RPL 17

Chapter 17

The quiet room with only me in it, the silence without even the sound of a single bird’s cry, made my chest heave.

The rough waves that had made my chest heave soon overflowed the breakwater and appeared in the form of tears.

“……”

I roughly wiped the corners of my eyes with my sleeve and turned my head toward the window where bright sunlight was pouring down.

Looking at the open view, the surging waves gradually grew calmer.

*This isn’t that room.* I quietly repeated to myself. *It’s just quiet.*

“Mm. It’s delicious.”

I deliberately spoke to myself.

Thinking it must be because I had been dealing with someone—enemy or otherwise—and was now alone.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the meal.

“Shall I try exploring while I’m alone?”

I stretched and stood up.

Since the empress had said she would send people to attend to me, I didn’t know when a maid would be assigned.

That maid would be the empress’s eyes and enforcer. Therefore, the present moment, while I was alone, was the right time if I wanted to do something in secret.

I was about to go straight out of the room when I paused. Then I looked down at my feet wearing the indoor slippers.

“Ha, there’s only one pair.”

The soft, fluffy indoor slippers that, unlike shoes, didn’t touch the heels. That was why I liked them so much.

The chief attendant had cleaned, but the time had been far too short to clean the entire castle.

The inside of the castle would be dirty. If I went out wearing the indoor slippers, the slippers would clearly get dirty too.

“No. I can’t.”

After deliberating, I took off the indoor slippers and stepped out barefoot. Feet could be washed, but I couldn’t lose the only pair of indoor slippers I had.

As expected, the inside of the castle was full of dust. Still, the floor where my room was and the first-floor hall were relatively clean.

As if someone had cleaned them overnight.

‘Their hands must be incredibly fast.’

I set aside the question and looked around the hall.

“Where should I start looking?”

The reason I had chosen this castle was the same as the reason Kiseira had appeared before me.

The emperor had told Kiseira about the “secret passage.”

That meant this castle had “secret passages.”

Not only the one passage connecting to Kiseira’s palace, but also passages leading to other places.

‘It’s very solid information that appeared in the original story.’

In the original story, Regina had coincidentally learned of the existence of the secret passages in this castle and used them effectively.

Of course, I had no intention of using them to become emperor like Regina.

I planned to find escape routes in advance for when things went wrong and I faced a life-threatening crisis, or for the escape I would make later.

That was why I had asked to make this castle my residence.

“I can’t remember.”

I blankly scanned the surroundings.

The secret passages in this castle were not connected to each other.

That meant the passage leading to Kiseira’s palace could only take you to Kiseira’s palace.

So to use secret passages leading elsewhere, I first needed to figure out where the secret passages were located.

But secret passages weren’t called secret passages for nothing.

It was a headache trying to figure out how to find the cunningly hidden passages.

‘They all seemed to appear in the original story, but how am I supposed to remember all of that?’

I remembered the overall contents of the original story in relatively good detail. While confined, I had gone over the contents of the original story hundreds or thousands of times.

But it was difficult to recall even such detailed things.

“Strange purpose. Really.”

Having no choice, I muttered while touching this and that at random.

This castle had been a place that confined imperial criminals for generations. That was why it was also a place where entry was strictly forbidden.

How could such a place be a hotbed of all sorts of secret passages?

“Ah… could it be?”

At a sudden thought, I furrowed my brows.

“Does it mean to sneak out and live?”

An ordinary person would have their mind collapse within a few days or weeks, just like I had.

They might pound on the door until it bled, scratch it, or even attempt self-harm.

‘Then the door would open.’

Could it possibly mean to use the countless secret passages of this castle after that to survive or escape?

“That so-called father didn’t even tell me something like this.”

With both arms on the stairs and my upper body tilted back, I was clicking my tongue when I blinked.

Wondering if what I was seeing right now was a hallucination.

Even though it looked upside down, the glaring eyes were visible so vividly that it was truly an extremely realistic hallucination.

“You!”

‘It’s not.’

I let out a sigh.

A hallucination wouldn’t talk.

***

“She cried, you say?”

The maid was startled when she saw the chief attendant, Kashas, whose face was distorted as he asked again.

He was a man as strict with himself as he was with others, as was evident even from his clean and neat attire.

He was absolutely not someone who showed such intense emotions.

“Ah, that is…”

The maid who hurriedly continued speaking was a maid belonging to the empress’s palace who had helped Regina.

She reported everything she had seen and heard to Kashas without omission.

“So she wasn’t hit, and those tears weren’t real either?”

“Yes, probably.”

The maid spoke uncertainly while glancing at Kashas.

Kashas’s face had already returned to normal.

“Understood. You may return now.”

Kashas handed the maid a small package. The maid carefully accepted it.

“Is it insufficient?”

Kashas asked the maid, who was still hesitating even after receiving what she wanted.

Kashas planned to quickly investigate the truth through others he had planted in the empress’s palace.

Because of that, if the maid wanted more money, he was willing to give more and send her off.

“No!”

The maid answered while being startled once again.

