Chapter 28
Chapter 28
Translation: godsn
Madame Pinatelli's reports lay scattered everywhere.
The furious Queen Dowager had thrown the documents about in her rage.
"Embezzling from the royal coffers to line her own pockets? She must be out of her mind to lay hands on Medeia's belongings!"
"Yes, Your Highness. They even replaced all of Her Highness the Princess's personal items with inferior goods and falsified records."
Madame Pinatelli added further,
"The maids from the Princess's quarters who were previously executed had also participated in the embezzlement under Madame Cuisine's orders."
The dead tell no tales, so they were now entirely recast as Madame Cuisine's accomplices.
It wasn't entirely fabricated—after all, she had indeed planted several spies among them.
By skillfully blending truth and lies, they created a natural plausibility that supported the allegations of Madame Cuisine's corruption.
"Ha! The audacity! She's got guts spilling out of her belly!"
"The Princess's quarters were the most neglected in the palace, so she must have thought no one would care."
"How could such a cunning, sinister woman become the Royal Head Maid?"
But what infuriated the Queen Dowager most was—
"Daring to use me to bring down Medeia? Has she lost her mind entirely?!"
No matter how cold-hearted she might be, would she ever cast out her own granddaughter with her own hands?!
As if forgetting all the venom she had once spewed at Medeia, the Queen Dowager trembled with rage.
'She must have thought that since the Second Prince was casting me aside, Cuisine could scheme freely.'
That day, the words of the traitorous maid who had betrayed her granddaughter came back to her. If her own son was the one who had installed and then removed Madame Cuisine as the Royal Head Maid—
'Could Cuisine really have committed all these misdeeds alone?'
Just then, the maid assigned to watch over Medeia came running in.
"Y-Your Highness! The Crown Princess has collapsed!"
The Queen Dowager rushed over in a panic and examined her unconscious granddaughter.
"By the time we arrived, she had already fainted."
The Princess, hastily moved into the chapel, was deathly pale.
"Why was she discovered so late? How could no one have noticed her condition?"
"Your Highness, you forbade anyone from approaching her..."
The maid hesitated in her reply.
The Queen Dowager was stunned to see her granddaughter in a far worse state than she had heard in reports.
She endured five days wearing nothing but a thin dress?!
"Her lips are all cracked—why wasn't she given balm?"
"B-But Your Highness ordered that not a single drop of water..."
"Since when have you all followed my words like gold?! Have you no sense?!"
The Queen Dowager fumed. She was beside herself with rage at the incompetence of her subordinates.
She even shot a glare at the unconscious Medeia.
"You stubborn little wretch. You're doing this to torment this old woman, aren't you?"
"Uh... Y-yes...?"
"Yes what?! How dare you?!"
It seemed the Queen Dowager just wanted to vent her anger. The maids were at a loss.
"What are you all standing around for? Will you leave the Princess to spend the night on this freezing floor?"
"Uh... T-then...?"
"Move her to the palace, of course! You—go fetch the Royal Physician!"
"Y-yes, at once!"
Hadn't she just been scolding the unconscious Princess moments ago?
Baffled by the Queen Dowager's unpredictable reactions, the maid was utterly confused.
Had Madame Pinatelli been present, she might have discerned her intentions, but she had stepped away for the moment.
Under the Queen Dowager's icy rebuke, the maids lifted the Princess onto their backs. Even then, she showed no signs of regaining consciousness.
"To the Princess's quarters!"
A pale hand limply dropped.
The Queen Dowager's face turned ashen.
For a moment, the memory of identifying her son's corpse flashed through her mind—
The horrific day she had touched his lifeless, rigid body, drained of all vitality.
"Medeia!"
She hastily turned her granddaughter over. Only after confirming her faint breathing did she allow the maids to carry her again.
Late at night, the Princess's quarters were in an uproar.
It was partly because the Princess, who had been punished in front of the chapel, had been brought back unconscious—
But above all, it was because the Queen Dowager, who rarely stirred from her chambers, had made an appearance.
"W-welcome, Your Highness the Queen Dowager. It is an infinite hon— glory that the light of Valdina—"
"Enough. Just tend to your mistress properly."
The Queen Dowager scowled.
The Princess's quarters were filled with a chilling cold.
Even for a dreary evening, the desolate atmosphere felt utterly devoid of life.
She found the youthful faces, seemingly unfamiliar with palace etiquette, irritating.
Why were such incompetent fools swarming around the Princess?
"Apparently, the previous maids caused trouble, so the former Head Maid dismissed them all. They were replaced with newly recruited young girls instead."
Marchioness Pinatelli whispered in the Queen Dowager's ear upon her return.
