Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Translation: godsn
Head Maid Cuisine found herself at a loss for words.
She should have answered "the King" without hesitation. But she couldn't.
Because in truth, I serve not the King but the Regent.
Claudio's spies were listening here.
'If I declare the King as my master now... The Duke will grow suspicious of me.'
Regent Claudio was notoriously paranoid.
Even now, he didn't fully trust me—he would cross-check every report I submitted against information from his other spies in the palace.
If that paranoid man heard about today's incident, it might stir unnecessary suspicion.
"Surely you mean His Majesty the King?"
"Why is the Head Maid hesitating over such a simple question?"
Even the observing maids grew puzzled by her prolonged silence.
Then Medeia slammed her hand down on the side table.
Bang—!
Startled by the sudden noise, the Head Maid quickly schooled her expression into neutrality.
But everyone had already seen her conflicted face.
"Was it such a difficult question?"
Medeia smiled faintly.
"...Your Highness."
"It seems your new position hasn't settled in yet. The hesitation in your answer speaks volumes."
Head Maid Cuisine bit her lip.
"It's merely startling to be questioned about something so obvious! My master is His Majesty King Pelleus, of course."
"Is that so? Truly?"
"Certainly. Why must Your Highness twist such fundamental truths to embarrass me?"
"Neril was personally assigned to me by my brother the King before his departure. Prior to that, she served in His Majesty's Royal Guard. Are you attempting to defy your sovereign's will?"
Oh no. The Head Maid swallowed nervously.
This slip of a girl was backing her into a corner.
'Damn it! Why is she acting like this today?'
She needed to escape this situation first. The Head Maid responded with feigned composure.
"Regardless of her previous service in His Majesty's Royal Guard, Neril's current affiliation is as a palace maid. As Head Maid, I retain full authority over her immediate disciplinary actions."
"The retired Captain of the Royal Guard still resides in the capital, does he not? I wonder if he would agree that a knight he painstakingly trained could be summarily executed by a mere Head Maid."
"...Your Highness!"
The Head Maid gritted her teeth.
The former Royal Guard Captain, who had served alongside the Late King, remained a formidable figure who commanded widespread respect—far beyond what a Head Maid could challenge.
With every word, her enemies multiplied. She felt increasingly entangled in this little princess's verbal web.
'Whatever sudden whim has possessed her, I must crush this insolence before it escalates further.'
She took a deep breath and calmly reconsidered.
The Regent's explicit order had been to decisively remove that leech of a maid clinging to the Princess.
"With all due respect, I fail to see the purpose of this discussion."
The Head Maid responded icily.
"Your Highness is merely the King's blood relative. You are not my actual master, nor are you the master of any servant in this palace. Moreover..."
A glint of malice flashed in Head Maid Cuisine's eyes as she continued.
"Had it not been for Your Highness, I would still be serving His Late Majesty as my master. A true sage ruler who governed with wisdom both domestically and abroad—had he remained, there would have been no need for disciplinary measures like today's."
"......"
"But His Late Majesty met a tragic end. As you well know, precisely because of Your Highness."
The surroundings froze into icy silence.
Yet despite the blatant rudeness, Medeia simply listened quietly to her words.
"......"
"Had it not been for the generous mercy of His Majesty the King and the royal family, Your Highness wouldn't even have been allowed to remain in this palace."
Head Maid Cuisine, now emboldened, spoke without restraint.
'The Queen Dowager dislikes that little wench. The King is no different. Why else would he never return after ascending the throne?'
Pelleus too, as Medeia's full-blooded brother, had been born with the stain of their insufficient lineage.
Yet despite such flaws, his exceptional talent and prowess had earned him the world's expectations from an early age.
No one would dare mock the young King who bore the nation's fate, upholding the Late King's will as he marched to the battlefield.
But Medeia was different.
Her outwardly deficient appearance had repeatedly disappointed others, and with the stigma of having killed her parents clinging to her, she'd been branded with the derogatory title of "half-blood."
This palace held no allies for the Princess.
And everyone knew it.
"So now the one who remains here by His Majesty's grace presumes to play the master?"
A heavy silence fell.
Seeing Medeia's pallid face, the Head Maid felt a surge of satisfaction. She barked an order at Jena.
"What are you gaping at? Continue the punishment!"
Jena flinched, her pupils darting anxiously between the Head Maid and Medeia.
