CH 133

While she was anxious, the date of the monthly break was coming up.

Maids working in the imperial family were allowed to go out once a month. Passing it up was almost unheard of. Martha had used this time to report on the situation in the palace.

The way she did it was simple. She would enter into the store they ran, pretending to purchase something, and instead hand over a note reporting the status of the palace.

But recalling the Empress’ lingering gaze, Martha didn’t think it was wise to do that.

In fact, she didn’t even want to go out, but she was afraid of looking more suspicious and doing something unusual.

As customary, Martha went out on her monthly holiday with a maid she was friendly with. She also stopped by the store she had to contact, but this time she walked in and out without delivering a note.

She thought now that all she had to do was return to the Imperial Palace as usual… … .

“Lina?”

Someone appeared who knew Lina, the friendly maid who came out with Martha. Upon mutual recognition and exclamations there was a touching reunion, Lina apologized to Martha for being unable to go back to the palace with her so she had to go back alone.

She had an ominous foreboding, but there was nothing she could do. The other maid had already turned away and was excitedly talking to her acquaintance, not even sparing a look at Martha. She had chosen Lina as her outing companion because she was simple and trusting but… … .

As the sun descended, Martha caught a passing wagon. It wasn’t cheap but she figured it was worth the price if she could get to the Imperial Palace safely.

But soon her carriage turned off the road that headed to the Imperial Palace. She protested and notified the driver, but he pretended not to hear her.

The wagon was heading out of the capital.

Terrified, she cried for her help and then jumped off. This was possible because the wagon was not moving fast.

A tremendous pain shot up her leg, she must have landed on her ankle the wrong way, but she had to run away. Martha looked around, looking for a place to escape.

The carriage had left her in the slums on the outskirts of the capital. Only a few people passed by, even before it was completely dark.

“How troublesome.”

—Schwing

A hiss of a drawn blade was approaching her. A man who had come out of an alley saw the scene and quickly turned his back and ran away.

Martha limped and fled desperately for her life. She followed where the witness had retreated, into the alley, but her pursuers increased from one to three.

As she ran, she took a glance back and tripped over something. She quickly raised her head, but they were already too close.

At the sight of them drawing near, Martha despaired.

“I-I haven’t been caught yet! So… … .”

She begged, but the masked man did not respond. He simply raised his dagger as his cold eyes shined.

As Martha foresaw her end and closed her eyes tightly. There were screams.

But not from her mouth.

She opened her eyes and before her was a scene of the three pursuers lying on the floor, bleeding.

Richard looked at Martha with a callous expression on his face, lightly wiping the blood from his sword and putting it back into his sheath.

“I think this needs an explanation.”

Although she had overcome one crisis, Martha’s mouth went dry.

Richard was one of the Empress’s escorting knights.

***

It was what Medea had asked Lyle for. Trick Martha with a light play.

In the original story, when the demon portal was opened in the palace the spying maid was killed by a monster. Her body was torn to pieces rendering her form unrecognizable.

She had been carrying a pendant that connected her association with Duke Lance, that was stolen by a servant who was collecting her body. Eventually it ended up in the hands of the protagonists long afterward.

Why had Martha so carelessly carried a pendant on her that could reveal her connection to the Duke at that moment? After pondering about that fact, Medea came to a conclusion.

Just as the Duke of Lance didn’t trust Martha and killed her, Martha must have not trusted the Duke.

She would have calculated that if she was killed, the pendant would be a clue and the Duke would have been caught to exact her revenge.

In fact, the main characters did use the pendant as a clue to reveal that the Duke of Lance was related to the case.

But Medea had no intention of going that far.

She already knew the Duke had deemed Martha too dangerous to be left alive with the knowledge she had and had already ordered her assassination once before.

Medea wanted to convince Martha that Duke Lance had betrayed her first. So, she asked Lyle to send a fake assassins to act as if they were going to murder her and then direct a trustworthy graud to play the role of saving Martha.

The scheme succeeding was based on Medea’s assumption of their deep mutual distrust and it worked out well. Martha seemed to believe the Duke really put a hit on her.

So the subsequent interrogation went smoothly.

Martha was being threatened with her child she gave birth to before her entrance into the palace. They tried to kill me, so my son wouldn’t be safe, so she begged for them to spare and protect her son in exchange for divulging everything.

After hearing this story from Lyle, Medea wondered whether this kind of content was in the original.

When the protagonists found the Duke of Lance’s secret hideout, an old corpse of a starving child was found. Was that child Martha’s child? It was an unsolved mystery.

Now that Martha supplied evidence, they had no more reason to delay. That night, the Emperor’s immediate troops raided the residence of the Duke of Lance.