Rebirth of The Villainess Princess

Chapter 64: Through The Shadows

It was in the middle of the night.

Catherine was wide awake, restless. Her surrounding was quiet but her mind is loud.

‘I hate this. I’m getting out of control over everything. Where’s my omniscient point of view?’

In the tiny space of the confinement room, the princess was pacing back and forth, biting her nails – a habit whenever she was feeling uneasy.

All of a sudden, she heard rustles of clothes in the shadows outside her little prison. The night was dead silent that even a fall of a needle on the floor can be heard.

“Who are you?” Catherine quietly asked, wearing cautiousness.

“...” Yet only the woosh of the wind responded back to her.

“Show yourself! I have no time playing with your little game,” she smirked.

“Your Highness, it’s us.” She heard a deep and quiet voice before two shadows showed up.

“Finally, you’re here,” Catherine grinned, relieved. They appeared as silent as shadows in the dark, who could they be?

It’s the secret army she had raised with the help of Lucio. They are one of the Shadow Guards. Most of them were experts in the assassination, and, espionage. They came from different backgrounds; thieves, pirates, mercenaries, or former gang members of a group in the underground, united for the purpose of serving her.

The princess was relieved that she was merely worrying for nothing. There’s no way someone would find out about the secret army she hid in the dark, not yet, not until she claimed the throne.

The smirk on her face faded. A stern and steeled voice came out from her dried lips.

“Say, Elliot and Nolan. How’s the thing I’ve sent you to take a look at?”

Her gaze sharpened at them, and she noticed how they turned stiff.

“Your Highness,” the man she called Eliot began to speak, clear and confident.

Catherine frowned. She stepped forward, looking through the bars of her confinement room, she eyed the two Shadow Guards.

“Speak!” Their faces were the same but…there’s something in Eliot’s voice that changed. ‘What is it?’

He might notice his master’s expression. He cleared his throat before he spoke again, “Y-Your Highness, the t-thing is…” he stammered.

Catherine nodded knowingly, ‘I might be delusional. It’s not like someone could copy their exact features in this world.’

“Y-Your Highness, she…she is….”

“That’s the Eliot I know, verbally struggling to craft complete phrases.”

“She is truly dead. The head maid.” Nolan completed the piece of news for Eliot.

Catherine subconsciously clutched the bars. “Are you sure?” Her breath hitched.

The two men in the shadows watched the princess. “Yes. Both of us saw her cold and dead body,” Nolan confirmed. He spoke slowly, making sure the princess will catch every word he was saying.

On the other hand, Catherine missed the flash of glint in their eyes.

Her lips formed into one thin line, and her jaw tensed as she tightly clutched the bars.

“I couldn’t believe this is happening,” she muttered but the two men could hear her.

Just like what her mother said, Catherine got checkmate in this terrible chess game of palace intrigue.

Lysanna’s death will seal her fate — from a noble respected princess to a murderer. If Aluresia, the saintess’ origin hadn’t cut off their relation with Calithea, and forced the saintess to return back, she will be saved by the saintess's testimonial as long as Lysanna died.

If Lysanna stayed alive, the head maid would surely talk. It would definitely be how she attempted to kill her. And jealousy as her primary reason for the deed against the head maid is validated in the court. It was considered a definite reason behind the crime. Catherine knew it well better than anyone.

’What you did will come back to you,’ a disembodied voice, the one she kept hearing in her head every night disturbed her already messed up mind, again.

She silently gritted her teeth. ‘So what am I gonna do now? Do nothing?’ she thought while ignoring the voices in her head. It took her some time to get used to it but she got better.

‘Am I really going to let my mother control my life again? I hate it the most.’ Her hands gripped the bars tighter than before, causing her pale slender fingers to hurt. She neither winced nor cry no matter how it pained her, as a lady with a fragile body.

Eliot watched her silently with interest. Nolan stayed expressionless but his eyes held sharpness.

‘I am supposedly the one in control in this world. I knew the past, the present, and the future. They’re in my hands so does the fate of these fictional characters. So why? Why everything turned out…unpredictable. When did everything start to change?’ Her mind was thrown into a total mess.

“Y-Your Highness!” Eliot’s stammering quiet voice pulled her away from her dark thoughts.

“What are you gonna do now that the head maid died?”

“The head maid?” she raised a brow. “Lysanna…” she muttered the name under her breath, finding herself to return back again into the deep thoughts.

‘Right. It’s Lysanna. The woman who I shouldn’t suppose to meet in this world. She should’ve existed in the first place. Everything’s changed since she showed up in my life.’ Catherine thought, her inside was fuming.

“Heed my command,” she said, her eyes narrowed as she gaze at the two men standing outside her bars.

The two men seemed to pause for a moment before they meaningfully glanced at each other. It was too soon for them to realize they should’ve kneeled before the princess.

Catherine gave them a scrutinizing gaze, it made them shudder. They couldn’t believe the famous ‘deer’ of the empire could wear such countenance.

