Chapter 11

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 11

Chapter Title: The Bracelet's Secret

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Mariyu realized her slip and quickly added,

"Just that once. The princess was keeping her distance on purpose because she was afraid the head maid would get revenge. But she's taken me back now."

"Really?"

Samon narrowed his eyes.

"Of course. You know how much she trusts and relies on me."

Her mouth went dry.

Only then did Samon relax his shoulders and smile.

"The head maid's caused such a commotion inside and out of the palace—it's given me one hell of a headache. Let me see that leg. Is it here?"

Samon reached out toward Mariyu with familiar ease. She rolled her eyes but pretended to give in and nestled into his arms.

"That old fox dares to hurt my love. Don't worry. She'll be replaced anyway. Father's already looking for a substitute."

She could feel his hot breath.

"Darling, you love me, right?"

"Ha, Mariyu. I want to marry you right this instant."

Samon whispered sweetly into her ear.

"Me too."

He pressed his thin lips to hers and whispered once more.

"But my love, you have to do well for me to bring you before my parents. Even as the young duke, I need a good reason to make a commoner like you my wife."

Samon looked down at Mariyu.

He wound a strand of her red hair, splayed across the white sheets, around his finger.

As Mariyu closed her eyes in a dizzy spell, he tugged her hair to force them open.

"You have to be my dear cousin's most cherished maid. You need to know everything Medea does, everything she thinks."

Samon furrowed his handsome features. Between his petty eyes, black pupils gleamed like a rat's, strangely sharp.

"Mari, do you get what I'm saying? Do you really understand?"

Mariyu grew anxious.

The vision of the Duchess Claudio title floating before her eyes seemed to slip far away.

"...Of course. Don't worry, darling. I'd do anything for you."

And so Mariyu hugged him tightly. Convincing herself that the fleeting emptiness she felt was just her imagination.

Even without Samon's urging, Mariyu had been doing her utmost to catch the princess's eye.

But those green eyes showed no sign of warming to her anytime soon.

The princess didn't outright chase Mariyu away. But she didn't let her linger nearby either.

The kind princess who had once explained every little detail of her routine was gone.

'I need to get back to how things were before Samon finds out.'

Her nerves sharpened.

Caught between impatience and anger, Mariyu paced restlessly.

"...That bracelet is quite pretty."

The princess looked at Mariyu impassively. Then she tossed out an unexpected remark.

Mariyu's pupils trembled.

"I don't think I've seen it before. Who gave it to you?"

The golden bracelet shaped like rose vines had tiny rubies embedded in each flower bud.

With every movement of her arm, the delicately carved buds dangling from it swayed gently. The vivid rubies sparkled brilliantly.

It was unmistakably expensive at a glance.

Too much so for a mere maid.

"R-Received it? Th-This is... my mother left it to m-me!"

Mariyu startled and yanked her sleeve down to cover the bracelet without thinking.

"After Mother passed, I kept it in my keepsake box, so you must not have seen it."

Even then, she invoked her late mother's memory to stir the princess's guilt.

But in truth, the bracelet was a gift from Samon the night before.

"Here, Mariyu. I asked if I love you, right? Let this be the proof."

She had slipped it on to show off to the other maids, never expecting the princess to notice.

"Is that so?"

"Wh-What else? Who but my mother could give me something like this?"

"True enough."

The moment the princess lightly affirmed it, a contradictory rage flared up inside Mariyu.

'True enough? Is she looking down on me now, saying I'm just some lowly commoner girl who waits on her?'

A half-baked royal who didn't even have a handsome, wealthy lover to give her gifts like this.

'How dare she, how dare she!'

Just as the black resentment bubbling from within threatened to spill over endlessly—

Pic. A faint chuckle seemed to echo. Mariyu looked up.

Medea was watching her with the corner of her mouth slightly raised.

"Y-Your Highness?"

The sight of the princess's smile sent chills creeping up Mariyu's spine.

Her demeanor shifted unpredictably from serene to suddenly icy.

