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Chapter 7
To me, it wasn’t a dramatic enough weight loss to delightfully exclaim, ‘I’ve lost half my body mass!’
However, I could clearly see I had dropped some pounds to the point where my once plump body now had contours.
‘Sylvia also had a jawline!’
It was concealed under the layer of fat, but now her nose bridge, jawline, and even collarbone had become visible.
An intense feeling of emotion surged within me as if I had unearthed an ancient relic that had been buried for a long time.
As I gently touched my protruding straight collarbone, I wondered how long it would have taken for me to reveal it through the standard way to lose weight.
‘At least a month of hard work would have been necessary to lose this much.’
Yet, I shed a lot of pounds just by sitting still and doing mana breathing for a few hours!
I was so happy that I wanted to dance.
‘If only Belle wasn’t here, I would have danced at least ten times.’
But I couldn’t draw any more attention to myself, especially since Belle was watching me with a strange look from beside me.
Trying to contain my excitement, I asked Belle, “So, you started working here as well?”
“Yes, My lady.
I am your personal maid, after all.”
“Oh yeah?”
Hmm, I wasn’t sure whether it was a good or bad thing.
For Belle, wasn’t it an unfortunate event?
They said the servants and maids were always busy in the west wing due to the lack of manpower here, and now she had to follow her bad-tempered master to work in this place.
“I’m sorry.”
“Excuse me, my lady?” Belle asked with a puzzled expression.
Looking at her innocent face, I wanted to apologize sincerely to Belle.
But would she take my apology seriously if I apologized now?
No way.
In a strict hierarchical society, it was impossible for a noble to apologize to a servant or maid.
Even if they made a terrible mistake, nobles would not apologize.
Instead, they would compensate.
What a remarkable group of people.
Was admitting their mistakes such a blow to their pride?
Anyway, in this world, for a noble to apologize to her maid was a ‘disgraceful act that tarnished her family name,’ as the Duke had sternly warned me.
Of course, I didn’t really care, as I was only a noble on the outside, not the inside.
However, Belle was different.
If a bad-tempered master suddenly apologized to her, she would probably tremble in fear, not knowing why.
She might even think I would torment her to the brink of death by using this as an excuse and would cry.
Therefore, it was still too early to apologize.
I had to do it later when Belle realized that I had changed.
‘Only then will she understand that I am sincerely apologizing.’
So, I suppressed my apologetic feelings and asked Belle, “Can you bring me some water?”
“Sure, would you like me to prepare a meal as well?”
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t eaten at all today.’
I was fine before I knew it, but once I realized I hadn’t eaten a single meal, I started to feel hungry.
‘Skipping meals and just starving myself isn’t good!
Weight loss should also be done healthily.’
I made an excuse to myself and told Belle, “Yes, please prepare a meal.
But not the greasy food like before, just something simple that won’t burden my stomach.”
“Something simple?”
“Just bring a few light dishes, mostly vegetables, which I can easily eat.”
“Vegetables?”
Belle, who used to answer, “Yes, yes,” obediently to avoid irritating Sylvia, now widened her eyes and questioned.
Since Sylvia used to detest vegetables and shiver at the thought of them, it was natural for Belle to be surprised when I suddenly requested a vegetable-based diet.
But now, I actually liked vegetables quite a lot.
Sweet and greasy foods were toxic to shedding pounds.
I nodded firmly and replied, “Yes, make sure to prepare food mainly consisting of vegetables and grains.
Just prepare something that’s suitable for patients to eat.
Never!
Never bring greasy food.
Please do that for the time being.”
Belle’s eyes trembled intensely as if she couldn’t believe what I had said.
But when I stood my ground and didn’t retract my words, she seemed to understand the sincerity behind them, and quietly bowed her head before leaving the room.
Shut!
I watched Belle leave, and when the door closed, I got up from the bed.
“What should I do now?”
There was some time left before Belle brought me the meal.
“It’s a waste of time to just sit around and do nothing.”
After pondering for a moment, I decided to use the short time for exercise.
Even though I had shed off some pounds, I still hadn’t reached the average weight.
The fact that I needed to slim down hadn’t changed.
The pillars of weight loss were dietary control and exercise.
I had dealt with the issue of dietary control, so now it was time to do some workout.
Using equipment would be more effective, but working out without it was still possible too.
“But what kind of exercise should I do?”
I shouldn’t push myself too hard at the beginning.
Sylvia’s body, which had only ever done the exercise of breathing, would just get hurt if I moved too intensely to lose weight.
Simple but effective exercise.
An exercise that wouldn’t burden the body…
“This is the best option for times like this!”
With a triumphant smile, I spread my legs shoulder-width apart.
And then––
‘Doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo!’
Recalling the national warm up routine I had diligently followed in elementary school, I started that warm up exercise.
***
Belle glanced at the tightly closed door to Sylvia’s room as she walked away.
Her lady, whom she served, seemed particularly odd today.
‘Did the sun rise in the west today?
