The Portrait of the Princess
“There was a spy from the rebels inside the imperial palace.”
“...Pardon? A spy, you say?”
Cayena commanded the knight beside her.
“Arrest the traitor.”
“Me, a traitor? Your Highness, that’s not true! I merely received these as a gift from the Sophinin family! If there’s any issue with the items, then they are the traitors!”
Mrs. Sophinin’s complexion changed drastically.
“What are you saying! That jewelry was never given by our house!”
Mrs. Hillyer’s face twisted into something demonic, far from her usual demeanor. She spat venomously, “Shut your mouth, you ungrateful wretch!”
“Kyaa!”
She ripped the ring from her finger and hurled it at Mrs. Sophinin. It struck the woman squarely on the forehead before clattering to the floor.
“I should never have accepted anything from such a rootless, lowly family! Your Highness, these people approached with wicked intentions. I have nothing to do with them!”
“Indeed, Hillyer. I know well how diligently you have labored for the imperial household all this time. It would be unfair for your loyalty to be questioned.”
Cayena slipped the ring from her own finger and handed it to the waiting knight. The seal ring bore an engraving that proved her identity as imperial princess. Its meaning was unmistakable: it revealed exactly whose authority stood behind the order and crushed any thought of resistance beneath the weight of raw power.
“Search and seize the Hillyer family estate and their maternal home. Find every last item bearing the mark of a traitor’s seal.”
Mrs. Hillyer collapsed to the floor in a heap. Cayena added calmly,
This is an imperial decree.
“There’s never been chaos quite like this.”
Vera, who had followed Cayena all day inspecting the true state of the imperial palace, spoke with an exhausted expression. They had spent the hours examining every department within the palace and dispensing both rewards and punishments.
Punishments, of course, had been overwhelmingly more common. The people no longer wondered how Cayena had learned such things. What mattered far more was how much else she knew.
Unlike Vera, Cayena wore a faint smile.
“It was all expected.”
She comforted both Vera and Olivia instead.
“Olivia, you’ve had to endure a brutal initiation on your very first day in the palace.”
“It’s nothing of the sort.”
“Rest well tomorrow. Still, since you followed at my side today and let everyone see your face, they won’t dare act recklessly toward you.”
Olivia offered a simple, respectful curtsy.
“I can only thank you for your care.”
“Go and rest now.”
At Cayena’s words, Olivia withdrew from the bedchamber.
“How did His Majesty appear?”
She asked Vera. Even amid the frenzy, Cayena had transferred servants from other kitchens to the central palace kitchen to prepare dinner for both the Emperor and Rezef. Vera had personally overseen the task and delivered the meal to the Emperor’s quarters.
“He had already heard every report. He said you must be busy and urged you to come to him as soon as possible.”
It was an indirect declaration of full support for Cayena’s every move.
“I’ll have to decide what reward to ask for.”
Cayena murmured to herself.
And I must also prepare for how to handle Rezef’s reaction.
Her head throbbed.
Repair work had begun on the prince’s quarters. In the meantime, Rezef had been moved to a slightly smaller room. It was fortunate he had stopped smashing things or raging about killing someone.
Yet the real problem erupted elsewhere.
“Please reconsider, Your Highness.”
Rezef held a book in his hands. Several more lay on the table—all travelogues. They were copies of the books Cayena had borrowed.
Zenon felt curses rising at the prince’s carefree attitude, but he barely held them back and asked,
“Why would you try to bring Catherine Lindberg into this? It’s far too dangerous.”
Rezef didn’t even lift his eyes from the page, as though he saw no issue at all.
“What’s the problem? I’m simply going to have her adopted as the foster daughter of Count Hamel.”
“You’ll only create a new rival. Factions are fluid things.”
Rezef finally lowered the book and looked at Zenon.
“You speak as if the faction I’ve built will inevitably defect to Lindberg’s son.”
A faction that had grown this large naturally became more cautious than when it had expanded recklessly. Most nobles supporting Rezef were conservatives, which made that tendency even stronger.
“If Catherine Lindberg becomes empress, her son will possess more perfect legitimacy than anyone else alive right now. You understand that danger as well as I do, don’t you, Your Highness?”
The reason the majority of Rezef’s supporters were conservatives was simple: because he was the Emperor’s son.
“Legitimacy! Legitimacy!”
Crash!
Rezef hurled his teacup. The atmosphere turned icy in an instant.
“No matter how wildly the Lindbergs may run amok—”
He glared at Zenon with murderous eyes.
“—I will reach the throne first.”
The Rezef before him could not be reasoned with. Zenon took one step back and bowed his head.
“Forgive my careless words.”
Something was twisting out of shape.
“I don’t even want to look at you. Get out.”
Rezef flipped a page without bothering to reply.
After Zenon left, a faint commotion stirred outside before silence fell once more.
Tap.
He closed the book and called a name toward the secret passage.
“Jamil.”
A figure emerged from the hidden corridor. The secret agent, dressed in pitch-black martial attire with his face concealed, knelt on one knee.
“Scatter portraits of Princess Cayena across the entire empire.”
Rezef gazed at his capable shadow agent with a gentle, smiling face.
“Especially recruit every artist stationed at the overland routes and harbors that lead abroad. Have them display the princess’s portraits everywhere so that even the lowliest country bumpkin comes to know her face.”
“I will obey.”
Jamil bowed deeply and vanished back into the secret passage.
Rezef tossed the book in his hand onto the table with a careless flick. There was no need to read any further.
“I never gave you permission to run from me.”
He stretched languidly and gazed out the window. The dull book had made him drowsy. Rezef murmured in a lazy voice,
“All that remains is marriage, it seems…”
Just then, a servant approached the bedchamber with great caution.
“What is it?”
“Right now, Her Highness the Princess is punishing every department within the Inner Palace.”
Sleep fled him instantly.
“...What did you say?”
The servant reported that a great number of court personnel—including the chief maid—had already been cut down by Cayena’s hand.
Rezef’s eyes grew frigid.
“So my sister is trying to diminish my influence…?”
Cayena’s actions had left the chief maid position vacant. Rezef thought of the person most likely to take that seat.
Come to think of it, they said they summoned Eliban.
She was the woman who had interfered at every turn to keep him and Cayena apart. He had framed her and sent her into exile. He could not allow the woman he had worked so hard to remove to return to the imperial palace.
“Make certain that Clarence Eliban never reaches the capital.”
The servant bowed low.
“I will obey.”
Chapter 8. The Maids of the Princess’s Palace
If one were asked to name the finest residence in the capital of Elquiem, the Kedrey villa would undoubtedly rank first.
The beautiful building, constructed with staggering financial power, was elegant enough to strip away the grim military-family image long associated with the Kedrey ducal house.
The artworks filling its halls were masterpieces by the most beloved artisans in all of Elquiem. The recently fashionable pastoral-style garden and the vast pond were especially renowned attractions of the Kedrey villa.
Yet the mansion’s true fame lay elsewhere.
The house where night never fell. Possessing such enormous wealth, it burned candles without restraint, making the entire Kedrey estate glow like a colossal lantern.
Deep in the night, a visitor arrived through a secret passage untouched by that brilliant light. It was a woman with her hood pulled low to conceal her face. She tugged the cord at the entrance; the door opened and a servant emerged. In a quiet voice, the woman said,
“Urgent news from the princess’s palace.”
The servant blindfolded her and led her away.
At last the cloth was removed from her eyes. She stood in a spacious room with a wide canopy at its center.
“Remove your hood.”
The knight waiting there gave the order. The woman lowered her hood. It was Annie, a maid from Cayena’s palace.
The villainess is a marionette.