Chapter 189 – Remaining Behind (3)
It was strange.
Celos was clearly the one whose veins carried God’s blood, yet the Empress standing beside him seemed to be suppressing him.
Blaming herself for feeling something that contradicted common sense, Anna lowered her head even further.
“I don’t understand how you intended to clean a window with empty hands.”
Anna tightly closed her eyes at the Empress’ toneless voice.
Unless the Empress addressed her directly, Anna could not dare interfere in their conversation.
She desperately wanted Celos to say something, but he remained silent as though his lips had been glued together.
As far as Anna remembered, Celos was always shouting. Seeing him like this felt unnaturally strange.
“Can you no longer speak properly either?”
“N-No. That isn’t it.”
Startled by the Empress’ cold voice, Celos finally stammered out an answer.
“She was cleaning the window, and….I had just ordered her to organize my clothes.”
He had probably blurted out any task that could be performed with empty hands, but his answer made Anna tightly close her eyes again.
“You’re saying that this maid organizes your clothes?”
Not just anyone was permitted to handle the imperial family’s clothing.
The Seventh Prince’s Palace had so few workers and almost no servants of high status, so anyone there might be assigned such a task. However, duties would never be distributed so carelessly inside Celos’ palace.
Celos blinked, unable to understand what was wrong with his explanation.
After looking at her pathetic son, the Empress turned toward Anna.
“What is your name?”
“A-Anna, Your Majesty.”
Anna answered quickly.
She knew nothing good could come from having someone of such high status remember her name, but neither could she lie.
Anna swallowed as she felt Celos’ burning gaze pierce the back of her head.
“I’ve never heard that name before.”
“I brought her here.”
Anna nearly raised her head in surprise at Celos’ sudden assistance.
Fortunately, the Empress’ attention had already returned to Celos.
“I was dissatisfied with my current maid, so I brought this one from the kitchen.”
The excuse that he had entrusted his clothes to a kitchen maid was absurd. Yet, for some reason, the Empress did not reprimand Celos and merely stared at her foolish son.
She eventually spoke.
“If you’re dissatisfied, then it cannot be helped. I’ll use this opportunity to replace everyone who enters your room. That would be best.”
Celos’ eyes widened at the unexpected declaration.
“This is perfect timing. I should replace everyone, from the maids to the kitchen cooks.”
She did not need to explain what would happen to those who were replaced.
Many people would disappear without anyone noticing.
Celos was not worried about them.
His chest merely tightened whenever the Empress abruptly changed important aspects of his life like this.
“Th-That won’t be necessary. I prefer things as they are.”
The Empress looked at Celos’ stiff expression before speaking.
“Or is there someone important among your servants?”
There was not.
Celos did not even know the faces of the people working there.
When he failed to answer, the Empress turned away.
“They’ll be replaced starting tomorrow. You only need to continue living as before—quietly, without doing anything unnecessary.”
All he had to do was say that he understood and express his gratitude.
However—
“....Why must I do that?”
Celos startled himself with his own words and covered his mouth. That could not force the words he had already spoken back inside.
The Empress did not become angry.
“Do you believe you possess the right to demand such things?”
Celos wished she had simply become angry instead.
“I’m going through this trouble and replacing your servants entirely because of you. Why, then, do you expect an explanation from me? Do you believe I must obtain your permission for everything?”
“.....”
“If you want an explanation so badly, I’ll give you one. Those who have served you for a long time might discover your secret. Do you understand now?”
The sharply spoken word “secret” made Celos instinctively look toward Anna, who still had her head bowed.
His heart pounded at the mere thought that this insect-like servant might discover his secret.
The desire to avoid such humiliation and anxiety dominated Celos’ thoughts.
The Empress slowly spoke while observing his deathly pale face.
“I hope you can understand something this simple. If you’re lacking in intelligence as well, my life will become far too exhausting.”
“....I apologize.”
Celos lowered his head to hide his clouded expression.
The Empress stared impassively at her son before sweeping her gaze toward Anna, who remained hunched over with her head lowered.
“You will dispose of that child yourself.”
Celos looked at her in surprise at those cold words.
“Why are you so surprised? There’s nothing special about eliminating a single servant. Isn’t that something you do all the time?”
“Th-That….is true, but....”
“You should take responsibility for at least one consequence of your actions.”
Celos looked down at Anna, who was trembling without even daring to breathe, then eventually nodded.
“....Yes, Your Majesty.”
The Empress brought her face close to the thoroughly subdued Celos.
A sweet and heavy fragrance stimulated his nose.
“Live as though you’re dead. Don’t do anything unnecessary.”
Leaving behind those bitter words, she departed the room.
Emptiness enveloped Celos.
Every person in his castle would soon be replaced.
The Empress had replaced all the servants in his castle several times before.
She had never once explained why.
After surveying Celos’ room one last time, the Empress left.
Silence descended upon the room.
Thinking that jumping out the window might still be preferable, Anna cautiously looked behind her.
“.......”
Celos silently turned around.
Anna stared at him with terrified eyes.
The Empress had clearly ordered him to dispose of her.
Anna was not foolish enough to cling to the hopeful belief that this merely meant silencing her.
“P-Prince, I-I won’t tell anyone anything. Just like last time, I never told anyone about what you discussed with Lord Ran. I didn’t say anything.”
Celos’ gaze remained cold as he looked down at Anna, who desperately pleaded for her life by insisting that she could keep secrets.
