厨房从后面挺进李婷

— Was it not obvious that Her Highness had done this? — the maids whispered in the corridor.

— I think so, too! An ordinary maid would never have had the courage to do such a thing without orders.

— Hadn\'t she suffered enough abuse? Now she\'s decided to turn to murder?

— Ah… Poor Lady Fernandez. I heard the Emperor\'s physician has been examining her since this morning.

— And what\'s the matter with her?!

— They say the typical signs of poisoning… The lady is so weak she cannot even get out of bed.

After saying that, the other maids only became more angry.

— Oh…! And why do all good people have to suffer like this?

— I would like Lady Fernandez to be our crown princess…

And while everyone was talking nonstop about just that, at some point they were forced to «swallow their tongues.» After all, behind the head of the dungeon: the guilty party herself was walking down the palace corridor.

The crown princess walked with her head held high, and seemed to feel no guilt for what had happened.

— What a shameless…! — One of the knights could not stand it and blurted it out. Then he hastily covered his mouth with his hand.

But Leriana paid no attention to this and simply continued walking forward. Everyone present looked at her and wondered where exactly she was going so fast.

Meanwhile, the two descended into the dungeon of the palace where the imperial dungeon was located. All the guards guarding the place had their eyes on their foreheads in astonishment. Obviously, no one expected that such a high-ranking person would actually come here.

The warden with a nonchalant look led the princess to the cell where her maid was locked. As soon as Melinda, sitting in the corner, noticed her, she could not believe her eyes at first.

When I got close to the bars, I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the girl was unharmed and not yet tortured in any way.

— Melinda, are you okay? — I asked.

— Your Highness…!

Tears came to the maid\'s eyes as she immediately rushed to me and clung to the iron bars.

— Your Highness! — Melinda whimpered, «I–I really… I really didn\'t do it!

— I know,» I smiled weakly.

— I just gave the lady a glass of water,» the girl continued, sobbing. «I had no idea it would turn out like this.

— Oh…

— Forgive me, Your Highness…!

— You have nothing to apologize for.

— Because of me… Because of me… Now everyone thinks that you…

— It\'s all right,» I objected, «I don\'t care what they think.

— B-b-but…

— It\'s all right,» I said again, «I\'ve come to get you out of here.

— Take you out of here?!

The maid opened her mouth in astonishment.

— It\'s not your fault, and you have no business being here,» I nodded.

And before Melinda could answer me, I turned and addressed the warden:

— Please release her.

He tensed.

— Your Highness, I\'m sorry, but I can\'t do that…

— And why not?» I asked angrily.

— As I said, we have to investigate first. In order to do that, the suspect must remain in a cell.

— What the hell \'suspect\' if she didn\'t do it? — I resent that.

— Your Highness, according to protocol…

Slowly but surely I was beginning to get angry.

— You misunderstand,» I said softly, «It was an order, not a request.

The knight flinched.

— Your Highness, but…

— That\'s right,» I interrupted him. «I think you\'ve forgotten who the crown princess of this empire is.

According to the hierarchy, I was still the most powerful figure in Azeroth after Rachel. As a member of the ruling family, my word was above any law. And I did not believe that the warden of the imperial dungeon, who had served here for decades, was unaware of this.

Rather, he simply did not take me seriously. After all, in his eyes, as well as in the eyes of most others — I remained just an inexperienced aristocrat, who knew nothing about life in the palace.

Not much time had passed since my official appointment. In other words, I wasn\'t considered as important as Rachel.

But… I wasn\'t.

I was going to remind them all of that today.

— Sir,» I decided to clarify, «may I take your refusal as disobedience to an Imperial order?

At that moment Leriana\'s eyes flashed scarlet and she looked exactly like the queen the palace people feared.

The Warden became visibly agitated.

— No… Of course not! — He shook his head hastily.

— Then you will let her go?

— I–I…» the man swallowed. «I obey the command of the Crown Princess.

After these words he hesitantly touched his side pocket and took out a bunch of keys. A few seconds later the bars flew open and Melinda was free.

I immediately intercepted her arm.

— Your Highness, what are you…? — the maid was surprised at first.

— «Come,» I said firmly.

— W-where?

Instead of an answer, I pulled her closer.

— You\'ll see.

***

— Mistress, the Emperor\'s physician has already left.

— Are you sure?

Douglas looked out the door again, and nodded as confirmation. Camilla was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

It wasn\'t so easy for her to pretend that she wasn\'t all right. For that, the girl hadn\'t eaten since this morning and drank a lot of cold water so that the healer would detect a slight weakness in her.

This was still not enough for a serious diagnosis, but gossip did the work for her. As soon as people learned that the imperial physician was in her chambers, they immediately put two and two together.

In other words, right now, in the eyes of the entire palace, Camilla was at the stage of severe poisoning.

The aristocrat could not help but chuckle at her own ingenuity. Who knew that luck would be on her side so timely.

The first step to conquering an empire is to win the hearts of its subjects. And that became the easiest. The viscount\'s poor daughter, who had lived her whole life in humiliation, resonated far more in the hearts of the common people than the Archduke\'s daughter, born with a diamond spoon in her mouth.

Camille was well aware of this, as well as the fact that the crown princess stood no chance in this battle. Even if Rachel found out about everything, at least she wouldn\'t kill her. Because if she didn\'t, all the blame would fall on Lerianna.

It\'s the perfect plan.

Camilla had thought it through carefully before entering the palace. And she was sure she would do her best to never go back to that horrible place called the «family estate». She had nothing to lose anyway.

Lying in bed, the girl was going to get up to stretch her legs a little. At least she shouldn\'t seem too healthy to those around her.

Throughout all of this, Camille did not stop smiling. Surely right now this useless daughter of the Archduke must be in wild terror… How else could she be. From the start she should have stepped aside and stayed out of her way.

