The banquet hall erupted in chaos.
The existing servants of Ronheim Castle—having no particular interest in watching Arrentals fight amongst themselves—wisely refrained from getting involved. They simply watched with carefully neutral expressions as the drama unfolded.
Only Lina and Sernia protested, their faces gone pale as sheets.
"Why us?!"
"What are you saying, Your Highness?!"
I ignored their desperate cries and spoke clearly—loudly enough for every servant and knight gathered in the banquet hall to hear.
"These women are spies of Empress Kavala."
The banquet hall exploded into murmurs and gasps.
"Your Highness!"
"Wh-what is she saying...?"
Lina and Sernia looked genuinely shocked—as if I had just revealed some carefully guarded secret.
It was almost amusing.
"Did you really think this was a secret?"
At first, the people of Ronheim Castle seemed taken aback by my blunt declaration.
But when they saw the expressions on Lina and Sernia's faces—wide-eyed shock, trembling lips, the unmistakable look of caught criminals—small bursts of laughter rippled through the crowd.
Lina and Sernia stood frozen, unable to believe that the situation had turned so catastrophically against them in mere moments.
Lina made one last desperate attempt to salvage the situation.
"Your Highness, the people of Ronheim are already wary of us! If you say such absurd things—"
Then Sernia, as if struck by sudden inspiration, threw herself to her knees before Callius.
"Your Grace! What Her Highness says is not true! The entire Arrental court knows that the Princess is mentally unstable!"
Lina quickly followed suit.
"Yes! That's right! Her Highness sometimes cannot tell the difference between fantasy and reality!"
I swallowed a weary sigh.
I'm so tired of this.
I've had countless encounters where people dismissed my words as delusions simply because they'd heard rumors I was mad—even when I was telling the absolute truth.
Before, I thought it was unbearably unfair. I suffered helplessly, unable to defend myself.
I even wondered if perhaps I truly was insane—because so many people kept saying the same thing. Maybe they were normal, and I was the broken one who couldn't even distinguish truth from lies.
The stigma of being "the mad princess" that Kavala and Andrea had branded me with was devastatingly effective.
Anyone could use it to manipulate me, to render me helpless—without ever having to put literal chains on my hands and feet.
It used to be like that.
But now, everything is different.
I looked at Callius, then at Granada.
I looked at the assembled servants of Ronheim Castle, and at Lamia standing among them.
There were far more people here who thought the rumors about my "madness" were ridiculous gossip than there were people who believed them absolutely.
To the people of Ronheim, I appeared as their Duchess—not as some raving lunatic to be pitied and dismissed.
And Kavala's servants? They seemed exactly like what they were: suspicious outsiders with hidden agendas.
Sending me to Ronheim was the biggest mistake Kavala ever made.
I turned back to Lina and Sernia with cold satisfaction.
"You still address me as 'the Princess of Arrental,' completely disregarding my title here in Ronheim. You stubbornly distinguish between Ronheimers and Arrentals, harboring a sense of superiority. And you expect the people here to side with you in times of trouble?"
That was all it took.
The servants of Ronheim Castle, recognizing the truth in my words, turned to glare at Lina and Sernia with sharp, hostile eyes.
Watching that shift—seeing my people rally behind me—sent a thrill racing through me from head to toe.
It felt like all the resentment that had been building in my chest for years, choking me, was finally being released.
Don't be helpless. Here, you don't have to be helpless like before.
When their last desperate gambit failed, the two women trembled in despair.
"Why us...? This is so unfair! So unfair!"
"Why do I have to suffer like this? Why?!"
To those crying women, I explained with perfect clarity why they had to die.
"If I don't kill you, it's obvious you'll report to the Empress that I'm harboring Lamia—the woman who stole Empress Kavala's treasure. If I want to keep that secret and save Lamia's life, then I must eliminate you first."
"That—!"
I gave a cold, measured order to the guards.
"Take them. Execute them in the castle courtyard immediately."
Naturally, no one stepped forward to protest on Lina and Sernia's behalf.
The guards came forward obediently, seized the two women, and hauled them to their feet.
"No! No! Let go of me!"
Lina cried and struggled violently. Sernia bit her lip and glared at me with pure, concentrated hatred.
I turned away from them and gestured to Lamia, who had been watching the scene unfold with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Get up, Lamia. It's all over."
