The Poisonous Princess Who Successfully Infiltrated the Enemy as an Employee - Chapter 6

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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 6.

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I returned to the Ducal Residence and changed back into my maid’s uniform, then pressed myself against the outer wall.
If I’d spent the morning cleaning the windows on the western facade, now it was the eastern side’s turn.
Perhaps it was the effect of my excursion through the dukedom earlier.
My movements felt smoother now, more fluid than before—as though someone had oiled every joint.
“Hehe, Your Highness! There’s a Four-Leaf Clover here!”
“…….”
“I’ve found five already! I’ll make you a bookmark, Your Highness!”
“…….”
I paused mid-wipe and glanced down from the window.
Celin was crouched beside the ladder in a flower bed, hunting for Four-Leaf Clovers among the weeds.
She’d given up halfway through her earlier attempts to steal the rag from me.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and shook my head.
‘Poor Celin. How did she end up as a maid to a commoner herbalist pretending to be an Insane Princess? She’s suffering through everything under the sun.’
But I couldn’t stop what I was doing.
‘I have to survive, too.’
With the Duke away, even those Guild thugs couldn’t touch me right now.
If I let my act slip while things stood this way, whatever writhed in my stomach might claw its way through my insides.
‘No. I won’t let that happen.’
The memory of that pain made my brow crease involuntarily.
But then…….
‘I suppose I’ll be dreaming of leaving the Ducal Residence for quite a while now.’
Scrub, scrub, scrub—the rag picked up speed against the glass.
‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we just closed our eyes and kept it all a secret?’
The fact that I’d ditched my escort knights in the heart of the Commercial District had somehow reached the ears of Hendrick, the Head Steward.
The knights assigned to guard me had run straight to report that I’d vanished.
Of course, it was I who’d shaken them off and disappeared.
But.
‘Did I ask them to keep it a secret just for my sake? Did I? It was supposed to be for both our benefits. Those Northern men have no sense of flexibility whatsoever…….’
Thanks to them, I had to endure Hendrick’s icy stare for a good while.
Now that this had come to light, I’d probably been promoted in the minds of the Ducal Residence staff from merely an Insane Princess to one who might careen off in any direction without warning.
‘Fine. For now, I’ll just climb walls and play it safe.’
Oh, right. What about those herbs I bought?
I’d managed to purchase the medicinal herbs needed for the Hemostatic Medicine formula, including Krobein, but I had no idea how to make it without being seen by the household staff and their watchers.
‘And I don’t have the tools, either.’
In truth, the Ducal Residence’s back gardens housed a blacksmith, a medical facility, and several other buildings with various functions.
Among them was a building where medicines were prepared and where physicians lodged.
‘If only I could use that place, making Hemostatic Medicine would be child’s play.’
But naturally, no one would dream of granting an Insane Princess from an enemy nation access to such a sensitive facility.
‘What could be more suspicious than a princess from a hostile kingdom spread out medicinal and poisonous herbs to make something?’
It might even lead people to suspect I wasn’t mad at all.
And worst of all, those Guild vermin would certainly have the Duke’s suspicions stoked, refusing to give me the sedative that keeps the thing in my belly docile—claiming he’d be wasting effort courting the Duke.
Damn it!
So?! When is the Duke coming back anyway? Why? Are you just going to stick to the Northern Mountains forever? Did you abandon the Ducal Residence? Is that it? Is that what this is?!
Aaaaaahhhhh!!!!
I let out a silent roar of fury, gripping the rag as though I had the Duke by the collar, and scrubbed the glass with all my might again and again.
Scrrrritch—!
“Wow! That’s my seventh Four-Leaf Clover!”
Celin’s cheerful voice drifted up from below.

