Chapter 36

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 36

Chapter Title: A Meeting with the Prime Minister

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36

Baldina Administrative Palace.

"Prime Minister Sise. Duchess Claudio entered the palace again yesterday."

At his aide's report, Sise pressed his weary eyes shut.

"The crocodile's sniffing around for prey."

Recently, under the Queen Dowager's orders, several privileges of the Claudio Ducal House had been revoked. The duchess was probably scheming to coax the princess into restoring them.

'How long are we going to let them toy with us?'

Sise sighed and rose from his seat.

"I must go to the Princess Palace. Prepare at once."

The aide hesitated.

"What are you waiting for?"

"Well... she's already here."

"Who?"

"The princess is waiting."

Sise raised an eyebrow.

It was exceedingly rare for the princess to seek him out personally.

Sise could scarcely believe his aide until he saw the princess seated in his very office.

"Your Highness."

"Prime Minister Sise."

Silver hair like shards of shattering moonlight caught his eye first.

Then her round, doe-like eyes, the incongruously resolute gaze, her slightly lifted chin, and her small, red lips pressed stubbornly together.

'I've heard rumors lately that the princess has changed a great deal.'

Relieved to see the same familiar spoiled princess he knew, yet somehow he sighed all the same.

"Why have you come all this way? If it's regarding the Claudio Ducal House, consider it unheard."

"Won't you even offer me a cup of tea?"

Medea asked calmly. She could understand his icy reception, which offered no welcome.

'I've done the same to him.'

Medea did not like Sise. No, she hated him.

When her brother Peleus had left the capital, he entrusted Baldina's seal to Medea and state affairs to Prime Minister Sise.

The intent had been smooth processing—final approval to Medea, detailed management to Sise—but in reality, it worked exactly in reverse.

Sise opposed Medea's every decision.

"As you know, Medea, your status is... not entirely legitimate. So Sise is showing he cannot acknowledge you."

"Exactly, sister. Unlike us who cherish you, he refuses to accept your very existence."

With such cunning wedges driven between them, the one-sided misunderstanding only solidified.

She believed she was being ignored despite being direct royalty of Baldina.

In the end, when Medea stamped documents without going through Sise, their relationship reached breaking point.

"...Bring the tea."

"Yes, my lord."

Sise eyed the princess, feeling like a dog that had been kicked.

From head to toe, she was the same immature princess he knew. And yet, something was different.

Her posture, seated loftily as if she owned the room, flowed as naturally as water.

Her serene expression betrayed no ripples, no tremors—her intentions utterly unreadable.

The maid entered quietly and poured the tea.

Amid the gentle trickle from the pot, no words passed between them.

The princess paused as she lifted her cup.

She sniffed it, then promptly set it down. Sise furrowed his brow.

"You asked for tea, Your Highness. If you have no intention of drinking it, I'd appreciate it if you left. My apologies, but I am swamped with affairs of state."

"...".

Her steady gaze sparked a sudden surge of irritation in Sise.

It was unlike him, but he couldn't hold back.

With those limpid eyes, the princess always drove the sharpest, rustiest blade into them with her worst choices.

"What is it this time? What did the Claudio House ask of you?"

He was utterly fed up. Regret clouded his monocled gaze.

"Hah, Your Highness. Even beasts know who their allies are. Do you realize how your every word and action affects our lord?"

"...".

"That there are those eyeing His Majesty's empty throne—not to mention Baldina itself? Who stands behind the Regent Duke—"

"I know. The Kazen Empire is backing my uncle."

The princess responded for the first time.

"What you're most worried about right now is my uncle running rampant under the empire's protection."

Sise faltered.

"You... knew? Then all this time...".

"Sise, is that why you chose Facade?"

Medea cut in abruptly.

"To draw in the wolf and pit it against the lion at the same time? Then I have a question of my own."

Startled as he was by her reading his intent, her question pressed forward.

"What if the wolf doesn't leave after you've chased off the lion? What then?"

"...In that case, with His Majesty absent, is there any other way to suppress the Regent Duke?"

Sise replied, feeling as constrained as if his limbs were bound.

He hadn't ignored her point. But to avoid the worst, he had to choose the lesser evil.

"Besides, I know Facade's leader personally. He has no designs on Baldina."

"You trust the arms dealer of the abyss, whom even the Kazen Empire fears? That's not like you."

Neither response befitted the iron-willed rationality of the prime minister.

'Yes, you're weaker to sentiment than I thought. That's why I left you be.'

In truth, the politically astute Sise was no match for Medea.

He could have seized her seal outright and reduced her to a powerless figurehead.

'But you clashed with me at every turn, yet treated me as an equal.'

Ensuring, at the very least, that she retained her minimal dignity as princess.

'Yes, stay just as you are.'

Sise was one of Baldina's few remaining loyalists. He and Peleus alike had no need to change.

She would bear the risks stemming from their weaknesses.

"Not like me... Hah, since when have you been so shrewd, Your Highness?"

Sise asked sharply.

"Then enlighten me. How do we resolve this crisis?"

"...What we need most is to regain control of the inner palace."

The unexpected sound answer made Sise swallow without a sound.

"You... know it well."

His tone dripped with sarcasm, as if to say, And yet you've been like this all along?

The arrogant princess who would normally storm out instead countered him.

"Sise, wouldn't it be better to sever the enemy's arm than bring in new weapons?"

"What did you...".

"When the Royal Head Maid changed from Lady Quizin to Marchioness Pinatelli, my uncle lost his left arm."

She spoke leisurely, as if she hadn't been at the center of the palace-shaking scandal mere days ago.

"Then if the Interior Minister breaks away from my uncle too, things will be much easier for you."

"...".

It took Sise a moment to grasp her meaning.

Only then did he realize that the chain of events following Medea's downfall had precisely carved out one person.

"Don't tell me... the one behind dismissing the former head maid was... you, Your Highness?"

Medea smiled instead of answering.

"Even the Queen Dowager sending Duke Claudio away and summoning Count Montega to the borderlands...".

"Prime Minister, you already know the answer. Let's dispense with these outdated confirmations."

A shiver crawled up Sise's spine.

So it hadn't been coincidence that the princess, after standing vigil in the chapel for five straight days, had collapsed with fever.

The Queen Dowager's change of heart, the replacement of the Royal Head Maid with Marchioness Pinatelli—all of it truly her design?

Could a person change this much?

"Were you hiding it all this time, or have you truly changed?"

"Who knows. Let's say I came to my senses. They say the world flips after brushing death."

"...".

For an instant, an eerie chill struck Sise's mind.

Was this something a newly awakened seventeen-year-old girl could accomplish?

A dull puppet was headache enough, but the puppeteer pulling the strings was far more dangerous.

'What if her schemes turn toward His Majesty? Could our lord even cope?'

Moreover, Peleus was astonishingly soft toward his little sister. If Medea truly targeted him, he'd likely accept the blade willingly, eyes wide open.

'Why has the princess suddenly... changed her stance?'

His keen eyes narrowed, probing her intentions.