The Queen Who Deserves To Be Tainted - Chapter 34.1
“Your Majesty, what do you mean…?”
Kasina looked clearly flustered but stubbornly maintained her facade. She even had the audacity to ask, feigning innocence.
“Was there a problem with the speech?”
“….”
Elfreda remained silent for a moment as she stared at Kasina. The piercing, radiant gaze felt like it could see through her, causing Kasina to flinch.
However, as she continued to act as if she didn’t understand, Elfreda finally sighed and spoke.
“Lady Reddington, do you know how to speak ancient Machi?”
Kasina shook her head.
There was no way a noblewoman who served a queen no one wanted to support would be proficient in Machi. So, Elfreda nodded and turned to Illene.
“You said you can speak ancient Machi, right?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Could you read this for me?”
As Elfreda handed the speech she had received from Kasina to Illene, she accepted it with a somewhat nervous expression.
“…Ha.”
A small chuckle soon followed. The atmosphere turned considerably colder. Illene exhaled deeply before speaking.
“I’m truly honor to give a speech at the Royal Library, where the color history of Machi has been preserved.”
The grammar was a mess.
Though Elfreda’s ladies-in-waiting were unaware of the details, they could easily sense something was wrong from Illene’s flushed face and Elfreda’s stiff expression. While Illene took a deep breath to regain her composure, Elfreda turned to Marchioness Magnum and opened her mouth.
“What are you doing?”
“Excuse me?”
“Interpret it, Marchioness.”
Elfreda said with a blank expression.
“It can’t just be the three of us who know that this situation is wrong.”
“…Your Majesty.”
“Hurry.”
Marchioness Magnum realized she was in a situation she couldn’t refuse. She also knew that simply interpreting it correctly to avoid immediate danger wouldn’t help in the long run.
In the end, she delivered the speech as it was, with all its grammatical errors. The ladies-in-waiting held their breath in shock. A moment of silence fell over the room as Elfreda paused to gather her thoughts before speaking again.
“Illene, would you continue reading?”
Illene, suppressing her anger, complied. While the overall content had no issues, the sentences conveying it were riddled with problems—nearly every other line contained errors. Elfreda and Illene exchanged exasperated looks as the speech continued. Each alteration was painstakingly crafted yet absurdly flawed.
“…I’ve finished reading.”
Elfreda felt a headache coming and glanced back at Kasina habitually. As their eyes met, Kasina flinched and began to tremble.
“What’s going on? What is this mess of a speech?”
“I, I don’t really know…”
Kasina averted her eyes from Elfreda, looking flustered as she tried to explain herself.
“I just delivered the new speech. I didn’t even see what was written inside.”
“Is that so? Then who managed this speech, Marchioness Magnum?”
“That would be…”
It was herself.
Marchioness Magnum let out a short sigh before responding.
“I don’t know, Your Majesty.”
Feeling infuriated by her cowardly excuse, Elfreda asked.
“Then, who changed the speech to this nonsense?”
“I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t the only one looking after the speech.”
Marchioness Magnum calmly insisted on her innocence.
“I simply received it and placed it in the drawer before handing it to Lady Kasina. I didn’t think to check the content line by line… That was my oversight. I should have checked.”
“….”
“But I didn’t swap the speech.”
“That might be true. The speech isn’t classified, and anyone at the Solar Palace could have tampered with it if they wanted to.”
Elfreda glanced around at the ladies-in-waiting gathered in the room and asked.
“So if Marchioness Magnum is uninvolved in this, that means one of the ladies-in-waiting here is the culprit.”
“We would never do such a thing, Your Majesty!”
“Who would dare pull off such a brazen act?”
“Exactly. Who would have the audacity to play such a trick?”
Elfreda let out a hollow laugh as she got up from her seat.
“It seems best to inform His Majesty the King about this and clarify the situation to avoid any misunderstandings.”
“Your Majesty, I don’t think you should do that.”
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