[Episode 5] - The Mad Queen Who Talks to Mirrors (4)
After slipping out of Vivian’s room, Ellie walked down the corridor not with a look of sorrow, but with a broad smile, filled with the joy of having survived, her steps quick and light.
Ellie paid no mind to the blood streaming down her forehead. If anything, she was so happy that it had ended with only this much of an injury that she could not even feel the pain.
‘I’m alive! I survived!’
To talk back to “that Her Majesty the Queen” and still make it back alive with only a cracked forehead was practically a miracle. Normally, one had to slam one’s head against the floor at least ten times and even be beaten before being allowed to leave the room.
“Ellie? What happened to your forehead?”
“Ah... this?”
As she was fleeing in high spirits, a maid passing through the corridor stopped Ellie. Seeing the blood flowing from her forehead, the maid seemed to have a vague idea of what had happened to her.
“...Can you gather the girls who are resting? I have something to tell them.”
Looking at the fellow maid who had stopped her, Ellie resolved to tell them what had happened to her. She alone was enough of a maid who believed only the “rumors” and dared talk back to Her Majesty the Queen.
*
“Is that really true?”
“I’m telling you, it’s true! The rumor that Her Majesty the Queen lost her memory is a total lie! A blatant lie! That rotten personality of hers was exactly the same as ever!”
Like someone who had returned alive from a battlefield, Ellie told her fellow maids what had just happened, flaunting it like a tale of valor.
And as if the wound on her forehead were a medal, Ellie lifted her bangs and showed it off to the other maids.
“I’m still jealous. Last time, even after I slammed my head down ten times, she wouldn’t forgive me.”
“Only three times... I had to do it ten times and got struck with a switch on top of that. Even now, if I put my hand in cold water, the wounds sting.”
“Is there anyone among us who hasn’t gone through that? We’ve all cracked our heads against the floor at least once.”
The other maids gulped dryly as they listened to Ellie’s story.
To be honest, it was not as if they had never thought the same thing Ellie had. If Her Majesty the Queen had lost her memory, perhaps it would be all right to talk back a little.
But after seeing Ellie’s battered forehead, the maids changed their minds. Ah, if they talked back to Her Majesty the Queen, their heads would still be cracked like Ellie’s, their palms would be beaten until they tore, and even their parents would be insulted.
‘The heavens are cruel. How wonderful it would have been if she had died as she was when she fell into the lake.’
All the maids thought the same thing, then let out deep sighs at the same time. As they continued exchanging various stories, including gossip about Her Majesty the Queen, the topic of the “witch” slipped from one maid’s mouth.
“Come to think of it... do you think that rumor is true? The rumor that ‘Her Majesty the Queen’ is ‘that thing.’”
“Well... honestly, we all saw it, didn’t we? The sight of Her Majesty the Queen springing up from her coffin and coming back to life. It gave me chills... I was cursing her in my head, and I thought she’d heard me and gotten up because of it.”
“You too..?”
“Who would see that and not think she’s ‘that thing’? Besides, even before Her Majesty married His Majesty, those kinds of ‘rumors’ were already rampant, weren’t they? Everyone just kept quiet because there was no evidence.”
“But now that there’s even ‘evidence’... it would be stranger if people didn’t talk.”
The maid who had brought up the “witch” clicked her tongue.
The rumor that Her Majesty the Queen was a witch had not appeared overnight.
To begin with, countless noble young ladies had gathered to be chosen as the new queen. They were selected and screened, sifted through as though panning for gold, and from among those countless ladies, five were chosen.
But among those five young ladies, everyone except Vivian ended up having some problem and voluntarily gave up her place. Some developed mental problems, some had discord within their families.
In particular, one young lady’s household collapsed completely. At the worst possible time, all kinds of gossip erupted at once—corruption committed by the young lady’s father, his filthy sexual tastes, and so on.
Among commoners, the saying “What noble would not cough up a speck of dust if shaken?” was taken for granted, and corruption was practically the authority and symbol of the nobility, but...
In the end, that young lady had no choice but to step down from the position of prospective queen, and the other young ladies also had no choice but to give up the queen’s seat for similar reasons.
And the one among them who had no issues and no rumors was none other than the current Her Majesty the Queen, “Vivian Liliensol.” Everyone said Vivian was suspicious, but in the end, no evidence ever came out.
Countless suspicions and distrust.
Vivian became queen with those smeared thickly all over her body.
But instead of making any effort to calm such rumors, the first thing Vivian did upon becoming queen was beat and assault her own maids... so there was no one who could possibly like Vivian.
Well... there was a rumor that the reason she assaulted a maid from the very first day was “because His Majesty did not return to her room on the wedding night”... but that was not something that should come out of the mouths of mere maids.
In any case, that was why Her Majesty the Queen had not even been granted the royal “surname.” She was still using the surname “Liliensol,” not the royal surname, “Snow White.”
“Ha... Should I really just quit and go back to my hometown?”
“...If we could do that, we would’ve quit and gone back to our hometowns long ago.”
Haa.
At those words, Ellie and the other maids let out heavy sighs at the same time. They did not say it aloud, but they were all in similar circumstances. Why was serving as Vivian’s maid the highest-paid maid’s work in the royal castle?
One could understand with only a little thought.
And all of Vivian’s maids had “backgrounds” that required a great deal of money. Some were paying off their families’ debts, some were from fallen noble houses and had to feed their families, and so on...
Tug, tug.
