"There's nothing I can't do."
"You're crazy."
"Although the Princess is still young, she is not at an age where marriage is impossible. Since she is young, we will be able to shake her easily."
"We?"
The head maid smiled.
"It might depend on the minister's intention. Duke Claudio is not a great man worthy of sharing my power. I didn't think you would be with him forever. Was I hasty?"
The bait has been thrown.
Now all she had to do was wait for a bite.
A quiet time passed.
The head maid waited patiently.
The corners of the Count's mouth, which had been tightly shut, slowly rose.
"No. It was very appropriate."
As she said, if he becomes a national secretary, he can develop a power comparable to that of the Prince Regent. The justification and status should be sufficient.
"Sir, you won't regret today."
The toad took the bait.
Only time would tell whether what was swallowed was food or poison.
***
A night when all the lights in the Queen's Palace were turned off.
Marieu left the palace secretly again.
However, this time her attitude towards the other person was surprisingly arrogant and cold.
"What happens? What on earth is that note?"
After running away from the Princess, Marieu found a note stuck in her door.
It was a note from Madame Cuisine requesting a meeting with her.
"What's going on?"
The head maid, Madame Cuisine, smiled brightly.
"I called you because I heard you've been treated like a dog these days. There must be a lot you want to talk about, right?"
"Ha, when is the right time to knock? And, should I compare it to you, who was abandoned by the Prince Regent?"
Marieu shot back bitterly.
How did that girl do that...?
The head maid replied coldly, biting the invisible inside of her cheek.
"Well, aren't we in the same situation as each other? I heard that the Princess has been ignoring you, so these days you are working hard cleaning with the lower-ranking m aids?"
"..."
"I heard your spot has already been taken by Neril. Admit it, the Princess abandoned you."
Marieu pursed her lips and glared fiercely at the head maid.
"If you don't find a way to survive, you will be kicked out of the palace. There isn't much left."
Marieu clenched her fists and looked angry, but she could not refute the words of the head maid.
Because it was all true.
"What do you want?"
As if she knew this would happen, the head maid's eyes appeared relaxed.
She produced a light blue handkerchief from her arms.
In the end, Marieu saw letters embroidered red with gold thread.
"l... Etienne... Wait, Larque Etienne? It is from the Ministry of Palace Affairs?"
When the head maid smiled Instead of answering, an annoyed Marieu snapped.
"Why are you giving this to me?"
"Why? Secretly put this in the princess's bedroom. Preferably in a secret place where people can't see it. For example, between underwear."
Marieu flinched. In a conservative aristocratic society, there is no way that she, the Princess's maid, would not know what it means for a woman to keep a man's belongings in a secret boudoir.
"What are you trying to do now?"
Marieu asked thoughtfully.
"If you guessed it, why are you asking?"
"You're crazy. Her Royal Highness and the Minister? Are you serious? It's s crazy. Nonsense."
First of all, the age difference between the two, who are about the same age as father and daughter, is disgusting.
Although Medea is said to be the royal family's bastard, she is still the King's sister.
He was old and ugly, and he was different from the Minister of the Palace of Internal Affairs who spread dirty rumors.
There were even rumors that the minister was a cruel sodomite. If word got out that the two were lovers, no one would propose to the disreputed Princess.
'Then Count Etienne has a state record. He becomes Medea's husband? Nonsense.'
Marieu always had an inferiority complex to Medea, but this time she shook her head without realizing it.
And without blinking, she looked at the head maid who had planned this evil plan with astonished eyes.
"We have to make it make sense."
"Oh my God, isn't the sky scary?"
The head maid sneered at Marieu's answer.
"You will soon be like me. Shouldn't you find your own way before the Princess abandons you? If this goes well, I will help you register."
Register? Marieu paused at the unexpected word.
"You know? How I was transformed into a nobleman."
The head maid crossed her arms and leaned against the pillar.
"My husband's nephew still has no heirs. If you stay as their adopted daughter for a few years, you will become a noble lady."
"Nobility..."
In an instant, the voice from that night came to mind.
"As a minor Duke, I must have a good reason to take you, a commoner, as my wife."
'As long as my identity is washed, I can stand proudly by his side.'
Gulp. Marieu's neck vibrated slowly.
"What do you think? I can't give you much time to decide. You know better how great the opportunity I was talking about was."
"..."
Marieu made no reply as if she was lost in thought. The head maid frowned at her.
