The Inner Palace Tale of a Villainess Noble Girl Chapter 2

King of the Elgrand Kingdom, Juke Do Laile Elgrand.
The young sovereign of the age 22 with smoothly flowing silver hair and ice-blue eyes, who's known for being daring and resolute with his sword and overflowing with compassion, unforgiving towards any kind of injustice.

At the same time, he is also quite childish in certain ways.  He nearly drove his court crazy by refusing to take an official wife until he “found the woman he truly loved” and made them decide to create the inner palace.

For Diana, he was the number 1 person she did not want to get involved with even by a mistake――

Kneaded with the scented oil, Diana's hair was gleaming and glossy. Her whole body was carefully refined and even meticulously massaged. Once dressed in her snow white nightgown, the preparations would be complete.

“Oh my…how beautiful.”
“His Majesty's heart will definitely be moved.”
“Thank you…..you did a great job, everybody. All except Rita, please withdraw.”

Thinking that even the『The Rose Princess of Blazing Ice』must have been feeling nervous, the court ladies and the maids of the royal palace bowed once and left without deeply pursuing the matter. The moment only two were left in the room, Diana got rid of the smile she had plastered on as a bravado and clung to Rita.

“What should we do, Rita…..what would be good to do? 『Daughter of the Earl Crestor』should have a bad reputation so why did something like this happen on the first day? Does His Majesty unexpectedly like to snack early?”
“Please calm down, Diansama. Most likely the fraction that was forcefully pushing for you to enter the Inner Palace put some kind of pressure on him.”
“Honestly, those people only keep doing unnecessary things….!”

Looking from the side, 『Lady Crestor』seemed to have used her father's influence to imposingly march into the Inner Palace and successfully settled as the queen candidate, but in reality, unable to go against the currents, she came unwillingly. She never wished for the king's affection ever since the start.
In the first place, Crestor family has been endorsing the marriage out of love for generations. The current head of the family and his wife, Elizabeth are no exceptions and their relationship is extremely excellent. Diana who grew up seeing such parents at close, would never desire marriage that would ignore her feelings. To say nothing of the『one night play with fire​』that seemed to be natural for the nobles. She firmly believed that only the connection with the person one truly loved had the meaning and possessed the sense of virtue that was so rare in this day and age. There was no way such Diana could fulfill the most important duty that was given to the consorts of the Inner Palace.

『Sharing a bed with the King and giving birth to the heir』―― that was the reason of existence of the concubines. The girls were gathered only for that reason and were kept in the cage by the name of the Inner Palace. At that place neither the girls not even the King himself had any will.

『Even if it is His Majesty the King, I have no intentions of sharing bedroom with anybody other than the man I love』

When entering the Inner Palace became unavoidable, Diana declared so before her family. Embarking on the road to the inhumane place called the Inner Palace, what Diana truly donned was not a gorgeous dress, but her pride as a human. Wrapped in the noblest armor that was useless in the Inner Palace, but would nevertheless protect『Diana Crestor』, she arrived with her heart full of determination.

However, the reality was different.
As if to mock her.

Rita reflected on the world's uncertainty. She did not know what the surroundings had misunderstood, but her master didn't desire to flourish in the Inner Palace. It would be better if they left her alone without using any kind of pressure.
Although, there was no point in saying such things at this point. Rita switched her gears and decided to encourage her mistress.

“Diansama, please be strong. According to the prior investigation, it is unthinkable that His Majesty would come to the Inner Palace out of his own accord. If you play your cards well, you can pass the night without having to share the bed.”
“I see, it would be okay if His Majesty just hated me, right?! As expected from you, Rita. I am confident at getting hated by the people with strong sense of justice, so leave it to me.”
“….That is a confidence in the wrong thing though.”

It seemed like due to her chaotic state of mind, Diana had been caught up in her one-sided thoughts. Despite retorting, sadly enough the source of the confidence couldn't be denied so Rita was troubled at how to follow it up. She felt resentful for even for a second thinking that depending on the Crestor family's blood could be the best breakthrough from this situation.

Right when Diana safely finished putting together the outlines of the『Plan to Get Hated by His Majesty』thanks to Rita failing to correct her, the other side of the door became noisy. “Oh”, the two exchanged glances and then nodded.

“Diansama, I will be praying for your fortune.”
“Yes, I have already put together a plan. Now I only have to execute it.”
“….Please do not do anything too outrageous.”

She gave a warning just in case to her master, which took one-sided actions when in state of disorder. She did think that she would be fine when it come to the real deal though.

She confirmed Diana, which was kneeling next to the bed, and went to stand by the door. Before long, a voice resounded from the other side.

“His Majesty has arrived.”
“Rita, open the door.”
“Yes, princess.”

She opened the door from inside. The one standing beyond the door was a young man with the same appearance as defined in the prior investigation.  The young man with reddish brown, standing behind this man, looked at Rita and opened his mouth.

“You are…?”
“Yes, I am Rita, Diansama's personal maid.”
“Is that so. Tonight His Majesty will spend the night here. Please withdraw with us.”
“As you will.”

The man with the silver hair passed before Rita who gave a deep bow. While seeing him off and making sure that her inner worries would not show up on her face, Rita left the『Period of the Vermilion Rose』behind.

On the other hand.

Diana, which was left in the room, was naturally waiting for His Majesty to take action. Although she was in the middle of executing her『Plan to Get Hated』, this was a different matter and if she acted without matters, she would bring shame to her parents.

“….It was a quite grand entry. Do you already think of yourself as the Queen?”

The first thing Diana, who was following the manners and kept her face down, heard was a line that couldn't be called favorable even as a flattery.  Needless to closely examine the contents, Diana replied.

