TSTRP 06

Chapter 6

When I got out of the carriage at the coachman’s call, the magnificent Imperial Palace came into view.

There were buildings everywhere that looked as though each one alone must have cost an astronomical amount of money to construct. It felt almost unreal, as if I had stepped into a movie set with a royal palace as its backdrop.

As I stood there in awe, the coachman pointed behind me.

“The First Prince’s Palace is over there.”

“Oh, over there. Uh… excuse me?”

The direction he pointed in was the exact opposite of the place I had been admiring.

Unlike the bright and splendid buildings around us, the area behind me looked like an entirely different world.

It was gloomy and dreary.

Is there even a building there?

What I saw wasn’t a building at all, but an ominous forest of vines.

It was so dark that it seemed as though all the sunlight had been swallowed up, despite it being broad daylight.

“Th-that… there’s no building here.”

“Ah, the First Prince’s Palace is beyond that garden. As you can see, it would be difficult for the carriage to pass through the garden.”

That is… a garden?

That forest of vines?

No, more importantly, why was there a forest of vines inside the Imperial Palace in the first place?

If I went inside, I had a feeling there would be some sort of man-eating swamp or monster waiting for me.

Whether I accepted reality or not, the coachman climbed back into the carriage.

“Well, I’ll be off!”

“W-wait!”

I hurriedly called after him, but the carriage mercilessly disappeared in an instant.

I stared blankly at the forest of vines.

What am I supposed to do?

But I didn’t even have the luxury of worrying.

A bell rang somewhere in the distance.

Ding—ding—

It was a signal that my work time was approaching.

“Sigh… I have to get to work first.”

Whether thunder and lightning struck or a natural disaster occurred, the spirit of a Korean office worker who went to work without fail began awakening from its twenty-year slumber.

I steeled my resolve and rolled up my sleeves.

Compared to the flood I had experienced in my previous life, when the roads had been completely submerged in water, a mere forest of vines was nothing!

I rolled up my sleeves and marched forward with determination.

“Huff… huff…”

I collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily, my face utterly exhausted.

“Damn these vines.”

I had almost gotten trapped in the middle of the forest of vines with no way in or out.

The vines were so dense that there was no way anyone outside could even see that I was inside.

Moreover, it seemed like this was an area where people rarely—or perhaps never—passed by.

Help me!

I had called for help countless times, but there wasn’t a single sign of anyone nearby.

Am I really going to get trapped here and starve to death?

I had already imagined myself being discovered as a skeleton wedged between the vines, so I used every last bit of strength I had to escape.

If I hadn’t experienced being crushed among people on a packed subway in my previous life, I might have given up…

Fellow office workers of my previous life, fighting!

I blew gently upward, pushing my fallen bangs out of my face.

Just a few minutes ago, my clothes had been neat and presentable.

Now they were filthy, with small tears scattered here and there.

They were glorious battle scars proving just how brutal my struggle with the vines had been.

I put my battered hat back on and looked up at the building that had finally come into view.

“This is the First Prince’s Palace, the White Palace.”

The First Prince’s Palace was said to be the whitest building in the entire Imperial Palace.

Why did I say was?

Because now the palace was completely covered by all sorts of vines.

They had wrapped around it so tightly that I couldn’t even see the palace walls anymore.

The First Prince’s Palace gave off an ominous atmosphere, as though it belonged in a horror movie.

I staggered toward the palace and knocked on the door.

With just a little bit of feeling behind it.

Creeeeak.

After a moment, the door slowly opened with a rusty groan.

There was a tense atmosphere, just like when a hero in a novel opens the gates to the Demon King’s castle.

I swallowed nervously and stepped inside.

A gloomy voice greeted me.

“Welcome, Secretary Albre.”

At the same time, the door behind me slammed shut.

Bang!

A man who had been gazing out the window with a bored expression turned his head toward the room.

The sunlight streaming in from behind him illuminated his blond hair brilliantly.

His appearance was so radiant that those who saw him gave him the nickname the incarnation of the Sun God.

It was a childish nickname, but there was hardly a better way to describe his appearance.

Delicately shaped eyebrows.

