Chapter 539 - Former Queen (8)

I shuddered when I thought about the possibility. With my brief interaction with Charlotte, she didn't seem like the person to kill the people she considered to be close to her. I lifted the tray before teleporting to the top floor. Blinking my eyes, I found myself at the edge of a long never-ending staircase. I knocked on her door, thinking I would have to directly deliver the meal to her.

"You can come inside," Charlotte yelled.

I stiffened from noticing how bȧrė the room was, not a single piece of decoration to be seen. Charlotte sat on her bed, being no chair nor table in the room. There was a single bed, some velvet curtains hanging by the windows and a small fur rug. With a toilet and sink on the other side, I realized the bathroom and bedroom were combined into one.

"I am the new maid," I introduced myself.

"Thank you for personally bringing me my meal," she sadly smiled.

I turned to leave, finding myself pitying her. While everyone in the castle played around, she spent most of her time working on the documents on the ground. Pens were filled with ink, messily scattered with no cabinets to put them inside. When she stared at all her work with great warmness, I knew she loved her subjects.

"Please let me know if you need anything else," I was about to close the door.

"Can I know your name?" Charlotte blurted.

"It is Rika, my queen," I slightly bowed.

Once I closed the door, I teleported to the first floor. My socks were completely soaked to the point of no return, the snow melting inside my shoes. After I threw my socks off, I wanted to search for some boots, wondering if anyone had extras. Exploring the inner parts of the castle, my ears perked as I continued to listen to more gossip.

"Is today the planned day?" A worker whispered.

"Everyone is in on this plan," another person nodded his head.

"Are all the positions finalized?" The worker looked around.

"They are," his colleague lowered his voice when he noticed I was listening.

"Hello, I am the new maid. Can I know what is going on?" I walked to them since I was discovered.

"You should the child know," the worker elbowed his colleague.

"We're planning to do a rebellion today. Our queen needs to leave her palace and directly face her citizens. She needs to know how most of us are starving from her unstable powers," he explained.

"Our queen doesn't know what is happening outside the palace walls?" I was getting confused.

Charlotte seemed to work hard on the documents on the ground. All the scribbles and additional notes written on the margins could be easily seen. There had to be information about her citizens inside them. Did they know how she lived? It was much worse than how the normal villager lived in the fifth district.

"How would she know when she never leaves her palace?" He pointed out.

"The documents on the floor," I wondered if they had never been to her room before.

"You mean those? Those are the ones from the time of her father's rule!" He laughed.

"What kind of queen is she?" I was stunned.

"She is no queen of ours!" He agreed.

"You must leave the palace ground at the beginning of the sunset, this place is too dangerous for you," the worker warned me.

"I don't know where else to go. I left my village to work here as a new hire," I pulled out my pitiful eyes.

"You should be fine if you avoid the other floors. Stay on the first floor," his colleague didn't seem to question my identity.

I thanked the both of them before running into the head maid again. Unfortunately, she wanted me to bring Charlotte her dinner near the beginning of sunset. I gasped when watching the time quickly pass as the bright blue sky started to turn into hazy purples and reds. I forgot I was inside a book, trying to get to the rest of the story.

Since I didn't have a choice, I had to visit the kitchen to pick up her meal. While the tray was placed on a wooden tabletop, all the knives hung on the walls had disappeared. While the knives were dull, they could still do much damage, able to cut hard potatoes. The chef was nowhere to be seen, making me the only one on the second floor.

I sighed as I teleported to the top floor to quickly deliver her meal. I wanted to escape from her room as soon as possible so I wouldn't be caught in her mess. I knocked on her door, waiting for her to let me inside. When I didn't get an answer, I decided to open the door to finish my duty. Placing her tray on her bed, Charlotte looked outside the window. I walked to join her, wondering what was making her face pale.

My eyes widened when I found a crowd of people holding torches, directly below her. I shuddered from the scene reminding me how I have been in a similar situation as her before. Everyone of them seemed furious, demanding her to leave her tower to directly face them. I almost jumped when someone slammed the door open, finding it too late to avoid the rebels.

"Everyone wants your head, queen Charlotte," The chef loudly laughed.