The Poisonous Princess Who Successfully Infiltrated the Enemy as an Employee - Chapter 42

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

Episode 42.

***

A week had already passed since the Grand Duke and the Princess returned from the Imperial Palace.
The servants who had taken their leave were trickling back to the Grand Duke’s Residence one by one.
The mansion, which had sat quiet and empty for some time, was gradually filling again with the warmth of its inhabitants, reclaiming its familiar atmosphere.
The crimson sunset faded beyond the jagged ridgeline of distant mountains, and the deep northern dusk settled over the estate.
Two servants who had finished their duties walked along the stone path between the Garden and the Main Building.
Golden Brooches glimmered at their chests.
“The Princess still hasn’t come out, has she? Isn’t it already the seventh day?”
One of the servants looked up at the window on the Main Building Third Floor and spoke. The other servant walking beside her answered.
“That’s right, today makes exactly a week. She’s been constantly making a fuss—no, requesting—to see the Grand Duke.”
The two servants touched the Brooches at their chests and gazed up worriedly at the Main Building Third Floor where the Princess was confined, then let their eyes fall.
By far the hottest topic among the Grand Duke’s household staff these days was the Princess of Delmar.
After returning from a week’s leave, they found the Golden Brooches bestowed by the royal family waiting for them.
The Princess had said she’d requested them from the First Princess.
Whether they’d received the Brooches directly from the Princess or gotten them late upon returning from leave,
the moment they fastened the Princess’s Brooch to their chest, something subtle began to shift within them.
This was why, even as the Princess remained confined on the seventh day, there were fewer comments about barely being able to live without seeing her, and more expressions of genuine concern for her.
“You know, maybe the Princess isn’t mad at all—maybe she’s just lonely?”
The short-haired servant nodded carefully at the remark.
“I’ve been thinking the same thing lately. The truth is, the Princess probably isn’t mad—”
That was when it happened.
Thump!
Something fell from the flower bed below the third floor, the sound cutting through the air.
“Huh? What was that noise?”
“Noise?”
Both servants’ gazes turned back toward the Main Building.
Then a figure entered their field of vision.
A silhouette descending skillfully down a rope hanging from the third-floor window.
Platinum hair, a slender frame—even if you closed your eyes and looked again, it was the Princess.
…….
……
The two servants stood frozen for a moment, at a loss for words. Then one of them came to her senses first, grabbed the other’s hand, and quickly changed direction.
“W-we didn’t see anything.”
“What? Ah…! Y-yes.”
“Let’s go. We need to finish up quickly.”
“Right, that’s r-right! I’m s-so tired! Let’s get some rest!”
The two servants, patting down their startled hearts, hurried away with quickened steps.

