Crazy Like a Fox

Chapter 5

* * *

That evening, Lisbelle received a summons to the main castle. Her father commanded her to join him for dinner, just as Rodges had told her.

The maids forcibly dragged her into the bathroom and bathed her. Afterward, they dressed her in a proper gown and put on high heels. Of course, due to Lisbelle’s strong resistance, one of the heels broke off and flew out the window.

“Princess! Please calm down!”

“Shut up.”

It didn’t take long for the small, spartan princess’s bedroom to become a mess. It was one of Lisbelle’s specialties—having fits and flipping the room upside down. She smiled brightly and aimed a piece of broken vase at the maid’s neck.

“Don’t touch me.”

The maids serving her knew all too well how terrifyingly powerful the things touched by the madwoman’s hands could be. When Lisbelle deliberately decided to have a fit, she paid no attention to anything around her, not even her own body. Several maids had already been cut by the glass shards their princess wielded.

“You know, Rodges slit Isaac’s throat,” Lisbelle rambled in a very excited voice. Isaac was the fifth prince who had died at the hands of Rodges a few months ago. “Do you know why he did it? Because Isaac was being a nuisance that day. So he sent Isaac to the moonlit hill with a single blow. It was quite a sight to see… You know, his decapitated body writhing on the ground.”

“P-Princess.....”

“Should I send you to that hill filled with evening primroses too?”

Terrified, the maid shook her head vigorously. Lisbelle felt a bit of fatigue wash over her as she threw the sharp shard behind her.

“It’s not fun.”

It really isn’t fun. I’m getting sick of it. How long do I have to keep doing this?

Lisbelle kicked off the remaining heel and stepped out the door barefoot. Under normal circumstances, she would have worn the heels, but despite being the weakest among the remaining three royals, and even though she might have seemed like a madwoman, she didn’t exactly pale in comparison to the two princes in appearance.

You have to make the most of what you have. While she couldn’t achieve the same splendor and beauty as a peacock, she couldn’t allow her appearance to become a disadvantage either. However, the pain in her feet was becoming unbearable. She couldn’t bring herself to use the ointment an unknown person had left behind—especially not knowing if it was actually an ointment… or if it was poison. If her feet started to rot away, she wouldn’t even be able to dream of escaping unless she died and came back to life again.

Lisbelle gathered her remaining mental strength and walked as if nothing was wrong. As she walked through the corridors of the royal castle, the words Rodges had thrown at her earlier in the day filled her mind.

“That wasn’t a good choice, sister. You better be careful.”

When did he find out? More importantly, if Rodges realized she wasn’t actually insane, why hadn’t he killed her immediately? Does he really have no intention of killing me? She was genuinely confused. But Lisbelle knew that Rodges had killed the third princess and the fifth prince without hesitation. She also knew how indifferent his face looked when he killed his siblings.

Rodges Valdimar was a beast, just like Jekyll. A prince who longed to finally take the throne after slaughtering all his blood relatives.

“He said, ‘that wasn’t a good choice…’”

Whatever was he talking about? Entering the ballroom without permission? Or dancing in front of Father? The next thing that came to her mind was what Jekyll had whispered to her yesterday.

“In truth, I wanted to kill you today.”

Lisbelle gripped her badly tangled hair and sighed deeply. Ah, how precarious a path I am walking. Her eldest brother had begun to be wary of her again, while her second-eldest brother had discovered her secret. And their father had suddenly summoned all three of them together under the pretext of a dinner.

Honestly, it was terribly nerve-wracking.

Lisbelle bit hard on the inside of her lip. It occurred to her that dancing at Valierre Hall yesterday had been a mistake. After all, Jekyll had commented on Lisbelle’s mother, a lowborn concubine. Not to mention, she didn’t know if Rodges’ words about it not being a good choice and Father suddenly calling her were all connected. But even if it is true, what could I possibly do?

I need to know at least something to either prepare or brace myself for what’s coming! No matter how hard she racked her brain, nothing came out of it. Lisbelle knew almost nothing about her mother.

The king’s third concubine, her mother, died at the hands of her husband when Lisbelle was just a newborn. Lisbelle’s mother was not the only concubine who died at the hands of the king. Lucife had had one queen and four concubines—none of whom were still alive today.

After Lucife killed Lisbelle’s mother with his own hands, he held the execution ceremony for the remaining four wives on the same day at the same time, and he made sure all ten children witnessed their mothers’ deaths.

As Lisbelle thought of her father, an incomparable chill washed over her. If she were to die one day, it would certainly be by the hands of her two brothers. However, Lisbelle always feared her father, King Lucife, more than her two brothers.

A mad king who takes pleasure in seeing his own children, his own family, staining their hands with each other’s blood. A king who would routinely roll the heads of four or five servants off the throne whenever he felt greatly displeased about something. He was a notorious tyrant who thought of human lives to be as trivial as the lives of flies, having inherited the thickest blood of the Karbesians. If he finds out the truth...

Lisbelle shivered in fear.

She reluctantly exhaled at the thought she hadn’t even wanted to consider. What would happen if his daughter, who constantly tarnished Valdimar’s honor with her reckless acts, was found to have been sane all this time?

