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AFTER being reincarnated as Mary and becoming a handmaid at the castle, I’d seen Tia countless times. She deliberately picked fights with King Grey to provoke him, shamelessly brought suitors into the castle, and hosted lavish tea parties with no concern for the cost.
Rosemary remembered Tia as a quiet handmaid, who only made mistakes and burst into tears when Prince Grey was nearby. Each time, the prince comforted her, and though Tia wept by his side, her eyes were devoid of emotion.
Even when Prince Grey broke off his engagement with Rosemary and formed a relationship with Tia, her eyes were still dead. This baffled Rosemary. Nevertheless, when she met with Tia prior to her execution and observed the other woman’s features, she realized something.
This woman doesn’t view other people as human.
And so, Rosemary issued her a warning.
“What you’ve done to others will someday befall you as well.”
Even after being reborn as Mary, I still believed that. At this moment, murky delight filled Tia’s eyes—a far cry from her once emotionless gaze. At last, she’d revealed her true nature.
Shortly before confronting Tia, the captain and I were hiding a short distance from the room, watching everything. Suddenly, a man darted out of the room.
“Bring the woman here!” he shouted at the soldiers on standby.
Most of the men on standby headed towards the room where I’d originally been taken. Seizing this opportunity, the captain knocked out the one man who’d remained as a lookout.
“I’m going to join Reynaldo before everyone comes back,” I said.
“Are you serious?” the captain asked.
“I couldn’t be more so. Please send up the smoke signal!”
With a sigh of resignation, the captain tied up the guard, left the room, and prepared the smoke signal. While watching him from the corner of my eye, I pushed a shelf in front of the room to block the entrance.
As the captain finished throwing up the smoke signal outside a window, I grinned at him. “Will you come with me, sir knight?” I asked, knowing he had no other choice.
“Please tell the high commander not to kill me,” he muttered with another deep sigh.
He bound my hands for show before we entered the room. This way, it would look like I’d been captured and brought here against my will. Once we were inside, a few guards looked in our direction. Reynaldo was curled up in the middle of the room, with Queen Tia standing in front of him.
As she stared directly at me, vague memories of my past life rose to mind. I stared back at her, recalling what Rosemary told the queen.
“What you’ve done to others will someday befall you as well.”
Tia simply smiled as she held my gaze, seeming none too concerned.
Eventually, I nodded wordlessly to the captain.
He drew his sword and slashed the few men around him. Shaken and helpless, the men fell without resistance. The captain took control of the area in the blink of an eye, despite having been outnumbered.
Meanwhile, I took off, heading towards Reynaldo. As I moved to undo his bindings, the man who’d been pinning him down lunged in my direction. For one split second, fear paralyzed me, but Reynaldo leapt gracefully to his feet, using his long legs to kick down my assailant.
“Mary!” Reynaldo cried.
“Here you go!” I shouted back.
I tossed Reynaldo his short sword, which I’d retrieved from the carriage. After easily cutting his bindings, he slew the man who attacked me. Finally, he turned the bloody sword on Tia, glanced in my direction, and let out a deep breath. Though wounds covered his face, he still smiled.
“You truly do one unexpected thing after another,” he said. “Thank you, Mary.”
I smiled back at him calmly.
The captain and I had formulated this plan earlier. While I entered the room as a decoy, he would look for an opportunity to strike down the guards. At the same time, I would run over to Reynaldo with his short sword. Earlier, we saw Reynaldo’s hands were bound while being brought to this room. If the bindings hadn’t been undone, I planned to use this sword to cut them.
“The most important part of this plan is speed,” the unit captain had drilled into me.
In the end, we succeeded. If Tia had recognized the captain, we would have been in danger, but that had been a needless worry. When Reynaldo saw us, he moved as if he’d known the plan all along.
Still, how did he react so well while injured? I wondered.
The captain nodded to Reynaldo. “I’m glad you’re safe, Your Grace.”
“You’re the captain of the first unit, aren’t you?” Reynaldo asked. “I need to ask Albert to provide you with a special reward. If you’re here, that means he’s close, correct?”
“Yes sir. I’ve raised a smoke signal, so his forces should be storming the fortress soon.”
“Sorry, but could you go call him for me?”
At first, the captain looked at me and Reynaldo worriedly, but eventually, he nodded and left the room. The ones left were me, Reynaldo, Tia, and the unconscious men.
“How was that, Queen Tia?” Reynaldo asked calmly, pressing his short sword to her neck. “Did you enjoy your game?”