The Poisonous Princess Who Successfully Infiltrated the Enemy as an Employee - Chapter 10

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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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Episode 10.

Barcan stood in the exact spot where the Princess had fallen moments before, his face drained of all color.
The cliff plunged so far below that the bottom vanished from sight—his voice cut through the chasm and echoed back to him, fractured and hollow.
Then.
“Oh? Grand Duke?”
From directly beneath the cliff edge rose a voice—so utterly serene it bordered on cheerful, ringing clear as a bell.
When Barcan leaned further over the precipice, his eyes met the Princess’s blue gaze exactly. She hung there, pressed flat against the rock face, staring upward.
“…….”
“…….”
A bitter northerly wind swept through the silence between them with a low whistle.
The Princess had not fallen.
Scarcely a hand’s breadth below the cliff’s edge, she clung to a jagged outcrop of stone with one hand, her grip steady and sure, suspended in that precarious hold.
With her free hand, she plucked at some nameless plant roots growing in a crevice of the rock face, and asked lightly:
“What brings you to this place, Grand Duke?”
A short breath escaped Barcan’s lips. This should have been a moment of relief—instead, something twisted in his chest.
Perhaps it was because the Princess’s disappearing form below the cliff stirred a childhood memory he’d long wished to forget, overlaying the present moment.
Barcan’s jaw clenched hard.
It had been like this of late. Into his life, which had drifted peacefully without any particular emotional upheaval, came this Princess—and now, several times a day, something within him twisted and writhed.
Even when the Emperor had first thrust an enemy kingdom’s princess upon him, it hadn’t been like this.
Yet today alone, that Princess had startled him countless times and made him angry just as often.
Barcan’s jaw tightened. With barely restrained patience, he extended his hand down toward the Princess.
“Take my hand first.”

