Chapter 76
The Possessed Villainess Doesn’t Want a Divorce
“She’s the princess of the great nation?”
“That’s right? That’s what I heard. Please—just take a look at my invention!”
“Tuir! Wait. Let me show what I discovered first.”
The twins both had blue hair; Tuir’s hair was short, while Dinu’s was long and tied back.
Taylor let out a long, tired sigh. “Keep it short and quick. I need to rest too.”
At that, the short-haired Tuir sprang up, waving his hands wildly. “I’ve invented a flying carpet. With this, you can cross the desert quickly and return to the great nation.”
“Tuir! You’re insane.”
Dinu, who had swept his blue hair back, shoved Tuir aside and stepped forward toward the princess. “Your Highness, please see what I discovered first. This is a colorless, tasteless salt. If you add it to food, it won’t spoil for a long time.”
“I’ve heard both of you. Bring your items to me after tonight’s banquet and show them to me in person.”
Tuir and Dinu looked at each other in surprise, then answered Taylor emphatically, “Yes!”
When Taylor went fully into the tent, Monica followed and said, “I kept telling you to be careful in the desert.”
“I know. But—seeing someone who looks like me, I just couldn’t leave them be.”
“Someone who looks like Your Highness?”
“When I asked for a chance to succeed to the throne, surely all the nobles thought I was crazy. Right? So at least listen to what someone has to say.”
A heavier weight of guilt and regret settled in Monica’s chest. “…Still, you must be careful.”
“Yeah. But didn’t they say that mad inventors have green veins visible in their eyes?”
“Yes. That’s what I heard.”
“From what I saw, one of them definitely had green veins in his eye and the other didn’t. Monica, did you see it?”
“No. I was standing at the side so I couldn’t see.”
Monica rewound the memory in her head. Now that she thought about it, one twin had said he’d invented something, and the other said he’d discovered something. The thing the discoverer claimed—the colorless, tasteless salt that keeps food from spoiling—felt very familiar to her. Could it be some kind of preservative? She tilted her head, musing, when Taylor’s voice reached her again.
“Monica, tonight while everyone’s asleep, go to the duke’s tent. Make sure that by morning everyone knows you were there with the duke.”
“Are you sure that’s okay?”
“Of course. But leave Lucky behind.”
Taylor took Lucky from Monica’s arms, lay down on the soft bed prepared inside the tent, and Lucky cast a fleeting, wistful look at Monica.
“They really have grown close.”
“I think we have, but Lucky doesn’t seem to agree. Monica, come closer.”
Monica moved closer and Taylor whispered, “Tell him that tomorrow night I’ll be the one to find Liam instead of Monica.”
“…Okay.”
She answered softly so only Taylor could hear.
A lively evening banquet got underway in the desert. Carpets were spread over the sand, and wooden trays piled with grapes, meat, and wine were set out here and there. On one side, villagers sang and played djembes with their palms, making the atmosphere more festive. Even the knights loosened up for the night, sitting together to eat and drink while enjoying the beautiful sights of the desert and the oasis.
Monica, seated close to Liam, veiled her face and whispered in his ear. “Liam, I’m going to the tent tonight.”
“Is that the princess’s order?”
“Yes.”
“How heartless. You speak as if you wouldn’t look for me without the princess’s command.”
“Excuse me? Is this the time for jokes?”
“I know—I said it so you wouldn’t be too nervous—but I mean it. I really don’t think you’d come looking for me.”
“Liam.” Monica lightly pushed his hand away, indirectly telling him to stop teasing.
From a respectful distance the marquis watched Monica and Liam whispering like lovers. Taylor watched the marquis. For a moment their eyes awkwardly met in the air; Taylor smiled faintly and the marquis bowed and returned the greeting. A common sight. They didn’t notice they were silently sizing one another up.
As the banquet grew more spirited, the clan chief Stus rose and lifted his glass. “Grapes grown in the desert are very sweet. The wine is excellent. Please relax and rest.”
“Everyone will rest at this oasis for the next two days, today and tomorrow.”
