Loriell’s purpose
It took Greta a few seconds to realize what was dripping down from the top of her head.
“Kyaaah!”
An ear-piercing scream echoed throughout the palace.
Greta jumped around frantically, trying to shake the dirt off her face.
But the more she did this, the more the sticky filth clung to Greta’s palm.
“Ahhh! Shit! Ugh. Ugh.…!”
Greta’s screams soon turned into nausea.
“Here! Is there no one here? There’s a crazy woman in here!”
No matter how loud she screamed, no one showed up.
“Crazy woman? Are you calling me crazy?”
At that moment, the other woman clutched her stomach and laughed.
Only then did the moonlight streaming through the corridor window reveal her face.
Her appearance was so ruined that Greta hadn’t recognized her at first. But then she saw the thin, blond hair tangled with dried filth and the brown eyes that, despite being covered with dirt like the rest of her face, had not lost their color.
“You… no way, Lorie…!”
Greta couldn’t even finish saying the name. She froze in place.
‘How on earth did Loriell get here?’
A chill ran down her spine, and her mind went blank. The stench that was strong enough to make her faint no longer even existed.
“It’s been a while, Princess. I’ve been missing you so much, Princess.…”
Loriell opened her mouth.
Earlier, Greta hadn’t noticed because of all the shouting, but now that she heard that gentle voice, she was sure. It was her.
“How desperately have you been looking for it?”
Greta’s jaw dropped.
Loriel had completely lost a screw.
It was not for nothing that the word ‘crazy woman’ came out naturally at first glance.
Loriell stepped closer and grabbed Greta’s wrist tightly. Greta immediately pushed her away and ran.
‘Why is Loriell here? How?’
Greta gritted her teeth and sprinted as fast as she could.
Loriell Igdnis.
She had known for a while that the fool had completely messed things up.
It was a well-known fact to the entire world that the Igdnis family of the Empire was wiped out overnight for attempting to poison the Emperor.
Which made that all the more confusing.
‘Loriell! Wasn’t she executed?’
‘Then what was she? Is that the ghost of the dead Loriell?’
Greta clenched her fists. As she continued to run away, she roughly tore off a curtain from the hallway window and roughly wiped away the filth that had covered her.
‘Damn it!’
She was furious and terrified, her stomach churning violently.
The stench was real. That meant Loriell wasn’t a ghost.
‘Did the Emperor send her? Is this a trap? No! If that were the case, he would have officially charged me. There’s no evidence anyway—how could he possibly know?’
She had been sure she was in the clear regarding the Emperor’s poisoning incident.
“Nora! Emma! Is no one here?”
Gasping for breath, Greta yanked open the maids’ rooms.
The beds where the maids should have been sleeping were empty.
‘Where the hell is everyone? And why are there no guards tonight?!’
Greta hurried up the stairs.
‘Ah… my footprints… damn it!’
Because of the filth covering her, she had left her footprints on the corridor floor and stairs.
She rushed to lock the terrace door, but the latch was broken.
Greta trembled. She couldn’t even cry. She just backed away.
Loriell was following Greta’s footprints, step by step, up the stairs.
* * *
Meanwhile…
“Hey, hey. Where are you taking me?!”
The king mustered all his courage and shouted in anger.
But the Imperial soldiers remained silent.
“You say there is a fugitive in this palace? What do you mean by that?”
He raised his voice again, but no answer came.
The king could do nothing but be led away.
He wasn’t shackled, but he was surrounded by armed men on all sides.
Even the leading soldier, despite addressing him with respectful honorifics, had an icy air that suggested he wouldn’t hesitate to strike him down if necessary.
“I told you! If the Empire requires cooperation, I will comply.”
“……”
“……”
“Oh, I promise on the honor of our royal family, Feodora! So please, let’s settle this with words—”
His attempts at negotiation backfired.
The soldier at the front suddenly drew his sword.
“Keep walking, Your Majesty.”
A clear warning—shut up and obey.
These insolent bastards. At least tell ‘me what’s going on!’
The king, who had been unable to complain further as the sword glowed eerily toward him, opened his mouth wide in an instant when he realized where he was headed.
“W-wait…”
“We’re almost there, Your Majesty.”
The soldier gestured forward.
Beyond the shoulders of the leading soldier, he saw their destination.
The Eastern Palace.
Princess Greta’s residence.
‘What on earth…?’
The king’s vision darkened with fear.
* * *
Loriell was barefoot.
Her feet were swollen and infected, likely from exposure to the filth. She looked like a corpse that had crawled out of a grave.
Greta backed away from Loriell, who was approaching her with eyes filled with cold determination, but soon, she had nowhere left to go.
Behind her was the terrace railing.
Greta, who had been gritting her teeth and shivering, quickly changed her expression and took a step forward instead of backward.
“Loriell! Now that I see clearly, it really is you, isn’t it?”
Loriell momentarily stopped moving, startled by the one who had been running away from her suddenly approaching instead.
Greta took advantage of that moment and stepped in further.
“What on earth happened to you? Did you suffer humiliation at the imperial palace? I heard bad news… It broke my heart.”
“….What?”
“You came here because you need help, right? I’ll help you. I can get you out of trouble, Loriell. I’m a princess, after all. I can help you escape safely, treat your wounds, and even provide you with a place to hide. Just trust me.”
“Pfft… Puhaha!”
Greta thought things were going well, but then Loriell’s face got distorted and she started laughing like crazy.
“Stop talking nonsense. Do you still not know your place just because I’m treating you like a princess?”
