I had to be as a mere sixteen year old, surrounded by vultures who were pressuring me to give up my sovereignty and by prominent aristocrats who only threw contemptuous glances in my direction. No one would ever think about just how terrified and sad I was. 

Nevertheless, I somehow found a way. One of the methods was to bring a bunch of lovers into the house when my family came running like scourges to look for me the first moment they heard I, the daughter they had sold away, had become an unprecedented widow; they were all scrambling to remarry me to whomever suited their taste.

No one was aware of this. The fact that all the people who took turns posing as my lover for the first few months were actually mercenaries who were contracted for a certain amount of pay….. Ha ha. 

That’s how I lived. I became the spiteful madam in order to take control of the discipline among the servants who looked down on me. I replaced servants as often as possible because I didn’t know who had planted spies and I couldn’t easily trust just anyone. I would personally take care of the children if any of them fell sick. And in order not to be seen as a pushover by anyone, I became someone who was recognized as the sly and arrogant young noblewoman within the aristocratic social circles dominated by influential machiavellians. 

I became the terrifying Spider Widow who preyed on her husband at a young age and took over the prestigious family, the Male Hunter who changed men like toys every day, the Witch of the Neuschwanstein Castle. 

I doggedly and tenaciously lived this way….. What’s left of me now?

Johannes, I kept my promise with you. But what’s left of me? Just where on earth did things go wrong?

*

Pow!

“Kyaaaa!”

The intense pain that hit my neck forced me to stumble forward and fall flat on my face instead of passing by the stables. When I reflexively raised my hand to cover the back of my neck, I felt something warm flowing down.

“Elias! Have you gone insane?!”

I barely managed to lift my head, my eyes brimming with tears, to see the stiff, ashen-faced Jeremy come running while Elias’ embarrassed face came into view as he stood frozen behind me.

“How could you throw the stone like that, you moron! You’ll kill someone!”

“I- I didn’t think she would get hit so hard…. Well, th-that fool couldn’t avoid it because of her slow reflexes!”   

The scrambling between the two boys as they shouted and clamoured over each other began to recede into the distance. I let go of my consciousness with the blood dripping from my neck.

Elias had frequently played pranks on me that often went too far, but it never resulted in a bodily injury of this degree before. Fortunately, the bleeding stopped quickly enough. But there was a permanent, indelible scar left on the back of my neck. From now on, I will never be able to consider any of the elegant hairstyles that were popular among the noble ladies of the capital. 

“Apologize to your mother.”

It was a novelty that these violent-tempered, unruly boys who seemed to have no contact with the word fear, now looked like very timid puppies in the face of their father’s stern gaze. At the same time, I felt very uncomfortable, even though I was to be the recipient of that apology.

“Elias, quickly apologize for your wrong doing! And Jeremy, what on earth were you doing while your younger brother was doing that?”

“I’m sorry, Father.”

Jeremy had lowered his head so I couldn’t see his face. Elias, who had also lowered his head with shoulders shaking, suddenly glowered at me and opened his mouth. I felt as if he wanted to split my body in half with that blazing rage and anger in his eyes.

“That wench is not my mother! I can’t accept it even if I die! No matter what Father says….”

Slap!

I yelped at the sharp cracking sound that filled the air and put a hand to my mouth. Elias, who received the blow, also seemed equally surprised. He just stared at his father with eyes akin to surging waves for a moment, seemingly unable to believe what had just happened. However, my husband’s gaze as he stared at the younger boy was as cold as frost.

“Apologize for the drivel you just said.”

Elias blinked several times with a blank look before he glared at me again. Those bottle-green eyes were so full of vivid, burning anger not unlike a flash of lightning, that I could feel its sting on my skin. 

Wham!

I saw the fourteen year old Jeremy punch the wall because he could not hit me. It was the first and last time he would show me such intense feelings in all the years we lived together.

“It’s only been a month since my father passed away. It’s only been one month! But what, a lover?! Are you out of your mind?!”

“I’m doing this because I am in my right mind, you’re very welcome!”

“What the hell are you thinking? Just what are you thinking! If you’re not insane, then how could you meet with such a classless, crude vagrant as him?! Do you think I’ll let you do something like that?!”

“And what are you going to do if I don’t leave him?! If you’re worried about your inheritance, well, you can rest assured! I have no intention of remarrying anyway and I’ll be passing everything onto you just as your wonderful father instructed me in his will!”

“Damn it, that’s not what I’m saying! Tell me what the hell you’re up to! Are you not even bothered by what other people are saying?!”

“Talk? Me, with you? Ha, are you trying to act proper?”

“You….” 

“Don’t you pretend to care now! Do you think I want to be stuck here, cleaning up after your messes?! I never wanted to take on the impossible task of being a mother! Please, leave me alone! I don’t have any obligations to listen to you until you’re all grown up and married, so go do whatever you want: swing your sword, go hunting, or swear at me with your siblings!”

Jeremy was about to hit me, but he endured while gritting his teeth. The scorching blaze within his bottle-green eyes seemed to gradually subside, and then, they suddenly froze like green sheets of ice. 

“……. Of course it is so. I will do as you say, Madam.”

He turned his back, the sarcasm hidden within his very polite manner, and as he left, he closed the door so hard I thought the ceiling would crack. It was only then that I collapsed to the floor and began to weep alone. 

We were too young. All of us, we were just children who were in a dreadful state of confusion, at a loss as to what to do.

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1. T/L/N: a person with a wicked or dark; black-hearted.
2. T/L/N: A child, implied as the one more doted on.
3. T/L/N: She’s being sarcastic, of course.
4. * So Jeremy wasn’t even acknowledging her existence as a person.
5. **양반- a nobleman, but here it’s implied that he looked one only because of his uppity attitude.
6. ***사리- is said to be a type of mineral/crystal found in the remains of cremated monks as a result of long periods of meditation. They are regarded as sacred relics and are a measure of the monk’s status, capability and level of enlightenment.
7. *Opportunists trying to seize power while waiting on the sidelines.
8. **Son-in-law as in the one who marries and moves into the wife’s home. 
9. *** Both 숙부 and 백부 are mentioned, of which the former refers to the younger brothers of the father and the latter refers to the oldest of the father’s brothers.