Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Translation: godsn
Mariyu hastily added her words, realizing her mistake.
"Only back then. The princess deliberately kept me at a distance because she feared the Head Maid would retaliate. But I've returned to her side now."
"Is that really true?"
Samon raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Of course. You know how much the princess trusts and relies on me."
Her mouth had gone dry.
Only then did Samon relax his shoulders and smile.
"The Head Maid's causing such a commotion inside and outside the palace that it's giving me a massive headache. Show me your leg. Is it here?"
Samon reached out toward Mariyu with practiced ease. Though she rolled her eyes, Mariyu pretended to relent and melted into his embrace.
"That old fox dares to hurt my beloved. Don't worry. She'll be replaced soon anyway. Father's already found a substitute."
His hot breath brushed against her.
"Darling, you love me, don't you?"
"Ha, Mariyu. I'd marry you right this instant."
Samon whispered sweetly into her ear.
"Me too."
He pressed his thin lips to hers and whispered again.
"But my love, you must do well if I'm to introduce you to my parents. A minor duke like me needs a proper justification to take a commoner like you as my wife."
Samon looked down at Mariyu.
He twined a strand of her red hair around his finger against the white sheets.
As Mariyu closed her eyes in dizzy rapture, he yanked the hair to force her eyes open again.
"My dear cousin's most cherished maid must be you, Mariyu. You need to know everything—what Medeia does, what she thinks."
Samon's handsome features twisted. Between his petty, narrow eyes, his pitch-black pupils gleamed strangely like a rat's.
"Mari, do you understand what I'm saying? Do you grasp it properly?"
Mariyu grew impatient.
The nameplate reading "Duchess Claudio" that had hovered before her eyes now seemed to be drifting far away.
"...Of course. Don't worry, darling. I'd do anything for you."
So Mariyu hugged him tightly. She convinced herself the fleeting emptiness she felt was just her imagination.
Even without Samon's urging, Mariyu would have done her utmost to regain the princess's favor.
But those green eyes seemed impossibly distant from ever holding warmth for her again.
The princess hadn't outright banished Mariyu. Yet she no longer allowed her to hover nearby as before.
The kind princess who used to explain every little thing to her in meticulous detail was gone.
'I must return to how things were before Samon finds out.'
Her nerves grew sharper.
Pacing restlessly between anxiety and anger, Mariyu wavered in that uncertain space.
"...That bracelet is quite pretty."
The princess gazed indifferently at Mariyu before making an abrupt remark.
Mariyu's pupils shook.
"I don't think I've seen it before. Who gave it to you?"
The golden bracelet shaped like rose vines had small rubies embedded in each bud.
With every movement of her arm, the exquisitely carved dangling flower buds trembled delicately. The vividly colored rubies emitted a mesmerizing glow.
It was clearly an expensive bracelet at first glance.
Far too extravagant for a mere maid to possess.
"R-received it? Th-this is... something my mother left for me!"
Mariyu flinched in shock and instinctively tugged down her sleeve, as if trying to hide the bracelet.
"After Mother passed, I kept it in a keepsake box, so Your Highness wouldn't have seen it before."
Even in her panic, she made sure to invoke her dead mother as an excuse, twisting the knife of guilt into the princess.
But in truth, the bracelet was a gift from Samon just last night.
"Take it, Mariyu. You asked if I love you, didn't you? Consider this proof."
She had slipped it on to show off to the other maids, never imagining the princess would notice it so quickly.
"Is that so?"
"O-of course! Where else would I get something like this if not from my mother?"
"True enough."
The moment the princess casually agreed, an inexplicable fire flared inside Mariyu.
'True enough? Are you looking down on me because I'm just some lowborn commoner who waits on you hand and foot?'
You half-blooded wretch—who do you think you are, mocking me when you don't even have a dashing, wealthy, handsome lover to give you gifts like this?
How dare—how DARE you!
Just as the torrent of black, seething words threatened to spill out—
Pfft. A faint laugh seemed to ripple through the air.
Mariyu's head snapped up.
Medeia was looking at her, the corner of her lips curled ever so slightly.
"Y-your Highness?"
A shiver raced down Mariyu's spine at the sight of the princess's smile.
One moment, she seemed serene—the next, chillingly unreadable.
"Y-Your Highness, I should... I should take my leave now. Please call for me whenever you need."
