Chapter 41

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 41

Chapter Title: The Purple Tea Stain

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I splashed more than half the purple flower tea remaining in my cup right onto Viscountess Filern's face and chest.

"Y-Your... H-Hand... i-is... sh-shaking... Y-Your Highness?"

"Kyaaak! What do you think you're doing?!"

I let out an elegant "oh ho ho" laugh as I replied.

"I must have been so shocked by that garbage not even a dog would eat that my hand started trembling."

"...Your Highness?"

"......"

"Are you even listening to me, Your Highness?"

Viscountess Filern was looking at me with a slightly annoyed expression.

Her face was pristine, and there wasn't a single stain on her light gray dress.

That's right.

I hadn't actually poured the tea on Viscountess Filern. It was all in my imagination.

'Though honestly, I was dying to do it for real...'

It would feel so satisfying, even if just for a moment.

But I had no intention of acting rashly for that fleeting pleasure.

I smiled and sipped the rest of my tea.

Truth be told, if I had to listen to her yammering any longer, I might actually end up throwing something at her face.

'At least the tea's delicious.'

The tangy blend of tea leaves and lemon was perfectly sweetened with honey.

This was Sharlinga petal tea, all the rage lately among young noble ladies in high society.

Adding lemon to the originally blue tea turned it a deep purple.

The process was so fascinating and beautiful that young ladies and noblewomen were drinking it everywhere these days.

There were even rumors it was good for the skin.

But it had one major drawback.

'Once it turns purple, if a single drop splashes on certain fabrics, it dyes them permanently—the stains never come out.'

So if I dumped this on Viscountess Filern right now, in her light-colored dress, she'd freak out.

'But... I have to hold back, Hilia.'

Seeing this tea had reminded me of someone very important—someone I desperately needed right now.

And it certainly wasn't Viscountess Filern.

I brushed off her parrot-like squawking about apologies and sent her on her way.

"Ah, I've been so exhausted lately that I'm afraid I can't continue our conversation, Viscountess Filern."

"Ah, but, Your Highness. You still haven't given me a firm answer on the apology...!"

I pretended to stagger unsteadily.

At once, the sharp-as-a-tack Annie rushed over to support me, muttering under her breath.

"Pull yourself together, Your Highness. Even His Highness the Crown Prince goes too far sometimes. You just need to hold back your affections a little... "

"Don't say such things, Annie."

At those words, Viscountess Filern couldn't keep up her parroting act any longer.

Her face flushed beet red as she had no choice but to leave.

'No wonder the rumors about Arpad being overly passionate at night are spreading like wildfire...'

Well, it wasn't a bad thing for me, so I didn't mind.

And if Viscountess Filern went running to Evangeline with this, she'd probably blow her top.

'I'd do anything to piss off Evangeline!'

And Hilia's "sacrifice" paid off.

The moment Evangeline heard Viscountess Filern had visited the Crown Prince Palace, she summoned her straight to her own estate.

And all she got in return were responses she hadn't expected at all.

"She said she'd apologize officially to me? I told you to coax her that it was in her best interest! That's the only way anyone would even peek their nose into the Artanus Hall banquet!"

In fact, Viscountess Filern had kept trying to persuade Hilia with exactly that logic.

And naturally, it had zero effect.

"Well, um... she wouldn't give me an answer on the apology, and then last night His Highness the Crown Prince exhausted her so much that she chased me away saying she was too tired."

Viscountess Filern had no idea Evangeline had a thing for Arpad.

She was just making excuses that it wasn't her fault the plan failed.

But that only rubbed salt in Evangeline's wounds.

'Is she mocking me right now?!'

Evangeline hurled the teacup she was holding at Viscountess Filern.

Splash―!

"Kyaa!"

Tea soaked Viscountess Filern's face and upper body. The cup shattered loudly on the floor.

Crash!

"L-Lady Evangeline! How could you!"

By coincidence, the tea Evangeline had been drinking was also Sharlinga petal tea.

And since Viscountess Filern was still wearing a light-colored dress, a deep purple stain bloomed across it.

"Wh-what am I going to do... "

This was the most expensive dress she owned, the one she'd worn to enter the palace.

Viscountess Filern wiped at the tea, tears streaming down her face.

It was an uncanny echo of the scene Hilia had just imagined.

Of course, with Evangeline as the culprit, Hilia probably wouldn't have felt much satisfaction even if she'd known.

Evangeline glared coldly at the sniffling viscountess and drove her away.

"Don't you dare show your face around here until that wench says she'll apologize to me!"

Viscountess Filern slunk home, shoulders slumped.

After brushing off Viscountess Filern, I summoned Arpad's secretary, Felix Yulken.

I'd seen his face once before when I'd visited Arpad's office, but this was our first proper greeting.

"You summoned me."

"Come in, Secretary Felix Yulken."

In my previous life, Yulken hadn't been directly involved with me.

But I felt an instant affinity for him, and the reason was simple.

'No matter what, he'll never side with Ludwig or Evangeline!'

That alone maxed out my favorability.

Even in my three previous lives, Yulken always met a bad end.

He could never accept Ludwig as crown prince.

And no, it wasn't because he was Arpad's die-hard loyalist.

"Better for the kingdom to fall to a capable madman than rot slowly under an incompetent, greedy fool!"

