"Too late, she realized the trap had already closed around her throat."
Oh, that's right. Will that witch really let me go?
The gentle girl who once seemed so harmless had completely shattered the great regent—the man whose power had shaken the entire kingdom. She'd brought him to his knees without raising a sword.
I can't deal with a Princess. I'll just be trampled to death like an ant... like the chief maid, like the minister...
In the face of mounting terror, Marieu lost all hope.
Hadn't she watched it all from the shadows? How the Princess lured her enemies into carefully laid traps and destroyed them one by one?
Learned helplessness shattered Marieu's will entirely.
She collapsed, fell to her knees, bowed her head until it nearly touched the floor, and begged.
"Please forgive me, Your Highness. I didn't sell any information—I swear it. I followed your orders. Please believe me..."
Silence.
"If you spare my life, I'll live as though I'm dead. I won't show my face again. But if you still can't forgive me... then please, at least spare this child."
Marieu's face was drenched in tears.
She had never imagined she could feel this desperate for the child growing inside her.
When she'd first discovered the pregnancy, anxiety had overshadowed joy. She'd thought herself incapable of maternal instinct.
But with each passing day, her feelings for the unborn child had deepened.
This child was the fruit of her love with Samon—her only blood relative. In this barren world where even her mother had abandoned her, the baby was the only being who truly shared her flesh and blood.
Marieu could not possibly give up her child.
"..."
Anyone would have sympathized with such a pitiful display—a mother prioritizing her child's safety above her own.
But Medea was cold.
A pair of unreadable green eyes swept over Marieu like a winter frost.
After a long moment, the Princess leaned down, bringing her face closer to Marieu's.
Shadows pooled at her feet. The faint scent of flowers brushed Marieu's nose.
Marieu crouched lower, trembling like a leaf in a storm.
"Samon, too? You're carrying his child?"
A gentle hand cupped Marieu's chin and lifted her head.
"If Samon welcomes you, and if he acknowledges this child, then I will do the same."
Marieu blinked, stunned.
"...What?"
"I will recognize your child. I will personally bring them to the palace and raise them. The child will receive a royal education and be treated as befitting their station."
"Is... is that true?"
Marieu could scarcely believe her ears at the Princess's astonishing proposal.
Medea was the King's only sister. Her legitimacy was beyond dispute.
If such a Princess acknowledged the child, the baby's future would be assured—perhaps even brilliant.
Maybe they could even enter the line of succession.
The son of a mere commoner, elevated to become one of the kingdom's most powerful figures. Perhaps even granted a dukedom, like his father Samon.
In a single heartbeat, pleasant fantasies bloomed in Marieu's mind like poisonous flowers.
But she quickly came to her senses and looked at Medea with renewed suspicion.
There's no way the Princess would do something this generous without reason.
"And... what if it's the opposite?"
"Hmm."
Medea smiled faintly—a smile like morning frost on a windowpane.
"Let's discuss that later, shall we?"
Why didn't I realize then?
Marieu, now frantically packing her belongings, shook her head at her own foolishness.
She'd been so captivated by that smile that she hadn't noticed the hunter's noose tightening around her neck.
She stuffed the pouch of jewelry she'd hidden deep in a drawer into her bag with trembling hands.
"I knew it. The Princess knew from the very beginning."
Medea had known that Samon would reject both her and the child.
What is she trying to do by using me? No—maybe it's worse than I thought. Maybe it isn't me she's planning to use, but my child.
"No... no..."
Marieu's heart hammered wildly against her ribs. Nowhere felt safe.
"They're all trying to take my baby away!"
Marieu's mumbling suddenly erupted into a hysterical scream.
"We have to run. Baby, they won't leave either of us alone."
The sight of her biting her lip with one hand while stroking her stomach with the other was almost manic.
She had to escape—from both Medea and Samon.
Late that night, the old hinges creaked once more.
There was no hesitation in Marieu's steps as she left the narrow, shabby room for what she hoped would be the last time.
She slipped out of the palace under cover of darkness, her meager belongings slung over her shoulder.
I just have to reach the castle gate. Then I can hide in a carriage leaving the city...
The street was pitch black, swallowed by shadow.
Somehow, her chest tightened with dread.
