The Loyalist is the Abandoned Princess - Chapter 7

The Empress’s continued curses and complaints were interrupted by a maid’s cough from behind her.

“Your Majesty.”

“…Yes, Marguerite.”

Genevieve turned her gaze away from the fireplace.

When she turned around, she saw the maid standing with her hands politely placed in front of her stomach. Marguerite had been with Genevieve since her days as a lady of the Cilius family, and even now in the imperial palace, she served as Genevieve’s eyes and ears.

“How is Caspian’s divorce proceeding?”

“……”

“Is there some issue?”

Genevieve’s eyes sharpened again. She was frustrated by the maid’s hesitation to answer directly.

Marguerite made a slightly distressed expression at the Empress’s pressing question and answered in a small voice, “Well, the Princess Consort… no, Agnes, fainted in the middle, so it was halted.”

“What?”

Genevieve’s face twisted instantly at the unexpected news.

She shouted sharply at the maid in front of her, “What do you mean, fainted! It’s all an act, feigning illness. Call the physician immediately, have her examined, and finish the signing!”

“The physician has already examined her, Your Majesty, and it seems her organs are severely damaged. Apparently, she drank herself to a lethal dose the day before.”

“That woman drowning in alcohol is nothing new. Pour cold water on her and snap her out of it. I don’t care if she faints or dies afterward, as long as she signs first.”

Marguerite’s face became even more troubled at those words. The elderly maid’s expression clouded with worry and anxiety.

“But, Your Majesty, if something were to happen to her…”

“……”

“I’m afraid it may not reflect well on His Highness.”

Genevieve finally understood her son’s decision.

Didn’t Caspian also want to divorce Agnes?

But what if Agnes were to die right after the divorce?

As Marguerite pointed out, such a situation could make Caspian appear as a heartless husband.

People might complain, asking why he didn’t wait until she was in better health to divorce her. There was no need to rush it immediately.

“…That woman is truly troublesome to the end. Perhaps she takes after her father.”

Genevieve leaned back into the chair in the drawing room and sighed.

She lamented bitterly to her loyal maid. “No matter how much I think about it, I still can’t understand why Father favors Count Barbouquet. Don’t you think so, Marguerite?”

Suddenly recalling Count Barbouquet’s face, she felt her displeasure rise again.

‘That weasel-like, shameless man!’

Even back when he used her father’s favor as a merchant, she hadn’t liked him. And in the end, he dared to betray them!

It was the day after Agnes’s love letter to Parsifal was discovered, causing an uproar in the imperial family.

Count Barbouquet, with a haggard face, had come to see her, the Empress.

Ha! Genevieve’s red lips twisted fiercely once again.

Remembering that time made her seethe with anger.

At first, she had no intention of meeting the Count.

She was so disgusted by anything related to Agnes that it made her nauseous.

Just seeing Agnes’s father, Count Barbouquet, made her lose her composure, wanting to claw at his face.

But the Count wasn’t called “the leech miser” for no reason.

After persistently camping out in the drawing room of the Empress’s palace for hours, she had no choice but to meet him.

The memories of that day flashed through Genevieve’s mind.

The Count, in his shabby and disheveled state, knelt before her.

“Count Barbouquet, I’m truly disappointed. To switch your loyalty to Parsifal… I never thought you’d so lightly throw away the favor you owe my father.”

“Your Majesty, there was never any such intention. My foolish daughter acted on her own.”

“Acted on her own? How can I believe that? Were you not secretly supporting Parsifal behind my and my father’s backs?”

“Absolutely not. Please, believe me. Once the divorce is finalized, I plan to send Agnes to a cloistered convent where she won’t meet anyone. She will never hinder His Highness Prince Caspian’s path again.”

“…I’ll be watching your actions closely. You will pay dearly for tarnishing the imperial family and the Cilius name once this matter is settled.”

I should have crushed him back then.

Genevieve’s ruby-red lips twisted fiercely once more.

She grumbled to her maid. “That wretched man’s daughter insulted both me and my son, yet Father seems to have no care about it.”

The Duke of Cilius seemed unconcerned as long as Count Barbouquet paid the alimony properly.

It was the Duke who opposed punishing Agnes and decided to settle the matter with just a divorce.

Locking her up in a dungeon wouldn’t be enough, yet it ended with a mere divorce.

When Genevieve sent a letter filled with her rage, the Duke rebuked her in his reply.

[Now is the time to secure as many noble families supporting Caspian as possible. Are you going to ruin everything over a foolish woman? Instead, it would be more advantageous to hold this over Count Barbouquet, to make him indebted to us.]

To Genevieve, that logic was absurd.

Her father knew one thing but was ignorant of another.

There were things more important than gains and losses in this world.

One of those was authority as a leader. A superior should instill fear in their subordinates.

Agnes had made Caspian look foolish. She had essentially declared to the entire empire that her son was a dupe.

Even thorough punishment wouldn’t be enough, yet her father sat there calculating gains and losses.

It was too much to bear.

‘I’ll have to take matters into my own hands.’

The Empress sighed softly and coldly asked her maid, “Marguerite, where is ‘that woman’ now?”

“She’s resting in the Scorpio Annex.”

The Scorpio Annex. It was no different from an abandoned house.

Agnes, who had been born into a wealthy family and grew up in comfort, wouldn’t last a day there.

The sharpness in the Empress’s eyes faded slightly.

“I’m glad Caspian isn’t entirely soft.”

Marguerite couldn’t respond and merely nodded.

Genevieve murmured to herself, her voice now somewhat calmer, “Winter will soon be here. The frost wind will blow.”

She gave Marguerite a knowing look.

Then, the Empress turned her gaze out the window. The barren branches swayed wildly in the wind.

“I hear that firewood is scarce due to the harsh cold these days. How unfortunate.”

Marguerite, having understood the Empress’s intentions, smiled deeply.

‘It looks like Agnes will have a rough time.’

Marguerite did feel a bit sorry for the people in the Scorpio Annex who would shiver throughout the winter, but her sense of satisfaction far outweighed that.

She hoped that everyone would realize the price they had to pay for daring to insult her mistress and her mistress’s son.