“It’s not that…”

The maid stroked the money pouch with both hands and recalled the memory from earlier.

The princess who had politely expressed sincere thanks with a genuine expression to someone who was merely a commoner servant like herself.

She had only taken care of her to the weight of this pouch in her hands.

So why had the princess, who should have been noble, bowed her head with such a shabby appearance?

The weight of the princess, which had been as light as a feather, pressed heavily on her chest.

The various scars that mottled the princess’s white skin left deep marks on her heart.

Only then did the maid realize that Regina was not a princess, but a frail child who desperately needed help.

And how false that rumor was as well.

“A strange rumor is circulating.”

Having made her decision, the maid swallowed dryly and spoke solemnly.

“A rumor?”

As soon as Kashas asked again, the maid began telling the rumor she knew.

As the maid’s words continued, Kashas’s face hardened.

The gist of the rumor was this:

‘A demon has appeared in this world wearing Regina’s skin.’

The demon had eaten its twin sibling right after being born and controlled the previous empress to start a rebellion. It was to bring down the empire.

The emperor knew this as well, so he hastily concluded the empress’s matter and confined the princess possessed by the demon.

The reason the princess came out again was because the demon had finally seduced even the emperor.

The empire would soon be destroyed by the demon.

“It was a rumor that circulated as soon as Princess Regina was confined. That rumor has gained more details and is circulating again.”

When the maid finished speaking, Kashas crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

‘That maid’s reaction back then.’

The maid who had first discovered Regina had suddenly screamed and called for help.

At that sound, the empress’s knight who had been searching for Regina got involved, and Regina suffered roughly.

The reason Kashas hadn’t paid much attention to the maid’s abnormal reaction, which he should have properly addressed, was because his resentment was greater.

Out of that resentment, Kashas had beaten the maid nearly to death and driven her out of the imperial palace.

If that maid had known the rumor, it was a somewhat excessive but not incomprehensible reaction.

And the fact that Kashas had not encountered that strange rumor until now was also—

A rumor related to the imperial family. A rumor that treated her as a demon at that.

If one carelessly misspoke, necks would be cut off one after another for the crime of insulting the imperial family.

So in front of Kashas, who was a close aide to the emperor, they would have kept quiet and been careful.

‘It was a rumor that circulated as soon as the princess was confined, and since it had been almost forgotten after that, there wouldn’t have been anyone who specifically reported the rumor.’

Since even he himself had not paid attention to Regina until now.

Opening his eyes, Kashas tapped his forearm with his fingers. Then he raised the corner of his mouth sardonically.

‘Kayenne, that foreign woman.’

A rumor that would get one’s neck cut just by mentioning it spread widely inside the imperial family, among the imperial servants?

This could only be seen as someone deliberately spreading it. And the only person who regarded Regina as a thorn in their side was the empress, Kayenne.

‘Did she want to thoroughly isolate Princess Regina?’

Or was it a scheme to inflate this rumor when Regina was mentioned as a candidate for succession and make her rejected by the people’s hearts?

‘Vicious thing.’

Kashas’s eyes gleamed fiercely.

A woman who had come to the empire alone and risen all the way to the position of empress.

Even if she had given birth to the imperial grandchild “Kiseira,” it was an impossible feat without possessing considerable determination.

That determination was like a snake’s cunning.

It did not mean she was highly capable, but that her mind was extraordinarily sharp in a mean and base direction.

“Thank you for informing me.”

At Kashas’s words, the maid’s face brightened.

Judging by the chief attendant’s reaction, it was clear he did not believe this rumor.

A noble aristocrat different from a mere commoner like herself had judged that rumor to be wrong.

As expected, that rumor was a false one.

‘The chief attendant will help the princess.’

The maid bowed her head in relief.

After cautioning the maid to watch her mouth, Kashas headed toward the emperor’s palace.

His mind was complicated. Because he was harboring various concerns.

‘First I should investigate.’

That Kayenne had spread the rumor was merely Kashas’s speculation.

And he also needed to clearly confirm whether Regina had truly come out crying.

Kashas’s role was not to gather groundless rumors circulating within the imperial palace and report them to the emperor.

‘I wonder if Her Highness is all right.’

Kashas recalled Regina and let out a low sigh.

The reason he had urgently recruited a few maids from the empress’s palace upon hearing the news that the empress had summoned Regina was for no particular reason.

It was because he was concerned that, like the maid who had screamed upon seeing Regina earlier or the head maid who had acted rudely toward Regina, the maids of the empress’s palace might not properly attend to Regina.

‘I did so because I never thought the empress would openly oppress the princess.’

At the unexpected news, Kashas’s heart grew heavier than ever.

If he had not presumptuously pitied Regina.

Whether the fact that Regina had come out crying was false or true, it would have been completely buried.

Once again the child would have been left alone in the room, suffering.

“……”

Kashas looked up at the sky and let out a deep sigh.

At first he had simply felt sorry and paid attention.

But the more he learned about Regina’s situation, the more his heart was gradually leaning toward Regina.