episode_0019

I am surrounded by unfamiliar people and being led somewhere.

I can’t see, my hands are tied, and I can’t move.

I… I don’t want to die…

But I don’t want to beg pitifully to be spared either.

Because that would be betraying Prince Antony, who loved me.

I forcibly ignore my trembling body and tears.

A cool breeze brushes past my hands and neck in that moment.

Am I… outside?

Is my vision blocked?

Every nerve in my body focuses on my senses.

Hearing, touch… smell…

All those senses tell me that I am not in a damp prison cell but outdoors.

– Taak!

And soon, I am carefully seated in a soft place.

“Don’t fidget and stay still. You won’t get hurt that way,” a man’s voice says.

– Clatter… clatter…

We are moving towards somewhere on something.

Is this… a carriage?

Am I being taken to the gallows?

“Phew… the Duke is really… bothering us, huh?” a woman’s voice is heard.

“But we did get paid a lot, right?” a man’s voice responds.

I eavesdrop on their conversation.

Did the Duke… hire them? Then who are they? And where are they taking me?

“Ugh!”

I want to say something, but I can’t move properly because of my hands and the reins.

I grope around with my palms.

This…

A soft touch that could only be felt on a luxurious carriage seat brushes against my hand.

I must be inside a carriage.

Soon, the shaking stops.

– Creak…

The carriage stops.

And the man carefully speaks as he helps me up again.

“Watch your step.”

He gently holds my shoulders.

And step by step, we carefully descend the stairs.

Where am I?

I seem to have come out of the prison, but I can’t see, so I don’t know where I am.

And then…

– Rustle…

The cloth covering my face is removed.

Here is…

A crescent moonlit night.

In an alley.

Several tall buildings can be seen around.

In that moment.

– Thud!

“Ack!”

Someone roughly grabs my hair from behind.

“Don’t resent too much. Instead, I’ll cut it nicely for you,” they say.

Before I can fully grasp the situation.

– Swoosh.

A chilling sound reaches my ears.

Like… the sound of drawing a sword…

But the woman holding my hair.

She brandishes a dagger in front of my eyes.

“How is it? Sharp, right? I sharpened it myself to finish it in one go.”

Though it’s a childish voice… her voice sends shivers down my spine.

Ah… is this how it ends?

“You know? Thanks for tying my hair so nicely, it made my job easier.”

– Slice!

At the sharp sound…

“Ah…!”

My legs give out.

– Thud!

And I collapse weakly.

Am I… dying like this?

It’s not as painful as I thought.

No, there’s no pain at all.

I can see you again…

“What are you doing?”

At the clear voice, I turn around…

A girl with slightly messy brown hair is twisting her neatly tied hair around her hand, looking puzzled.

“Haha! What’s that! Someone might think I killed you.”

The woman who is almost in tears laughs, somehow annoying.

“Rebecca, stop it and let’s go.”

“Phew! Carl, look at that! That stupid expression! Phew!”

Carl, a man who watches her not stop laughing, shakes his head.

“I hope you remember that we’re on a mission.”

At his words, Rebecca wipes away her tears and says, “Oh my, I’m laughing so much that I’m hungry…”

At that moment, a man named Carl hugged me and opened the door in the alley where I was standing, leading me up to the second floor.

*Creak!*

As the rusty door opened, what appeared before me was a shabby house…

“Where is this?”

I asked Carl, who was holding me, in confusion, and he replied, “Did you say Ipah? You’ll have to stay here for a while.”

“Excuse me…?”

I thought for sure I would be tortured and killed without a chance to resist.

Antoni… It seems like I am destined to stay here a little longer…

That’s how they sat me at the table and brought me a hot cup of coffee.

“First of all, my name is Carl, and the woman next to me is called Rebecca. What is your name, miss?”

I replied to his question, “I am Ipah… But… Why am I here?”

He gently touched the back of my head.

My hair had been cut short.

