In A Court of Silk and Flowers, every female character besides the female lead has one of two paths: petty man-obsessed villainess or faceless yes-woman cheerleader.
Of course, all paths lead to Rome, so both groups get killed off in the end, albeit in different ways. Cheerleaders sacrifice their lives taking a sword for the female lead, whereas villainesses get thoroughly humiliated and killed by one of the love interests.
That’s just what you should expect from a story like this.
Male characters, meanwhile, all fall head over heels in love with the female lead. Even the villains. Especially the villains, who use increasingly drastic methods to try to get rid of the male lead or get their beloved on their side.
But plot devices aren’t characters. All those episodes, and Daien is pretty sure the Cold Duke’s scribe doesn’t even exchange words with the female lead.
He’s nothing more than a pebble in the palace set, and even his name reflects that. Part of the worldbuilding is that commoners are assigned surnames after common items, so that even their names remind them of their place. Mud, stone, dust, moss.
Sand.
Ludi doesn’t break character at all when Daien stumbles over the long robes; she hasn’t worn this much fabric in her life before and it feels like some elaborate theatre costume.
Even worse, part of the costume is realistic looking (and unfortunately realistic weighing) armour, a shoulder guard across the left half of her body. The added weight is already making her body sore, which decreases the probability of the ‘fever dream’ theory slightly. She tucks the handkerchief and dagger into a random pocket to free her hands.
Daien is in the middle of trying to word a question such that she can subtly figure out why the Cold Duke is away from the festivities (just a normal nosebleed?) and also get directions from a subordinate who is currently walking behind her—and is supposed to stay that way—when a very tall man walks into her path. He is broad through the shoulders and thick through the middle, a beer belly not even his expensive robes can disguise.
The hallway of this palace-looking set is showy and spacious, so Daien sidesteps and starts to go past him. Unfortunately, the man claps a heavy hand on her unarmoured shoulder and pulls her back.
“Good day, Duke Uzun!” the man booms, grinning widely.
Daien stares at him blankly. Her borrowed face does not move.
She has…
…no idea which character this actor is supposed to be. Should she attempt to play along, or break character right away and try to get these actors to give her more information?
Ludi, who is standing behind her and to the left, clasps his hands and bows: not the curt nod of an equal, but the measured deference of a servant greeting a superior on his master's behalf.
“This servant greets the honourable Count Dugu of the Central Province. The Northern Dukedom offers its regards, and its congratulations on the young lord's success in the spring examinations.”
Name. Title. Province. The son's achievements. All delivered in a single breath, naturally paying respects to this ‘Count Dugu’ and reminding him that the Cold Duke’s people have deemed him important enough to remember. The timing is perfect; before Daien’s own silence would have become suspicious, but not so fast that it seems like he’s disrespectfully speaking for her.
He truly is an angel.
Daien vaguely recalls a minor love interest with the surname Dugu, someone too unimportant to have any family members appear onscreen. What the drama does find important, though, is noble hierarchy.
This world’s fictional power order system is explained many times so the audience knows that all the most powerful men are revolving around the female lead. Of course, the imperial ruling house of Tuyugan and the male lead are at the very top. Secondary leads include the sons of the Archduke of the West, the Queen of the South, etc. There’s even a chart on one of the episodes explaining hierarchy of the less important characters:
Major nobles/greater houses
- Dukes
- Margraves
- Landgraves
Minor nobles/lesser houses
- Counts
- Burgraves
- Barons
As a modern person, this excessive emphasis on hierarchy is the kind of posturing you only see in cheap dramas. But the fact that the head of House Dugu, a minor noble by this world’s standards, is approaching the head of House Uzun strikes her as bizarre. The Uzuns are a ducal house and the lords paramount of a province.
Well. The original drama does show them getting constantly roasted by side characters.
Count Dugu completely ignores Ludi’s words, as if he’s nothing more than one of the many decorative candlesticks. He smiles broadly at Daien and continues, “I must congratulate Your Grace.”
“Hn,” Daien says. These noncommittal grunts are something the Cold Duke used quite frequently in the drama, and now she uses it to mask her complete confusion at the entire situation. She debates between using the Cold Duke’s bad reputation to make a quick getaway and trying to get more info out of this actor.
Luckily, the count keeps babbling, “His Imperial Majesty has always rewarded his most loyal hounds, yes. The Uzuns have served faithfully for decades! Impressive, truly. One might almost forget you were lords at all, given how readily you heel.”
Ah, right. This is exactly why Daien despises people. Already the headache is starting to return with a vengeance. She repeats. “Hn.”
“The Emperor's coin has been most generous to House Uzun. I must say Your Grace's delegation looks well-fed.” At last Count Dugu nods at Ludi, at his visibly underweight frame and the pallor of his face.
With a sudden burst of irritation, Daien levels him with a flat stare and turns to leave. What a waste of time. “This lord has no desire to be entertaining such nonsensical babbling.”
“At ease, Your Grace,” Count Dugu says with a lazy shrug. “I was just telling Minister Han about our bout three years ago.” He rolls up his sleeve and shows off an impressive scar across one muscled forearm. “I've been hoping for a rematch. Surely His Majesty’s prized bloodhound hasn’t gone soft, hm?”
This man is the size of a refrigerator. The real Cold Duke of the North is decently strong—not as strong as any of the important love interests, obviously—but Daien is a hobbyist gym rat who has gotten into exactly one fight and that fight ended up with her dead.
So. Potential info out of this fight—about her new(?) dream(?) body or the environment—is not worth it.
“This lord ought to get back to the banquet to be on time for His Majesty. And so should you, Dugu,” Daien says flatly. Never in her life has she ever expected to be trying to escape from a hallway into a party, but here she is.
Before this extra can get another word in, she shoves him aside (with more than a little effort) and walks in the direction he came from, ignoring his response. Through sheer luck, it’s apparently the right direction for the banquet.
She walks in and is immediately blasted with a flurry of noise and brightness. It's an impressive set to almost an obscene degree; the banquet hall of the palace set has high ceilings with elaborate draperies, carvings on the pillars, and more decor than sensible.
The large room is filled to the brim with tables and tables of food and liquor, complete with realistic smells. Actors dressed as servants bustle around other actors dressed as nobles. Ludi bows to her and steps away to join another group of similarly dressed extras(?), while Daien looks around to try to find where she’s supposed to go. She gives up soon enough, and instead just looks around. She is leaning in to inspect the detailed decor and food for any discrepancies—props or hallucinations or VR pixels?—when a voice cuts in.
"What a great displeasure it is to see your face, Uzun." Daien looks over and does a double take when she actually recognizes the character.
Safiya Ashina?
Safiya is the major love rival in the first few arcs, Grand Duke Ashina’s only daughter and a classic snobby jealous villainess-type. She is the male lead’s original betrothed since childhood; she’s meant to be the Crown Princess and principle wife, but the male lead keeps delaying the actual wedding.
And then, of course, he meets the female lead and opens the competition to all noblewomen. It’s a great humiliation for Safiya and House Ashina both, and from that day onward she spends all her time trying to make the female lead miserable in increasingly petty and immature ways.
Safiya looks at Daien with obvious disdain while the noblewomen and maids around them giggle. She swirls the amber liquid around in her ornate lacquered wine goblet, pretending to dramatically contemplate something.
Then, she pours it over Daien’s head.