This was the nature of conversations with the Princess.
If you let your guard down for even a moment, she would strike as sharply as a blade pressed against your throat.
“…….”
“Kensington, you are the only person I have put this much effort into.”
“I am merely overwhelmed that you would treat such an insignificant person with such high regard. However, my answer remains unchanged.”
It was the answer Kensington had reached after long deliberation.
“I will not dare hide that I have been fascinated by Your Highness’s wit and spirit. If I were not a citizen of Kazen, I would surely have pledged my full loyalty to you.”
Where was the Princess looking, and how far did her vision reach? Curiosity bloomed. Kensington also wanted to stay by her side to confirm it.
If she were the young and vibrant Louisa, she would not have hesitated.
But she was now a middle-aged woman who had to carry the heavy name of Kensington rather than her own.
It was an age where it was proper to suppress the sudden bursts of vigor rising from the heart rather than follow them.
“In all my years, despite many attempts at persuasion, someone like Your Highness is a first.”
As a token of gratitude for the sincerity shown to her, Kensington bowed before the Princess.
As of today, the Princess of Baldina was the only person besides her sovereign, Perdicas II, for whom Kensington had bent her knee.
“However, I am a rigid person, and I do not wish to become a turncoat who revokes the loyalty I swore to His Majesty.”
As if she had expected Kensington’s refusal, the Princess’s expression did not change. She simply asked back.
“Would that loyalty remain valid even if you were to die by the Emperor’s hand?”
“That will not happen. Our Majesty is not the type to discard a sharp sword by his own hand, even if he might cut his palm on it.”
When Kensington spoke with conviction, Medeia silently handed her something. It was a cloth pouch containing several small, smooth stones.
“The mountain goats living in the Asirip Mountains grow up exposed to poisonous herbs from birth. That is why their bezoars are primarily used as antidotes.”
Kensington was also aware of the Asirip mountain goat bezoars. The Asirip Mountains were a famous production site for monkshood on the continent.
And monkshood was the common poison used by the Kazen Imperial Family when removing political opponents.
“Nothing in this world lasts forever. I, too, realized that far too late.”
The princess, barely seventeen, spoke like an old woman reflecting on life before death.
“…….”
“Take it, as I am giving it out of concern. If nothing happens, then simply treat it as a memory for the future.”
Kensington, who was about to return the pouch, let out a short sigh at Medeia’s words.
“Yes, I too shall not be able to forget Your Highness and this kingdom for a long time.”
The aftertaste of the farewell, so unlike her usual self, was bitter.
King Peleus had won the ten-year war and finally secured the plains.
It would be difficult for the two countries, Baldina and Kazen, to return to their former friendly relations now.
The Emperor would be even more wary of Baldina, and Kensington, as his subject, would have to follow his will.
Once she left Baldina, the next time she saw this Princess, they might be enemies.
“I will miss you as well. Never forget that the gates of Baldina are always open.”
Kensington could not identify the source of the rising bitterness.
*‘Stop here. You must not delve deeper. I must not forget that my master is the Emperor of Kazen.’*
She let those fleeting thoughts sink beneath her consciousness once more.
* * *
In the end, Hoakin Claudio’s ambitious coup ended disgracefully without gaining a single thing.
The vassals of the Regent Duke’s faction, including the Claudio Duke Family, were bound and imprisoned like links of a sausage.
Since his vassals had taken surrounding nobles hostage and pressured Medeia to abdicate, there was absolutely no room for reconsideration.
It was time for those who had been extravagantly eating away at the Royal Family and the country to pay the price.
Voices were high, demanding that the roots of the subversive elements be torn out this time.
“Go in! Search everything. Do not let even a single mouse escape.”
Agema members stormed the Claudio Duke Family estate.
Thanks to the vassals voluntarily denouncing the Regent Duke with their own mouths, the investigation into the treason proceeded quite smoothly.
The life of the once-unrivaled power in Baldina, who was said to be able to bring down flying birds, ended like this.
The title of Regent Duke was cast to the ground, and the assets of the Duke’s house were confiscated.
The Agema had long since visited the refuges where he had hidden his slush funds.
The person most frantic about sniffing out the Regent Duke’s assets was Regent Siseo.
“The personal assets accumulated by the Regent Duke are greater than the current national treasury of the Baldina Royal Family. He is truly a ‘great’ man.”
A spark flickered coldly in his eyes behind his monocle. He did not miss even a single copper coin that had passed through the Claudio Duke Family.