“…….”
“Look. Can’t you see we’re both in the same miserable state? So who’s helping who?
‘Ah. She’s not falling for it this time.’
Greta spat on the floor. Every time she moved her lips, a disgusting taste lingered in her mouth.
“Loriell.”
Only then did Greta throw away her mask and straighten her shoulders.
“So what are you going to do? Do something dirty like this. It’ll make you fall.”
The eyes of the two people, who had finally revealed their true colors, met head-on.
Loriell couldn’t be happier to see Greta like that.
“You knew everything from the beginning and just used me, didn’t you?”
“What did I do?”
“You knew that if you called it a love potion, I would give it to His Majesty. You tricked me on purpose, didn’t you?”
Loriell’s eyes sparkled.
She had endured over ten days, forcing herself into a disgusting carriage, slapping her own cheeks just to stay conscious and survive.
During that time, she had countless thoughts.
Self-loathing over how she had ended up in such a state. Regret for ever stepping foot in the imperial palace in the first place.
But the most overwhelming emotion was rage.
Anger towards Greta, who knew her situation and feelings, but used her as a tool to trouble the emperor.
“So? You’re only realizing that now? you’re not very smart either. No wonder you wasted your life as a pathetic maid beside that worthless Riella.”
Greta shrugged with shameless arrogance, pursing her lips.
Loriell responded to the shamelessness with a snicker.
“Aren’t you the same as me, unable to deal with that ‘worthless Riella’. Greta, do you think pouting makes you look cute? You stink just as much as I do right now. You’re just as filthy.”
“What? You little—!”
“Fabian, wasn’t it?”
“……!”
“Everyone who needs to know already knows. After all, those ‘pathetic maids’ are the fastest to spread rumors, aren’t they? Even with your precious princess status, you couldn’t even hold onto one prison guard properly. Your lover ended up running away, chasing after Riella instead, didn’t he?”
Greta trembled as if she might faint.
She could ignore all the other insults, but not when it came to Fabian.
That was a wound that shouldn’t be touched.
Like Loriell’s festering, barefoot wounds, it was a most painful and deep wound, which was still festering at all times.
“This crazy…!”
Greta raised her hand and slapped Lorien across the face.
Loriell, whose head snapped to the side, merely smirked before lunging towards Greta, grabbing her hair.
“Hey! Let go! I’m a princess! Do you think you’ll be okay after doing something like this?”
“I already poisoned the Emperor, what do you think you are to me?”
“You really went too far. That’s right. That’s why even your parents abandoned you, Loriell. Your father became a commoner and was banished to the outskirts, right? He begged for his life while he was exiled, but that only made the emperor despise him more, didn’t it?”
Just as Fabian was Greta’s weakness, Loriell’s was her family.
Her desire to enter the imperial palace and her ambition to win the emperor’s favor were all greed that started from there.
You’re dead.”
Loriell’s grip tightened further.
As if she would rip out all of Greta’s hair right then and there.
But just then, something caught Loriell’s eye.
They say extreme situations bring out unexpected clarity.
A lightning bolt of realization struck her mind, and suddenly, every piece fell into place.
‘Ah. So that’s why. That’s why back then, too. That’s why this happened. No… It’s not that I ended up here. It’s that they sent me here.’
Loriell chuckled in disappointment.
“Greta. Want to see something interesting?”
“What?”
“Look behind you.”
Loriell yanked Greta’s hair, forcing her to turn around.
Behind Greta. Down the stairs leading up to the terrace.
Dozens of heads had emerged, listening to every word of their conversation.
As Greta’s body froze, the sound of countless footsteps came up the stairs.
The ones at the forefront are armed soldiers with the emblem of the Elshweig Empire on their shoulders.
Behind them followed unseen royal servants, maids, and—
King Taran II.
“A-Ah… Father…”
Greta let out a shallow gasp.
The king looked at Greta with empty eyes that had lost even his anger, then quickly turned his head and ignored her.
“Oh, Father! Wait! You don’t believe this crazy woman, do you?”
“……”
“Hey, you all! You’re not actually believing what this woman is saying, are you?”
The maids who met Greta’s eyes lowered their heads in surprise as if they had seen something they were not supposed to see.
As everyone stepped back, only the soldier with his sword drawn took a step toward Greta.
Greta grabbed Loriell by the collar and asked.
“So this is why you came, huh? Is this why the Emperor sent you?”
“That’s right.”
Loriell laughed at herself.
It seemed that the Emperor had designed all these wonderful coincidences and pushed her into that very moment.
But something felt strange.
When she realized she had been used by Greta, she was furious. Yet now, knowing she had been used by the Emperor, she didn’t feel particularly angry.
After a brief moment of thought, Loriell understood why.
The difference between the two situations was whether the goal was achieved or not.
Greta’s trick failed, and she ended up taking the blame for the whole thing.
This time, Loriell could achieve her own goal.
So rather than being used by the Emperor, wasn’t it more like he had helped her?
“Loriell, I wasn’t lying before. Please, help me. If you just explain things properly this one time, I’ll really save you. I swear I know an escape route! It’s true! So please, okay? Tell them I didn’t order this.”
Greta whispered in Loriell’s ear.
‘She must have known it was a hopeless plea, yet she still tried, proving that even the princess had no moves left to make.’
“I have my own purpose.”
“Purpose? What is that? I will help you.”
“To die together with you.”
Loriell laughed sarcastically at Greta, who had her eyes wide open, then grabbed her tightly and threw herself off the railing.
* * *
