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🖤 The Villainess Just Wants to Sleep

Chapter 19: The Crowned Women and Their Thorn

> “Powerful women don’t always strike you with swords.

Sometimes, they starve you with silence.

Sometimes, they try to break you with words.”

— Kaelaira

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The gates of the palace opened with slow, cold ceremony.

Kaelaira stepped down from her carriage, dressed in traveling robes of silver-grey. No fanfare. No heralds.

Only a cold wind.

Waiting for her in the Velvet Sun Chamber were Empress Almyra and Queen Seraphine.

They did not rise. They did not greet her.

They waited in silence, seated like goddesses carved from stone.

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Kaelaira entered and bowed perfectly.

> “Your Majesties.”

The Empress looked up first — sharp eyes narrowed like a blade behind a fan.

> “You return without permission. With new rumors. With new debts we did not approve.”

Queen Seraphine’s voice followed, smoother, laced with venom.

> “A foreign king invites you like you’re royalty.

You parade through another court like a swan… when you were meant to be forgotten.”

Kaelaira remained bowed. “I was requested for my skill in languages.”

Seraphine stood slowly, circling her like a wolf around a stag.

> “Is that what you think you are, Kaelaira?

A scholar?

You are a footnote in this dynasty.

Pretty, sharp, and utterly replaceable.”

The Empress snapped her fan shut.

> “If I thought you posed a true threat to the Crown Prince, you would not have made it back through the gates.”

Kaelaira looked up now — slowly, precisely.

> “Then it’s fortunate I am no threat.

Only… a tool.

One you don’t know how to break.”

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Silence.

Seraphine’s smile twisted. “Careful, child. You are growing bold.”

Kaelaira bowed again.

> “You taught me that silence invites scorn.

I only wish to protect the Crown’s pride… and the Empire’s secrets.”

A flicker of rage crossed the Empress’s face — a crack in the porcelain.

> “You speak in riddles now. You play at politics. But remember this—”

She leaned forward, voice low, razor-sharp:

> “We made you.

And we can unmake you.”

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Kaelaira smiled — her softest, most dangerous smile.

> “Then let me thank you… for everything you’ve made me into.”

She turned and walked away, unshaken, her boots whispering on the marble.

Behind her, Queen Seraphine whispered to the Empress:

> “She does not fear us.”

Almyra stared at the door Kaelaira had just passed through.

> “No,” she said. “She’s worse than fearless.

She’s planning.”

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That night, in her private chambers, Kaelaira wrote a single word in her black journal beside two names:

> Empress Almyra — watched.

Queen Seraphine — venomous.

Status: Cracking.

Then she closed the book.

And smiled.

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End of Chapter 19

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