Long Live the Emperor, Minus Me (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 11
“Flowers? Are you asking for an entire garden?”
Blanche added a clarification for Melchizedek, whose scale of thinking was, as expected, truly grand-ducal.
“Igoseu kkotcheul. (The flowers here.)”
Blanche’s tiny finger pointed toward the climbing roses draping over them from above.
“Oh, so you want me to build you an entire garden filled only with climbing roses?”
It was utterly baffling why he couldn’t help but inflate every little thing to such absurd proportions.
Once again, faced with Melchizedek’s overreaching remark, Blanche narrowed her request further—so precisely that even Melchizedek himself couldn’t possibly misunderstand.
“Igeo, han soireul, kkeokkeojuseyo. (This one, just a single bloom, please pluck it for me.)”
“…A single bloom?”
The boy widened his eyes, clearly bewildered—as if wondering what possible meaning a mere single flower could hold.
As if questioning whether an ordinary, living flower—not one crafted from gold or hibiscus made of diamonds—could ever qualify as a proper gift.
“Yes. Han soireumon daeyo. (Yes, just one bloom is enough.)”
But it was precisely for that reason Blanche wanted a real, living flower.
Zi Qingling, who had showered Lee Baekryeon with the greatest number of gifts, never bothered with something as trivial as fresh flowers, and no one had ever dared pluck even a single blossom to present to General Shangdai, who wore peonies carved from Hong Yu jade in her hair and a robe embroidered with golden dragons.
Moreover, in her previous life, Lee Baekryeon had been far too busy to tend to or care for something as insignificant as flowers, so she truly had never received even the simplest of blooms.
“Well, I suppose you’re still young and don’t understand much yet.”
The boy seemed unable to comprehend why Blanche would waste such a fine opportunity on just a single flower, yet he chose not to argue further.
“Alright, I’ll pluck it for you.”
Rising from his seat, the boy climbed onto the table. Though this was an unusually impolite act rarely seen, Blanche’s expression twisted only slightly—but the boy, focused entirely on the rose, failed to notice her reaction.
“Here you go.”
With careful hands, the boy plucked a single flower and bent forward to offer it to her.
A real flower—fragrant, with delicate petals.
Blanche gazed at the bloom resting in her palm and smiled faintly.
“Gamsai balkkena-ida. (I shall accept it gratefully.)”
“…It’s just a single flower. What’s the big deal?”
Truly. Just a single flower. Merely one bloom. Something utterly insignificant—hardly worthy of being called a gift at all.
Yet this was exactly what Blanche had wanted.
“Geuraedoyo. Igeomeon chungbunhaeyo. (Still. This is enough for me.)”
The boy stared silently at Blanche’s face, clearly puzzled, then simply shrugged his shoulders.
“If that’s what you say, then so be it.”
*
The Grand Duke left shortly after sealing our agreement, but told me I was welcome to stay as long as I liked.
Taking advantage of his kindness, I spent the entire afternoon holed up in the greenhouse before finally returning to the palace—and the moment I arrived, I received poison as a gift.
The poison had been slipped into the water glass served alongside my meal.
Detecting the telltale sharp, unnatural bitterness—clearly not meant for human consumption—I immediately spat the mouthful of water into the napkin draped over my lap.
“Your Highness? What’s wrong? Is the food not to your liking?”
Tula looked at me with concern. Since I hadn’t swallowed it but merely held it in my mouth, and yet felt perfectly fine, it probably wasn’t the type that seeped through the skin.
Still, just to be safe, I handed the napkin to Tula.
“Taeeo. Kkomkkomhage. (Burn it. Thoroughly.)”
“Yes…? Ah, yes.”
“Geuigeo ikyeong uibeonge damajwo. (And put this in a glass bottle.)”
I had no intention of making the incident public just yet, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep it for possible future use.
After all, even if the poison degraded, an expert could still identify it as such.
But Tula, unaware of my reasoning, looked thoroughly confused.
“The… water?”
“Yeah.”
When I firmly nodded and resumed eating, Tula left the room with a puzzled expression, carrying both the water glass and the napkin. Since none of the other food was poisoned, I continued my meal safely while lost in thought.
Ever since the tea party where the Empress first showed interest in me, I’d been closely monitoring activities around me. It had been easy enough to track the flow of information, especially since I’d been meeting all sorts of people under the pretense of building social connections.
Normally, palace staff each had clearly defined roles and weren’t supposed to interfere beyond their duties. Thus, under normal circumstances, aside from my guards, I shouldn’t have had any reason to interact with the children assigned to food service or sewing.
But I had fewer than ten attendants in total, so by including Tula, I could effectively oversee every single one of them.
Thus, over the past month, I’d deliberately fed false information to these children: I told the cleaning staff about fabricated hobbies, lied to the sewing staff about books I was supposedly reading, and even claimed to my guards that my perfectly healthy knee was injured.
And incredibly enough, it actually worked—princesses began mentioning my fake hobbies, princes referenced the wrong books I was supposedly reading, and princesses even tried to carry me, insisting I shouldn’t walk because of my “injured” knee.
Of course, since all those stories were completely fabricated, such reactions couldn’t possibly arise from mere observation. It clearly meant every child I’d shared those false details with had been selling my information.
