“M-Maybe she's right. Would that witch really let me go so easily?”
The gentle girl before her had completely shattered and brought to their knees the powerful Regent Duke and the faction that once held the kingdom in their grasp.
“Someone like me is no match for the Princess. I’ll just be trampled to death like an ant, just like the Head Maid, just like the Minister...!”
Consumed by surging terror, Mariyu lost even her last shred of defiance. Had she not watched everything from the sidelines? She had seen exactly how the Princess lured her enemies into traps and demolished them.
Learned helplessness broke Mariyu’s will. As if collapsing, she fell to her knees, bowed her head, and pleaded.
“P-Please forgive me, Your Highness. I didn't sell any information. I kept Your Highness’s command. Please, believe me...”
“...”
“If you just let me live, I’ll live as if I’m dead. I’ll never show my face again. But... but if you still cannot forgive me, please, at least save this child.”
Mariyu’s face was a mess of tears. Even she hadn't expected to feel such desperate affection for the child in her womb.
When she first learned of the pregnancy, anxiety had outweighed joy. She had thought she possessed no such thing as maternal instinct. But as each day passed, her feelings for the child only grew.
The child was the fruit of her love with Samon and her only flesh and blood. In this parched world where even her mother had left her, this was the only being who shared her blood and flesh.
Mariyu could not give up on the child.
“...”
Anyone would have felt pity at the sight of her pathetic state, prioritizing the child’s safety above all else. But Medeia remained cold.
Her chilling green eyes, unreadable in their thoughts, scanned Mariyu. Eventually, the Princess leaned down, bringing her face close to Mariyu’s.
A shadow fell at her feet. A faint scent of flowers brushed the tip of her nose. Mariyu, head bowed, trembled like a leaf.
“Does Samon know? That you’re carrying a child?”
A gentle hand gripped Mariyu’s chin and lifted her head.
“If Samon welcomes you, and if he acknowledges this child, then I shall do the same.”
“...Pardon?”
“Acknowledge it? I’ll do more than that. I will personally bring your child into the Royal Palace and raise them. The child will receive a royal education and be treated as royalty.”
“Is... is that true?”
Mariyu doubted her ears at the Princess’s unbelievable offer. Medeia was the King’s only sister; no one could deny her legitimacy. If such a Princess acknowledged the child, the child’s life would be paved with gold.
‘Maybe they could even be placed in the line of succession.’
The son of Mariyu, a mere commoner maid, would become part of the kingdom’s ruling class. He might even receive the title of Young Duke, just like his father, Samon.
For a fleeting moment, a pleasant imagination branched out, smoldering into a single strand of desire. However, Mariyu soon snapped back to her senses and stared at Medeia suspiciously.
‘There’s no way the Princess would do something so good for me for no reason.’
“W-What if he’s against it?”
“Well.”
Medeia gave a thin smile.
“Let’s talk about that then.”
Bewitched by that smile, why did she not realize then that a hunter’s noose was already around her own neck?
Packing her bags, Mariyu shook her head. She shoved the pouches of jewelry she had hidden deep in her drawers into her bag at random.
“She knew. The Princess knew this time, too.”
She knew that Samon would reject her child.
‘Using me... what on earth is she trying to do? No, maybe...’
Her thoughts assumed even the worst-case scenario: that the person the Princess intended to use wasn't her, but her child.
“N-No...”
Her heart raced madly. Nowhere was safe.
“They're all trying to take my baby away!”
Mariyu’s muttering turned into a paroxysmal shout.
“I have to run. Baby, they won't leave you and me alone.”
Her appearance—muttering to herself while biting her lip with one hand and stroking her stomach with the other—was hysterical. She had to escape from both Medeia and Samon.
Late that night, the sound of creaking hinges echoed again. There was no hesitation in her footsteps as she left the old, narrow room. She slipped out of the palace secretly, clutching her belongings.
‘I just need to reach the castle gates. Then I can hide in a wagon heading out of the castle...’