“Y-Your Highness, we’re at your disposal!” They both said.

Catherine nodded, “You have to retrieve something inside my room.” She pulled her hands away from the bars and turned her back on them.

“Do you remember the letter you stole from the Printing Press?” She quietly cackled.

“Y-Yes, we still remember, Your Highness,” Eliot replied, he was a bit uncertain to speak. However, when he glanced back at Nolan, his companion, his reassuring nod made him secretly sigh in relief.

“You have to get it tonight. Her Majesty promised to visit me tomorrow morning. I’ll give the letter to her,” she bit her nails and then started to face back and forth again. “It will be a gamble.”

“...” The two men silently watched her. Their eyes followed her pacing inside the confinement room. A slight amusement could be seen visible in Nolan’s eyes in a closer look but it was vague enough not to be sensed by the princess.

“It was under my dresser. Kept and well-hidden in a wooden box,” she rambled. “You have to give that to me, tonight,” she demanded, emphasizing her last word.

“We understand, Your Highness,” Eliot assured her with complete reverence.

“Your Highness,” Nolan called, earning the princess's attention.

“What?” Her tone rose a bit and firm. She sounded angry or more like frustrated.

Nolan suppressed himself not to sneer. Eliot creased his brows in surprise. He still couldn’t believe that the princess who he had always seen as a fragile woman could act coldly.

“The letter…is it the head maid’s?”

Catherine paused. Her grim face became emotionless. As she looked at the two Shadow Guards kneeling outside her cell, a brief sharp glinted past her emerald eyes.

“Yes, it is.”

Eliot and Nolan easily slipped through the establishment of the Court of Justice. Their moves are silent and stealthy, the darkness of the night gave them the advantage to hide away from the patrolling guards.

However, sneaking inside the princess's palace was harder than they thought.

The palace was surrounded by a large group of armed knights. Their armor was not gold and their cape was not deep blue. It means they’re not from the palace. The silver and red cape symbolized they were the men under the Court of Justice.

“What shall we do now?” Eliot whispered to Nolan. They were hidden among the tall walls of bushes in the princess palace’s garden.

They planned to slip in the servant’s back door. Unfortunately, even that spot was heavily guarded.

“What if we create a distraction?”

“Will they going to buy it?”

“Perhaps. These men are instructed to take precautions in every detail of what may be deemed suspicious,” Nolan pondered. “I knew those prosecutors and investigators in the court who led these men here. They’re overly cautious. We might as well put that in use.”

“A suspicious distraction. It should be like that,” Eliot fell into deep thought.

Silenced enveloped the two, and after a moment, they simultaneously looked at each other.

“Oh, My Lord. What I’m thinking is simply…”

“...terrible?” Nolan finished off Eliot’s phrase.

Eliot reluctantly nodded.

Shortly, afterward…

“Help! Someone save me, please!” An odd high-pitched voice that sounded like a falsetto suddenly stirred the quiet air surrounding the knights.

“Come on! Can you sound more like a terrified woman?” Nolan demanded, hissing under his breath. He gave Eliot a sharp glare, whose forehead broke sweats and face turned red with every passing moment.

“Help!!! This man is harassing me. Someone save me!” He yelled, and let out a loud gasping sound.

Fortunately, even with how terrible the plan was, they hit their goal of distracting the knights. Some who were stationed near the servant’s quarters went to look for the voice they heard.

“They’re coming,” Eliot muttered, hands hitting Nolan’s arm.

“Scream one more time so they can find our hiding place quickly.” Nolan insisted, hitting back Eliot and he cried because it was quite painful.

“Help!!! A perverted man harassing me!”

“Whose the perverted man?” Nolan gave him a deadly stare. However, he was shut off by him, covering his mouth with his hand.

“Quiet,” he hushed.

The knights were quick. Eliot and Nolan could hear their footsteps. However, the number was far from what they expected.

They estimated two to three knights went to check what was happening inside the garden.

‘They’re overly cautious indeed,’ Nolan thought.

The both of them readied themselves. They stood in a fighting stance, as they silently counted the steps the knights took just a few distances away from their hiding.

Nolan pulled a long black cloth inside his sleeve while Eliot untied the pouch hidden inside his pocket.

As the count lasted to three, two, one, they began to move in sync. They jumped from the tall bushes. Eliot started to spread the powder in the air and Nolan surprised the first knight who showed up, strangling him behind using the cloth in his hand.

Just in time when the first knight fell unconscious, two knights appeared at the same time.

However, they didn’t give them a chance to react. Eliot and Nolan charged forward, and a high kick with powerful pressure landed on the knight’s faces.

The attack made them stagger backward, groaning in indescribable pain.

The knights attempted to grip their feet and flung their bodies forward. But with the poison powder, which Eliot quickly splashed on their faces, their body both fell unconscious instantly to the ground.

Fortunately, no other knights followed them after. And Eliot and Nolan moved their bodies in silence.