***

“Phew, nearly took a tumble there.”
I gripped the cloth I’d woven into a rope and executed one final leap, landing safely on the flower bed.
In the end, I’d grown impatient with a week of confinement and made my escape.
‘As if I’d sit quietly while locked away!’
For seven days straight I’d made a fuss, demanding to see Varcan.
Countless times I’d asked him to make time for me, saying I had things to discuss.
But Varcan never came to find me.
So this time, I’d come to him myself.
In truth, ever since I’d arrived at the Grand Duke’s household, it seemed I was always the one seeking out Varcan first.
Like tonight.
‘If he’d just not stationed knights outside my bedroom, I wouldn’t have had to crawl out the window like this.’
Then I wouldn’t be scaling walls in this ridiculous fashion.
Varcan Escar—
I clenched my teeth, silently repeating his name while brushing dust from my cloak, then lifted my head again.
At that moment.
“…….”
“…….”
Beneath the dusky moonlight, my eyes met those of a man staring directly at me through the gaps between garden trees taller than I was.
‘Gasp!’
I was so startled I couldn’t even cry out, only drawing in a sharp breath.
‘W-who are you……?’
He was a knight with a face I’d never seen before.
From the way he wore the Eclipse Knight Order uniform of the Grand Duke’s household with neat precision, he appeared to be a knight on patrol.
His eyes held a cool, detached bluish-grey light.
I’d expected him to shout at once and call the other knights, yet somehow he made no movement at all.
Then his expressionless gaze left my face and traveled up the rope I was clinging to, tracing it all the way to the third-floor window.
It was the look of someone retracing the path of my escape.
Then, lowering his eyes back to my face, he spoke to me in a dry tone as though inquiring after my ordinary well-being.
“Might you be the Princess, Your Highness?”
“…….”
I hesitated briefly, then gave a small, intentional cough before opening my mouth with brazen composure.
“Oh dear, I’ve been caught?”
“…….”
“Since you’ve caught me sneaking out, I suppose you’ll need to report it to the Grand Duke, won’t you?”
“…….”
“Well, this does seem unavoidable. But fortunately, I have something to tell the Grand Duke myself. Lead the way then. I’ll follow along nicely.”
I even tilted my head up stubbornly, as though this worked in my favor.
“What are you doing? I said lead the way. Take me to the Grand Duke, would you? Oh, before that.”
I glanced up at the third-floor window and whispered softly.
“Could you keep it secret from the Grand Duke how I managed to get outside? I am, after all, a Princess, and if it becomes known that I climbed down the wall outside my window, it would be rather……embarrassing.”
But even then, the knight said nothing in reply. That lasted only a moment.
His lips, which had been firmly sealed, finally opened.
“I apologize.”
“……No, don’t just say you apologize without even thinking about it. My name isn’t ‘apologize,’ after all. Why is it everyone who sees me always has to apologize?”
As I huffed and grumbled quietly, the knight who’d spoken of apology silently stepped aside to one side.
And then I understood.
Why this stranger of a knight had suddenly said he apologized.
Varcan was standing behind him.
He looked down at me with eyes as black as the night sky, his gaze as frigid as a northern wind.
Roan stood beside Varcan, and as he looked back and forth between the third-floor window and my face, his expression grew incredulous.
Varcan tilted his head slightly, gazing up at the third-floor window.
A rope made from knotted bed sheets swayed and fluttered in the breeze.
He looked back at me and spoke.
“I always notice something.”
“…….”
“The Princess does seem to have a talent for creating danger.”
“……Ha ha.”
A nervous laugh escaped me without my meaning it to.
It was the sort of laughter that came out when tension reached its peak. A kind of defensive reflex, you might say.
Varcan studied me for a long moment, then bluntly issued a command to Roan, who stood beside him.
“Move the Princess’s bedchamber to the room directly beside mine.”
“……What?”
“Excuse me?!”
Both Roan’s voice and mine burst out at once.
As I stared at Varcan with a bewildered expression, he took one slow step toward me.
The enormous shadow cast by his overwhelming frame completely engulfed me.
His voice, lower and deeper than ever before, fell directly into my ears.
“It will become difficult for you to slip out through a window. I have sharp hearing.”
“…….”
It was a warning that his sensitive perception of human presence would surely not fail to detect my movements from the room right next door.
I swallowed dryly and forced myself to speak with composure.
“Besides……, I had no intention of doing this a second time anyway. It turns out to be quite the elaborate undertaking, and rather labor-intensive…….”
At my unbowed reply, Varcan’s eyes narrowed further.
“Princess.”
I discreetly avoided his piercing gaze and gave a small answer.
“Yes, of course…….”
“If such an unsavory incident occurs even after moving you to the adjacent room.”
“…….”
“Then you’ll be sharing a bedchamber with me.”
“…….”
The threat sounded far more sinister than any mention of confinement.
Not that I cared.
I dashed forward and seized Varcan’s wrist in a firm grip.
‘Got you, you scoundrel!’
Then, looking up at him, I spoke.
“I don’t care whether it’s the adjacent room or the same room! First, let’s just talk, shall we?”
“…….”

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