I’d rather down some poison and die again. She didn’t want to think about it any longer, so Lisbelle quickened her pace.

In front of the main castle’s first-floor dining room, two princes had already arrived.

“You’re late,” Jekyll coldly spat.

Lisbelle giggled like a child and babbled nonsense,

“Yep, yep. My maid was trying to put thorns in my hair.”

Jekyll briefly looked down at her with contemptuous eyes, then turned his head away, as if he didn’t want to engage in further conversation. Rodges, who was leaning casually against the opposite wall, said nothing. He didn’t even glance Lisbelle’s way.

There was nothing unusual about this, however, a strange sense of unease continued to envelop her and wouldn’t go away. A troubling premonition nagged at the back of her mind. Ah, no matter what happens today, I must remain strong.

“Your Majesty, the first prince, the second prince, and the fifth princess have arrived.”

The magnificent doors slowly swung open on both sides. The interior of the splendid dining room was revealed through the wide-open doors, like the mouth of a serpent. A long, grand table gleamed beneath the chandelier. And at the head of the table sat King Lucife of Valdimar.

In Lisbelle’s eyes, their father appeared as nothing more than a devil disguised as a human.

* * *

The atmosphere was remarkably subdued as dinner began.

The Valdimar royal family was never one to be described as warm, not even in empty words, Lisbelle absentmindedly thought as she stabbed a large piece of steak with her knife. Before returning from the past, royal family dinners had taken place exactly once a year, and, as the years passed, the number of royals at the table gradually decreased.

First, the seat of the second princess became vacant. Then the chairs of the third princess, the first princess, the fourth prince, the fourth princess, and the third prince became empty—at least, that was probably the order. Until last year, the fifth prince, Isaac, had sat across from Lisbelle. But now, the spot in front of her was empty.

Who will be missing at the next dinner?

The thought brought on a headache. Lisbelle consciously pushed her plate away and slumped sideways over the table, masking her anxiety with a bored yawn. As if to keep an eye on her, something moved under the table. A slippery, yet bumpy surface brushed against Lisbelle’s toes as it moved forward sinuously, causing goosebumps to rise on her calves. The creature slithering under the table was Igor, her father’s pet, a massive venomous snake as thick as a grown man’s thigh.

Jekyll, seated diagonally, flinched. The muscles on Rodges’ face also twitched slightly. Even Lisbelle’s tough and stoic brothers visibly tensed up before their father and his snake. Igor was no ordinary pet snake. It was a wicked creature that danced at their father’s command and tore out the throats of sacrificial victims in place of its ailing master.

Though it was just a simple dinner, consuming fear tightened its grip around the throats of all three of them. To them, Lucife was an object of absolute terror and obedience.

“You must have heard that a delegation will be visiting from Rattaeh,” Lucife finally spoke as the meal neared its end.

Still slumped over, Lisbelle twirled her fork in her hand and turned her head toward the head of the table. When her eyes met her father’s, her gaze reflexively softened into a graceful curve.

“After the delegation departs...”

However, at her father’s next words, Lisbelle froze, her smile still fixed on her face. Jekyll and Rodges also stopped moving simultaneously. Three pairs of blue eyes turned to Lucife at once.

The king concluded monotonously, “...I will hand over the throne.”

The air above the table froze coldly. Lucife sliced the last piece of meat and put it into his mouth. As he elegantly chewed and swallowed the blood-dripping meat, his eyes glinted coldly.

“I’m sure you understand what that means, don’t you?”

They would’ve had to have been fools not to know what their father meant. Those words were as good as announcing the final act of the succession ceremony. The throne could only be handed over after the successor was confirmed.

He’s insane... Lisbelle cursed inwardly. So, Lisbelle’s intuition was correct. The ten days the delegation was to stay in Valdimar would mark the final ceasefire period. Once those ten days elapsed, there wouldn’t just be a few sword fights between brothers to mark the occasion.

Jekyll is backed by the queen’s family. He has control over the assets of House Garrett, the queen’s family, and all the soldiers are under his command. Rodges has sworn allegiance to the next royal commander of the castle. With the ability to command knights as if they were a part of his own body, Rodges clearly has the upper hand in the battles within the castle. When these two forces clash properly, it won’t just be a succession ceremony anymore—it will be a succession war. It will escalate into a full-blown civil war as opposed to mere swordplay.

So… Where do I stand amidst these colossal powers?

There was nothing the supposedly mad princess could do. After the empire’s delegation departed, Lisbelle would have to tread cautiously as a bloody civil war raged on. All she had hoped for until now was that Jekyll and Rodges would be so preoccupied with their own conflicts that they would completely ignore her.

And Rodges already knows that my madness is a lie... Lisbelle shivered in fear, dropping the knife from her hand. She couldn’t know what all was going on, but she knew one thing: Her chances of survival were very slim.

Could she continue living as she had been, pretending to be crazy to avoid death? It seemed even pretending to be insane has its limits. Then how could she…

Lisbelle slowly raised her head, and then, her eyes met Lucife’s.