Chapter 15

Adeline opened her eyes again when the slanting glow of sunset stretched long shadows across the room. Exhaustion from the grueling journey must have pulled her into a brief nap without her realizing it.

Knock, knock.

At the soft sound, she gave permission, and Britta slipped inside, hurrying over with light steps. The moment she saw the familiar maid’s face, the haze clouding her mind cleared at once.

“Princess, you’re awake? You must have been terribly worn out.”

“I suppose so.”

She couldn’t even remember when she’d fallen asleep. The softness of the bed, something she hadn’t felt in a long while, must have lulled her into unconsciousness before she knew it.

“I thought it was about time you woke up, so I had water drawn. Please wash up.”

“Mm, thank you.”

After setting down the kettle and a glass of water, Britta hurried into the washroom ahead of her. The moment Adeline rose from the bed and stepped inside after her, a sharp, acrid smell stung her nose.

The bathtub wasn’t filled with clear water, but with murky, ash-gray sludge.

Adeline instinctively stepped back, and a beat later, Britta, who had returned carrying scented oils, froze before she dropped everything in her hands.

“This… what is this? I distinctly drew this water myself just a little while ago.”

“Isn’t it obvious.”

Someone’s deliberate prank. No, harassment.

A sigh escaped her at the behavior, which hadn’t changed even a little from before. There was no one in this castle who stood on Adeline’s side. She had long since grown sick of the maids’ petty tricks, and she could already guess well enough who was behind them.

“How can they… After being on the verge of being cast out, after throwing away their pride and begging just to survive, yet how can they do something like this?”

Britta’s face crumpled into misery, her voice trembling as tears welled up.

“If they were going to treat us like this, then why did they ever summon us back from the north at all? They blocked every shipment of provisions halfway, left us without even firewood to survive the winter… do they have any idea how hard it was for us?”

Adeline took the sobbing maid’s hand and gave it a small, soothing pat.

“You survived the dead of winter, Princess. Your hands split and bled from hunting just to stay alive… And after all that, they sent you here to die. They needed a scapegoat for the trial, so they sent you in Princess Katrina’s place!”

Tears welled at the corners of Britta’s eyes as she clasped Adeline’s hands. It pained her to see the rough, lingering marks still etched into the hands of someone who should have lived her life untouched by hardship.

“I know everything. Instead of letting me follow you to Molton, they sent Camilla, that vile woman, and the others, just to keep you under suffocating surveillance. There’s no doubt they treated you with nothing but insolence while you were there, Your Highness.”

A bitter smile touched Adeline’s lips as memories of those cold, starving days resurfaced.

She had been ten years old when she lost her mother in an accident. The place she was abruptly cast away to was Norden, a desolate northern region so cold and barren that snow covered the land for more than half the year. Sending a young girl there with only a single maid in attendance made their intentions painfully clear.

Even so, she survived, clinging to life with stubborn ferocity.

The hardships she had endured to reach this point had been anything but light, yet in hindsight, they had become the very force that allowed someone once so endlessly fragile to grow.

“Thanks to that, I survived like this, didn’t I?”

Adeline spoke quietly, patting Britta’s shoulder as if to tell her there was no need for tears.

“But that governor, sir… he looks frightening as well…”

“No matter what, he’s still not as terrifying as Queen Eleanor.”

Adeline uttered, forcing herself to think that way as a form of comfort. She then spoke to Britta, who was gazing at her hands with pity.

“Besides, these hands are because of Uncle Wilhelm’s training, remember? Before I could even fire properly, he made me shoot a hundred times a day, saying I’d be eaten by wolves otherwise.”

“Ah… I remember. That forest warden was so gruff and unpleasant, he had absolutely no tact.”

Adeline’s eyes softened as she thought of Wilhelm, the forest warden who had taken pity on her circumstances and taught her how to hunt.

“He’s doing well, isn’t he?”

“Of course. He came to the capital briefly last month. When I was crying my eyes out, worried about you, he just grumbled, ‘That girl is someone I recognized as a forest warden. She’ll come back alive,’ and then left.”

As Adeline smiled, recalling Wilhelm’s blunt manner, the tension finally eased from Britta’s face.

“Oh, right. What about Camilla and the other maids? I didn’t see them anywhere.”

Britta tilted her head, having been curious all along about the absence of the maids who had gone with her master.

“They’re coming separately later.”

“I wonder what happened? Those girls clung to your side like leeches, doing nothing but spiteful little things. I thought they’d never leave you alone.”

“Something came up.”

A shadow passed over her eyes as she recalled the maids who had urged her to flee. They must have heard as well that the sentence had shifted from execution to a political marriage. It was only natural to suspect that they might be harboring some other scheme.