"Play the master."
Then, a quiet voice flowed from Medeia. Her calm tone carried an inexplicable weight.
The Head Maid hesitated briefly, but what could this mere girl possibly do?
"Stop dawdling and move at once!"
"Very well, then."
Medeia too turned. The onlookers assumed the Princess meant to shield Neril with her own body, just as Neril had done.
But contrary to expectations, the Princess instead picked up the long, slender switch lying beside the whip with her small, pale hand.
"Head Maid."
"Yes?"
"Come here and lift your skirt."
Everyone doubted their ears.
"W-what did you just say?"
"Surely your hearing isn't that poor?"
The most bewildered was the Head Maid herself.
'Even if she's reckless, does she truly mean to confront me now?'
"You can't possibly mean to—with that switch—"
"I shall respect your words. As you said, it would be a clear overreach for me to interfere further in Neril's punishment."
Pale fingers slowly traced the polished surface of the switch. The gesture looked both elegant and practiced.
For an instant, the onlookers saw not a switch in Medeia's hand, but a longsword.
Facing the Head Maid, the Princess radiated a sharp, solemn aura—like a knight preparing to slay a wicked Magic Beast.
This from a Princess who'd never left the royal palace, who'd never so much as held a dagger.
"However, the Valdina Royal Family has this law: if one neglects their duties in service to the royal palace, the King may administer punishment."
"Indeed. Then I shall request judgment from His Majesty upon his return."
The Head Maid scoffed in reply. Would the Princess even remain here until the King returned?
"And in the king's absence, that authority belongs to the proxy designated by His Majesty."
Medeia drew the royal seal from her bosom and brandished it.
"This is the seal my brother left me. It stamped your own appointment letter, so you should recognize it."
Before Pelleus departed for the battlefield, he had left his sister the seal to manage palace affairs in his stead.
As long as she held this seal as the king's proxy, even if they disregarded Medeia's presence, no one could erase its authority.
This was proof that he still acknowledged her as princess—and a weapon to protect her.
Though at the time, she'd been too foolish to understand its significance.
"Which means I can punish you directly."
The Head Maid's face flushed crimson.
"Such—what—I've never heard of such a—"
"Are you about to say 'never'? Even when the Regent used this very clause to purge the Imperial Household Department while my late father was at war?"
The onlookers remembered.
"That's right. Back then, most of the department was purged, including Sir Sachin, the former Minister."
The maids' whispers reached the Head Maid's ears.
It had been a major incident—several noble houses in the capital were exterminated, dozens executed. How could the palace's Head Maid be ignorant of this?
But then they recalled—she'd laundered her status through remarriage to enter service.
Too busy buying her title with body and soul to notice the bloodbath sweeping noble houses at the time.
"My goodness, Head Maid. You truly are uninformed."
Medeia tilted her head as if baffled how such a person could have risen so high.
She added another barb.
"You said you couldn't serve my father as master, didn't you? If you resent and miss him that much, perhaps you should study his reign more thoroughly. It might help soothe your regrets."
I wonder how my uncle would feel, knowing the Head Maid so dearly misses the elder brother he worked so hard to overthrow?
'That little bitch is backing me into an impossible corner!'
The Head Maid bit her lip.
"...Your Highness speaks true. Very well, I shall do my duty. You won't object to that, will you?"
By now, it was a matter of pride.
At her advanced age nearing fifty, she couldn't kneel before some green girl.
"As you wish."
The princess nodded impassively.
"You heard her, Jena. Proceed."
"H-head Maid...?"
"Now!"
"Y-yes!"
At the Head Maid's command, Jena's hesitant hand finally moved.
Thwack-!
It was both defense and provocation from the Head Maid.
'Watch closely what your reckless challenge has wrought upon that child.'
She watched Medeia's reaction from the corner of her eye. But the princess's expression remained unreadable.
"Head Maid, lift your skirts properly."
Swish-!
Until the very moment the supple ash switch in Medeia's hand flexed through its arc, the Head Maid remained certain—
That timid half-wit couldn't possibly have the nerve to swing it.
'The princess isn't so foolish. She must know what treatment awaits her in court if she opposes me—'
Thwack-!
Thought shattered. Her mind went white.
No—the searing, scalding pain came first, didn't it?
Gasp. Even the surrounding maids caught their breath.