‘I wanted to eliminate Princess Bella at the same opportunity… It seems handling both at the same time would be too much.’

Charlotte had ordered her to eliminate the Benian boy, but Talia had different plans.

She saw the isolation of Rose Palace as the optimal time to eliminate the princess.

Talia was more loyal to the Repel family than anyone else, and always wanted to prove it.

Eliminating Princess Bella, a future obstacle for Wilhelm, would be a great achievement for her.

She was willing to take the disgrace of carrying out an unasked order alone.

Doing Charlotte’s dirty, dark work was her rightful role and mission. It was her hope that Charlotte would eternally stay in a place of shining glory.

‘I don’t have much time. I’ll look for an opportunity.’

Charlotte had given Talia two orders for this mission.

One was to end the life of Benian around the princess.

The other was to finish the job as quickly as possible before Elga left the palace.

She didn’t explain why, but judging by the circumstances, Elga seemed to be plotting something while staying in the Rose Palace.

‘I’ll have to start investigating the surroundings from today.’

Finishing her conversation, thinking she should start organizing her stuff, Talia changed into her newly issued servant uniform and headed to her new workplace.

First, as her new identity ‘Lina,’ she would blend in perfectly, acting to dig up information within the palace.

This was her most crucial goal for the next few days.

“Oh my, you must be the new maid. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

Chatting with the existing maids and laughing, she appeared to be a maiden who had just arrived from the countryside.

Holding cleaning tools like any other maid, Talia mixed with them and began working.

She was committing everything she saw and heard around her to memory.

That night, Raven was reading a book by candlelight as usual, all alone.
Rubbing his gloomy eyes, he rose to replace the nearly burnt-out candle as he immersed himself in the contents of the book.

‘I wonder about that cookie… Will it go bad if I leave it like this?’

Raven turned his gaze and looked at the bag of cookies he had neatly placed at the corner of his desk.

Somehow, it felt too precious to eat, so he had just been fiddling with it and put it where his eyes often landed.

The bright yellow handkerchief adorned with floral patterns that wrapped the item didn’t quite match the gloom of his room.

After hesitating for a moment, he carefully untied the ribbon that held the bag closed.

Upon fully unwrapping the clearly meticulous packaging, a cookie of an entirely unexpected shape was revealed.

“Can this… even be eaten?”

The cookie, with its edges completely burnt, looked like a failed attempt at first glance.

Unlike the ones Bella had brought before, its shape was crude and uneven, honestly not looking like a snack fit for human consumption.

Raven cautiously sniffed it for a moment and chose what looked to be the least damaged, biting into it.

“…It’s hard.”

Maybe it had gone stale over the last few days.

What should have been a crispy cookie was so rock-hard that it only crumbled when bitten with molars.

Scanning the room for something to soften it, like milk, he soon realized that the only beverage in the room was water, so he bit the cookie with force.

And Raven immediately regretted his decision.

“Ugh.”

The texture was crumbly and sour, almost as if he were chewing coal.

Moreover, sugar and salt had clumped together in spots, making the taste far from harmonious.

Raven swallowed the monstrous-tasting cookie as if it had come straight from hell.

‘If anyone else ate this, it would be a disaster.’

For some reason, as soon as the cookie entered, it felt like something was ablaze in his stomach.

Being naturally resilient, even eating a highly poisonous mushroom wouldn’t have killed him, so this feeling was new to Raven.

Given how he had never experienced indigestion in his life, anyone else who ate this must have suffered quite a bit.

‘I should rewrap this and store it properly.’

He gulped down a cup of water, carefully wrapped the cookie back in the handkerchief, and placed it in a drawer.

Though he was fine, if someone else discovered and ate this cookie out of curiosity, they might foam at the mouth and collapse.

If Bella were to secretly come by like before and ask how the cookie tasted, how should he respond?

If he were to name the food, ‘Cookie from Hell’ might be appropriate. While chuckling to himself, if he were to tell the truth, that little girl would have a deeply wounded expression.

Perhaps big tears would even hang from her large, round eyes.

‘I absolutely do not want to see that.’

Why was that?

Whether others cried or laughed, were happy or sad, it didn’t matter. Yet, he did not want to see that child’s sad face.

If he witnessed such an expression, somehow it felt like it would hurt his heart.

‘…This is the first time I’ve felt this way.’