The Poisonous Princess Who Successfully Infiltrated the Enemy as an Employee - Chapter 24
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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 24.
‘No, wait—what in the world is the First Princess doing here?!’
Eyes the color of blood, luminous as if to prove the royal bloodline, stared directly at me.
Platinum-pale hair, nearly silver in its pallor, and a gaze utterly emptied of emotion.
The First Princess who had sat motionless at yesterday’s luncheon, her lips sealed, her eyes vacant as a dead fish’s—she stood before me now.
I glanced back at the Garden path I’d walked in through.
The winding trail between towering ornamental trees—there was no way I could have wandered this deep by accident.
Even Selin, standing some distance away, had frozen with a hand clamped over her mouth in shock.
I’d fled Cain and come to another Garden, only to stumble into a princess instead?
‘Honestly, both the Crown Prince and the princess. Why do these people from the Imperial Palace leave their own gardens alone and come to wreak havoc in the Secondary Palace’s?’
Struck speechless by the absurdity, I forgot all protocol toward the royal house and simply nodded from my crouching position.
“Yes, it’s delicious.”
Then I plucked a fresh flower from between the stones on the ground and thrust it right under Eleonore’s nose.
“Would you like to taste it?”
“…….”
I felt Selin’s silent scream from behind me.
But Eleonore simply looked back and forth between me and the flower, then suddenly opened her mouth in a small “ah” and accepted the bloom without hesitation.
‘Wow!’
That was the moment I understood.
‘She’s insane.’
Just like me. Well, I’m normal, so excluding myself.
This woman standing before me was far more unmoored than all those widespread rumors of Delmar’s mad princess combined!
I watched Eleonore blankly grinding away on the flower stem.
She chewed through the entire yellow bloom and swallowed it, then let out a soft sound of displeasure, her brow furrowing.
“……It tastes bad.”
I shrugged at that.
“Taste is ultimately a matter of perspective, Your Highness.”
“…….”
“Still, I was certain you’d spit it out midway. Impressive that you managed to swallow it.”
This time Eleonore shrugged in return.
“It would be rude to spit out food offered in good faith.”
Ah……. I marveled inwardly.
‘Truly, she is not in her right mind…….’
I brushed the dirt from my hands with a few quick pats and stood up.
“But how did you come so deep into the Secondary Palace Garden without a single guard? Surely you didn’t come all this way just to see me.”
Eleonore also brushed out her wrinkled dress hem rather carelessly and rose.
“I did come to see you.”
“Pardon?”
“I was curious.”
“…….”
As she said this, Eleonore gazed at me intently. A brief silence fell.
‘Yes, First Princess Eleonore Castillo.’
I remembered.
In the original work, she had been an unlucky minor character, mentioned only in passing a time or two before disappearing from the narrative.
Her story resembled that of Evelina, Delmar’s true princess.
An insignificant supporting role; a sacrifice offered to a foreign land as an instrument of peace for her own country.
And the tragic death awaiting her at the end.
Just as with Princess Evelina, Eleonore too would board a ship bound for a foreign land to consummate a Strategic Marriage.
But that ship, for reasons unknown, would sink in the middle of the sea, and the chapter had noted that Eleonore met her end there, upon the waves.
‘The Grand Duke, the princess…….’
I felt anew how many people fated to die soon surrounded me.
What a sorrowful and cursed gathering of lives this was.
I broke the brief silence with a soft laugh.
“I don’t know what you were so curious about, but how was it? Did you satisfy your curiosity?”
Eleonore nodded at that.
“Yes, I’ve reached a conclusion.”
“A conclusion?”
Eleonore looked at me intently and spoke.
“Even if you act mad this desperately, in the end there’s no escaping being sold off to another country, is there?”
……
At her unexpected words, my eyes widened before I could stop them.
“What do you—”
“There’s no need to hide it from me. People in the same predicament have an instinct for recognizing one another. I was thinking of trying the same thing myself when I happened to see you, the princess.”
Eleonore remained composed throughout.
“You were eating flowers just now, so I thought you were genuinely mad and was fooled for a moment. But then……”
Eleonore smiled very faintly and continued.
“……No, I don’t think that’s it after all.”
The same predicament……
Looking at Eleonore’s calm face, I could grasp the meaning behind her words.
“There’s talk of a diplomatic marriage with another country, isn’t there?”
But Eleonore shook her head.
“Not yet. But you know how it is. What it means to be born a woman in the Imperial Household or a royal family.”
“……Yes, I do.”
Eleonore tilted her head slightly and slowly scanned the various flowers blooming on the ground.
“Still, don’t worry. I have no intention of telling anyone your secret. You seem to have drawn the ambiguous line between madness and sanity quite well.”
Eleonore’s crimson eyes regarded me with genuine curiosity.
“Honestly, I was really unsure. Whether you were mad or not.”
……
“It made me even more uncertain because I’ve never seen anyone speak so freely before His Majesty.”
Then Eleonore tilted her head slightly.
