The Poisonous Princess Who Successfully Infiltrated the Enemy as an Employee - Chapter 43

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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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Episode 43.

***

We sat across from each other on the sofa, Barkan’s office desk between us.
For a while, silence settled over the room.
Then Barkan spoke first.
“Did you slip out of your chambers the same way that night?”
“Pardon?”
I blinked.
“That night?”
“The night you entered the West Tower.”
Ah.
So he’d finally decided to discuss what happened that day.
‘Now? Really?’
Here I’d been pestering him to talk while he kept brushing me off entirely!
I fixed Barkan with a sharp look.
“You remember when I said I had something to tell you, don’t you?”
…….
“I asked the knights guarding the door several times. If you’d come to see me then, I wouldn’t have had to climb out the window in the first place. Isn’t that right?”
Barkan simply crossed his long legs and answered with perfect calm.
“There was a reason for it.”
“Yes, of course. I understand it was punishment for my going down into the basement of the West Tower.”
……Punishment.”
Barkan’s brow tightened briefly before he shook his head.
“No.”
“No? Then you’re saying I was punished for something else? What was it? What else did I do wrong?”
“It wasn’t punishment to begin with.”
“What? Then you’re telling me you locked me in my room with no reason at all?”
When I raised my voice in exasperation, Barkan’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
“I never thought of it as confinement. Rather, it was a matter of protection.”
Ha! I let out a hollow laugh.
“Protection? Who locks someone away without explanation or reason under the guise of protection?”
Barkan remained steady and composed as I pressed the point.
“True protection, I believe, begins with keeping someone at a safe distance from the most lethal threat.”
“And what threat is that?!”
“Myself.”
The answer came short and sharp.
For a moment, I found myself speechless, staring at him.
“The Grand Duke? Your Highness?”
Then Barkan looked at me steadily and said, “You saw what state I was in that night.”
“……Well, yes, but.”
I answered in a quieter voice. Barkan continued with an unflinching expression.
“That alone should be reason enough to keep you away from me.”
…….
I studied him for a moment, then asked, “All right. So you’re saying you did it for my safety. Let’s say that’s true. But why were you in that state in the first place?”
He’d kept me locked away for a week, but if it truly was for my safety, I couldn’t press him further on that point.
Whatever the case, my resolve to help him hadn’t wavered, and I needed to understand his condition and its cause.
That way, I could formulate a cure.
But Barkan seemed unwilling to say more about the Madness.
“There’s no need for you to know more than that. Didn’t you say you had something important to discuss with me? Let’s hear it.”
…….
Tsk. I clicked my tongue inwardly.
‘He’s not an easy person to deal with.’
After studying Barkan for a moment, I reluctantly decided to set aside my questions about the Madness for now.
Besides, this conversation was the whole reason I’d climbed through that window in the first place.

I lifted a bundle of documents I’d prepared earlier from my travel bag and placed it on the table.
“Please read this.”
Then I slid it across toward Barkan.
Barkan glanced down at the documents on the table for a moment before looking at me and asking.
“What is this?”
“You’ll understand once you read it. After you do, you won’t be able to treat me as if I’m mad.”
……
Barkan would normally be sick of documents, but sometimes a few carefully thought-out and organized pages are more effective than a lengthy verbal explanation.
Like right now.
“A Planning Document for the development of the Lacrion Mountain Range?”
You see? My entire purpose was conveyed completely by the single short title on the document’s first page.
Barkan looked at me.
I wiped the smile from my face and nodded firmly with a serious expression.
“Yes, I want to take charge of developing the Lacrion Mountain Range.”
……
“That document contains the reasons why the Lacrion Mountain Range must be developed, as well as the plan itself. It also explains why I’m the only suitable person for this. And.”
I flashed a confident smile.
“That document is also proof that I’m not mad.”
……
He furrowed his brow and turned to the first page of the documents.
Barkan read through the contents very slowly.
He seemed to be making an effort to read carefully.
Every so often, he glanced up at my face with a sharp gaze.
Rustle, rustle—the pages kept turning.
Barkan remained silent, and my mouth had gone completely dry.
‘I couldn’t write about things from the original story, so I made it as realistic as possible……’
Should I have lied and claimed to have Premonition Dreams or foresight, and written down some tempting information instead?
It was then, as I watched Barkan with growing anxiety.
After reviewing the final page, Barkan set my planning document down on the table with a soft tap.
Then he fixed me with a sharp gaze and opened his mouth.
“Princess.”
“Yes.”
“……You’ve studied Herbalism.”
At Barkan’s question, I exhaled carefully.
‘Right, I knew he’d ask that.’
The planning document I’d given to Barkan contained the topography of the Lacrion Mountain Range, marked areas where mines were suspected to exist, and information about an Antitoxin Potion resistant to the Toxic Fog that blanketed the mountain range.
Since the materials needed to make the potion and its effects were written in expert-level detail, Barkan’s suspicion was perhaps inevitable.
‘To prove I’m not mad, I’ll have to reveal at least some of my herbal knowledge.’
After all, entering the mountain range would be impossible without that potion.
There comes a moment when you must give something to gain something.
This was precisely that moment.
I composed my expression to appear at ease and spoke.
“No, I’ve never formally studied Herbalism.”
Barkan’s eyes narrowed.
He didn’t believe me.
But he couldn’t call my words a lie either.
Because I truly had never formally studied Herbalism.
I’d learned it firsthand, by tumbling off a cliff and barely surviving after chewing a Toxic Plant.
Barkan gestured toward the planning document on the table and asked.
“Then what about all these potions listed in your plan? The materials and effects are written quite specifically. Did you receive help from someone else?”
“No, I wrote it all myself.”
I drew out an answer I’d prepared in advance, feigning innocence.
“As you know, the Delmar Kingdom is surrounded by mountains on three sides. Because of that, it’s also a nation where Herbalism is highly developed.”
“I’ve heard as much. But I’ve never heard of royalty learning Herbalism.”
At that, I smiled, narrowing my eyes slightly.
“In Delmar, even commoners possess considerable knowledge of herbs. I’d appreciate it if you’d simply think of me as someone who learned by watching over people’s shoulders.”
“Learning over people’s shoulders to this degree.”
I shrugged.
“Wouldn’t it be natural for royalty to have access to information that’s just a little more refined than what ordinary people see and hear?”
……
The truth is, I don’t know whether the royal family of Delmar Kingdom learns Herbalism or how they manage it.
I’ve heard from the Guild that Herbalism flourished because three sides of the kingdom are surrounded by mountains, but beyond that, even the Guild members wouldn’t tell me anything.
Yet as long as the royal family of Delmar Kingdom doesn’t appear directly before us, there’s no one here to judge the truth of my story.
‘It’s probably a blessing that the royal family would never have reason to visit the Grand Duke House.’
I flashed Barkan a bright smile.
“I told you — I’m a genius.”
…….
Whether my smile had landed or not, he stared at the documents on the table with a rigid expression for a moment.
“I don’t understand.”
His low voice carried an unmistakable wariness.
“Which part? Just tell me. I can explain everything perfectly!”
As I answered eagerly, he folded his arms and pierced me with a cool gaze.
“Why go to such lengths?”
“……I’m sorry?”
“Crediting the Grand Duke House with the Merit for Peace at the Imperial Palace’s midday meal, standing against the Emperor over the memorial monuments to the fallen, and now this — throwing yourself willingly into the Lacrion Mountain Range when it demands your life. Why?”
…….
Barkan’s voice dropped with rebuke.
“What benefit does any of this bring the Princess?”
…….
His relentless stare bore into me as though he meant to devour me whole, and I swallowed dryly without thinking.

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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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