The Poisonous Princess Who Successfully Infiltrated the Enemy as an Employee - Chapter 37

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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 37.

***

My sharp question, cast without warning, sent Glen’s pupils trembling like a small boat caught in a storm.
I’d clearly struck a nerve.
“I—what are you—”
“I don’t know what you mean!”
…….
“If you thought that excuse would work, wake up right now. It won’t.”
…….
At my firm tone, Glen’s lips froze rigid.
I’d driven in a wedge from the start to keep him from lying to me any further.
“I coated a Special Dye inside the handle of my bedside table. I wanted to find out who sneaks into my room and leaves behind only a potion before vanishing.”
At that, Glen’s gaze reflexively shot to the fingertips of his right hand.
He was remembering those fingers that had glowed an eerie blue in the darkness.
I nodded, cementing his suspicion into certainty.
“Yes, that’s right. Putting out the lights in the Banquet Hall was to find whoever had shining fingertips.”
…….
I tapped my chest lightly with a fingertip and smiled.
“And I found you.”
…….
A heavy silence fell over the anteroom.
I fingered the paper hidden in my glove, the one containing Sleep Powder.
If Glen so much as threatened or moved to attack me, I’d throw it straight in his face.
But Glen said nothing for a long while.
He’d likely realized, just as I had, that there was no easy escape from this situation.
At last, Glen looked at me with eyes full of defeat and asked quietly.
“……What is it that you want from me?”
I shook my head slowly at the question.
“I ask the questions. You answer.”
Glen lowered his head.
“……Please, ask away.”
With Glen’s resistance visibly weakened, I kept smiling and opened my mouth.
“How much do you know about me?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Exactly as I said, Glen. The Guild people must have told you about me, no? Tell me everything.”
…….
Glen hesitated briefly, then spoke.
“……You are a princess from Delmar, Your Highness.”
“And?”
“I was told that the shock of war had left your mind unsound……”
Glen studied my expression carefully before continuing hesitantly.
“……Though it seems that was merely a cover for deception.”
Good.
‘Quick at reading situations, too.’
I nodded.
“Anything else?”
“That was all the information the Guild had about you, Your Highness.”
Hmm……
That’s all?
Of course, I didn’t believe it entirely, but if it happened to be true, then he didn’t know I was a false princess.
‘So the secret that I’m a false princess is something only a select few know.’
At the same time, I could tell that Glen wasn’t a senior operative—not as high-ranking as I’d expected.
“What exactly was your mission, Glen?”
“My task was to deliver a Helbain Sedative to you every day, Your Highness.”
“For a spy planted by the Guild, that’s awfully simple.”
At that, Glen looked startled and blurted out.
“A spy, you say?”
“You work for the Grand Duke’s Residence while taking orders from hostile forces, and then you claim you’re not a spy?”
“That’s—!”
“Then tell me who these Guild people are. Who exactly are they, who’s behind them, what’s their purpose, and how can Helbain be eliminated entirely?”
……
Glen fell silent, his mouth clamping shut.
“That, I cannot tell you.”
“How amusing. And you still insist you’re not a spy? What happens when I run straight to the Grand Duke and inform him? They frighten you, but the Grand Duke doesn’t, is that it?”
Glen shook his head, his expression bleak.
“He terrifies me. More than anything else. But……”
Glen closed his mouth for a moment, then opened it again.
“I don’t even know who they are, but simply speaking their name could kill me……”
I studied Glen with narrowed eyes.
Kill him?
“Think of it as a minimum safeguard to prevent betrayal. If you so much as whisper a word about our organization, that creature in your belly will tear out your innards and swallow them whole. Remember that.”
Suddenly, the Guild master’s words came back to me—the threat he’d made.
I asked with an expression of dawning suspicion.
“Is it possible that you, Glen, also swallowed Helbain?”
He lowered his gaze before answering.
“Yes, I have.”
……
“I became the delivery courier for the Sedative because I can move in and out of the Grand Duke’s Residence relatively freely. I too am in a position where I must receive the Sedative.”
Glen’s hands curled limply against his knees.
“If I refuse their orders, my supply of medicine is cut off. What happens after that, Your Highness already understands well.”
……
What?
If that’s the case, how could Glen be painted as one with the Guild?
He was more like a victim, just as I was.
But I quickly dismissed that thought. There was no guarantee his words were the complete truth. He might have fabricated it all to escape the immediate crisis.
‘But what matters to me now isn’t the truth.’
Only one thing was important: whether he was a useful card for my immediate survival, or not.
I nodded slowly and spoke.
“Fine. I won’t ask further.”
Glen’s eyes widened at my unexpected answer.
“You believe my words……?”
“And if I don’t?”
I tilted my head.
“Should I threaten you to talk more about the Guild to verify the truth? And if I really end up killing you that way?”
……
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a lie or the truth. A living Glen is far more useful to me than a Glen who becomes a corpse before my eyes.”
“Useful……value, you mean.”
“Both you and I are forced to do things we don’t want because of the Guild. That’s the same, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
“But the moment they learn that I’ve discovered your identity, you’ll be in considerable trouble.”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ll keep it secret. You can continue living safely in the kitchen as you are now, quietly preserving your life.”
Glen swallowed dryly and then asked.
“So you have work for me.”
He was connected to the Guild, which made me uneasy, but I had to admit his quick wit pleased me.
I smiled with satisfaction and continued.
“Having spent years as a mercenary, you must know quite a few skilled mages or Magical Artifact makers who’ve left the Magic Tower, yes?”
At my question, Glen’s eyes moved slowly before he nodded.
“Yes, I have one in mind immediately.”
“Good.”
“Yes?”
“My proposal is simple. Whenever I need it, you’ll be my legs—getting me out of the Grand Duke’s Residence undetected and bringing me back in secret, away from their surveillance. And you’ll introduce me to that trustworthy mage you mentioned.”
……
Glen stared at me with anxious eyes.
“But I might report all of this back to the Guild in full. Do you really trust me enough to give me these orders?”
At that question, I let out a small laugh.
“The Guild won’t dare kill me outright. The Marriage Oath Ceremony with the Grand Duke is right around the corner, and everything’s flowing exactly as they want it to. But Glen?”
“…….”
“The Guild will find it simpler to deal with Glen—whose identity has been exposed to me—than to kill me directly. And I could tell the Grand Duke about him, making it easy enough for him to cut Glen’s throat myself. Of course, if Glen keeps our secret thoroughly, no one needs to die.”
I fixed Glen with a steady gaze between my narrowed eyes, my voice sharp as a warning.
“Don’t misunderstand me, Glen.”
“…….”
“I’m not giving you a choice. ……I’m giving you an order.”
At my cold warning, Glen’s shoulders tensed. Finally, he bowed his head.

