The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 32

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 32

* * *

Valdina Prison.

Quizin died after having the tendons in both hands severed and being whipped.

Mariyu had received the same punishment, but she was still alive.

The sound of footsteps on the damp floor could be heard. Mariyu struggled to open her eyes.

“Wh, who…?”

Behind the bars stood Medeia.

“It’s been a while, Mariyu.”

“Yo, Your Highness the Princess!”

Mariyu was seized with terror.

Having witnessed firsthand how Quizin died right beside her made her even more afraid.

In her mind, Medeia had already become a massive, omnipotent axis of evil.

“Yo, Your Highness. Please spare me. I’ll do whatever you command. Please, save Mariyu.”

But at the same time, she was also a god. The only god who could save Mariyu now.

“But I can no longer trust you.”

“I was wrong, I won’t betray you again. Never again. I am Your Highness’s servant.”

Crawling desperately on her elbows to reach the bars, Mariyu buried her face in Medeia’s dress and pleaded.

“How desperate you are.”

Medeia spoke quietly.

“What wouldn’t someone cornered do? It’s a promise made at the edge of a cliff – once they escape that place, it’s all forgotten.”

“No!”

Mariyu shook her head frantically. Why did I do that, why did I dare try to cross that wall?

“I am Your Highness’s eternal servant. Your Highness, for old times’ sake, please…”

Then, thud, a small bottle fell in front of Mariyu.

“It’s called grass pea, a juice made from a plant that causes paralysis of the limbs. It’s so toxic that if you don’t regularly take the antidote, your whole body will stiffen and block your airways, killing you.”

Medeia spoke gently.

“There might come a day when you want to forget today’s oath.”

“Yo, Your Highness…”

“Drink it. Then I’ll spare you. I’ll treat your hands too, and of course give you the antidote.”

Only then did Mariyu realize.

Yes, the Princess wouldn’t spare me so easily.

A Princess who eliminated even the Maid Supervisor with such an innocent face – what would handling poison herbs matter to her?

“Can I trust you, Mariyu?”

The Princess asked with a clear face.

“…”

Mariyu pulled out the cork with trembling hands. Her injured tendons made her hands keep slipping.

Tears and snot streamed down her face caked with blood and grime.

Medeia watched the scene with cold eyes.

‘Mariyu is Samon’s lover.’

So she still has her uses.

She is a pawn. The smallest and most insignificant piece in chess.

‘But she’s perfect to use as bait to lure the opponent and then discard.’

So until she reaches the end of enemy territory and is about to transform, she must remain a pawn.

Gulp. Mariyu, having swallowed the poison, raised her head.

“I, I am Your Highness’s servant. So please…”

“Yes, Mariyu. I’ll trust you.”

The Princess’s smile, holding her breath until the very end, was beautiful.

“Don’t disappoint me again.”

Mariyu couldn’t even swallow and kept nodding frantically.

* * *

When the fierce winds of reform that had blown through the royal palace had subsided, the Queen Mother summoned Medeia.

“What accessories would you like to wear?”

A maid asked Medeia, who was dressed in a light blue dress.

“This will do.”

What Medeia chose was a simple string necklace with a small pearl pendant.

“But isn’t this too modest? Your Highness, you’re going to see the Queen Mother – let us dress you beautifully.”

Medeia waved her hand.

The more simply and humbly she dressed, the more she could earn the Queen Mother’s sympathy.

Now the Queen Mother couldn’t mistreat her as before, but she couldn’t let her guard down for even a moment.

Medeia stood up.

Though her attire was simple, her upright posture and bold expression made her look dignified instead.

“I shall escort you.”

Lady Pinatelli, who had been waiting while Medeia finished dressing, stood up.

“The Queen Mother feels sorry about what happened before. Please understand, Your Highness.”

On the way to the Queen Mother’s Palace, the lady spoke subtly.

“She is a lonely person. She’s still grieving and treats Your Highness coldly, but Princess, in truth, the one who cherishes and tries to protect Valdina’s bloodline the most is Her Majesty the Queen Mother.”

Medeia knew she was trying to warn her about the Regent and his wife.

“I know. I’ve grown wise enough to distinguish between sweet flattery and bitter medicine. So I don’t resent grandmother.”

Lady Pinatelli looked relieved.

Though she had coveted the position of Maid Supervisor to restore her family’s honor, her concern for the Queen Mother was also genuine.

So she had secretly worried about what would happen if Medeia hated the Queen Mother.

“I can only admire Your Highness the Princess’s generous understanding. Now, please come in with me quickly. Her Majesty is waiting.”

Upon entering the Queen Mother’s Palace, cheerful laughter could be heard from afar.

“Does grandmother still think I’m a little child?”

“Such a troublemaker.”

“Virna just wants to receive grandmother’s affection.”

It was Virna’s voice.

After the Queen Mother drew her sword, the House of Claudio left the palace as if being driven out.

