“Flowers? Are you asking for a garden?”
Blanche added a detailed explanation to Melchizedek, who was boasting a scale worthy of a grand duke.
“Dhe flowas here. (The flowers here.)”
Blanche’s small finger pointed to the climbing roses that were draped over their heads.
“Oh, you want me to make a garden full of climbing roses?”
It was baffling why Melchizedek always had to take things to such an extreme.
With Melchizedek’s over-the-top suggestion, Blanche narrowed the scope. It had to be clear enough that even Melchizedek couldn’t misunderstand.
“Dis one, pwease pick it for me. (This one, pick one for me.)”
“…Just one flower?”
The boy opened his eyes wide as if he couldn’t understand. s if to say, what meaning does one flower have? As if a single living flower could be a gift, instead of a rose made of gold or a hibiscus made of diamonds.
“Yes, one flowa is enough. (Yes, one flower is enough.)”
However, that was exactly why Blanche wanted a single live flower.
The self-proclaimed general, who had received the most gifts, Baek-ryeon never dealt with flowers, and no one was brave enough to pick a single flower for the general who wore a robe embroidered with a yellow dragon and had a peony carved from red jade in her hair.
In her previous life, Yi Baek-ryeon was too busy to take care of and grow flowers, so she had no history of receiving even a single insignificant flower.
“Well, you’re still young and don’t know much.”
The boy seemed to not understand Blanche, who was trying to throw away such a good opportunity with just one flower, but he didn’t continue to argue.
“Alright, I’ll pick it for you.”
The boy got up from his seat and climbed onto the table. Blanche’s expression twisted slightly at the rude behavior that was difficult to see easily, but the boy seemed to not notice Blanche’s expression as he was focused on the rose.
“Here.”
The boy’s small hand carefully picked a flower. He bent his waist and handed her the flower.
A real flower, fragrant and with soft petals.
Blanche, who was looking at the flower in her hand, smiled faintly.
“I ill reshife it gratefolly. (I will receive it gratefully.)”
“…It’s just one flower, though.”
Really. Just one flower. Just a flower. Nothing, not even something that can be called a gift.
But this was what Blanche wanted.
“Steel. Dis is enough. (Still, this is enough.)”
The boy, who had been staring at Blanche’s face as if he couldn’t understand, shrugged his shoulders.
“If that’s what you want, then whatever.”
* * *
The Grand Duke had left shortly after signing the agreement, but he told me I was welcome to stay as long as I liked.
Thanks to his kindness, I spent the rest of the afternoon holed up in the greenhouse and returned to the palace in the evening, where I was greeted with a gift of poison upon my return.
The poison was in the glass of water that had been served with my meal.
I immediately spat out the water I had taken a sip of onto the napkin I had been holding to my chin, recognizing the bitter taste of poison, something that was not meant to be consumed by humans.
“Princess? Why are you doing that? Is the food not to your liking?”
Tula, who had seen me do this, looked worried. Even though I hadn’t swallowed it, I had taken it in my mouth, so shouldn’t it be fine since I looked fine?
But just in case, I handed Tula the napkin.
“Bwun it. Carfolly. (Burn it. Carefully).”
“Yes…? Ah, yes.”
“And put this in a glass bottle.”
I didn’t intend to make the incident public right away, but it couldn’t hurt to have it on hand in case I needed it later.
After all, even if the poison deteriorated, I could still detect it as poisoned.
However, Tula, who didn’t know why, looked confused.
“You mean the water?”
“Yes.”
As I nodded resolutely and resumed my meal, Tula went out with the glass and napkin, still looking confused. There was no poison in the other food, and I continued my safe meal, lost in thought.
Since the tea party where the Empress first showed interest in me, I had been closely monitoring my surroundings. As I was building a social circle and meeting all sorts of people, it was easy to read the flow of information.
Originally, the palace maids each have their own roles, and they should not touch anything outside of their roles. So, originally, I shouldn’t have met the children in charge of food or sewing, except for the escorts.
However, there were only about 10 children in charge of me, so if I included Tula, I could easily manage all the children assigned to me.
