The Poisonous Princess Who Successfully Infiltrated the Enemy as an Employee - Chapter 25

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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 25

One of Barcan’s eyebrows twitched at my words.
A man who’d shown me no interest whatsoever had suddenly appeared asking me out on a date.
‘I may laugh around carelessly, but I’m not so oblivious as all that!’
I had no idea what he was scheming.
Since the Ducal House had said they wouldn’t remove my corpse, perhaps he meant to push me into the Capital’s lake while he had the chance.
Of course, he probably wouldn’t actually do it, but in any case, Barcan’s proposal didn’t sit well with me.
I blinked rapidly, keeping my voice as natural as I could manage.
“Actually, now that I think about it, I have plans today. I promised to have Tea Time with the First Princess.”
“……The First Princess?”
Barcan looked at me with a flash of surprise. I nodded quickly.
“Yes! Princess Eleonore.”
Barcan tilted his head slightly. “When did you two become close?”
“Two days ago.”
“Two days ago……? I thought we were together all that day.”
“We saw each other briefly that evening after I returned.”
“You mean to say you became close in such a brief moment?”
“Why not? We happened to get along rather well.”
I shrugged nonchalantly.
I decided to keep quiet about how we’d also broken flowers off the ground and eaten them together.
Barcan fell silent for a moment, lost in thought.
Good. He’d back off now.
Whatever he’d been scheming, he must have realized I wasn’t the type to follow along meekly.
Yet Barcan, after his deliberation, simply nodded once.
“Very well.”
“What do you mean.”
“I’ll join you.”
“……What?”
“That Tea Time. I’ll attend as well.”
I gasped, my voice rising sharply. “No, wait! Why would a man intrude on that?! It’s meant to be an intimate gathering where women sip tea and chat! It’s hardly the sort of occasion that would interest the Duke!”
At my vehement protest, Barcan leaned back against the sofa, his drawl lazy and measured.
“Why not?”
He tilted his chin slightly upward. His expression remained as blank as ever, yet somehow he looked even more infuriating today.
“Who’s to say our conversation won’t flow as naturally as you seem to expect.”

I stood there in silence, watching as he echoed my own words back to me word for word, a look of satisfaction crossing his face.
“Just as the princess insisted on going out with me two days ago……today I shall insist on attending with you.”
I let out an involuntary laugh at the sheer absurdity.
And so I found myself forced to go through with an unplanned Tea Time with the First Princess.
Whether that was fortunate or otherwise, I couldn’t say.
Eleonore accepted my sudden invitation readily enough.
Though whether she truly welcomed it, I had no way of knowing.
She was a woman whose heart remained inscrutable—much like Barcan himself.

***

The Separate Palace Garden had its own exotic beauty, but this place was clearly a cut above—incomparable in refinement.

At the garden’s center, a fountain scattered sunlight into glittering shards of water.
The scene was warm and breathtakingly lovely—and yet, above the marble tea table, a chill hung in the air as sharp as midwinter.
The only sound breaking the silence was the delicate clink of teacups settling onto their saucers.
Amidst that suffocating quiet, it was Eleonore who first broke the spell.
She brought her teacup to her lips and laughed softly, as though she found the entire situation terribly amusing.

