Prince Charming's Beloved Wife

Peasant Now, Peasant Forever

Because of the strong force, Adela tumbled forward almost falling onto the ax. 

“Ah!” 

Daniel reached forward in a failed attempt to grab onto Adela as she fell forward, landing with a plump onto the ground.

She immediately jumped up, brushing the dirt and leaves off of her bottom.

Daniel’s frown deepened, “You. . . You really don’t remember where you home or who your family is?”

Adela blinked a few times, wondering if she had given something away, “Um. . . no.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes and stared at Adela for several long seconds before pulling the ax back out of the log, “Never mind about chopping wood. Go help Madeline with the food.”

Adela was more than happy to leave this place, especially since Daniel seemed to be getting kind of suspicious. 

She returned to the cottage to find no one inside. 

“Grandma Madeline! Grandma Madeline!” Adela called, walking around looking for her.

“I’m here!”

Adela stopped and slowly walked around the cottage to the back, “Grandma Madeline?!”

Behind the small cottage, there was a patch of dirt about the same size as the cottage. On the ground, there were several leaves that seemed to be sprouts of fresh vegetables.

Behind this, there was also a fence that enclosed several animals, like chickens, pigs, and cows.

“Grandma Madeline, what are you doing here?” Adela walked over and bent down next to where Madeline was squatting, picking out what seemed to be carrots.

“I’m harvesting our food!” 

Adela looked over at the basket next to Madeline and saw that it was filled with different vegetables like carrots, lettuce, and more.

“This is where all of the food comes from?” Adela asked as she played around with the dirt. To be honest, she never knew what it was like to harvest food straight from the ground. To her, food came from the royal kitchen, and it was always cooked and ready-to-eat. 

She didn’t know who harvested or planted all the food, and to be honest, she didn’t really care.

As the princess, her life as royalty was always smooth and pleasant, not having to worry about much except what she was going to wear or who she was going to meet. 

“Can you go wash these in the lake?” Madeline asked as she handed Adela a handful of carrots.

“Sure!” Adela carried them over to the edge of the lake and rolled up her sleeves. She bent down and began scrubbing the carrot, which was covered with a thin layer of dirt.

The water was extremely cold and Adela watched as her hands became slightly red, but she continued to scrub the carrot as if she was washing her own body.

Adela has never done work like this in her entire life, and she was tired after only scrubbing two carrots. 

“Oh, this work is very gruesome,” Adela exclaimed as she wiped her forehead with her wet hands and stood up, stretching her back.

At this moment, Madeline walked over to see how she was doing.

“How many carrots did you wash?”

Adela proudly exclaimed, “I washed two already!”

She held up the two carrots that were squeaky clean, so clean that some of the outside carrot skin had been peeled off.

“Two?” Madeline blinked a few times, not knowing what to say. 

“Do you maybe remember if you were born into an upper-class family?” 

Adela gulped, “Um, I don’t remember. I don’t think so.”

“Oh, well. You are washing them way too clean. Let me show you.” Madeline bent down and began scrubbing a carrot under the running water.

A few seconds later, she held it up, “This is good enough.”

Adela glanced at the carrot before slowly nodding her head, “. . . Okay.”

---

After several hours of work, Adela was finally able to sit down for lunch.

She ate the food happily as Madeline kept telling her to eat more, treating Adela like her own child or grandchild.

This is the first meal in her life that she had to work for to eat, and it was a very new feeling. However, to be honest, Adela did not like this feeling.

If given the opportunity, who wouldn’t want to live a royal life and not have to do chores or cook and still have everything. 

However, Adela had no choice. She was already grateful to have a new life as such a beautiful and young girl, so she shouldn’t be so greedy to complain about the life she had now.

She was a peasant now, but she definitely won’t be a peasant forever!

However, what Adela didn’t know was that she would stay a peasant for quite a while.

--- Two and a half weeks later

With Madeline and Daniel’s permission, Adela stayed in their small cottage for over three weeks already. 

As the time passed by, Daniel’s attitude towards Adela also warmed up slightly and he was much more pleasant and agreeable around her now. 

For the past two weeks, Adela continued to do peasant chores such as harvesting the food, cleaning the food, cooking the food, gathering the wood, and more.

With time, she slowly became more and more familiar with the tasks and did them faster and with more expertise than when she first started.

Early in the morning, Adela left the cottage to go get wood for the fire. She couldn’t chop the wood well, so she was responsible for going to fetch the wood now.

The weather was slowly warming up, but since it was early in the morning, the temperature was still very cold. In the Baldamia Empire, even the summertime was on the colder side, but it did warm up during July and August.

Adela slowly trudged into the woods, hugging herself tightly with her arms. 

When she reached the pile of woods, she bent down and lifted up several logs, struggling slightly to carry them all by herself. 

Suddenly, she heard the sound of leaves rustling several feet away from her.

Adela immediately froze, not even daring to breathe loudly. Grandpa Daniel had told her about how there were ferocious animals such as bears inside this forest, especially since this pile of wood was quite a long distance into the woods. . .

He had told her several scary stories about himself encountering these animals and barely escaping. 

Adela had been lucky to not run into any animals during all the times she had come here to fetch wood. She did see a few squirrels or birds sometimes, but those weren’t scary!

However, the sound she just heard couldn’t be made by a squirrel or bird.

Adela relaxed slightly after several seconds of silence, but then, the rustling sound of leaves and heavy steps of whatever animal it may be could be heard again. . . and it was gradually getting louder and louder.

Adela couldn’t just stand here and await her death. She slowly and softly turned around, trying not to make any noise as she began making her way back to the cottage. 

However, with all the leaves on the ground, it was very hard.

All she could hope for was that the animal had bad hearing. 

She was almost halfway back to the cottage already, and she was beginning to relax as the sound of footsteps and movement disappeared.

Suddenly, a strong force grabbed onto her left arm, pulling her around.

“Ahh!” Adela screamed as the pile of wood in her arms dropped onto the ground.