Chapter 43……….
The document I handed Yulken was simple.
It was nothing more than a list of names.
But as Arpad’s close aide and a skilled intelligence officer, Yulken would understand exactly what those names meant.
And my prediction was spot on.
The moment he saw the paper, he realized every name belonged to spies the Empress had planted inside the Crown Prince’s palace.
Among them, there were probably some Yulken already knew and was exploiting.
Some he might only suspect.
But there were surely others he hadn’t identified at all.
And the ones I marked as “possible” spies were likely the Empress’s most carefully hidden agents.
In other words, the heavyweights.
Of course, my source was my memories from before regression—so the credibility was 100%.
From Yulken’s perspective, it was as though I’d handed him a pumpkin vine—no, an entire pumpkin patch—out of nowhere.
This was the man who clung to meritocracy, who didn’t stop his biting words even on the guillotine.
And such people were easy to deal with.
All you had to do was prove ability.
With that single sheet of paper, I had done just that.
As I’d expected, Yulken cried out brightly the moment he saw it:
“Of course, Your Highness the Princess Consort!”
He stared at the document like a fox drooling over a bunch of grapes.
I even heard him muttering unconsciously:
“With this list, I can finally understand the link between this one and that one. Through this maid, they’ve been… That means leaking false information will become several times easier…”
He was so overjoyed he seemed to have lost himself in the paper.
He had called me Her Highness without hesitation, and yet hadn’t even noticed my reaction.
I snapped my fingers to get his attention.
Clack!
Finally, Yulken snapped out of it and looked at me.
“…What is it, Your Highness?”
I had my right hand stretched out in front of him.
For some reason, he was still looking at me with the same dazed eyes he’d had when staring at the paper.
Even his cheeks were slightly flushed.
It almost looked like he was expecting something—but that had to be my imagination.
“Yulken isn’t that kind of character.”
Smiling brightly, I moved my lips slowly.
His hazy gaze followed them.
But once he understood the words, he reacted as if cold water had been dumped on his head.
“Wager.”
“…Wa–wager? W-wait a minute!”
I landed the finishing blow.
“Pay up. One million castels.”
“…!”
Yulken’s expression, still half-bewitched a moment ago, twisted into horror.
Clutching the document to his chest, he trembled.
“Surely… surely you don’t actually mean to take one million castels from me?!”
I tilted my head.
My tone had naturally shifted, but neither of us cared to point it out.
“If I’d lost, would you really have refused to take the one million from me?”
“Of course not, I’d have taken it!”
“Then I’m taking it too.”
Yulken collapsed sideways miserably—or rather, pretended to.
“M-my month’s wages…!”
To the man who looked about to cry, I extended a hand of mercy.
“Don’t worry, Felix Yulken. I’m not that cruel.”
Hope instantly filled his face.
“As expected of Your Highness!”
And I declared mercifully:
“You can pay in three monthly installments.”
“…Pardon?”
“Out of sheer kindness, I won’t even charge interest. I’m not a loan shark, after all.”
Yulken bowed his head low.
“You’re really bleeding a flea dry.”
This world had plenty of proverbs similar to those from Korea.
Probably because the original novel was a K-rofan (Korean romance fantasy).
Still, I corrected him:
“Not a flea’s liver—more like a miser’s liver.”
Yulken sank completely.
That day, Arpad had a most unpleasant experience.
Since Hilia had entered the palace, Yulken had stubbornly refused to use the honorific “Her Highness the Princess Consort.”
Even when Arpad pressed him, the closest he got was calling her “the mistress of the ivory bedchamber.”
But after being summoned by Hilia once, he came back a changed man.
“I’ve completely fallen for Her Highness, Your Highness.”
For once, Arpad was caught off guard.
And then, immeasurably displeased.
“…I must not have heard you right. Because there’s no way Felix Yulken just said that with his own mouth.”
Yulken sighed deeply.
“Shall I call for the palace physician? If Your Highness’s hearing is failing, that would be disastrous.”
