“So, please……! Stop being so conceited. I was the one who begged to stay by Her Highness’s side. Princess Her Highness simply granted my stubborn wish.”
Saya shook off her brother’s hand. Her sparkling eyes were resolute.
“Her Highness is the person who protected me. Back then, and now. If you insult her one more time, I won't hold back, even if it's you.”
Theo swallowed his shock.
He could not accept the fact that his sister’s blind loyalty surpassed even the ties of blood.
“Just as you chose the revolution and abandoned me, I have chosen Her Highness.”
“Saya……!”
“Don't be angry. You know you don't have the right to be.”
As she turned to leave, Saya's footsteps faltered for a moment.
“If you're going to the Holy Kingdom, please take care of yourself. Goodbye, Theo.”
“…….”
There was no promise or hope for the future, no suggestion that they would meet again.
Theo ultimately could not catch his departing sister.
As he stared resentfully at her back, which showed no lingering attachment, he suddenly realized.
That when he had left Saya all alone and departed, he hadn't even shown her his back.
* * *
Saya moved her feet quickly.
“…….”
It was only when she passed the place where she had met Theo and reached a secluded spot that her feet came to a stop.
Saya squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip.
“Hoooo…… Haaa!”
She took a deep breath.
She repeated the cycle of breathing until her chest felt like it would burst.
After some time had passed, Saya opened her eyes again.
“I have to go home!”
As if erasing the darkness from moments ago, she headed toward the Princess’s Palace with a lively smile and swung her clenched fists.
Then, she ran into a maid from the Princess’s Palace carrying an armful of cloth baskets.
“April! Give me that laundry! I'll take care of it!”
“No, it’s fine. This isn't very heavy. You should head to the Palace quickly; Her Highness returned and was looking for you.”
“Her Highness? Yes!”
Nodding vigorously, Saya ran as if her feet were on fire.
As the distance to the Palace closed, her heart raced as if all her courage from before had vanished.
When Theo had come to find his sister, Medeia had provided a private room in the Outer Palace.
It was so the siblings could speak freely away from prying eyes.
At the time, she thought it was merely Medeia’s consideration, but now she was a little afraid.
‘Will Her Highness still accept me? What if she tells me to follow my brother since I’m Theo’s sister?’
And soon, Saya discovered the Princess.
The Princess was drinking tea on a terrace overlooking a beautiful garden.
At that sight, which was unchanged from usual, Saya’s heart surged for some reason.
“Princess!”
So, without realizing it, she forgot her etiquette and called out to the Princess.
Her voice was so loud that Neril, who was picking up a sugar cube for the tea from across the table, overturned the sugar container.
“Saya, you……!”
“Oops, I’m sorry, Princess. I startled you, didn't I?”
Even the glaring Neril seemed only lovely today.
“Neril, I’m fine. Saya, did you have a good visit?”
Medeia turned her head toward Saya. Their gazes met.
Many stories flowed beneath that silent eye contact.
Saya held back the tears that threatened to spill and nodded fiercely.
“Yes! I’ve returned!”
By the Princess’s side. This is where she belonged.
“……I’m glad. Go bring more sugar cubes.”
Medeia gestured peacefully, pointing to the overturned sugar container.
“Yes! Leave! It! To! Me!”
Saya nodded fiercely, like a hero called to save the world, and scurried away again.
“……Did that girl eat something wrong?”
Neril was bewildered by the intense behavior, which was unlike the girl who was usually quick-witted and agile.
“I heard Theo entered the Palace. It seems Saya has decided on her residence as well.”
“Ah…….”
Neril nodded with an expression of understanding. Then, she offered one last line of concern.
“Can we trust Saya, that girl, until the end?”
“If I didn't trust her, I wouldn't have kept her by my side from the start.”
Medeia spoke as she leaned over to touch a sunflower blooming in the garden.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen of the Princess’s Palace.
Saya was burning with the determination to serve Medeia by acting as the perfect maid.
“Chef! Please give me the sugar container and this and that! Her Highness is going to be hungry!”