***

Well past midnight.
With Glen’s help, I ventured into the Commercial District of Delmar, met with the mage he’d introduced me to, and returned.
Or rather, I was able to meet with a man who appeared to be the mage’s subordinate.
When I insisted on meeting the mage directly to conduct the transaction, the subordinate let out a derisive snort and replied.
“Once the Magical Artifact is completed, we’ll be in touch again. That’s when you’ll be able to meet him directly. Until then, even an Emperor’s commission couldn’t earn you an audience.”
Since I was the one in a hurry, I had no choice but to agree to wait.
Still, my first venture out using Glen proved remarkably successful.
While I didn’t yet have the Magical Artifact fully in hand, having discovered a route outside the Grand Duke’s Residence was what mattered.
‘And once the Magical Artifact is complete, I can change my eye and hair color.’
Then I’d be able to move between the Grand Duke’s Residence and the market with far less caution.
Without having to watch for the masked knight’s suspicion.
By the time I’d placed the Magical Artifact commission and returned, it was already past three in the morning.
A cart laden with provisions came to a halt before the small iron gate adjoining the Kitchen and the rear courtyard.
Glancing around cautiously, I descended from the cart, and Glen emerged from the shadows to meet me.
“You arrived at precisely the right moment, Your Highness.”
“You kept your word too. Thank you.”
“There’s no choice when it comes to survival. My life is held in your hands, after all.”
I offered him a thin smile at those words.
“That’s right. To survive, one does whatever’s necessary. I’m no different.”
“…….”
A brief silence passed before Glen spoke quietly.
“I’ve already placed the Sedative in the drawer of the side table.”
“Thank you for the trouble.”
As I turned from him toward the Bedroom, Glen bowed lightly.
“Be careful as you go up, Your Highness. Particularly—avoid the western wing.”
“The western wing? My Bedroom isn’t in that direction anyway.”
“It’s merely a precaution. ……Tonight is when the Twin Moons rise.”
The Twin Moons?
I stopped in place and gazed up absently at the pitch-black night sky.
‘Ah, that’s right. Already…….’
High above the black expanse, two enormous moons hung suspended at measured intervals—one glowing with an ethereal violet light, the other with a cool, pale blue.
In this world where I live, there comes a period once every hundred days when the Twin Moons rise for a week.
The wind strengthens, the nights lengthen, and the air grows heavy and thick.
Even when I lived in the southern village of Billot, whenever those strange twin moons appeared, my senses would heighten unnaturally.
The wild beasts I encountered while gathering herbs in the forest seemed to grow more vicious and unpredictable on such nights.
Beneath the Twin Moons in this frozen, barren Northern Region, the desolate atmosphere of the Grand Duke’s Residence seemed to deepen, casting an eerie, otherworldly aura.
After gazing at the moonlight as if entranced, I finally hunched my shoulders and quickened my pace toward my Bedroom.
‘This only makes things feel more unsettling.’
But then—it happened.
‘……Hm?’
A cold north wind brushed past the tip of my nose.
And faint within that wind came a scent that brought my footsteps to an abrupt halt.
Sniff, sniff-sniff…….
A cold, sharp scent—something faintly metallic and sticky.
It was a scent that had been etched into my very bones through years of handling countless herbs and poisons: unmistakable, ominous, and clear.
I turned my head slowly toward the direction from which the wind had come.
‘Is that……blood?’

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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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