Claudio’s honor and wealth were all stripped away and unearthed. Next was his status.
“As of today, Hoakin Claudio and his descendants are removed from the royal genealogy.”
Now, he became a plain commoner, Hoakin Claudio.
The pride of a thorough classist who had looked down on everyone from his status as a royal was shattered into pieces, leaving not even a trace of dust.
A damp prison, a dark cell where light did not enter.
It was the very prison that Minister Etienne had once been horrified by.
A place filled with darkness, dampness, and filth was enough to drive the people of the Duke’s house—who had lived a lifetime eating and wearing only the best—insane.
Hoakin still could not accept his failure.
One of his eyes was already beyond recovery.
Not only was there no physician visiting him in prison, but time had already passed with the fragments embedded deep within.
He brooded with his dark eye.
*‘From where, and what went wrong?’*
Thoughts followed one after another in a continuous chain.
From where had his once perfect future begun to warp?
And he finally found the answer.
*‘It was from the moment… Medeia woke up from her fall.’*
The Head Maid Cuisine, who had stood against Medeia, collapsed, and his mother, the Queen Dowager, turned her back on him.
And with the death of Minister Etienne, Hoakin lost control of the Palace.
The Kazen delegation fell for Medeia’s provocation, and even with the hunting competition, the Duke’s house was backed into all sorts of corners due to Medeia’s disappearance.
And even when he, becoming impatient, moved up the date of the coup…….
At every moment his plans were thwarted, there was the Princess, his niece.
“I should have killed that girl immediatelyyyyy!”
As Etienne once did, a desperate scream echoed like a haunting refrain in the dark prison.
As if to show how difficult it was to accept his fall, Hoakin’s hair had turned white in just a few nights.
His face was covered in wrinkles, and even those were frozen in a distorted expression, making him hideous to look at.
The appearance of the middle-aged handsome man, whom time seemed to have bypassed, could no longer be found.
*Crackle, crackle.* He bit his nails and muttered Medeia’s name with bloodshot eyes.
Samon glanced sideways at his father, who seemed half-insane.
While he found his father’s inability to accept the fall pathetic, part of him understood.
Because he, too, had not given up yet. No, he could not give up.
“Aargh! Aaaaagh!”
The opposite side of the cramped and narrow cell where the Claudio father and son were held was even more chaotic and noisy.
This was because Catherine and Birna were there.
Especially for the mother and daughter who had been surrounded by only fine and beautiful things all their lives, this prison was far too harsh.
“Aargh, it’s filthy! I feel like I’m going to die! Let me out! Why do I have to be here? Why not that girl Medeia?! I’ll kill her, I’ll tear her to shreds!”
Birna shrieked until ears rang, regardless of the wounds on her back reopening.
Catherine hugged her, tears streaming down her face continuously.
On the day the rebellion was suppressed, the Claudio Duke couple and the young duke were immediately transferred to prison.
However, Birna, who had been abandoned outside the Castle Walls, was only found after a considerable amount of time had passed.
Even then, it was not to save her, but to arrest her as the daughter of the Regent Duke.
“Aargh! Birna! My daughter, my baby!”
Catherine shrieked as she saw the deep wounds remaining on Birna’s back.
How hard she had worked to raise her with fair, white skin without a single blemish or scar!
Every time she saw the long, bright red marks on her daughter’s back, a pain arose as if she herself had been struck by a blade.
“No matter how much of a sinner one is, you must at least call a physician! Do you shallow beasts have no etiquette?!”
The jailer spat at the ear-piercing screams erupting from behind the bars.
“Look here, Duchess. Etiquette is something you keep for humans, not for beasts.”
Although the rebellion had been safely suppressed, it didn't mean there were no sacrifices.
“Among the soldiers on the Castle Walls whom you killed just to threaten Princess Her Highness, there was a friend of mine.”
At the jailer’s venomous eyes, Catherine curled her lips and shrunk her shoulders.
*‘How did we end up being treated as less than vermin like this…….’*
Unresolved resentment and a subtle sense of helplessness mixed in her fair eyes.
The past few days were enough time to feel the reality of the fallen Duke’s house through her very skin.
However, is it not said that there is hope in any situation?
“Ca……! Duchess, Birna! Are you alright?”
Even though the Claudio Duke Family had fallen into the gutter overnight, there was still someone left who intended to save them.
The one who had secretly visited the prison was Raju Count.
