Because Snow White’s illness lingered without improvement, Osborne I had no heart to handle state affairs. He would always drift off after listening to his ministers say just one or two sentences.
As someone who had taken the place of his parents and eldest brother at home, raising his younger siblings like a father, Kay could understand Osborne I’s worry for his daughter. As the king’s loyal knight, however, Kay could not stand by while his king neglected his duties. Moreover, Osborne I’s ministers, frustrated by the backlog of state affairs, cast pleading looks toward him as the near guard knight.
So Kay leaned in close and suggested softly to Osborne I, “Your Majesty, why not end things here for today? I heard from the maids in the castle that Snow White seemed energetic enough to get out of bed today… Would you not go visit the princess?”
“Oh…! Lord Osley, you make a good point! Let’s do that!”
Osborne I snapped back to attention and put on a serious expression. He loudly dismissed the ministers and nobles on the spot and hurried away as if urgent business had arisen.
Kay exchanged a wry smile with Matt, the other knight on duty that day, then led the knights after Osborne I.
Knights were not permitted to enter the queen’s or princess’s bedchambers. Kay and Matt, following behind Osborne I, stopped outside the princess’s bedchamber. As the doors to the princess’s bedchamber swung open and the two were about to turn away out of propriety, they saw Osborne I charge into Snow White’s bedchamber like a madman.
“Your Majesty!?”
A bright red apple fell to the ground with a dull thud. The tip of Osborne I’s sword thrust straight toward Snow White’s eyes. In that instant, Snow White’s eyes widened hugely. She did not even have time to feel fear, let alone react in any other way.
Osborne I had considered stopping. He had wanted to pull back his sword the moment he saw it slice through the ribbon on Snow White’s head, letting her raven-black hair cascade down. But having neglected his martial training for too long, he no longer had the instantaneous control to do so.
“Ah!!”
A cry of pain was followed by blood gushing wildly, staining Snow White’s bed red.
In that split second, Ye Tang lunged over Snow White and took Osborne I’s sword with her own arm. Her arm, along with her shoulder, was pierced straight through.
Given Marinfield’s physical condition, this was already the fastest reaction Ye Tang could manage now.
“Mo… ther…?”
After three seconds, or perhaps even longer in a daze, Snow White finally moved her eyes slightly. She looked toward Osborne I, who had drawn his sword, and Ye Tang, whose blood flowed over half her body.
“Ah… ah… AHHHHHHHH!!!!!”
The Little Princess let out an utterly miserable scream.
“Mother!! Mother!! Mother!!!”
Tears surged from Snow White’s eyes, tracing paths down her bloodless cheeks and rolling off her chin nonstop. She reached out to hug Ye Tang but heard Osborne I calling her.
“Snow White—”
“Get out!!”
“Get out! Get out! Get out!!”
Snow White grabbed a pillow from the bed. With her face full of tears and still coughing, the Little Princess hurled it straight at Osborne I’s face.
Osborne I could have dodged the harmless pillow attack with a mere tilt of his head. Yet he stood frozen and took it full on.
Her eyes, never tainted by deceit, brimmed with pure rage and hatred. For the first time in her life shouting at someone, Snow White roared at Osborne I, “Why did you hurt Mother!? You’re not my father at all! My real father would never do something like this! You fake monster! Father, where are you!? Come kill this impostor and protect Mother!! Mother—”
Osborne I’s sword clattered to the ground. His pair of aged hands, hanging in the air, twitched like they were spasming. He could not believe his Snow White would say such things to him.
Snow White resembled Freya so much, always speaking in gentle whispers. Even her smile was soft, graceful, and alluring. Who was this snarling, hideous thing yelling at him now? What was it? …He had only wanted to protect Snow White. Why had Snow White turned into “this thing”?
“Your Majesty! The queen and princess! Forgive our rudeness!”
What manners could Kay and Matt care about now? The two burst into Snow White’s bedchamber. Matt went to support Osborne I and lead him away, while Kay tore a silk bedsheet from the Little Princess’s bed, helped Ye Tang up, and used the sheet to bind her profusely bleeding puncture wound.
The power of the Millennium Rose only activated automatically when Ye Tang entered a new body. Marinfield’s body, weakened by chronic poisoning, was far from ideal. With such a severe wound, Ye Tang’s face instantly drained of color, and her consciousness began dissolving rapidly, like salt grains scattered in water.
“Your Highness! Your Highness!”
Kay lightly patted Ye Tang’s face, which only made her eyes flutter open briefly. Those eyes, like sealed sunlight, steadily lost their luster.
