Chapter 7

She also added that it doesn’t matter if it was in a rural area, but Deon refused; he wouldn’t allow that.

His reason was that her safety was more important than the location. But it didn’t seem like that was the only reason.

Regardless, Hughes started to look around for her house within the city limits.

Even within the city limits, it wasn’t safe everywhere, so he started to look neighborhood by neighborhood. Of course, he didn’t even bother to look near the slums.

It was quite a painful time. His already dark circles underneath his baggy eyes became even darker.

The safe neighborhood had to be somewhat close to the imperial palace, but the closer to the imperial palace, the higher the price.

In other words, to get the place Kathia wanted, it wouldn’t exist in that prime of a location.

It was because the land was jam-packed with grand townhouses that were owned by particularly wealthy and aristocrats of high standing.

Hughes thought a hundred times that it would’ve been a lot easier for him if Kathia requested to get one of those aristocratic townhouses.

Then, Deon would’ve emptied the imperial treasury, or gotten his hands on the wealth of some Duke to get her that place…

Hughes, who had sighed day after day and was getting used to tension headaches by now, miraculously found a house.

It was about a 15-minute walking distance from the imperial palace!

And the exterior of the house would satisfy her requests perfectly!

That place was ambiguously placed between aristocratic townhouses and the commoners’ living quarters so there wasn’t much traffic!

This was a house a wealthy, famous old couple originally purchased for their later years.

Hughes, who received the news from his subordinate, got on his horse to look at the house immediately before shouting hooray.

To exaggerate a smidge, he was happy as he was with Deon’s successful revolt. That place would absolutely be the place Kathia adored.

Of course, the final decision was up to Kathia, so Hughes sent her a drawing of the place and a map of the house. That was two days ago.

As expected, once Kathia saw the drawing, she agreed right away. “This is it! The doll’s home!” She unconsciously started shouting inwardly.

Mulling over the house, she hummed contently to herself as she slipped into the bath.

About now, Madam Murphy would be busy preparing breakfast and it’s also been a while since she sent the other maids away, so there was no one attending to her.

After washing up and briefly combing her hair, Madam Murphy entered the room rolling in a serving cart.

“Good morning, your Highness. I thought you would need a hearty breakfast today, so I paid special attention when preparing it.”

“Sure… It seems so.”

Isn’t it too much to have an entire roasted pig for breakfast? She barely stopped herself from asking. She put more energy into eating than objecting.

“Madam Murphy, stop.”

“Please, just have one more bite.”

“No, really. If I eat more, I’m going to puke…”

“Alright then, guess we have no choice.”

Once again, Madam Murphy managed to stuff Kathia just before her stomach was about to burst. She began searching around and asked.

“Did you pack everything?”

“Uh, one sec. I just need to pack the most important stuff now.”

Kathia placed her ragdoll and a pear-blossom patterned treasure box in a suitcase the size of her stomach and smiled.

With Kathia’s six heavy, but important bags already carried out, they were scheduled to be delivered safely.

“Now, let’s head out.”

About noontime, as arranged.

Deon, Jean, Hughes, and Jonathan, one of the members of the Barkley Unit, with his face shrouded in a hood, appeared.

As Kathia and Madam Murphy finished their preparations, they put on their hoods and followed suit.

The first stop was the back door of the detached palace.

Although Kathia lived here for eight years, this was the first time that she was made aware of a direct path from the behind of the detached palace that went straight to the imperial palace.

Kathia had to disguise the emptiness she felt after finally realizing how ridiculously easy it was to find the exit.

“This way, Princess.”

“Yes. On my way out.”

At the signal of her reply, the others left one by one. As Kathia was last to leave, she was momentarily hesitant.