The Poisonous Princess Who Successfully Infiltrated the Enemy as an Employee - Chapter 16

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

Chapter 16.

***

The door opened, and the expression on Barcan’s face as he turned to look at me from the anteroom sofa was utterly magnificent.
His dark eyes blazed with barely concealed longing—to collar this Princess who defied all restraint and lock her away immediately. The hunger was written plain across his features.
I, by contrast, pulled my eyes shut in a smile and greeted him with cheerful brightness.
“Here comes that troublesome Princess, Your Grace!”
“…….”
My greeting seemed unexpected; Barcan’s brow twitched ever so slightly.
I strode deeper into his anteroom.
“If you haven’t even dressed yet, what will we do? It’s already past the luncheon hour. Surely you don’t intend to keep His Imperial Majesty waiting? If you do, the atmosphere throughout the entire meal will be absolutely dreadful!”
He continued to regard me askew. That gaze held a chill, but I wasn’t the sort to lose my nerve over something like that.
I smiled even more brightly as I walked to the sofa and sat across from him.
“Isn’t that look a bit much for someone who’s come to invite you to eat together?”
Meanwhile, I offered a light nod to Roan, who had been standing beside the sofa, in place of a spoken greeting.
Roan glanced between the two of us, then quietly slipped out of the bedroom.
The moment the bedroom door closed, Barcan opened his mouth slowly.
“Are we on such terms?”
At his frigid gaze and cool voice, I nodded as though I’d expected the question.
‘It’s strange how my startled heart, after meeting the Crown Prince, actually settles down at this reaction from the Grand Duke.’
After my encounter with Cain, the impulse to see Barcan had seized me, and I’d rushed straight to his bedroom.
His temperament left much to be desired, but in this Imperial Palace, Barcan was the only one I could trust as an ally. My instincts seemed to acknowledge this, quietly and without fanfare.
His pointed hostility—the way he made his dislike of me plain—was grating, but what could I do?
Just as the Guild held my life in their hands, Barcan held my lifeline in his own way, and so I had no choice but to endure.
That was what I’d thought as I came here after meeting Cain.
‘Why would Floria choose the Crown Prince over the Grand Duke, who is even more handsome?’
Of course, I didn’t mean that Cain was lacking.
It was simply an objective observation that Barcan surpassed Cain in looks, build, and the aura he exuded.
‘Ah, is that it?’
In any case.
It meant that Floria’s reasons for loving and choosing Cain were far more than mere appearance.
It also meant that Cain possessed some other charm that I had failed to perceive—something that drew Floria to him.
‘Or could it be that it’s the Grand Duke’s difficult temperament after all?’
Even with that flawless, extraordinary beauty, he couldn’t overcome the disadvantage of his personality!
And there Barcan was, giving up his house and throwing away his life for a woman who would love another man, completely unaware of his own blindness?
I tilted my head slightly as I watched Barcan shoot me a fierce glance.
‘He doesn’t look like the type to be blinded by love and commit such folly…….’
So I decided to change the direction of my thoughts.
If it was truly fate that Cain and Floria would be together anyway.
‘Then the Grand Duke wouldn’t need to throw away his life for Floria, would he?’
What if I actually seduced the Grand Duke instead?
The word “seduce” sounded rather grand, but I didn’t mean that I would steal Barcan from Floria and keep him for myself.
Could I not save his life simply by preventing him from loving Floria?
‘If the Grand Duke lives long, I live long too.’
Everyone wins. Sister thrives, brother-in-law thrives. I get what I want, and so does he. A true win-win.
Who knows?
Even if Barcan didn’t love me, if he could become a friend or at least an ally.
‘When my identity is exposed, he might spare my life.’
With that grand design forming in my mind, I smiled toward Barcan.
“You’re right. In truth, who comes to fetch whom—what does that really matter?”
I gazed at Barcan with deep intensity.
“What matters is that I’ve decided to grow very fond of you, Your Grace.”
At that, Barcan’s eyes crumpled sharply.
Like someone who’d been caught off-guard by filth hurled from nowhere.
Watching that expression of revulsion, something hot suddenly surged up inside me.
‘Even if I’m unlikeable, that’s too much of a reaction, isn’t it?’
I swallowed the complaint that threatened to spill out and forced my smile to hold.
‘Stay calm.’
I couldn’t afford to lose my temper here and lash out at him the way I usually did.
To detoxify the Helbaine, I needed access to the Grand Duke’s Library, and to freely roam outside the residence gathering medicinal herbs—for that, I needed Barcan’s goodwill.
He sat with one long leg crossed over the other, arms folded at ease, studying me with a cold gaze.
“Princess.”
Barcan’s irritation was plain—as though he begrudged every moment spent listening to my nonsense—as he furrowed his brow and continued.
“My patience is not as generous as you seem to expect. State your business before I drag it out of you myself.”
