Queen in the Shadows

Chapter 2

“Elena, the lord is not as evil as you think. He could genuinely be trying to help you. I think you may be overthinking this.”

“Maybe so, but...” Elena trailed off and swallowed the words.

But what if the lord isn’t the one holding the noose?

Viscount Claude was a puppet. He wasn’t nearly clever enough to pull off a trap like this. In fact, he was so simple-minded that he was easy to read. Elena had stood at the top of the empire’s society and seen all the rampant intrigue and scheming, so she knew she wasn’t wrong.

The villain was someone else.

Elena thought of the one person who would be laughing and controlling the puppet from behind the scenes:

Riaveric.

She was an intelligent woman who had graduated from the Imperial Academy with the highest grades in history, and she was also currently the schemer who controlled the grand duke. Riaveric was skilled in the art of deception—she could readily exploit people’s minds or pit people against each other. She had played a big role in developing the current public opinion that the grand duke’s power could surpass that of the emperor.

She was the one who told me that I had to know how to see the thorns that were hidden amongst the blossoms.

Elena had experienced numerous difficulties when she had pretended to be Veronica. In particular, she’d learned that the social world of the empire was dictated by the survival of the fittest. In a world where intrigue and deceit were rampant, even being part of the grand duke’s household was not an absolute advantage. Countless times, Elena had run the risk of being cornered and almost eliminated.

And it was Riaveric who had taught Elena how to reign in high society as the queen. That same Riaveric was now in the territory where Elena lived. And since Elena looked like Veronica, it followed that she was to be taken away to the grand duchy for the scheme.

It's not going to work out the way you want it to. Now I will be the one controlling this game.

The one Riaveric wanted was Elena. Though Veronica was still alive, the grand duke was currently in a situation where he needed to bring in Elena as a stand-in. If not for that, Riaveric wouldn't have bothered to go through the trouble of coming all the way to the outskirts to collect her.

Elena knew all of this, so she wasn’t going to be exploited and killed miserably like she had been in her previous life. But since her father wasn’t aware of what had happened, he couldn’t shake off his disappointment.

“Are you sure you won’t regret it?” he asked.

“There is nothing to regret, Father.”

Elena's answer was firm. If she’d been paralyzed with misgivings, she wouldn’t have made this decision in the first place. She was sick of being manipulated, and she intended to live her own life without the grand duke’s intervention or meddling. In order to do that, Elena had to make what appeared to be the worst decisions and eschew the best ones.

I will be the one to turn the table.

Elena’s eyes shone coldly.

* * *

For the next few days, Baronet Frederick’s face remained full of regret. He once again tried to persuade Elena.

“Child, the lord says that if you are worried about something unpleasant happening, he’ll put his promise in writing. Won’t you change your mind?”

“I’m sorry, Father. I won’t change my decision.”

Elena put down her spoon and shook her head.

What effect would such a document have?

If the lord broke the contract, could the vassal hold him accountable? It would be difficult. If someone claimed that the lord was unfair in a region where that lord’s influence was absolute, it would be difficult for that claim to hold any merit.

“Hmph. Where does she get this stubbornness from?” Frederick groaned at his daughter’s stern attitude, which left no room for debate.

“Dear, please don’t force it. Respect Elena’s wishes.”

Frederick’s wife, Chesana, took Elena’s side as she dished some salad onto his plate. Chesana had been quite beautiful in her youth, but her wrinkles had increased due to the hardships of life. She had had a difficult time taking care of all the household chores without even a single maid.

“It’s a waste of a good opportunity...” Frederick grumbled.

“Don’t be so impatient. Wherever she goes, our daughter never fails to get ahead. And even if we don’t force her to make a social debut, she’ll be able to meet a good husband.”

Chesana tried to comfort her husband with nice words while shooting a surreptitious wink in Elena’s direction.

Your mama will get him to understand. Don’t worry too much.

It was almost as if her mother was whispering these words in her ear. Elena understood them implicitly, and thanked her mother with a faint smile.

“By the way, Elena, I was doing the laundry and your clothes were covered in dirt,” her mother said. “It also looked like the fabric had been torn by something like a thorny vine.”

“Oh, I went to Mount Lous earlier.”

“Again? Child, please be more careful when climbing mountains in the future. Lately, animal sightings have become more frequent, and I’m worried that something bad might happen to a young lady climbing up there all alone.”

Frederick, who’d been silent for a while, finally spoke up.

“Your mother’s right. It’s likely that nothing bad will happen to you, but there’s no harm in being careful.”

“I was thinking of doing that, but there’s no reason to go anymore. So don’t worry.” Elena’s answer was vague, cryptic, and filled with hidden meanings. She soon rose up from her seat. “I’m going to turn in early. Good night.”