***

What is happening right now?
What is the Grand Duke doing here of all places?!
“Take my hand first.”
“…….”
His large hand stretched toward me. Despite the words, Barcan’s voice carried an edge—as though something were being held down by force. His jaw was rigid, and his eyes were shot through with obvious irritation.
For some reason, the Grand Duke appeared to be furious.
‘Did he notice I’ve been plucking toxic plants?’
I studied his outstretched hand with a wary gaze.
If I took that hand and put my weight in his care, what if he let go?
I glanced down at the abyss below, where the wind howled in a long whistle.
Certainly…….
‘A convenient place to dispose of a troublesome problem.’
Besides, I found it far easier to climb the cliff myself than to let someone else haul me up by my own dead weight.
After turning these thoughts over, I did not take his hand.
Silence stretched between us. Barcan’s jaw locked tight before he opened his mouth again.
“Princess, this is dangerous. You should come up at once—.”
Tch, he’s getting angry again.
I quickly tucked the plant roots I’d torn from the crevice into a pocket within my cloak, hiding them away.
Then, using the cracks in the cliff face as handholds and footholds, I ascended with practiced grace.
“Hah!”
With a sharp cry, I vaulted over the cliff’s edge, my body light as it cleared the top, and brushed the dust and soil from my cloak.
Barcan withdrew his extended arm and stood facing me.
“Are you determined to die?!”
At the crushing weight in Barcan’s voice, my eyes widened in surprise.
‘Why in the world is he so angry?’
I looked at him with a confused expression and asked:
“Die? Who? Me?”
I gave a small shrug.
“Hardly. I’m quite intent on living as long as I possibly can, clawing and fighting for every breath……?”
“Then why did you leap from a cliff?!”
Barcan demanded, his tone dark and menacing.
‘Ah—could he have misunderstood? Does he think I jumped intending to end my life?’
I felt rather awkward about it. I had simply caught sight of some unknown plant species blooming on the cliff face and gotten so excited that I’d climbed down a little way—that was all.
Yes, I hadn’t jumped off the cliff; I’d descended carefully, stepping on the rocks one handspan at a time.
Feeling a bit wronged, I looked up at Barcan and lifted my chin defiantly.
“No, I didn’t jump—I just went down for a moment. And I didn’t die, did I? As you can see, I came back up perfectly fine.”
I spread both arms wide to emphasize how perfectly fine I was.
Yet Barcan’s anger showed no signs of subsiding. He regarded me with an expression of utter exasperation, grinding out his words between clenched teeth.
“It seems Delmar teaches even its royal family the Cliff Climbing Technique.”
At that, I let out a short laugh and replied.
“Well, yes. It’s just a modest hobby of mine, you might say!”
“A hobby? Digging in the ground and scaling cliffs?”
At Barcan’s incredulous expression, I laughed and stepped closer to him.
“Yes. A hobby.”
……
“Everyone has hobbies, don’t they? Just as you, Your Highness the Grand Duke, were so devoted to your hobby of Demon Beast Subjugation that you saw fit to leave the enemy kingdom’s princess unattended in your estate.”
At my pointed provocation, Barcan’s eyes narrowed further.
A brief silence fell between us.
With a low exhale, Barcan swept back his hair and steadied his breath.
He closed his eyes for a moment as if to compose himself, then opened them again.
Then, bending his massive frame toward me, he spoke in a low voice.
“Princess.”
“W-why……?”
A shadow cast by his overwhelming physical presence fell over me like it meant to swallow me whole.
Barcan rumbled like a prowling beast as he spoke.
“Do not test my patience. It matters not to me whether you hurl yourself from a cliff or dive into water—but I will not abide having you discovered as a corpse on my lands.”
“……No, I wasn’t trying to die in the first place—!”
I had just opened my mouth to protest when it happened.
Whoooosh—!
A low, heavy wind sound rose from deep within the mountain range. At the same moment, the snow began falling harder, then swirled and flew in sharp diagonal sheets.
‘What—what is this?!’
Startled by the sudden change in weather, I looked around frantically.
The snow, growing fiercer by the second, began to pour down like a curtain, blocking out my vision.
I hunched my shoulders and looked at Barcan.
“Wh-what’s with this sudden blizzard?! It was clear just a moment ago?!”
Barcan, as if accustomed to the driving snow, scanned the surroundings and spoke matter-of-factly.
“……God’s Veil.”
“God’s Veil?”
“The reason there are so few Demon Beasts in the Fedrika Mountain Range.”
Barcan added that the Fedrika Mountain Range is periodically beset by deadly blizzards, and that phenomenon is called God’s Veil.
“What?!”
As I opened my eyes wide as if hearing this for the first time, Barcan tilted his head and spoke flatly.
“That is why I told you it was dangerous.”
“Oh, no! I thought you just meant I should be careful about freezing to death from the cold! That’s why I dressed warmly!”
I had thought Demon Beasts would scarcely appear, and that even if they did, the knights who had ridden ahead would handle them well enough.
In a pinch, I could always climb down the cliff and hide.
“But I never heard anything about these blizzards! I thought it would be safe if I just watched out for the cold…….”
“There is no safe place in the northern mountain ranges.”
“No, that’s not what I meant…….”
I pressed my forehead and let out a sigh. Then I lifted my head and gazed toward the front, now obscured by the falling snow.
“S-so what about the knights who rode ahead? Th-they’re safe, aren’t they?”
As I looked up at Barcan with worried eyes, he turned his head away. Then, alternating his gaze between ground and sky, he surveyed the surroundings.
“The knights of House of Grand Duke are accustomed to the Fedrika Mountain Range’s capricious environment. They are well trained, and there are contingency measures arranged throughout these peaks.”
“That’s a relief, but still……. But I’m not one of them!”
I spoke with a thoroughly miserable expression.
“You said you wouldn’t let me die within the Grand Duchy! You said I wouldn’t be found as a corpse!”
In this wild blizzard, where I can’t see more than a hand’s breadth ahead! What good are contingency measures if we can’t even move forward?!
‘Oh, what cursed luck!’
Here I was, about to die on another mountain! What kind of fate was this, so violent and cruel? I whimpered, fighting back tears.
Then Barcan took a step closer to me. With eyes as dark as the abyss itself, he looked down at me and slowly opened his mouth.
“……That is precisely why I am here.”

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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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