Chapter 5
That’s exactly who I’m trying to avoid! I just don’t want anything to do with the Swan Empire!
And you’re taking all the credit while dumping the work on me! I hate that too!
If I throw a fit here and refuse, will they fire me?
Behind her carefully maintained smile, Harriet clenched her fists.
All right. Let’s make a scene.
I’ll throw myself on the floor and scream that I’d rather die than do it.
They’d probably say they’d never seen such an uncouth maid and dismiss her on the spot. Then she could simply rent another room with the salary she’d painstakingly saved.
As for living expenses, she’d just work a few part-time jobs while focusing on her next novel.
Yet Harriet could do neither.
She couldn’t throw herself on the ground.
She couldn’t make a scene.
“This is confidential, but I’ve already informed Count Pailen, since he knows about the matter. He was absolutely delighted that the maid he personally recommended has been entrusted with such an important responsibility.”
Confidential?! What kind of confidential information do you go around telling everyone?!
Harriet stared blankly into space.
Now she really laughed.
People said that when something was too absurd, all you could do was laugh.
Lately, though, nothing had happened that made her laugh with joy—only things so ridiculous they made her laugh in disbelief.
It felt exactly like the day she had read the newspaper article about the Emperor flying into a rage after reading Elliot Dark’s novel.
She wanted to laugh while pounding the ground in frustration.
If I make a scene and quit now, Count Pailen—the man who was supposedly overjoyed—will drag me back before I’ve even had a chance to enjoy my freedom.
Would he bury me alive for disgracing his name?
She found herself seriously wondering which would be worse: being buried alive, or having her skin flayed off while still alive.
Standing at the crossroads of fate, Harriet reluctantly nodded.
These insane nobles…
Once this is all over, I’m moving to the countryside.
I’ll live somewhere with fresh air and beautiful scenery—and write novels tearing every last one of you apart like a rabid dog.
“…I shall serve with all my heart.”
The world is terrible.
And my life is even worse.
Still… what’s the worst that could happen?
In the newspapers, she was the notorious criminal who had enraged the Emperor.
In reality, however, Harriet was nothing more than a low-ranking maid who wouldn’t even catch the Emperor’s eye.
I was worried when I first entered the palace too… but nothing happened in the end.
That was how she calmed her racing thoughts.
It didn’t take long before she realized it had all been a very comforting illusion.
Harriet froze halfway through lifting a spoonful of soup to her mouth, glaring darkly at the newspaper she was holding.
Between the stress of the Emperor’s impending visit and the manuscript she had to submit to the weekly magazine, she’d practically gone several nights without sleep.
She was already on edge.
The newspaper was only making it worse.
“His Imperial Majesty the Emperor and Her Imperial Highness the Princess Scheduled to Arrive on April 3!”
Who left this piece of trash here?
Grinding her teeth, Harriet shoved the newspaper toward the edge of the dining table.
Not because it contained news about the Emperor.
It was literally trash.
It was four days old.
The Emperor was arriving today.
And during the entire week leading up to his arrival…
Harriet had been worked to the bone.
No—
She had been worked absolutely insane.
“There’s still a crack here! The palace’s outer walls represent the dignity of its master! Fill it in and repaint it so perfectly that no one can tell it was ever damaged!”
The cracked exterior wall that hadn’t received so much as a proper inspection despite Harriet requesting repairs for an entire month…
Was restored to perfection almost overnight.
“There’s no shine! None at all! Keep polishing until the floor sparkles!”
The gloomy bedroom that had once looked haunted now gleamed so brightly it practically dazzled.
Harriet had pushed people pretty hard herself.
The head maid had been even worse.
When decorations were actually moved over from the main palace to decorate Cynia Palace, Harriet found herself speechless.
The corridor floors, once covered in dust, were polished until they reflected like mirrors, forcing people to walk carefully to avoid slipping.
Every day the gardens filled with fresh spring flowers and ornamental stones, transforming them into a picture-perfect spring landscape.
The news of the royal wedding and the Emperor’s visit had already pushed the palace maids to the brink of collapse.
Learning that the Emperor would actually be staying at Cynia Palace drove many of them half mad.
“Brown? Why don’t you learn your place?”
“Do you seriously think you belong in that palace?”
Some even tried to intimidate Harriet into switching assignments.
