Keep It Quiet, I'm Deducing

“Ahh, now I finally feel alive!”

Humming a little tune, I swung my arms with all my might.

Squeak, squeak. A cheerful scraping sound rang out from the frost-frozen windowpane, and everywhere my rag passed sparkled clear and spotless.

My muscles, which had been stiff and cramped from a week flat on my back in bed, stretched with a pleasant ache. Even that faint stimulation seemed to wash away the old, stale heaviness in my body.

Still, though.

‘There's no way the Grand Duke assigned me maid work out of consideration, worried I'd be bored.'

I tilted my head slightly as I scrubbed all the way into the corner of the window frame.

‘So he must dislike me, huh?'

The Emperor had forcibly dumped a mad princess of an enemy nation on him — clearly, I was meant to feel a generous helping of shame while doing a maid's chores.

I shrugged my shoulders.

‘But what can I say? Shame, schmame — doesn't bother me one bit.'

‘Honestly, thank you very much for this.'

To the Grand Duke's employees, a princess cheerfully scrubbing windows would look like a madwoman who'd lost her mind. To the guild rats keeping tabs on me, it would look like a crazy princess dedicated to playing her part.

Either way, it suited me just fine.

Squeak, squeak—

I scrubbed the smudges off the glass with even more gusto.

Now then, who could it be? The mole the guild must have planted — the one who slipped that medicine bottle into my room — who on earth was it?

“Your Highness. Please give me the rag now and come inside, okay?”

Celine called up at me from the foot of the ladder, fidgeting anxiously. I ignored her and pressed my face right up to the glass, scanning the interior.

‘Could it be the stable hand who glared at me when we brushed past each other in the corridor a few days ago?'

Or the gardener who'd flashed me a smile the moment our eyes met briefly outside my bedroom window in the garden?

“Your Highnesssss……”

Or maybe it was the head butler, who came to check on my condition every single day?

‘Yes — the butler's gaze was the sharpest of all.'

It was exactly the look of a born watchdog.

Squeak, squeak—

“Your Highness, I'm begging yooou. At least come down from the ladder, okay?”

Celine's voice was on the verge of tears.

“Now, now, Celine.”

I answered in a solemn voice without pausing my window-washing for even a second.

“Your big sister here is in the middle of some very important deduction.”

Celine's eyes went round.

“B-big sister……?!”

“Shh.”

I kept my hands moving briskly while sneaking glances at every corner of the ducal residence.

“Just stay quiet for a little while.”

“Your Highness…….”

After half-heartedly soothing the sulking Celine, I went back to polishing the window with a vengeance.

The biting winter wind made my fingertips sting, but compared to the days I'd spent clawing through frozen earth, this was barely an itch.

As the cold wind hit my face, the southern village suddenly crossed my mind.

‘Right. By now, the Crobein should be steeped to the brim with its poisonous essence.'

If only I hadn't been branded a witch, I'd have been up on that mountain digging Crobein right about now.

Crobein. A rare herb that could only be gathered for a single season in winter. It wasn't entirely without toxicity, but its hemostatic properties kept it classified among the medicinal herbs.

By sheer luck, it grew wild in a specific patch of the mountains behind Bilote Village, where I'd lived — and every year, from late autumn through the cruelest depths of winter, I'd harvested it without fail.

The azure sap from the Crobein bulb, combined with Velostin flower petals, made the most powerful coagulant in existence — an absolute necessity for someone like me, whose very blood was a lethal poison.

‘Haah… and that coagulant is still sitting in my bag, isn't it…….'

I pressed my forehead against the glass and swallowed a sigh.

“Spend a night with the Grand Duke, and I'll return your belongings.”

Damn it all.

I ground my molars together.

Night or no night, I hadn't laid eyes on the Grand Duke even once!

Truthfully, since the entire research journal was stored away in my head, losing it didn't matter much. But the coagulant was another story.

‘One careless scratch, and people could die.'

No matter how carefully I moved within the ducal residence, accidents always struck without warning, in places you'd never think to guard.

Heaven forbid I got wounded and started bleeding — anyone my blood touched would be harmed, and I might be branded a witch who kills with her blood and killed all over again.

‘Which is why I've been careful, in my own way.'

Even washing the outer windows of the residence, I'd double-check every little splinter on the wooden frames before wiping them down. I worked only where nothing sharp or pointed lurked, dressed in long, thick clothes and gloves to keep every inch of skin covered.

