Chapter 112

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 112

Chapter Title: The Fourth Princess's Intrusion

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Princess Palace of Baldina.

"Fourth Princess, what is the meaning of this insolence?"

The serene palace suddenly erupted into chaos.

The Fourth Princess had barged past the knights without a care and strode straight inside.

Medea raised one arm to stop Neril and Jena from drawing their swords.

"Good morning, Fourth Princess."

She greeted her with casual nonchalance, her expression betraying no surprise whatsoever.

"The people of the Kazen Empire live up to their reputation—truly brave and without hesitation."

The Fourth Princess bit her lip, struggling to contain her anxiety at Medea's softly mocking words.

'What on earth is she thinking?'

After Baldina's princess, who had gone missing in the hunting grounds, returned safely, all suspicion and blame had shifted to the Claudio Ducal House. The Fourth Princess had felt a measure of relief.

'Good. As long as they only catch Claudio, they don't seem to know about my involvement. What a relief.'

But that relief was short-lived.

"What do we do, Fourth Princess? Baldina's princess has uncovered the whole plot. She took the evidence proving Your Highness orchestrated it all."

"What?"

They reported that the workers she'd brought with the wolves—and even the letter with her orders—had all been seized by the princess.

Angelique was stunned.

"You said you'd destroyed all the evidence! You idiots! What the hell have you been doing!"

But this wasn't entirely her subordinates' fault.

Unbeknownst to the Fourth Princess, Jason's scheme had been woven into the mix.

Jason had secretly preserved some evidence, intending to use the incident later as leverage against the Fourth Princess.

And Medea had reclaimed that very evidence.

In the tangled web of schemes where each side sought to strangle the other, Medea held the final thread.

"Argh! How did it end up in the princess's hands? How? Why?!"

The Fourth Princess's veins bulged in fury. With irrefutable proof in existence, denial was impossible.

Caught red-handed by the very victim, it was over for her.

Yet days passed—one, two, even several—and nothing happened.

The princess neither confronted her, nor accused her of crimes, nor demanded accountability from the empire.

'Medea, what are you planning? How will you bind me this time?'

The Fourth Princess couldn't quell her mounting dread. After all, Baldina's princess had a track record.

She'd fallen for her provocations before and lost twice the aid in broad daylight. There was no way she could relax now.

'Fine. Rather than anxiously waiting for that wench to strike...'

Convinced it was better to charge first, she could no longer hold back and stormed in ahead.

"...Princess, I'd like a private audience with you."

Her voice low and strained, as if forcing calm despite the snort of rage that had carried her here.

Her flickering eyes scanned Medea up and down.

Medea responded with a gentle smile.

"Of course."

A small tea time unfolded in the princess's reception room, just the two of them.

The Fourth Princess watched the maid pour the tea with what composure she could muster.

But beneath her dress, her feet trembled incessantly, and her hands clutched and released the hem repeatedly, unable to stay still.

Tiny ripples disturbed the tea in the cup on the table.

"What the hell are you thinking?"

The moment the maid left after serving the tea, the Fourth Princess growled through gritted teeth.

Even in this room with only the two of them, she seemed terrified of being overheard.

"Princess, what do you mean?"

"You took all the remaining evidence, so why pretend you don't know? Is driving people insane your hobby?"

Without even a moment to gauge Medea's feigned ignorance, the Fourth Princess unleashed her pent-up rage.

"Hey! What are you planning?!"

Her sharp voice came out like a stifled scream.

"..."

Medea took in her bloodshot eyes, torn and chapped lips, and roughened skin.

Uncharacteristically unkempt for the Fourth Princess, who always appeared so glamorous—this showed just how deeply she'd been agonizing.

"Things will resolve faster than expected."

Medea replied, as if taunting her.

"I was just about to discuss it with Prime Minister Sise. How fortunate that the culprit has come to me."

The Fourth Princess froze. No, this wasn't how it was supposed to go.

She'd thought there was still room to negotiate with Medea.

If that girl had no ulterior motives, she wouldn't have stayed silent this long.

"Y-You're really going to do this? Kazen and Baldina's relations will collapse because of you. You think you can handle that?"

"Who knows. But the one who'll have to deal with it won't be me—it'll be you, Princess. I'm just the innocent victim who knew nothing."

Stung by Medea's quiet remark, the princess bit her lip before crossing her arms.

"Princess, you went around collecting evidence just fine after claiming you fell off a cliff and couldn't remember a thing. So losing your memory was a lie too, huh?"

It was a veiled threat: what if it came out that the returning princess's amnesia was fake?

Medea smiled sweetly.

