Chapter 28
I personally pulled back the curtain draped beside the window just a crack to peer at the situation outside.
In front of the main gate of the Lilac Palace, I could see people kneeling on the ground, wailing at the top of their lungs.
They were familiar faces—the maids of the Rose Palace. Only Natalie, the head maid, was absent from the group.
“Your Majesty the Empress!”
“Please, at least tell us whether Her Imperial Highness Titania is alive or dead, Your Majesty!”
“How could humble wretches like us, who failed to protect our master, ever dare to wish for life? We only wish to know of Her Imperial Highness Titania’s well-being before we die…!”
My, they certainly have a flair for the dramatic….
If this were a historical drama, it would look exactly like ministers kneeling before a king, crying out in unison, ‘Have mercy, Your Maje-e-e-esty!’
Though they certainly worked at the Rose Palace, some of these maids were faces I’d only seen maybe three times at most, yet they had all tagged along in a row.
Every one of them was putting their dusty, stained, and wrinkled aprons and cuffs on proud display.
I don’t know where they found the ash, but with their blackened eyes and disheveled hair, their sobbing made them look like refugees fleeing a disaster site.
Well… they are fleeing a disaster called Imperial Consort Cleo, so the analogy isn’t entirely wrong.
Prince Adrian, who surely guessed both the mastermind and the motive behind this, gave a bitter smile. I simply shrugged my shoulders.
“This must be quite troublesome for Her Majesty the Empress.”
“…….”
“If she kicks them out after announcing that I’m so ill my life is in danger, she’ll be called cruel for mistreating subordinates who are worried about their master—even if they are young enough to be her children. But the moment she hastily reveals that ‘it is Titania’s wish not to receive you,’ it’ll become impossible to keep the palace doors locked and hold out.”
The fact that they were usually unfaithful servants who looked down on and ignored me didn’t help much here.
Regardless, my life had been on the line, and to question the faults of ‘loyal’ servants who came out of concern now would make me look excessively petty.
Ultimately, this was all a move by Imperial Consort Cleo. Whatever the case, their goal was to ‘poke and prod.’
No matter how we reacted, any result was a win for her.
At the very least, the Empress was responsible for me right now.
Right, had I forgotten that the Imperial Palace was this kind of place? I knew it better than anyone.
I retraced my thoughts with a fresh perspective. Adrian asked calmly.
“What would you like me to do?”
This was the price the Empress had to pay for allowing me to stay in the Empress’s Palace.
The price for silently allowing the Castline family to treat me ‘safely’—a blow to either her dignity or her honor as Empress.
Either way, it was a debt I had to repay. So, I had to find a solution somehow.
“Have you found all of Imperial Consort Cleo’s spies hiding in the Empress’s Palace?”
“Yes. At the very least, I’m making sure they can’t get anywhere near your room.”
“But you won’t be able to hide everything, including the Castline family members coming and going. They’re acting like this because they know there’s no one here with the ‘justification’ to stop them right now.”
The Castline family, having gained an ‘enactor of grace,’ had nothing to fear. They could just drag everyone away, shouting, ‘The patient needs rest! It’s too loud! Get out!’
They could even handle friction with the Imperial Family.
So, they were targeting the time when the Castlines weren’t around.
If the Empress’s Palace dragged them away on its own, people would whisper, ‘What are they doing with Princess Titania that they won’t even let those who served her see her?’
They couldn’t be touched directly.
They couldn’t be kicked out without a justification. But letting them into the palace was even more problematic….
“Let’s just say I’m still drifting in and out of consciousness.”
“Will they believe that?”
“Whether they believe it or not, what are they going to do? The High Priest will testify for me.”
Adrian looked at me as if thinking, ‘Could it be…?’ perhaps remembering the High Priest who would be collapsed from exhaustion in the next room.
Yes, indeed. The alpha and omega of this operation was none other than the High Priest.
He was a High Priest personally brought in by the Castline family. He wouldn’t yield to the influence of the Imperial Family, and he could certainly handle a side job of this scale.
“…….”
“If they are so worried about my well-being that they can’t eat or sleep….”
I smirked playfully.
I’ll give them a chance to live a life where their actions match their words.
I’ll make sure they learn exactly what it means for words to become reality!
Honestly, they would have been fine if they had just stayed quiet.
If they were going to swarm here and draw aggro just to save their own skins while someone else was at death’s door, they should be prepared to handle this much.
Of course.