It felt strange to have it so short, as Prince Antony always used to compliment my hair…

Why am I here instead of in the underground dungeon, and why are they holding my precious hair so carefully?

“We don’t know the reason either, we just do as ordered by the Duke.”

Duke Devian…

Why is he orchestrating all of this?

“Now, the Duke gave me this to give to you.”

Carl took out a rather hefty cloth bag and placed it on the table.

“Start by counting this. It’s your severance pay, this month’s salary, and a year’s worth of salary combined. Count it once.”

Why is he giving me this?

“Count it once, if it’s not enough, we’ll report it to the Duke.”

I opened the bag in front of me, and saw shining gold coins.

“Wow, the salary for a palace maid seems pretty generous?”

“Since it includes severance pay and a year’s salary, it seems that way.”

After roughly counting, I closed the bag and said, “It seems to be about right… But why is this?”

Instead of torture or execution… Are they giving me this and telling me to leave the palace?

“The Duke is giving you this as a gift for your loyalty… Of course, you can stay here for a while, and when the time comes, you can go back to your hometown or open a bakery, whatever you choose.”

I couldn’t understand the situation.

Wasn’t the Duke trying to kill me?

In disbelief, I looked at Carl and said, “Wasn’t the Duke… trying to kill me?”

Rebecca, the woman, answered my question, “No, on the contrary, he appreciates your loyalty and wants to treat you well and provide for you.”

I asked, still not understanding, “Why?”

Why? I have never done anything good for him, just seen him from afar a few times as a maid?

And I had been watching the Duke’s actions closely under Princess Teodora’s orders.

If I had had a little more courage, I might have poisoned his food.

But in the end, I lacked the courage… I couldn’t do it.

That’s why I couldn’t understand the Duke’s actions.

“We don’t know either, we just follow the Duke’s orders.”

“I see… Then… If I am free, can I go back to the palace?”

Carl smiled and said, “The Duke told us not to worry about what you do once you’re free, so it shouldn’t matter, right?”

“I see…”

I couldn’t grasp what the Duke wanted.

But… the thought of being able to return to the palace gave me a sense of relief…

*Sob…*

Tears flowed.

***

The next morning.

“Ugh… my head…”

I had finally returned to the palace.

I had stayed up late drinking with Dr. Victor and ended up sleeping at his house.

It had been a long time since I had drunk so much, and my head was throbbing as if it would split.

“Here, drink some water.”

“Ah… thank you.”

I took the water offered to me and drank it.

*Gulp… Gulp.*

“Puha! I feel like I gained some weight.”

I thought it was just water and drank it. It was refreshing honey water.

As expected, Agrifa…

He is a genius who sees everything.

When I was satisfied with Agrifa’s actions in my mind.

Agrifa’s voice is heard.

“I have completed the task you assigned yesterday.”

Yesterday… What did I ask for… Oh!

I asked for Ipha’s hair.

“Well… what about that?”

In response to my question, Agrifa shows me a long black hair neatly tied with a hair ribbon in a small box.

“Did you cut it neatly?”

Agrifa nods slightly at my words.

“Well… they handle things neatly, but the empress…”

Seeing Agrifa hesitate, I urge him.

“Why is that?”

“Yesterday, Her Highness the Crown Princess visited the Grand Duke’s office.”

-Guilt.

Is it because I arrested Ipha?

I ask, wondering.

“Is it… because of Ipha?”

Seeing Agrifa nod weakly in response to my question, I realize my suspicion was correct.

“We also need to handle Teodora…”

Well…

Can I have a conversation with Teodora, who is full of anger right now?

The conversation with the empress is over, but I haven’t convinced Teodora yet.

Or maybe I won’t be able to convince her in the first place.

Because I am taking away authority from the noble imperial family.

And it doesn’t end with taking it away.

My bad reputation is spreading throughout the empire, so I need to fix that.

Maybe I will be left with a bad reputation.