***

“Is this truly acceptable? Regardless of the Duke’s prior orders…….”
Reina, the head maid, ventured to speak, her voice uncertain.
Her gaze, along with Hendrick’s, was fixed on the eastern outer wall of the Ducal Residence.
Before the glass window that glinted pale in the winter afternoon light, a woman climbed a ladder and swung her cloth in broad strokes.
She had clung to the outer wall wielding that cloth since morning, and around midday she had ventured out to see the Ducal Residence, causing quite a commotion in the process.
Yet the moment she returned, she changed back into her maid’s dress as though nothing had happened and resumed cleaning the outer walls.
Squeak, squeak, ……scrub-scrub-scrub-scrub!
The sound of the cloth rubbing across the glass seemed to grow steadily louder, though perhaps it was merely his imagination.
Hendrick stood motionless with his hands clasped behind his back, watching the scene unfold. His reddish-brown eyes were cold and composed as always, yet beneath that equilibrium lay a peculiar weariness that had settled like sediment.
“She did volunteer for this herself, did she not.”
Hendrick’s voice carried its usual dryness.
In truth, after darting about the Ducal Residence and Commercial District since morning, the Princess ought by now to be exhausted and flagging.
Yet she appeared, if anything, brimming with even greater energy.
‘She seems to be enjoying the cleaning.’
Before beginning, he had observed her reviewing something and pondering her choices, but once she took up her position, she cleaned with evident delight on her face.
Despite Hendrick’s measured reply, Reina still wore an expression of concern.
“But surely her mind—that is to say, ……her faculties are not entirely sound. If she were to injure herself doing this—.”
“What can powerless servants like us do when the Duke commands and Her Highness insists on proceeding? We cannot very well refuse.”
Hendrick cut across Reina’s words with his answer.
Besides, Hendrick’s head was already throbbing from the commotion that had erupted in the Commercial District earlier.
He had been forced to impose severe discipline on the knights who had failed to properly surveil and protect the Princess—who was, after all, a hostage.
Yet when word of their punishment reached the Princess, she had stormed into Hendrick’s office.
“I was swept away by the crowd and jostled along! There’s nothing human strength can do about that. It was an act of God! That’s what happened!”
“Your Highness, that cannot serve as an excuse—.”
“If the knights who escorted me must face punishment, then I will accept the very same punishment they do.”
“Pardon?”
“Look into my eyes. I am ……entirely serious.”
“…….”
In the end, Hendrick had to defer the knights’ punishment until after the Duke returned, for the Princess was holding a metaphorical sword to her own throat.
Hendrick found himself sympathizing with the knights who had been assigned to escort her.
Protecting someone whose faculties were sound was difficult enough. But to allow someone whose mind was unsound and whose stubbornness was considerable to venture into the Commercial District—he could only regard that decision as his own grave error in judgment.
Hendrick let out a quiet sigh and spoke.
“She outmaneuvered the knights themselves in the Commercial District. There would seem little cause for worry.”
“That is…….”
It was then.
“What did you just say?”
From behind the two of them came a voice that cut colder and heavier than the bitter north wind—sharp enough to draw blood.
As Hendrick and Reina spun around in alarm, the Duke strode toward them, his deep blue cloak billowing behind him, having arrived at some unknown moment.
“Your Grace!”
“You’ve returned early, my lord.”
Hendrick bowed with measured composure to greet Barcan.
Hendrick had only just learned that Barcan had departed from the Northern Mountains.
Before Barcan’s arrival at the Ducal Residence, Hendrick had intended to assess the Princess’s condition and prepare to receive the Duke. But Barcan had arrived far sooner than expected.
Barcan strode forward with furrowed brow, his tone sharp as he demanded an answer.
“Hendrick. Outwitting the knights? What in blazes did you mean by that just——.”
Barcan’s questioning gaze suddenly shifted toward something precariously perched on the eastern outer wall.
His footsteps ceased abruptly.
“What in the world is that.”
“…….”
“…….”
It was unmistakably someone in a maid’s dress, yet a servant he had never seen before.
The window-washing displayed considerable determination and competence, and for all the bitter cold, the figure seemed excessively—even exuberantly—cheerful, and thus the eye was naturally drawn to that peculiar sight.
At Barcan’s question, Reina shut her eyes tightly, and Hendrick too found himself unable to speak immediately.
After a brief moment, Hendrick lowered his head and answered with careful deliberation.
“It is Her Highness the Princess.”
Barcan’s eyebrow twitched.
“……What?”
As Barcan stared at Hendrick as if he had misheard, Hendrick opened his mouth once more, his expression now more measured and resigned.
“The Princess from Delmar, my lord.”
“…….”
At those words, Barcan’s gaze snapped swiftly toward the Princess hanging perilously from the outer wall.
“That is?”
“Yes.”
“Why is the Princess dressed as a maid……?”
Barcan asked as if flabbergasted, and Hendrick replied with equal bewilderment.
“Did Your Highness not command her to perform maid’s duties?”
“I did?”
“Yes.”
“When did I—.”
I was about to ask when, but Barcan stopped short.
“Give the Princess a mop.”
Ah…….
Barcan let out a short sigh and pressed his palm to his forehead.
“Drag her down.”
“Pardon?”
Hendrick blinked, and Barcan issued his command coldly, his jaw tightening.
“Drag that insa—, ……drag the Princess down at once.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”

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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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