Chapter 14

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 14

Chapter Title: The Crown I'll Take from You

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"There's nothing we can't do."

"You're insane."

"The princess may still be young, but she's not too young for marriage. In fact, her youth makes her easier for us to sway."

"Us?"

The Royal Head Maid smiled faintly.

"It depends on the minister's intentions, of course. Duke Claudio isn't the type to share his power. I doubt you planned to stick with him forever, but have I spoken out of turn?"

The bait was cast.

Now all that remained was to wait for the bite.

A heavy silence stretched out.

The head maid waited patiently.

The count, who had been glowering in displeasure, slowly let a grin creep across his lips.

"No. It was perfectly timed."

As she said, if he became consort, he could build a faction rivaling even the Regent Duke. The justification and status would be more than sufficient.

"You won't regret today, Minister."

The toad had taken the bait.

Whether what he'd swallowed was food or poison would only be revealed with time.

The night the lights of the Princess Palace went dark.

Mariyu slipped out of the palace once more in secret.

But this time, her attitude toward the other party was astonishingly arrogant and cold.

"What do you want? What's with that note?"

After being chased out by the princess like a fugitive, Mariyu had found the note pinned to her door.

It was a message from Lady Quizin requesting a meeting.

"What do you mean, what do I want?"

Lady Quizin flashed a saccharine smile.

"I heard you've been treated worse than a dog lately, so I called you here. Surely you have plenty to say?"

"Ha, when did you have time to beat around the bush? And compared to you, discarded by the Regent Duke."

Mariyu shot back sharply.

How did that wench know about that...?

The head maid clenched the inside of her cheek and replied icily.

"Well, aren't we in the same boat? The princess has been ignoring you, leaving you to scrub floors with the lowly maids, hasn't she?"

"......"

"It looks like Neril's already taken your spot. Face it—the princess has abandoned you."

Mariyu clamped her lips shut and glared daggers at the head maid.

"If you don't find a way out, you'll be the one kicked out of the palace. Time's running short."

Mariyu balled her fists, her eyes blazing with fury, but she couldn't refute the head maid's words.

They were all true.

"What do you want?"

As if she'd expected this, a smug leisure filled the head maid's eyes.

She pulled a sky-blue handkerchief from her bosom.

Golden thread embroidery gleamed at its edge.

"L. Etienne... Wait, Lark Etienne? The Interior Minister's?"

As the head maid smiled in response, an irritated Mariyu snapped.

"Why give this to me?"

"Why? Sneak it into the princess's bedroom. Somewhere discreet, out of sight—like her underwear drawer."

Mariyu flinched.

In this conservative noble society, any woman keeping a man's item in her private chambers carried obvious implications—something a princess's maid like her couldn't possibly miss.

"What are you plotting? Don't tell me..."

Mariyu asked, her face paling.

"Why ask when you already suspect?"

"You're mad. The princess and the minister? You're serious? This is insane."

Setting aside the revolting age gap—like father and daughter...

She might be the royal family's black sheep, but she was still the king's sister.

Not on the same level as the aged, ugly Interior Minister with his sleazy rumors.

Rumors even whispered he was a cruel pederast.

If word got out they were lovers, no one would propose to the already tarnished princess.

'Then Count Etienne becomes consort... Medea's husband? Ridiculous.'

Mariyu, who always harbored an inferiority complex toward Medea, still shook her head instinctively this time.

She stared at the head maid in horrified disbelief for plotting such a scheme without batting an eye.

"We'll make it believable."

"Aren't you afraid of heaven's wrath?"

The head maid sneered at Mariyu's retort.

"You'll end up like me soon enough. Before the princess discards you, find your own path. Succeed in this, and I'll help you register as nobility."

Register? The unexpected word made Mariyu pause.

"You know how I transformed into a noble, right?"

The head maid crossed her arms and leaned against a pillar.

"My husband's nephew has no heir yet. Live as their adopted daughter for a few years, and you'll be a noble lady."

"A noble..."

For a moment, that night's voice echoed in her mind.

"Even as Young Duke, I need justification to marry a commoner like you."

'If I can launder my status, I can stand proudly by his side.'

Gulp. Mariyu's throat bobbed slowly.

"What do you say? I can't give you much time. You know better than anyone how golden this opportunity is."

