Chapter 7
As I listened to her proudly proclaim herself the Empress’s niece, I couldn’t help but picture the future Mintia. Even in my previous life, she was rude to me well into adulthood. After Volter became Emperor, she openly scorned and insulted me, calling me a mere figurehead of the imperial family.
Still, no matter how brash she is, she’s just a kid right now. Fine, I’ll let it slide since my mental age far surpasses hers. Here, I’ll accept your greeting. I gave a half-hearted nod in response.
“Okay… sure.”
But then, that impudent little thing had the nerve to slap me across the face.
For such a small hand, it stung like crazy. My cheek, the delicate skin of a three-year-old, burned with a sharp sting from her blow.
“My grandfather is the Marquis of Cherie! My aunt is the Empress! How dare you speak so casually!”
“Eek! Miss, please calm down! This young lady could be a noble too. Please!”
Mintia’s maid stamped her feet in a panic. No longer worried about this incident being discovered, she now seemed desperate for my guardian to appear and resolve things civilly, her eyes darting frantically around.
I stood there, stunned, clutching my stinging cheek, when Mintia finally turned to her maid.
“She’s a noble too?”
“Probably! So please, make peace quickly, miss.”
“Is she more important than my grandfather?”
At that moment, I nearly let out a string of curses. What a lunatic.
“W-Well, that’s…”
“My aunt is the Empress!”
If your aunt is the Empress, my great-aunt is a princess… Oh, I guess that’s a step below in rank.
But my grandfather is the Emperor!
Still, I wasn’t about to stoop to the mental age of a five-year-old, crying over a slap, nor did I have the energy for such a childish fight.
What would happen if I fought back here, shouting that I’m the imperial granddaughter? Would her maid, in a panic, grab Mintia and make a run for it? Then it’d just end with me having been hit and no witnesses. Should I just hit her back?
Oh, whatever. Let’s just do this.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth! Her marquis grandfather or empress aunt can deal with the fallout. As for mine… well, I’m sure Emperor Grandpa will handle it nicely. Heh!
If I’ve been slapped, it’s only fair to return the favor with interest—double the slap plus some scratches for good measure, right?
I raised both hands, tensing my fingertips, and with sharp nails, I struck Mintia’s cheeks, alternating between both hands.
Instantly, long scratch marks appeared on her cheeks. The fresh welts swelled red. A child’s nails, thinner and sharper than an adult’s, made the effect all the more striking. Seeing those bright red marks filled me with a surge of satisfaction.
Mintia, caught off guard by my triumphant glare, widened her already large, reddened eyes and stared at me. In no time, those eyes welled up with tears. She started hiccupping, on the verge of sobbing.
I took a deep breath and shouted loud enough for her maid to hear, making sure to let some spit fly onto Mintia’s cheek for good measure.
“You wench! How dare you lay a hand on an imperial!”
I grabbed her ears and hair tightly with both hands to keep her from escaping. Mintia clutched her ears, scratching at my hands and wailing as she clung to me.
“Waaaaah!”
At the sound of Mintia’s piercing cries, Nanny and Jeanne came running.
“Your Highness! What are you doing!”
Nanny rushed toward me and, for the first time ever, delivered a swift smack to my back.
“Ow!”
With that sharp blow, I let out a yelp and accidentally released Mintia’s ear, which I’d been gripping. Tch, I could’ve yanked it right off…
Nanny shrieked in a high-pitched wail.
“What in the world is this nonsense! A hair-pulling fight?!”
Why isn’t Nanny taking my side!
“She hit me first!”
It was self-defense!
“Even so, grabbing another young lady’s ears?! And look at your cheeks! Why are your hands and knees all scraped up?”
While Nanny scolded and fussed over me, checking every inch of my body, Jeanne, the head maid, confronted Mintia’s maid, demanding to know what had happened.
“W-Well, it was… a misunderstanding… My lady surely didn’t mean to harm Her Highness.”
“What misunderstanding?”
“I-I don’t know exactly! Please forgive us.”
“Forgiveness is for His Majesty and Her Highness to decide, not me. Whatever the misunderstanding, causing a scene in the palace and harming an imperial, intentionally or not, is a fact. This matter will be reported to His Majesty, so take your lady and leave.”
Clinging to her maid’s arms, Mintia fled toward the Empress’s palace, screaming at the top of her lungs.
“I’ll tell my grandfather! I’ll tell my aunt everything! Waaaaah!”
My rare outing had turned into a complete mess. Cradled in Nanny’s arms, I returned to my room.
“Oh, dear, what are we to do? Your elbows are scraped too. And yet you’re not even crying… Oh! It’s breaking my heart!”
Nanny’s eyes glistened with tears. If no one were watching, it felt like she’d let loose a torrent of curses she’d never uttered before, grinding her teeth in fury.
I sat quietly where Nanny placed me. The maids began peeling off my tattered clothes.
Seeing my knees and thighs, caked with dirt and blood from scraped skin, they gasped in horror.
“Good heavens! We must report this to His Majesty and formally protest to the House of Cherie!”
“Exactly! This goes far beyond a simple children’s quarrel. How could it be so cruel?”
