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chapter 20
Don’t Make the Princess Angry
Spring had begun. It was an unwelcome kind of spring. The weather was still cold, but the emperor had announced a springtime banquet.
Adeline did not think the emperor was unaware of the nobles gathering at the Duke of Nord Hill’s villa. He probably had their list in his hands.
It was a planned banquet, after all. The banquet was a political tool for the emperor. From the grand hall, watching the nobles dance, he would observe who made eye contact with whom, who spoke to whom, who was wary of whom, and which groups mingled together.
Adeline entrusted everything—her dress, her hair, even makeup and jewelry—to her maids. The skills of the head maid, Colin, and the other maids were far better than she had imagined. Moreover, they were enthusiastic. As soon as the banquet schedule was announced, they had rushed to the Artisan Street and spent half a day consulting with designers.
While waiting for the dress to arrive, the maids practiced endlessly, unable to ask Adeline for permission to touch her hair. They used Colin’s hair as a stand-in.
They tried curling it with heated tongs, braiding it thinly and twisting it up, sprinkling it with glitter, and adding elaborate ornaments. Colin sat in the chair, looking as if she might faint each time Adeline’s expensive jewelry was placed on her head.
Adeline had seen the maids several times holding up her portrait and discussing seriously which dress and accessories would match.
One day, the head maid returned, beaten.
At first, neither Adeline nor Naby knew what had happened. The head maid had locked herself in her room, claiming she was unwell, and hadn’t shown her face. But when Adeline noticed the other maids’ tear-streaked, anxious faces, she realized something had gone terribly wrong and gave orders.
“Colin, call all the maids.”
“Princess, she’s very ill…”
“Should I go myself?”
Colin could not refuse Adeline’s command. Hesitant, she ran to the head maid’s room. Soon after, the head maid appeared, bowing her head low.
Naby dropped the tea leaves she was holding.
“You…”
Adeline stood up abruptly and approached the head maid. The woman, whom she called her “beak,” had clearly been severely beaten by someone—not just slapped or having her hair pulled, but whipped. Her injuries were numerous.
Adeline stepped closer to the retreating head maid and rolled up her sleeve.
“Your Highness!”
“Who did this?”
“Your Highness, it’s nothing.”
What was she saying? Adeline asked coldly, her face hardened.
“Nothing? These wounds are nothing? This is nothing to you? You think so?”
“Your Highness…”
“Who did it?”
The maids couldn’t meet her gaze and lowered their heads. Adeline was angrier than ever. Colin, terrified, pressed her lips tightly to hold back tears.
“Colin.”
“Yes, Princess.”
“Who?”
Adeline asked Colin.
“You promised to answer me honestly, remember?”
“Yes… yes…”
“Who?”
The head maid looked up nervously at Adeline. Colin, moving her lips, eventually squeezed her eyes shut and said:
“The head maid of the Eastern Palace.”
“Colin!”
The head maid grabbed Colin’s wrist, but Colin, choking back tears, continued.
“She summoned the maid and insulted her, saying she had become the princess’s dog. She said the West Palace had been sullied by lowly people like us. My senior stood up to her. We are now the maids of the West Palace and would never disgrace the princess again, so the head maid shouldn’t insult her. But in the midst of shouting and fighting…”
“Colin, stop!”
The head maid tried to stop Colin urgently. But Adeline’s movements were faster. Before the maids could intervene, she stormed out of the sitting room.
“Your Highness! Wait, Your Highness!”
The head maid ran after her. She hurried down the corridor to catch up with Adeline, pleading:
“It’s fine. Really. This is all because I was insolent toward the head maid. I don’t want to cause trouble for you, Your Highness. Please.”
“Who says you’re harming me?”
Adeline asked. The head maid had no answer.
“How many times were you struck? The whip marks suggest there was someone else, right? The head maid is too old to wield the whip. In the Queen Dowager’s palace, there’s someone who would strike twenty times if told to strike ten. Was it him?”
Adeline didn’t miss how the head maid’s eyes shook uncontrollably.
“Naby.”
“Yes.”
Naby had quietly followed behind Adeline.
“Prepare a carriage. We’re going to the Eastern Palace.”
