A torrential rain had been pouring since evening. An ominous flash lit up the world outside the window, and a few seconds later, a thunderclap loud enough to shatter eardrums echoed through the night.
It felt as if the sky were on the verge of collapsing. It was a night that would surely startle many from their sleep.
As expected, lights flickered on in the Second Princess’s Palace, visible in the distance. The Seventh Prince, who had just turned thirteen this year, was a timid child, unlike his two half-brothers. He must have screamed at the thunderous roar that shook the walls.
‘The only one in that household worth watching was the daughter, the Third Princess.’
The very same one who had sided with her half-brother, the Crown Prince, and was now confined to the gray palace.
Having lost her daughter, the Second Consort was too busy coddling her one remaining, fragile son to exert any real power. There was no rush; that side could be dealt with slowly after more important matters were settled.
It was well past midnight.
Odette pulled the shawl around her shoulders and stared silently out the window.
Soon after, lights came on in the First Consort’s Palace as well. The mistress of that palace, too, had many sins to her name. On a night like this, she was the type of person who ought to be shivering under her covers, terrified that the vengeful spirits of those she had “disposed of” might come seeking her.
However, Odette knew she hadn’t called for her maids out of fear.
‘She was originally the uncle’s mistress before catching my father’s eye, pushing out the women who were there before her, and seizing the title of First Consort… There’s no way she’d be afraid of a little thunder and lightning.’
The lights moved, tracing the First Consort’s path. She was hurrying toward the Emperor’s chambers. Their seductive First Consort was on her way to throw herself into the Emperor’s arms, weeping, dressed in nothing but a satin negligee and a robe.
To her, the foul weather was merely another opportunity.
‘The one who’s actually losing sleep is that middle-aged man with the graying temples—the Emperor, whose paranoia only deepens with age. The First Consort is simply giving him a chance to play the role of the protector soothing a frightened beauty.’
The First Consort, usually so haughty, would cast aside all pretense on nights like this to act the spoiled child.
The Emperor, likely forgetting his own trembling before she arrived, would chide her for being so afraid of thunder and lightning when she was no longer a child.
‘A classic example of a Favored Consort.’
The First Consort knew exactly how to handle a man who held power.
Above all, look at the impeccable timing of her arrival.
She hadn’t rushed out of her palace the moment the first thunderclap sounded. Like someone proofing bread dough, she had waited until the Emperor’s anxiety reached a certain point before making her move.
Odette wouldn’t have been surprised if the First Consort had been humming a tune in the dark, counting the strikes of lightning.
“You must be Odette. You’re chillingly beautiful.”
It hadn’t been long since she was confined to the high-walled villa. A woman in a black velvet cloak had come to visit her. The woman was young and beautiful, and she looked at Odette with the eyes of someone observing a caged animal.
“You don’t know me, but I know a great deal about you. I know about your mother, too. Unlike the Empress or the other consorts, I only knew Harun through reports.”
The woman smiled faintly.
“Harun stole Imperial secrets and killed countless soldiers while escaping. She even used the Emperor’s own bloodline as a bargaining chip instead of sending the child to the palace. She is a grievous sinner who doesn’t even deserve a proper burial.”
“My mother never used me as a bargaining chip. And as for her grave…”
“Look at you, defending her just because she’s your birth mother. How pitiful. Regardless, from now on, your mother is not Harun. You are a girl presumed to be the Emperor’s illegitimate child, who has been living outside the palace due to poor health… That is the background you have been given.”
“Wait. Don’t go. What do you mean about the grave?”
“Exactly what you heard. Harun’s grave exists nowhere in this world. Her body itself did not remain. You, too, should stop thinking of your birth mother.”
It was something she learned later.
At the time, the Emperor had wanted to see Seibril Harun’s body with his own eyes. A coffin had even been prepared to transport the body to the capital after it had been embalmed.
But in the First Consort’s mind, if the Emperor were to face the body of his old lover, complex emotions that were difficult to explain might bloom within him.
Even if the Emperor himself had been the one to order her death.
If that happened, the next step would be for him to offer all sorts of compensation to the child the dead lover had left behind.
Contrary to the original plan to lock her away where no one would know, he might even give her a plausible fake background and bring her into the Imperial Palace.
Thus, the First Consort had decided to dispose of Seibril Harun’s body while it was being transported.
Since it was an act that defied the Emperor’s will, she naturally couldn’t carry it out alone. The First Consort had incited the women of the Inner Court to gain their agreement. The plan to swap the body with an unclaimed corpse headed for the crematorium was carried out successfully.
The soldiers who had been bribed at the time were said to have been dealt with later, disguised as accidents or deaths by illness.
The cleanup was thorough. Thanks to that, Odette had lost the chance to mourn her mother at her grave forever.
She didn’t even know which crematorium her mother had been burned in. Just thinking about that fact made her gasp for air, even in her sleep. It was as painful as having her chest seared by a red-hot iron.
‘To commit such an act and then come to look at my face so calmly.’
The audacity, the intelligence, and the ruthlessness to do whatever it took to achieve her desires.
“You must be something special to be able to wrap three men of the Rose Imperial Family around your finger.”
Odette set down the chess piece she had been clutching tightly. Beside the chessboard lay a report written in code.
The First Consort, who enjoyed the favor of the paranoid Emperor precisely because she had no children of her own, had been enjoying a secret affair for years with a man who would be horrified if the Emperor ever found out.
