Return to the Rose Palace
The journey back to the Imperial Palace was swift and seamless.
Unlike the trek down, there was no sabotage from Gregory and his soldiers, nor any irritating petty schemes. Escorted all the way by House Castrein's finest knights, it would have been far stranger if anything had gone wrong.
Phlux had wept copiously as he saw me off, but as a high-ranking nobleman, he would visit the capital every now and then, so our next meeting would not be far off. The same went for Navira. Seeing her scoff and say that, as a top executive of Hecate's Tavern, she could simply transfer to the capital headquarters whenever she pleased had been thoroughly captivating.
Upon arriving at the palace, I gasped in admiration at my first sight of the newly renovated Rose Palace.
"Whoa."
"His Imperial Majesty specifically commanded us to attend to Your Imperial Highness with utmost care."
"Whoaa. Truly marvelous!"
Yes. Truly marvelous.
To think Natalie is still here... And she's casually introducing my palace as if nothing ever happened!
I fought to keep my face from contorting as Natalie bowed with a breathtakingly composed, impassive expression and proceeded to explain the renovations.
—Huh? She was giving off such an unpleasant, arrogant vibe just like a minion of Chernobog that I thought she had something wicked tucked away, but her body is completely clean? ⊙﹏⊙) I don’t see a single trace of a curse!
...Well, even Consort Cleo wouldn't be able to run her schemes if she cut off every minion who failed.
Did Cleo assume I wouldn't be in a position to openly purge my head maid, even if she had sided with the consort? Natalie had testified on Cleo's behalf during the hearing about the curse on the Rose Palace. Back then, I thought that was a terrible misstep on Cleo's part—or perhaps an oversight born from underestimating Titania far too much. No matter how much the servants assigned to Titania secretly served other masters in their hearts, the palace's head maid was the chief overseer. She was the face of the palace.
And yet, such a person had openly acted as another woman's pawn rather than standing by the master she ostensibly served.
Before awakening the memories of her past life, Titania had actually looked up to Head Maid Natalie. With Natalie's consistently straight posture and solemn tone, she had seemed like a respectable adult. Whenever the head maid spoke, Titania had a strong tendency to obey without question.
But that was then, and this was now. Having bared my fangs even against Consort Cleo, Cleo ought to know that I wouldn't follow Natalie like before when her allegiance had practically been laid bare. So I wondered if Cleo might assign me someone new... and yet she left Natalie right here?
While I turned the thought over in my mind, unfamiliar maids lined up behind Natalie and bowed respectfully toward me. Looking over the neat garden bursting with seasonal blossoms and the crisp, light-beige facade of the Rose Palace, I let out a half-amused, half-ridiculed chuckle.
The newly assigned maids maintained impeccable composure, just like Natalie. They were practically flawless. Well, not entirely flawless.
Two of them, standing in the very back row, had their heads buried so low against the floor it seemed they desperately wished to become invisible.
I curled my lips into an eye-smile.
"Oh my, Sarah! Mary! There you are!"
The shoulders of the two called out flinched violently. Their rigidly frozen crowns made it obvious they felt dragged to a place they dreaded above all else. Cleo had completely cleared out and replaced the Rose Palace's household, yet leaving Natalie, Sarah, and Mary behind certainly served a purpose.
"Goodness, where did you two vanish off to without a word to me? My hair was an absolute disaster the entire trip, and I was so miserable!"
Beside me, I felt Debbie's gaze. Per my instructions, she had kept her mouth shut and hadn't breathed a peep, doing her best impression of a quiet, ordinary maid. Her eyes practically screamed: Do you know how joyfully and wholeheartedly I styled Your Imperial Highness's hair this entire time...? But I ignored her and beamed brightly.
"And do you think it was just my hair? My makeup was an utter tragedy! In that sweltering heat, sweat poured down like rain, stray strands kept plastering against my skin... and I had to fix my cosmetics over and over! Humph. You deliberately hid from my sight because you were too lazy to travel so far, didn't you? Hmm?"
Only after the maids beside them nudged their waists to hurry along did Sarah and Mary reluctantly scuffle forward, hesitating until they stopped before me.
Sarah spoke first. With a gaunt, emaciated face that suggested she had suffered every imaginable torment, she cautiously gauged my expression before opening her mouth.