At the Queen Dowager’s Eastern Palace, Adeline Vita appeared. She stepped down from the carriage, wearing a deep green dress, followed by Naby, expressionless and short-haired. The Queen Dowager’s maids were startled.
“What brings the princess here?”
“How rude. Do I have to explain myself to you?”
The maids exchanged glances and tried to block Adeline:
“Coming without an appointment is disrespectful. Her Highness the Queen Dowager—”
“Shut up.”
Of course, words meant nothing to Adeline, who had deliberately come.
“Who said I came to see the Queen Dowager?”
“Eh?”
“Bring the head maid. I won’t set foot inside the Eastern Palace, so you can’t insult me with your rude words.”
“Why the head maid?”
“Say one more word and I’ll bring you instead.”
Tension and silence fell over the Eastern Palace. Adeline held a whip tightly in one hand, resting the other on her hip, scanning the palace with a challenging gaze.
The head maid appeared almost immediately.
“This is the palace of Her Excellency the Queen Dowager.”
She looked the same, only her hair had turned gray, and wrinkles had deepened. Her eyes glared downward from her lifted chin, full of contempt for Adeline.
“What is it that the princess wants?”
Adeline snorted and stepped closer.
“You’re no different from the lowly people you serve. Then again, who taught these insolent ones?”
“Princess!”
“Shut up!”
Adeline’s voice cut through the once-peaceful garden like a whip.
“If you do not answer me properly from now on, I will drag you to the West Palace’s underground dungeon.”
“What on earth—”
“Answer me. Who am I?”
The head maid’s gaze darted around. The frightened maids slowly backed away.
Adeline released the whip.
“I asked you who I am.”
“Princess Adeline… Vita, Your Highness.”
“Whose daughter am I?”
“…The Emperor’s, Your Majesty.”
“And you?”
The head maid couldn’t answer. She gritted her wrinkled lips and stared defiantly at Adeline, but when the whip lashed her skirt, she staggered in shock.
“Who’s daughter are you? Surely, someone higher than the Emperor. Otherwise, you’ll pay tenfold for your rudeness to my maid.”
“She was insolent because the maid talked back!”
“Who’s really insolent? The maid who speaks back to the Queen Dowager’s head maid, or you, who dare disrespect the Emperor’s daughter?”
The old head maid trembled.
“How dare you glare at me? Foolish. Nothing has changed. Do you still see me as the nine-year-old hiding in the palace corners and crying? You’re still as vile as back then, so others must be too. Some old people become wise and broad-minded with age; you’ve gone the opposite way. All in the Eastern Palace you serve are pitiful.”
“Princess!”
“Do not raise your voice. That’s for the vulgar and disrespectful. Remember? You did that every time I cried and screamed.”
Adeline was amused.
“Tell me. You never expected I’d return, did you?”
She had planned to show this wicked old woman a lesson someday, but not like this. It was fine to be childish and petty. People enjoy returning the same treatment they suffered. Everyone does. Even those who preach forgiveness act the same when it’s personal.
But she would not return it as-is—she would return it double, tenfold. That felt satisfying.
“I once pondered this. At thirteen or fourteen, who is worse: the one ordering a terrified child to be beaten until collapse, or the one actually beating?”
Adeline twisted the whip handle and looked at the head maid and her nephew supporting her.
“Not a particularly important question, it seems.”
He sensed danger and avoided meeting Adeline’s eyes.
“You worked hard hitting her without leaving scars, so the Emperor wouldn’t notice, right?”
She smiled while speaking.
“But too bad—I don’t know that method.”
The Queen Dowager did not appear.
When the desperate head maid lunged with her nails, a West Palace guard who had accompanied the princess pushed her down. She fell and could not rise, apparently injured in her waist.
Adeline ordered the guard to imprison the head maid and her nephew. The Queen Dowager’s head maid had dared attack the princess, and her nephew whipped the West Palace’s head maid. The guards could not ignore it.
This matter would be reported to the palace officials responsible for incidents. Even though the head maid was a noble, she dared to strike Princess Adeline, so the punishment would be severe.
Still, the Queen Dowager did not appear. Even after Adeline returned to the West Palace, she did not send anyone to criticize or punish her actions. Adeline wanted to know why.
