Chapter 4

“Ah, I finally feel alive again!”

I hummed to myself as I vigorously moved both arms.

Scritch, scritch.

A cheerful scraping sound echoed from the cold, frozen windowpane.

Every spot I wiped became crystal clear, without a single smudge remaining.

The muscles that had stiffened after being cooped up in bed for an entire week were pleasantly stretched.

The slight stimulation made me feel as though an old knot in my body had finally been released.

Come to think of it.

‘It’s not as though the Grand Duke ordered me to work as a maid out of consideration because he thought I might be bored.’

I tilted my head slightly as I wiped even the corners of the window frame clean.

‘He must have wanted to humiliate me, right?’

He had probably ordered me to do maid’s work so that I would feel thoroughly ashamed after being forced upon him by the Emperor as a crazy princess from an enemy kingdom.

I shrugged.

‘But what am I supposed to do about that?’

Shame or whatever?

I didn’t care in the slightest.

‘If anything, thanks!’

To the servants of the Grand Ducal Residence, this behavior of mine would make me look like a princess who had completely lost her mind.

And to the guild bastards watching me, it would look like I was diligently playing the role of a crazy princess.

Either way, it wasn’t bad.

Scritch, scritch—.

I wiped the smudges from the glass even more enthusiastically.

But who was it?

Who was the spy planted by the guild, the one secretly leaving bottles of medicine in my room?

“Princess. Please, just give me the rag and come inside already, okayyy?”

Celine called to me anxiously from beneath the ladder.

I ignored her and pressed my nose against the window as I peered inside.

‘Could it be the stableman who glared at me when we happened to pass each other in the corridor a few days ago?’

Or perhaps the gardener who had smiled at me when our eyes briefly met in the garden outside my bedroom window?

“Princessss….”

Or maybe it was the head butler who came to check on me every single day?

‘Yes, the head butler had the sharpest gaze.’

It was exactly the kind of look suited to a spy.

Scritch, scritch—.

“Princess, pleaaase. At least come down from the ladder, okayyy?”

Celine spoke in a voice that was almost on the verge of tears.

“Ahem, Celine.”

I answered solemnly without stopping my window cleaning.

“This big sister is in the middle of making a very important deduction.”

Celine’s eyes grew round.

“B-Big sister…?”

“Shh.”

I kept my hands busy while sneakily glancing around the Grand Ducal Residence.

“Just be quiet for a little while.”

“Princess….”

After roughly placating the dejected Celine, I went back to scrubbing the window until it squeaked.

The biting winter wind made my fingertips sting with cold, but compared to digging through frozen soil, this was barely even a tickle.

When I was hit by the cold wind, I suddenly thought of the southern village.

‘Oh, right. By now, the Crovein should have grown thick with toxins.’

If I hadn’t been branded a witch, I would have been climbing the mountain and harvesting Crovein around this time.

Crovein.

It was a rare medicinal herb that could only be obtained during winter.

It wasn’t completely free of toxicity, but it was classified as a medicinal herb because of its excellent blood-stopping properties.

Fortunately, it grew wild in a particular area of the mountain behind Billot Village, where I had lived.

Every year, I would diligently collect it from late autumn through the bitter winter.

When the blue sap extracted from Crovein bulbs was combined with Bellostin petals, it produced the strongest hemostatic agent.

For someone like me, whose blood was highly poisonous, it was an essential medicine.

‘Haaah, and I have that hemostatic agent in my bag….’

I lightly bumped my head against the glass and swallowed a sigh.

“I’ll return your belongings after you spend a night with the Grand Duke.”

Damn it.

I ground my molars.

Forget spending a night with him.

I hadn’t even seen the shadow of the Grand Duke!

In truth, the contents of my research journal were already stored in my head, so I wasn’t particularly worried about that.

But the hemostatic agent was a different matter.

‘If I get even the slightest wound, I’m done for.’

No matter how careful I was inside the Grand Ducal Residence, accidents always happened unexpectedly, in places you never saw coming.

If I happened to get injured and my blood started flowing, not only could anyone who came into contact with it be harmed, but I might once again be branded a witch who killed people with her blood and end up dead.

‘That’s why I’ve been trying to be careful.’

