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chapter 04
Through the hazy steam, a pair of golden eyes turned toward her. Fortunately—or unfortunately—he did not seem to recognize Elysia.
Ha.
Elysia felt all the strength drain from her body. If he hadn’t recognized her, then was he simply looking for someone to torment?
He had always been that kind of person. Anyone who displeased him was crushed, broken, and ultimately killed, without even needing a reason. This time, Elysia just happened to be the target.
“I asked what your name is.”
Kaiel frowned and asked again.
Elysia Rottner.
She couldn’t say that name. Because of the magic of the Name Erasure Sentence, she couldn’t even produce the sound of it aloud.
But she didn’t want to give him a fake name, either. At least, she didn’t want to do that in front of Kaiel. It was the last shred of pride she had left.
“Are you insane? Answer him already!”
When Elysia remained silent, Greta glared at her and whispered furiously.
“……I don’t know.”
“Is there truly a person in this world who doesn’t know her own name? Then at least tell me where you came from.”
“I don’t know that either.”
“H-her name is Lisea, Your Majesty!”
Even when Elysia refused to open her mouth, Greta began stamping her feet with a pale, terrified face.
“The person who should be answering is someone else.”
Kaiel stared coldly at Elysia and Greta.
“Your family?”
“…I don’t know.”
It was the third time she had given the same answer.
As the faces of everyone around them gradually turned deathly pale, Lisea kept her head lowered, staring only at the tips of Kaiel’s shoes through the strands of her red hair.
“You don’t know this either? Then I suppose I’ll have to execute the person who recklessly brought a woman into the Imperial Palace who knows neither her name, her birthplace, nor her parents.”
Kaiel gazed at Elysia from the corner of his eye and spoke coldly, the corners of his lips curling upward. The moment they heard those words, everyone except Elysia felt a chill run down their spines.
He was the man who had purged his own father and older brother and seized the throne for himself. In other words, he was more than capable of executing everyone here simply because someone had mistakenly brought a maid into the palace.
“Head maid, come here.”
As expected, Kaiel crooked a finger toward Greta, who was trembling violently off to one side.
The people surrounding Greta immediately stepped away. There was no one brave enough to stand in the way of Kaiel, the man who had climbed onto the imperial throne with the blood of his own family on his hands.
“I-I know nothing about this! I only brought her in because the chief head maid told me to! I don’t know anything about that woman. Please, have mercy on me, Your Majesty!”
Greta wailed like a wild animal and reached toward Kaiel’s feet. But Kaiel, who was staring at Elysia, didn’t even twitch an eyebrow.
“We’ll start with the head maid.”
At his signal, knights with swords surrounded the screaming Greta in an instant.
“Stop!”
The moment Elysia saw the knights draw their swords, she sprang to her feet, and finally, an answer fell from her lips.
“……I’ll tell you. So please, leave her alone.”
Kaiel raised one hand and stopped the knights. Apart from Greta’s occasional sobs, the room was so silent that even the smallest breath could be heard.
“What is it that you intend to tell me?”
Standing before Elysia, Kaiel asked in a voice as cold as frost in the dead of winter. It was enough to make an ordinary person wet themselves from fear, yet Elysia did not avert her eyes.
“Lisea.”
“What?”
When Kaiel asked again, Elysia moved her lips as though she wanted to say something, then finally answered as if releasing a breath she had been holding back.
“…Lisea Rotton. That’s my name.”
“Ha! As expected, what a worthless name.”
Kaiel snorted. He gestured with a disappointed expression, as though regretting that he had failed to execute someone, and the knights immediately moved away from Greta.
“Hic…”
With her face covered in tears and snot, Greta crawled over to the corner and curled up there. Just as everyone finally began to relax, thinking the situation was over—
“Why is Your Majesty so interested in the name of such an insignificant maid?”
At Elysia’s audacious remark, the air froze.
The maids who had only just breathed sighs of relief turned pale again. They looked at her as if to say:
How dare she question His Majesty in such a manner? Doesn’t she value her life?
Even Greta stopped sobbing and stared wide-eyed. Her expression clearly said that Elysia had finally cut her own lifeline with her own hands.
“You ask an interesting question.”
Kaiel raised an eyebrow ever so slightly, as though he hadn’t expected that response either. His chilly golden eyes slowly traveled over Elysia, as if he were observing some beast that had dared bare its teeth at him.
“Shouldn’t I at least know the name of the bug that ruined my mood?”
At the insulting words, Elysia’s fingertips trembled.
She had known what kind of man he was, but his character was every bit as vile as she remembered.
“Lisea. I’ll remember it.”
Kaiel gave a crooked grin before walking out of the laundry room.
The sword-bearing knights followed behind him, while maids supported Greta, who could barely stand. As they left, they cast sidelong glances at Elysia.
The laundry room, which had been filled with a frigid atmosphere only moments ago, was now enveloped in silence.
“Ah……”
Only after she was finally alone did Elysia’s legs give out, and she collapsed onto the stone floor.
Her vision grew hazy.
Just how far into the abyss do I have to fall?
Transparent tears fell one by one onto the back of her pale hand as she supported herself against the floor.
“……Eli…….”
She desperately tried to force her own name from her lips, but all that came out was an animal-like sound.
Elysia Rottner.
Elysia Rottner!
“……Lisea……!”
Yet the name she barely managed to squeeze out, as though wrenching it from her very entrails, was the fake name—Lisea.
No. I’m not Lisea!
Elysia screamed the name that still could not escape her lips inside her head and slammed her delicate fist against the stone floor.
“Ugh……”
Even as blood as red as her hair began to bead across her skin, Elysia paid no attention. She lifted her head and glared at the door through which Kaiel had disappeared.
There was one thing she had to do now.
She would give Kaiel a taste of hell.
She would make sure that bastard received a living death sentence, too.
“Hey, newbie!”
The first person to approach her was Head Maid Greta.
The face that had been deathly pale only moments ago was now twisted with irritation and anger.
“Do you know we almost all died because of you?”
Greta roughly shoved Elysia’s shoulder.
“I told you to stay out of sight and keep yourself tucked away in a corner, didn’t I?”
“I apologize.”
“Apologize?”
A maid standing nearby scoffed mockingly.
“I knew it the moment she came in looking like that. She looked like the type who’d cause trouble.”
“Didn’t you see His Majesty’s expression earlier? Didn’t you feel how the atmosphere suddenly turned cold?”
“I thought we’d all get dragged away and interrogated because of you.”
The maids gradually closed in.
They crowded around Elysia, herding her toward the cramped corner of the laundry room.
“If you’re a newbie, then act like one and don’t attract attention. In this palace, the moment you stand out, you die.”
Greta roughly threw a bundle of rags into Elysia’s arms. The wet cloth slapped against her face and arms.
“You’ll sort out all the laundry today.”
“And everything that’s been piling up until now, too.”
“And don’t take a break without permission. Understand?”
Irritated voices poured down like a sudden rain shower.
“……”
Elysia lowered her head without saying a word.
This much is nothing.
The Imperial Palace had always been like this. It was a place where the strong kept climbing higher, while the weak couldn’t survive.
Just like Kaiel had become emperor, while Alix and she had failed to survive.
“No. I won’t do it.”
Slowly, her fingers tightened around the crumpled cloth.
Then this time, it would be her turn to climb all the way up to his side.
“I have no intention of rotting away here.”
Her eyes hardened.
“Unlike all of you.”