With Marquis Andre’s final words, the knights’ cheers rang across the sands. They ate and drank for a long time, enjoying themselves—as if trading the desert’s unending heat and fatigue for sweet wine.
As the mood softened and people began returning to their tents one by one, the twins appeared before Taylor again. “Your Highness! We brought the carpet!”
“Tuir! Stop it. There’s no such thing as a flying carpet. Your Highness, don’t worry about the carpet—please look at mine. This is a colorless, tasteless salt.”
Liam, the marquis, and the captain of the marquis’s knights clustered close to Taylor, wary of Tuir and Dinu. “What should we do?” Liam asked, his hand on the sword at his waist.
“Leave them. Tuir and Dinu, was it? Explain the flying carpet first.”
As soon as she said that, Tuir stepped forward and spread the carpet wide on the sand. “This, I tell you, is a flying carpet. If I sing for a day, the next day you can ride it and travel across the desert.”
“What sort of song do you sing?”
“The song is called ‘Fly, Carpet.’ Shall I sing it for you, Your Highness?”
“No, that’s not necessary right now. Dinu—explain that salt.”
Dinu bowed slightly. There were no green veins in his eyes. “They say the desert used to be a sea.”
For a moment everyone treated Dinu as if he were crazier than Tuir and shouted at him to stop. Even the desert folk jeered—how could the dry, hot sand have been a seabed? But Taylor paid no attention and ordered Dinu to continue. “Go on.”
“Yes, Your Highness. The desert was once a sea, but the sand absorbed the water and formed the desert as it is now. So here and there you can still find remnants of when it was the sea—this colorless, tasteless salt is one of those remnants.”
Dinu presented a bottle of white powder to the princess. “My mother used this powder in cooking sometimes and kept food for a long time with it. I always wondered where she got it, but she never told me.”
“…Ahem. You said you found it in the desert just now?”
“Yes. That’s right. But she didn’t say exactly where she found it. Maybe she didn’t want people to call her crazy. After my mother died, I followed her footsteps and found a white salt field on a desert hill not far from the oasis.”
“So did you test the colorless, tasteless salt?”
“Well—desert people usually just roast meat on the spot, so they don’t know how to cook otherwise. But my mother wasn’t from the desert, so she often made soups. She put this powder into those dishes and stored them for a long time.”
After hearing the explanation, Taylor stood and said, “I’ve heard your explanation. Well done. You may go back.”
Other outsiders might have demanded to see it with their own eyes, but she simply thanked them for explaining. Taylor turned and headed toward her tent, followed by the marquis and Liam. Before she could get away, Tuir and Dinu called urgently, “Why don’t you ask us to prove it?”
“I’ll show you my carpet can fly,” Tuir cried, his voice laced with resentment at being ignored.
Taylor stopped in her tracks. If she left them, it seemed they would follow her to the tent and beg all night to be allowed to prove it at the entrance. She turned back and approached them. “Do you want to prove it?” she asked.
“Isn’t it only natural to let you see with your own eyes?” they demanded.
Suddenly green veins sprang up like cobwebs in the whites of Tuir’s eyes. Under the dark desert starlight, his gaze looked grotesque—like a monster’s eyes. Taylor spoke calmly.
“What would it do for me to see your things with my eyes? The people who need to verify them are the desert folk and the people of the great nation. You chose the wrong person to seek verification from.”
“Huh?”
“Think carefully about why you tried to show it to me. If you came to show the highest-ranking person in the envoy, isn’t it because you wanted to present it to the world?”
A brief silence fell. Tuir protested, “If someone of the highest rank helps, wouldn’t it be easier to put it out into the world!?”
“Well… even if I say I believe you, I would then have to present it to the people of the world and ask them to trust it.”
The princess turned back toward the tent. She couldn’t say everything, but she saw herself in the twins. No one had believed her; no one had helped. That was why she had run to the highest authority, the emperor. If His Majesty the Emperor helped, she had thought, it might be possible. Taylor had desperately argued that she had the qualities and abilities to inherit the throne and pleaded for a chance.
But her ability and qualification to inherit the throne should not be shown only to the emperor. She had to show it to everyone in the great nation. She had to prove her worth to the world.
