10 - The Crown I Will Take From You
Episode 10
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“Your Highness, did you know? That the Head Maid would move like this?”
Medeia, who was standing by the window watching the Head Maid’s subordinates leave, turned around.
“Yes.”
A simple answer. But the meaning it implied was not.
She recalled what the Princess had said while coaxing the Maids.
“This is a cheap price to pay for borrowing hands.”
She never imagined that the hands she was borrowing would be the Head Maid’s.
Even more so, that she would so cleanly get rid of all the Princess’s Maids without any burden.
‘So, from then on…….’
Neril stared blankly at her.
“The masters of the dismissed Maids will be wary of the Regent Duke. And when he finds out what my subordinate has done, he will be taken aback as well.”
Only then did Neril nod.
“Who will our Uncle blame? His rivals? Or the Head Maid? It certainly won’t be me.”
Because Medeia would only be seen as a pitiful victim here.
“Your Highness, are you planning to pit them against each other?”
Instead of answering, a smile played on her lips.
“You don’t seem like the Your Highness I knew……”
The original Medeia was someone whose purity as a person stood out more than her dignity as a Princess.
“That’s right. The Medeia you knew is gone.”
The Princess calmly admitted.
“I realized after going through a near-death experience. That I can’t be foolish forever.”
Medeia looked at Neril.
Her green eyes were looking at her, but somehow, it felt like she was looking elsewhere.
She was solemn, as if navigating a deeper, darker abyss.
“What about you, Neril? Do you dislike this kind of master?”
There was no wavering in her eyes.
Whether Neril accepted the change or not, it seemed like nothing would change.
‘It’s just like when I first met the Late King.’
Neril knelt on one knee.
She understood the girl’s words that she could not be foolish forever.
In this Pandemonium, change would be inevitable for her to survive alone on those small feet.
“No matter what Your Highness’s appearance is, I will be by your side.”
The Princess’s lips faintly curved upwards.
“That’s a relief.”
An expressionless, cold face. A calm voice.
None of the appearance I knew was there, but Neril thought that she looked more like a true member of the Baldina bloodline than ever before.
She hesitated for a moment before bringing up her remaining concerns.
“……I hope the Head Maid realizes her mistake and refrains from acting, but I don’t think that will happen. If she tries to pull another foolish trick……”
“It’s okay.”
Medeia patted Neril’s shoulder.
“If you know the other person’s nature and past record, you can predict it. What they are thinking, what they are trying to do.”
She had experienced the Head Maid and her Uncle enough in her previous life. They were within Medeia’s predictions.
What made her hesitate was,
Something unknown that she had never experienced.
For example…….
Clang!
With a sharp cracking sound, the teacup overturned.
Mariu, who had turned pale, hurriedly poured tea into a new teacup.
“Your Highness, I just…….”
She had personally brought tea to try to improve her relationship with the Princess.
‘I have to win back the Princess’s heart before the new Maids catch her eye.’
A while ago, she saw the Head Maid’s people taking all the Maids from the Royal Palace.
If she hadn’t been quick-witted enough to hide, she would have been dragged out like a dog along with them.
Mariu tried to calm her anxiety and tried to please the Princess.
Because she knew everything about what the affection-starved Princess was weak to and moved by.
Besides, now that she had come, the Princess had told Neril to go out for a while.
She had been cold to her recently, but it was clearly a signal that she was tired of that wooden woman’s clumsiness and wanted to keep her by her side again.
Steam rose from the teacup she had poured.
“It’s Berry Tea. You said that you liked the one I brew the best.”
Mariu sat next to her and held out the teacup.
Medeia, who had inadvertently looked down at the teacup, froze.
A deep navy color. So dark that she couldn’t gauge the bottom. As if she had dropped three or four drops of the poison she had drunk before she died.
In an instant, she felt dizzy. For a moment, a vein stood out on the back of her hand that was holding onto the edge of the table.
“……I don’t feel like it right now. I’ll have some later.”
Mariu became anxious when Medeia didn’t even try to accept the teacup, contrary to her expectations.
Why? Was the Princess still angry?
