# Threads ofTreason
— Terms of Devotion — "That's exactly it. The Princess is keeping her distance because she's afraid of the head maid's revenge. But now she's going back to normal."
"Is that so?"
Samon's eyes narrowed, weighing every word.
"Of course. You know how much Her Highness trusts and depends on me."
Desperation tightened her voice despite her effort to sound light.
Only then did his shoulders loosen. A pleased smile curved his thin lips.
Samon Claudio "That head maid has stirred up enough trouble in the palace. She's a nuisance. Let me see your leg… here?"
His hand reached for her with practiced familiarity. Even as she noticed his touch lacked true warmth, Marieu pretended not to care and melted into his arms.
"That decrepit fox dared to lay a hand on my beloved? Don't worry. She'll be gone soon. Father has already chosen her replacement."
His breath was hot against her skin; his tone was all possession, no protection.
"Darling… you do love me, don't you?"
"Marieu, I want to marry you this very moment."
He whispered it against her ear, the words feather-light and intoxicating.
"I want that too."
His kiss was as sweet as she remembered—right until his fingers tightened painfully in her hair, forcing her eyes open.
"But I'm the heir to a dukedom. I need a reason. A commoner bride requires… justification."
His eyes sharpened, the affection in them cooling into calculation.
"You must be my cousin's most trusted maid. I want everything—what Medea does, what she says, what she thinks."
Up close, beneath the handsome features, something rodentlike and furtive glimmered behind his gaze.
"Do you understand, Marieu? Completely?"
Panic clenched around her ribs.
Duchess Claudio, just within reach—vanishing with every heartbeat.
"Of course. Don't worry. I can do anything for you."
She clung to him as if she could hold her imagined future together by force.
— A Favor Lost — Even without Samon's demands, Marieu threw herself into regaining the Princess's trust.
Flattery. Tears. Carefully rehearsed apologies.
None of it moved those clear, distant green eyes.
The gentle Princess who had once explained every decision and patiently taught her etiquette had vanished.
I have to put everything back the way it was—before Samon realizes I've failed.
One morning, as Marieu was pouring tea, Medea's voice broke the fragile routine.
"That bracelet is lovely."
Marieu's hand jerked. The teapot nearly slipped.
"I don't recall seeing it before. Who gave it to you?"
Gold coiled around Marieu's wrist like a living vine. Tiny trumpet-shaped flowers bloomed along it, each bud set with a vivid red stone.
Refined. Costly. Far beyond what a palace maid should own.
Yesterday, Samon had pressed it into her hand with a smile.
"You asked if I love you? Let this be your answer."
"Who gave it to me? It was my mother's."
"She left it in her keepsake box. I never had the courage to wear it until now."
She tugged her sleeve down to hide the bracelet, invoking her dead mother as a shield.
"It's all she left me. I would never accept something so extravagant from anyone else."
"Is that so?"
"Where else would I have gotten it?"
"I see."
The bland response stung far more than open scorn.
'I see'? Is she looking down on me now?
A half-blood Princess with dead parents and no fortune—daring to judge a girl cherished by a duke's heir.
How dare she.
A faint sound broke through the rush of Marieu's resentment.
Laughter.
Medea was smiling at her, one eyebrow slightly arched.
Not warmly. Not affectionately.
As if she had just confirmed something.
"Is something wrong, Your Highness?"
Goosebumps rippled across Marieu's arms. That smile was serene—but behind it lay a chill like sharpened steel.
"I should go. Please… call if you need anything."
The resolve she'd forged that morning—to cling to the Princess until her favor returned—crumbled entirely.
If she stayed another moment, she felt certain everything would spill out: her secret lover, her festering envy, the fear that those clear eyes saw straight through her.
"A keepsake. How amusing."
Medea murmured to the empty room as Marieu's footsteps faded.
Princess Medea "She was lying."
"Because of the flowers?"
"They weren't roses. Trumpet blooms. That motif belonged to the tribe that assassinated the Katzen Emperor. Its use was banned everywhere."
Katzen had enforced that prohibition more obsessively than any other realm—especially in foreign courts.
Only after the First Prince exterminated the Trumpet tribe did that design reappear, strictly controlled, as a quiet symbol of imperial favor.
"Chronologically, it cannot be a keepsake. The First Prince's victory came long after her nanny's death."
Beyond exposing Marieu's affair, the bracelet said something far more important.
"My uncle has already opened channels with the Empire."
"Samon craves recognition. His father is desperate to display his ties to Katzen's new power—so desperate he uses it to impress a maid. He likely has no idea what he's given her."
In her previous life, she remembered him at the forefront of those urging King Peleus's dethronement.
"It helps that neither of them is particularly intelligent. I almost feel obliged to thank them."
"You're saying Duke Claudio is colluding with the Empire. But why would Katzen involve itself with our little kingdom at all?"
"What does the Empire gain from backing your uncle's ambitions?"
"The Katzen Emperor does not want Valdina to grow stronger. He needs to break my brother, whatever it takes."
Peleus was a man who would snap before he bent. Even surrounded by demonic beasts, he'd refused to bow to Katzen's demands.
"If Valdina remains stable under his rule, we become a problem. If we implode under a puppet king, we become convenient."
"Then the aid Katzen's delegation promised…"
"A lie. The Emperor will conjure some excuse to withdraw it."
Medea's jaw tightened.
"And when our people are starving and freezing, outrage will need a target."
"They will give it one: the royal family."
In her previous life, everything had unfolded with mechanical precision.
Winter had fallen hard. The promised aid vanished. The royal treasury was bled dry in a frantic search for grain.
It hadn't been enough.
Hunger had turned to resentment. Resentment to fury. Fury to action.
And then the rebellion had begun.
The leaders were not patriots. They were men bought with Claudio gold, stirring veterans broken by war and citizens maddened by want.
They'd even strengthened their position by abducting Medea, parading her as a Princess fleeing to save herself while her people starved.
The Regent's plan had been simple: unleash chaos, then "save" the kingdom from the disaster he engineered.
"Rebellion…"
Neril's expression grew taut.
Even now, resentment over the war runs deep. If aid disappears as she says…
Starving people would not remain docile for long. If that outrage was directed at the palace…
"This threatens the entire royal line. And the Empire stands behind it all?"
"No matter how powerful Katzen is, aren't they afraid of the consequences? To quietly topple another monarch?"
"Oh, no one will ever trace it back to them."
Medea's smile held no mirth.
"Everyone who tried to investigate the link between Claudio and the Empire died. The 'revolutionaries' were hung or vanished. The threads were cut as soon as they were no longer useful."
The rebels had breached the walls too easily, too quickly. Claudio had opened the way from within.
If Peleus had taken any longer to crush the uprising in her past life, the Regent's coup might have succeeded flawlessly.
This time, she would not allow the rebels to reach the capital at all.
"We stop them before they ever see the city walls."
Medea rose and crossed to the window. The fortress line was visible in the distance, stark against the horizon.
"Neril. Where is your former commander now?"
"Captain Gilliforth. He retired to the border garrisons."
The name settled in the room like a drawn blade.
"If we can bring him into this, he may be the breakwater we need."
A single stone, set in the right place, could turn back a tide.
End Chapter 10 ## Threads of Treason
"The web tightens around those who spin it."
[ Continue to Chapter 11 ]