56. I Need My Person

 It had already been ten days since the royal wedding concluded successfully.

“Romeo was poisoned? Again?”

Daphne put down the hotel supply item list and contracts on her desk. Misha, who delivered the news, also looked puzzled.

“They thoroughly investigated the servants who brought the cups but found nothing. His Highness the Crown Prince is fine.”

According to reports, Romeo Rodriguez, who was touring Secradion’s border regions after the royal wedding, was poisoned again.

“Shouldn’t he at least pretend to die once at this point? Or at least get taken to the hospital?”

Romeo seemed to sense something was wrong as soon as he held the alcohol in his mouth, but since it wouldn’t be appropriate for a Crown Prince to spit out drinks in front of people, he just gulped it down once.

‘Crazy.’

And the story followed that he immediately threw away the cup Psyche was supposed to drink from.

“I’m curious, if His Highness the Crown Prince had collapsed like that, would insurance have been paid out?”

“Don’t know. Anyway……”

Being the male protagonist…

Just thinking about that well-combed black hair and yellow eyes made her shudder. Daphne clicked her tongue once before picking up her pen again to sign the contract. It was an earnest document from a low-ranking maid suggesting changing the hotel amenity items and brands.

“But what do you mean ‘again,’ Miss? Has His Highness the Crown Prince been poisoned before?”

“That time……”

She was about to answer that it happened recently, but Daphne closed her mouth. Since they had agreed to keep what happened at Psyche’s party as quiet as possible, Misha in front of her clearly wouldn’t know. He hadn’t been there at the time either.

“Since he’s the king’s only son, I suppose.”

Romeo had personally chewed and experienced hundreds, no, perhaps thousands of poisons.

Daphne briefly thought of Romeo’s mother, that is, Aunt Rose.

The last time she saw her was at the separate palace when she was fifteen. Gaunt cheeks, sunken under-eyes. However, her clear golden eyes were filled with madness.

‘She was also at the forefront of poison training.’

Romeo grew up in overprotection so severe it could be called abuse. Despite that, he seemed to love Rose very much. So much that as soon as Rose died, he shaved his head and volunteered to join the war in Libian.

‘What was my crime?’

Amber had Daphne join in too, saying she wanted her daughter to be safe from all dangers. Daphne shook her head once.

“I put a lot of poison in his cups when we were young. He did the same.”

Since it was already in the past, Daphne responded skillfully. Her secretary didn’t even snort, just narrowed his brows and spoke in a low voice.

“But strangely, high society is focusing on you because of this incident, ma’am. Especially your Veritas alumni. People who saw you bring Secradion’s traitor to the uninvited royal wedding are saying you might be inspiring new treason.”

“That’s ridiculous. They must see me as a crazy woman who’d kill her own blood for a man.”

“Well, you were quite desperate to kill Psyche, weren’t you?”

“But I didn’t kill her in the end. And Psyche Denver surely enjoyed that.”

It was objectively nonsense. Misha rolled his eyes.

“Please say something that makes sense.”

“Who could have seen?”

“You draw attention wherever you go, ma’am.”

“Am I that beautiful?”

Without responding, Misha muttered the next agenda. Things like how the hotel breakfast felt mediocre so they should hire another chef, and how they might completely remodel the atmosphere in the lobby for the next season, which wasn’t particularly novel.

Daphne listened half-heartedly while lost in thought.

Celestian had only gone together until the wedding hall door, and only two or three people had encountered them on that path.

‘Did they see from the deck? But there were only foreigners there. The girls……”

Daphne scratched her forehead with her thumbnail. Without needing to think long, she could guess who spread this rumor.

‘Must be Iel.’

Iel would have just stated the facts without malice. However, her classmates happened to be key figures who lived for gossip, and Daphne was a person of interest who appeared in that gossip six out of ten times.

“…And did you know His Highness the 6th Prince had an accident?”

When Daphne shook her head, Misha whispered again about rumors circulating secretly. That only the Princess’s carriage had returned to the Empire after the royal wedding, and, as if coordinated, rumors spread that he had given up all his rights and naturalized within days.

“Was it an accident, or assassination.”

“The latter, I’d guess. In my opinion, it seems the 4th Prince and Princess cooperated. Like, they’d give freedom in exchange for taking care of some trash.”

Misha’s gray eyes sparkled before he sighed.

Daphne burst out laughing. She remembered Amber who had been furrowing her brow since the royal wedding ended. Not just that — hadn’t Amber put down all work for a week and left for a vacation resort?

Amber Green, called the ‘original villainess obsessed with money,’ left for a place where she couldn’t see the money flowing through her subordinates. Daphne could roughly guess how heartbroken she was.

