Chapter 6

After returning to the Grand Ducal Residence, I changed back into my maid’s uniform and clung to the outer wall of the Grand Ducal Residence once again.

In the morning, I had cleaned the windows on the western outer wall.

This time, it was the eastern outer wall.

Perhaps it was because I had gone sightseeing around the Grand Duke’s territory earlier.

My movements were smoother than they had been that morning, as though my joints had been freshly lubricated.

“Hehe, Princess! There’s a four-leaf clover here!”

“…….”

“I’ve already found five! I’ll make a bookmark for you, Princess!”

“…….”

I stopped wiping the window for a moment and looked down.

Celine was crouching in the flower bed beside the ladder, searching through the weeds for four-leaf clovers.

She had more or less given up on trying to take the rag away from me.

Tsk-tsk.

I clicked my tongue inwardly and shook my head.

‘Poor Celine. How did she end up becoming the maid of a commoner herbalist pretending to be a crazy princess? She’s going through all kinds of hardships…….’

But I couldn’t stop doing this.

‘Because I have to survive too.’

For now, with the Grand Duke still away, the guild bastards sent by those suspicious men probably couldn’t do anything to me.

And if I neglected my crazy-princess act on top of that, the disgusting weed inside my stomach might start tearing me apart again.

‘Ugh, I don’t want that.’

Just remembering that pain made my brow wrinkle involuntarily.

But……

‘I’ll probably be unable to dream of leaving the Grand Ducal Residence for a while, right……?’

Scrub, scrub, scrub—.

The rag moved faster across the window.

‘No, wouldn’t it have been nice if everyone had just kept it a secret and pretended nothing happened?’

The fact that I had shaken off the knights and disappeared in the middle of the bustling district had reached Head Butler Hendrick’s ears.

The knights assigned to guard me had immediately run back and reported everything about my disappearance.

Of course, I was the one who had deliberately shaken them off and disappeared in the first place.

But still.

‘Did I suggest keeping it a secret just because I wanted things to go my way? Huh? I suggested it because it would be better for everyone! Honestly, those inflexible northerners…….’

Thanks to that, I had to endure Hendrick’s chilly stare for quite some time.

Now that the incident had become known, I might have been promoted among the servants of the Grand Ducal Residence from simply being a crazy princess to a crazy princess who could go completely off the rails at any moment.

‘Fine. I’ll just quietly climb walls and amuse myself for a while.’

Oh, right.

What should I do about the herbs I bought?

I had somehow managed to purchase the Crovein and the other herbs needed to prepare the hemostatic agent, but I had no idea how I was supposed to make the medicine while avoiding the eyes of the servants and my watchers.

‘And I don’t even have the equipment.’

In fact, there were several buildings in the backyard of the Grand Ducal Residence, including a forge, medical facilities, and other structures serving various purposes.

One of those buildings was where medicines were prepared and the physicians lived.

‘If I could just use that place, making a hemostatic agent would be a piece of cake.’

But of course, there was no way they would open one of the Grand Duke’s important facilities to a crazy princess from an enemy kingdom.

‘What could possibly look more suspicious than an enemy kingdom’s princess spreading out medicinal herbs and poisonous herbs and making medicine?’

They might even get the wrong idea and realize that I wasn’t actually crazy.

And above all, it was obvious that if the guild bastards thought I wasn’t seducing the Grand Duke and was instead fooling around with herbs, they would stop giving me the sedative that kept the thing in my stomach quiet.

Damn it!

So?!

When on earth was the Grand Duke coming back?

Why?

Why didn’t he just settle down in the northern mountains and live there forever?!

Had he abandoned the Grand Ducal Residence?

Huh?

Was that it?!

Was it?!

Aaaaargh!!!!

I screamed inwardly in frustration as I clenched the rag as though I were grabbing the Grand Duke by the collar.

I scrubbed and scrubbed the window until the glass nearly wore away.

Scrrrrrrrub—!

“Wow! This is my seventh four-leaf clover!”

Celine’s cheerful voice came from below.

“Is this really all right? Even if His Grace the Grand Duke ordered it……”

Head Maid Reina spoke cautiously.

Her gaze, along with Head Butler Hendrick’s, was fixed on the eastern outer wall of the Grand Ducal Residence.

In front of the windows that glittered faintly beneath the winter afternoon sunlight was the figure of a woman standing on a ladder and vigorously swinging a rag.

She had been clinging to the outer wall with a rag in her hand since morning.

Around lunchtime, she had gone sightseeing around the Grand Duke’s territory and even caused quite a commotion.

Yet the moment she returned, she had changed back into her maid’s uniform as though nothing had happened and resumed cleaning the outer wall.