"Cuisine, that insolent woman, has truly stirred up chaos to the very end."
The Queen Dowager frowned as her gaze swept across the palace.
"Your Grace's benevolence is truly divine. Her Highness the Princess will surely not forget this kindness."
"Enough. Did you think I wouldn't notice you trying to butter up this old woman with your silver tongue too?"
When Marchioness Pinatelli smiled gently, the Queen Dowager sharply retorted, as if to say she wasn't unaware of the true intentions behind the constant reports about the Princess.
"Your Grace, please forgive me. I must be getting old—my heart has grown strangely tender these days."
Just then, a maid carrying a wet cloth emerged and stepped aside upon seeing the Queen Dowager.
"Greetings to Her Grace the Queen Dowager."
"......"
Through the slightly ajar door, the curtains of the bedroom were visible.
Marchioness Pinatelli noticed the Queen Dowager's attention remained fixed on the bedroom where Medeia lay.
Click. The Marchioness quietly approached and opened the bedroom door.
As if entranced, the Queen Dowager stepped inside.
The Marchioness concealed her faint smile and lowered her gaze.
The Princess's bedroom was slightly warm.
Not from firewood heating the room, but from the feverish breaths that seemed to boil with heat.
"Your Grace has arrived."
A maid standing by the bedside noticed the Queen Dowager and moved to wake Medeia.
The Queen Dowager raised her hand to stop her.
It was a silent command for everyone to leave. Marchioness Pinatelli led the maids out.
Click. The door closed.
The Queen Dowager silently surveyed the bedroom.
It was her first time in the Princess's palace—and her first time seeking out Medeia.
Yet everywhere she looked, peeling paint and crude decorations caught her eye.
"To think she's the King's only sister......"
How could the sole Princess of this country live in such a state?
Even the sheets Medeia lay on were rough.
They weren't the lowest quality, but certainly not the fine linens befitting royalty.
"Ugh......"
"...Are you awake?"
At that moment, Medeia's feverish eyes fluttered open. Staring blankly at the Queen Dowager standing beside her, she murmured:
"F...Father......?"
Then, with trembling arms, she reached out and tightly grasped the Queen Dowager's sleeve.
Despite her weakness, she clutched it so fiercely that the veins on the back of her hand stood out, refusing to let go.
"Haha. I bear such a striking resemblance to Mother's face that if you ever miss her in the future, you need only look at mine."
The Queen Dowager and Medeia's father had been nearly identical.
So much so that her husband had once lamented how she seemed to have copied her mother's face alone.
Thus, it wasn't unreasonable for the feverish Medeia to mistake her.
"Wh-what nonsense."
The Queen Dowager flinched, about to shake her off, then froze abruptly.
She had spotted an old pendant placed beside the bed. Its shape was oddly familiar.
Click. Inside the open pendant—
"Johann......"
—lay a portrait of her eldest son.
The colors had faded from constant handling, the image worn nearly beyond recognition.
After alternating her gaze between the pendant and her feverish granddaughter, the Queen Dowager turned away and stood.
"Your Grace."
The moment the Queen Dowager emerged, everyone rose as if they had been waiting.
"Her Highness's fever won't break. What should we do?"
The maids' hushed whispers reached her ears. The Queen Dowager frowned.
"Where is the Royal Physician? Why is it taking so long?"
"W-well... Ah, there—he's coming now."
Just then, the maid sent to fetch the physician returned—empty-handed and alone.
"Greetings to Her Grace the Queen Dowager. May Valdina's infinite light—"
"Enough. Where is the physician? Why have you returned alone?"
The Queen Dowager waved off the formalities and cut straight to the point.
It was strange. The Royal Physician's quarters weren't far from the Princess's palace—he should have arrived by now.
"He said he's too busy to come immediately but will visit once he finishes his rounds, telling me to return first."
"How preposterous. Did you fail to properly convey the Princess's condition?"
"No! I repeatedly told him Her Highness Medeia had collapsed, that her fever was like a burning coal, begging him to come at once......"
The maid protested, her voice tinged with injustice.
"...But he said he couldn't come because he had to treat Lady Claudio's injuries first......"
"Virna? Where and how badly is she hurt?"
The mention of her beloved youngest granddaughter's injury made the Queen Dowager react sharply.
If it was serious enough to delay the physician's arrival, it must be no small matter.
"Well......"
The maid stammered in reply.
Her expression uncertain, as if unsure whether she should say it.
"Sh-she cut her hand while opening the invitation," the maidservant stammered.
"What did you say?"
The Queen Dowager repeated the question, her tone disbelieving.