The streets were pitch black. Somehow, her heart felt constricted. It felt as if someone would surely appear and grab her by the scruff of the neck. Mariyu looked around incessantly as if being chased, hurrying her steps.
“Where are you going in such a hurry?”
And her imagination became reality.
“Hmm? Miss Mariyu. I’m asking you.”
The moment the thugs appeared, blocking her path as if by magic, Mariyu barely found the strength in her legs to keep from collapsing.
“Grab her!”
She turned and ran toward the Royal Palace with all her might.
‘Th-They know my name.’
They were even waiting outside the palace for her to come out.
‘The P-Princess knew I was going to run...’
“Aargh! Let go!”
The moment the thought occurred, her hair was grabbed. A thick, rough hand seized the back of her neck and hurled her onto the road.
“Aargh!”
Without time to check her scraped skin, Mariyu scrambled up.
“I’ll give you everything I have, okay? Just let me go. Turn a blind eye. Please.”
Mariyu gathered the jewelry scattered on the ground and held it out, but the assailants didn't even look at it as they picked her up. She struggled to break free from the iron grip, but it was futile. Desperate, Mariyu tried to persuade them.
“The blood of the Claudio Duke Family, of the Royal Family, is in my womb. If you let me go, the Duke’s house will reward you. So—”
Even after seeing Samon’s terrifying state in prison, Mariyu instinctively invoked the Duke’s name once she was cornered. It was a reflex, as if her body remembered what her mind had been constantly dwelling on.
“Heh.”
She heard the assailant’s scoff. A mocking sneer leaked through his crooked lips.
“What are you talking about? They're the ones who sent us to kill you.”
The assailant’s lip curled.
“In case you got spiteful and started babbling about being pregnant with the Young Duke’s child.”
“Th-That can’t be true.”
‘It wasn't the Princess?’
Mariyu denied it. No matter what, after all the time they had spent together, it couldn't be. Samon, of all people, couldn't be this cruel.
“We’re sparing your life out of old sentiment. Normally, both the kid and the mother would be dead.”
The assailant snorted.
“But you dared to stab them in the back and run? Look here, if you do that, we’re all dead.”
He spat on the ground in front of Mariyu.
“One way or another, that kid isn't coming into this world, so don't be too sad. What are you doing? Pour it in already!”
At his words, his companions grabbed Mariyu’s arms. Then, they forced her head back and gripped her jaw violently. Medicine was poured into her mouth, forced open by the pressure.
“No! No! Aargh—!”
Soon, along with a sharp pain at the back of her neck, her vision went dark.
* * *
“Hey, wake up. Hmm?”
When Mariyu opened her eyes again, the world was bright.
“Ugh, uuuuh...”
The painful sunlight leaking through the window stung her eyes. Mariyu blinked. It took a moment for the shabby ceiling to come into focus.
“Young lady, are you alright? Are you conscious?”
Several pairs of eyes looked down at Mariyu from beside the bed. They were elderly village women. Mariyu moved her hands haltingly. She felt the rough sheets against her palms.
“My, be careful. Your body isn't whole yet; you shouldn't strain yourself like that.”
A pleasant-looking middle-aged woman said as she helped Mariyu sit up.
“Here, drink this medicine first. The physician said... so you must nourish your body.”
Failing to notice the gap the woman left in the middle, Mariyu reflexively took the cup she offered.
“How did you end up all the way out here? It’s dangerous to wander around alone like that. Do you know what kind of world we’re living in these days!”
“Indeed, my. Look at this cold sweat!”
“I thought you were dead! I was so shocked, thinking someone had dumped a corpse here. Covered in blood as you were—”
The voices of the people drifted past her ears. She didn't even register the story of how she had been found abandoned on a pile of straw in a remote street.
Until,
*Clang!*
The cup slipped from her hand. Her mind snapped to attention as her final memory surfaced.
The path as she hurriedly fled the palace. The black liquid the assailant had poured into her mouth. And the deep darkness that had overtaken her...
“My baby—!”
She shrieked paroxysmally.
