(EP-2.2) Flower Aira #2

002 – Evil Flower Aira #2

She was the insurance that kept Belmott from betraying us.

I took her hostage and made her a maid in the palace. Perhaps, once could say that this was a safety measure for Belmott, preventing him from having any ideas of rebellion.

All of the maids in the palace were in a similar situation to Clara. They each took up the role of monitoring one another.

It was nice to have them watch each other and point fingers.

“Come, Clara. Let's go now."

"Heung."

She was like a prisoner of war, but her spirit as a high-ranking noble was still strong. Her eyes were very sharp as she looked at me.

I led her to the room where the maids were staying.

━Fool, do you think it will taste good when you pour it like that?

━If you pour it, it will become soggy!

━Hey, hey! That guy is coming!

As soon as I appeared, the chatting maids were startled and immediately pretended to work.

They got paid for this…

I wanted to say something, but I was not that petty, so I simply handed them the tied up Clara and said.

“Here, this is Clara. She will be a maid from today onwards. Please educate her step by step, starting with what she shouldn't do.”

The response I got was cold.

There was pity in the maids' eyes when looking at Clara. As if they were saying, "So you've fallen too, huh." At the same time, there was also a sense of relief knowing that there was another in the same abyss (situation) as them.

“Miss Clara, the maids here are noble ladies, just like you. So don't fight and work together. Now, would you like to say hello to your new colleagues?”

Slurp. As soon as the gag on her mouth was released, Clara exclaimed. She had been waiting for this moment.

“Tae-oh, I won't ever forgive you. I will curse you to the end. You're part of Angmar's corruption. You vicious servant!”

Did you mean, "Thank you for saving me and my father's life?" I smiled brightly and gave her my thanks.

"You're welcome."

In the past, I would have been heartbroken being criticized like this. But now, I didn't even take it to heart. I guess I had gotten a little tougher.

However, this Clara was not an easy girl to deal with.

“Do you think your power will last forever? One day, you will have to bear your karma! Queen Aira's power will end soon! You know nothing!"

Pwae.

She spat on my face

I had been spat on three times this week alone. This happened so often that it didn't matter anymore, but…

I knew nothing?

Even with my patience, I was triggered by that remark.

After so long, I finally put my hands up.

Jjak.

“Kyaaa!”

I grabbed the fallen Clara by the collar and forced her to stand up.

“I know nothing? Do you have the right to say that to me? You aristocratic b*tches who lived their lives eating and wearing only good things?”

Who dared to make me shoulder the karma and fall into purgatory?

“St, stop, don’t hit me-”

Despite being the one provoking me, Clara was trembling as she touched her red and swollen cheek.

I had a lot to say, but I was busy with work and decided to stop here.

“What are you doing? Get to work!”

Let's simmer the anger that was boiling inside. More than that, it was a karma thing. I was very confident about the subject I had been taught.

In fact, I had a rough idea why this lady was shouting so loudly.

She must have something to believe in.

That belief was obvious.

Was it ‘their' turn to move?

Originally, Clara, who was hiding in the hideout, would have contacted ‘them' and an episode would occur.

I thought of a well-balanced party crouching somewhere and sharpening their claws.

Would those claws ever reach me?

No, I would never allow that to happen.

* * *

『A Statement On The Cost Of Maintenance And Repair Of The Fortress Walls And The Appearance Of The Frontier Nobles-.』

『Disciplinary Bill For Tax Evasion Of Marquis Lioness-.』

『Rogue Band ‘Black Robe' Trend Report-.』

『Wolf Spider Mass Strike. Low Silk Yield. Export Problem.』

『Horde of Rampant Michuri In The Eastern Plains. The Peasants' Cry. People's Economy Groaning.』

Sreak, Sreak.

I roughly processed all of the documents that were painful to look at. After signing the last paperwork, I smiled as I stretched myself out.

“I’m too used to this.”

It was amazing to think that I was sitting here in my office with this type of work.

Even if I wanted to get a white-collar job, who would have thought that I would end up doing something like this? It was also quite a high-ranking job at that.

The Court Gardener Tae-oh.

That was my current job title.

My rank in the Court was around 75th, but there was no one in the Kingdom who didn't know that I was the second most powerful person in power after the Queen.

I was aware.

About this man named Tae-oh.

In the novel, Tae-oh was a villain who only appeared in a few lines. He had no role other than being so annoying that I wished for him to die sooner.

In fact, his importance was almost negligible. But every time he appeared, the comment section would rage.

So, in the end, this guy's story ended with just the short sentence: "One day, Tae-oh was executed according to his karma."

I couldn't remember the exact words, but it was roughly something like that. His ending was handled so simply, that it was rather impressive?

After Tae-oh's death, Queen Aira began to lose her powers, and the Kingdom eventually collapsed.

Yes.

If the story continued, I might be executed.

However, it was unknown who, when, where, and how Tae-oh would die, because it wasn't described in detail.

‘One day, Tae-oh was executed according to his karma.'

My life depended on that insincere sentence that did not contain the timing or method…

Because of this, it was even highly probable that a stone thrown by an angry crowd could randomly fly through the window of the office right now and hit me to death.

In fact, there were quite a few instances where I almost died. Not long ago, I barely survived from being poisoned.

So, did the swelling in my poisoned face go away?

I stood up and looked at the long mirror in the corner of the office. When I removed the thick curtains hanging over it, my face was reflected on the dusty surface of the mirror.

No, could I even describe this as mine?

Light brown hair and blue eyes.

“After a year of seeing this face, I'm slowly getting used to it.”

The face felt like it was somewhere between a boy and a young man.

But, to be honest, it was closer to a boy. Though I was not sure about the age because Tae-oh was the ‘demon'{1} of the Kingdom.

Overall, he had a good definition and was quite handsome.

It was irritating to see such a good-looking boy, but when I remembered that it was me, I felt pretty good.

"Hmm."

However, there was one flaw, namely a long scar coming from the top of his right eyebrow to the right cheek.

It looked as if it was scratched by something sharp. This disproportionated scar was ruining the perfectly molded face, like a villain's scar.

He was also actually a villain.

This seemed to be the identity of the bad guy.

As I was recalling the story of this scar, someone knocked on the door of my office.

"Who is it?"

“Tae-oh, the Queen is looking for you, to ‘come and heat up the water.'"

It had finally come…

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{1} The word demon here comes from this 요승(妖僧) in the raws. 妖僧 in Chinese means demon monk and 요승 in Korean means evil spirit, therefore I simply used demon.