The report contained the details. Odette’s informants had spent a long time collecting and organizing it clearly.
What kind of expression would the Emperor wear if he saw the conversations filled with the arrogance that their relationship could never be discovered? Would he be so enraged that he would collapse?
Odette felt a little worried. She didn’t want to let the Emperor go so easily. She would have to keep a close watch to ensure he didn’t hit his head on the corner of a table if he happened to faint.
*Rumble, crash! Boom!*
The night she was chased by the soldiers. The day she fled for her life with her mother, it had rained just as heavily as it did tonight.
“Mom! Aaaah! No! Let go! I’ll kill you all! I remember every one of your faces! You, and the one who sent you—I’ll kill you all! I won’t leave a single one alive! Aaaaaah!”
That was the first and last time in her life she had ever lashed out like that. A part of her soul had certainly died with her mother that day.
“You shouldn’t have let me live.”
Odette’s blood-curdling scream must have been conveyed to the Imperial Family without missing a single syllable. It was far too filled with malice to be merely the resentment of a young girl. But their concern had lasted only a moment.
They must have been relieved when they saw her arrive in the capital much later. They probably thought she wouldn’t even survive until her coming-of-age ceremony, let alone seek revenge.
But Odette Rose had survived. Now, all that remained was to bring each of them the ending they deserved.
The Empress, confined after being stripped of all authority in the Inner Court.
The head maid, who had been sent to a rural farm after being brutally whipped for doing the Empress’s dirty work.
The deposed Crown Prince, who had been dragged away to the spire, screaming just like Odette had on the day her mother died.
“It wouldn’t be bad to send in a few sewer rats to keep him company, would it?”
Odette chuckled softly. The Empress’s faction had been perfectly eradicated, so the next target was the pair who were a match made in heaven when it came to cold-blooded resourcefulness.
“Blessed are those who wait…”
Odette looked up at the flashing sky. She eagerly awaited the day she would take out the black velvet cloak sleeping deep in her closet and wear it once more.
◇ ◆ ◇
As if the sky had been torn open, it had rained incessantly for the past three days. As the torrential rain stopped, the sweltering heat vanished like magic.
Count Viers had now gone so far as to use a beard, a wig, and even a hat to deceive Marien.
“I really thought you were the Royal Physician!”
“Hahahaha!”
“Stop laughing, Count. Are you that happy?”
“I’m so proud, so very proud. Hahaha! To think I have a friend who’s so worth deceiving. Ahahahaha!”
“Where did you lock up the real Royal Physician?”
“Lock him up? He said yesterday was his last day visiting the estate. Honestly, he hadn’t been doing much at our house since last week anyway. He was just wasting expensive tea leaves for no reason.”
Count Viers, who had been laughing until he was out of breath just a moment ago, suddenly narrowed his eyes.
“This is just my guess, though.”
“Yes.”
“The Royal Physician seems to have dug up rare medicinal herbs from my garden, roots and all.”
Marien pondered for a moment how she should react. She suspected this might be another one of the Count’s performances.
The Royal Physician only needed to submit a purchase request if he needed medicinal ingredients. But to illegally harvest them from someone else’s private property, especially while visiting to treat the eldest son of that very house?
No matter how she thought about it, it sounded absurd.
“Count, do you grow herbs, too?”
“They’re plants, too. Very lovely ones. Why would you think I wouldn’t grow them?”
“What’s the name of the herb you suspect he dug up?”
Count Viers answered. Marien couldn’t understand it at once. When she apologized and said it sounded like a foreign language, he replied that it was indeed a scientific name in a foreign language.
“He dug up three whole roots. That shameless marmot of a man.”
“Didn’t you say it was just a guess earlier? How did it suddenly change to certainty…”
“The Royal Physician is the only new outsider. Besides, he spent quite a while praising my garden from the very first day. He said he’d always wanted to visit.”
The Count scoffed.
“He must have had his eyes on them from the start.”
“Um, right…”
“I’ll have to strengthen the garden security. Good heavens, to think a doctor who came to heal my son would instead steal my herbs—is this even reasonable?”
The Count left, lamenting the state of the world.
‘I couldn’t even ask if it was an act or if it really happened.’
Marien rolled her eyes. Even if it had been an act, she would have been deceived again unless the Count confessed. Look at her now; she was already half-convinced.
“Ah, Sir Biers. Slowly! Slowly!”
Marien ran toward Byleon.
“How can you walk with such long strides!”
“What am I supposed to do when I’ve recovered enough to walk like this?”
“Still. I’m worried about you. Please walk carefully.”
Marien’s eyebrows drooped.
“You must never overexert yourself.”
“As you wish, my lady.”
“Coming into work today is a bit early, too… and on top of that, I have to go to the Fourth Princess’s Palace after lunch.”
Odette had summoned Marien and Byleon at the same time.
In truth, Marien already knew what the Princess was going to say today. In the original story, once the ballroom assassination attempt was resolved, the purge of the Second Prince would begin.
And in this episode, Odette and Cain would finally set out to work as a team.
It was a criminal den disguised as a luxury resort, but one that was actually linked to an underground organization. The two of them were to infiltrate that place, which served as the Second Prince’s precious source of funding.
The team leader herself was heading out!
Since Byleon and she had played such a major role in the previous incident, Marien had been confident that this time, they would only need to provide support from the rear.
However, things once again took a strange turn, defying Marien’s expectations.
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