Harriet would have happily traded places.
But would the head maid allow it?
Of course not.
She dealt with them personally.
As a result, the bullying only intensified.
Harriet barely even noticed.
For an entire week she had been waking before sunrise, working herself ragged without even eating proper meals, then collapsing into bed like a corpse before dawn.
She simply wasn’t in her right mind anymore.
And on top of all that…
Every single night she still had to sneak around writing her novel.
Right.
Thanks to His Most Noble Imperial Majesty, I gained yet another job.
Just thinking about her manuscript made her grind her teeth.
She was already busy enough.
Now she also had to convert her manuscript into coded writing before sending it to Penelope.
Security throughout the palace had been tightened.
Letters leaving the royal palace were now randomly selected and inspected.
Until yesterday, the work itself had been so exhausting that Harriet had actually wished the utterly useless Emperor would hurry up and arrive already.
But now…
On the very day of his arrival…
I’m scared.
Her spoon stopped in midair.
A quiet sigh escaped her lips.
What if they find out I’m Elliot Dark?
It was an irrational fear.
An entire month had passed.
Surely even the Emperor had forgotten some insignificant author from a tiny kingdom.
Wasn’t that what powerful people always did?
They turned ordinary people’s lives upside down…
Then forgot they had ever existed.
While the other maids ran off to watch the Emperor’s procession, Harriet remained at Cynia Palace carrying out one final inspection.
Why am I, a maid who’s only been here for one month, doing the caretaker’s job too? I honestly have no idea!
But what choice do I have?
They told me to do it.
“There! Who put hibiscus flowers in that vase? What? Miss Grace did? Throw them away! Red is considered an unlucky color in the Swan Empire! There’s dust over there. What about the window frames? Have they really been cleaned? Is there no dry cloth? They’re still collecting dust! Scatter a few more flower petals over here!”
The hibiscus Grace had secretly arranged as a symbol of romantic affection went straight into the trash.
Harriet nearly fainted when she found dust on the window frames and immediately drove the servants back to work.
She inspected everything.
Then inspected it again.
And again.
Hundreds of times.
Yet every final inspection somehow revealed a brand-new problem she had missed before.
Only moments before the Emperor’s arrival was Cynia Palace finally ready to receive its guests.
Harriet, on the other hand, had been drained of every last ounce of energy.
She looked ready to collapse.
If she’d been allowed, she would have abandoned even the welcoming ceremony and run away.
Then Count Pailen would come chasing after me.
Damn that reputation…
If not for Count Pailen, she would never have worked at the royal palace.
She never would have been standing in the front row to greet the Emperor.
Grinding her teeth inwardly, Harriet took her place beside the doorway.
Everyone serving at Cynia Palace lined up, waiting for the Emperor’s arrival.
The instant the doors opened, they were to bow.
It was a courtesy usually reserved for the king.
But this guest wasn’t just anyone.
He was the Emperor of the greatest empire on the continent.
Time passed.
Just as Harriet began wondering whether the Emperor was actually coming at all—
The heavy doors swung open.
Before the Emperor himself entered, an unexpectedly rich fragrance of flowers drifted in from the garden, tickling her nose.
No—
There was another scent mixed with it.
An unfamiliar fragrance from a foreign land.
It floated lightly above the floral perfume.
What is that scent?
Pushing the thought aside, Harriet gracefully lifted the hem of her skirt.
Neither too quickly nor too slowly.
She bowed at the proper angle, lowering her gaze.
Just like every other maid and servant.
Without drawing attention to herself.
Ah… it’s fruit.
Like biting into a ripe, juicy piece of fruit, the sweet fragrance seemed to fill even the inside of her mouth.
A pair of elegant dress shoes stepped onto the white carpet strewn with flower petals.
“We greet Your Imperial Majesty.”
The owner of those shoes…
Was the Emperor of the Great Empire.
Unlike ordinary servants, no one could order him around.
Nor should they.
He was the one man on the continent who could, for all practical purposes, do as he pleased without anyone daring to stop him.
Harriet’s eyes followed the shoes.
They had been some distance away.
Now they had stopped directly in front of her.
He’ll pass by and head up the stairs…
Or so she thought.
But the elegant footsteps crossing the carpet came to a halt…
Right before her.