Beneath them, eyes of a mysterious color that seemed to have been sprinkled with gold.

Broad, masculine shoulders and a solid physique.

And with a sacred appearance reminiscent of the gods described in holy scripture, the man spoke.

“Is that the new little rat?”

The words coming from such a noble face were extremely vulgar.

With a crooked smile on his handsome face, the man looked toward his aide.

Pedro Serga, his trusted aide, was standing beside him and slightly bowed his head.

“Not a rat. She is the new secretary.”

“I didn’t ask because I didn’t know that.”

The man let out a small sigh.

His aide was such a frustratingly literal person that he couldn’t even understand a joke.

Even now, Pedro obviously understood perfectly well what he meant by rat, yet he insisted on answering literally.

“I gave you the investigation report on the secretary yesterday. Did you burn it as kindling without even looking at it?”

“She’ll be dead within a month anyway. Why bother reading it?”

Just like all the secretaries who had come before her, she would disappear soon enough.

Lyenel scoffed and looked down at the garden.

There, the new secretary was huffing and puffing her way through the vines, looking like an absolute mess.

That foolish-looking appearance was probably all part of a strategy to make him lower his guard.

Such strategies might work once or twice, but he had been through far too much to keep falling for the same tricks.

“So, which side sent this little rat this time?”

Lyenel had once been destined to become Crown Prince.

However, after his biological mother, the Empress, died when he was young, he had gradually become a ruined man.

At least, that was how things appeared to everyone else.

The only person in the Imperial Palace who knew Lyenel’s true nature was Pedro Serga.

The Lyenel Pedro had observed was extremely intelligent and had an uncanny ability to see through the filthy thoughts hidden in people’s hearts.

Perhaps because of that, Lyenel had developed an obsessive habit of distrusting others.

His paranoia was particularly severe when it came to his secretaries.

And he had good reason for it.

Every single one of his previous secretaries had been spies sent by someone else.

Even when a secretary initially entered without knowing anything, it wasn’t long before they were bought off by one of his enemies.

How many times had Lyenel nearly been stabbed because he had trusted a secretary?

He no longer trusted them.

And it wasn’t just secretaries.

He trusted no one.

Servants, maids, visiting nobles—even members of his own family who shared his blood.

The only person Lyenel relied on, even slightly, within the palace was Pedro.

This secretary must be someone’s spy as well.

Lyenel shook his head wearily.

He had spent years pretending to be a reckless and depraved man in order to lull his enemies into a false sense of security.

Yet they still sent spies after him time and time again, continuing their schemes.

The position of Crown Prince had been out of his reach for a long time now, but apparently his enemies still found the position of First Prince irritating enough to keep him under constant surveillance.

They never left Lyenel alone.

At least because he pretended to be a worthless playboy, they limited themselves to secret schemes behind his back.

If he had shown his true self, they would have openly done everything in their power to kill him.

“This time, she wasn’t sent by either side.”

“Enough. If she does anything suspicious, deal with her yourself. I don’t want to waste any more time worrying about things like that.”

He was about to dismiss the matter and turn away when—

“Wait.”

Lyenel noticed something strange.

He narrowed his eyes and looked down.

The new secretary had pushed back her disheveled hair, revealing a familiar face beneath it.

At the same time, the relaxed expression on Lyenel’s face cracked.

In a much lower voice, he said,

“Pedro, explain what this is.”

“I definitely gave Your Highness the documents beforehand. The one who didn’t read them was Your Highness.”

No wonder Pedro had seemed strangely hesitant when telling him about the new secretary that morning.

Normally, whether a new secretary arrived or not, Pedro would have handled everything himself without even needing to report it to him.

“I told you to explain. Why is that woman here?”

The face that had briefly appeared was unmistakably someone he knew.

Lyenel whipped his head around and demanded an explanation.

Pedro Serga met his gaze without the slightest hint of agitation, as though he had anticipated this reaction.

“It was a coincidence—”

“Forget that ridiculous excuse. I know perfectly well that you would never hire a secretary without checking her identity.”

Apparently knowing from the beginning that his excuse wouldn’t work, Pedro handed him the documents he had prepared in advance.

At the top of the document, the name Solana Albre was written clearly.