"It's fine," Aya said, keeping her voice even. "Take your time."
The older woman blinked, clearly not expecting that response.
But as Aya's gaze drifted past the older woman to the rest of the kitchen, the brief warmth she had felt evaporated.
Several of the others were glaring at her. Not with the nervous avoidance she had seen from the servants in the hall, but with open hostility. A young man near the fireplace had his jaw set tight, his eyes burning with barely restrained anger. Two women near the bread ovens exchanged looks that Aya could read perfectly well without any wolf senses.
And a terrible thought crawled into Aya's mind.
She looked at the beautifully arranged tray of food the older woman had been preparing. The delicate plates. The carefully placed garnishes. The cup of something steaming that was probably tea.
If her guess was right, they were likely intending to take it to her room. But this food had been prepared by people who hated her.
'How easy would it have been to slip something into a meal?' Aya thought, her stomach turning.
The system had let her know they still revered her as someone powerful, and even if they would have felt usual poisons would not affect here, Aya still wouldn't put it past anyone of them to make the move the same way someone had killed her with venom.
She looked back at the older woman, who was watching her expectantly.
"Actually," Aya said carefully, "Don't bring the food up just yet."
The older woman's brow furrowed. "Yes?"
"I will come back to the kitchen soon," Aya continued, "When I do, you can bring it up with me as I am heading back to my room."
Silence.
The older woman stared at her, visibly confused. Behind her, the hostile glares shifted into something more uncertain. Even the angry young man by the fireplace looked thrown off.
The Luna had never once come to the kitchen, considering the space too lowly for her to even be there. And the fact she had arrived and her stomach had loudly grumbled, they had worried she was going to turn the place upside down and demand her food that very instant.
But most importantly, she had never shown any interest in how her food arrived at her room or even asked to delay it.
"Of... course, Luna Aya," the older woman finally managed, still looking like she wasn't entirely sure this was really happening.
Aya gave her a small nod and turned to leave.
She made it out of the kitchen and halfway down the corridor before the anger hit her. Not at the servants or even at the hostile looks the others gave her.
She was angry at the original Aya.
At the spoiled, careless, cruel woman who had been handed an entire kingdom and five devoted mates and had managed to turn every single person around her into an enemy. It was amazing how she had been so entitled and so monumentally stupid that she hadn't even noticed when the people around her had started plotting her death.
As for the system…
"You dropped me into this crazy place!" she communicated furiously to it. "And to even put me into this crazy mess… You couldn't have found me a nice life to be in? A woman with maybe no enemies or just one instead of an entire kingdom?!"
[(·•᷄ࡇ•᷅ )]
[System is unimpressed]
[Your accumulated karma has granted you this new chance at life]
[You are not grateful?]
[(っ◞‸◟ c)]
[It seems I will have to petition for you to cease to exist]
[Just say the word, dear Host]
Aya stopped walking.
She immediately forced a smile at the screen, her heart racing in sheer panic.
Self-deletion was an option?!
But despite it, Aya was immediately unsettled.
"I was just joking," she said in a sickly-sweet sarcastic manner.
She would have to suck up and manage the cards she had been dealt with.
[(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)]
[Host has made a very wise choice]
[This system was 67% serious about the deletion offer]
Aya's mouth hung open in horror.
[…]
[Your joke sucks]
[Very pitiful]
Aya frowned. "Hey—"
Two servants were walking with empty trays and the moment they locked eyes with Aya they immediately averted them, disgust visible on their faces.
They had barely even walked past when the whispers started.
"… she is talking to the air now?"
"…mental… unwell…"
"… even slapped Kula this morning…"
'I can literally hear you!'
Aya closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then another.
She wasn't the Aya they were used to, and she didn't have to be. It sucked, but she would have to undo the damage the brainless idiot had caused.
She inwardly groaned and continued walking.
If the original Aya had done a proper job, she would have been in her room right now enjoying a massage from one of her husbands.
Aya wandered aimlessly for a few minutes, trying to settle her racing thoughts and her empty, anxious stomach, when she happened to discovered a dining room. It immediately made Aya wonder if that was where she would have been eating with her husbands every morning if things had gone according to how they were supposed to.
She happened to find a key location, a ceremonial event hall which had been a massive space she had dawdled around in before leaving.
She turned a corner and nearly walked straight into a group of men exiting an arched doorway.
They were older and looked to be in their late fifties to mid-sixties. They were dressed in formal robes that marked them as important, and it looked just as luxurious as the clothes Aya had seen in the wardrobes, except hers had more glitter and ridiculous ornaments.
Each of their robes were embroidered with different symbols near their chest.
The men stopped short when they saw her, genuine surprise flickering across their faces.
[Quest Update: Location Discovered!]
[Council Meeting Hall]
[Where kingdom politics are decided without you]
[Progress: 4/5]