Seeing Ye Tang’s mouth move but no words come out, Kay immediately ordered, “Fetch all the physicians in the castle! Boil hot water and prepare bandages! Also prepare a clean bedchamber for the princess! Until that’s ready, take the princess to another room temporarily!”
“No! Cough cough I don’t want to leave Mother! I want to stay with Mother cough cough cough—”
Snow White desperately reached her arm toward Ye Tang, but Kay scolded her with a stern look. “Princess, if you do not want your mother to die, then please do not be willful right now. …Do you want the queen to worry about you in this state? If anything happens to the queen, how will you take responsibility for her death?”
Don’t speak to my Snow White like that… She’s not a willful brat. She’s just a child who finally got a taste of maternal love and fears losing it again.
How much psychological damage would your harsh words cause her?
Ye Tang thought hazily as she tried to defend Snow White. Diesel’s voice kept ringing in her ears.
“Don’t sleep! Don’t sleep! If you fall asleep, you’ll die!”
“Open your eyes! No matter how sleepy, keep them open! Don’t sleep! Don’t—”
“Don’t die—!!”
I know, I know. Even if you don’t shout so loud, I heard what you said.
I’m not planning to die right now.
I still have unfinished business in this world—
Before Ye Tang could convey her unfinished thoughts to Diesel, she passed out.
That day, all the servants and knights in the castle heard about the king wounding the queen. As the servants whispered about whether the king had gone mad, the news spread like wildfire into the ears of the nobles and ministers.
Many nobles and ministers expressed panic—Marinfield might be out of favor, but she was still the queen, one who had no merits but also no faults. How insane did the king have to be to disregard the queen’s status as a great nation’s princess, even risking war with that nation, just to kill his own queen?
“I heard His Majesty went mad…”
The maids gossiped in hushed tones, glancing around furtively before whispering, “…To be honest, I’ve long thought His Majesty was a bit crazy… The queen is so beautiful, yet he never visits her bedchamber or summons her to his for the night…”
“That’s nothing! I heard the king never even consummated the marriage with the queen! She’s been sleeping alone every night since she arrived!”
“You’ve all been working in the castle too short a time. Truth is, the queen wasn’t just left alone—she was practically under house arrest… Just the other day, she went to fetch Cockatrice eggs for the princess, and that was her first time leaving the castle since the wedding!”
Men gossiped no less than women. Many knights, after their shifts, rushed straight to the tavern to blab. “What normal man treats his wife like that? You haven’t seen the queen… If you did, you’d turn into mindless apes who can’t even speak properly!”
The speaking knight licked the fermented wine foam from his lips. He did not mind the bitterness of the cheap brew at all.
“Hahaha! So you’re saying you turn speechless the moment you see the queen!?”
An adventurer drinking in the tavern teased.
The knight answered him dead seriously, “Pretty much.”
Loud laughter erupted from the men in the tavern again.
Once the men laughed their fill, someone asked the knight, “So tell us, is the queen more beautiful, or Snow White? I hear the princess is the most beautiful in the kingdom! Bards sing her hair is blacker than ebony, her skin whiter than snow, her lips red as blood!”
“The princess is beautiful… b-but she’s only seven. Seven years old is a universe away from ‘woman.’”
The knight, his nose red from drink, scratched his head. “I just can’t figure it out. The king doesn’t even smile at the queen and spends all day hovering around the princess—what’s he doing? Who exactly is the woman meant to bear his children?”
The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took note.
He, who had seen how Osborne I interacted with Snow White, had no idea his casual words would soon spread far and wide. Nobles and commoners alike, every household heard the same gossip.
—Osborne I harbored disgusting, taboo feelings for his own birth daughter. He remarried a queen only to cover up his perverted true heart. That was why he kept his queen confined in the castle and always suspected her of targeting his beloved daughter.
When the princess fell ill and lingered, the queen tended to her, peeling an apple for the princess to eat. Osborne I saw only the knife in the queen’s hand and assumed she meant to kill Snow White, so he drew his sword on his own queen…
“Mad king…”
“The king has gone mad!”
“Is it okay for Castellion if such a man remains our king?”
“The queen is Saint Ruby’s princess! If Saint Ruby attacks—”
“Oh god, Castellion is doomed…”
“The queen is too pitiful…”
“Snow White is pitiful too.”
“The mad king is a scourge! Isn’t there anyone who can get rid of this scourge!?”
Turbulent undercurrents spread among the populace, while the castle became the place with the fewest rumors.
No noble, minister, knight, or servant dared mention Osborne I wounding Ye Tang in his presence, nor even Snow White’s name. Everyone tacitly pretended to have heard nothing, but anti-king voices among the people grew louder and more numerous.