Beast King's Crippled Mate-Chapter 239: Banquet of Sacrifices (I)

Preparations for the banquet in Baroness Anastasia’s mansion went smoothly. The villagers were invited in the morning, and they were allowed to come by noon, as the food had been prepared beforehand.

The villagers were ecstatic about this entire banquet because this year’s winter was very harsh. Some elderly perished because they couldn’t handle the cold, and the food ration had to be given to the children first to preserve the future of their small village.

They knew Baroness Anastasia was their previous queen, but since they were living in an isolated area, none of them knew about the trade ban.

Some of the youngsters went to the city to work, but most still returned to the village after they got married, because they preferred the peaceful life in their small mountainous region.

They had neither bad experiences nor good experiences with their queen before. This banquet was the beginning of a good relationship between the villagers and their new Baroness. Since she was kind enough to extend her hand to commoners like them, they already had a good opinion about her.

Anastasia wore a plain blue dress to greet the peasants who came to her mansion. She wanted to look humble as she knew showing off her expensive dress would only intimidate those villagers and give off a bad first impression.

However, even her most humble dress was still too good compared to those villagers who were already wearing the best they had.

Nevertheless, the peasants were awed by Baroness Anastasia’s beauty and warm smile.

One of the little girls meekly approached the Baroness and did a little curtsy, as taught by her sister who worked in the city before, "T-thank you for inviting us, M-Milady."

Anastasia’s heart melted seeing the innocent little girl who looked somewhat similar to the small Aria.

It reminded her of the time when Aria was still cute and pure, like a blank canvas ready to be painted.

Sometimes Anastasia wished she could turn back time and fix her mistake because she knew that some of Aria’s twisted nature came from her wrong teaching.

She was filthy ambitious, and always taught Aria that method did not matter as long as you got the result you wanted, and sacrificing people was justified if it was necessary.

As she reflected on her past actions, Anastasia realized that she was the reason for Aria’s current behavior. Her daughter might change for the better as she was generous enough to hold a banquet for the villagers, but she was still cruel to the servants.

’Well, a slow change is still a change. As long as she is getting better, then I can’t complain,’ Anastasia thought as she gently patted the little girl’s head. "Thank you for coming to my mansion, little girl. Since it’s winter, how about gingerbread cookies? We have a lot of it."

Anastasia pointed at the big jar full of gingerbread cookies and said, "You can take as many as you want."

The little girl’s eyes glimmered with joy as she thanked the Baroness and rushed to take a few of the gingerbread cookies.

The villagers were given tables for each of them, so they felt like real guests rather than a bunch of refugees. Anastasia sat facing all of them and announced, "Attention, all my people in this banquet. My dearest daughter, Aria Asmara of Holy Achate, has prepared a special chicken soup that could warm your body during this cold season. We will have that as our appetizer. After that, you are free to eat anything you want here."

Anastasia turned her head towards the door where Aria had been busy with her makeup, and once the door was opened, Anastasia’s eyes widened until her eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

Aria was wearing one of her most luxurious dresses; it was made out of the best material, and sewn with very thin white silk which gave the dress a natural sheen. The dress was embedded with gemstones that made her look like she was about to be crowned as the new Queen of Holy Achate.

She was so out of place compared to everyone in this mansion that Anastasia wanted to shove her daughter back into the room and told her to change to something less extravagant.

Unfortunately, Aria already walked out of her room, and her gold heels were making tap tap sound whenever she walked.

Aria was so beautiful that the whole room was stunned into complete silence. All the villagers stared unblinkingly at the beautiful Aria Asmara.

"A Goddess..." one of the villagers murmured. "She is a goddess..."

The other villagers said nothing, but deep down, they agreed to that statement just now.

Aria stood before them and smiled, "Thank you for coming my dearest subjects. I am Aria Asmara of Holy Achate. I was a Royal Princess before, but since my mother had abdicated, you all may call me Lady Aria from now on."

"I had the idea to host this banquet because I saw that people are suffering, and I cannot stand still and watch my people dying due to extreme winter. Hence, I’ve decided to feed all of you with a special chicken soup as an appetizer," Aria said calmly, but her heart was filled with twisted joy right now. She kept thinking about these idiots’ faces and imagined them dying in such horrible ways after drinking the potent poison inside the chicken broth. ’There are plenty of children here. Their souls would be worth more than the adults. I’m so glad I told my mom to specifically invite the children as well.’

The servants began distributing the chicken soup that Aria made. She made sure that everyone would get one bowl each, including the servants.

The only two people who didn’t get the poisoned chicken soup were her and her mother as she still needed Anastasia for the ultimate sacrifice later on.

"Please eat the soup while it’s still hot. Make sure to finish it, because I made it with love.