"......"

Mariyu stared off, lost in thought, silent. The head maid frowned.

"If you're not interested, forget my offer. I can't wait around forever."

"Wait."

As the head maid reached to reclaim the handkerchief, Mariyu hastily grabbed the edge.

Lady Quizin secretly lifted the corner of her mouth.

"I'll take that as a yes."

After the head maid left, Mariyu gazed down at the handkerchief.

'...I have to keep this from Samon.'

A scandal between the young princess and the decrepit minister was too humiliating.

It would tarnish Baldina royalty's honor, so Samon would never agree.

He wouldn't want her allying with the head maid he'd already discarded either.

Status laundering was bait tempting only her.

She gave a bitter smile.

Mariyu loved Samon, but she knew he was indifferent.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have left her in the shadows for so long.

'It's all because of the princess. Without her, I wouldn't need to stay hidden. I could be by his side.'

Her twisted rage spilled onto an innocent target.

'Etienne and the princess...'

She recalled the princess's cold eyes directed at her.

The initial shock of learning the head maid's plan had faded, replaced by fury.

Even if the princess became that repulsive, ugly old toad's wife, would she still look down on her, the Duchess Claudio?

'Medea, you shouldn't have treated me like dirt.'

Her eyes flickered strangely over the golden embroidery. After hesitating, she reached for the handkerchief.

"You pushed me away first, Your Highness."

Mariyu muttered, crumpling the thin cloth like paper in her fist.

"So don't blame me."

A few days later, at dawn as the first light broke.

"It was just as Your Highness predicted."

Neril said to Medea as they left the palace together to meet Marquis Giliphos. Her face was etched with fury.

"A few days ago, Mariyu snuck out and met with the head maid."

Medea listened while basking in the pale yellow sunlight. The weather was clear.

"I kept an eye on her since it felt suspicious. At first, it seemed like she was just poking around the Princess Palace."

Neril swallowed hard here, reining in her anger to stay rational.

She drew a sky-blue handkerchief from her bosom.

"Mariyu sneaked into Your Highness's bedroom and hid this in the jewelry box."

Medea's steps halted.

"The initials 'L. Etienne.' Isn't this the Interior Minister's?"

"Ha ha."

A pure, admiring laugh escaped Medea's lips.

"To think of linking me with Etienne—the head maid put some real thought into this."

"Those vile wretches daring to pair Your Highness with that filth..."

Neril's hands trembled. She looked ready to draw her sword at any moment.

"I'm confident in concealment and body disposal. Two—no, three bodies, without a trace. Just give the word—"

Medea smiled.

"Three, including the minister? Then you wouldn't escape unscathed either, Neril."

"I don't care, as long as I can remove these evil snakes from Your Highness's side."

Medea swallowed a laugh, unsure whether to scold or praise her upright maid.

"It's not time yet."

"......"

Looking at Neril's dissatisfied face, she added reassuringly.

"I don't spare those who target me from behind."

They would die here.

Just at the time and place of her choosing.

"So, the handkerchief?"

Medea extended her hand.

"Here. I'll burn it—no traces left."

"No."

Her small, pale hand stopped Neril from taking it back.

"Neril, you said you're confident in concealment earlier."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Has the princess changed her mind even now?

Neril, clinging to hope, answered promptly.

Medea smiled satisfactorily and pulled out a glittering trinket.

"Isn't this... the trumpet bracelet Mariyu had back then?"

It was the bracelet Samon had gifted.

"Your Highness, it's the one Mariyu dropped... It seemed suspicious."

Mariyu hadn't only been caught by Medea with the bracelet. Her negligence had already earned her the ire of her fellow maids in the Princess Palace.

"She claimed it was her mother's heirloom, but it looked too expensive. She bragged so much, it seemed stolen. Could it be Yours? Please ask the duchess or Lady Birna if they've had bracelets stolen too."

"Yes, I'll look into it more. Don't tell Mariyu we've found it yet."

"Of course! She's been searching for three days straight and is already exhausted."

And so Medea acquired the bracelet infused with Samon's 'love.'

She carefully wrapped the minister's handkerchief around Mariyu's bracelet.

Then she handed the bulging bundle to Neril.

"Later, slip this into Mariyu's things."