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Translator: thursdays PR: scarcecrow
***
「My dear Princess Cayena.
I was just staying at home when I had the pleasure of receiving your letter. The construction of the building has already started; however, being given the opportunity to help Your Highness is an honor. I’ve already told Miss Olivia, but I would like to meet you at the imperial academy in two days.
I look forward to seeing you again. Sincerely, Raphael Kedrey.」
Cayena looked once again over the letter Olivia delivered yesterday. There wasn’t anything special in the letter, but it was a little unbelievable. Its contents were concise; there was nothing meaningful about it. It was very plain and proper. However, the content was not the problem.
‘Raphael sent me a reply?’
Cayena vacantly looked down at the letter and swallowed.
‘Of course, the way people treat me will change now that I’ve changed.’
But it would be a little uncomfortable to meet him tomorrow while feeling this awkward.
Cayena calmed her heart, telling herself she was being silly.
‘Tomorrow is the last day of Rezef’s probation.’
Somehow, it felt like the ten days of his probation had lasted for a long time. Was it because there were so many incidents?
‘As my reward for organizing the internal affairs, I need to get a letter of appointment from the Emperor to get Raphael set up in the role of the military leader of the west.’
She could then deliver it to him at the academy tomorrow.
“Vera, could you request for an audience with the Emperor? And Susan, prepare my dress.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The court ladies had been writing out the invitations, and at Cayena’s orders, they stood up. It went without saying that Julia looked at them enviously.
Julia’s hand hurt from writing ten invitations. She put down the pen for a moment to take a short break.
Julia was looking forward to the princess’s coming-of-age very much. However, she did not want to do the chores associated with it.
That said, Olivia was working so hard that she couldn’t dawdle about. In fact, among the four maids, Julia wrote the least number of invitations.
Her anticipated elegant life in the palace and the capital seemed to get farther and farther away as she was stuck with constant work.
Why was the princess so busy? Julia really couldn’t understand.
‘The prince is locked up, and my brother is being weird these days. The palace is full of strange things. My brother, the princess, and all the court ladies!’
She nervously dipped the pen into the inkwell and took it out.
“Kyaa!”
The ink came out of the pen and splattered in all directions.
“Oh no, what do I do?”
Black ink had splashed over her pastel dress. Julia got flustered and rubbed at the ink, but that only caused it to smear heavily.
Olivia let out a small sigh when she saw the ink splattered on some of her invitations.
“What’s the issue?” Cayena asked.
Julia began to cry.
“The ink stained my dress!”
“Oh my. It looks like you need to change your clothes.”
Then Cayena’s gaze turned to Olivia’s direction.
“Olivia, were you splashed as well?”
At those words, Julia also turned toward Olivia.
“My dress is fine.”
In that moment, Julia noticed the ink splatters on the invitations. She felt a little sorry, but it was only an invitation, so it could be written again. Her dress, on the other hand, couldn’t be saved.
Still, Julia apologized in a small voice.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize the ink would splatter like this.”
“It’s all right,” Olivia said, and she redid the invitation.
Julia got a little confused. She thought that Olivia would also ask if she was okay.
She stood up sullenly.
“I will change to another outfit and return, Your Highness.”
“As you like.”
Julia left the office.
Cayena stepped near Olivia. She found an invitation greatly stained with ink.
“Hmm. The ink splattered on the words of these two pages. But the rest only have ink splattered on the margins, so we can cover it up with a picture.”
Olivia finally realized that she didn’t have to throw out all the invitations. Normally, she would have come up with this sort of solution immediately.
“It looks like something’s on your mind.”
Olivia moved her lips slightly before closing them shut.
‘I can’t tell her that the sponsorship from the Kedrey duchy was cut off… ‘
She had been concerned about this ever since she became a court lady of the princess’s palace.
Then, this morning, she had received a letter from her family saying that the sponsorship had ended.
‘I’m fine, but what about my younger siblings?’
Her family had an immense amount of debt.
‘It’s strange that we’ve gone into debt, and the interest is unusual as well.’
It was too convenient that the person in charge of the debt was not demanding things from them. Actually, it was really concerning.
Many high aristocrats behaved nonchalantly about things like this, so her parents didn’t believe that the lack of action was significant.
‘Something is weird.’
The debt had grown so much that it was difficult to pay off more than the interest with what she earned. However, though the numbers kept growing, they weren’t being urged to pay.
It felt like their lender had purposes other than money.
‘Emma also thought that was odd, so she’s trying to figure out where the debt came from…’
Emma was one of Olivia’s younger siblings.
A faint sigh flowed out of her lips.
She wanted to pay off this suspicious debt quickly.
***
Recently, Zenon had been on edge because of the issue with Catherine Lindbergh.
Furthermore, Cayena had flipped over the imperial palace. Her actions were just, so the opposing side naturally appeared to be evil.
The momentum was completely leaning toward Cayena. She was slowly removing Rezef’s people, one by one.