"Fourth Princess, you didn't come all this way just to quibble over right and wrong."

Medea calmly placed the evidence on the table.

Testimonies and personal details of witnesses proving the Fourth Princess had brought in the wolves.

The princess bit her lip.

"Tch... Hah! You think my doting father will disown me just because this comes out? You'd be making enemies of the entire empire!"

Her chin lifted defiantly, as if to say she wasn't afraid.

'She has no idea who holds the leash.'

Medea smiled brightly at the princess's oddly curled lip and scoff.

"Oh, but his Third Highness's mother, the Western Palace Consort, would know exactly how to use this better than I would."

In an instant, the Fourth Princess paled as if doused in ice water.

Ever since the once-absolute First Prince had become terminally ill, the Third Prince had risen prominently in the fierce battle for the throne.

He was a rival to the Fourth Princess, each eyeing the other's back.

She might enjoy the emperor's favor now, but her position wasn't unassailable.

One misstep against her watchful brothers, and she'd be ousted in a heartbeat.

"Would the Western Palace Consort's only leverage over the Fourth Princess really be this? Add this evidence, and it might just be the move to drag down even your maternal grandfather, the Eastern Palace Heir. We'll have to watch and see."

"...You—!"

"And conveniently, didn't you involve your grandfather in this aid scandal, Fourth Princess? Plenty of justification there."

The princess trembled at the sweetly delivered threat. The mockery dripping from the princess's words cut to the bone.

"Princess, don't underestimate this Baldina trip. Even without the First Prince, we must show the empire's influence remains. We need His Majesty's true favor. Do you understand your mother's words?"

She recalled her mother, the Eastern Palace Consort's, plea before coming to Baldina.

The Fourth Princess Angelique's real power came from the Eastern Palace Heir behind her.

If he fell, no amount of the emperor's宠爱 would let her claim the throne.

Angelique had no time to marvel at how this princess from a minor kingdom saw through the Kazen imperial family's power struggles like the back of her hand.

Her head was spinning, desperately calculating her next move.

"What do you want?"

Her nerves snapped. The Fourth Princess shouted hysterically.

"Tell me! I'll give you anything you ask!"

"Princess."

Medea's soft voice descended like a soothing balm.

"What if I offered you a way out of this mess?"

"...A way out?"

The Fourth Princess whipped her head around with suspicious eyes.

"You're the one who fed our Baldina people—you're a benefactor. If our interests align perfectly, I wouldn't need to bother contacting the merciless Western Palace Consort."

"..."

"We can't hide the evidence that's already out. Someone has to take the blame for releasing wolves into Baldina's hunting grounds and targeting me."

In Medea's emerald eyes, the Fourth Princess looked like a beast lured by bait, stumbling right into the hunter's trap.

"But it doesn't have to be you, Fourth Princess. The Kazen delegation doesn't consist only of you."

The Fourth Princess's eyes gleamed.

Her eyes, filled with misguided selfishness that cared for nothing if she could escape blame, darkened predatorily.

Pretending ignorance, Medea continued, offering her an escape route.

"One of my knights investigating this evidence discovered something: Grand Duke Castulo knew you imported the wolves for the hunting grounds but turned a blind eye."

"What?"

'He knew it would turn out like this and let it slide anyway?'

After giving the Fourth Princess time to absorb the shock, Medea dangled another bait.

"Count Raju of the delegation is so close to the Regent Duke that he stays at his residence. And as you know, Count Raju is—"

"Jason's man. And yet he fawns over me to curry favor."

The furious Fourth Princess cut in, finishing Medea's sentence.

She recalled the night Samon had seduced her.

After that, she'd grown so close to him that she turned a blind eye to him freely entering her bedchamber.

'He was the one who pushed the hunting tournament on me too. Samon, you rat. You conspired with Jason to deceive me.'

Samon would have jumped in outrage at the baseless accusation, but unfortunately, he was currently writhing under corporal punishment, sprawled in the ducal residence.

The ingredients Medea laid out for the Fourth Princess were perfectly plausible. Put together, they formed one clear message.

"That damned Jason dares to step on me and use me?"

The Fourth Princess's eyes widened, then narrowed sharply.

She'd pieced together Jason's intentions from the clues the princess provided.

Rage flooded her delicate features.

She'd always mocked her timid, cautious cousin.

Never dreaming that he'd been quietly coveting the throne from the shadows all this time.

"What do you gain by telling me this, Princess?"

Swallowing her fury with bitten lips, the Fourth Princess eyed Medea suspiciously.

"Sardinia Island."

"..."

"That will be repayment enough for the favor I'm granting you."