The Lotus Palace within the Heltered Imperial Palace, where ten empress candidates reside. The 11th annex bedroom.

“What is this?”

The elderly head maid showed her finger, which had just passed over the top of the wardrobe, to the maids.

The three young women hastily glanced at each other, swallowing hard. Honestly, it was a tiny speck of dust that could only be seen with intense focus. However, they dared not open their mouths carelessly to the strict head maid.

“Have you forgotten that cleaning must be done twice a day, morning and evening?”

“N-no, we certainly completed cleaning twice today, morning and evening.”

One maid gathered the courage to answer Bridget, the imperial head maid’s question.

The head maid grabbed the chin of the youngest-looking maid among the three and spoke coldly.

“I’ll ask once more. Did you clean the bedroom this evening as well? If your lie is exposed, you’ll be expelled from the palace then.”

As Milly nodded with determination in her eyes, the other two maids standing beside her hurriedly knelt down and confessed.

“We’re sorry, Head Maid. Since it’s an empty chamber not yet used by the lady, after cleaning in the morning it was so spotless that we… sob, please forgive us.”

Milly’s face turned pale at her fellow maids’ betrayal, but no plea for forgiveness was heard from between her bitten lips.

“What shall we do?”

To Lauren’s question, who oversaw the empress candidates’ quarters, the head maid briefly said as she released Milly’s chin.

“Dismissed immediately.”

It wasn’t a demotion to the laundry or kitchen, but dismissal. At the head maid’s merciless words, the two maids who had been kneeling on the floor burst into tears. The corner of her wrinkled eyes caught sight of Milly standing with her head bowed and fists clenched.

“Return to your rooms and pack your belongings.”

Unlike the two maids who were dragged away while pleading at the head maid’s feet, Milly walked out the door on her own, her head held stiffly high. Knowing that begging would be futile, she didn’t want to demean herself unnecessarily.

The head maid never went back on her word. She was a thorough believer in principles. A perfectionist and an ascetic.

She especially never tolerated lies from the maids. That’s why she was able to firmly hold her position for over 40 years, surviving changes in empresses and emperors, living as a hidden power within the palace.

After the maids left, the head maid quietly instructed Lauren, whom she trusted most.

“Don’t send away that maid called Milly. Bring her to me this evening.”

“Are you thinking of using her for this matter?”

Bridget nodded to Lauren, who asked discreetly.

“Milly is clever and quick-witted, but very stubborn. As you saw, she lies indiscriminately. She’s also extremely prideful. She’s not one to obey others easily.”

“I know. That’s why she’s suitable as a maid for the eleventh empress candidate. I know girls like her all too well. They’ll do anything for gain and betray anyone.”

Though she despised this type the most, now was the time to make use of them.

“I’m truly surprised. I didn’t expect you to grant the Grand Duchess’s request, Head Maid.”

Lauren, who had served Bridget for over 25 years, carefully spoke while gauging her reaction.

Head Maid Bridget was a prickly principled person, not one to use schemes for her own power and wealth.

Many gossiped that the head maid had amassed enormous wealth, and that her influence in the palace was as great as the empress dowager’s. However, despite being in the best position to accumulate riches, her lifestyle was utterly frugal.

She was planning to spend her remaining years in a rural convent she had been donating her salary to, once she retired.

The position of head maid, who assisted the empress and was responsible for the imperial household affairs while overseeing the palace employees, was equivalent in rank to a marquis.

However, she conducted all affairs according to imperial laws and customs, and showed no interest in matters outside her domain.

Now, her mentor whom she had respected all her life had jumped into the palace power struggle. And right before her retirement at that.

“This competition is a battle between two houses… but it’s also about the honor of the late Empress. I will never allow the Empire of Heltered to have an empress from the Kingdom of Seville twice. I stake my life on it.”

Bridget said through gritted teeth as she wiped the furniture with a cloth herself.

“I can no longer stand by and watch Empress Dowager Natalie’s shameless actions tarnishing the late Empress’s reputation. If her niece, Princess Lilibet, becomes empress, what little remains of Empress Katherine’s achievements will likely all disappear.”

Empress Katherine, who had chosen a nine-year-old laundry maid from a count’s family as her playmate, and later brought her to the palace, making her the empress’s head maid. Despite their vastly different social standings, the two were the closest of friends.

“The Grand Duchess of Le Sang is the only daughter of Empress Katherine. She promised that if Lady Grace becomes empress, she will surely uncover the secret of Empress Katherine’s death.”

That was precisely the reason. The reason why the stubborn Head Maid Bridget, who had never broken a principle in her life, took the hand offered by the Grand Duchess of Le Sang, whom she considered to be a bundle of desires with rock-bottom character.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she had been waiting for this moment. To uncover the cause of death of Empress Katherine, who had gone to sleep contentedly after dinner one evening, only to never wake up the next morning.

The Emperor, who had never been on good terms with his wife from the start, remarried Princess Natalie of the Kingdom of Seville, rumored to be the most beautiful woman on the continent, exactly six months after the Empress’s passing.