Even when cleaning the windows along the outer walls of the Grand Ducal Residence, I checked every tiny splinter sticking out from the wooden frame once more before wiping it.

I wore long, thick clothing and gloves so that no skin was exposed, and I made sure to work only in places without anything sharp or pointed.

All that caution made me tire a little earlier than usual.

I draped the rag over the window frame and casually looked around the area surrounding the Grand Ducal Residence.

‘Come to think of it, this northern Grand Duke’s territory is covered in mountains too.’

Those rugged mountain ranges, blanketed in white snow and exuding a gloomy, desolate atmosphere.

At a glance, they looked like a natural paradise overflowing with incredible poisonous herbs and rare medicinal plants.

Perhaps there was even Crovein somewhere in those mountains.

Just thinking about fragrant, deadly weeds made my heart pound, and an intense instinct to climb the mountains began stirring inside me.

The thrill of digging through hard-frozen earth and discovering a jewel-like poisonous herb bulb buried beneath it!

Then, suddenly—

“Ah, I’m going crazy because I want to dig up some dirt.”

“……What?!”

The genuine thought slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

Celine, who had been anxiously waiting beneath the ladder, flinched and took a step backward.

Her eyes were shaking as though an earthquake had struck.

“Ah, did I say what I was thinking out loud?”

“……P-Princess.”

Once again, Celine’s eyes became moist.

“She’s doing it again.”

I let out a small laugh and climbed down from the ladder.

“Is this the first or second time I’ve said something ridiculous? This is my everyday life, Celine.”

After adding, “You’ve been dealing with me for a week now. You should be used to it,” Celine finally burst into tears.

“I’m scared, Princess!”

Oh dear.

It seemed our Celine was still far too innocent and young to handle me.

Well, that was fine.

This was also exactly what I had intended.

Once I was back on the ground, I gently stroked Celine’s hair and asked,

“Celine, where is the head butler right now?”

“Pardon? He should be in his office on the first floor right now. But why are you looking for him?”

“I want to go sightseeing around the Grand Duke’s territory.”

“……Whaaat?!”

The moment I remembered the hemostatic agent, I became eager to visit the bustling district of the Grand Duke’s territory.

Even though I was technically a hostage, I was still a princess, so I had been given a fairly large sum of money as an allowance for maintaining my dignity.

‘I need to use that money to visit an herbal shop and buy the ingredients for a hemostatic agent.’

Ordinary hemostatic agents wouldn’t be able to stop the bleeding from my wounds.

So I had no choice but to buy the ingredients myself and make it.

And if I happened to find Crovein, even better.

‘But to do that, I need to leave this residence….’

As expected, there was no Grand Duke around to grant me permission.

Then, in a residence where the Grand Duke was absent, who was the person I needed to get permission from?

Without hesitation, I ran downstairs and barged directly into the head butler’s office.

“I want to go sightseeing around the Grand Duke’s territory!”

Despite my demand, Hendrick answered in a dry tone.

“Without His Grace’s permission, that would be difficult.”

Well, that was the answer I expected.

But that didn’t mean I was going to back down.

I was a crazy princess.

In this place, I was perfectly entitled to say crazy things with confidence!

I smiled brightly.

“Really? Then I’ll get permission directly from His Grace.”

“……Pardon?”

The head butler adjusted his glasses and looked at me.

I shrugged.

“I’ll go myself. You said he’s somewhere in the northern mountains, right? I’ve been curious about what magical beasts look like anyway. This works out perfectly. I’ll dig some dirt along the way too.”

“…….”

“If that’s not allowed either… Well, then I’ll just hang from the outer windows until the Grand Duke returns. Even if I’m a hostage, I imagine it would be rather troublesome if a princess froze to death while hanging from the windows of the Grand Ducal Residence.”

“…….”

At my absurd and shameless threat, Hendrick’s brow furrowed.

He set down the documents he was holding and let out a deep sigh.

“……If you agree to take escort knights with you, I will grant you permission.”

My face immediately lit up.

“Thank you, Hendrick. May you be blessed.”

“…….”

The permission was granted much more easily than I expected.

I left the office with a huge smile on my face.

Before the head butler could change his mind, I hurriedly prepared to go out and left the Grand Ducal Residence.