“Oh, but your act of eating flowers just now was convincing. I really thought you were mad.”
……
Ah, but that wasn’t an act.
Of course, there was no need to correct her.
Whatever conclusion Eleonore had reached internally, I had no intention of admitting, “Yes, actually I’ve been pretending to be mad to survive.”
On the contrary, if she misunderstood me as a princess acting mad to avoid being sold off, it was all the better for me.
I’d even confirmed that this lie was convincing enough to fool Barcan.
I lifted my chin slightly and spoke in an aloof tone.
“You seem to be misunderstanding something, but I really am not mad.”
At my brazen expression, Eleonore let out a soft laugh.
“Right. That’s exactly what I meant. The part where you draw that ambiguous line so well. When you say it with such a serious face, you look genuinely mad.”
“I’m telling you, it’s the truth.”
“Fine. Let’s just go with that. Mad princess.”
No, seriously, calling me a mad princess right to my face.
“That’s quite rude of you.”
“But we ate flowers together?”
“Well, I’ll grant you that.”
The moment our exchange ended, we looked at each other and paused briefly.
Then, without anyone going first, we burst into laughter.
“You have a better temperament than I expected.”
“I’ve never heard that before.”
“Of course not. Who would dare say to the imperial princess, ‘Your Highness, you have such a good disposition’?”
“A princess from an enemy nation?”
“Must not be in her right mind.”
Eleonore burst into laughter again.
‘So this is a person who knows how to laugh like this.’
Vitality bloomed across her once-lifeless face like watercolor spreading on paper.
Soon after Eleonore wiped away her laughter, she extended her hand to me.
“Since things have come to this, let’s just be friends.”
……
“I’m happy to have a friend to share deep conversations with before I’m sold off to a distant foreign land, and you’re happy to have a friend who can share your secrets in the heart of a foreign country.”
I widened my eyes and spoke.
“I’ve said it before, but I don’t have any secrets like that.”
When I continued to deny it, Eleonore shook her head as if admitting defeat.
“Fine, fine. Then let’s just say I chased you out here to the Garden in the middle of the night because I wanted to befriend an attractive but mad princess from an enemy nation.”
“Really. You keep saying I’m mad. I’m not mad, I tell you.”
……
Only then did Eleonore look at me as though I were truly mad.
I smiled crookedly.
‘A friend.’
A friend who had seen through my secret at a glance.
I asked myself whether I could trust this princess, and the answer that came back was: what choice do I have?
Eleonore had already convinced herself that I was not mad, and I, in turn, had expressed my madness through my entire being by insisting that I was not.
Even if Eleonore ran straight to Barcan or the Emperor and said, “The princess of Delmar is not mad!” there was nothing I could do to stop her.
Yet I didn’t think she would go that far.
Because there was nothing for Eleonore to gain by doing so.
I smiled and took the hand she offered.
“Friends—yes, I like that. When else would I ever have the chance to make friends with a princess?”
Eleonore laughed lightly at my ready agreement.
***
Two days later, at dawn.
The moment daylight broke, Barcan came to find me.
This was the first time he had come directly to my chambers, so I greeted him with a bewildered expression.
The sight of him sitting in my antechamber, taking tea, felt strangely out of place.
After Selin brought the tea and set it on the table before withdrawing, she looked at me and Barcan with eyes that sparkled with anticipation.
‘No, Selin. This is absolutely not the romantic scene you’re imagining.’
Selin’s eager gaze seemed to be squealing with delight.
Barcan set his teacup silently on the table and opened his mouth first, speaking flatly.
“The weather is fine today.”
“Ah, yes. Well, it is, isn’t it?”
Yesterday he was nowhere to be seen all day, and now he suddenly appears to make awkward small talk about the weather?
‘What is he trying to say?’
I watched him warily. He continued, asking:
“Do you have any particular engagements today?”
Engagements?
I paused to think.
Actually, today was the day Lumen was supposed to arrive at the herbalist shop in the Capital.
Since I couldn’t go to the shop because of the masked knight, I had no set plans at the moment.
“I don’t have any particular engagements. Though I would be willing to venture outside the Imperial Palace if you would withdraw the honor guard.”
“That is not possible.”
“Yes, I expected as much. So I plan to remain here in the Imperial Palace today as well.”
Just like yesterday!
At my complaint, Barcan fell silent for a moment.
“Then……”
“Yes.”
“There is Delochianu Lake, not far from the Imperial Palace. It is counted among the Capital’s most famous sights.”
“Ah, yes, I see.”
I answered listlessly, unsure what his point was.
Then came words I had not expected, slipping between his teeth.
“Would you go with me?”
“…… Yes?”
I blinked in surprise.
‘Is this… a date invitation?!’
No, but…… his expression was far too solemn, like someone issuing a challenge to a duel……?
I swallowed dryly and replied.
“Surely you’re not planning to… drown me in the lake?”
“…….”
In that moment, silence fell over the antechamber.
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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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Lyncdtxo
Lmao i love the way she asks him whether he will drown her in the lake 🙏🏻😭