The Villainess is a Marionette

Translator: thursdays PR: scarcecrow

The imperial palace was in complete chaos.

The chancellor, the general knight commander, and the leader of the imperial family’s knights all urgently gathered at the center of the palace.

“We need official approval from His Majesty.”

Among them, the grand chamberlain Luden said firmly,

“His Majesty’s state isn’t good today. He wasn’t even able to keep his medicine down. I can’t wake him up when he just fell asleep.”

In any case, the comfort of Emperor Esteban was the top priority compared to the princess. Yet, the situation could not be set aside like this.

“Then, how about the prince?”

Chancellor Debussy showed his disapproval.

“But he is still on probation now, according to His Majesty’s orders… What if we are punished for disobeying his orders?”

This man was someone who had been bribed by and colluded with the Evans family.

He thought that it was better all around if the princess, who had been carving away at the Evans family’s influence, wasn’t here.

“Then what do you want us to do? We have to find Her Highness!”

By comparison, Commander Jed was a rare man in the imperial household, he wasn’t associated with Rezef nor the Evans family.

Rather, Jed disapproved of them.

“No, I’m not saying that no one should look for her. The Kedrey duchy is already searching for Her Highness.”

Jed spoke irritably to Chancellor Debussy.

While they were waging their war of nerves, the news of the princess’s abduction quickly spread throughout the palace.

But nobody was doing anything.

Olivia and Vera decided on their own that they couldn’t delay any further.

‘An abduction is a fight against time.‘

If they missed the golden time, it was all over.

They mobilized all available court employees to the prince’s palace.

The knights who were guarding the prince’s quarters looked confused as they saw the courtiers rushing to them.

It hadn’t occurred to them that the attendants had come prepared for a hand-to-hand battle.

Vera cried from the front.

“Push!”

At that cry, the courtiers pushed the knights blocking the door.

“What are you doing?!” the knights shouted threateningly, snapping to attention. “We are following His Majesty’s orders!”

“Push!”

However, a number of courtiers continued to push them aside in unison.

The knights couldn’t lift their swords and were just stubbornly trying to stand firm.

However, they were gradually pushed back because there were fewer knights than people of the court.

Soon, there was a gap.

While the knights briefly broke formation, Olivia opened the door.

“Um, uh?”

The palace workers in Rezef’s chambers, who had heard the turmoil outside, opened their mouths in bemusement at the strange intruder.

There was only one door left until the bedroom.

Olivia quickly hurried and opened the bedroom door before the doorkeeper or servants could stop her.

“B-block her!”

Bang!

The bedroom door opened wide.

The first thing Olivia saw was a large window.

Olivia looked around for the owner of the bedroom. Finally, she saw the man sitting cross-legged on a sofa.

He did not look much like Cayena, but there was only one handsome blond man within these walls.

‘Prince Rezef.’

Although he had soft features, he possessed a frosty appearance. He lifted his head.

Their eyes met.

Rezef frowned, and looking curiously, he asked,

“Who are you?”

At that moment, the castle workers did not know what to do and tried to drag Olivia out.

Olivia slapped away the hands trying to block her and kneeled down.

“Your Highness!”

Rezef looked at the woman opposite him and tried to guess who she was.

Although she was beautiful, he didn’t recall her face. No, but it wasn’t that he had no memory of her.

Where did he see this woman?

‘Wheat-colored hair and green eyes must be…’

Olivia opened her mouth while he was trying to determine her identity.

She spoke stiffly and hastily.

“Just now, at the imperial academy. The princess was kidnapped. Please save Her Highness.”

“…What?”

Olivia prostrated herself on the floor.

“I beg you!”

The room turned frigid.

“…My sister was kidnapped?”

“Yes. It’s already been an hour since then. However, no one has done anything, so I was concerned as Her Highness’s exclusive lady-in-waiting.”

Only then did Rezef realize that the woman was Olivia Grace.

He got up and walked in front of Olivia. A big hand tilted her face up. They stared at each other very closely.

Olivia could perceive the beginning stages of madness in his blue eyes.