Just as Ellie was about to let out another deep sigh at the dark reality, someone tugged at the hem of her skirt. Wondering who it was, she turned her head, but there was no one in Ellie’s line of sight.
When her head naturally lowered, a young little girl entered Ellie’s view. Ellie and the other maids all stared at the little girl in such shock that their breaths seemed to stop.
“P-Princess?! W-Why are you here..?”
A little girl with hair darker than ebony and bright, clever eyes sparkling with ruby-red pupils was holding onto the hem of Ellie’s skirt and looking up at her.
“What are you doing..?”
“Ah, I was j-just resting for a moment with my coworkers. What brings you here, Princess..?”
Ellie crouched on the floor and met the princess’s eyes. Then the princess, hugging a book as large as her own torso, glanced sideways and looked at Ellie.
The moment Ellie saw that book, she realized where the princess was headed and why she was here. Only then did Ellie realize they had been chattering in a corner of the corridor, and she carefully asked the princess.
“Ah... you were on your way to a lesson?”
“Yeah...”
As if embarrassed, the princess hid half her face behind the book. Watching her, Ellie gave a small smile, then took a piece of candy she had hidden away to eat later from her pocket and placed it in the princess’s hand.
“It’s a secret from your teacher, so you have to eat it quietly after class, all right?”
Holding the candy in her hand, the princess smiled in satisfaction, then turned around and ran off with quick little steps. The sight of her running while hugging an armful of books was so worrying that Ellie trembled anxiously.
“Please be careful, Princess!”
Whenever she occasionally met the princess, placing a snack into those tiny hands was one of the small joys Ellie could feel in this dreadful life as a maid.
The other maids watched and stuck out their lips in envy. There were many maids friendly with the princess, but opportunities like this did not come often.
“Haa, still, I’m glad the princess didn’t hear us talking about Her Majesty the Queen.”
“Hm? Why all of a sudden?”
Ellie asked as though she had no idea what that meant.
“You didn’t know? They say that ever since the funeral, whenever the princess hears anything about Her Majesty the Queen, she’s terrified enough to foam at the mouth. Imagine someone you thought was dead suddenly sitting bolt upright in front of you. She’s still so young—how could she not be traumatized? Even I get scared just seeing Her Majesty the Queen’s face.”
“Ah...”
Hearing that, Ellie’s expression turned bitter.
‘His Majesty already ended up like that... The princess really is pitiful too.’
There was also a rumor that what happened to His Majesty was Her Majesty the Queen’s fault, but Ellie did not think so. If Her Majesty the Queen truly had His Majesty under her control, she would never have made things turn out this way.
“...Let’s get back to work. Who’s in charge of Her Majesty the Queen this evening?”
“Do you have dementia? It’s you all day today.”
“...I cracked my forehead today. Can’t someone switch with me?”
The other maids shook their heads at the same time. Then they busied themselves leaving, claiming they had urgent matters to attend to. Watching her companions, Ellie thought,
Truly, the friendship between maids was as thin as paper.
*
After Baengsho left the room, I looked at Ainsel, crossed my legs, propped my chin in my hand, and fell into thought. Wasn’t it a little too much to put me through a “witch trial” just because I had done something resembling a “resurrection” at a funeral?
A witch trial in this world was nothing special either. If you could not prove you were not a witch, you were burned to death on the spot in a brutal fashion. How were you even supposed to prove you were not a witch in the first place?
It was obvious they would nitpick no matter how much I made excuses and drive me into a corner as a witch. Did I revive because I wanted to? What was I supposed to do when I opened my eyes and found myself in a funeral hall?
“...What am I seriously going to do?”
-I know. It seems like things have gotten bigger than expected... May I take back what I said about helping you?
“.....Are fairies always this heartless?”
-Even if you say that with Vivian’s face, well.
What a heartless mirror.
First, after thinking it over with a somewhat cooled head, I was able to come up with a few ways to deal with this situation.
First, persuade the Council of Elders.
The Council of Elders was something like a gathering of old nobles, made up of several houses backed by enormous power. They engaged in power struggles with the king because of that power, and in any case, even in the game, they were rather troublesome fellows.
It would be difficult to persuade those stubborn old men, but if I somehow appealed to them by saying, “I’ve changed~,” and made the elders of the Council of Elders side with me one by one, things might somehow work out.
Second, beg His Majesty not to divorce me.
No, I was not the one who got married, and it was ridiculous to plead with a man whose face I did not even know not to divorce me, but this was one of the easiest and surest ways for me to survive.
But... this had a problem too.
-The king is currently in seclusion. He ordered that no one be allowed into his room... about two years ago. After he remarried Vivian, he suddenly began shutting himself away, so everyone thinks Vivian did something. In truth, Vivian did nothing at all.
The king, who was the “player” of this “child-rearing simulation game,” was a shut-in freeloader.
They said the king, claiming to be in seclusion, met no one and lived only inside his room. So the ones practically managing the country were the chancellor, Baengsho, and the Council of Elders...
Just from what I had heard about the royal castle so far, there were more than a few strange things. Wasn’t the king a shut-in freeloader? And unlike what I knew, the First Queen’s condition was also strange.
How on earth was this country running?
“...This is driving me insane. Seriously.”
And finally, the third.
The third method was very simple.
“...Ainsel, want to run away with me?”
Take a certain amount of wealth and flee the royal castle.
Every sense I had felt as though it was telling me to run away from this place immediately.
If I stayed here, I might truly end up getting dragged into something bizarre.