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Kyungsoo was out of the house again by the time Jandi woke up. Probably off to visit Kim Joonmyun, she thought, the memory of Joonmyun scrambling to escape the horde of his fellow gentlemen bringing a non-too-innocent smirk to her lips. What a poor, poor man. Burdened by all his outrageously cushy wealth. However will he survive?

Another half hour was spent lounging in bed, alternating between daydreaming about Joonmyun drowning in his cash and dreading the undoubtedly silent, mediocre day ahead, before Jandi rolled out of bed and got dressed in the neatly pressed clothes set out for her by the maids. For the last couple days, her clothes hadn’t been quite as atrocious as she had come to expect, and Jandi wondered if Mansoo wasn’t purposely ordering to have her dressed in gradually nicer clothing so as to claim some sort of “civilizing” effect of the Capital on her fashion sense. The thought made her shudder. As if.

But luckily after a quiet breakfast alone, Jandi concluded her father-in-law was out of the house as well. Indeed, she hadn’t seen much of him at all recently, except for last night, which was strange for such a domineering man whose very presence commanded subservience and attention. I thought he would always be around entertaining company and monitoring all the servants. The staff certainly acts like he’s hovering over their shoulders all the time.

Spotting a stray newspaper on the coffee table, Jandi decided she might as well take advantage of the empty house and enjoy scrounging for information without the risk of being caught by either of the men of the household. But just as she plopped down in a comfortable chair, newspaper in hand and mentally prepared to educate herself because clearly no one else would, the maid cleaning the room cleared .

“I’m sorry Young Mistress, but would it be possible for you to read outside today?”

Jandi stared at her. She could count on one hand the number of times any of the staff had spoken to her first, and never before had anyone made a request of her like this one. “O-outside?” she managed to stammer after recovering from her surprise.

“Yes.” The poor maid looked down, clearly uncomfortable, and scrunched her apron in her hands. “Master Do’s orders. He has… business today for the next few hours and would like the house empty.”

So he is home! Then why haven’t I heard a peep from him? The image of Mansoo’s face, stricken by his son’s harsh words, surfaced in her memories. Could last night’s encounter explain his strange behavior? But no, that was nonsense. Mansoo was the epitome of a manly man, not the type to throw a tantrum and order the house cleared because his son hurt his feelings. Jandi blinked and refocused on the maid.

“Yes, of course. May I read by the lake?”

The maid shook her head. “No, I’m sorry, Young Mistress. Master Do has ordered you spend the day either at the kennels or near the edge of the forest.”

What? But those places are on the extreme outskirts of the property! What could he possibly need that much space for? Is he hosting a massive party that I’m not allowed to or something? But Kyungsoo’s not even home, and he would certainly be home for an event of that scale, especially so close to the primaries.

“Alright. I’ll read by the -” Jandi was about to settle for the forest, not wanting to revisit the violence and squalor of the wolf kennels after her last experience, but the memory of Kyungsoo coming to her late at night with news of Hyemin’s death held her back.

“We found her body in the forest… not safe to bring you…”

“I’ll read by the wolf kennels.” The mere thought of spending hours at the kennels, this time without even an exuberant three-and-a-half-year-old to distract her, made her stomach churn, but Kyungsoo’s tone had left no doubt in her mind that the forest was a dangerous place for her to be. Especially with Kyungsoo away from home and her father-in-law up to something strange, Jandi didn’t want to take her chances.

Relieved at her mistress’ cooperation, the maid called another servant to guide Jandi to the kennels, bundling her along with a blanket and basket for lunch, and Jandi barely managed to hold onto the newspaper before she was swept out the door to the kennels.

When she arrived, her first thought was that the wolves seemed much quieter today. There was no “dancing,” as the emperor had called it, and although they growled softly as Jandi drew near, they didn’t launch themselves at the fence with the same frenzied hunger she had been so horrified by before. Sunning themselves and stretching in the warmth, they just seemed… natural, or as natural as nature trapped in a manmade cage could be.

Of course, that didn’t stop the servant at her side from becoming paler and sweatier the closer they walked to the kennels. When they were just under a hundred paces away from the fences, the servant set down the basket of food and spread out the blanket on a soft patch of grass, hands shaking. After making sure Jandi was comfortably settled, he took one last nervous glance at the kennels and speed-walked off on the path back to the Do mansion.

“Thank you,” she called after him, although she strongly doubted he could hear her in his urgency to leave the kennels far, far behind. Looks like I’m not the only one who hates this place, then. Positioning herself so the ugly fence wasn’t in her direct field of vision, she smoothed out the crumpled newspaper and settled down to read, doing her best to ignore the caged wolves beside her.

“Iron magnate Kim Joonmyun spotted with young Cabinet hopeful Do Kyungsoo at Dowager Empress' gala,” read the first article, accompanied by a photograph of the two men chuckling together. “Poll experts say Kim’s financial support may be exactly what Do’s campaign needs. Although Do has gained support from many rural villages due to his new wife's connections to Geumdo, he remains in the middle of the pack and is still far behind incumbent Song Junhyung. To forecast each candidate’s chance of winning each district, our experts segmented the voting population into…”

A fat fly, no doubt venturing out from its home in the kennels, landed on the newspaper, and Jandi swatted it with a cry, cringing when its body smashed into pieces on the paper right above the colored map in the article she was reading. She was well accustomed to flies, dead or alive, but trying to read around the bloody stain wasn’t exactly pleasant.

“Nasty buggers, eh?” A shadow