The Monster Princess

Chapter 8

“I’d like to rest for a moment. You can go chat with the other ladies,” I told Chloe.

After sending her away, I alleviated my frustration by sipping some flower tea. I looked toward the table that Judith had been standing at, which was now vacant. An image of her hesitant face as she fidgeted with her fingers flashed in my mind.

I tapped my arm with my fan, thinking, and then summoned a nearby maid.

“Are there any more of those cookies? Pack them up and deliver them to the Fourth Princess’s Palace.”

The maid looked surprised at the unexpected order. But as she was a properly trained and obedient imperial palace maid, she immediately began to carry out her duty.

It’s not like I suddenly felt sorry for Judith after seeing her desperately gaze at the cookies only to be treated like a bug and have her hand embarrassingly slapped away. I had my own intentions for wanting to show her a little kindness, and they were nothing but impure.

Keep your enemies close, as they say. I snorted as I waved away an errant butterfly with my fan. At precisely that moment, I recalled a significant incident from the book that had slipped my mind.

“Oh, no!” I quickly cast a transport spell.

“Bella? Are you going somewhere?!” Chloe called out, but I didn’t have enough time to respond before I was whisked away.

I was teleported to the Magic Garden, where Judith was likely to be fighting for her life against a gigantic plant.

* * *

“Aieee!”

Just as I expected, Judith’s cries filled the Magic Garden near the Third Princess’s Palace.

According to the book, she was entranced by a sweet scent coming from this garden on her way to meet Third Princess Liliana and experienced what I could only describe as a brush with death. The book said nothing about Chloe’s tea party, so I had no idea it was going to happen today!

I rushed into the garden and found Judith wrapped in the stem of a humongous magical plant and being helplessly dragged around the garden. The plant’s large scarlet flower, covered in purple spots, was bearing down on the girl. Its petals were spread wide and it was dripping digestive acid as if it were salivating.

“Judith!”

“Your Highness!” she cried. Her eyes were filled with tears of horror.

Using my mana, I immediately sliced through the tendril coiled around her. The plant roared, its petals moving wildly as if it were in pain from having a limb chopped off.

“Are you all right?” I shouted.

I hurriedly got Judith away from the magical plant. She slumped on the ground and trembled, large tears dripping from her eyes. With all that drooping dark hair, she looked like a black-furred bunny that had just been saved from drowning.

“Th-thank you so much, Your Highness. I-I was so s-scared...” She flung herself into my arms and expressed her gratitude, sobbing the whole time.

The sudden contact made me nearly push her away out of reflex. My hand did twitch slightly, but I controlled myself.

“There are magical plants here. Weren’t you aware that you shouldn’t come within a specific distance of this garden?”

“I-I knew... But it smelled so nice...”

“It’s dangerous for a girl like you who has no resistance to magical plants. Everybody learns that when...” I trailed off.

I was about to criticize her lack of caution, but I recalled something. The members of the imperial household routinely spent time in the Magic Garden from a young age to develop resistance to magical plants. But from what I knew, Judith never received such training. She was always neglected in the palace.

She began to wail, and I started to feel a spot of wetness on my dress. Is it tears? It better be... If it’s something else, I won’t forgive her. I thought again about pushing her away, but luckily, she let go first.

“Anyhow, be more careful next time. It’s best not to come near this garden at all,” I told her.

Once my consoling finally managed to calm her down, I sent her away. I breathed a sigh of relief. “Good thing my Nependeria berries are unharmed.”

Aside from developing magic formulas, I also enjoyed researching potions. The Nependeria berries were an ingredient that I needed for my current research. I was afraid I might have damaged the berries while slashing through the Nependeria plant’s stem earlier, but thankfully they appeared intact. I could feel my ego bloating as I marveled at my immaculate control of mana even in such a high-pressure situation.

Just then, I heard the sweet voice of a boy. “Oh? I came to see what all the screaming was about, and look who it is. Was it you, Arbella? Wait... No. That wasn’t the scream of my beautiful sister.”

The boy’s robe fluttered in the air as he floated down from above. He was a flashy and handsome young man with black hair down to his collarbone and blue eyes resembling those of a certain simpleton. When our eyes met, he flashed a smile like a mischievous fox.

This was Ramiel, Katarina’s son and Chloe’s older brother. He was the first prince and the same age as me.

—“Help? Why would I help half-blood scum like you?”

A frown spread across my whole face as I recalled what I had read about this incident in the dream. The one who was supposed to rescue Judith was Ramiel, not me.

—“Hmm, try to convince me then. If you can give me a good enough reason why I should help you, then I will consider it.”

In the book, these were lines he spouted while Judith was still clearly in danger. After that, he burned all the magical plants in the garden as if to show how merciful he was for saving her.

