Chapter : 3. Everything Was a Lie (3)
The maids, who had been pretending not to recognize Elia, shifted their gazes.
“……It is Princess Elia.”
Unable to endure the silence any longer, one of the maids finally spoke. Elia immediately gave an order.
“So you do know. Then go outside and break off some branches.”
“…Pardon?”
The maids looked confused, but Elia did not withdraw her command.
In the end, they had no choice but to go outside and return, each holding a branch.
Three branches were placed neatly on the table.
Holding one of them, Elia called forward the maid who had brought it.
“Lift your skirt.”
“W-What are you…?”
The maid glared at Elia in disbelief, but soon lowered her eyes.
Elia was different from usual.
There was an unfamiliar dignity about her, and her noble gaze alone was enough to suppress the maids.
That quality had a name—grace.
“The crime of switching the Princess’s food. The crime of damaging a noble body. The crime of failing to properly serve your master.”
As Elia kindly listed their offenses, the maids’ expressions stiffened.
And even beyond that, their sins were countless.
They would have to realize, albeit late, that Elia was fundamentally a princess.
“You called me a Princess yourselves. Is there any reason I cannot punish my own maids?”
Elia smiled gently at them.
Even if she had been born as an illegitimate child of a noble house, she was now a member of the imperial family, recognized by the Emperor himself.
“The Bashan family, the Count Rowd family, and the Baron Elje family…”
As Elia recited their family names one by one, the maids’ faces turned pale. She blinked softly and spoke as if in passing.
“It would be quite a sight if your entire families were ruined because of their precious daughters, wouldn’t it?”
Either their families would be annihilated for insulting the imperial family—
Or they would obediently accept punishment.
She was telling them to choose.
“I’ll say it one more time. Lift your skirts.”
Elia tapped the branch lightly against her palm. The maid who had brought it began to tremble.
Her instincts were screaming.
If she said the wrong thing now, it would lead to something irreversible.
In the end, the maid lifted her skirt herself.
Elia whipped the maids until the branches broke.
She inspected each branch they had brought.
If a branch was too thin or weak, she sent the maid back out to fetch a sturdier one on purpose.
“Next time, it won’t end with just a beating.”
The maids, thoroughly punished, stood with swollen eyes and flushed faces.
Elia lined them up and engraved her final warning into them.
“Y-Your meal is ready.”
A lavish meal was soon placed before Elia.
Soft bread, fresh fruit, oily meat, and perfectly grilled fish—things she would never have been allowed to touch when she was alone.
Elia picked up her fork and knife.
As she began cutting, the maids looked shocked.
The etiquette of the imperial family was far stricter than that of the nobility.
Each dish required its proper utensils, and even the way of cutting differed—something that even young royals often struggled with.
“It’s delicious.”
After taking a bite-sized piece of steak and chewing it, Elia dabbed her mouth with a napkin.
Her table manners were flawless.
“I don’t have a fiancé yet, right?”
“Pardon? Th-That’s right…?”
Rebecca, who had been mesmerized by her elegant movements, answered in surprise.
Ignoring her, Elia gauged the timing.
‘It’s summer now… I had my engagement ceremony this winter.’
On the day of that ceremony, she had felt like she possessed the entire world.
Because Canus had been her first love.
It began when she was seven.
Frightened of a party, young Elia had run out from the hall into the garden.
But getting lost became the problem.
In the end, while she wandered the imperial garden crying, it was Canus who saved her.
‘I believed he would be my salvation.’
It was love at first sight.
Elia changed after meeting him and worked desperately to become someone worthy of him.
‘How fortunate.’
Yet as she recalled her first love, her eyes were cold.
It was fortunate that she had not yet gone through the engagement.
If she had, leaving the imperial palace would have been impossible.
After the engagement, Canus would have been granted a palace within the imperial grounds so they could stay together.
That would have publicly confirmed her as a member of the imperial family.
‘He must have been afraid I’d leave as I grew up.’
Normally, a princess left the imperial family upon marriage—but Elia was the exception.
At the time, she had only been happy to stay by her family’s side.
But now that she thought about it, the fake engagement had merely been a means to confine her within the palace.
‘The love he promised me… was nothing but a shell.’
Canus’s real fiancée was Violet.
The two of them had toyed with Elia beautifully—and she had been the only one unaware.
‘If my engagement to Canus was a means to trap me in the palace…’
Then this time, she would turn it into a means to escape it.
Someone powerful enough that even the Emperor could not interfere—
Someone who had a reason to marry Elia.
‘Axiom Mahart.’
Elia needed to meet the villain—before he turned dark.
* * *
“Oh, lovely Elia.”
“I greet the Sun and Moon of the Empire.”
After offering her greetings, Elia was invited to breakfast with the Emperor and Empress.
Emperor Lenos welcomed her with open arms, and Empress Rubieno greeted her with a gentle smile.
“Sit down, Elia.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Elia slightly bent her knees and sat in the chair pulled out by an attendant.
The Empress’s brows arched.
It was because of Elia’s natural, flowing etiquette.
In the past, Elia had always seemed timid—even when she followed proper etiquette, she looked lacking.
But now, the princess sitting with her back straight felt different.
“Oh?”
Lenos, too, looked surprised for a moment before nodding with satisfaction.
“To think you came to see me on your own. It seems you’ve finally matured. Very commendable.”
“It is all thanks to Your Majesty and Her Majesty’s kindness.”
Elia lowered her eyes shyly.
She had always been grateful to the Emperor for taking her out of the count’s household.
She had tried in many ways to earn his favor, but her timid nature had made her efforts difficult to shine.
So it must have been quite unexpected for someone as passive as Elia to seek him out first.
“That is truly fortunate.”
“The tea Your Majesty gifted me helped me greatly. Thank you very much.”
At her words, the Empress’s eyes widened.
Rubieno had often sent Elia gifts, including calming tea leaves.
‘It was certainly high-quality tea.’
But every time she drank it, she suffered from stomach pain.
Still, it did calm her mind, so Elia continued to drink it.
〈You are infertile.〉
One day, after suddenly collapsing and waking up, Elia heard the physician’s words and fell into despair.
She was comforted by the Empress and Canus.
She had never once suspected the Empress.
At the time, Elia had been completely brainwashed—she treated the words of her family and lover as if they were divine.
〈Because I love you, I have no choice but to do this.〉
〈We all love you. Just try a little harder.〉
She had worn bandages all day to fix her trembling hands.
She had been whipped in front of others for failing to master etiquette.
And through it all, she had firmly believed it was a process to be loved.
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Next time, I would love for us to enjoy it together.”
Elia chatted brightly with a smile.
Just the absence of her usual timidity made her appear much more lovable.
The Empress’s expression became slightly stiff, while the Emperor laughed heartily, both surprised and pleased.
“At last, it seems my sincerity has reached you. Not just I, but the entire imperial family has been concerned for you.”
“I can only apologize for troubling you all this time. I am grateful to everyone.”
Elia lowered her eyes politely.
Though she smiled shyly—
Inside, she was frozen cold.