‘This man is dangerous…’

She felt a chill.

“You’re saying she was kidnapped?”

“It appears so. Sir Raphael searched the crime scene directly, and he said it was

most likely an abduction.”

Rezef’s expression suddenly changed to the name Kedrey. Since a while ago, Raphael was strangely getting on Rezef’s nerves.

He released Olivia and took a step toward the door. The terrified castle staff tried to hold him back.

“Your Highness! This is going against His Majesty’s commands!”

Rezef didn’t even pretend to listen as he kicked the door.

The courtiers and the knights outside had been in a messy confrontation. When the door opened wide, they paused and looked at Rezef.

His aura was abnormal.

“Call the soldiers and surround the capital.”

Rezef closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again. It was the look of a person gone completely unhinged.

“If my sister isn’t found before sunset, I’ll slice all of your throats.”

***

The kidnappers were dumbfounded.

They hadn’t heard anything about the princess being insane.

“That is the real princess, right?”

After a while, they began to suspect whether the woman they had brought was actually the princess.

Her beauty was too outstanding to say that she wasn’t. They had never seen such pale and neat blonde hair in their lives. She also had a beautiful face like a sculpture and wore an expensive dress.

However, they began to have doubts because of her attitude.

“I can give you information that would be interesting to your side. You should consider it carefully.”

Cayena was carefree, as if they were the ones captured instead.

Did normal hostages behave this way?

They were having a hard time figuring out if it was empty bravado or not.

“Hey, Your Highness. Maybe you’re treating us like servants because you don’t understand the situation that you’re in, but you’ve been abducted.”

Cayena smiled at the man who spoke to her. The man’s face turned red due to her appearance, which was incomparably beautiful, no matter what others said.

“You’re the one who’s slow to figure things out. It seems that you still don’t understand that I’m splitting your group.”

The man retreated like he had no response to that.

Yup. The princess was unmistakably crazy.

“Ah, come on. When is that man coming?”

“Yeah. Why is he so late?”

They ignored Cayena and started to talk among themselves.

And as Cayena said, there was a division between them.

A man who seemed to be contemplating things from a while ago with a slightly stiff expression suddenly smiled widely.

“Just in case, I’ll go take a look outside.”

“Oh, will you?”

Then, the other man who had flinched at her words also quickly stepped out.

“I’ll go with you.”

They glanced at Cayena before leaving the room.

Cayena looked toward the curtain with a serene face.

The light was gradually decreasing. At night, she would meet the man who arranged the carriage to abduct her.

‘Is it someone from the Evans marquess? Anyway, I’m sure that there’s someone from Heinrich’s faction among these gangsters.‘

That was no different from the laws of the world.

Actually, there had been two people who responded to Cayena’s words and left. This meant that the rest of the gang was hired by someone else.

‘But the atmosphere is quite strange.‘

Each of the men who came in to watch over Cayena took their place while subtly eyeing each other.

‘There are more traitors.‘

It occurred to her that the abduction may have been orchestrated by separate groups.

While Cayena analyzed the situation, she closed her eyes from a sudden headache. The food from earlier had upset her stomach.

‘Olivia should have gotten away safely. She should have immediately noticed that I was kidnapped as soon as she saw I wasn’t there.‘

In fact, she was expecting the most help from Archduke Heinrich’s faction.

She didn’t really want to involve him, but it couldn’t be helped.

‘There’s a chance that Raphael would help…’

Cayena didn’t finish the thought.

What could she expect after parting ways like that?

Even if that wasn’t the case, Raphael had no reason to worry about Cayena. He was a good man, so he may help her out of his morals, but she shouldn’t expect much.

‘I can’t let things end like this.’

There were many things she hadn’t done yet.

Things regarding Olivia, Vera, Rezef, and Ethel, with whom she had formed a new relationship today.

Bang!

The door opened, and a man appeared with a trailing entourage behind him.

Cayena recognized him right away. She couldn’t breathe.

“I greet Her Highness, the Princess.”

It was Henverton Gillian.

~~~