“You’re a horrible character, you ass,” I muttered.

“Huh? What’s gotten into you, Bella?” My sudden cursing seemed to confuse him.

Just like in the book, it was sometimes difficult to know what he was thinking or scheming. His mother, Katarina, had the ambition to make him the crown prince and was always openly hostile toward me. But Ramiel himself acted like he had no interest in being next in line for the throne. He had a carefree and frivolous personality and even treated me quite warmly.

I scanned him from head to toe. “If you so much as lay a finger on my Nependeria berries, you are a dead man,” I warned him.

“These? Oh, so you’re dabbling with the berries of... this plant?” He glanced at the Nependeria plant, which kept opening and closing its petals, then shuddered. “Blech. Disgusting. Whenever I look at it, I want to set it ablaze. You could pay me to take care of it and I still wouldn’t. It’s all yours, Bella. The aesthetically pleasing magical plants suit me much better.”

I had almost forgotten his severe case of narcissism.

“Wait a minute,” he continued. “These are carnivorous plants, aren’t they? Were you feeding them, Bella? Is that person who screamed inside the plant’s belly?”

He acted friendly by putting his arm on my shoulder, which I did not appreciate. I immediately smacked his arm away.

“Quit babbling. Just mind your own business and try to be a better person,” I snapped.

“What? What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. Be a better person, like me.”

He gawked at me in disbelief, but I was being sincere. In Princess Judith’s Dazzling World, he was another one of Judith’s bullies. Eventually, he was punished by the male hero who would go on to be one of Judith’s suitors. If I hadn’t come to her rescue, it was clear as day that Ramiel would have just continued to be awful to her.

He’s already developed such nasty traits at such a young age. Who knows how much worse he’ll get when he’s older? How hopeless.

He completely ignored the fact that his big sister was genuinely offering him words of wisdom. Instead, he kept giggling like a fool and rubbing his temples.

“Arbella, as your big brother, I’m quite fond of you. But please, saying you’re a good person is an insult to the actually good people out there.”

That’s the same line that Marina used when I talked about being naive. Have they spoken to one another? So annoying. “Shut up. You were born a whole seven months later than me. How does that possibly make you my big brother?”

“You want me to start calling you ‘big sis,’ then? Big sis Bella. How’s that?”

I couldn’t put up with him any longer, so I gave him a distasteful look and left the garden. Behind me, I could still hear him yelling, “Wait for me, big sis!” with a giggle. I ignored him.

* * *

That evening, something unexpected happened at the Fourth Princess’s Palace.

“What is that?” Judith asked.

“Princess Arbella sent it,” her maid answered, holding a light pink box out to her.

Confused, the princess blinked without taking it. After a few moments, the maid ran out of patience. She thrust the box into Judith’s arms and left. Holding the pink box, Judith proceeded to her room.

As always, it was quiet in her neglected palace. The maids working here had long since become lazy. Right now, they were nowhere to be seen and were likely out somewhere having fun. Nobody had ever come looking for Judith, so they had no idea someone had dropped off a parcel for her.

Judith put the box on the table and opened it. To her surprise, it was full of the adorable little cookies that she had seen earlier at the tea party. They looked sweet and delicious. Cookies like these would never be seen in the walls of her palace.

Her face, which had been ghostly pale her entire life, became rosy for the first time. She recalled the events of the party and the hero who had sent her these cookies.

“My, my. I saw another insect. It really is summer, after all.”

“I thought it might crawl onto the napkin, so I smacked it away for you.”

She was still for a while as she looked at the cookies before slowly reaching for one. This time, there was no one to get in her way. She was finally able to pick up a flower-shaped cookie. Instinctively afraid that someone might snatch it away, she popped it into her mouth.

The sugary sweet cookie melted as soon as she bit into it, delivering the most marvelous flavor she had ever experienced. The sweetness made her happy for the first time in a long while. She was a little sad that the sweet taste was gone so quickly.

“Are you all right?”

She pictured the princess who hurried over to help her in the garden. It was the first time that someone had rushed to her aid when she desperately needed help. Her heart was about to burst.

She wanted to devour the rest of the cookies that instant, but she resisted. Instead, she closed the box and hugged it tightly as she shuffled to her bed. She even looked around, unnecessarily wary.

I should save these and only eat them a little at a time. Just one is enough to make me happy.

She curled up under her blanket, still holding the box in her arms. She closed her eyes. With a hazy, dandelion-like smile, she drew the face of her half-sister—whose hair was the same as her own golden eyes—on the inside of her eyelids. Her thoughts about Princess Arbella and what happened earlier that day were even sweeter than the cookie.