There was just one slightly disappointing thing.

“Let’s go, Princess. We will escort you.”

“We will ensure your safety.”

“……Sure. Fine.”

Instead of one, there were two ominous-looking escort knights accompanying me.

I was already suffocating from wearing a thick cloak and wrapping a scarf around my entire face to hide my conspicuous appearance.

And now I was supposed to drag around two escort knights as well?

‘What kind of sightseeing trip is this? It’s not like I’m being escorted to prison for some serious crime.’

If this continued, there was no point in leaving Celine behind!

I complained inwardly as I stepped down from the carriage and swept my eyes over the bustling streets of the Grand Duke’s territory.

The commercial district was larger and more magnificent than I had expected.

I had assumed the harsh weather would have given it a bleak atmosphere, but instead, the place was boiling with enough vitality to swallow even the biting wind.

The rough bargaining voices of mercenaries and northern residents bundled up in fur clothing mingled with the ringing of hammers from the blacksmiths, creating a chaotic symphony of noise from every direction.

I watched the knights out of the corner of my eye and looked toward a somewhat more secluded alley.

‘I think I saw an herbal shop sign in that alley when I was in the carriage earlier….’

But even if I found the herbal shop, I couldn’t exactly bring these knights with me.

They would never let a supposedly mentally ill princess buy poisonous herbs.

‘How do I shake them off…?’

Just as I was seriously considering a way to ditch the knights, it happened.

Perhaps the heavens had decided to help me.

A commotion suddenly erupted on one side of the market.

“Aaaah—!”

“Catch him! It’s a pickpocket! Get that guy in the red vest!”

Loud shouts erupted in front of one of the busiest shops in the commercial district.

A cart of apples overturned, and sacks piled onto another cart came tumbling down after someone shoved into it.

People scattered in alarm, and screams erupted from every direction.

It was practically a battlefield.

“Catch that bastard!”

At that moment, a man in a red vest who was being chased by someone violently shoved his way through the crowd and ran straight toward me.

“Move!”

The man drew his sword and shouted menacingly.

The two knights guarding me instinctively stepped in front of me and drew their swords at the same time.

Clang—!

The sharp sound of metal colliding rang out, and the surrounding area instantly descended into chaos.

I realized it in that instant.

‘Now!’

Not only the escort knights but also everyone gathered in the busy street had turned their attention toward the commotion.

I didn’t miss the brief opening.

I pulled my scarf higher to cover my face and ran without looking back.

Using the experience I had gained running through the mountains, I slipped into a narrow, dark alley.

The first thing I spotted was a tree that rose nearly as high as a two-story building.

Without hesitation, I climbed it.

When I was gathering herbs and needed to avoid wild animals I encountered in the mountains, I sometimes climbed trees like this.

‘Good thing I changed into commoner’s clothes before coming out.’

If I had come wearing the cumbersome dress of a princess, I wouldn’t have been able to climb the tree, let alone hide in the alley.

Of course, even in commoner’s clothes, I was wrapped from head to toe in a cloak and wearing gloves, so climbing the tree was a little cumbersome.

‘Still, at least being bundled up like this means I won’t get hurt.’

After reaching the top of the tree, I looked into the distance and spotted the knights.

They seemed to have realized only belatedly that I had disappeared and were searching for me.

“She’s not here either!”

“Check the other alleys! Hurry!”

The knights searched the nearby alleys before eventually moving away in the opposite direction.

I hid among the branches covered by the shadow of a building and quietly chuckled as I watched the knights disappear into the distance.

‘They’ll never imagine that the princess climbed a tree.’

Phew.

Only then did I let out a sigh of relief.

That was when I felt someone’s gaze.

‘……Below!’

My animal instincts sensed danger beneath the tree.

I quickly lowered my head and looked down.

Then I locked eyes with a pair of pitch-black eyes staring up at me.

It was a man wearing a hood pulled deeply over his head, with his face concealed behind a mask.

The only thing visible was his jet-black eyes.

His gaze was unnervingly calm, which somehow made it even more threatening as he stared steadily up at me.

My fingers tightened around the branch.

Those eyes.

That chilling aura.

I swallowed nervously once before carefully opening my mouth in a wary voice.

“What are you looking at?”