“This is strange.”
“What is?”
Recently, Ringo had come with a large plate, claiming he had learned a salmon salad from other chefs.
“It tastes bad.”
“Why!”
“I don’t know. It’s edible but not delicious.”
“Oh, why! I made it the same way!”
“The problem must be your hands.”
“Ugh… I was confident this time. But Princess, what’s strange?”
Ringo sat on the floor, eating with his fingers. Watching silently, Adeline spoke suddenly.
“In Monier’s will, there was something like this.”
“Uh… what?”
“Grandma even placed courtesans in royal beds.”
“Ugh!”
Ringo spat out the salad and stared at the filthy food, placing the plate down.
Adeline continued muttering to herself.
“Which royal was it—the current Emperor or the Queen Dowager? Who received courtesans from Mother Blanc?”
Marmaen and Tamiren’s dirty hands had touched everywhere. As she eliminated the remaining members and exposed the truth, she realized how many sins they had committed in this country.
When the Duke of Nord Hill attacked Tamiren without permission, the Emperor issued an unusually swift order. The Queen Dowager was equally suspicious. After Adeline’s guards and the Lion King suppressed the assassins hired by Tamiren, the head maid was taken away, yet she remained silent.
“Emperor or Queen Dowager?” Adeline muttered. Ringo answered.
“Whoever held Mother Blanc’s secrets would be in big trouble if revealed.”
He smiled thinly, his eyes narrow as usual, but his smile was genuine this time.
Adeline, deep in thought, spoke to Ringo:
“Track Tamiren’s legacy—gold, people, records… anything.”
“Understood.”
“Anything that could be a clue.”
“Understood, Princess.”
Excited, Ringo picked up the plate and left the sitting room.
Ordo Executive Meeting Room
A large round table sat in the center of a spacious room. Five of six chairs were occupied by executives.
Ringo stood in the center of the table. Counting the attendees, he spoke lightly:
“The princess has begun approaching the essence.”
“You can’t call it essence yet. She only obtained a clue.”
A middle-aged female executive tapped the table with her pen. She was cautious and suspicious, looking around for agreement.
“Killing Blanc Tamiren through someone else was a mistake. It should have been done personally. Who knows what secrets that old woman held?”
“I can’t agree. The Duke of Nord Hill made Mother Blanc die. I thought it was a risky gamble, but it succeeded. Genius, right?”
Ringo still sided with the princess.
“Everyone knows Master Ringo is scoring high for the princess.”
A younger male executive smiled. Ringo shrugged, and the man asked a flamboyantly dressed woman beside him:
“What do you think? Is it time we fully cooperate with Princess Adeline Vita?”
The woman answered:
“Not yet.”
“See? I said it wouldn’t work.”
The young man said, and Ringo looked at everyone, slightly sulking.
“You’re being unfair. I didn’t say we should become the princess’s subordinates. How long will you balance this precariously? Things could fail.”
“The princess wants the dynasty to fall, but it’s personal revenge, so there’s hesitation. Such matters require purpose.”
This time, an old man with a crooked beard spoke.
“Still, I agree with the master. Ordo doesn’t enjoy adventures, but sometimes risk is necessary. The princess has proven valuable, so let the tests end here.”
“You get braver with age…” the young man teased.
“I also agree,” a middle-aged man said.
“Good! Two votes!”
Ringo raised both hands. The middle-aged female executive, opposed from the start, didn’t try to persuade anyone. Two opposed, two agreed.
Ringo asked the young man, who had been teasing:
“Agree or oppose?”
“Hmmm. Can’t we just give more information? Full cooperation is too much…”
“Young and timid,” the old man teased. Now it was three against, two for. Ringo slumped.
“The princess knows we are testing her. That’s why she isn’t angry. If we keep this up, one day, when we must truly trust each other, she might abandon us.”
“My mind has changed.”
Then, the flamboyantly dressed woman snapped her fan shut.
“I agree. I will fully cooperate, but the first information provided to the princess will be this.”
Her fan bore a peculiar design, by Mirabeau, a painter whose work had adorned noblewomen’s luxury items for years.