...He'd even shouted that while attempting to assassinate Ludwig single-handedly.

Shockingly, he'd nearly succeeded.

He failed in the end and lost his head for it.

I'd heard Yulken hurling insults at Ludwig firsthand.

From the cell next door.

He creatively cursed Ludwig and Evangeline every single day.

"The late emperor wasn't mad, right? But picking an incompetent like Ludwig proves he was. What else could it be?"

"A bastard born from an affair, disowned even by his real father Grand Duke Kielern, yet recognized as imperial family—and now emperor?!"

"Putting his mistress in the empress's palace while ignoring his proper wife? He sure inherited his adulterous parents' blood!"

A torrent of near-maniacal abuse poured out nonstop.

All I could do from the next cell was nod timidly along.

But... but...

'I'm already a fan of that mouth of his!'

That's right.

Too cowardly to join in the cursing, I'd secretly reveled in his words.

Yulken really did curse every day back then, until his voice gave out.

Naturally, he'd earned the higher-ups' hatred, so he got no meals—barely any water.

When exhaustion finally silenced the next cell, I felt so disappointed.

So I mustered my courage.

The old prison was full of cracks.

Bugs and rats scurried through them.

When the guards weren't looking, I tore up my ration of stale black bread and pushed it through one of the larger holes.

Tap tap tap!

I knocked on the wall a few times, and Yulken finally noticed.

A hoarse, surprised voice came from the other side.

"I don't know who you are... cough... but... you're giving this to me...?"

"...Yes. I've been listening next door, and it was just so satisfying."

Yulken let out a deflating laugh.

I said earnestly,

"It felt like all the frustration drained out of me... so I wanted to cheer you on."

Yulken laughed like he might pass out, then teased,

"What, hack! Are you... perhaps... a fan of mine?"

"Yes, exactly! I'm rooting for you!"

For a moment, I worried he might laugh himself to death instead of starving or getting beheaded.

His wild laughter echoed all the way to distant cells.

Soon after, the bread crumbs I'd pushed through vanished.

Yulken, sounding a bit revived, even asked,

"Any... hack! water? ...My throat's parched."

We found another suitable gap in the wall.

I poured my water through it, and he drank it gratefully.

"Ah, dust and mold... who knew it'd taste better than the finest tea."

"S-Sorry. It's all I have... "

"...No, thank you. You've given me some strength."

And with that, Yulken resumed his bellowing curses.

Guards rushed in to stop him, but bolstered Yulken wouldn't quit.

Not even when dragged to the scaffold two days later.

Even at the execution ground, he kept cursing Ludwig and Evangeline.

"Rumors say the mistress is the real power? Then Ludwig's just a puppet emperor! Is this how the kingdom ends?"

"Just collapse already! Rot away!"

Loud enough for me to hear from my distant cell.

Remembering that, my eyes must have sparkled unwittingly.

"Why... are you looking at me like that?"

Yulken scooted his hips back on the sofa, looking deeply uncomfortable.

In the meantime, Annie had set out refreshments between us.

Per my special orders, the tray was extravagantly lavish.

Not stale black bread crumbs, but desserts so sweet and soft they might snap the table legs.

This time, not moldy dust-water, but the finest tea.

I poured and handed him a cup myself, and Yulken's unease deepened.

"Th-thank you...?"

"If the tea isn't to your taste, just say so. I can have champagne brought."

"......"

Yulken sipped his tea, as if fighting the urge to speak his mind.

I reined in my twitching smile and got to the point.

This wasn't the time to indulge in fangirl memories.

"I called you here to give you an order."

His face, wary of my inexplicable kindness moments ago, hardened.

Before it had been bafflement and discomfort; now it was displeasure and suspicion.

He asked me,

"You said you have an order for me?"

His voice bristled with thorns.

I nodded with an innocent smile.

"Yes. The way you're questioning me almost sounds like you think I have no right to command you. Is that it?"

My past-life fandom was real, but this was now.

Even when we'd crossed paths in Arpad's office before, it was written all over Yulken's face.

'I don't trust you! I won't accept you as Crown Princess!'

And Yulken was one of Arpad's most vital aides.

I beamed at him and asked,

"So it was you pulling the strings behind Esia's behavior, wasn't it, Secretary Felix Yulken?"

"...!"

A glint flashed in Yulken's eyes—like 'How did she figure it out?'

But he brazenly shook his head.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. The maid you sent away for her rudeness is being retrained. You're saying I'm behind it? That's quite the leap."

He smiled ingratiatingly, trying to backpedal.

As expected, it wouldn't be easy.

'Well, that's what makes him Yulken.'

If anything, it made me glad.

But I had no time to waste on his wariness and doubts.

Just as I'd tightened control over Delphin Manor, I needed to do the same in the Crown Prince Palace—and fast.

'Strike swiftly and decisively!'

I crossed my legs and went straight for the jugular.

"Why don't you address me as 'Your Highness'?"

Plenty of people still refused to see me as Crown Princess.

But those in the Crown Prince Palace were different.

Here, everyone called me "Your Highness."

Everyone except one man: Yulken.

I smiled gently and asked,

"You think I don't suit the position of Crown Princess? That I'll be a liability to His Highness Arpad?"

Behind his glasses, Yulken's eyes sharpened like daggers.