Queen of Revenge - Chapter 76

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 76
Iolet returned immediately to her inner chamber.
Bara, who had just finished tying the final bundle of luggage, came bounding over.
[Preparations] [Complete] [!]
[Departure] [?]
“Yes. We’ll have lunch and leave right away. We absolutely must reach the Royal Palace before the messenger does.”
By carriage, the journey would take a fortnight. But I had to cover it in ten days no matter what. If I switched horses and cut back on sleep, it wouldn’t be impossible to make the ride.
Iolet glanced sideways at Lucian.
“Lucian, I need you to oversee the mining site. We’ve made a contract with the Demon Tribe not to cross into the gold mine, but we can’t be too careful. And make sure you receive any messenger birds coming from the Northern Fortress. If anything happens to the Command Tower or the fortress while I’m away, send a messenger immediately. Understood?”
Lucian didn’t answer. He simply tied the bundle of medicine with a cold expression.
“Kairon sent his adjutant. I’m bringing Sir Cedric as an escort, so don’t worry about my safety….”
Iolet trailed off.
When Lucian was angry, he fell silent. He’d been like this ever since last night, when Iolet had said, “If I end up going to the capital, I’m leaving you behind.”
“Will you really not say a word until I leave?”
Lucian threw the medicine bundle into the luggage.
He was still known to be recovering at the fortress.
News arriving through supply carts from the Canzail Trading Company contained reports that “House Perein has presented a tiara worth several thousand francs as a wedding gift for the Crown Princess and Duke Valer.”
With Perein trying so hard to regain the Crown Princess’s favor, I couldn’t very well take Lucian along and leave him in the lurch. And of course, I couldn’t leave the gold mine without a supervisor.
But this was the first time since taking Lucian as my escort that I’d been separated from him for so long.
Iolet declared to both him and herself, as if brainwashing them.
“I trust myself. You trust me too, don’t you?”
“…I fear your recklessness, Your Highness.”
Lucian replied in a subdued voice.
“Please, I beg you, take care of yourself. It is my lifelong wish.”
* * *
As it turned out, Iolet unceremoniously broke her promise to Lucian.
Seven months later, when I returned to the capital, Delpain, the scent of autumn hung thick in the air.
Agnes and Logan, the owners of the Canzail Trading Company, greeted Iolet with tears streaming down their faces.
“Your Highness, thank heavens, our dear princess! I’m so relieved you’ve returned safely…!”
“This wretch Bara, how on earth did you care for Her Highness to let her end up looking so bedraggled!”
Lucian’s prediction had been accurate. By recklessly pushing up the schedule, my condition had deteriorated considerably.
I slept while traveling, ate while traveling, and skipped bathing altogether.
‘But I didn’t collapse!’
Iolet was quite proud of herself for not once falling unconscious during the journey.
Though I’d suffered from high fever for the last two days or so, I never lost consciousness until the very end.
Of course, that was only Iolet’s assessment. Agnes gasped in alarm and dragged her toward the bathhouse.
“Good heavens, I last saw you when you were barely this tall, and now look at you! You look like you’ve been rolling around in a latrine! And why is your body burning up like this!”
“I took a fever reducer and sweated it out. I’m fine….”
“Hush and follow me!”
Agnes immediately undressed Iolet and scrubbed her down thoroughly.
“Thank you for helping me, Agnes. And thank you for enduring so much in the Capital on my behalf all this time. I really wanted to tell you this in person.”
“Everything the Canzail Trading Company does is for the Princess. I’ve already completed all the tasks you requested beforehand.”
“Right, the background investigation on Veronica Robert and Melissa Ponds? If you have the compiled documents, could you give them to me now?”
“Of course, but from what I can see, that’s not the urgent matter. You look like a beggar princess right now!”
Agnes wiped away her tears with the rolled-up sleeves of her dress.
“First, we need to polish you until you shine. I won’t let anyone dare to mock the Princess. I’ve been waiting for this moment for the past ten years.”
Agnes transformed Iolet into a different person in just two hours.
Iolet shed her ragged appearance of a pauper fresh from hardship and emerged as a princess in an elegant silk dress, her hair gracefully pinned up.
Bara held up a word card as if she’d been waiting for this moment.