"Ha, ha... C-Could that ever be true, Your Highness? We simply did not wish to burden anyone while the Rose Palace was under reconstruction, so we took up odd jobs around the Imperial Palace..."
When I offered no rebuttal and merely smiled sweetly, Mary hastily chimed in, thinking this was her chance.
"S-She speaks the truth! When Your Imperial Highness was unwell, we were so incompetent that we couldn't assist in any way. And with the palace burned down... we merely busied ourselves with various chores so as not to become a nuisance. It was never our intention to avoid Your Imperial Highness!"
Mary and Sarah had not seen me swinging a holy sword in battle with their own eyes. While deafening rumors had swept through the palace, running in blind terror was only natural when whispers of a demonic beast attack spread. Nor had they directly witnessed my confrontation with Consort Cleo.
Therefore, even if rumors claimed that 'the princess had changed,' it probably wouldn't feel real to them.
"I'm relieved to hear that. Although, I certainly have had terrible luck lately! Nearly dying, fires breaking out... Good grief."
To think Consort Cleo threw those two to me as such blatant bait.
"Oh, are these girls the new maids? Among you, is there anyone who's good at makeup, hairstyling, or dressing?"
I swept a disinterested gaze across the line of maids and tossed out the question with utter carelessness.
At that, a maid timidly raised her hand. With ordinary brown hair, brown eyes, and a docile appearance, she had the kind of unremarkable face that would blend into any crowd and never be picked out.
"My skills are humble, but before entering the palace, I assisted a noble lady in her household, overseeing her attire and cosmetics."
A maid skilled and deft enough to oversee a noble lady's personal grooming would rarely, if ever, be assigned to an abandoned princess with no backing. Unless she had terrible luck... or someone higher up had assigned her with a distinct hidden motive. I lowered my eyelids with a faint smile.
"Oh, really? Then you can assist me alongside Sarah and Mary. I absolutely despise doing things with my own hands. What a relief. I was getting so sick of wearing the same garments over and over. I'm going to change right away, so follow me to the dressing room!"
Head Maid Natalie quietly inquired, "Do you have any specific duties you wish to assign to the other girls? The Rose Palace's layout has changed considerably, and the staff must be redeployed. Are there any particular requests you have, Your Highness?"
"Hmm..."
I pretended to ponder for a moment, smiling.
When Consort Cleo toyed with the original Titania, Head Maid Natalie had been remarkably competent. At the very least, her outward conduct and management had been flawlessly impartial.
Even as the maids, servants, and palace officials embezzled the Rose Palace's budget to their hearts' content—reducing it to nothing more than a hollow, polished facade despite rumors of 'Princess Titania's excessive extravagance'—Natalie never wore so much as a speck of gold on her person. And so, Titania had been thoroughly deceived.
If Consort Cleo had been viewed as a mother, Head Maid Natalie had been seen as a nanny.
Even without a single warm word, Titania had clung to the belief: At least this person doesn't look down on me like the others. She doesn't scold me. She might not praise me, but she won't be disappointed in me either. Natalie had been a mental pillar of support.
Yes. She truly had harbored no personal feelings. When the original Titania wept, desperately thrashing about in search of anyone who might take her side, Natalie had looked down on her with empty, impassive eyes—as though gazing upon a corpse.
After all, who would harbor affection for a mere piece of work? That woman was Consort Cleo's hound, bowing before me now only to sever the strings of a puppet that had slipped from her master's fingers.
"I wouldn't know much about that. Just handle things as you always have, Natalie. You've always been so good at it. Understood?"
Yes. That was why Natalie had to 'remain as she was.' The opponent who was once treated as a toy needed the chance to turn the blade back against her.
The toilet room connected to the freshly redecorated dressing room was immaculate—so splendid that it made me wonder if the Emperor had granted far more budget than expected.
Giggling and laughing brightly, I assigned tasks to each maid, demanding that everything from clothes, makeup, and hairpins to precious jewels be prepared without a single lacking piece. Then, I dismissed the rest and called only Sarah aside.
And then, she caught me completely off guard.
"Please spare my life!"
Sarah glanced around nervously, confirmed that only Debbie and I were in the room, and dropped straight to her knees without a moment's hesitation. I, who had been preparing to act the airheaded princess and wheedle some information out of her, froze in surprise. Behind me, Debbie's eyes widened ever so slightly as well.