Joining forces with the empress to divide the empire…

-Sigh.

I can’t help it, I just have to do what needs to be done.

I have no ill feelings towards her. I just have to do what needs to be done.

Thinking like that, I sigh.

“Ha… there’s no choice but to resort to threats, right?”

“Yes… considering Her Highness the Crown Princess’s personality, that seems to be the only way.”

Listening to Agrifa’s words, I stroke Ipha’s hair.

It’s soft…

Touching a woman’s hair and feeling its softness in such a situation.

Am I feeling a bit frustrated these days? A pointless thought crosses my mind.

“It’s ridiculous.”

If I have the power to harbor desires, I should stabilize this situation even for a moment.

Soon, I put the hair in the box and get lost in thought.

“Agrifa, maybe it’s better to get the empress’s signature rather than just Teodora’s?”

The empress’s signature is different, but… wouldn’t the signature of the future empress carry more weight?

Agrifa looks puzzled at my words.

“Rumors may spread that you are pressuring the empress.”

“Is that so…?”

I erase the thought of getting the empress’s signature.

I don’t want to unnecessarily humiliate her, knowing how well she has fulfilled her role as the mother of the empire’s people…

A woman who has lost her beloved husband and child at once. I can’t even imagine how sad she must be.

“Let’s focus on the pending tasks for now, and don’t tell the Crown Princess that I have returned.”

There are so many urgent tasks… I want to postpone the complicated task of meeting Teodora for a while.

I pick up a document on my desk.

“What’s this…?”

A proposal for the establishment of a government agency that Agrifa made a while ago.

I pick it up and skim through it.

Crazy… the amount…

From the initial budgeting, things don’t look good.

Looking at the budget, it includes equipment costs, maintenance costs, training costs, etc… A huge amount is budgeted.

Especially… the personnel costs are insane.

I ponder over the proposal.

The budget seems to be the biggest issue…

Although the name hasn’t been decided yet. This agency will lead us to victory and prevent the Demon King from invading this land.

“Agrifa, have you seen the proposal you submitted… the budget seems way too high, can it be reduced a bit in the middle?”

Agrippa nods in response to my words.

“I think it’s more likely to go up than down, considering the rough estimate we’ve made.”

I sigh at his words.

“Phew… Isn’t that too expensive?”

Agrippa responds to my petulant remark.

“That’s just a budget based on the tasks demanded by the Grand Marshal.”

Well… maybe I did ask for too much.

Well… this should be enough to cover some expenses for the upcoming war, right? It seems possible, but…

But if we increase it further, it could become a problem, so I cautiously ask Agrippa.

“Then… could it increase significantly from here?”

He responds cheerfully to my question.

“Isn’t that obvious? I’ve never dealt with this type of government institution before, so I budgeted it generously, but… if it goes beyond that, it will definitely not decrease.”

Agrippa’s firm response gives me a headache.

“Phew…”

So where should I draw the funds from?

The Empire’s main sources of income, Epirus and Ezeb, have been exhausted.

To fill that gap, the surplus funds of the Grand Duchy of Francesco will be used to fill the Imperial treasury, but the situation is clear: the income has decreased significantly since the Emperor’s reign.

After Valoran’s successful rebellion, the local nobles and free cities are not paying taxes.

Furthermore, even the Imperial territories of Epirus and Ezeb…

They may have been withholding taxes as rebels against me and Valoran, but upon hearing the news of the alliance between me and the Emperor’s faction, they have promised to pay the overdue taxes as well.

It’s a considerable amount, but now that Epirus and Ezeb are under the Emperor’s faction, the income will likely decrease from next year.

“But if we increase taxes on the loyalists… they won’t just sit idly by, will they?”

“Of course not.”

“They always find ways to squeeze out taxes under various pretexts like windows or weddings… it’s ridiculous.”

First, I need to crack down on the anti-Imperialists and then rethink the complex tax system…

A sigh escapes me.