Eliminating the life of a tiny insect like her would not have been difficult for him.
“Shut your mouth and stay still.”
Normally, when Celos gave such an order, servants obeyed even while trembling in terror.
However, he had overlooked two things.
The small maid before him had already disobeyed him once before, and his commands no longer wielded as much power over her as they once had.
Therefore, Celos could not be blamed for failing to react when Anna suddenly sprang to her feet—or when, in the single instant he blinked in confusion, she genuinely leaped out of the window.
“Wait...!”
Coming to his senses, Celos leaned out of the window.
Anna’s small body was desperately clinging to the windowsill.
Her face was flushed from exertion, and her desperation was so intense that even Celos briefly hesitated.
Anna looked down, but the dizzying height immediately forced her to raise her head again.
She saw Celos’ hand reaching toward her.
“Aaaaaagh!!!”
Anna screamed and twisted sideways to avoid his hand.
However, her frantic movement caused her body to sway, making her arms swing violently as well.
Anna ultimately lost her grip.
She fell without even managing to scream.
Her hand instinctively reached for Celos’, but her fingertips only barely brushed against his.
* * *
The roar of the wind and the ringing in Anna’s ears struck simultaneously.
The sounds suggested how devastating the impact would be, fueling the child’s terror.
Anna prepared herself for the approaching pain while praying that she would escape with only a broken arm or leg.
Then a different sound rang in her ears.
Crash!
‘Crash?’
It seemed to have come from the ground, but she had no time to consider it further.
Thud!
A bone-chilling impact traveled through her body, and the sound of her body striking the ground assaulted her eardrums.
Anna bounced once and rolled several times before she could even feel the pain, forcing her to grit her teeth.
Feeling something distinctly warmer than the cold winter air against her back, Anna cautiously opened her eyes.
She was immediately astonished that she remained conscious enough to feel pain.
She had naturally assumed that her body would burst apart and she would lose consciousness.
“Ugh.... W-What is this?”
Anna fumbled along the ground and examined the rough yet soft objects beneath her back.
Rough leaves and branches.
They were slightly warm.
Anna realized that they were branches from one of the trees decorating the grounds around Celos’ castle.
She also realized that the crash she had heard was the sound of the tree falling.
There was a hole in the fallen tree’s trunk.
Anna stared blankly at the scorched edges of the hole, where tiny embers continued to scatter.
Is this the true power of the imperial family?
It was a fiercer flame than the tiny ember she had seen inside Ran’s castle.
The tree was not ancient or particularly thick, but Anna had never imagined that anyone could bring down an entire tree in a single attack.
Did he save me?
Thinking that could not possibly be true, the child raised her head toward Celos’ room.
He remained frozen in the same posture, leaning out of the window with his hand extended.
Celos’ gaze moved from the fallen tree to Anna.
The moment their eyes met, Anna staggered to her feet.
Then she turned and ran.
She was now certain that he had not deliberately tried to help her.
Celos’ eyes were filled with astonishment.
It was as though even he had not expected to cause such a result.
“Huff, huff....!”
Anna ran while finally releasing the breath she had been holding.
She felt as though Celos would seize the back of her neck the moment she looked behind her.
As the glittering castle of the Eighth Prince receded and Ran’s old, shabby castle drew nearer, tears of relief streamed from Anna’s eyes.
She wanted to hurry inside.
She wanted to feel safe among the older maids as they exchanged silly jokes while dragging their exhausted bodies toward bed.
Even if it was only for a moment.
After reaching the castle, Anna slowly stopped.
She knew that running away now would accomplish nothing.
As long as she remained inside this imperial domain—no, perhaps anywhere within this country—she might remain a fugitive forever.
It was strange.
Defying the will of the imperial family should have been utterly impossible.
Surely that was true, yet the moment Anna believed she might die, her body had moved on its own.
She felt as though she had done something wrong, but she no longer wanted to surrender her life in a daze as she would have before.
Breathing heavily, Anna climbed the castle steps.
She needed to gather her belongings and leave.
She could not explain the details, but she would say goodbye to the others, and then—
“Aaaaaagh!!!”
Anna’s plan was cut short by a scream from the floor above.
“P-Please spare me! Why are you doing this?”
“Why are you doing this? No one here has committed any crime. Why in the world...?”
The aggrieved voice did not finish.
Thud!
The frightened voice disappeared beneath the terrifying sound of an impact.
Anna was not so oblivious that she failed to understand what had just happened.
“.......”
Trying desperately not to imagine it, she covered her mouth to suppress an emerging scream.
“This is the castle of the late Seventh Prince. If you do something like this...”
This time, it was a familiar voice.
It belonged to the elderly doctor on the first floor who had often helped Anna.
Like Anna, he was a coward, and his voice trembled pitifully.
“We left you alive because you’re the only person here who remembers every servant’s face and name. If you want to continue living, answer our questions. If you intend to continue working as a doctor, you should take good care of your remaining fingers.”
A cold, low voice threatened him.
Anna realized that the doctor’s voice was weak for reasons beyond his fear.
“There is no one else. The person you just killed was the last one.”
“One person listed in the ledger is missing. Are you certain?”
It was obvious who the missing person was.
Holding her breath, Anna slowly retreated.
It was only a matter of time before they discovered her existence.
As Anna turned to descend the stairs, someone covered her mouth from behind.
A powerful force dragged the child backward.
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