The entire empire, especially the capital’s citizens, was outraged by the fact that a rebellion had occurred.

The nobles who had been hiding carefully while watching the situation were relieved. If the Empress Dowager took power, it would cause ripples in the power structure.

In fact, the current Emperor, Carlos, was not entirely satisfactory. He had been somewhat oppressive towards the nobility. However, unlike the Empress Dowager, he did not divide people into factions or interfere excessively in social circles.

Such an emperor felt much better to the nobles.

The process moved forward steadily, without haste. Along with the trial date, a new scaffold, unused in Carlos’s era, was being constructed.

Thus, they identified the criminals’ offenses and made a list of those who had participated with the former Empress Dowager, even slightly. They weren’t necessarily guilty of crimes. It was just a blacklist for the imperial family to keep an eye on in the future.

And during this time, peace came to those who had fought fervently.

Since all matters were handled by the adjutants of the relevant departments, Carlos didn’t need to intervene.

It would still take time for the imperial palace to return to its former state. They had to clear away the ruined walls and buildings, and deal with the mess left by the former Crown Prince, Adolf.

Although Carlos was a bit busy with approving these matters, he had more free time than before and thus always stayed with Mercedes.

Mercedes was not yet receiving visitors. Although she received letters about the kidnapping and rebellion incidents, it seemed she would have to postpone invitations for a while.

This was because a heartbreaking incident had occurred.

They thought all the palace servants were safe, but that wasn’t the case.

Everyone had suffered injuries here and there due to the atrocities of Adolf and his remnant troops.

During the battle, they hadn’t noticed due to the urgency and busyness…

It was natural for Carlos to become even more enraged at the condition of the servants and order flogging for Adolf and the remnant troops.

Afterwards, the imperial physician ended up tending to all sorts of people, not just the emperor.

At this point, the title of imperial physician seemed meaningless, but there was no choice as it was the emperor’s order.

The apprentices under the imperial physician and the doctors raised in the palace took care of relatively minor injuries, while the imperial physician handled serious injuries and those especially cherished by the emperor and empress.

However, if the condition was too severe, they would request healing magic. Both the mages and Mercedes.

The mages and she agreed to willingly use healing magic in places difficult for the imperial physician and his apprentices to reach.

Before requests even came to her, Mercedes decided to first look after her two maids.

So today, she gathered with her two maids in her room, having separated from Carlos who was usually always by her side.

“Just stay still, will you!”

“Ah, I’m fine! It’s not serious enough for Your Highness to use magic!”

“Rhonda. Stop refusing. Do you think I can stand by while seeing you in pain?”

“But Your Highness, I heard mages get tired after using magic… My injuries are minor. I can just see a doctor.”

Patricia immediately sighed and sat Rhonda down, reporting every detail to Mercedes.

“She’s the one who got beaten the most, trying to protect the younger maids, you know? Geez, really.”

Mercedes let out a deep sigh as soon as Patricia reported this.

She knew her maids were warm-hearted, but hearing it like this didn’t make her feel good.

“Sigh. You did well, you did, Rhonda. Ah… Getting hurt by standing out too much. What is this, really.”

Mercedes looked at Rhonda, whose shoulder was badly injured and legs were covered in wounds, and cast a healing spell with another sigh.

White light flowed from her hands, healing Rhonda’s wounds. The skin mended, new flesh grew, and the wounds disappeared cleanly without leaving a single scar.

“Wow. To think Your Highness is really a mage. It’s so amazing to see it up close.”

“Have you been hiding your power all this time? I heard mages can’t hide it well.”

“Let’s talk about that later. Really… How dare those vermin…”

Mercedes thought she should suggest to Carlos later in the evening to treat Adolf and then flog him again.

“Oh my. The atmosphere is getting strange, isn’t it? Patricia! It’s because you tattled to Her Highness! You’re even worse!”

“What did I do!”

“What did you do? Come on! You’re hiding your injuries right now! I know everything!”

Rhonda, after confirming her treatment was complete and adjusting her clothes, immediately pounced on Patricia, trying to remove her top.

Patricia resisted, but Rhonda was stronger. Thus, Patricia’s back was forcibly exposed… and it was a mess.

The only reason blood hadn’t seeped through her outer clothes was because of the cotton cloth patched and tied over the wounds.

When the cloth was removed, the horrific injuries became even more apparent.

It was impossible to tell how many lashes she had received.

