厨房从后面挺进李婷

The imperial seal is the true symbol of the reign of a sitting monarch. In the ruling family, it was passed down from generation to generation, and served as an indispensable attribute of the change of power. The coronation ceremony of the next heir was impossible without it. In other words, whoever owned the seal owned the country.

Without this seal, the presence of the monarch on the throne was considered invalid. And for this reason the information about its location remained known only to the king himself. Even other members of the royal family were forbidden to disclose this secret.

Among other things, Rachel also had to obtain the seal — so that her position in power would be «legitimate.» According to survivors at the banquet where the coup took place: the girl had forcibly extracted the secret from the previous king.

Fortunately or not, unlike his predecessors, Arthur the Second proved to be a great coward. So that Rachel kept him alive — he betrayed the main secret of the royal family. But it did him little good. For as soon as she had the seal in her hands, Rachel immediately slit his throat.

Thus, having «inherited» the imperial seal, Rachel had the full formal right to become the next queen.

And now my father says I have to steal it…

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It wasn\'t an easy decision to make. But the Archduke assured me it would be all right.

— I will only borrow it,» he assured me, «Using the seal is the only way for Her Majesty to let you go willingly.

— «Borrow…?»

— Of course! As soon as you are stripped of your crown princess title, I will return it at once.

— I-it\'s…

It\'s not an exaggeration to say — that I was very hesitant about the idea. Stealing such an important thing is no joke anymore. And if anything went wrong… I dreaded to think what would happen.

My father was going to manipulate Rachel with the seal-because she would probably go to any lengths to keep her power. And once it was over, she would safely put it all back in place.

On the one hand, that did seem like a good option. But on the other hand…

— Dad,» I turned to him nervously, «Is there really no other way?

The man sighed heavily.

— I have to do this, unfortunately. You know we have no choice.

But I still had my doubts to the last. The bad feeling was getting stronger and stronger. Then the Archduke took my hands in his again.

— Lea, in this world only we have each other,» he said, «If not me, who else can you trust?

I looked up at him. My father… My closest and dearest person. Perhaps in this situation, I really can only rely on him. I shouldn\'t doubt his decision.

In the end I nodded.

— Okay… I\'ll do it. But promise me that you\'ll be sure to return it later.

— Of course! — The Archduke smiled,» Lea, I knew you would not let me down.

Some time passed after that conversation. My father and I agreed — that as soon as the seal is in my hands, I will give it to the secretary, who will be waiting at the threshold of the palace. As this was a very dangerous business, I had to be careful.

One false step and the whole thing would be ruined.

I sighed heavily, still not believing that I had actually taken such a risk.

In any other situation, I would never have done this. But since my father had asked me personally… He was probably the only person in the world with whom I could agree to this.

If only I didn\'t regret that decision later…

Anyway, I decided not to put it off, and take action. And since I also knew nothing about the location of the seal: I decided to examine all possible places in order.

And one of the most obvious and trivial options was her office.

I doubted that Rachel could keep such an important thing in such a place. But it wouldn\'t hurt to check it out. Especially since no one but her dared to go in there, you could even call it safe.

So-I was going to sneak into the imperial office while Rachel was away. It turned out to be quite a challenge.

Because the girl hardly ever left it during the daytime. The only exceptions were meetings with ministers, or… A visit to me. So I had to keep watch in the corridor for quite a long time.

Since I did not have enough conspiracy skills: the servants were already looking at me strangely — when I had been walking down the same corridor for several hours in a row.

Ahem… It was a strange sight indeed.

I was, however, waiting for mine. Though it was quite late. Toward midnight, when all the servants had gone to bed, the door finally opened. I managed to hide behind a pillar.

Rachel left the office and went somewhere. Maybe she finally decided to sleep in her chambers instead of on the couch at her desk.

In any case, when the girl\'s silhouette had completely disappeared, I finally left my «hiding place.

With a quick step I reached there and ran inside. So… What was the first thing I should examine?

The most obvious place, of course, was her desk. That was where I decided to start. I tried to be careful, so that after all the things remained in the same place where they were before. If Rachel noticed anything at all…

I sighed heavily.

Feeling a little guilty digging through her personal belongings. But in the end, it was too late to back out… I\'d already made a promise.

After checking everything on the surface of the table — began to move to the drawers. There were a few of them, and almost all were easy to open by pulling the handle. Most of them were just documents, and there was nothing interesting in them.

Until I got to the last one. It turned out to be locked.

Hmm… Could it be that the imperial seal was in there? Just in case, I decided to make sure.

Since the key was naturally not on the same table, I had to use improvised means. I took a hairpin out of my hair, which I thought might serve as a sort of lockpick.

The idea came to me quite easily, because I\'d often seen this kind of trick in movies. Usually, it always worked for the main characters.

After wiggling the pin through the keyhole: nothing happened for a couple of minutes. I was beginning to wonder if it would work, until I heard the long-awaited click.

— Oh…

A sigh of relief came out.

I was going to watch that last box and get the hell out of here.

But as soon as I pulled the handle and looked at the contents, I was stunned.

It\'s… It\'s…!

My find was something I hadn\'t expected. One glance was enough to recognize my own letters in the drawer. The ones I had sent to Elsa over the past few months.

I was so dumbfounded that for a few seconds I was unable to move.

Then, with trembling hands, I picked up the whole stack and made sure they were mine. But why-what the hell were they doing here?

After the letters, in the depths of the drawer I also found other unexpected things. Jewelry, clothes, souvenirs… all the things I had given Elsa during our journey together. Knowing her difficult fate: I tried to give her everything she had never had before.

But why did Rachel have them…?

I could only think of two theories to explain it. The first was that Rachel had found her and taken all this stuff herself after she\'d been murdered. And the second… Seemed even crazier.

I was so shocked, I didn\'t even notice right away: there was another person in the room. Rachel walked in quietly and shut the door behind her.

Her scarlet pupils flashed through me in the half-light.

— You found it after all.