32 - The Crown I Will Take From You
Chapter 32
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Baldina Prison.
Cuisine died from whip lashes after the tendons in both his hands were severed.
Mariu received the same punishment, but she was still alive.
The sound of footsteps stepping on the damp floor was heard. Mariu struggled to open her eyes.
"Wh-who is it……?"
Medeia stood behind the bars.
"Long time no see, Mariu."
"Y-Your Highness, the Princess!"
Mariu was terrified.
Having witnessed from right beside how Cuisine died made her even more afraid.
In her mind, Medeia had already become a colossal, omnipotent axis of evil.
"Y-Your Highness. Please spare me. I'll do anything you say. Please, save Mariu."
But simultaneously, she was also a god. The only god who could save Mariu now.
"But I can't trust you anymore."
"I was wrong, never again, I won't betray you. Never again. I am Your Highness's servant."
Mariu, who had desperately crawled on her elbows to reach the bars, buried her face in Medeia's dress and pleaded.
"Desperate, aren't you."
Medeia said quietly.
"Is there anything a cornered person wouldn't say? Promises made before a cliff—once you escape that place, they're all forgotten."
"No!"
Mariu thrashed as if having a seizure. Why did I do it, why did I dare try to cross that wall?
"I am Your Highness's eternal servant. Your Highness, for old times' sake, please……."
Then, thud, a small bottle fell in front of Mariu.
"It's Root Pea, a juice made from a plant that causes quadriplegia. It's highly toxic, and if you don't take the antidote periodically, your whole body stiffens rigidly, blocking your windpipe until you die."
Medeia said softly.
"Who knows, there might come a day when you want to forget today's oath."
"Y-Your Highness……."
"Drink it. Then I'll spare you. I'll also treat your hands, and of course, give you the antidote."
Only then did Mariu realize.
Of course, the Princess wouldn't so easily spare my life.
The Princess who eliminated even the Head Maid with an innocent face as if she knew nothing—what's so surprising about handling poisonous plants?
"Can I trust you, Mariu?"
The Princess asked with a pale face.
"……."
Mariu pulled out the stopper with trembling hands. Her injured tendons made her hands keep slipping.
Tears and snot streamed down her face, caked with blood and grime.
Medeia watched the scene with cold eyes.
'Mariu is Samon's lover, isn't she.'
So she still has uses.
She is a pawn. The smallest, most insignificant piece in chess.
'But she's a good target to use as bait to tempt the opponent and then discard.'
Therefore, until she reaches the end of the enemy's side, just before transforming, she must remain a pawn.
Gulp. Mariu, having swallowed the poison, lifted her head.
"I, I am Your Highness's servant. So please……."
"Yes, Mariu. I'll trust you."
The Princess's smile, holding the final grip on her windpipe until the end, was beautiful.
"Don't disappoint me again."
Mariu, unable to even swallow her breath, kept shaking her head repeatedly.
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Around the time the fierce blue winds of reform that had blown through the royal family were subsiding, the Queen Dowager summoned Medeia.
"What jewelry would you like to wear?"
A Maid asked Medeia, who was wearing a pale blue dress.
"This is enough."
What Medeia chose was a simple string necklace with one small pearl dangling from it.
"But, isn't this too small? Your Highness, you are going to see the Queen Dowager. Let us adorn you beautifully."
Medeia shook her hand.
The more simply and shabbily she adorned herself, the more she could gain the Queen Dowager's sympathy.
Although the Queen Dowager could no longer bully her as before, she couldn't let her guard down for a single moment.
Medeia stood up.
Though her attire was modest, her posture was erect and her expression bold, making her appear rather virtuous.
"I shall accompany you."
Mrs. Pinatelli, who had been waiting until Medeia finished dressing, rose.
"Her Majesty the Queen Dowager feels sorry about the past incidents. Please understand, Your Highness."
On the way to the Grand Royal Dowager Palace, the Lady spoke suggestively.
"She is a lonely person. Still immersed in grief, she treated Your Highness harshly, but Princess Your Highness, in truth, the one who most cherishes and protects the bloodline of Baldina is Her Majesty the Dowager."
Medeia knew she was trying to warn her about the Regent Duke and his wife.
"I know. I've grown mature enough to distinguish sweet flattery from bitter medicine. So, I don't resent my grandmother."
Mrs. Pinatelli made a relieved expression.
Although she aimed for the Head Maid position to avenge her family, her heart for serving the Queen Dowager was also genuine.
So, she was inwardly worried that Medeia might hate the Queen Dowager.
"I am simply admiring Princess Your Highness's generous understanding. Now, please come with me quickly. Her Majesty the Dowager is waiting."
Upon entering the Grand Royal Dowager Palace, a cheerful, cackling laughter could be heard from afar.
"Grandmother, do you still think I'm a little child?"
"You little troublemaker."
"Birna just wants to receive Grandmother's affection, that's all."
It was Birna's voice.
After the Queen Dowager drew her sword, the Duke Claudio family left the palace as if being driven out.