“This crazy bastard. Let’s prepare to go to the prison. I’ll—”

In the end, even harsher words flowed from Mercedes’ mouth. Seeing her spring up, Patricia was startled and pulled her back down to sit.

“Your Highness! Please calm down. Don’t go to such a dangerous place. I heard he’s already been flogged anyway. His Majesty ordered 50 lashes, but I heard he received even more than that.”

Patricia stopped Mercedes who had jumped up.

“I heard he keeps fainting from the flogging and isn’t in his right mind now. They say he’s babbling nonsense.”

“…Hah. I understand. Why did it get this bad, Patricia? It’s too serious.”

“Well… Um. Adolf and his remnant troops… They heard somewhere that I was close to Sir Gregory. You know, the Knight Commander is famous. They probably wanted revenge. They should have just beaten me, but they tried to hit the other girls too, so I blocked them and… Um. This is embarrassing.”

Patricia explained with an awkward face, uncharacteristically hesitating.

“Since it’s been discovered, I guess I have no choice. May I trouble Your Highness? It does… hurt.”

Then she asked with her usual gentle smile.

Mercedes felt like her heart was about to be torn apart as she summoned her strength.

“Of course.”

It must be extremely painful, why did she try to hide it?

“Sigh. I hid it because I didn’t want Your Highness to make a sad face… Don’t make such an expression. Really. Rhonda, you weren’t there then, how did you know? I thought I hid it well.”

“How many people saw you getting hit? How could I not know? Why didn’t you show your injuries! Were you trying to hide them without getting treatment?”

“I was planning to show them to the imperial physician separately. I was enduring in front of Your Highness.”

Patricia’s heart was both beautiful and pitiful.

Mercedes took Patricia’s hand and sat her down in front of her.

“The wounds are deep, so it will take a little time.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Please let me know if you get too tired.”

“I will.”

Mercedes took a deep breath, then carefully placed her hands on Patricia’s back. Patricia let out a small groan.

“…Bastards.”

Mercedes muttered. Her eyes seemed to sting a bit.

The fact that the children had suffered such hardship while she was away for just a moment pained her heart deeply.

She very gently and slowly infused power into the wounds.

It was fortunate that she had absorbed power from Carlos and made it her own. She overflowed with what mages would call ‘mana’.

“Oh, and Patricia! This time I left a note for Sir Gregory too, so be prepared to get scolded. Why did you hide that you were hurt?”

“What?”

Rhonda, who had been quietly watching in amazement as the flesh healed, suddenly spoke as if she just remembered something.

Patricia was startled and tried to get up for a moment. But Rhonda pressed down on her shoulders.

“How can you move while Her Highness is using magic!”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Your Highness. I was too surprised—”

“It’s alright. Sit back down. Really… It must have hurt so much.”

She wasn’t sure how many times she had infused power.

Unlike Rhonda who was quickly healed, Patricia’s injuries seemed to take a bit more time to treat.

“Ah, Rhonda! How could you contact Sir Gregory!”

But Patricia now seemed to not even care about the pain, tapping the armrest nervously with her fingers.

“Hmph. You don’t listen to me. You need to be properly scolded. Your Highness, please scold her more!”

“Yes. I should properly scold you when the treatment is done. Hiding such painful injuries.”

Mercedes wiped away some cold sweat as she looked at Patricia’s back, where the bleeding had stopped, new flesh had grown, and only scars remained.

“Is the pain all gone?”

“…Yes. It’s so amazing. It doesn’t hurt at all.”

“That’s why you should have said something. Know that you’ll really be in trouble next time. There are still scars left, so I need to continue the treatment. Let’s take a short break and then continue.”

Focusing on treating Rhonda’s deep wounds for so long had taken a toll. At Mercedes’ words, Patricia asked as if she had been waiting.

“Ah, then would you like some tea? We have new desserts—”

“A short rest is enough, so just sit for a moment. You don’t need to do anything. You are precious to me. When you’re in pain, I should be by your side to help you.”

The two maids had been kind to her from the beginning and told her she didn’t need to do anything.

Perhaps that was a grace. Though she had never been able to express her gratitude.

Mercedes returned the grace and kindness they had given her, as if confident she could do so now. The two maids looked at each other blankly, then turned away. Their eyes stung.

And that’s when it happened.

Knock knock.

“Your Highness! It’s me, Knight Commander Gregory. May I come in?”

A very urgent voice was heard from beyond the door.