"My lady..."
Lamia stared at me with an expression caught somewhere between confusion and overwhelming emotion.
I smiled warmly and patted her shoulder.
"I told you to trust me. I promised I would help you escape safely."
"Thank you."
Lamia wiped away the tears welling in her eyes with the back of her hand.
"But is it really all right to... to get rid of them? If the Empress finds out—"
"We'll say they were devoured by the tiger that lives in the castle."
"A tiger?"
I smiled mischievously and glanced toward the banquet hall entrance.
"Just kidding. Don't worry. They won't die. At least not today."
"What? But you just ordered the guards to execute them immediately—"
At that precise moment—
Just before the maids were dragged completely out of the banquet hall and the doors closed behind them—
Lina's voice suddenly erupted into the hallway, loud and desperate.
"I won't report anything! I won't! Sernia will be the one reporting to the Empress anyway—I saw it!"
Her voice echoed through the corridor outside, carrying back into the banquet hall.
"I saw Sernia use black magic!"
Perfect. Just as I expected.
I felt a deep satisfaction settle over me as everything unfolded exactly according to plan.
No matter how much I thought about it, there was no reason for the existing servants of Ronheim Castle to murder Vanessa. And considering Granada was an expert in these matters, it didn't seem likely that an outside intruder could have penetrated the castle undetected.
Which meant it was most likely one of my own maids. And given that they were all connected to Kavala in some way, there had probably been some internal conflict related to their mistress.
My maids weren't exactly loyal to one another. I knew that if I applied the right pressure—the threat of imminent death—someone would break immediately.
I glanced at Lamia, who was staring at me with a slightly bewildered expression.
"You said they wouldn't die today, didn't you?"
I smiled and gave new orders to the remaining guards.
"Go out there and bring those two back."
After interrogating Sernia, the full truth finally came to light.
It was indeed Sernia who had killed Vanessa.
As it turned out, Sernia was the first graduate of the Department of Black Magic that Kavala had recently established at the Imperial Academy.
Kavala—unable to trust my loyalty after I'd been sent to Ronheim, where there were no magical transportation circles for quick communication—had hastily selected a black magician to serve as my maid. Someone who could report back to her in real-time through magical means.
So that's why she chose people who hadn't received proper maid training.
Vanessa and Lina were maids selected specifically to camouflage Sernia's presence. If Sernia—who had no royal etiquette training whatsoever—was surrounded by other servants who were equally untrained, she wouldn't stand out.
When pressed about why she'd killed Vanessa, Sernia held back at first. But eventually, faced with the reality of her situation, she confessed everything.
"I received instructions today to monitor everyone closely, as it appeared there was a thief among the group who had stolen valuable treasure."
"The Empress told you to kill the thief?"
"That was... a mistake on my part. I returned to my room after receiving those orders, and there I found Vanessa rummaging through my luggage. I questioned her, and she became so agitated that she suddenly started using violence against me..."
Vanessa had gone to the maids' quarters immediately after her fight with Lamia.
Since Lamia was sharing a room with Sernia, it seemed Vanessa had mistaken Sernia's belongings for Lamia's.
She was probably searching for evidence to prove Lamia was a thief.
But since Lamia had been a fugitive from the very beginning, she had no luggage to search through. The only belongings in that room were Sernia's.
There was no evidence to find. And Sernia was only caught in a misunderstanding.
It was obvious that Lamia was the thief, but when I didn't believe Vanessa's accusations—and then Lamia actually beat Vanessa bloody—Vanessa must have been consumed with rage.
The timing was catastrophically bad.
It was a meaningless death born entirely from misunderstanding and bad luck.
I had Sernia locked in the dungeon and ordered a thorough search of her belongings to confiscate all black magic materials.
I also asked Callius to assign a knight to watch her constantly—to ensure she couldn't contact Kavala through any magical means.
I watched people moving efficiently according to my orders, then gave separate instructions to Lamia.
"Bring me all of Sernia's personal belongings—everything except the materials that were confiscated from her luggage."
"Why?"
"There's something I want to investigate."
And with that, the Vanessa murder case was closed.
One spy captured.One spy turned.One weapon discovered.And Kavala's network—shattered.
The game had truly begun.
To Be Continued...
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