Anette watched with satisfaction as the gardener planted golden sagebrush in the garden. The golden sagebrush, blooming among the purple sagebrush, seemed to predict her future, as if she were wearing a purple dress and a golden crown.

“It’s truly beautiful. But isn’t Princess Stella a bit mischievous?”

Caitlin, standing next to Anette, admired the golden sagebrush and suddenly asked as if she had just remembered something.

Anette, already not having positive feelings towards Stella, perked up at the mention of Stella’s name alongside unpleasant words.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Anette, still pretending not to care, asked gracefully, keeping her gaze fixed on the sagebrush.

Although she thought such adjectives didn’t suit her, hearing Caitlin gossip about Stella subtly pleased her.

“About that sagebrush. Princess Stella knew from the beginning that it would turn golden if she waited a little, yet she performed this disgusting play as if obtaining withered flowers. Truly cunning, don’t you think? Did you know that the Verudra servants gossiped about Princess Anette receiving withered sagebrushes?”

“No way.”

She gave a response that she didn’t mean, but Anette believed Caitlin’s words were accurate. She thought she had almost been deceived by the cunning Stella.
There, the servants are also impudent, resembling their master, and ignorant of etiquette. Fortunately, they only came to reclaim what was theirs, albeit not too late.

“But it’s still fortunate that they returned to their original place.”

Anette spoke with relief, like a mother who had found her lost child. As she repeated it, it began to feel more like the truth.

However, Anette’s satisfaction turned into shock in less than a week.

Even if it was just until they were replanted, the flowers that sparkled golden gradually lost their luster over time. On the seventh day, the once vibrant and golden flowers turned into colors that seemed lifeless and sickly.

Standing in front of the browned flowers, Anette, who had been trembling with frustration, couldn’t contain her anger and started screaming. No matter if it was a plant, she couldn’t tolerate anything standing in front of her looking like that.

“What is this!”

Anette, with rising hostility, yelled as she tore apart the cluster of brown flowers.

The gardeners, who had devoted day and night to rare flowers, lowered their heads like sinners in response to Princess Anette’s outcry.

“You call yourselves gardeners when you can’t even do this properly! What about these flowers!”

In frustration, Anette even went as far as to strike the face of the gardener standing in front of her with the pulled-out sagebrush. Now, it seemed that the change in the flower’s color was due to the incompetence of the gardeners.

Of all things, such inept individuals had come to my castle!
Blood flowed from the gardener’s cheek scratched by the rough stem, but Anette paid no attention at all.

Still not satisfied, Anette pulled out intact sagebrushes, including healthy sagebrushes and purple ones, and ruthlessly slammed them into the ground. Even then, unable to release her anger, she boldly stomped on the flowers lying on the ground.

The servants, while Anette caused a commotion, stood silently with their heads bowed, unable to take a breath. These were actions that she would never do, especially not in front of the maid, Sera, whom she wanted to show only good aspects to.

To Anette, this incident felt like a significant failure. She had never experienced failure from birth until now, and coming to the Credion Empire was considered a process to soar to greater heights.

The reason Anette never mentioned the term “failure” was that she was the body destined to become the Empress of the Credion Empire, regardless of what anyone said.

“Mae-gi!”

After venting her anger on the plants for a while, Anette, breathing heavily, called for Maegi nervously.

“Yes, Princess!”

Maegi, the maid whom Anette brought with her when she came to the Credion Empire, responded quickly, bowing her head anxiously while watching Anette wreak havoc.

Knowing her well, Maegi was aware that, in such situations, she should avoid making eye contact with the princess.
Maegi expressed with her whole body that she was listening carefully to the princess’s words, bowing her head as much as possible.

“I will send a letter to Father. Ask him to send very expensive and rare flower seedlings. Ones that are incomparably beautiful and precious, not like those pale sages. Also, request a gardener with skills incomparable to those fellows.”

Upon hearing Anette’s words, the gardeners shivered. Now that they were affiliated with the Muege Castle, finding jobs in other castles was impossible.

If they were dismissed like this, they would have to live without income for several months. The faces of the gardeners darkened rapidly with worry and frustration.

Unaware of the lower-ranking individuals’ circumstances, Anette glared at them as if she could kill them and quickly shot out her words.