It felt as though someone might grab her by the scruff of the neck at any moment. Marieu quickened her pace, glancing nervously over her shoulder as if pursued by ghosts.
"Where are you going in such a hurry?"
Her worst fears materialized before her eyes.
"Well, well. Miss Marieu. Fancy meeting you here."
Massive figures emerged from the darkness as if conjured from thin air, blocking her path completely.
Marieu's legs nearly gave out beneath her.
"Catch her!"
She spun around and bolted back toward the palace with every ounce of strength she possessed.
They know my name.
They'd been waiting outside the palace specifically for her.
God—the Princess knew I would try to run...
"Ahhh! Let go of me!"
Before she could process what was happening, a hand seized her hair. A thick, brutally strong grip grabbed the back of her neck and hurled her onto the cobblestones.
"Ahh!"
Marieu scrambled upright without even checking her scraped, bleeding skin.
"I'll give you everything I have! Please—just let me go. Look the other way. I'm begging you!"
She frantically gathered the scattered jewels from the ground and thrust them toward her attackers.
But the men didn't even glance at the treasure. They lifted her bodily off the ground.
She struggled against their iron grip, but it was useless. Desperation clawed at her throat.
"There is royal blood—Duke Claudio's blood—in my womb! If you release me, the Duke will reward you handsomely. So please—"
Ever since witnessing Samon's terrifying fury in the prison, Marieu had unconsciously begun invoking the Duke's name whenever she felt cornered.
Repetition had turned it into reflex, as though her body remembered the words without thought.
"Heh."
One of the thugs laughed—a cruel, mocking sound that leaked from between his crooked teeth.
"What are you babbling about? He was the one who sent us to kill you."
The stranger's lips twisted into a vicious grin.
"Just like this. You and that little Duke's bastard both."
"No... that can't be..."
It wasn't the Princess?
Marieu shook her head in denial. No matter what had passed between them, they'd been together for so long. Samon couldn't possibly be this cruel. Not to her. Not to their child.
"He's sparing your worthless life out of old sentiment. Normally, both you and your mother would be rotting in a ditch by now."
The thug spat on the ground in front of her.
"But you had the audacity to betray him and run? Listen, woman—if you pull that now, we'll all die. So stop squirming."
He gestured impatiently to his companions.
"One way or another, that child will never be born into this world. Don't be so dramatic about it. What are you waiting for? Hold her down and pour it!"
At his command, the other men seized Marieu's arms with bruising force.
They wrenched her head back and pried her jaw open. One of them uncorked a vial of viscous black liquid.
"No! No! Aaaah—!"
The poison flooded her mouth, bitter and burning.
Then her vision went dark, and she felt a sharp, brutal pain at the base of her skull.
Everything disappeared.
"Miss, please wake up. Can you hear me?"
When Marieu opened her eyes again, the world was painfully bright.
Harsh sunlight streamed through a narrow window, stabbing into her vision.
She blinked several times before the shabby, stained ceiling came into focus.
"Miss, are you all right? You're awake!"
Several pairs of eyes hovered at the edge of her bed, peering down at her. They belonged to older women, their faces lined with concern.
Marieu moved her hand weakly across the sheets. The rough, threadbare fabric caught against her palm.
"Careful now. Your body isn't in good shape yet. Don't strain yourself."
A middle-aged woman with a kind, weathered face helped Marieu sit upright.
"Here, drink this medicine first. The doctor said you need to... well, you need to take care of yourself."
Marieu took the teacup mechanically, barely registering the strange pause in the woman's words.
"How did you end up like this? I've told you before—wandering around alone in times like these is asking for trouble. What kind of world do we live in?"
"Look at all this cold sweat! Poor thing."
"I thought she was dead when they dumped her here. She was covered in so much blood..."
Their voices washed over her like distant waves.
She didn't even hear them explain that she'd been found abandoned on a pile of straw in a remote alley, left for dead.
Then—
Clang!
The teacup slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor.
Her mind snapped back into sharp, agonizing focus. The last memory returned like a blade to the throat.
Fleeing the palace in desperate haste. The strangers blocking her path. The black poison forced down her throat.
And the suffocating darkness that followed.
Marieu screamed, hysterical and raw.
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