Chapter 37 · The Blueprint of the Coup

June had come before she knew it, and the fierce summer sunlight spilled long across the corridors of the imperial palace.

Pretending to enjoy a light stroll, Isadel wandered near the emperor's palace with leisurely, elegant steps.

In one hand she loosely held a single flower she had plucked without care.

At a glance, she looked like nothing more than a confined princess lamenting her lot and fiddling with flower petals—but Isadel's eyes were gleaming more sharply than ever.

Her gaze passed between the pillars of the corridor toward the entrance of the emperor's palace.

'Twelve at the front gate. Twenty-four including the relief shift.'

Without slowing her steps, Isadel engraved the guards' positions, movement routes, and patrol intervals into her mind.

She calculated without omission where blind spots formed behind which pillars, and when vigilance was loosest just before a shift change.

The regular shifts were at four-hour intervals,…