“…Judging by how your mouth still runs, you must be the same Felix Yulken I know.”
“Yes, Your Highness’s most capable subordinate, and his most loyal retainer, Felix Yulken.”
“Both wrong—but yes, the same Yulken who’d keep babbling like floating lips even if I threw him in the river.”
Arpad lifted a silver paper knife and neatly trimmed the edge of a document.
“So what wind blew through you? Her Highness? You refused even when I hounded you.”
To Arpad’s surprise, Yulken’s eyes now gleamed.
A rare and bizarre sight—even Arpad couldn’t quite keep his composure.
“Because Her Highness is more than worthy of the title! I simply failed to see it until now, blinded as I was!”
Arpad’s face twisted strangely.
“One meeting—and he’s become a devotee? Yulken, of all people?”
It made no sense.
“Some kind of brainwashing magic?”
He had already suspected as much.
But with Yulken added to the mix, he was seriously beginning to wonder.
Then Yulken explained exactly what had happened.
“…That’s how it was!”
“So Hilia knew of spies you hadn’t even identified?”
“Yes! Isn’t it amazing? Truly remarkable. She’s demonstrated abilities befitting not only the Crown Princess, but even the Empress herself!”
It was instantly clear why Yulken had been won over.
No one was more of a merit absolutist than him.
Show him ability so overwhelming it bordered on terrifying, and that alone was enough to claim his loyalty.
Even Arpad was forced to admit it was impressive.
“She didn’t say how she knew, I suppose.”
“Well… no, but still—”
Her ability was so great, the thought naturally occurred:
“The only ones who could know such things would be those closest to the Empress, wouldn’t they?”
It was a suspicion he had held from the very beginning.
And it was the reason Yulken himself had been so wary of her.
But now, the man who had always been wary shook his head violently.
“No, impossible. You know as well as I do—if Her Highness were truly on the Empress’s side, marrying Ludwig would have been far more advantageous.”
That was true.
Yes, planting a spy right next to Arpad had its benefits.
But it was nowhere near as valuable as bolstering Ludwig’s legitimacy and securing his claim to the throne.
“Besides, she swore she could quell my madness.”
And she had proven it, through the divine relic.
If such a method truly existed, the Empress would never have sent Hilia here.
She’d have killed her first.
In the end, no matter how much he mulled it over, there was only one conclusion:
“She’s… truly an incomprehensible woman.”
But she kept bringing exactly what Arpad wanted, exactly what would benefit him.
And always, she smiled confidently.
As if to say, “Even now, will you claim you don’t need me?”
Frowning, Arpad stroked his chin—a habit whenever deep in thought.
Beside him, Yulken babbled on, oblivious.
No—he wasn’t oblivious. Yulken knew perfectly well, but talking regardless was his specialty.
“Ahhh. The greatest deed Your Highness has done this year was abducting Her Highness.”
“…You really flip your evaluation as easily as a pancake. Didn’t you ask me if I was insane?”
“That was then, this is now. Back then I had reason, and now I have reason too.”
That was Yulken, as ever.
“Just imagine it, Your Highness. Her Highness standing beside Ludwig! Doesn’t the thought make your skin crawl?”
“……”
Arpad couldn’t deny it.
Even he was quietly relieved she wasn’t at Ludwig’s side.
Still, he refused to agree with a man whose opinions flipped like a frying pan.
So he stayed silent.
And then Yulken dropped a bomb.
“And I believe Her Highness is rather fond of me!”
“…What?”
Arpad doubted his ears more now than before.
“Yes! Despite it being her first time meeting me, she looked at me with such warmth! She prepared the most luxurious refreshments, poured tea for me herself. Even when I was rude, she wasn’t angry—”
Creaaak.
Arpad’s neck turned with the screech of rusted wheels.
“…Say that again.”
“Her Highness looked at me with such passionate eyes, I even worried she might have fallen for me at first sight!”
“……”
Yulken had no idea he had just stepped on a landmine.
