“Sob, hic… Sniff.”

The middle-aged woman, tied by her hands and feet to the bedposts with a gag in her mouth, looked up and cried. Due to the gag, her cries came out as nothing more than soft, faint whimpers.

The middle-aged woman lowered her gaze and curled her body into a ball. She moved instinctively, wanting to defend herself out of fear.

And the one looking down at her was…

Mercedes.

The crown princess of this kingdom, the beloved youngest daughter of Count Cromwell.

A woman of radiant beauty and graceful movements, always proper and composed.

“…Ah.”

On this day alone, Mercedes was in her nightgown with her hair loose and disheveled. Yet she still looked noble.

She turned without hesitation and left the room. There was only one thing she needed to take care of.

How much time had passed? Since this happened during dinner… Would the palace still be lively at this hour?

If it was lively, she would need to wait a bit. But fortunately, the hallway was quiet. It was past midnight, in the early hours of the morning.

“It’s not dinnertime anymore…”

Mercedes muttered as she walked. Come to think of it, she hadn’t been very aware of the passage of time lately.

Mercedes, Mercedes, Mercedes…

As she walked down the quiet hallway, countless voices echoed in her ears and resonated in her head.

Why were they so desperate to call her name? When they had tucked her away in the innermost corner, treating her as less than a decorative ornament.

Why did they keep calling for her?

Mercedes couldn’t understand.

If they didn’t want to see her, they could have driven her out. If she irritated them, they could have turned their backs. They could have even killed her.

Why did they keep seeking her out to hit her and hurl verbal abuse?

Why did they make her stay by their side?

Now she knew the reason.

The reason she had to spend her whole life with those who tormented her.

“It must be so we can die together.”

Mercedes mumbled with a dazed expression and continued walking. Her destination was clear.

In the very late night, when all lights were out and sleep had settled over the palace.

Mercedes took graceful steps, moving as if dancing elegantly.

Somehow her body felt light.

She walked down the dark hallway. The moon outside the window was bright.

The corridor was silent. Though she looked a bit disheveled, she seemed like nothing more than the crown princess out for a stroll on a sleepless night.

Except for the dagger clutched in her hand.

The dagger engraved with mistletoe flowers instantly made her look like a madwoman.

Her eyes were fixed straight ahead and her feet moved quickly with excitement.

Is this how it feels to dance with wild abandon?

She turned the dark hallway into her own private ballroom as she headed towards her destination.

“Yes, this is all…”

This is what I’ve lived for.

She swiftly walked to her husband’s room and knocked on the door.

Then she murmured with a smile.

“Your lady, Mercedes, has come.”

Finally.

It was time to kill her husband.

#Chapter 1. The Crown Princess Fainted

Mercedes, the crown princess of the Shame Kingdom, fainted from difficulty breathing due to an excessively tight corset at the 2nd anniversary celebration of the royal marriage.

At first, it wasn’t a big deal.

It was common for women who wanted to follow fashion to faint from overly tight corsets. Of course, they would occasionally be mocked for being foolish, asking if they really wanted such a slim waist that badly.

But who would dare say such things to the crown princess?

So it should have ended as an insignificant incident.

However. Things started to take a strange turn.

The next day, and the day after… odd rumors began circulating in social circles.

“Isn’t it strange? The most important virtue for a woman in the position of crown princess is health above all else. To faint from not being able to properly handle a single corset! Is it really alright for a woman with such weak physical strength to be in the position of crown princess? I’m worried about the future of our kingdom.”

“Right? Perhaps this is the reason there’s been no news of pregnancy for two years.”

“Oh my. Then does this mean she won’t be able to bear a proper heir?”

“Hmm. Judging by how she fainted like that, there must clearly be something wrong with her health. Why, the crown princess is so very slender, isn’t she?”

“If that’s the case, did Count Cromwell, Mercedes’ father, commit fraud against the royal family using Mercedes as the crown princess?”

“Oh my. If so, this is truly a serious matter.”

The small spark that had ignited spread at an uncontrollable, rapid pace. It was an abnormally fast speed, and excessively disrespectful.

Normally, if Mercedes had truly been a respected crown princess, such rumors would not have dared to circulate.

Yes, if she had been a ‘truly respected crown princess’.

There was no way the rumors spreading in social circles wouldn’t reach the crown princess. Mercedes had to endure nightmares of being stabbed to death by knife-like words every day.

“…The weather is nice today.”

Mercedes sat at the terrace table set with refreshments and blankly looked up at the sky. She felt a bit dizzy.

“Nanny, could you ask for the newspaper to be brought?”

Mercedes usually read the newspaper every day. So of course she requested it today as well.

Her nanny and chief lady-in-waiting, Gertrude, who was sitting across from her enjoying tea time together, tried to hide her flustered expression as she replied.

“Your Highness. Today… it might be better if you don’t read the newspaper.”

Hearing Gertrude’s response, it seemed the rumors had not been confined to just social circles.

Mercedes sighed, feeling a slight dizziness.

“It’s alright, let me see it.”

The crown princess’s order could not be disobeyed. Gertrude had no choice but to raise her hand and have a maid bring the newspaper she had prepared in advance.

The newspaper was delivered to Gertrude on a silver tray.

Only after Gertrude opened the tray cover and checked that there was nothing sharp on the newspaper and that no one had done anything strange to it did she hand it to Mercedes.

Mercedes elegantly extended her slender fingers to pick up the newspaper from the tray.

With her pale, translucent skin and tall, slender figure, the crown princess with light wheat-colored hair and green eyes illuminated by the sunlight was as beautiful as a painting.

“The Crown Princess’s Health: Is It Really Alright Like This?”

A gentle, clear voice like a breeze read out the article’s headline. Her clear eyes quickly scanned through the article.

