Chapter 20

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 20

Chapter Title: Accusations in the Queen Dowager Palace

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Queen Dowager Palace.

Stepping into the palace interior, where rose-colored lace carved into the stone walls left a striking impression.

The ceiling, in a semicircular arch style, glittered with a chandelier that hinted at the immense wealth and power once enjoyed by this palace's mistress.

However, in stark contrast to the ceiling's opulence, the corridor walls held only numerous pale white statues of goddesses.

The occasional paintings were all holy images, and the scent of incense, more suited to a stone cathedral, brushed past her nose.

After the death of her eldest grandson, the atmosphere in the Queen Dowager Palace had grown even more solemn.

'It's been a long time since I've been here.'

As a child, Medea had feared this place.

The goddesses lining the walls had seemed to glare at her.

When terror made her burst into tears, the Queen Dowager would scold her even more harshly, forcing her to bite her lip and swallow her sobs.

She had already learned that crying changed nothing—no one cared.

"Grandma—!"

The moment they entered the room where the Queen Dowager waited, Birna pushed past Medea and ran ahead.

She buried her face in the Queen Dowager's ample bosom, acting all cute and spoiled.

As if she couldn't sense the sharp, silent tension in the air.

"Birna, you've come too."

The Queen Dowager's voice softened a touch.

She patted Birna's back briefly before pulling her away and turning her head.

The Queen Dowager's eyebrows sharpened. Her lifelong thorn in the side had entered her view.

"You……."

Medea walked slowly forward to stand directly before the Queen Dowager. She knelt gracefully in the center.

"Medea pays her respects to Grandmother."

Even with all eyes upon her, she showed no sign of shrinking.

The Queen Dowager's face twisted immediately at the clear, steady voice.

"Kneel properly!"

She snapped sharply.

The princess's solemn greeting to her grandmother stood in stark contrast to Birna's casual rush earlier, sounding all the more stiff and distant.

Birna could ignore etiquette and throw herself at the Queen Dowager without reproach.

Yet Medea's greeting was flawless in etiquette and propriety, and still the Queen Dowager's expression soured first.

Everyone could plainly see that the Queen Dowager favored her second granddaughter.

"Are you deaf? I said kneel and beg forgiveness!"

The people were shocked.

The Queen Dowager didn't like her eldest granddaughter much, but this was the first time she'd exploded so bluntly.

'Medea getting scolded is well-deserved, but why is Grandma acting like this?'

Birna rolled her eyes from beside her grandmother.

Even Catherine, who had been about to step forward to curry favor with Medea, retreated at the sight of her mother-in-law's unnatural fury.

'Just as I thought.'

Medea hid a sneer at her aunt slinking back.

Her gaze soon landed on Head Maid Lady Quizin, who stood smirking slyly below the dais where the Queen Dowager sat.

Their eyes met. Lady Quizin curled her lips viciously and bowed her head in greeting.

"I shall do as Grandmother commands."

Medea stepped forward and knelt.

There was no servility in her reverently bent posture.

"That said, I'm worried excessive anger might harm your health. If you tell me the reason, I'd like to beg your forgiveness."

"Are you truly asking because you don't know? After stirring up another storm in this palace, now you play innocent?"

The Queen Dowager's face flushed red and purple at her granddaughter's calm words.

"Do you even realize you're a princess? Is that why you act with no sense of decorum, showing off that you grew up without a mother?"

For an instant, Medea's eyes turned icy.

"What is this about, that Grandmother insults not only me, but my late parents as well?"

A chill emanated from the princess for the first time, who had been so meek until now.

Medea's voice was somewhat cold and detached, at odds with her fragile appearance.

"You impudent……! You don't know your own crimes?"

"Forgive my ignorance. I truly have no idea what Grandmother means."

"You think you can deny it even when I know everything?"

The Queen Dowager bellowed in rage.

"The head maid has confessed everything. That you're secretly carrying on an affair with some man!"

Everyone's eyes widened in shock.

Especially those of the Claudio mother and daughter.

'What? She pretends to be so prim, but she's sneaking off to meet a man? Hypocrites are the worst. Still, who would even want to meet a worthless stick like her?'

Unlike Birna, who swallowed a scoff, Catherine's reaction was more serious.

'No. There are no men near Medea.'

She could say it with certainty.

The princess's marriage was a long-term pawn to be used carefully, so they'd managed her surroundings meticulously to keep any random flies away.

'If that girl had a man, I'd know about it.'

So the head maid's confession was a lie.

A blatant fabrication to corner the princess.

'What is she thinking? Why pull off something this major without even consulting me?'

Catherine stared at Head Maid Lady Quizin.

Seeking at least some clue to her intentions.

"I beg your pardon, Your Highness the Queen Dowager."

But Lady Quizin ignored her and stepped forward.

"And I am sorry, Your Highness the Princess. But I can no longer hide this grave matter."

The head maid declared loudly toward Medea.

"After I learned of Your Highness's outings, you even spread rumors that I was persecuting you to silence me."

She struck her chest and knelt.

"But I, Quizin, who has devoted my life to the Baldina royal family, could not turn a blind eye to the truth. This concerns the honor of Baldina itself. But since Your Highness insists on ignoring it, I have no choice."

The head maid's gaze turned to one woman.

At her subtle signal, Mariyu stepped forward.

"I am Maid Mariyu, servant to Princess Medea. My mother was Your Highness's wet nurse, and I too have served you my whole life."

Mariyu elegantly placed a hand over her heart and curtsied slightly in introduction.

Her greeting and carefully groomed appearance were more like those of a noble lady than a maid.

The Queen Dowager frowned at Mariyu's vain display but said nothing.

"Whenever Your Highness met your lover, you took me along. I told you it was wrong, that it besmirched royal honor, but instead you banished me to a shabby room and had the other maids torment and punish me."

Her soft, frightened-sounding voice rang true.

"After the late King and Queen departed, Princess Medea was overcome with loneliness. Perhaps that's why she fell into it helplessly, despite knowing better……."

Mariyu dabbed at her eyes with her sleeve. She looked at Medea with trembling lips.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness. Sob, please don't forgive me……."

The head maid bowed her head alongside her and added,

"Princess, no more hiding the truth with lies and fabrications. Please set an example as a direct descendant of Baldina."

The two looked every bit the loyal retainers offering humble counsel.

Only their eyes gleamed with wicked triumph beneath lowered heads.

'Heh, you're finished.'

'Exactly, why did you push me out first?'

It was a perfectly scripted play. Audience, actors, and even the protagonist princess—all were present.

With the drama at its peak, all that remained was the protagonist's fall.

"Medea, what a spectacle!"

The Queen Dowager erupted.

What enraged her more than the maids' loyal confessions was her granddaughter losing all sense to mere servants.

'What master gets called out and reported by underlings? And she's royalty!'

The noble blood of the late king surely flowed in her veins—how could she be so foolish?

Sharing the same womb as Peleus, yet so pathetic.

'That wretch has no inkling she's a princess!'

The head maid smirked in satisfaction at the Queen Dowager's twisting expression.

'Just as I thought.'

The Queen Dowager could never tolerate her underage granddaughter consorting with some outsider.

'Kuk, what if she learned the secret lover was Count Etienne himself? How would she react?'

The Queen Dowager's rage would explode.

Beyond banishing her from the palace, she might lock the princess in a convent for life.

The head maid reveled in the surging fantasy.

But the rising joy evaporated soundlessly at the sound of a calm voice.

"Their words are not true."

Medea denied it steadily.