“Okay. Sleep well.”

When Elena returned to her room, she locked the door and sat down at her desk. She removed a notebook from her bookshelf that had been neatly tucked between two thick volumes on society and culture. The notebook looked like a diary; however, when she opened it to a random page, a map was revealed—one that was not printed, but clumsily drawn with a pen.

Thank goodness I finished on time.

Though the drawing was crude and crooked, the map’s precision was more accurate than any commercially available map of Mount Lous. This was probably because the mountains and geography of the region had subtly changed since the mass-market map had been released ten years earlier.

Elena took a red ink pen from the tin on her desk.

Without hesitation, she drew a curved line that traced the geography of the Mount Lous map, following the mountain range. Without crossing the mountains, the red line ran along the mountainside, into a canyon, and stopped only when it reached the Aegis River, which flowed beyond Mount Lous.

“Riaveric will never think of this route.” Elena dared to assert that it was the perfect getaway. “Mama. Papa. In this life, I will protect you. I promise.”

Her eyes were filled with regret. In her previous life, she hadn’t been able to care for her parents at all after moving to the grand duchy. She had been deceived by Riaveric’s promise that she could avoid becoming a concubine; she’d thought only about her own life.

However, after being exploited and abandoned by the grand duke, she’d found out what had happened to her parents: Riaveric had ordered them killed the very day Elena had left her home region.

Elena’s eyes filled with malice. She now knew the dark intentions of those powerful people, and she wouldn’t expose her parents to danger without a way to escape.

* * *

At dawn, Elena’s eyes opened on their own. Even though no one had woken her up, her body always rose with the sun. Habits were quite scary—she had acquired this one while living in the Imperial Palace as the first consort, and it had continued even after her return to the past. She’d tried to force herself to break the habit, but had thus far been unsuccessful.

Elena slowly sat up. She looked so put together that it was hard to believe she’d been lying in bed until just a moment ago. This poise was also an attribute that had been ingrained in her during her reign as queen.

Elena tied up her hair and left the room. Chesana was in the kitchen preparing breakfast, and her eyes widened when she saw her daughter.

“Why are you awake already? You should’ve slept in.”

“I just woke up early. I’ll help you.”

“Would you be willing to?”

Elena helped set the table with her skillful hands. She took out the bread, which had been toasted golden brown in the brazier, and cut it into slices, then ladled the savory-smelling broccoli soup into bowls.

It was a strange thing. The chores that had felt like a nuisance in her past life didn’t feel that way anymore. Perhaps it was because she had realized the preciousness of this time.

“Father, breakfast is ready.”

When Elena knocked on his bedroom door, Baronet Frederick came out in his uniform and sat at the dining table. Chesana must’ve nagged him all night long since Frederick didn’t bring up the patronage. And because of that, Elena was able to enjoy a peaceful, routine meal with her parents. Until:

“Isn’t it a bit noisy outside, dear?” Chesana asked.

“A carriage must be passing by.”

Despite his wife’s doubts, Frederick paid no regard to the noise and just ate his soup. Their house was located next to a road, so he just dismissed the racket as something that happened all the time. But as time went on, the commotion only grew louder, until finally, it was too much for him to ignore.

Frederick put down his spoon and stood up from the table. “I’ll go check.”

Just as he was about to grab the door handle, he heard it—

Knock, knock.

“Baronet, this is Grace,” called a voice from beyond the door.

“Grace?”

Grace was Viscount Claude’s butler, who was in charge of the general management and housekeeping of the lord’s private residence. As Frederick worked at the official, public residence, it was rare for the two to encounter one another.

Frederick opened the door, and Grace bowed politely.

“What are you doing here?” Frederick asked.

“Please, excuse me for a moment.”

Grace looked back and gestured. Porters were waiting outside the door—they came inside carrying elegant, silk-wrapped boxes and began stacking them.

Frederick stared at them, confused. “What is all this?”

“They are a gift from the lord.”

“A gift?”

Frederick was taken aback—he couldn’t figure out what was going on. The boxes were piled high, and there were too many for this to be just a simple gift. After every box had been moved, Grace dismissed the porters.

“The lord said that these gifts are from his heart.”

“His heart?” Frederick asked. “We need to know what his heart wants before we can feasibly accept all of this.”

Grace handed an envelope to Frederick. The brocade fabric of the envelope had been sewn with gold thread, and it looked luxurious at first glance.

“He told me to give you this.”

Frederick took the letter and opened it. His face gradually hardened as he read the words written on what looked like expensive, top-quality parchment paper.

“Take these back right now.”

Though the tone of Frederick’s voice was polite, there was anger behind his words. So much so that his hands were shaking like the leaves of aspen trees.