In this way, I confirmed beyond doubt that everyone except Tula was leaking my secrets.
Well, it wasn’t really surprising. Having planted spies myself before, I knew that when you’re not inserting your own person but rather trying to recruit someone from the opposing side, you start with something very light.
The price isn’t too high—just a modest sum or minor favors in exchange for seemingly trivial information.
Information so insignificant one might wonder, “What difference would revealing this even make? Isn’t this something they could find out anyway?” or “Even if I tell them, won’t it change absolutely nothing?”
It’s only natural that children unfamiliar with the nuances between the kingdom’s and empire’s class systems would fall for such subtle manipulation.
What was truly remarkable was that none of the information I’d shared with Tula ever leaked—not a single word. I’d scrutinized the matter thoroughly from every angle, and it seemed she truly hadn’t told anyone. Despite being my closest attendant, she must have faced even stronger temptations.
In any case, it made perfect sense now why all the others, except Tula, were leaking information.
From the start, my goal hadn’t been to identify who specifically was leaking information, but rather—assuming everyone would leak—to trace exactly where the information was flowing.
And I also knew well that the other side wouldn’t be satisfied with such trivial intel. No one would plant a spy just to learn what book I happened to be reading these days.
But I never imagined they’d attempt poisoning me just one month after my arrival in this foreign land.
I let out a heavy sigh. They must be truly desperate. Though publicly announcing the poisoning attempt and causing a commotion seemed unwise, I definitely needed to uncover the mastermind—someone this reckless would surely try the same thing again.
Having made up my mind, I asked Tula, who had just returned with the water in a glass bottle:
“Oneul nae iljeong-eul daddeul eotteoke algo itji? (How does everyone know my schedule for today?)”
Controlling information had become second nature to me lately—even the invitation from the Empress followed this pattern.
But unlike usual, when I’d spread entirely different false information, this time I made sure the attendants clearly knew about the invitation’s existence while deliberately misinforming them about its sender.
Tula paused briefly, gazing into space as if recalling something, then started counting off on her fingers.
“I told Miu, who handles sewing, that you’d be meeting Princess Tertoma; I told Kali, in charge of meals, that you were visiting Princess Astella; and to Delma, I said—”
Tertoma, Astella, Dilaira… As I listened to the names that followed, I calmly pieced together the puzzle.
Once the framework clicked into place, identifying the actual perpetrator who’d laced the drink with poison was simple. Considering just two key points—the choice of poison as the assassination method, and the fact that the toxin was in the water rather than the food—the answer became obvious immediately.
It must have been Delma, assigned to cleaning duties.
Since the poison wasn’t in the food but in the water, it meant the culprit wasn’t part of the kitchen staff but someone who couldn’t find another opportunity to administer poison outside mealtime.
Moreover, the person I’d told Delma I was meeting today was none other than Princess Dilaira, who’d been brought here after studying herbalism—so using poison as the method made perfect sense.
If I’d truly met Princess Dilaira and then collapsed from poisoning, suspicion would have fallen squarely on her first.
The only problem was that I’d actually met the Empress instead of Princess Dilaira today—and thanks to memories from my past life, I knew well enough how to distinguish safe food from poisoned fare. They’d surely conclude Delma had botched the job, leaving her in a terribly precarious position.
Just to be safe, I should probably announce a bit earlier than planned that I’ve become the Grand Duke’s playmate. That should deter any sane person from attempting another assassination.
Now, the only thing left was deciding what to do with Delma. I didn’t want to expose the poisoning attempt itself, but I couldn’t keep her by my side either—so I needed a plausible excuse.
Should I borrow the Grand Duke’s name for this? Or perhaps present it to the Emperor as a bargaining chip…?
Lost in such thoughts, I hadn’t even noticed my plate had long been emptied. As Tula gathered the empty dishes, she asked me:
“You’ve finished your meal—what would you like to do now?”
“Chaek ilgeulrae. (I’ll read a book.)”
“Your Highness truly loves reading. Of course—I’ll seat you in your usual window chair where you always read. Come this way.”
I stretched out both arms and nestled snugly into Tula’s embrace. When would this body finally grow enough for me to climb down from chairs on my own?
If I closed my eyes and opened them again, I hoped ten years would have passed.
Male lead first thought she played hard to get, only to realize she
really disliked him
Short intro:
What she can’t stand the most is the streets full of effeminate men, especially that so-called top beauty whom she avoids at all costs.
Shen Yaoxing looks at Jiang Mingyue, who keeps approaching her with coy shyness.
Shen Yaoxing: Bro, don’t be like this, I’m really about to throw up!
She fears nothing in heaven or earth, except for him getting close to her.
*
At first he thought she was just using the trick of feigning indifference to attract his attention. Later, he learned that she truly despised him.
This dealt a heavy blow to Jiang Mingyue, and he vowed to make her, like everyone else, fall at his feet in worship!
***
Synopsis:
Before transmigrating, Shen Yaoxing only wanted to find a reliable man to spend her life with. Who knew that after transmigrating, she would become a reliable woman herself…
A forced misandrist, highly skilled, and reliable female lead
vs.
An initially aloof and arrogant, later morbid, obsessed male lead
_____
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