Specifically, she was removing the people associated with the Evans family.
‘Placing Catherine in Count Hamel’s family will earn the Emperor’s favor. I don’t know how much it’ll affect, and Rezef had denied it, but it’s clear Cayena brought in the Emperor’s lover and her son to curb Rezef’s power.
‘Just because Lindbergh’s son doesn’t have any power doesn’t mean we can ignore him. He’s one of the biggest threats to the current balance. If the Kedrey duchy backs him, it will become troublesome to fix the situation.’
At that time, one of his subordinates approached him with an embarrassed face.
“Sir Evans, I have something to report.”
“What is it?”
“Henverton Gillian tried to make contact. Should I ignore him like last time?”
Recently, the heir of the Gillian viscounty had been attempting to negotiate with them in exchange for the position of the princess’s husband.
It wasn’t even funny. Regardless of the warhorse business’s utility, it was the position of the Emperor’s son-in-law that they were talking about.
He was about to tell the subordinate to ignore him, but after thinking, he shut his mouth. It seemed that he would be able to deal with that impudent princess without raising his hand.
Zenon smiled like a shark.
“No. Let’s hear him out once. Make an appointment with him.”
**
Zenon left the palace for the first time in a while to go to his private residence in the capital.
His address had an excellent advantage. The location and internal structure of the building made it a good place to arrange secret meetings.
As he entered the secret area of the residence, he saw the guest who arrived first.
“Well met. I am Henverton Gillian.”
Henverton curved his eyes into smiles and stretched out his hand for a handshake. Zenon looked down at the hand for a moment before grabbing it.
“I am Zenon Evans.”
He never associated with Henverton before, but he knew him well. In particular, the gentlemen’s club that Henverton ran with his friends was well known, though it was meant to be secret.
‘It’s hard to call it a secret club when everyone knows about it.’
“My attendant told me what you had said,” Zenon began to say. “If the Gillian viscounty and the imperial family were to unite, it would be of great strength for Prince Rezef.”
To be precise, it would benefit the Evans family, not the imperial family.
Henverton was the successor to the Gillian viscountcy. He had offered to share the power of the warhorse business he will inherit with the Evans family.
And the price was Cayena.
“What I want is Princess Cayena herself, not the position of the imperial son-in-law.”
If he could have Cayena in his hand right now, that was all he wanted. He wasn’t interested in the position at all. He only wanted to get his hands on Cayena as soon as possible.
Henverton was a passionate collector who had an obsession with beauty. He loved collecting beautiful jewels, statues, paintings, and such. Then, he saw the most beautiful thing that he could own in his life. That was Cayena.
The beauty of the princess was by far the greatest among the many things he had collected. He became obsessed from the moment he first saw her. His desire to possess her made it difficult for him to be in his right senses.
Back then, at the library, Cayena had seen through the lunacy in his eyes.
“Since your heart is so set, I think our conversation today will be very helpful.”
Zenon’s cold eyes looked mockingly at the maniac Henverton.
“The princess will visit the imperial academy tomorrow. She’s going to meet with Sir Raphael.”
For the first time, the smile on Henverton’s face disappeared.
“She’s meeting with… Raphael Kedrey?”
He remembered Raphael, who had interrupted him at the imperial library. Thinking about that time again made him grind his teeth. He wanted to mutilate Raphael, who had dared to hold Cayena in his arms.
Henverton’s eyes were stained with a deep darkness.
Zenon continued,
“Before our meeting today, I arranged something at the temple.”
If one donated more than a certain amount to the temple, they provided a separate building.
This building was a truly useful thing. It was a sanctuary, an area of non-aggression. Outsiders could not enter the building without the permission of the temple, even if criminals were to be hiding inside.
Henverton’s eyes shined in a terrifying way at Zenon’s explanation.
“That means…”
“Take the princess there, while a carriage is sent away as a distraction.”
In other words, even if the princess’s disappearance was noticed, he would be able to hide her while her searchers focused on the wrong carriage.
“I shall replace the coachman or the escort knight with someone in the know.”
Henverton smiled darkly.
“That’s perfect. I love it.”
After addressing a few other issues, they got up from their seats.
“I look forward to tomorrow.”
Zenon replied with a wry smile. “So do I.”
They shook hands again and departed. When Zenon was left alone, he burst into laughter.
“Dumbass.”
Henverton thought that he could get his hands on Cayena?
How could a fool who can’t keep his head under his delusions ever embrace her?
“What a perfect scapegoat.”
It was Zenon who would get Cayena tomorrow, and the one to take on all the blame would be none other than Henverton Gillian.
~~~
[TL/PR note] Hello, all! As requested, we have started to do advanced chapters for The Villainess is a Marionette. This means that people who are interested in reading ahead will be able to do so by using woopcoins, which you can buy or earn through occasional giveaways on our Discord server. Eventually, there will be 10 advanced chapters available. Important to note is that this won’t change the release rate for the free chapters.
Thank you for joining us on this journey as we read this book!