"Y-Your Highness. Then I'll take my leave... Call for me anytime you need."

The morning's resolve to cling to the princess's ankle till the end vanished. Mariyu backed away hurriedly.

She felt like everything would be exposed if she stayed longer.

Her lover, her inferiority complex toward the princess, and even the inexplicable fear she felt from her—everything.

"A keepsake... What an amusing lie."

Medea murmured as she watched Mariyu flee.

"A lie?"

"The flower ornament on that bracelet isn't a rose—it's a trumpet flower. It's the crest of the tribe that assassinated the Emperor of the Kazen Empire, so its use is banned across the continent."

A tragic and shameful piece of history, so Kazen strictly prohibited the trumpet crest even in other countries.

The banned crest was only permitted again after Kazen's First Prince won his conquest war decades later.

Because among the kingdoms he annihilated was that trumpet tribe.

"So chronologically, it can't be a keepsake. The First Prince's victory came long after my nursemaid died."

But beyond their secret relationship, the bracelet revealed more clues.

Medea's eyes sharpened.

"My uncle's family is already dealing with the Empire."

After the First Prince's victory, the imperial family monopolized the trumpet crest, lending it only to a select few.

"Samon's always been all talk. He's dying to brag that his father is mingling with the great power Kazen. For now, it's just bluster toward a mere maid while riding his father's coattails."

He probably didn't even know what he'd given Mariyu.

Memories surfaced of him leading the charge to depose Peleus in the past.

"It's so helpful that those two aren't clever. Should I send them a thank-you?"

Or is my cousin brother quite serious about his love?

At that moment, Neril asked,

"Do you mean the Claudio Ducal House is colluding with the Empire? Even if the duke covets the throne, what does the Empire gain?"

Why would a superpower like Kazen join hands with a barren northern minor kingdom's noble?

"The Emperor of Kazen doesn't want our Baldina to grow stronger. So we have to block my brother somehow."

Peleus was the unyielding type who would break before he bent.

Even surrounded by swarms of magical beasts, he'd never bowed to the Kazen Emperor's whims.

"Then the aid promised by the incoming Kazen delegation..."

"It's a deception. The Emperor doesn't want us to win, so he'll find some excuse to withhold it."

Medea's face hardened.

"And ultimately, it'll lead to rebellion."

That's exactly how it played out in her previous life.

With harsh winter approaching, relief supplies were desperately needed.

Kazen abruptly refused aid.

Baldina exhausted its already strained treasury scrambling for food.

Yet famine still ravaged the land.

Voices condemning the incompetent royals grew louder, all blame falling on King Peleus.

Rebels seized the chance when public fury peaked.

Phony rebels hired by the Regent Duke with his gold.

Their leaders weren't patriots but gold-blinded opportunists. They incited war-weary citizens and retired soldiers.

And they kidnapped Medea, branding her a princess who abandoned her people to flee, bolstering their cause.

Using the chaos of the rebellion to seize the throne while the king and princess were absent—that was the Regent Duke's plan.

"A rebellion..."

Neril's expression grew grave.

'Public resentment is already high from the war. If even Kazen's relief vanishes as Your Highness says...'

Starving masses wouldn't hold back. If mobs rose like wildfire, could Baldina endure?

'The royals could fall. And the Empire's behind it?'

Neril bristled with outrage.

"No matter how mighty Kazen is, how dare they scheme against another country's king? Aren't they afraid of backlash?"

Medea sneered.

"Oh, no one will know the Regent Duke and the Empire are in cahoots."

Anyone who had noticed or known had already been eliminated.

'The rebels breached the walls too easily and swiftly. Claudio prepared it in advance.'

Had Peleus not returned swiftly from victory, everything might have gone according to the Regent Duke's plan.

'The rebels will overrun the capital soon.'

So she had to stop them from even entering the castle from the start.

Medea rose and walked to the window.

The distant walls came into view.

"Neril, where is your master right now?"

The former Royal Guard Captain Giliphos could be the bulwark to stop them.