«Just walk away now and maybe I\'ll feel sorry for you…»

Camille was about to drag her feet out of bed and was intending to get up when Douglas suddenly turned to her excitedly. еոј@оу--*а†$-+

— Mistress, someone is coming this way!

— What?

— I hear footsteps! They\'re about to…

As the maid had foreseen, within seconds of her words the door of the chamber swung open. Leriane Ashford burst in without warning, and Camilla barely had time to go back to bed.

The crown princess was also followed by her maid, who she dragged behind her.

Camilla was genuinely surprised that she had been released from the dungeon so quickly. However, pretending to be uneasy, the girl rose from her bed and said hello as best she could:

— Greetings, Your Highness.

Leriana nodded back.

— You don\'t seem to be feeling well,» she remarked.

— Yes… I am very weak today. I can\'t even stand up to greet you.

— Hmm… I see.

Camilla was embarrassed that she kept a perfectly casual look.

— Your Highness, did you want something? — she finally inquired.

— Of course,» the princess did not deny, «I would like you to make a public apology to Melinda as soon as possible.

The announcement astonished everyone present. For a noble lady to apologize to some servant girl…? It sounded simply unthinkable!

Even Melinda herself understood this as she turned excitedly to her mistress.

— W-don\'t…! — Mistress, it isn\'t possible!

— Why not?

— W-Well… I\'m just a servant…» she answered nervously, «It\'s too much…

— And what of it? — Leriana protested calmly. «When one is wrong one must apologize. What has social status got to do with it?

— B-but…!

— Stop pretending you don\'t deserve it.

The crown princess said it so firmly that Melinda involuntarily faltered. Then she turned back to Camilla.

— So, what\'s up? — When are you going to apologize?

— I don\'t know what you mean,» the noblewoman tried to keep her cool, «Why would I do something like that?

— Because you made a mistake.

— Wrong?!

— Melinda certainly didn\'t do anything against you. And I\'m sure of it.

The Archduke\'s daughter remained so calm it was infuriating. Camilla could not stand it and in spite of Douglas\'s excitement, she made up her mind and got out of bed.

Soon they were standing opposite each other.

— Your Highness, your personal maid gave me a glass of water, after which I fainted violently,» she gritted her teeth, «Isn\'t that enough proof?

— Hmm… How can I be sure that\'s why you fainted?

— I–I…!

— If that\'s the case, couldn\'t it have been trivial overexertion?

Camilla clenched her fists.

— Your Highness, I understand that you want to protect your maid, but…» She held her breath.

— You\'re right,» the princess sighed, «That\'s why I\'m going to handle this investigation myself.

— Wh-what…?! — interrogated.

— We have an obligation to find out the truth,» Leriana summed up logically, «And if it turns out that Melinda really was involved in this assassination, I won\'t defend her.

— And how do you want to find out…? — Camilla chuckled imperceptibly.

— The cup,» answered the Crown Princess abruptly, «If the poison was so strong that you fainted at once, there must be traces of it on the cup. Don\'t you think so?

— Th-that\'s…! — Camille\'s pupils dilated in surprise.

— Of course, it makes no sense to check the whole decanter,» Leriana also remarked, «If poisoning really took place, then the murderer is not stupid enough to spoil all the water in the jug as a whole. So I\'m going to check just the cup.

— …

— Those shards must still be there, right? I guess I\'ll send them off for examination right today.

When the crown princess said this in front of her, Camilla involuntarily trembled with all her body and could not make a sound.

There was a deadly silence in the room.

Melinda watched her mistress admiringly from the side, while the latter continued nonchalantly:

— …And, as I said before, if the examination confirms the presence of poison, I promise to punish my maid to the fullest extent. But…» she paused. «If it is a mistake and the charge is not true, then you must answer for it.

— W-what…?

— Publicly accusing a servant of such a thing would also be slanderous to me. It\'s punishable by law, didn\'t you know?

Camilla trembled and was silent for a while. Then, holding back her fear and anger with all her might, she dutifully said:

— I beg your pardon…

— What?» said Leriana.

— I–I… I wanted to tell you that perhaps I was too hasty with my conclusion.

— You did? — she clarified.

— Ahem… Maybe I do need more rest. Otherwise I might pass out like that…

While the aristocrat said all this overcoming herself, the crown princess nodded happily.

— So we don\'t have to do the examination?

She swallowed.

— I… I agree to make a public apology…

Leriana rejoiced.

— Well, that\'s good! I think we\'ve solved everything, haven\'t we?

Again there was a brief pause, during which Camilla wanted to fall through the earth. And while Melinda could finally breathe a sigh of relief, Leriana wasn\'t about to leave right away.

She stepped even closer to the viscount\'s daughter and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. She whispered in her ear so only she could hear:

— I hope this was the first and last misunderstanding between us.

— …

— The limit of my trust is great, but I really don\'t want you to exhaust it.

— Y-Your High…

Camilla wanted to say something to her, but she couldn\'t, for she looked up and immediately flinched. Scarlet eyes… Had the crown princess had them before?

That look frightened her.

— If you want to live peacefully in this palace, you\'d better not forget your place.

Those were the last words Leriana threw her. The next second she turned sharply, and touching her maid\'s shoulder, she offered:

— Melinda, do you want to eat ice cream today?

— Can I really have some?! — The girl\'s eyes lit up.

— Sure. What kind do you want? — I wondered.

— I think it\'s raspberry…

As soon as they left her chambers, the viscount\'s daughter immediately collapsed on the floor. Douglas worriedly ran up to her, but she reacted in no way. Her whole body was possessed by an intense rage.

Camille clenched her teeth so she wouldn\'t scream loudly.

— That bitch…! How dare she treat me like this!