FMH [144]

After the hunt, the hunting dog…(4)

Even the Last One Joins; the Handmaids Who Harm the Princess
A Coincidence Or Someone’s Conspiracy.
The Final Black Curtain, Rosalyn
Rosalyn’s True Nature

The daily newspapers did their best to write decent headlines but once it got to the gossip magazines, there was practically no boundary.

Everyone But Me is a Bitch, Says Rosalyn, Then We Learn She’s the Biggest Bitch
Rosalyn, Not a Layered Rose but an Onion Apparently? The More You Peel, The More Comes Out

“What the heck, seriously. Didn’t they just interview her like she’s the moral standard of this century?”

“They found out she’s an awful person, didn’t they?”

“There should be a limit to shamelessness.”

People who saw the news talked among themselves.

Aristine was someone who came to a distant foreign land to marry for peace with no friends or family. But the handmaids who followed her from her home country all acted like this.

“Either they try to stab her with a knife or hide in her husband’s bed.”

“And there’s even one leading it in secret while acting innocent on the outside.”

“What did she say again? Something about taking care of the Princess till the end or what not.”

“Wow, how scary.”

The Princess Consort was pitiful with no one to rely on.

“Still, His Highness Tarkan takes good care of her.”

“Yes, she can endure because of their love.”

In the love stories that people were passionate about, there was always some sort of threat.

Aristine and Tarkan were still newlyweds but starting from the carriage accident at the wedding parade, all sorts of eventful issues had cropped up.

“His Highness didn’t even blink an eye when the maids stripped naked and seduced him.”

“He was offended instead.”

“Sure enough, it can only be our beloved Princess Consort!”

Hehehe! People grinned widely.

Their love remained strong in the midst of sorts of threats, temptation and conflict!

People were drawn to that story.

The royal couple had only appeared in public a handful of times after their wedding. So, it always felt like they were wrapped in a veil but when this kind of thing kept happening, it made their imagination explode.

“I knew this couple was special.”

“I wish I could see them more.”

“It would be nice if they did an interview about their marriage life.”

“I want a couple photoshoot too…”

“They call it the royal family news but it’s always about Princess Yenikarina.”

In the past, they would say it was cute or lovely when Yenikarina appeared. But now that they wanted news of something else but kept getting news about Yenikarina, they couldn’t help but feel annoyed.

“Anyway, those things that dared to disrespect Her Highness the Princess Consort and interfere with the marriage of our two Highnesses should be stoned!”

And such opinions weren’t that different among the mass populace of Silvanus.

“Our princess has been ill since she was a child so she couldn’t even go out.”

It’s just that ‘our Princess Consort’ had been changed to ‘our Princess.’

“How can the people that are supposed to be our Princess’ handmaids make her suffer like that?!”

“They can’t even support her!”

The people of Silvanus were outraged, not knowing that Aristine was healthy and had only been imprisoned away from the emperor’s eyes.

To them, Aristine had always been like a precious child.

As a matter of fact, the second princess was very popular among the people and they were more familiar with her because she made frequent public appearances, and was very active in charity work.

Meanwhile, the first princess, who had never shown her face to the public, didn’t have much of a presence.

But they did feel sorry for her and wondered how sick she must be.

Their sickly and unfortunate Princess.

And since she went to marry a barbarian to bring the war to an end, people naturally began to care more about her.

Especially when the picture of Aristine riding in the wedding carriage was published in the newspaper, it got people more and more interested in her.

While it was virtuous of her to sacrifice herself for peace, her spirited appearance was very beautiful.

Frankly, the face is usually what appeals to people instinctively. It was only natural that people were deeply moved by the beautiful and noble Aristine, their sickly and unfortunate Princess who willingly sacrificed herself for the sake of peace.

When they got news from the occasional news from Irugo saying something had happened, sometimes they were proud, other times, they were infuriated.

Seeing how much the people of Irugo liked their princess, they went ‘As expected of our princess!’ but at the same time, they felt like going, ‘Wait, that is our princess!’.

“I hoped she could recuperate in peace but she went to that barbarian land and suffered such insult…”

“But that’s not because of Irugo, no?”

“Yeah, strangely enough, the only people troubling our princess are the handmaids. The ones who went with her to Silvanus…”

“And here I thought she’d only have to be careful around those barbaric Irugoian bastards.”

“But the fact that all the maids are like this bothers me a little.”

“I even read in the newspaper that His Majesty went through a lot of deliberation during the selection process for his beloved daughter.”

“Wait, didn’t the knights suddenly come back half-way through?”

“The details are a little vague but I heard they voluntarily resigned to take responsibility for not serving the princess well.”

“Not serving the princess well…maybe there is actually serious problem?”

Naturally, such public opinions reached the Imperial Palace where the emperor resided.

* * *

Clatter–!

Expensive gold-plated porcelain shattered on the floor with a crash.

The Grand Chamberlain squeezed his eyes shut.

Aside from the broken porcelain, all sorts of items were scattered around the Emperor.

After seeing first-class treasures destroyed on the first day, the grand chamberlain wisely replaced them with unbreakable items.

So he felt reassured but…

‘I didn’t think he’d actually lift that big and heavy porcelain and break it…’

Right now, it was impossible to know what kind of trouble would arise if someone got on the Emperor’s bad side so all the servants had withdrawn, apart from himself.

The Emperor, who had been flipping the room upside down and creating a mess for a while now, seemed to have finally got tired as he gasped for breath then screamed—

“I sent them to keep an eye on her, but they are fighting among themselves?!”

When the knights came back complaining of their agony, he felt it was rather nonsensical and absurd.

When he heard that Brodie tried to stab Aristine and failed, he wondered if she had gone mad.

Yes, Aristine was fated to die someday.

Because she had to die to end this peace and ignite the embers of war.
But their preparation for war weren’t even done yet and the fool was trying to ruin things by killing her already!

Despite that, he thought that things would end there.

There’s no way that something else could possibly happen.

—Is what he thought then an unprecedented situation occurred.

“This whole mess is because of that wench called Rosalyn…”

The Emperor uttered under his breath.

This scheme covered Aristine in a veil, leaving just Rosalyn.

This was according to the plan that Aristine made, using the handmaids and Dionna.

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