Wasn’t she over it yet?
“I cooled it down just right. You like it slightly cooled to a lukewarm temperature rather than too hot. Shall I feed it to you?”
“Later.”
“Aww, Your Highness. Please. I went out since dawn and picked these berries until my knees were all wet. Please, for my sincerity.”
She stubbornly pushed the teacup forward.
“Please, just take one sip.”
Her appearance as she tried to bring the teacup to Medeia’s lips was somewhat crude.
The dark tea water rippled in front of Medeia’s eyes.
“Pour it quickly! What are you doing if you’re not going to pour it!”
It felt like she was being strangled. Her vision went dark.
“I said I don’t want it!”
Without thinking any further, she knocked the cup away.
Clang.
The teacup that Medeia knocked away flew and broke.
The air turned cold.
“How many times do I have to tell you?”
“Your, Your Highness. I just-”
“It seems like you don’t even listen to what I say.”
“Please forgive me, Your Highness. I made a mistake.”
Quick-witted Maids grabbed Mariu’s arm, who was complaining, and took her away.
“Your Highness! Please forgive me. Please don’t hate this poor Mariu anymore. You’re all I have!”
Bang!
The door closed.
“Haa.”
Only after confirming that she was completely alone did Medeia exhale.
Her white hand groped around her neck.
“…….”
She looked down at the tea water in the teacup.
Dark-colored water.
She still felt a suffocating sense of rejection.
Medeia reached out her hand.
Not for the tea, but for the clear water glass placed next to it.
It was okay. There was no problem with it touching her lips and passing through her esophagus.
“So, it’s just things with color that I can’t have.”
Traces left by her miserable death in her previous life, when she was poisoned.
The aftereffects seemed to be limited to liquids with dark colors.
“It’s okay. It doesn’t matter as long as I don’t get caught.”
In the pale silence, Medeia quietly muttered.
“Your Highness, are you alright?”
Neril, who had run over after hearing Mariu’s scream, examined Medeia.
A room in a mess with broken teacups.
Neril frowned as she looked at the spot where Mariu had been dragged out.
“What is that thing believing in to act so recklessly? If I really wasn’t just Your Highness…….”
She stroked the scabbard hanging from her waist.
“Just wait. All the Maids have been replaced, so there’s no one to vent her anger on, and I’m treating her coldly, so she’ll explode soon. The time will come soon, so we can get rid of her completely then.”
Medeia patted Neril’s shoulder.
“Keep a close eye on Mariu.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
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Deep into the night, when all the lights in the Royal Palace were turned off, Mariu secretly slipped out of the palace.
“Samon!”
Under the dim lamplight, she saw her lover pacing anxiously.
Mariu jumped into his arms.
She buried her face and rubbed her cheek against his, as if to relieve all the longing and sorrow she had felt.
“Shh.”
Samon Claudio.
The Regent Duke’s eldest son and only heir.
He hurriedly grabbed Mariu’s arm and pulled her inside.
“Mariu.”
Only the faint moonlight coming through a small window in the wall illuminated the room.
Shadows fell over the man’s face.
A slender height. Ash-brown hair. Delicate features.
Samon was considered quite handsome even among the young nobles of Baldina.
However, if you looked closely, his thin lips looked somewhat cunning. His two eyes, which gleamed blackly in the darkness, were somehow petty like a rat’s.
But to Mariu, he was the most handsome man in the world.
“Samon, I missed you so much.”
Mariu spread her arms wide, but she didn’t feel her lover’s arms wrapping tightly around her waist as usual.
“What the hell happened?”
Her lover greeted her with a brusque first greeting after a long time. Mariu’s smile froze.
“What do you mean?”
“All of Medeia’s Maids have been replaced. What in the world were you doing?”
Mariu was worried about the same thing. She had to win back the Princess’s heart before the new Maids caught her eye.
So, she visited the Princess every day and acted as charming as possible, but her heart remained unmoved.
Mariu, who had become sulky, showed her calves.
“Look at this. She sent me to the Head Maid, so like this-”
“Wait, Medeia is pushing you away?”
Samon’s eyes flashed.