I was surprised that she looked in the mirror, which she never did before, remained calm even after getting scolded by the Duke… and now she even asked me to prepare a vegetable-based diet!’
Ever since she became Sylvia’s personal maid, Belle had to deal with Sylvia’s temper every day without fail.
Thus, she knew well that Sylvia’s temper would be particularly worse on the days she met Duke Atlante.
The only reason Sylvia met Duke Atlante was to receive punishment for her misdeeds.
After hearing unpleasant things from the Duke, Sylvia would become even more sensitive, and her bad temper would increase.
Sylvia made a fuss in the middle of the night, asking for a midnight snack in hunger, which would trigger a regular nightmare for Belle.
First, Belle would get scolded by the cook for waking him up from sleep and then face another scolding by Sylvia for being late even when she prepared and brought her the snack.
But what if the food she brought with such difficulty didn’t suit Sylvia’s taste?
“You expect me to eat this garbage?
Huh?!”
A dish of food flew towards Belle, accompanied by a scream that seemed to tear the air.
‘But she doesn’t seem that irritated today.’
When Belle heard that Sylvia had been ordered to be confined to the west wing out of all places, she wanted to cry.
‘How much trouble will she cause today?!’
Although cleaning the bed stained with a strange, foul-smelling liquid was difficult, it was a relief compared to getting slapped or hearing insults.
“Did she receive too much of a shock?”
Belle seemed to have heard that, sometimes, when a person experienced a shock beyond their limit, their behavior could reverse completely.
“Well, maybe that’s why she said something unbelievable like asking for a plate of vegetables and grains out of the blue.”
Sylvia Atlante eating vegetables!
It was as impossible as saying, ‘Sylvia Atlante was actually a kind person.’
“First, I’ll prepare a vegetable-based meal as she ordered, and to calm her down when she’s hungry and becomes very irritable, I should prepare a greasy late-night snack.”
Belle thought that Sylvia was just being capricious for a moment.
For now, Sylvia had received too much of a shock, but once she returned to her senses, she would go back to eating the greasy foods she used to, Belle thought.
Belle rushed to the kitchen, thinking about the kinds of late-night snacks Sylvia liked.
Then she stopped walking due to a question that suddenly crossed her mind.
“But, Lady Sylvia seems… different somehow, isn’t she?”
Belle had kept her head down the entire time, fearing that Sylvia might get angry if she thought she was being watched, so Belle wasn’t able to closely observe her.
But the glimpses of Sylvia’s arms and legs seemed different than usual.
“Hasn’t she gotten a little thinner?
And it seemed like the red rashes on her skin had disappeared.”
Belle wanted to recall exactly what Sylvia had looked like just then, but her memory was foggy and unclear.
“No, I must have gotten wrong.
She was still the same old Lady Sylvia this morning, wasn’t she?
People don’t change in half a day.”
Belle shook her head, convinced she had mistaken what she saw due to her fear.
Then, she resumed contemplating Sylvia’s late-night snack menu.
“Spicy stir-fried pork?
No, she likes noodles, so maybe greasy stir-fried noodles would be better…”
However, Belle’s prepared late-night snacks never made it into Sylvia’s mouth.
Not that day, nor the next, a week later… and not even after a month.
***
Sylvia Atlante’s transformation news spread little by little, slowly, and discreetly.
It began with the servants working in the west wing.
After Sylvia Atlante had been confined to the west wing, she didn’t slap her maids.
She didn’t cause any distress to the cooks by overeating, nor did she throw things around in anger.
Instead, she greeted the servants with a warm smile every time she met them, saying, “Good morning.”
And after meals, she praised the cook, “Thanks to you, my taste buds were happy again today.
It’s given me the energy to work out.”
The cook, who had worked for noble families for a long time but had never heard any words of encouragement from a noble directly, was touched.
‘All this time, I’ve just been so angry since Lady Sylvia had ordered late-night snacks every night… But was it actually because she loved my cooking so much?!
She loved it too much to stand it all night!’
It was said that a knight would risk his life for someone who recognized him.
‘Since I’m a cook, I must repay her with my cooking!’
Misunderstanding the situation in a strange way, the cook worked hard on developing new dishes to hear Sylvia’s praise.
Additionally, Sylvia gave a skincare product as a gift to a maid with rough hands from work, telling her to apply it to her hands.
It was just one of the countless high-end cosmetics Sylvia had but wasn’t a particularly important item for her.
‘Isn’t it better for someone who needs it to use the products instead of letting them go to waste since I won’t be able to use them all anyway?’
Sylvia had given the gift simply because she felt sorry for the younger-looking maid who was working hard.
However, the small favor felt very significant to the maid.
‘This is that cosmetic product that even noble women line up to buy these days!
And Lady Sylvia gave such a precious thing to me…’
The maid who received the cosmetic gift carefully stored it in her drawer without using it, occasionally opening the drawer to look at the product and washing away the fatigue from a hard day’s work.
Even though Sylvia’s intention to have the maid apply the product to her rough hands was different, it was fortunate that it helped the maid in its own way.
And these events continued for a month.