“Open the castle gates! Her Highness the Queen has returned!”
Ye Tang dismounted at the castle gate and handed her horse to a knight before striding forward. She instructed Vincent behind her, “Take the game to the kitchen and watch the cooks process it properly. If necessary, give them pointers on how to butcher the game correctly and store the meat. I never want to smell the stench of spoiled food again.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The smiling Vincent placed his right hand over his chest and bowed slightly before standing aside to watch the entourage escorting Ye Tang. Only after she walked away without looking back did he head toward the kitchen.
“Annie, go guide Vincent. Incidentally, if any cook objects to Vincent’s handling, you have my permission to dismiss them on the spot.”
“Dis-dismiss them?”
Suddenly called out, Annie’s heart jolted. But she quickly reassured herself: The Queen couldn’t possibly know she had taken bribes from the cooks. She was just there to keep an eye on things for them. If the Queen tried anything, she would tip them off immediately…
“Dismissal is better than being hanged by His Majesty, isn’t it?”
As she spoke, Ye Tang removed her leather gloves stained with scorpion juice and handed them to another maid.
Annie relaxed. She figured Ye Tang asking her to oversee the cooks was just a coincidence. She promptly replied, “You’re right, Your Highness the Queen!” and jogged to catch up with Vincent.
“Amber, I want to bathe. Go prepare the hot bathwater.”
“Yes! Your Highness!”
“Leni, prepare the clothes for me to wear after bathing. By the way, I want to dress vibrantly today.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
With Ye Tang’s orders, the maids following her dwindled one by one. As the castle’s inner doors opened before her and she stepped into the hall, Ye Tang immediately spotted Osborne I standing at the top of the stairs, his face full of anger.
Even on the way back, Osborne I had received word that Ye Tang was bringing her former close guard knight captain—now hunter Vincent Hunter—back to the castle.
Osborne I did not love his step-queen, so he could not possibly be jealous or angry over her bringing back a hunter. His rage stemmed from a single reason—
“Oh dear, Your Majesty, were you waiting for my return?”
The moment Ye Tang saw Osborne I’s old face, she knew trouble had arrived. But she smiled innocently on the surface and pulled back the hood covering her head.
“—Snow White has fallen ill in bed, yet you only returned from the forest at nightfall! Do you not feel ashamed of yourself!?”
The words made no logical sense.
Ye Tang had not known Snow White was ill when she left the castle, nor had anyone informed her during her time in the forest. Moreover, it was Osborne I himself who had kept Ye Tang away from Snow White. For him to now blame her for going out while Snow White was sick, failing to stay by her daughter’s side as a mother—what else was this but displaced anger?
As a knight sworn to his king, Kay could not criticize his sovereign, but knightly honor also prevented him from watching the Queen be unfairly scolded. “Your Majesty, there must have been a mistake in relaying the message. Her Highness the Queen did not receive word of the Princess’s illness. Please—”
“Shut your mouth!!”
Osborne I waved his hand grandly, his eyes bloodshot. “A mere knight dares to contradict your king!? Kay, I see you are—”
“Your Majesty, I feel no shame.”
Before Osborne I could impulsively punish the innocent knight, Ye Tang stepped forward first.
She curtsied gracefully, holding her skirt. “I went to the forest to help the Princess recover sooner.”
In that instant, Ye Tang had figured out why Osborne I was so furious—one of the knights who accompanied her to the forest must have received a message from the castle about Snow White’s illness.
Yet that knight had concealed it, so Ye Tang returned late, and now Osborne I was here to vent his fury.
Ye Tang had no intention of pursuing the matter now. The reason was simple: Compared to an unfavored Queen with no real power, the knights favored their own. Investigating who withheld the message would yield nothing, even if some knights suspected. Exposing the culprit could lead to execution, and the informer would become a “traitor” in everyone’s eyes for betraying their own.
Forcing infighting among knights was like holding a sword to her own neck. So Ye Tang did not argue that she had received no news of Snow White’s illness. Her late return was undeniable, and Osborne I, in impotent rage, was determined to vent his anxiety over his daughter’s illness on a target.
“The Princess is frail, so I fetched some Cockatrice eggs for her. Just add a little water and salt, steam them in a pot for ten minutes, and they form a smooth egg custard. Compared to rough, tasteless porridge, egg custard should be easier to swallow and taste better.”
Most importantly, porridge was basically water with a bit of carbohydrates. How much nutrition could that provide?
Why did women in ancient times often succumb to a mere cold, one illness away from death, while modern women shrugged off colds and fevers without panic?
Simple: Sick women back then could only drink thin gruel. Wealthy households might add chicken or fish soup, shreds of meat, fish slices, and vegetables. Poorer families offered just rice water, starving the patient as much as the disease.