“I never thought I’d live to see the day I’d take Tea Time with the Duke of the Northern Region face to face.”
As she spoke, Eleonore’s crimson eyes turned toward me.
“Thanks to my newly made friend, I’m having quite the memorable experience.”
“Ah-haha, ha-ha…….”
I laughed awkwardly and sipped my tea. At the same time, I shot a sidelong glance at Barcan, the very architect of this uncomfortable situation.
When he’d insisted on joining the Tea Time, I should have known—but now that Barcan sat across from us, he radiated the same cool, ominous aura as always, unfiltered.
“I didn’t realize Your Highness was the sort to take interest in outsiders.”
Barcan’s tone held no warmth even when addressing royalty.
To be fair, it would have been strange to understand how a former enemy—the Crown Princess and myself—had grown close.
Yet Eleonore, every bit the madwoman I’d come to recognize, merely shrugged her shoulders with composure in the face of Barcan’s sharp edge.
“People change with their circumstances, after all. Why don’t you make an effort to change too, Duke? You’re getting married soon, aren’t you? Don’t spend your days locked away in the North, facing only beasts.”
Barcan was hardly the type to accept provocation lying down.
“Perhaps. The North seems preferable to being confined within the Imperial Palace.”
“…….”
“…….”
An invisible current crackled between them.
‘Ah, I can barely breathe.’
Each quiet exchange felt like a blade of ice.
I’d been a fool to hold even a moment’s hope that they might converse well together.
‘What does bringing the Duke here make me?!’
Several more rounds of conversation that weren’t quite conversations followed. Each time, I could only observe nervously, sensing I’d dug my own grave.
Then it happened.
In the midst of that stilted exchange, the topic suddenly turned to the Lacrion Mountain Range.
“Even if I were the Emperor, I would have yielded it to the Ducal House. Surely His Majesty has been watching for an opportunity to do so. And the one who provided that opportunity was…….”
Eleonore smiled brightly at me.
“The Crown Princess.”
I quietly averted my gaze and fiddled with my teacup.
Eleonore’s flat voice continued.
“I’m not taking His Majesty’s side because I’m of royal blood. The Emperor has a duty to prioritize the nation’s interests. The Lacrion Mountain Range is land that only devours resources. Knights die, and there are no results. Handing the Lacrion Mountain Range to the Ducal House was the best choice to control the Escar House given the current state of the Imperial Family.”
“Control?”
Eleonore looked down into her teacup and nodded.
“Yes. The Escar Ducal House has been working toward Duchy Independence for a very long time.”
At Eleonore’s words, I reflexively glanced at Barcan.
Duchy Independence was a sensitive topic from both the Imperial Family’s perspective and Barcan’s. Yet Barcan sipped his tea with an indifferent expression, as if he already knew all this.
“His Majesty is hardly the sort to let the Duchy’s finances gain breathing room and grow strong enough to achieve independence. The loss to the Castillo Empire the moment Escar becomes independent would be catastrophic.”
In that sense, the Lacrion Mountain Range could be seen as a shackle the Imperial Family had given to slowly drain the Ducal House’s resources and military strength.
“And His Majesty is likely preparing another shackle as well. Most likely through…….”
Eleonore, who had paused deliberately, opened her mouth with care.
“Crown Prince Cain, I would wager.”
“What?! The Crown Prince?”
“Yes. Cain resembles His Majesty more than any of his brothers.”
Huh? I blinked rapidly.
She’d just described the Emperor as someone without a shred of mercy or tears, and now she was saying Crown Prince Cain most resembled him?
The male protagonist of the original work—that righteous and gentle Crown Prince Cain?!
The Cain I knew from the original story and the Cain Eleonore was describing didn’t match at all.
Just then, Barcan spoke to Eleonore.
“I thought you had no interest in political matters.”
There was caution in his gaze—why would the Crown Princess speak of things that might disadvantage the Imperial Family in front of us?
Regardless, Eleonore gazed at me with a subtle smile.
“Call it advice from a newly made friend who’s worried about you.”
Then she smiled, her eyes narrowing.
“How is it? Aren’t you glad you befriended me? Already I’m bringing you such useful information, aren’t I?”
Aha-ha……. I laughed awkwardly while gauging Barcan’s reaction.
“You’re too kind. I’m truly grateful.”
Then Eleonore looked between Barcan and me with eyes full of mischief.
“By the way, Duke, did you know?”
“Know what?”
“The Crown Princess originally…….”
Me? What was I originally?
I perked up my ears, waiting for Eleonore’s next words.
And then.
“Not the Duke—I was supposed to marry Cain instead.”
“…….”
“……what?!”

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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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