The young new empress, who monopolized the Emperor’s love, not only erased the achievements of Empress Katherine, who was loved by the imperial people for her kindness and virtue, but later went on to fabricate a plot to turn her into the villain of the century.

Bridget, who had been the closest confidant of the deceased empress, was almost expelled, but she saved the young empress who was hovering between life and death during the plague that year. Gaining the trust of the new empress, Bridget was thus able to rise to the position of imperial head maid.

“Then wouldn’t it be easier to hinder Princess Lilibet, Lady Grace’s biggest competitor? Why are you concerned about the eleventh candidate? She’s a daughter from a fallen family, not even known in high society…”

“Princess Lilibet possesses outstanding beauty like her aunt. However, she’s hot-tempered and dull-witted. She won’t be able to handle the cool-headed and intelligent Lady Grace. With just a little provocation, she’ll explode on her own. But…”

Bridget continued speaking while straightening her maid uniform crisply.

“The eleventh candidate, Lady Arabel, is different. She’s a candidate personally chosen and brought by His Majesty the Emperor. She could be the most dangerous opponent for Lady Grace. When the eyes of the man one loves turn to another woman, even the most rational and intelligent person can make mistakes.”

She knows that Grace has been in love with the Emperor since she was very young. The reason she hasn’t bullied other women using her family’s backing until now is that the Emperor hasn’t shown interest in anyone, including her.

But now he’s returning to the palace with a woman. If not careful, Grace, who has always maintained a poker face, might become blinded by jealousy and do something stupid, self-destructing.

Moreover, the woman personally chosen by Emperor Maxwell was sure to have tremendous ambition like the Emperor. Perhaps even more willful than Lilibet and more wicked than Grace.

However, the fact that she was chosen to his liking meant she was likely a cut above them. After all, personality wasn’t very important to the Emperor. What mattered was whether the person could help achieve his goal of holding the entire continent in his palm.

If she were to join hands with the empress dowager for her ambitions after becoming empress, she would never reinvestigate the cause of Empress Katherine’s death. She, who didn’t share a drop of blood, would have no interest in a forgotten empress.

Eliminating the eleventh candidate was most urgent. The head maid had no doubt that Emperor Maxwell would become the greatest emperor in the history of Heltered, no, the entire continent.

However, she also knew that he lacked the affection or interest in people to reinvestigate the cause of death of a grandmother he had never seen. He would rather use his brilliant mind to expand the empire’s territory in that time.

Having finished her thoughts, Bridget, as always, politely clasped her hands together and stepped out of the bedroom. Watching the back of the head maid who always anticipated ten steps ahead, Laura muttered to herself in a small voice.

Until now, it wasn’t that the head maid didn’t know how to use scheming, she chose not to use it.

“It was the year I turned twenty-two.”

The Emperor sat on the marble fountain rail with his long legs dangling, facing Arabel.

“It was two years after my ascension to the throne. While I was roaming the battlefield, facing three allied countries to expand territory to the east.

On the day of victory in the final battle, I received a report that a black panther had been sighted on Mount Mekgines in the conquered kingdom. Certain it was the monster that had killed my father and abducted my mother, I rushed to the mountain, leading my soldiers.”

As Arabel’s clear eyes turned towards him, Maxwell calmly recounted the moment he first transformed into a monster, as if telling someone else’s story.

Entering Mount Mekgines, Maxwell experienced for the first time in his life the feeling of his entire body boiling with rage.

His hatred for the monster even blurred his cold rationality. Though it was his first time encountering Mount Mekgines, one of the roughest mountains, he, filled with anger, left his guards behind and ventured deeper into the forest alone.

On a humid summer night with pouring rain, he spotted golden-red eyes among the dense trees. They were unmistakably the same eyes he had faced at nine years old.

Even his white horse, exhausted, hesitated to move forward. The Emperor dismounted, threw off his cloak and armor, and chased after the monster up the steep mountain.

After quite some time, he finally confronted the monster at the mountain’s peak. He had waited 22 years for this moment to end the monster’s life. The black panther, as if it had been waiting for him too, stood on all fours, revealing its eerie red eyes.

‘I will surely kill you with my own hands!’

As he drew his bowstring without hesitation, aiming at the black panther’s belly,

‘Aaaaargh!!!!’

Suddenly, an overwhelming pain struck him as if the ground beneath his feet and the sky above were simultaneously crushing his body. It felt as if a giant hand from the sky had grabbed his head and was playing ball by smashing it into the ground.

His internal organs constricted, causing tears and vomit to pour out. His arms and legs twisted on their own, and bones protruded grotesquely through his skin as he collapsed on the ground. Then, in an instant, everything turned pitch black.

When he opened his eyes, Jacob and Sir Peter were standing in front of him with their bows aimed. He shouted orders to them, who stood motionless with frozen expressions.

‘The black panther is nearby, catch it!’

However, the sound that came from the Emperor’s throat was not human, but

‘Grooooar!’

It was the mighty roar of a wild beast.

It was the beginning of the curse.