“I do not understand what you mean. Was it that grand?”
“How much time has already passed since the notice was issued in the spring? It's a popular topic that Lady Crestor spent time collecting her trousseau​ and entered the Inner Palace with the flourish of trumpets.”
“…So there were such rumors.”

As usual, Crestor family was judged as going overboard with everything they did. In reality, because there wasn't enough time since she had been looking for ways to avoid entering the Inner Palace till the last minute, she had made haste preparations and only brought the minimum “trousseau” with her.

“―― You can stand, Diana Crestor.”

From the opening line till now, the other person's voice was cold. Diana, who smartly perceived that even without the need of the『Plan to Get Hated』she was already hated, stood up while dancing on the inside.

“Pushed by your father's followers, I have put you in this『Period of the Vermilion Rose』”
“…I am aware.”

To be exact, those were『the people who had misunderstood that they were following her father』though. They were definitely not the faction that was intentionally created by Dualis.

“――But, do not misunderstand.”

What came flying were the words sharp as the arrow and cold as the ice. Sensing something even akin to the hatred in『it』, Diana unknowingly raised her face. ―― And then.

“You are merely a single concubine, and even if the world were to end, I will never love you.”

Just like she imagined, she met face-to-face with the ice-blue eyes that were full of anger and hatred.

The one in front of her was most likely the young King of the Elgrand Kingdom, Juke Do Laile Elgrand. He had silver hair and ice-blue eyes and was staring fixedly at Diana while oozing disgust from his whole body.

If she's being hated since the start, it's totally fine. Diana was unable to hide her happiness and smiled.

“….Please do as you will. His Majesty's heart belongs to His Majesty. Who you should love is unmistakably​ not something that surroundings should decide.”
“――Humph, how wise. I see that at least your skills to lead the men by their nose are the first rate.”

Ehhhhhh….how did he jump to such conclusion with that line…..
Being hated would be the same as everything working out the way she desired, but even if she understood it, getting hated because her words were interpreted differently was somehow lonely. That's why she was driven by the urge to explain for about an hour that her words didn't have any ulterior meaning.

―― Anyway.

(His Majesty's complexion looks very bad.)

He must have been very exhausted. It was said in the report that he attended to the government affairs​ without taking enough sleep, but looking closely, she understood that it was neither a lie nor exaggeration.

Frankly speaking, it was the bad complexion to the level that it would be better to sleep if he had enough time to come to the Inner Palace. He must be pushing himself and rushing because he's young, but there is no guarantee that he won't die of overworking just because he's young either.

(…I wonder if I should just drop him forcefully. That would be the best, wouldn't it?)

As the daughter of the noble that served the Kingdom, protecting the King's health was the top priority. No matter if she was hated or not, as long he stayed the King, she would be troubled if he wasn't in the top shape.

“….Your Majesty, I will be drinking herb tea before retiring. How about joining me?”
“How foolish. You think that I would drink the tea you made?”
“I thought that you would say so.”

Don't drink if you don't want to drink. There are plenty of ways to drop bone-weary people.

She pulled the cart next to Juke ―― the King that was left standing while fully alert―― and prepared several herbs and a pot, along with hot water. When she poured hot water from a high position into the pot with the herbs, the aroma of herbs rose along with the steam.

“T-this is…?”
“I already mentioned that it was a relaxing tea for retiring to bed. The aroma is also good, right?”
“Y-yeah…”

It seemed to have started working while she was talking. Diana once again lightly fanned the steam and made him, whose feet had started faltering, clad in it.

“What…is….this….”
“Please go ahead and use the bed over there, Your Majesty…You are tired, so you might take a good rest.”

As if led by Diana's voice, Juke walked unsteadily and fell down on the bed. Immediately his steady breathing was heard and she easily understood that he had fallen asleep in a second.

(Good grief, how troublesome.)

The herbs that Diana used have a sleep-inducing effect. If used on ordinary humans, it will only invite some mild sleepiness, but for people who have been extremely exhausted, just the aroma is enough to induce a strong sleeping effect.

While putting the bedding on the sleeping King, Diana thought about him.

His sense of justice seemed to be strong. He was also motivated to work.
But on the other hand, he perceived things way too straightforwardly.  The King took the rumors about the Crestor family at a face value and didn't even doubt whether it was『true』or not. Despite only having a the single viewpoint, he decided that had seen through everything.

Isn't it a bit…precarious​? that was Diana's impression towards the King. If he doesn't mature a little more and acquire a versatile field of vision, along with the thoughtfulness to always explore the『truth』, he might become an easy target for the nobles who excel at appearing good on surface.

For now, let's consult Father and Elder Brother.
Arriving at a conventional conclusion, Diana's body sunk into the sofa.

___
Notes:
I'm not sure if this would still count as a teaser because the first chapter has already been done by somebody else, but considering that the novel hasn't been updated in almost an year, think of this release as a reminder of its existence.

The king's name is ューク・ド・レイル・エルグランド
レイル can be Rale or Rail for all I know but quick googling gave me Laile as one of the options so I decided to go with that.

His hair's さらさらとなびく

華やぐ to be brilliant
突き抜けた  one-sided?
専らの評判) popular talk, rumour? I think?
steady breathing is actually 寝息 that's basically “breathing of a sleeping person​”
The name of the place where Diana lives is called 『紅薔薇の間』 and 『Period of the Vermilion Rose』sounds too weird to be a name of a place but since I couldn't think of anything better, I just left what the previous translator used. Hmu if you have anything better than this.

Tell me about any kind of mistranslations, typos or weird grammar so I could fix it afap
especially keep an eye on mistranslations pls

Chapter end