“Do you think someone will wonder what happened to the other knight, My Lord,” Eliot asked Nolan, adjusting the silver armor he painstakingly wore in haste.

He then glanced back to the now bare knights on the ground before looking at Nolan who was already well-dressed in a knightly outfit, glaring at him with an impatient look.

‘If looks could kill I’ll already die many times,’ Eliot sweated.

“Can you be faster?”

“I’m almost…” he breathed heavily, stretching his limbs which seemed stiff due to the surprisingly heavy armor he was wearing. “There…there…I’m done, My Lord.”

“Good,” then began to stride off towards the east wing of the princess’ palace, where the door used by the servants was located.

Eliot and Nolan walked as if they belonged to the group of knights guarding the palace so tight that even rats couldn’t get through.

“Hey, have you checked the garden? What happened there? We heard someone asking for help?”

As expected, a knight, with a higher rank, approached them. Their faces were covered with helmets which they stole from the knight’s bench, that they walk past earlier.

“It was a private affair,” Eliot said, whispering to the knight’s ear as if he was telling an interesting gossip. “And our friend is escorting back the beautiful young maid to her quarters.”

Nolan mentally rolled his eyes.

The high-ranking knight moved away from Eliot as if he had a disease, “Oh, never mind.” He dismissed and quickly walked back to his post.

Eliot lowly chuckled. “He doesn’t want a gossip?”

“He doesn’t want to get involved. A maid with an unknown man? It’s either a gardener or a knight who will be accused. And they would definitely lose their job,” Nolan nonchalantly explained.

“Oh,” Eliot parted his mouth.

“Let’s go and finish this quickly once and for all,” He pulled Eliot along with him.

Barging inside the princess palace became easier. No one stopped or questioned them since even the servants were informed that the knights from the Court of Justice will conclude an investigation inside the palace.

A manservant led them to the princess’ chamber after an intimidating persuasion from Nolan.

“No wonder the princess sent us right away to retrieve that thing. The court of Justice was planning to turn the palace upside down just for the investigation.” Nolan sneered.

Once they stepped inside the chamber, Eliot locked the door immediately.

He removed the helmet and ran his fingers on his hair soaked in sweat. Paste like a clay clung to his hands. He looked at it disgustingly then pulled a handkerchief he slipped in the armor earlier.

“My Lord, you should never underestimate the Duchess Dowager,” Eliot sighed.

“I didn’t. I’m just worried about her. She’s my mother and the only family I had. I should be the one protecting her.” Nolan began to look for the princess’ dresser, according to her instruction, the box was hidden underneath it.

“And to protect my mother, I won’t marry my fiance,” he said, searching through the luxurious spacious room.

“My Lord, I found it!” Eliot called him at the other side of the room.

His body sprawled on the floor, reaching out for something under the large red wooden dresser.

“It’s a small squared box,” he pulled it and sat on the floor then handed it to Nolan.

Nolan accepted it and stared at it. He removed his helmet as well, to take a clear look at the box in his hand.

It was simply a wooden box with a rusty lock. However, it made his heart burst because of anxiousness for some reason.

“This one must be the key, My Lord.” All of a sudden, Eliot stood from the floor. His dusty hands held a small key identical to the lock embedded in the wooden box.

“My Lord, do you want to know what's inside of it?”

Nolan’s burning gaze fixated on the box in his hand.

He remembered that the head maid gave him a letter, a duplicate. The real one must be in the hands of the princess and inside the wooden box.

“What is this?” The duke asked with a bewildered look, his eyes gazing at the strip of paper on the table.

“A written letter by the maid named Cynthia,” the head named whose name was Lysanna, said.

‘’Cynthia! It was the maid who suddenly disappeared after Melody died,’’ he said, trying to read the letter.

‘’You’re right, My Lord,’’ she agreed, her voice breaking. ‘’And she was formerly serving Her Highness, Princess Catherine.’’

‘’Her…master killed her?’’ The duke scowled, ‘’And Princess Ivanna was…was innocent, heavens!’’ The duke abruptly stood on his seat, holding his head in frustration.

Duke Larenz who was now disguised as Nolan, one of the most trusted spies of Princess Catherine, unlocked the box.

A click of the key intensified his anxiousness.

He gulped. “I have to know. I have to do this.”

He gripped the lid of the box, once he opened it he saw a letter with a broken seal.

He took the paper to see its content.

He read it with trembling hands. The handwritten was sloppy and indecipherable just like the duplicate one Lysanna gave him before. The only difference was the letter this time compared before had stains of blood and traces of dried tears. This strip of paper was badly crumpled and its edges were torn.

“My Lord?” Eliot gave him a worried glance.

“Cloyd, the head maid was telling the truth. The letter she gave to me was real and it does exist,” He handed the letter to him.

Cloyd wore a grim face as dark as the duke.

“What you gonna do?”

“Give what she wants. Let’s give it to the princess tonight. I’m sure the empress has a plan.”