The more she read, the more the letters seemed to disintegrate. Mercedes pressed her throbbing temples with both hands and swallowed a sigh.

It was the headache that habitually came to her.

“Do you have a headache? Perhaps you should rest a bit. I’ll have the court physician called.”

Gertrude quickly suggested. Mercedes put down the newspaper and exhaled deeply.

“No, it’s fine… So this is how it ends up.”

Gertrude quietly looked at Mercedes for a moment before opening her mouth with a sigh.

“I heard that His Highness the Crown Prince is going about his life as usual.”

“…Yes, I’m sure he is.”

Mercedes gave a hollow laugh.

It was clear that someone was fanning the flames of the rumors and adding fuel to the fire.

Insulting the crown princess could lead to charges of contempt against the royal family, so people usually exercised caution and restrained their words to a reasonable extent.

But for such stories to go from rumors all the way to the newspapers meant that someone higher in status than the crown princess was orchestrating this affair.

And Mercedes knew who that someone was.

‘It will be alright with time.’

She repeated to herself.

As it always had been. If she kept her mouth shut, plugged her ears, and closed her eyes. Time would pass and everyone would forget about her existence.

Mercedes believed in people’s forgetfulness.

She dared to believe.

It was all she could do anyway.

Even if she tried to open her mouth and fight back, it was obvious she would lose.

* * *

“How on earth have you been carrying yourself for such an article to be published! I can’t show my face in public!”

Her father, Count Cromwell, shouted loudly as he roughly threw down the newspaper. As if it were only natural, the newspaper hit Mercedes in the face before falling onto her lap.

Mercedes silently looked at the open newspaper.

[Is the Crown Princess Qualified?] [Crown Princess Diagnosed as Infertile… Conscience Confession from Doctor Who Worked at the Palace]

In just a week, the intensity of the slander had become severe.

Mercedes continued to stare blankly at the newspaper. In front of her, the count kept on shouting.

“After putting you in such a good position! Not only can you not seduce a single man, you even faint? You repay kindness with enmity!”

As she listened to the booming voice, her headache grew increasingly intense. And gradually, she began to feel disconnected from the world. Mercedes slowly raised her head.

The elderly count with his face flushed red looked excessively healthy.

‘Father is still… so strong.’

While Mercedes was wasting away like this.

She gripped her wrist, which had grown noticeably thinner in recent days, and let out a small laugh.

“You… you dare laugh? Have you stopped listening to your father now, is that it?”

The count’s eyes didn’t seem to register his daughter’s emaciated appearance at all. Naturally, the count’s pudgy hand struck Mercedes’ cheek.

The pain was enough to make her vision blur.

This would likely swell into quite a bruise. Mercedes calmly spoke to the count as he raised his hand once more.

“Father. If the crown princess’s cheek swells, it won’t look good to others.”

“Ah. Right. It’s become a habit, how annoying.”

The count spat out a curse and then, as always, called for the healer he had brought along.

‘I’m not his real daughter anyway.’

Perhaps it was natural to be viewed as a possession.

She was born as the count’s illegitimate child and secretly registered into the Cromwell family.

Her mother was apparently the youngest maid working in the Cromwell household. There was quite an age difference with the count.

She had become pregnant with the count’s child and fled to live in the neighboring Loom Empire, but the count, worried that the existence of an illegitimate child might cause trouble in the distant future, went out of his way to capture and bring back the child.

Leaving the mother behind, taking only the child.

The count brought the child back because of blood ties, but then neglected her, and the countess, naturally hating the illegitimate child Mercedes, abused her.

As the countess abused her so, before long Mercedes became the target for the entire Cromwell family to vent their frustrations on.

She was beaten in places that wouldn’t be visible to others and subjected to verbal abuse.

Just once, the second son kicked her in the head, and from then on a strange headache always followed her. It was a pain that was difficult to clearly identify as phantom pain or trauma.

Where had her mother gone, living as a wanderer?

She must have… passed away, right? She probably wasn’t in this world anymore. It didn’t take long to come to think that way.

Through such years, Mercedes learned how to let all words go in one ear and out the other, and eventually even how to kill her emotions to the point of not showing any expression.

And so, on the day Mercedes made her debut as a debutante and entered high society.

Since she was officially the young lady of the Cromwell family, she couldn’t be hidden away completely, so the count reluctantly “presented” her.

The count said that even an incompetent wench could earn a dowry, telling her to go flatter old men who might take her as a second wife and earn money.

But on that day, the person Mercedes encountered was Elmond, the former crown prince.

Crown Prince Elmond, who had a good reputation both inside and outside the palace and possessed handsome features, fell in love with Mercedes at first sight.

And he immediately sent a marriage proposal to the Cromwell family.

As it was a status lacking nothing as the crown princess, the natural course was for the engagement to proceed immediately.

The count rejoiced, saying it was fortunate and that even someone like her had some use. And he hurriedly called for healers to erase the numerous scars covering her body.

This entire process took place without any consideration for her wishes.

And Mercedes was fourteen years old at the time.

Fourteen. She was still too young and needed to be older to be of marriageable age.

In the Shame Kingdom, marriages usually took place around eighteen to twenty years old.

Even at that age, Mercedes accepted everything with an expressionless face.

“If you hadn’t been a member of the Cromwell family, would the position of crown princess have been possible for you? You should be grateful.”

Strictly speaking, it was due to her beauty rather than the count’s influence, but such things weren’t important to the count.

“…I’m sorry.”

Mercedes kept her head bowed before the count who could not control his anger.

“We’re doing everything we can to quell the rumors, so you make sure to conceive the crown prince’s child. This time for sure!”

The count grabbed her arm tightly and hissed as if he would devour her.

Mercedes nodded, of course.

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.