"If you don't have any ideas, forget my suggestion. I can't wait too leisurely here either."
"For a moment."
When the head maid tried to take the minister's handkerchief back. Marieu hurriedly grabbed the end and stopped it.
Madame Cuisine secretly raised the corner of her mouth.
"I think you've decided."
The maid left and Marieu looked down at the handkerchief.
'Samon, I have to keep it a secret from Samon.'
The scandal between the young Princess and the aging minister is too shameful.
Samon would never agree, as it also involves the honor of Valdina and the royal family.
He probably doesn't want her to join hands with the head maid whom he already abandoned.
Identity laundering was a desperate bait only for her.
Marieubsmiled bitterly.
Marieu loved Samon, but she knew he was an indifferent man.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have left her in the shadows for this long.
'It's all because of the Princess. I don't need to be here anymore unless I'm a noblewoman. I can go be with him.'
The refracted anger splashed somewhere far away.
Etienne and the Princess.
The cold Princess's eyes were looking at her.
The initial shock she felt when she found out about the maid's plan disappeared and was replaced by anger.
Even if she became the wife of that disgusting and ugly old toad, would the Princess still look at her, the Duchess of Claudio, that way?
'Medea, you shouldn't have treated me so disrespectfully.'
The eyes that looked down at the golden embroidery twinkled strangely. After some hesitation, she stretched out her hand for the handkerchief.
"You were the one who pushed me away first."
Marieu muttered, crumpling the thin cloth-like paper.
"So don't blame me."
***
A few days later. Dawn breaks in the distance.
"It was as you said."
Said Neril, who left the palace with Medea to meet Marquis Gylippus. She had a very frowning expression on her face.
"A few days ago, Marieu secretly left the palace and contacted the head maid."
Medea listened to her words, bathed in the bright yellow sunlight of the sky. The weather was sunny.
"I felt uncomfortable so I didn't take my eyes off her. I thought she was wandering around the Princess's palace for a while."
Neril held her breath at this point. It was to suppress anger and gain reason.
She took out a light blue handkerchief from her arms.
"Marieu snuck into Your Highness's bedroom and hid it in a treasure chest."
Medea's steps stopped.
"The initials Etienne are engraved on it. Isn't this the Minister of the Palace's Ministry of Home Affairs?"
"Haha."
A laugh of pure admiration leaked from Medea's mouth.
"The head maid must have been quite crazy to think of entangling me and Etienne."
"The evil things dare to leave Your Highness behind and call that filthy bastard..."
The back of Neril's hand twitched. As if she wanted to swing a sword right now.
"I am confident in concealment and disposal of corpses. Two, maybe three, bodies can be disposed of without leaving a trace. If you would just give me permission..."
Medea smiled.
"Three, including the minister? Then, Neril, you won't be safe either."
"I don't mind as long as I can get these evil monsters away from your side,"
Medea suppressed her laughter, not knowing whether to scold or praise her great-looking maid.
"It's not time yet."
"..."
Looking at Neril's dissatisfied face, she added as if telling her not to worry.
"I don't let those who come after me live."
They will die here.
Just when and where she wants.
"So, what about the handkerchief?"
Medea held out her hand.
"Here, I will take it and burn it. Not even a trace is left behind."
No.
A small white hand stopped Neril from taking the handkerchief again.
"Neryl, you said earlier that you are confident in hiding it."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Has the Princess changed her mind even now?
Medea smiled with satisfaction and took out a shiny item.
Neril, who could not give up hope, answered obediently.
"This. Isn't this the trumpet bracelet that Marieu was wearing at the time?"
It was the bracelet that Samon had given as a gift.
"Your Highness, this is the bracelet that Marieu dropped. I guess it's strange."
Marieu wasn't the only one who discovered the bracelet from Medea.
Moreover, her unfaithful attitude made her colleagues in the Princess's palace angry.
"She says it's a keepsake from her mother, but it looks too expensive for that. She brags so much about it that I think she stole it. Isn't it yours? Please ask the Duchess and Lady Birna if their bracelets have ever been stolen."
"Okay, I'll look into it further, but don't tell Marieu that you've found the bracelet yet."
"Of course! After three days of searching, she was exhausted and passed out."
That's how Medea obtained the bracelet containing Samon's 'love'.
She wrapped Marieu's bracelet preciously in the minister's handkerchief.
Then he handed the bulging wad of handkerchiefs to Neril.
"Later, put this in Marieu's luggage."
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