[
The World’s Most Beautiful Woman
] [!]
Iolet let out a deep sigh.
“Please, just throw that away, Bara…”
I could tell who had written it.
* * *
Despite Agnes’s efforts, our party was stopped at the Castle Gate of the Royal Palace.
“My attendants cannot enter? Not a single one?”
“Attendants entering the Royal Palace must undergo a background investigation. The Butler of the Main Palace will personally verify them, so until then, attendants belonging to the Royal Palace will serve the Princess.”
Bara growled and bared her teeth.
I raised my hand to stop her.
“If that’s the rule, there’s nothing to be done. Send this child back since she’s still young, and have the other women sent to my quarters once their background investigations are complete.”
The Guard Knight eyed the figure behind me suspiciously.
“Who is that knight? Is she from the Border Guard?”
“Who? I sent a messenger to Mother, but it seems you haven’t received word yet?”
The Guard Knight frowned. But when another knight who had rushed from the Main Palace whispered something to him, his expression immediately changed.
“I-I apologize for the rudeness. Please, come inside. I will escort you to the East Tower.”
I passed through the Castle Gate while receiving the Guard Knight’s respectful salute. A butler who appeared shortly after guided me directly to the tower.
The East Tower, which I was returning to after so long, remained exactly as I had left it.
Still unmaintained, still cold and lifeless, with dust accumulated on the windowsills.
It wasn’t merely neglected—there were clear signs that objects had been deliberately broken and scattered.
‘Just as I expected.’
I surveyed the interior with an indifferent gaze.
The butler who managed this place was a familiar figure to me. For years now, he had been in charge of the East Tower—an unreliable and arrogant man. Naturally, he was one of Catherine’s tools.
I turned away from the cobweb-covered windowsill and faced the butler.
“Are you telling me to use this place?”
“It is the King’s command to escort you to your original quarters. Do you have any objections?”
The butler replied curtly.
It was a childish attempt at intimidation.
I took a step closer to the butler.
“Can you take responsibility for what you claim Mother ordered?”
“Responsibility? I’m not sure what you mean, Your Highness.”
“According to you, Mother ordered that Kalande’s Ambassador be lodged in a place like this?”
“Kalande’s Ambassador?”
The Butler, who had been speaking with barely concealed sarcasm, blinked rapidly.
Behind Iolet, Cedric Olonso, who had been scrutinizing various corners of the Tower with visible displeasure, spoke loudly as if to be heard.
“Hmph, our Commander would have a fit if he knew. So this is how Elovis treats its guests?”
When Cedric Olonso, who stood a full 1.5 times taller than the average Elovis native, fixed him with a piercing stare, the Butler took a step back.
Only then did the emblem of the Northern Fortress emblazoned on the knight’s cloak catch his eye.
“Sir Cedric Olonso—the Adjutant formally dispatched to the Command Tower by the Commander of Kalande’s Northern Fortress in his stead. I sent a messenger to inform Mother, didn’t I?”
“But… I received no such notification!”
The Butler’s eyes darted between Iolet and Cedric Olonso in bewilderment.
Iolet let out a soft, derisive laugh.
“Does something cease to exist simply because you haven’t heard of it? If I were you, I’d be rushing to the Main Palace right now to verify the facts.”
I had anticipated that the Royal Family would not welcome me.
This place was Catherine’s domain. Nothing she did not permit—not objects, not people, not even information—could cross these castle walls.
Yet that applied only to those under Elovis’s command.
That was why I had asked Kairon Winterbark to include his Adjutant, Cedric Olonso, in my entourage. The messenger bearing that news would have arrived around the same time as we did.
As the Butler hesitated, Iolet’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“You’re not going, then?”
Only when confronted with the Princess’s piercing gaze did the Butler realize how recklessly he had spoken.
His complexion drained of color as he recalled how Lisi Keis, the Maidservant who had shown such disrespect to the Princess, had been driven out half a year ago.
“P-please wait just a moment, Your Highness! I’ll confirm with the King at once—!”
“Too late. I’ll ask Mother directly myself.”
Iolet passed by him, her voice cold and cutting.
“Leave the luggage as it is. If you’ve presumed to speak out of turn based on your own judgment, know that you will face severe punishment.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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