Besides the sugar container, Saya didn't forget to pack refreshments and food she had begged from the chef, with whom she maintained a friendly relationship.
“Sigh, I get it. You child, wait. I have to get the cake from the ice cellar.”
At her urging, the chef stood up while grumbling.
‘……What’s that?’
While waiting for him to return with the stored cake, Saya discovered a wriggling figure in the kitchen’s food storage.
“Mariyu? What is all that?”
“Gah!”
Saya approached and poked the figure.
Mariyu, who had been sweeping food into a cloth bundle, jumped in shock.
“You—you startled me! Are you a ghost? Creeping up without a sound?”
Mariyu snapped in anger.
“I must be going crazy; she has no education, so her voice is just loud like a megaphone……”
She repeatedly rubbed her chest and stomach, acting annoyed.
But Saya paid no mind and leaned in close.
“Fruit, bread, and wow, even jerky? What is this? Whose permission did you get to steal food?”
Mariyu belatedly and hurriedly hid the sack behind her back, but it was already after she had been caught by Saya.
“Steal? I’m going to eat it!”
“All of this by yourself? It’ll rot before you can eat it all. Do you have ten beggars living in your stomach?”
Saya sneered. It was a tone that said she knew it was a lie.
“Don't you know that embezzling Palace supplies carries a punishment of ten lashes? I wonder if your backside will stay intact?”
“Wh—what business is it of yours—let go of this!”
Mariyu tried to grab the sack and leave the spot hurriedly, but Saya’s nimble hands would not let go.
“Ah! The chef is coming! Over here! Over here!”
Startled by Saya’s fuss, Mariyu dropped the sack and fled.
Saya, who had said she would bring the sugar container, appeared holding a tray full of refreshments.
“Princess, do you know what I just saw?”
She was huffing with indignation.
Neril, worried that Saya’s huffing breath would reach the cake on the tray, quickly took the tray and asked.
“What on earth happened?”
“It’s Mariyu! She stole food from the kitchen again! She said she was going to eat it, but hmph, who would believe such an obvious lie?”
She pointed down from the terrace with her hand.
Mariyu could be seen approaching April, who had brought the laundry, and saying something.
When April shook her head, Mariyu frowned and rubbed her stomach with an uncomfortable face.
“The other girls say that lately, she’s even swiping pillowcases and sheets from the laundry room. And do you know where she goes with all that?”
Saya pouted her lips.
“To the Young Duke Claudio! Even though she’s Your Highness’s maid, she looks for that trash nearly every day to visit him in prison!”
Saya had also formed good relationships with the jailers when Minister Etienne was imprisoned previously.
Her bright and sociable personality, along with the small bribes she had carried on the Princess’s orders, had melted the hearts of the gloomy jailers.
So, she had learned of Mariyu’s secret visiting place before anyone else.
She thought Mariyu was incredibly ungrateful.
Her Highness had even forgiven the sin Mariyu committed against Medeia that was worthy of death; does that creature have no brain—no, at least no sense of shame?
She had already heard from the surrounding maids about the plots the former Head Maid and Mariyu had cooked up to trap the Princess before she entered the Palace.
‘I should have pretended not to know and punched her hard in the nose earlier…….’
While Saya was striking her palm with her fist in belated regret,
“…….”
Medeia looked down at Mariyu below the terrace.
Her green eyes did not miss the girl’s slightly swollen body line and prominent curves.
Though not to a conspicuous degree, her waistline was thicker than usual, and she repeatedly brought her hand to her stomach as if uncomfortable.
‘A joyous occasion has arisen in my uncle’s house?’
Most of the palace staff, including the maids in the Princess’s Palace, were unmarried.
However, Medeia, who had given birth to two children in her past life, could recognize the changes in Mariyu.
“Princess, shall I wait in front of the prison and catch her in the act?”
“There’s no need to go that far.”
Medeia shook her head.
A sense of leisure, like that of a predator waiting for its prey, flowed in her green eyes.
“She will return here eventually anyway.”
