TLRP 13

Chapter 13

 Three Weights

Two days were enough to pack before leaving for the Western Palace. That was because Adeline barely had any belongings.

While Nabi and the maids packed, Ringo ran outside to select workers who would serve at the Western Palace. With Ordo’s intelligence network, picking out trustworthy people was no big deal.

“Kitchen staff: twelve. All workers have been chosen from outside. Their backgrounds were thoroughly checked—even dug up the gardener’s remarriage record! We may need more attendants to manage the palace, but since Your Highness said you don’t need them, we’ll skip that… but Princess.”

“What is it.”

“Those women. What will you do with them?”

Ringo, standing close to Adeline, pointed at the maids. Under Nabi’s watchful eyes, the maids had been carefully packing her dresses into boxes, but at his words their shoulders stiffened. It displeased Ringo greatly that Adeline still hadn’t decided which, if any, of them she would take along.

“Ah, Princess.”

He pressed her like a whining child. He had insisted time and again that they should dismiss every last one of these arrogant maids. If they did, he promised he could invite the most skilled maids in Sol-Marma through Ordo, ten or even a hundred, as many as Adeline wished. Yet she said nothing, not even when the last dress was packed into the box.

“Your Highness, everything is… finished.”

With a click, the final lock was fastened. The head maid stepped back and stood before Adeline. The other maids looked at her with awkward faces.

At that moment, having made up her mind, Adeline spoke.

“You’ve worked hard until now.”

“…Your Highness.”

“Go back to where you came from.”

An uneasy silence hung in the parlor. Ringo, sensing the atmosphere, smirked and whistled softly. Nabi, without a word, swung the parlor door wide open.

No words were needed—they all knew what that meant. The head maid, standing at the front, opened her mouth as if to say something, then shut it, then opened it again, then shut it once more. The other maids looked around helplessly.

Finally, after locking eyes with Adeline’s cold violet-blue gaze, the head maid lowered her head. Those eyes carried no emotion. Not even hatred or resentment—only perhaps a trace of annoyance. The head maid realized that they had been completely rejected.

It was only natural. She remembered all too well the words and attitudes they had shown from the very first day they met Adeline.

“We will withdraw.”

There was no need for goodbyes. Adeline didn’t even reply. Yet still, the head maid bowed deeply and politely.

“Wait!”

Had it not been for Collin—standing like a criminal in the corner—it would have ended there.

Collin was at the window. Her knees trembled, her fingers fidgeted, twisting together restlessly. She had bitten her lips so hard they were bruised.

“Princess, please… don’t leave us like this. Please?”

The words tumbled out nonsense, as if her thoughts were too tangled to form properly. Adeline simply watched silently.

“I swear. I’ll never again treat you with disrespect, Princess. I swear I’ll serve you well. Please, take me to the Western Palace.”

Collin looked on the verge of tears. Adeline had seen that face before—eyes brimming but tears refusing to fall.

The longer Adeline stayed silent, the more the other maids’ faces filled with the same anxiety as Collin’s. That unease turned into tension, sharp like a blade across the parlor.

“What will you do?” Nabi asked.

Adeline’s eyes swept over the maids huddled at the door. Then she spoke to Collin.

“I have no intention of bringing along a spy.”

Collin squeezed her reddened eyes shut. A tear slipped down.

“Every move I make will only end up in Cesare’s ears again.”

“Princess…”

“Go back, Collin.”

But Collin didn’t move. She bit her lip, stubbornly staring at the floor. Her hands scratched and clutched at her skirts until suddenly, with a thud, she dropped to her knees before Adeline.

“Princess.”

“Stand up.”

“Please hear me out.”

“Don’t kneel. You do that only when you have someone willing to take responsibility for your life.”

“I’ll never go to the Crown Prince again. I’ll be your maid only. I won’t speak a word of what happens in the Western Palace!”

From between her crumpled skirts, a dagger wrapped in white cloth slipped out. The maids gasped. The head maid looked alarmed, fearing Collin might do something reckless.

Collin grabbed the dagger.

“I’ll protect my own life.”

“Collin.”

“Let me stay by Your Highness’s side. The Western Palace is His Majesty the Emperor’s gift—no one dares challenge his authority there. If I never step outside and stay only inside, no one can harm me or control me.”

A clever one. Adeline’s lips twitched—she nearly smiled. But she kept her face expressionless.

“You swear loyalty to me?”

“I am Your Highness’s maid. Until death.”

Ringo inhaled deeply, delighted. What a fickle man—he had wanted to discard them all, yet now looked ready to dance. He whispered in Adeline’s ear:

“I’m in favor.”

Nabi, on the other hand, shook her head firmly, her recent softening toward Collin irrelevant here.

Adeline made her decision.

“Collin.”

“Yes, Princess.”

“No matter how trivial, if you speak of me to anyone—not Cesare, not anyone—I’ll throw you into a cell where you’ll never speak to another soul again.”

“Yes, yes!”

“I’m not saying I trust you. I’m saying I’ll watch.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, Princess.”

“The Western Palace is large. You’ll have plenty to do.”

Collin looked up, her face bright. A faint smile lingered at Adeline’s lips too—until this bold maid asked for more.

“Princess, please take my sisters too.”

“Collin!”

The head maid panicked, rushing to Collin’s side. She tried to stop her, but Collin, always one to speak her mind, went on.

“If they return now, they’ll be outcasts in the capital, wandering like ghosts. Please take them. Things are different now. They’ve changed. They’ll serve you wholeheartedly.”

“Impertinent. Do you want to be thrown out again?”

“I’ll stake my life on it. They’ll never again disrespect you.”

“Stake your life?”

Adeline strode to her with dagger in hand, pressing its cold edge against Collin’s cheek.

“If they dare act arrogantly toward me again, you’ll die, is that it?”

“Yes.”

“Why? What are they to you?”

“My family.”

“Collin.”

“In this vast capital, they’re the family I found.”

Collin ground her teeth, sounding like she was making a vow to herself. The other maids began to sob. The head maid hugged her, hiding her own tears.

The maid chief, loyal to the Empress, had deliberately chosen this troublesome group to torment Adeline. They weren’t of powerful families fit to stand by the Empress or Crown Prince, just unruly women who fit nowhere else. Armed with prejudice against the powerless princess, they assumed she could do nothing to them.

But in time, they realized the truth: the chief hadn’t meant to use them, only to discard them into Adeline’s palace.

Now Collin had stirred their hearts, offered her life to Adeline, and bound them to herself. They could never betray her.

Once a lonely castaway, Collin was now forming her own faction.

A clever one indeed. The foolish kitten had learned the laws of survival—lowering its stance, hiding its claws, waiting to strike.

Adeline sheathed the blade and returned to her seat. The tension dissolved, and Ringo exhaled the breath he’d been holding, hands clamped over his mouth.

(The chapter continues with Zacharian, the Lion King’s aide, investigating Adeline’s past, the truth of her life in Nova and her hatred of Cesare, the Lion King preparing to visit her at the Western Palace, and Richard—stripped of his post—meeting the suspicious Viscount Canis of Voltaine. Their flight from masked pursuers hints at a deeper conspiracy tied to Adeline…)