All the determination she had felt this morning—to cling to the princess's ankles if she had to—had vanished. Instead, Mariyu scrambled backward in haste.
If she stayed any longer, everything would be exposed.
Her lover, her inferiority complex toward the princess, even the inexplicable fear she felt in her presence—everything.
"A keepsake, huh... What an amusing lie."
Medeia murmured as she watched Mariyu's retreating figure flee like a startled hare.
"A lie, Your Highness?"
"The floral decoration on that bracelet earlier—it wasn't a rose. It was a trumpet."
The emblem of the tribe that assassinated the Emperor of the Kazen Empire. Its use was completely banned across the continent.
It was such a tragic and shameful history that Kazen had enforced even stricter prohibitions against the trumpet emblem's use in foreign lands.
For decades, the emblem remained forbidden—until the First Prince's victory in the war of conquest.
Because among the kingdoms he had annihilated was that very trumpet-bearing tribe.
"So, chronologically, it couldn't be a keepsake. The First Prince's victory came long after your nurse had already died."
But beyond their secret affair, the bracelet held another clue.
Medeia's eyes gleamed sharply.
"Uncle's faction has already been in contact with the Empire."
After the First Prince's triumph, the imperial family monopolized the trumpet emblem, distributing it only to a select few.
"Samon always lets his ambition outpace his sense. He must have been itching to boast that his father was dealing with a powerhouse like Kazen. Though for now, it's just empty posturing—showing off to a mere maid under his father's thumb."
He probably doesn't even know what he's given Mariyu.
The image of him leading the charge to advocate for Pelleus's dethronement in the past resurfaced in her mind.
"Thankfully, neither of them is particularly clever. Should I thank them for making this so easy?"
Or perhaps my dear cousin is genuinely in love?
At that moment, Neril asked,
"Your Highness, are you suggesting Duke Claudio's family is colluding with the Empire? Even if the Duke covets the throne, what could the Empire possibly gain from this?"
Why would the superpower Kazen bother joining hands with a minor noble from a barren northern kingdom?
"Because Emperor Kazen doesn't want our Valdina to grow any stronger. That's why he must stop my brother by any means necessary."
Pelleus would rather break than bend.
Even when surrounded by hordes of Magic Beasts, he never once bowed to the Emperor of Kazen's whims.
"Then the aid promised by the incoming Kazen diplomatic mission..."
"Is just a ruse. The Emperor doesn't want us to win, so he'll find any excuse to withhold support."
Medeia's expression hardened.
"And ultimately, it will lead to rebellion."
In her past life, that's exactly how it had unfolded.
With a harsh winter approaching, emergency relief was desperately needed.
Kazen abruptly withdrew their promised aid.
Valdina had to exhaust its already strained treasury scrambling to secure food supplies.
Yet it still wasn't enough, leading to severe famine.
Voices condemning the incompetent royal family grew louder, with all blame directed at King Pelleus.
Seizing the moment when public anger peaked, the rebels instigated an uprising.
Fake rebels—hired and funded by the Regent.
The rebel leaders weren't patriots but men blinded by the Regent's gold. They incited war-weary civilians and discharged soldiers.
Then they kidnapped Medeia, branding her as the princess who abandoned her people to flee, bolstering their cause.
The Regent's plan was to exploit the chaos caused by the rebels, seize the throne while both the King and Princess were absent, and consolidate power.
"A rebellion..."
Neril's expression darkened.
'With public sentiment already frayed by the war, if Kazen withdraws aid as Her Highness predicts...'
The starving masses wouldn't hold back any longer. If mobs rose like wildfire, could Valdina withstand it?
'This could topple the royal family. And the Empire is behind it all?'
Neril seethed with indignation.
"Even if Kazen is a superpower, how dare they conspire against another nation's king? Aren't they afraid of backlash?"
Medeia's lips curled into a sneer.
"Oh, but no one will know the Regent and the Empire are in cahoots."
Anyone who suspected or knew had already been eliminated.
'The rebels breached the walls too easily and quickly. Claudio must have paved the way beforehand.'
Had Pelleus not won the war and returned swiftly, everything might have gone exactly as the Regent planned.
'The rebels will soon storm the royal castle.'
Which meant they had to be stopped before they even set foot inside.
Medeia rose from her seat and walked to the window.
The distant castle walls came into view.
"Neril, where is your mentor now?"
If it was Gilifos, the former captain of the Royal Guard, he could serve as a bulwark against them.