Let's Go Home
“Get up.”
At the dry command, Karina straightened her knees and rose from her kneeling position. White smoke curled like mist from the pistol in my hand.
It had been a hairsbreadth from death. If I had shifted the angle even slightly, it truly might have ended that way.
Yet no trace of fear showed on her face. Not even the slightest tremor. The massive gunshot should have left her ears ringing, but she looked utterly composed, as if nothing had happened at all.
“That was rather harsh, Duchess.”
Karina brushed the dirt from her clothes, murmuring.
“You nearly marred the only asset this girl possesses—her face.”
“If I had truly been harsh, it wouldn’t have ended with a mere scar.”
I pointed the still-smoking pistol at her heart.
“The blood would have flowed from here, not your cheek. Or rather, you wouldn’t even be in this world right now. Your neck would have been severed on the execution block the very day you came looking for me.”
“Please don’t say such frightening things. It doesn’t suit someone of your noble station to speak so cruelly.”
“Nobles are always the cruelest. You and your family learned that lesson well enough, didn’t you?”
“……”
For an instant, Karina’s expression changed drastically. The look in her eyes was nothing like the innocent, playful mask she wore when pretending to know nothing.
The maids had been right. Once she revealed her true colors, the innocent maidservant’s face vanished completely.
That was the day I discovered Karina in the red dress at the ball. Sobbing, Abigail and Sophie had poured out the entire truth to me.
At first, I found it hard to believe. I had always been wary of her, yet the woman I had observed until then seemed nothing more than a clever maid.
A maid who had simply gotten lucky and moved from the stables to the Emperor’s palace. Nothing more, nothing less. To think she possessed such a dual nature—it was almost impossible to imagine.
“She’s a terrifying woman. You should have seen how her expression changed when someone said something that displeased her, Duchess!”
Abigail’s words suddenly came back to me. The look she had given me moments ago when I mentioned her family. Those golden eyes filled with deep-seated resentment. That must have been her true heart, the one she had hidden from me all along.
“What would you have me do?”
At last Karina softened her gaze and whispered gently.
“What must I do to survive and leave this hunting ground?”
“I never said I would spare you.”
“If you had no intention of sparing me, you would have killed me with that first shot.”
“You don’t even beg anymore.”
“Because begging wouldn’t change anything.”
“You really have no fear.”
“I used up all my fear the first day I met you.”
It was absurd. I had already heard from the two head maids that her way of speaking was far from ordinary, but seeing it with my own eyes left me speechless.
His Majesty was wrong.
He had told me I had a good eye for people, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. If I truly possessed keen intuition, why hadn’t I seen through her true nature from the very first moment…?
“Go.”
I lowered the hand holding the pistol and pointed toward the mountain path on the opposite side.
“Disappear from my sight so we never meet again.”
“Are you certain that’s wise?”
Karina tilted her head, eyes half-lidded in a languid gaze.
“His Majesty will be terribly sad if I disappear.”
“……”
“Who will attend to His Majesty’s tea at night? Who will begin his days with a reading each morning?”
“There are plenty of maids in the imperial palace besides you.”
“No. It has to be me, doesn’t it?”
The smile Karina gave me was filled with absolute certainty.
“Because His Majesty wants only me. He will search only for me.”
It was an undeniable truth. Even Sophie, the Emperor’s head maid, had told me the same—His Majesty’s every interest was focused entirely on Karina.
If I drove her from the palace, it would cause an enormous uproar. I knew full well that His Majesty would suspect me.
Perhaps… just perhaps, it might even create a crack between His Majesty and me.
“My dear Duchess.”
She called to me again in that clear, leisurely voice.
“Why do you hesitate so?”
“……”
“Could it be that you’re afraid of me?”
“What…?”
“Or perhaps… you’re afraid I might become His Majesty’s woman, so you’re driving me away?”
Bang—!
At the gunshot that rang through the air, the crows perched in the trees burst into noisy cries and flew skyward all at once.
“This is your last chance. Go.”
This time my pistol was aimed precisely at her heart.
Afraid? Of a mere maid? Of all the nonsense she had spouted, that was the most ridiculous part.
I was the sole ducal princess of the noble and proud Regent family, the one destined from birth to become the Crown Princess of the Empire.
Me, afraid? Of someone like you, who is nothing?
His Majesty’s woman? Yes, that would never happen, but even if by some remote chance she became his mistress, it would change nothing.
A favored mistress was still only a mistress. She had no grounds to challenge me, the Crown Prince’s rightful consort.