Stigmatized with the shame of being marked as a collateral branch, they were at a loss.
But the clever Catherine soon discerned the Queen Dowager's intentions.
Instead, she took the lead by voluntarily relinquishing the privileges they had enjoyed, easing suspicions.
And almost every day, she brought Birna to visit the Queen Dowager.
At first, the Queen Dowager was angry, but as the granddaughter she had originally doted on visited daily, showing off her charms, her heart gradually softened.
The Claudio mother and daughter no longer stayed in the palace, but they often remained at the Grand Royal Dowager Palace until the palace gates closed.
"Medeia will be here soon, so tidy up."
"Ahaha! You can't leave me out! I want to be here too. I want to see my sister as well."
"Tsk, who would stop you?"
Birna's clear voice was distinctly audible even outside the door.
"I didn't know Lady Claudio was still here."
Mrs. Pinatelli gauged Medeia's reaction.
'Why do they insist on staying by Her Majesty the Queen Dowager's side at this very moment?'
As Mrs. Pinatelli, who wished for the relationship between the grandmother and granddaughter to improve quickly, the intentions of the Claudio mother and daughter were suspicious.
"I greet my grandmother."
Medeia pushed the door and entered.
Step by step. Still poised and without hesitation.
"Good."
The Queen Dowager fixed her gaze.
This time, the granddaughter's etiquette, which she had been too angry to notice last time, caught her eye.
Posture. Expression. Gait. Astonishingly, there wasn't a single flaw to be found.
The Queen Dowager, who had spent her entire life in the palace, had extremely picky eyes.
Even to her eyes, she simply couldn't find anything wrong with Medeia now.
"Sit."
The Queen Dowager personally offered her tea. Medeia calmly drank the tea.
Even in every moment of the tea ceremony, the Queen Dowager couldn't stop scrutinizing and evaluating her granddaughter piece by piece.
Yet, she couldn't find a single thing to criticize.
To the extent that her own eyes, which had frowned upon her as the daughter of a lowly dancer, felt regretful, Medeia was elegant.
Medeia lowered her eyes. She knew the Queen Dowager was observing her every move.
Yet, she was confident.
'I'm sickeningly familiar with this by now.'
In her past life, when she followed Iason to the Kazen Empire, countless people attacked her.
The rumor of the cursed half-blood princess had somehow spread to the Empire as well.
Medeia's awkward demeanor, devoid of any royal dignity, supported that rumor.
It was only after going to the Empire that she realized how foolish she had been.
She felt pathetic about herself, who had learned nothing under her uncle's protection.
Back then, she thought that was why Iason didn't summon her to the palace.
Because he couldn't present an Empress who was so lacking and deficient.
So she tried even harder.
To ensure no flaw could be found. She tore everything down and rebuilt it from the ground up. Bloody practice followed.
Medeia didn't want to embarrass her beloved husband.
National treasures, the Evil Dragon, the imperial throne. Even though everything Iason enjoyed was created by her, she always fretted like a debtor.
'It was all futile, wasn't it.'
In the end, Iason, who had sucked the life out of his wife, instead of repaying the favor, took her place and gave it to the Saint Rachel.
'If only I had held my children one more time during that time.'
What good was that cheap, foolish devotion dedicated to someone like Iason?
I could never give enough love to my own children, whom I wouldn't mind even if they were in my eye.
'Rian, Leia.'
More painful than the betrayal by her husband was the regret of being a foolish mother.
Her green eyes wavered for a moment. Then settled deeply.
The endured years were sorrowful, but it seems not all of it was useless after all.
Now that the opportunity has returned, the bloody sufferings of her past life have become Medeia's weapons.
"You have learned etiquette well."
The Queen Dowager coldly spat out a single remark.
Mrs. Pinatelli relaxed her tension. Given her master's disposition, that was considerable praise.
"When the etiquette teachers had even given up and run away, it feels like just yesterday. When did you learn to greet so splendidly, sister? Tell me the secret too."
Then, Birna pouted and cut in.
"Or were you pretending to be a tomboy all this time, hiding it? It can't improve overnight, it's really strange."
It was a silent rebuke, asking if she had deliberately driven away the etiquette teacher Catherine assigned, just to show off before the Queen Dowager.
Medeia responded calmly.
"The teacher Aunt sent was certainly excellent, but she wasn't suitable for me. She was specialized in noble etiquette, not royal etiquette."
Royal and noble etiquette should indeed be different.
However, Catherine, wanting Medeia to grow up foolish, assigned her a noble etiquette teacher and intentionally excluded her from royal education.
"That can't be. I also received education from her."
The Queen Dowager glanced sideways at Birna.
The attitude of the second granddaughter towards the eldest granddaughter was quite peculiar.
After the last incident, Birna's brightness didn't seem as lovely as before.
Perhaps that's why her habit of forcibly interrupting conversations, her sharp remarks, and her restlessly moving eyes were starting to become slightly irritating.