Scrub, scrub, scrub……

Rub-rub-rub-rub!

For some reason, the sound of her rubbing the glass seemed to be getting increasingly violent.

Or was it just their imagination?

Hendrick stood with his hands clasped behind his back, silently watching the scene.

His reddish-brown eyes were as cold and composed as ever, but today, there was a strange weariness settled beneath that calm exterior.

“Did she not volunteer to do it herself?”

Hendrick’s voice was as dry as usual.

In truth, the princess had been running around the Grand Ducal Residence and the commercial district since morning.

It would not have been strange if she were completely exhausted by now.

Instead, she seemed to have even more energy than before.

‘She almost seems to enjoy cleaning.’

There had been moments when she appeared to examine and contemplate something before starting to clean, but once she settled into a spot, she cleaned with an excited expression.

Despite Hendrick’s calm answer, Reina still looked troubled.

“Even so, her mind is, well…… not exactly sound. If she were to get hurt while doing that—”

“How could powerless servants like us stop something that His Grace the Grand Duke ordered and Her Highness the Princess insists on doing?”

Hendrick cut Reina off.

As it was, Hendrick’s head was already throbbing because of the commotion in the commercial district.

The knights who had failed to properly guard and monitor the hostage princess should rightfully receive severe punishment.

But when the princess heard about it, she stormed directly into Hendrick’s office.

“I’m the one who was swept away by the crowd! There was nothing anyone could have done about that. Yes, it was a natural disaster! That’s what happened!”

“Your Highness, that cannot be considered an excuse—”

“If the knights who were guarding me absolutely have to be punished, then I’ll receive exactly the same punishment as them.”

“Pardon?”

“Look into my eyes. I…… am being very serious right now.”

“…….”

In the end, because of the princess’s attitude as though she were about to put a knife to her own throat, Hendrick had decided to postpone discussing the knights’ punishment until the Grand Duke returned.

Hendrick himself also secretly sympathized with the knights who had been assigned to guard the princess.

Guarding a mentally sound person was already difficult enough.

Yet he had allowed a stubborn princess whose mind was supposedly unsound to go into the commercial district.

He considered that decision his own mistake.

Hendrick let out a quiet sigh.

“She even managed to shake off the knights in the commercial district. Do we really need to worry about her?”

“That……”

Just then—

“What was that?”

A voice colder and heavier than the biting northern wind came from directly behind them.

Hendrick and Reina spun around in surprise.

The Grand Duke, who had apparently returned without either of them noticing, was walking toward them with his dark navy cloak fluttering behind him.

“Y-Your Highness!”

“Your Highness, you’ve arrived earlier than expected.”

Hendrick calmly bowed to greet Varkan.

As it happened, Hendrick had only just received word that Varkan had descended from the northern mountain range.

He had intended to check on the princess’s condition and prepare to receive the Grand Duke before Varkan arrived at the Grand Ducal Residence.

But Varkan had returned much sooner than expected.

With his brow deeply furrowed, Varkan strode toward them and asked sharply,

“Hendrick. What do you mean by saying she shook off the knights? I asked what you were talking abo—”

Varkan’s gaze suddenly shifted toward something precariously clinging to the eastern outer wall.

His footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

“What is that?”

“…….”

“…….”

It was clearly a maid’s uniform belonging to the Grand Ducal Residence.

Yet the back of the maid was unfamiliar.

Her movements as she cleaned the windows looked surprisingly tough and practiced.

At the same time, despite the cold weather, she seemed almost excessively enthusiastic.

It was impossible not to be drawn to the sight.

At Varkan’s question, Reina squeezed her eyes shut first.

Hendrick also found himself unable to answer immediately.

After a moment, Hendrick lowered his head and cautiously replied,

“Her Highness the Princess.”

Varkan’s eyebrow twitched.

“……What?”

Varkan looked at Hendrick as though he had heard incorrectly.

This time, Hendrick spoke again with a more composed and resigned expression.

“The Princess who came from Delmar.”

“…….”

At those words, Varkan’s head quickly turned toward the princess dangling from the outer wall.

“That?”

“Yes.”

“Why is a princess wearing a maid’s clothes……”

Varkan asked in disbelief.

Hendrick, however, answered as though the question itself were strange.

“Did Your Highness not order us to give her a rag and put her to work?”

“I did?”

“Yes.”

“I never—”

Varkan was about to ask when exactly he had said that.

Then he stopped.

“Give the princess a rag or something.”

Ah……

Varkan let out a short groan and slapped a hand against his forehead.

“Bring her down.”

“Pardon?”

Hendrick blinked.

Varkan’s jaw tightened as he gave the order in a cold voice.

“Bring that cra—…… Bring the princess down immediately.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”