Branded with the stigma of being a branch family, they didn’t know what to do with their shame.

But clever Catherine soon understood the Queen Mother’s intentions.

Rather, she took the initiative to give up the privileges they had enjoyed, softening her wariness.

And day after day, she brought Virna to visit the Queen Mother.

Though the Queen Mother was angry at first, as her beloved granddaughter visited daily and charmed her, her heart gradually softened.

Claudio and his daughter no longer stayed in the palace, but they would remain in the Queen Mother’s Palace until the palace gates closed.

“Medeia will be here soon, so tidy up.”

“Ahaha! You can’t leave me out! I want to stay too. I want to see sister too.”

“Oh my, who could stop you?”

Virna’s clear voice could be heard distinctly even outside the door.

“I didn’t know Princess Claudia was still here.”

Lady Pinatelli glanced at Medeia’s expression.

‘Why won’t she leave the Queen Mother’s side at this particular time?’

As Lady Pinatelli hoped for the relationship between the two grandmothers and granddaughters to improve quickly, she found Claudio and his daughter’s intentions suspicious.

“I greet grandmother.”

Medeia pushed open the door and entered.

Step by step. Still disciplined and without hesitation.

“Yes.”

The Queen Mother fixed her gaze.

Her granddaughter’s etiquette, which she hadn’t noticed last time due to her anger, caught her eye.

Her posture. Expression. Gait. Surprisingly, there was nothing to find fault with.

The Queen Mother, who had spent her entire life in the palace, had extremely discerning eyes.

Even with such keen eyes, she could find absolutely nothing wrong with Medeia right now.

“Sit down.”

The Queen Mother personally served her tea. Medeia calmly drank the tea.

Even during each moment of the tea ceremony, the Queen Mother couldn’t stop scrutinizing and evaluating her granddaughter.

Yet there was nothing to criticize.

Medeia was so elegant that it made her own prejudiced eyes, which had dismissed her as the daughter of a lowly dancer, feel regrettable.

Medeia lowered her eyes. She knew the Queen Mother was observing her every action.

Even so, she was confident.

‘I’m sickeningly familiar with this kind of thing now.’

In her past life, when she followed Jason to the Kazen Empire, countless people had attacked her.

The rumors of her being a cursed half-princess had somehow already spread to the Empire.

Medeia’s clumsy behavior, which showed no trace of royal dignity, supported those rumors.

It was only when she went to the Empire that she realized how foolish she had been.

She felt pathetic for having learned nothing under her uncle’s protection.

Back then, she thought that was why Jason wouldn’t bring her to the palace.

He couldn’t present such an inadequate and lacking empress to the world.

So she worked even harder.

To avoid any flaws being found. She reformed everything from beginning to end. Blood-like practice followed.

Medeia didn’t want to embarrass her beloved husband.

The national treasure, the evil dragon, the imperial throne – even though she had created everything Jason enjoyed, she always lived anxiously like a debtor.

‘It was all pointless.’

Jason, who had sucked his wife dry, far from repaying her kindness, stole her position and gave it to the saint Rachel.

‘If only I had spent that time hugging my children one more time instead.’

What was that cheap devotion I wasted on someone like Jason worth?

I should have given more love to my children, who were so precious I wouldn’t have minded putting them in my eyes.

‘Lian, Lea.’

The regret of a foolish mother hurt more than the betrayal she suffered from her husband.

Her green eyes wavered for a moment, then sank deeply.

Though the years she had endured were sorrowful, it seemed they weren’t all useless after all.

Now that another chance had come, the agonizing pain of her past life had become Medeia’s weapon.

“You’ve learned etiquette well.”

The Queen Mother coldly uttered a single comment.

Lady Pinatelli relaxed. Given her master’s temperament, that was considerable praise.

“It feels like just yesterday when even the etiquette teachers gave up and ran away, so when did sister learn such wonderful manners? Tell me the secret too.”

Just then, Virna interjected with pursed lips.

“Or were you deliberately pretending to be a tomboy all this time? There’s no way you could improve this much overnight, it’s really strange.”

It was an unspoken accusation asking if she had deliberately driven away the etiquette teacher Catherine had assigned and was putting on a show for the Queen Mother.

Medeia responded calmly.

“The teacher Aunt sent was certainly excellent, but not suitable for me. She specialized in noble etiquette, not royal etiquette.”

Royal and noble etiquette should indeed be different.

However, Catherine wanted Medeia to grow up stupid, so she assigned her a noble etiquette teacher and intentionally excluded her from royal education.

“That can’t be right. I also received education from that person.”

The Queen Mother glanced over at Virna.

The second granddaughter’s attitude toward the eldest granddaughter was quite strange.

Since the last incident, Virna’s brightness no longer seemed as endearing as before.

Perhaps that was why her reckless interruptions in conversation, her sharp words, and her restlessly moving eyes were beginning to grate on her nerves little by little.

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