Today, sick women got stewed chicken or fish at home, or ordered takeout. Electrolytes, calories, fats, proteins, amino acids—all supplemented quickly. Immunity naturally soared.
Snow White’s fragile, ethereal beauty was pathological. Normal children did not have skin as white as snow. Marinfield had even bought expensive “pearls” from merchants for whitening, grinding one every so often to smear over her body.
Those “pearls” were lead powder mixed with mercury—both deadly poisons. Fortunately or unfortunately, this world’s purification techniques for mercury and lead were poor, so Marinfield had not died immediately.
Even so, without Diesel’s words causing a mental breakdown and sudden death, Marinfield would not live long.
Despite all that torment, Marinfield’s skin still was not as white as Snow White’s. It showed just how bloodless Snow White truly was.
Then there were Snow White’s reed-thin waist, arms, and legs that seemed ready to snap; her birdlike appetite; her preference for overly sweet fruits and distaste for fatty meat after a bite or two…
Snow White’s body was likely at its limit.
Even without this illness, Ye Tang had planned to have Snow White eat egg custard for protein.
Even setting aside Snow White being a good child who should not die so young, Marinfield’s brothers fostering her jealousy toward Snow White was not just to kill Marinfield—otherwise, why not have Diesel hypnotize her into suicide? They wanted mutual destruction between Marinfield and Snow White. Ye Tang would not let them succeed.
“Your Majesty, the Cockatrice eggs have not been sent to the kitchen yet. Would you like to cook the egg custard for the Princess yourself, or have someone test them first for poison and taste? I am filthy, so I shall not keep you company.”
With that, Ye Tang raised her hand, and a knight tremblingly approached, cradling the Cockatrice eggs.
The Cockatrice was a non-venomous magical beast, one head a chicken, the other a snake. Before becoming king, Osborne I had eaten plenty of magical beasts like ordinary knights. He knew Cockatrices and their eggs boosted stamina—prized by soldiers and knights.
But Cockatrices were ill-tempered and aggressive, hard to hunt. Why would Marinfield think to capture them?
…Could she truly have done it for Snow White?
No, impossible. Marinfield must have done it for herself. She was still bitter about last night’s steak and went to the forest craving something good. Those eggs were surely meant for her own consumption!
“Marinfield, you stand right there—”
Ye Tang, already on the stairs, paused. “Does Your Majesty have further instructions?”
“Don’t think a few Cockatrice eggs will make me forgive you!”
Ye Tang showed the smile one gave an idiot.
To her, the biggest obstacle to getting egg custard to Snow White was Osborne I’s wariness and suspicion. Now, he mistook her bringing the eggs as pleading for forgiveness. It saved her from further suspicion of ulterior motives.
Without a word, Ye Tang lifted her scorpion-juice-stained skirt hem and ascended.
Seeing Osborne I glaring unblinkingly at Ye Tang’s retreating back, Kay turned to Eric beside him. “Investigate who concealed the Princess’s illness.”
Eric nodded silently. Still boyish, he pursed his lips, unable to believe a knight would sabotage the Queen like this—what if she had not brought Cockatrice eggs? What if she could not convince the King she was not reveling despite knowing the Princess was ill?
Would the Queen “fall ill” and die in this gloomy, cold castle tomorrow?
“Kay—”
Only after Ye Tang’s figure vanished around the corner did Osborne I turn back.
“Did the Queen do anything unusual in the forest?”
“My King, what do you mean?”
Osborne I’s face twisted savagely. “Could it not be that she cursed my Snow White, making her fall ill!?”
“Well… The Queen never left our sight. We truly observed no unusual actions from her.”
Kay kept his head lowered. He increasingly sensed his king showing signs of madness.
Before meeting the Queen, seeing her inhuman beauty, he had half-believed the rumors: She was a witch using sorcery, hence her extraordinary looks.
But upon real contact, he found she cared little for her appearance.
She minded not the monster juices splattering her, nor mud on her cheeks, skirt, or shoes. When she drew her bow, no one saw a witch—every knight envisioned a warrior.
When he offered his handkerchief for her to tidy up, her golden eyes widened, and she teased, “Who knew you were more fastidious than I.”
“The Queen truly never left your sight? How did she relieve herself?”
As a knight, Kay hated answering such a privacy-invading question about a lady.
But as a knight, he had to answer his king.
“Your Majesty, the Queen relieved herself three times total. Never more than three minutes each. I doubt she could have done anything in that time. Besides… she stayed in our sight. Even from afar, her Red Cloak was clearly visible.”
He sized up Kay from head to toe, as if observing whether Kay had been enchanted by the stepqueen. Osborne I harbored no trust whatsoever in his own knights.
This made Kay’s hand at his side quietly clench into a fist.