Their fiery indignation left me, the actual victim, too embarrassed to even make a peep.
Seeing how much they cared for me warmed my heart, and I silently let them tend to me.
They washed the dirt away with clear water, then soaked a clean cloth in expensive potion to gently clean every inch of my body. In the midst of this, the door burst open without so much as a knock.
“My baby! Who dared touch my baby! Who!”
It was Grandpapa, his eyes bloodshot with rage, followed closely by the chamberlain, Count Maron.
“Oh, Your Majesty! Please calm down! There’s a meeting in the grand hall soon…”
“A meeting? Is that the issue right now? Who did this? What wretched fool turned my precious child into a bloody mess!”
A bloody mess might be a bit much… Do I really look that bad? I gazed up at Grandpapa with a sheepish expression.
“What happened here?”
Grandpapa growled fiercely, pressing Jeanne for answers.
“Well… Miss Mintia…”
“Mintia Cherie? The Empress’s niece? Why her?”
For a moment, Grandpapa’s eyes widened. As the maids hesitated, unable to respond, he roared again.
“Why did she leave my Melly in this state!”
The maids, not present from the start and unaware of the full story, faltered.
Guess I’ll have to tell him myself. After all, wasn’t I counting on Grandpapa’s backing when I slapped her back? So, with an exaggerated tone, I spilled everything.
“She hit me here and here and dragged me around ‘cause I didn’t greet her!”
Puffing out my cheeks and putting on a teary-eyed expression, Grandpapa’s reason seemed to evaporate in an instant.
“Ban Mintia from entering the palace until her debut in high society. Go to the Empress now and tell her to send the girl out of the palace.”
In that moment, I realized something significant was happening.
The future was changing.
In my previous life, I never exchanged slaps with Mintia today.
And for good reason—this outing to the garden was something I consciously decided to do, as was suggesting hide-and-seek and choosing that exact spot to hide. All of it stemmed from my deliberate choice to avoid running around.
If so, I can’t just sit back with the excuse of being a child. If it’s possible to change things now, I need to act. If I start moving now, could I make Grandpapa realize that my parents’ carriage accident wasn’t just an “accident” but an “incident”?
But how?
I learned in the cold palace that it was my uncle’s doing. But I only know it was him—I don’t know the exact method, how he disguised it as an accident, or if there’s even any evidence.
At the very least, if I could make Grandpapa catch a whiff of an “incident”…
My blood boiled. I want revenge as soon as possible. But in a child’s body, my options are so limited. If only I could at least access the palace archives…!
I took a deep breath.
“Hoo.”
No, let’s not get greedy. Even just sending Mintia packing like today is a huge blow to the Empress. Mintia was supposed to be the Empress’s eyes, ears, mouth, and hands in high society, and I’ve cut that off at the root.
Wow, what a win!
Of course, Mintia is still young and not yet playing that role, but that’s something the Empress could have nurtured over time.
In my past life, Mintia frequented the palace often. The Empress needed a proxy to wield influence in high society, and with no princess to fill that role, her niece Mintia was the obvious choice.
Mintia’s father, the heir to the marquisate and the Empress’s younger brother, also proudly sent his daughter to the palace often, even before her debut, to boast to other nobles. Their interests aligned perfectly.
So, today’s incident would have a profound impact on the Empress’s influence in high society in the future.
Yes! I want to go see the Empress’s face contort in frustration right now.
But can I just go because I want to? I’m a three-year-old who follows Nanny’s schedule, and even if I insisted on going, I’d have no valid reason.
Instead, I dressed up in an extravagantly ornate dress, far fancier than usual, and went out with Grandpapa.
Earlier, I’d worn a simple, soft dress with minimal decoration for playing. Now, I was dazzling. A vibrant red dress adorned with a tiara decoration permitted only to direct imperial descendants.
“Your grandpa will watch over you. Let’s go out and play again.”
And Count Maron wailed.
“There’s a grand hall meeting, Your Majesty!”
Empress Kiyen was in an utterly foul mood.
When her niece from her natal family arrived that morning, she was shocked. Mintia’s cheeks were scratched, and her eyes were so swollen from crying.
Before Kiyen could even ask Mintia’s maid what happened, Mintia clung to her skirt, sobbing out the story.
“Waaah! Aunt! Waaaaah! A bad girl! She hit me! Boo-hoo!”
In summary, it went like this: While entering the palace, Mintia met a smaller girl in the garden who scratched both her cheeks and yanked her ears. She didn’t explain why she got hit.
There’s no way it happened out of nowhere—she must have done something first. But, true to her five-year-old nature, she conveniently left out her own faults, refusing to admit them. Yet she wasn’t skilled enough to lie convincingly, so her story was transparently flimsy.
Not expecting a detailed or coherent account from a child, the Empress turned to scold Mintia’s maid instead.
“Who did this to her?”
Terrified of the Empress’s wrath, the maid answered in a trembling voice.
“It was Her Highness.”
At that, Kiyen’s body swayed, her mind reeling. Of all people to clash with, an imperial! And not just any imperial, but the Emperor’s precious, cherished granddaughter!
A dark premonition crept up within her.