Eat this!
Eat a lot of it! Eat until your stomachs burst!
“…I’m sure they’ll all voluntarily undergo the kind of penance only saints perform and pray for me, right? To prove that loyal heart of theirs, very devoutly. Even if it’s right next to the Empress’s Palace?”
“……!”
“Since the High Priest is here, let’s ask him to preside over a ‘Prayer Meeting for My Recovery’ next to the Empress’s Palace. People can come and go 24 hours a day so everyone can recognize their affection for their true master. Naturally, it must continue without rest until I, their master, regain consciousness, right?”
In Adrian’s eyes, I smiled like an angel.
Mary felt like she was going to die.
‘Wh-why did things turn out like this?’
Imperial Consort Cleo had said, she definitely said it was no big deal!
She said the Empress’s Palace would have nothing to gain by letting this commotion grow, so if we just sat there for two or three hours at most, it would be over.
She said we would likely be kicked out on the charge of daring to cause a disturbance in front of the Empress’s Palace.
The chance of being let inside to see Titania directly was low, but if that happened, we just had to cling on pathetically and say we were worried about Titania.
If we were kicked out, we could just cry sorrowfully and spread rumors while acting worried all over the Imperial Palace.
She said we had to build up that image so that we could survive even if the Emperor tried to punish the ‘incompetent subordinates who didn’t even know their master had met with an accident within the palace’ later on.
So, she said this would be good for us too.
And even if Titania woke up, she was a girl so starved for affection that she would be moved and forgive us if we showed how much we had cried and worried….
No matter how much she thought about it, the words weren’t wrong.
That’s why they had all swarmed together to find a way to survive and wailed in front of the main gate of the Empress’s Palace.
Titania-nim, Princess, are you safe? They made sure to be covered in tears and lamentations so that anyone who saw them would feel pity.
But then?
“Your sincere devotion is needed for Her Imperial Highness Titania.”
Why? On this sweltering summer day, covered from head to toe in thick, stiff cloth robes.
Starving all day long….
Why did she have to pray under the guidance of a priest?
“Ahem! You there, your eyelids are already closing!”
“……!”
Ascetic prayer? She had heard that deeply devout people with sick family members sometimes performed such things at the temple. But no, this was the majestic Imperial Palace! This wasn’t even a temple, so why on earth…!
“You clearly said your lives were not too high a price for the recovery of Her Imperial Highness Titania! Was your heart such a shallow thing that it crumbles before a mere physical penance!”
Roland, who was next to Mary, sat up straight while trembling, unable to offer any resistance.
If they looked like they were falling asleep, water was splashed on them, and if they couldn’t straighten their backs and slumped over, a thin cane would fly at the soles of their feet.
It was literally torture!
They said it had to continue until Princess Titania woke up, but who knew when she would wake up? How long were they supposed to keep this up!
It had already been two full days since she’d eaten anything other than a bit of water and salt. Her head was spinning.
Mary gritted her teeth and spoke in a strained voice.
She couldn’t take it anymore!
“Ex-excuse me, Priest….”
At first, the High Priest himself had given them instructions, and from the next day, a stern-looking priest who had supposedly just come from the temple supervised them.
He looked so stiff that not a drop of blood would come out even if you pricked him with a needle, but he was still a priest! If a person says they can’t do it, surely a priest….
“Actually, I, well…”
“No penance is as bad as death.”
The priest smiled benevolently.
“You are pleading your wishes to the gods for the life of your master, yet if you lose your will over something like this… that profane and shallow prayer might actually become a burden to Her Imperial Highness Titania.”
“…….”
Mary gulped, swallowing hard.
Only then did she feel a true sense of crisis.
Ah, yes. She should have never set foot in this business in the first place.
It might have been different if they hadn’t started, but now that they had already half-heartedly begun the prayer.
To end this prayer just because it was ‘hard’ would literally be an insult to the Princess whose life was hanging in the balance!
Unless she truly wanted to die!
‘N-no, there’s no way they’d actually… starve and keep this many people awake… until the Princess wakes up….’
However, just how long would they have to repeat this?
What if they repeated this indefinitely while feeding them just enough scraps of bread and water to keep them from dying…?
“Now, let us begin the prayer once more.”
The priest pronounced the sentence with a voice that was at least benevolent.
“For the recovery of Her Imperial Highness Titania.”
Mary sensed a true hell awaiting her.
And that she could never escape it on her own….