Despite the threat, I held my smile steady.
“On the contrary, Your Highness. Your patience is exemplary. You’ve kept me alive all this time instead of simply ordering my death. Even under the Emperor’s command, you could have disposed of someone like me easily enough—claimed an accident, arranged a clean cover-up. The only inconvenience would have been the aftermath.”
At that, Barcan let out a short sigh.
“If that’s all you have to say, you’re dismissed.”
I met his eyes with a more genuine expression then.
“I told you—starting today, I intend to like you very much.”
But Barcan was unmoved. Skeptical of my brazen confession, he narrowed his eyes.
“Then why.”
“Because we’re going to be husband and wife!”
……
I shaped my expression into something pitiful, deliberately lowering my gaze at a forty-five-degree angle.
“Of course, I understand that you dislike me greatly.”
Barcan tilted his head slightly.
“Isn’t that equally true of you?”
I widened my eyes in feigned confusion.
“What? Me? That’s absolutely not true!”
……
“How could I possibly dislike the Grand Duke, who has silently accepted a mad foreign princess—useless, uncontrollable, nothing but a nuisance? You’ve treated me as a princess, kept me alive this whole time. That alone is a debt I could never repay in a lifetime!”
At my words, he let his eyes narrow with amusement before letting out a slight laugh.
“Princess.”
He regarded me as he spoke.
“If you’re flattering me out of fear this marriage might fall through, there’s no need.”
“I beg your pardon?”
He looked at me with cold, emotionless eyes.
“I will go through with this marriage whether you’re blind, mute, or missing limbs.”
……
“Your circumstances and condition mean nothing to me. So long as you draw breath. In a union like ours, what does emotion matter?”
He was saying I didn’t need to like him, didn’t need to make any such effort.
The words were cutting, even harsh—but for a false princess like me, they landed without much weight.
I smiled as though it made no difference to me.
“Flattery? I wasn’t really flattering you at all. But even if I were, what’s wrong with that? It’s simply one form of drawing closer.”
I had become a flatterer without warning, but I didn’t shy from his stare, meeting his gaze directly as I went on.
“And think about it—since we’re marrying regardless, living with someone you hate is exhausting. You’ll think it pointless now, but one day you’ll remember and think, ‘Ah, I was right to listen to that mad princess.’ There’s no emotion that eats away at a person quite like hatred and loathing.”
All the more so between spouses, I added.
I finished and waited for his response. Barcan studied me for a moment before suddenly asking.
“Have you stopped pretending to be mad?”
……
His abrupt question caught me off guard, and I flinched slightly.
What does he mean?
Does he already know I’ve been feigning madness, or is he testing me?
I hesitated briefly on how to answer, then straightened my spine and looked him directly in the eye.
“I think you’ve misunderstood something.”
“Misunderstood?”
I spoke with conviction.
“Yes! I swear by heaven itself—I have never pretended to be mad, not once!”
……
A brief echo reverberated through the bedroom, then faded.
It was the truth.
From the day I entered the Grand Duke’s Residence, I had not feigned madness for a single moment.
“I’ve always acted as I am. There are things my station shouldn’t do, shouldn’t be—and if crossing that line, stepping beyond what’s permitted, is what defines a ‘mad person,’ then yes, I suppose I am mad.”
……
One of Barcan’s eyebrows lifted minutely.
Riding the momentum, I let a bitter smile cross my face as I continued.
“Your Highness may not believe it, but this position—being a Princess. ……I’ve never wanted it. Not once. If I could, I’d throw it all away this very moment and disappear to somewhere no one knows my name.”
This was not merely the word of Princess Evelina, but also a confession from Evelina the herbalist.
Of course, Barcan could not have known that.
I looked up at him with a thoroughly satisfied expression and offered a thin smile.
“Do you know? I’m speaking only the truth right now.”
…….
Barcan stared into my eyes in silence for a long moment.
It was the gaze of a predator, hunting for a fragment of truth amid the countless sophisms I had uttered.
Just as the silence began to stretch uncomfortably long.
Barcan spoke, tossing the words out carelessly.
“Leave. I’ll change and go out with you.”
“Ah…….”
I looked at him, a touch of surprise crossing my face.
‘What? I thought he’d chase me out, tell me to stop talking nonsense…….’
I had come prepared to be thrown out, yet Barcan surprisingly agreed without hesitation to accompany me to the dining hall.
As I blinked at him, he rose from the sofa and began undoing the buttons of his shirt with deliberate fingers, looking down at me.
“What’s this? Planning to watch me change? Ah, because we’re to become spouses?”
Startled out of my wits, I lurched to my feet and bolted toward the door.
“No, no! I’m leaving! I’m going!”
Bang—!
I burst from the bedroom in a fluster, pressed my back against the closed door, and steadied my breathing before I spun around sharply to glare at it.
‘That wretch!’

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