CAMELLIA'S POV
For a long moment, I stared at the princess, waiting—hoping—that she would laugh and admit she was joking. That this was simply another one of her dramatic games.
But Princess Oleina's face held none of her earlier amusement. There was no flicker of mischief, no hint that she was playing with me.
She looked genuinely... painfully serious.
I blinked, caught off guard.
"I'm not helping you deceive everyone."
She groaned and fell back against the pillows. "You don't need to deceive anyone," she said. "I'll handle that part."
Princess Oleina sat forward again, her expression turning earnest. "All I'm asking is that you improve my emberroot tincture," she said. "Just make it more convincing."
The desperation in her eyes was so unmistakable that it cut through my irritatio
