The Queen Who Deserves To Be Tainted - Chapter 33.1

Ejnar casually pulled his hand away from Elfreda. The bleeding had stopped, but he directly tied her handkerchief around his finger.

In the meantime, the new speech arrived.

“I’m truly pleased that the history of countless ancestors who settled in this land can fully return and rest here today.”

Ejnar began his speech in fluent ancient Machi.

Elfreda watched him with a troubled expression. If it hadn’t been for the earlier incident, she would have looked at him with admiration and respect.

However…

Feeling a headache coming on, Elfreda calmly tried to steady her racing heart. As she became convinced that he had intentionally cut his finger on the paper, a rush of emotions surged through her, overwhelming her.

In the end, she couldn’t fully concentrate as Ejnar’s speech concluded.

It was a perfect speech, delivered flawlessly in ancient Machi.

Amid the thunderous applause, Ejnar stepped aside, and Elfreda took his place at the podium. The applause gradually faded.

She tried to push aside the emotions that had gripped her moments ago, focusing on the scene before her. With countless eyes fixed on her, it wasn’t difficult to shift her focus.

Let’s see how well she can do. Just make one little mistake and see what happens. The gazes were anything but kind.

Even though she was accustomed to attention, adapting to it was another matter entirely. Elfreda slightly wet her dry lips from nervousness. Then, one of the ladies-in-waiting from the Solar Palace approached her with the speech.

“….”

Elfreda stared at it for a few seconds before slowly closing her eyes. With her chin raised in a noble and graceful posture, she looked down at the people before her.

Her full, red lips began to part.

“It is a great honor to give a speech at the Royal Library, where the diverse history of Machi will be preserved for generations to come.”

It was a perfect opening line. Everyone had expressions of approval. Because of this, Marchioness Magnum’s expression hardened.

This wasn’t the scene she had anticipated.

“Though I have not been a Machi person for long, and my knowledge of this vast history is still limited, I’m well aware of how brilliant the culture that has been built since ancient times on the land of Machi truly is.”

Even now, a flawless speech was being delivered with Elfreda’s elegant pronunciation. Marchioness Magnum finally realized that something was amiss.

‘…Why is she reciting a perfectly fine speech?’

The speech Elfreda held in her hands was certainly not the one she had practiced.

Marchioness Magnum had subtly altered the original, changing the grammar just enough to go unnoticed by most. For instance, she had swapped perfectly fine words with similar-sounding ones, misused tenses, or omitted letters from words, completely changing their meanings.

It wasn’t as though Elfreda had been made to deliver a speech that praised Makaeri while denigrating Machi. This was still within acceptable limits. The dignity of the royal family wouldn’t be harmed, but the Queen’s inadequate foreign language skills could be subtly exposed.

That woman must have wanted to gain at least some recognition from the Machi people by delivering a flawless speech. But that was a sight Marchioness Magnum could never allow.

Yet…

‘What on earth is going on?!’

Had the speech somehow been swapped for a coherent one? But she had personally handed over the speech with terrible grammar to the lady-in-waiting, and she had clearly seen it make its way to Elfreda.

Marchioness Magnum could only watch in confusion, unable to take any action, as Elfreda successfully finished her speech.

“…I hope the history and culture of Machi that will bloom in this land will flourish even more. Thank you.”

Finally, the speech concluded, and for a moment, the hall fell silent. Everyone stared at Elfreda with dazed expressions.

It was understandable. Considering she had only been learning ancient Machi for a few months, her speech was exceptionally impressive. While rumors had circulated that she was proficient in ancient Machi, most believed those claims to be malicious fabrications. Yet, the truth had just been revealed.