So, for the past month, I had been feeding the children false information. I lied about my hobbies to the cleaning staff, made up a book I was reading recently for the sewing staff, and told the escorts that I had injured my knee so that they wouldn’t let me walk.
And then, amazingly enough, there were princesses who mentioned my fake hobbies, princes who got my made up recent book, and princesses who would hug me and tell me not to walk because my knee would hurt.
Of course, all of that was made up, so there’s no way they could have reacted that way just by observing me. In other words, the children I had leaked that information to were all selling information.
In this way, I was able to confirm that everyone except Tula was selling my information.
Well, it’s not surprising. I know how to make honey traps, and I know that the beginning is always very light when it comes to recruiting someone on the other side, not necessarily planting your own people.
The compensation is not too high either, and they just give them small amounts of money enough to ask for trivial information, giving them just enough convenience in return.
What’s the point of telling them? It’s not like they can’t find out for themselves. Or, even if they do find out, it’s not like anything will change, right? That’s the kind of light information I’m talking about.
It’s no wonder that children who don’t even know the difference between the caste system in the kingdom and the caste system in the empire would fall for such a subtle trick.
On the contrary, it was amazing that the information I had told Tula never came out of anyone’s mouth. I had checked it from all angles, and it seemed that it really hadn’t gotten to anyone. It must have been even more tempting since she was my closest confidante.
Anyway, so I understood that all the children except Tula were leaking information to other people.
TL/N: Children=Palace maids, she calls them this cause she mentally older than them.
From the very beginning, my purpose in checking was not to find out who was leaking information, but to check where the information was going, assuming that everyone would leak information.
I knew well enough that the other side wouldn’t be satisfied with just knowing what book I was reading lately. There’s no way they’d place a spy just to find out trivial details like that.
But to think they’d attempt poisoning me just a month after arriving in a foreign country.
I sighed heavily. Were they that desperate? Publicizing the poisoning incident and causing a fuss didn’t seem like a good idea, but I needed to find out who was behind it. People who act without thinking ahead are likely to repeat their mistakes.
With that resolve, I asked Tula, who had brought back the water in a glass bottle.
“How tit efreyone no my schedule today? (How did everyone know my schedule today?)”
Controlling the flow of information had become a routine task. The invitation from the Empress was no exception.
Unlike usual, where I fed entirely false information, this time I made sure these children knew about the invitation but misled them about the sender.
Tula looked into the air as if recalling something, counting on her fingers.
“I told Miu, who is in charge of sewing, that you were meeting Lady Tertoma. I told Kali, who is in charge of the meals, that you were meeting Princess Astella. To Delma, I said─”
Tertoma, Astella, Delaira… I calmly pieced together the names.
It wasn’t hard to deduce who had poisoned the water. The fact that the poison was in the water, not the food, pointed to Delma, the cleaning maid.
The poison couldn’t be placed in the food, and it was put in the water instead, indicating that the food handler wasn’t involved and that the poisoner couldn’t find another time to poison me outside of mealtime.
Moreover, I had told Delma that I was meeting Princess Delaira, who had studied herbal medicine, making the use of poison logical. If I had really met Princess Delaira and then collapsed from poisoning, suspicion would naturally fall on her.
The problem was, I had met the Empress instead of Princess Delaira, and thanks to my past life memories, I could easily distinguish between edible and inedible substances. The other side would think Delma had failed, putting her in a tough spot.
I should announce that I’ve become the Grand Duke’s playmate a bit sooner than planned. That way, they wouldn’t attempt another assassination unless they were insane.
Now, what to do about Delma. I don’t want to announce the poisoning attempt, but I can’t keep her by my side either. I need another pretext.
Should I use the Grand Duke’s name or should I offer it to the Emperor as a bargaining chip?
As I pondered this, I realized my plate was empty. Tula was clearing the dishes and asked me.
“Now that you’ve finished your meal, what would you like to do next?”
“I ill reat a book. (I’ll read a book.)”
“You really do love reading, Princess. Okay, I’ll take you to your usual chair by the window. Come here.”
I extended my arms and snuggled into Tula’s embrace. When will this body grow enough to climb down from the chair by itself?
It’d be nice if I could just close my eyes and open them to find ten years had passed.
* * * *
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