Crown Princess and maid. That was the chasm between us. A solid reality that would never change unless some cataclysmic event altered fate itself.
And yet you dare speak such words to me?
My patience had finally run out. If she opened her mouth insolently one more time, I might truly pull the trigger.
Fortunately, Karina seemed to realize it was time to retreat.
“I will leave for now, but the day will surely come when you need me.”
She bowed politely toward me, leaving those parting words.
“Come to Pleco Square. If you do, you’ll be able to find me without much difficulty.”
“Damn it.”
From late afternoon onward, rain began pouring down as if the sky itself had been punctured. Upon reaching Pleco Square, Karina looked at the empty stage in the center of the square and cursed.
“Guess I should just head home.”
Karina stood for a moment in front of a nearby clothing shop to shelter from the rain. She wrung out her silver hair, heavy with moisture, and emptied the rainwater that had collected inside her shoes.
When she tilted her head down briefly, water trickled along the rim of her ear and into it. Karina clutched her ringing ear and frowned, her delicate brow creasing.
“She really is a cold-hearted person. We’re both women, and she nearly scarred such a pretty face. What would she have done then?”
Karina sighed as she gazed at her own reflection in the shop window.
She had long known that for a poor, powerless woman, beauty could be the greatest weapon—and at the same time, the greatest weakness.
It had proven fatal for her older sister, but she was different. Though she now stood alone, cast out, had she not already captured the Emperor’s sole favor?
Splash, splash.
Karina crossed the square and made her way toward the outermost district of the village.
A dim alley, where wooden planks had been crudely nailed together to form the barest semblance of shelter. That was where Karina lived.
She opened the creaking door and stepped inside. A shabby bed and table came into view.
Karina opened a small drawer, took out the towel inside, and wiped the moisture from her hair and body. Though it looked worn from the outside, the interior was reasonably comfortable.
“Meow— Meow—”
Between the crashing thunder came the cry of a cat. Karina whipped her head around. A black cat was leaning against the window, meowing loudly.
“Shasha!”
Karina’s voice rang out with the brightest tone she had used all day. She opened the window and brought the cat inside. The cat shook itself to shed the water, then came to her feet and bumped its head against her.
“You adorable thing! Were you waiting for me?”
Karina lifted the cat high and hugged it tightly to her chest. From within her arms, the cat let out a contented purr.
“If only that woman were a bit more simple-minded, everything would have been so much easier.”
Karina sat down in the old chair, still holding the cat. Listening to the rain while cuddling the warm creature seemed to ease the fatigue of her long day, if only a little.
“Most noblewomen, raised in comfort, know so little of the world that a few compliments are enough to make them open their hearts. But she’s the complete opposite. How should I put it…? Perhaps more sensitive?”
Karina murmured as she stroked Shasha.
“At first I thought she was falling for it, but she never let her guard down until the end. Extremely suspicious, too. The moment I thought she was opening up to me, she would draw the line again. When I tried to get along, she turned cold. She doesn’t treat her friends that way.”
Recalling the Ishtel she had seen at the ball, Karina frowned and bit her lip.
“And she’s doing everything she can to separate me from the Emperor. That’s when I realized it. Ah, this woman has no intention of ever opening her heart to me. I wanted to keep things amicable, but in the end, it seems you and I must become enemies.”
If she hadn’t treated her with such coldness, things would never have come to this. A strange bitterness settled over Karina’s heart.
“So I simply gave her a taste of it. I’ve crossed a river that cannot be recrossed. But it doesn’t matter. My goal from the beginning was the Emperor, and I have already achieved that.”
Karina let out a soft, delighted giggle at the thought.
“Still… that woman. She acts cold and icy on the surface, but she has surprisingly weak spots.”
“……”
“That’s why I think we’ll meet again soon. In the meantime, let’s rest while we refine our plans for the future.”
Karina hugged the cat more tightly and pressed a kiss to its small head.
“Next time, let’s go to a bigger house together, Shasha. A place so splendid and beautiful it can’t even be compared to this one. That will be my home from now on.”
The cat shifted in her arms and jumped down. It looked up at her and meowed even louder.
Karina bent down to stroke the cat’s sleek body, then walked over to the bed.
She lifted the white sheet, reached beneath the bed, and pulled out a thick envelope.
Esmeralda
Karina ran her fingers over the name written on the paper with a bitter look in her eyes.
“The day this sees the light of the world isn’t far off now.”