Translator: Nox

Ch#99

Around the time Adelin faced her second poisoning attempt in the Lord's Castle.

Her mother desperately sent Adelin's name to the princess's aide who was said to be selecting maids.

A few days later.

"Ma'am, a letter from the Imperial Family has arrived."

The bribed head maid quietly brought a single letter to Adelin's mother.

The envelope bore the clear seal of the Imperial Family.

The opened letter paper contained only one enigmatic question.

[Write down your thoughts and decision on the situation I present.

The young lady is aboard a small sinking boat.

Nearby floats a small plank that can hold only one person, but a child is desperately trying to grab it just as much as the young lady.

What choice will the young lady make?]

Adelin let out a hollow laugh upon reading the letter.

Meanwhile, her mother wore a serious expression beside her.

"This is a test of your loyalty to Her Highness the princess. Hurry and write that you'll sacrifice yourself to save the child."

Adelin began writing her reply in front of her watching mother.

[I present my answer to the noble princess.

Based on moral value, I believe a child should always be the top priority for protection.

A child's life holds far more time and potential than my own.

Thus, I will gladly yield the plank to the child and meet my death.]

After writing that and placing the period, Adelin's mother nodded in satisfaction.

She patted Adelin's back proudly and left the room.

But Adelin did not seal the letter as is.

Instead, she took out another sheet of paper and continued writing.

[In truth, this is the answer my mother wished for me to present to the princess.

But to speak my true choice, I will take hold of that plank myself.]

Adelin knew that continuing like this would mean she wouldn't become a maid.

All the other maid candidates would write as her mother desired.

They would openly imply their willingness to lay down their lives for the princess.

But Adelin did not want that.

If she became a maid and fled to the Capital, her mother would be left alone in this Lord's Castle from then on.

[My life is mine. No one else can take my place in living it, can they?

I have a duty to choose myself for my own sake.

Yielding the plank to the child may be noble, but it is merely an act of deceiving myself.]

Having truly finished the letter, Adelin held back tears and sealed it.

Above all, though she had written that her own life was most important, in reality, her mother weighed on her mind, leading her to deliberately write the wrong answer.

In truth, Adelin knew it too.

From the moment her foolish father left that will and departed, the chances of her mother and herself surviving had drastically diminished.

To her uncle, Adelin was the top priority for elimination.

And her uncle would likely achieve his goal.

One could tell just from how, right after receiving delegated lordly authority, he had taken in a quite capable mage as his wife.

The letter safely reached the princess via the head maid's hands.

And then...

"Adelin! Well done, you've done it!"

A few weeks later, an acceptance letter arrived stating she had become the princess's maid.

"Now I can finally breathe easy. Finally, finally..."

Adelin could say nothing as she watched her mother shed tears of joy.

She had clearly written the wrong answer.

She couldn't understand why the princess had chosen her.

But having received the princess's summons, she had no choice but to go.

This time, even her uncle, wielding the lord's authority, could not stop her.

"...You've done something interesting, sister-in-law."

"Indeed? Well, our Adelin receiving Her Highness the princess's summons is truly joyous. I was just worrying over what to dress her in three days hence. Shall I tell Letchia to help choose together?"

But unlike her foolish father, who couldn't see an inch ahead, her mother was different.

Her mother always faced Reginald with a smiling face, walking a tightrope on the edge.

And on the night before Adelin's departure, she came to her bedroom and said with serious eyes.

"Don't worry about this mother, Adelin."

She stroked Adelin's hair and added.

"As long as you don't come back here, it'll be fine. Once things here are sorted, I'll follow you."

"......"

"For your sake, I can do anything. Whatever Reginald wants, I can just give it all to him, can't I?"

Adelin broke down before her endlessly strong mother that day.

No matter how precocious and clever she seemed beyond her peers, she was only fifteen.

A fifteen-year-old who had lost her father in the blink of an eye, had her family seized by her uncle, and faced assassination attempts daily.

She had just hidden it well, but her insides were already charred black.

"Don't cry. Smile. If you can't, then stay silent."

But her mother wiped Adelin's tears and earnestly implored her.

"The harder it gets, the more you must. So your enemies can't read you, and grow careless."

Don't get swayed by emotions—look at reality.

Then a way out will appear.

That was how she came to the Capital.

The princess was utterly different from Adelin's expectations.

After months of observing her, Adelin had no choice but to realize.

The reason she had chosen her.

"Always remember the answer you gave, Adelin. In this world, nothing is more important than yourself."

The princess she saw inside the imperial palace was shockingly different from her public image.

She was just like Adelin back in the Lord's Castle.

She faced assassination attempts every few days, and those approaching her all carried their own daggers.

"......Every family has its circumstances. Even the imperial family is no different."

On days when she treated the princess's occasional injuries, she would say that.

"I don't have much longer to live. So if things go south, you must flee."

With a completely nonchalant smile.

Unlike when she first arrived, Adelin gradually came to like the princess.

She even thought perhaps truly abandoning Kaldbain-Ridge and settling in the Capital was the better choice.

So she began looking for a house in the central Capital for her mother to live in.

She prepared a garden and hired and placed servants.

Even if she herself stayed in the palace, her mother needed a place to live.

But right around then, a letter arrived from her uncle in her hometown.

Stating that Adelin's mother was critically ill.

She likely wouldn't last more than a few days.

* * *

Adelin smiled as she spoke.

"I knew it. That my uncle—or Letchia—had laid hands on my mother."

Enzo and Raoul focused intently on her words with hardened faces.

Tie was equally lost in Adelin's story.

'Adelin sis......'

She recalled the words of Adelin's mother: smile the harder it gets.

That was why, even now, the smile at the corners of Adelin's mouth pricked like thorns, hurting her heart.

"I told Her Highness. That I needed to return to my hometown."

The princess seemed puzzled by Adelin's sudden request.

But she soon readily permitted her retirement.

'Yes, you're too precious a child to be confined to the palace.'

Adelin packed her things that very day and returned to her hometown.

Without even sorting the mansion she had prepared in the Capital.

Only upon arriving in Kaldbain-Ridge did Adelin discover it.

The enormous amount of jewels and gold coins the princess had secretly tucked into her luggage.

But she had no time to feel the odd sensation from it.

"I pounded on the castle gates like mad. A long while later, the doors finally opened, but I couldn't go in."

Recalling that moment, Adelin smiled faintly again.

"My mother was being carried out right before my eyes. Already passed away."