‘Mom, seriously…… why does she keep needing money? When she has everything already.’

Daphne, who had been laughing pleasantly, soon raised just one corner of her mouth. At the same time, she shook off the last page from her hand. Resting her elbows on the desk and propping her chin, Daphne looked around her office. It was all green.

“I miss Celestian.”

Daphne muttered like a girl in love. Misha was shocked. When she even crossed her legs and fidgeted as if to show off, his tanned face turned pale.

“Miss, don’t…… trust the Grand Duke too much.”

“Why?”

Misha didn’t answer. Daphne shrugged and noticed the grayish hair on his head, then chuckled.

“Aren’t you hot? Cut your hair. Get it dyed too. It’s fine now.”

He just scratched the back of his neck without answering again, then spoke about the next agenda.

“Wow, there’s a lot of news today.”

“Because the long-vacant position of Crown Princess has been filled. Thanks to that, not just the capital but the outskirts are bustling too. They say they’re reinvestigating why Denver burned.”

“Celestian did that.”

Wasn’t that gossip everyone knew?

“Yes, well. I know that because you told me. But somehow…… all these news stories seem connected.”

Daphne tilted her head.

“They’re going to reinvestigate a 3-year-old case now?”

“Things involving Her Highness the Crown Princess seem a bit complicated. Looks like they’re trying to sort it out.”

Romeo wouldn’t have deliberately dug up old matters to create problems. Then was it royal authority?

Daphne recalled the palace wallpapered with blue carpets and sky-painted ceilings, and the several royal family members sitting huddled together on the platform like a picture frame.

“Since when did they care so much about Psyche. How troublesome……”

Three years ago, Denver’s complete destruction by fire was printed very small on 5 pages of the kingdom’s morning newspaper. Just one line about searching for the culprit as a formality.

‘Who else could it be.’

Daphne tapped the gold pen on her desk once. At that time, Daphne hadn’t even realized this was inside a book. And it would have been too late to manipulate anything anyway.

“Must be Celestian Teriosa.”

Daphne pulled out a file from the bottom drawer of her desk.

She unfolded a neatly folded map of the kingdom and casually looked at the northwest, quickly finding the place name ‘Denver’. She hadn’t thought to look until now, but surprisingly it was a place she had been to.

Furrowing her brows and looking closely, Daphne muttered.

“Huh? Denver and Tenzen were adjacent places?”

They were clustered together enough to look like one region on the map.

Misha’s hands stopped as he was neatly organizing and sorting the documents Daphne had signed. His gray eyes rolled to look at the ceiling before reaching out to make Daphne put down the map she was holding.

“Burn it.”

“This property? Again?”

“No, this map.”

Misha ran his hand through his hair as if it was horrible.

“Ah~ back then our Misha was so rude and cute.”

“Ugh.”

Whether he grimaced with his lips pressed into a line or not, Daphne reminisced about 3 years ago again while making flower poses. 

 * * *

 It was before Daphne realized her transmigration then too.

Not long after her godfather passed away, and before formally meeting Celestian.

It was shortly after returning to her family home. While recovering from travel fatigue, Daphne was reading a romance novel looking up at the ceiling when she suddenly spoke to Narid who was busily organizing nearby.

“Narid. I’m a princess.”

“A princess of terror?”

“You’re dead. Anyway, a princess needs a knight to protect her, right?”

“You mean a knight with a sword, not a driver?”¹T/N: it’s a pun, as the word 기사 both means knight and driver

Narid briefly made a strange expression as if thinking ‘what is our Miss saying now.’ But she soon composed herself and nodded.

“Now that the war’s over, there must be some soldiers with nothing to do.”

“Ugh. The guns that soldiers shoot aren’t cool. Like Romeo. Must be a swordsman who only uses his body and sword.”

“How about asking Madam Green?”

“Without mom knowing. I need my own person.”

Narid understood what she meant right away and agreed. Rolling his gray eyes around, Narid quickly disappeared outside the room then returned. She came back with the outside wind carrying a torn newspaper.

* * *

“What’s this?”

“One of the newspapers Count Serenade collected.”

Daphne wanted to ask why he was collecting those. However, Narid who loved cleaning so much that she dreamed of becoming a cleaning company CEO and spent her salary as soon as she got it on desserts and cleaning supplies was just as eccentric as Daphne.

Therefore, Daphne didn’t bother asking. She just narrowed her eyes and looked intently at the torn newspaper. Two men stood in the black and white photo.

“Is this man the champion?”

Daphne pointed to one side. Narid’s face leaned in close.