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Chapter: 9
Sieta, worried that her loud heartbeat might be heard by Rosiate, could not bring herself to calm her tense mind.
However…
There was nothing more she could do in this situation.
All she could do was…
Close her eyes tightly, cover her trembling mouth with both hands, and pray for this moment to pass.
So, with her eyes shut and holding her breath for what felt like an eternity…
Clack, clack…
The sound of Rosiate’s heels, which had been approaching Sieta endlessly, gradually passed by her side and began to fade away.
Eventually…
“…Hah, ugh.”
The sound disappeared entirely.
At least…
Since Sieta had been hiding in a dark corner where the light didn’t reach properly, it seemed Rosiate hadn’t noticed her.
Sieta forcibly steadied her legs, which were about to collapse from tension, and thought:
“Is it… over?”
However, Sieta didn’t have the courage to peek out and see what was happening, so she focused all her effort on calming her pounding heart.
Simply staying conscious was her best effort at that moment.
Forcing her body, which wanted to faint immediately, to rise, she began to pursue her true objective…
The poisonous herb.
“This is a place I’ll never come back to.”
Having almost been caught in a private meeting with Rosiate in this secret place, all Sieta could do was resolve to quickly find the herb and never return.
The herb existed not far from where Sieta was.
“That means…”
Whatever Rosiate had taken was surely…
Part of the poisonous herb.
She hadn’t seen Rosiate’s choice clearly, but he had certainly stopped somewhere nearby.
If Rosiate were to use the herb, it would surely be…
Either Sieta, who had become a thorn in his side, or someone close to her.
“No. Don’t think negatively. Anyway, I achieved my immediate goal.”
Sieta, barely regaining her composure, exhaled in relief as she successfully retrieved her original objective…
The poisonous herb.
Rubbing her throbbing head, she sighed.
“I don’t know what state of mind I was in to get this too.”
With her face slightly pale from the brief ordeal, Sieta looked at the herb she had stolen from Rosiate’s secret space.
It was classified as an illegal poison called Blue Nightmare, which did not grow in the Sikan Empire, only in the Romansia Kingdom, and was not legally imported to Sikan.
If the victim didn’t receive proper treatment in time, they would be trapped in eternal delusions—a powerful poison indeed.
At the same time…
It was also a herb that could give Rosiate at least one chance to reconsider Sieta’s choices.
Sieta knew this.
She was still young, small, and weak.
Executing her plan could mean she might never wake again. Even if she did, severe side effects or aftereffects could affect her whole life.
But in the previous meeting, Sieta had clearly opposed the war with the Romansia Kingdom.
Rosiate had not listened.
Now, there was only one extreme conclusion Sieta could reach.
Looking resolutely at the herb, she gritted her teeth.
“I will… survive, somehow.”
With this firm resolution, Sieta headed toward her palace.
Having safely escaped the secret place and walking cautiously back to her quarters, Sieta suddenly realized, one beat too late:
Before I went into the basement, did I… close the door?
The chilling realization made her expression harden on its own.
And that night…
Sieta ended up sleepless.
Even though Sieta had rummaged through Rosiate’s secret office, there was no reaction from him.
“Strange.”
Sieta found it truly strange.
Not only had she been caught secretly passing a message to her father, but now she had also sneaked into Rosiate’s secret space.
Yet… it was completely silent?
It felt like the calm before a storm.
“The Rosiate I know isn’t the kind to postpone punishment.”
The original Rosiate von Ariache was a rational and exceptional emperor. If he had remained emperor without the extreme event of the coup, he would have been considered a wise ruler.
Her merciless cruelty had created so many enemies that it eventually led to her death.
“There’s no way he’d remain silent knowing I entered his secret space.”
Thinking this was impossible, Sieta discreetly glanced at Rosiate and met his eyes at exactly the wrong—well, right—moment.
Noticing his golden eyes narrow slightly at their contact, Sieta quickly looked away and thought:
“Does he not know anything?”
Calming her thoughts, Sieta formed a hypothesis.
The emperor, Rosiate, knew only that there had been an intruder.
He had failed to identify the intruder.
“If that weren’t the case, there’s no way he’d ignore me, or even not mention it at all.”
In the original story, Rosiate’s secret space—filled with all manner of wicked things—helped confirm her misdeeds.
There was no way he’d leave a daughter who discovered that place unmentioned.
At that moment, recalling Rosiate’s icy gaze when she tried to contact her father, Sieta shut her eyes tightly and shook her head to force the memory away.
“What’s done cannot be undone.”
At the very least, her secret communication to her father had failed.
But some things could still be controlled.
Drawing on her knowledge from the original story, Sieta now held a card in her hands that could overturn the situation, from Rosiate’s basement.
Rosiate already considered her a thorn and was not one to be persuaded.
In that situation, Sieta had only one choice.
She would subtly poison Romansia Kingdom’s tea and drink it herself…
Falling into a near-death state.
Naturally, she stared at the cup in front of her and smiled innocently.
“If it hasn’t been swapped…”
Inside, there would certainly be a drop of extremely potent poison, capable of sending one to the brink of death.
She would drink it, smiling as if unaware, in front of the visiting Romansian envoy.
In doing so, she would give Rosiate, who hated Romansia, the perfect justification to act.
Her unconscious grip tightened on the cup.
The new nanny, noticing how white-knuckled the princess was, looked worried and asked:
“Would you like a different tea, Your Highness?”
Feigning innocence, Sieta smiled brightly.
“No! You know I love peaches, nanny~”
The tight grip on the cup was simply interpreted as a child fascinated by something she liked.
Sieta stared at the steaming, sweetly scented peach tea.
Even though she was just a child, she wanted to quickly learn proper etiquette and adapt to the taste of tea.
Among fruits, Sieta especially loved peaches.
As expected, this tea contained the poison stolen from Rosiate’s secret library.
Perhaps… drinking it would prevent her from ever waking again.
“But even if I survive, Rosiate will surely kill me, just like in the original story.”
With determination, she sipped the tea.
Gulp.
She swallowed it.
“1, 2…”
Not long after counting silently, she felt herself wobble.
“Your Highness, are you alright? At least you fell on the soft carpet.”
Everyone in the hall mistook her fall for a simple child’s mistake.
Smiling to help her up, they were startled the next moment when…
“Cough, cough.”
From her small, red lips came a cough… mixed with blood.
Panic erupted, and screams filled the hall.