But all that vigilance meant fatigue crept up on me just that much sooner.

I draped the rag over the window frame and let my gaze drift lazily across the scenery around the ducal residence.

‘Come to think of it, this northern duchy is nothing but mountains, too.'

Jagged ranges buried in white snow, exhaling a gloomy, desolate air. One look was enough to tell this was blessed terrain, practically overflowing with monstrous poisons and rare herbs.

Who knew — Crobein might be hiding somewhere in those very mountains.

Dwelling on thoughts of fragrant, deadly greenery made my heart race, and a fierce primal instinct to climb stirred restlessly inside me.

That electric thrill of hacking through rock-hard frozen ground and unearthing jewel-like poison bulbs from beneath it!

And then, before I knew it—

“Ugh, I'm losing my mind, I want to dig in the dirt so bad.”

“……Pardon?!”

At that blunt honesty that had slipped out of me, Celine — still fretting below the ladder — flinched and took a step back.

The child's eyes were quaking as if an earthquake had struck.

“Oh. Did I just say out loud what I was thinking?”

“……Y-Your Highness.”

Celine's eyes brimmed over all over again.

“Y-you're doing it again.”

I gave a small snort of laughter and climbed down the ladder.

“Have I only been talking nonsense since yesterday, Celine? This is simply my everyday life.”

“You've watched me for a whole week now — surely you're used to it by now?” I added, and with a huwaaang!, Celine finally burst into tears.

“You scare me, Your Highness!”

Oh dear.

Our sweet Celine was apparently still far too pure and young to handle me.

Well, no matter. That, too, was exactly as I intended.

Back on the ground, I stroked Celine's hair and asked,

“Celine, where is the head butler right now?”

“Huh? He should be in his office on the first floor. Why do you ask?”

“I want to go see the duchy.”

“……Whaaat?!”

Now that the coagulant was on my mind, I'd taken a fancy to visiting the duchy's bustling market district.

Hostage or not, I was still nominally a princess, and a rather generous allowance had been paid out for the sake of my dignity.

‘I'll use that to stop by an herb shop and buy ingredients for the coagulant.'

Ordinary hemostatics couldn't stop the blood that flowed from my wounds. So I had no choice but to buy the ingredients and make it myself.

If luck was on my side and I could get my hands on some Crobein, even better.

‘Which means I need to get out of this residence…….'

And of course, the Grand Duke wouldn't be granting permission.

So while the Grand Duke was away, the person I needed to wring an outing permit from in this mansion was—

Without a moment's hesitation, I dashed down to the first floor and stormed straight into the head butler's office.

“I want to go sightseeing in the duchy!”

To my demand, Hendrick replied with bone-dry flatness.

“That will not be possible without His Grace's permission.”

Well, that was the answer I'd expected.

Not that I was the type to back down. I was the mad princess of this domain — the one lunatic entitled to spout crazy talk with her chin held high!

I smiled sweetly.

“Is that so? Then I shall go ask the Grand Duke for his blessing in person.”

“……Pardon?”

The butler looked up at me, readjusting his glasses. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I'll go myself. Which northern mountain range did you say he was at? I've been curious what magical beasts look like anyway, so this works out nicely. I'll dig around a bit on the way, too.”

“…….”

“And if that's not allowed either… well then, I suppose I'll just hang off the outer windows until the Grand Duke returns. Even for a hostage, a princess frozen to death clinging to the windows of his own residence would be quite the awkward look for His Grace, wouldn't it?”

“…….”

At my outrageous, shameless blackmail, Hendrick's brow furrowed deeply. Setting down the documents he'd been holding, he let out a long, long sigh.

“…If you are accompanied by an escort of knights, I shall permit it.”

At those words, I beamed.

“Thank you, Hendrick. Fortune's sure to smile on you.”

“…….”

With permission granted far more easily than I'd expected, I strolled out of the office grinning from ear to ear.

***

Before the butler could change his mind, I hurried through my preparations and slipped out of the ducal residence.

The one regret was…

“Let's be off, Your Highness. We shall escort you.”

“We will see you there safely.”

“…Right. Well. If you insist.”

Not one, but two grim-faced escort knights had been attached to me.

I was already suffocating in a thick cloak and a scarf muffled up over my entire face just to disguise my conspicuous looks — and now I was supposed to trail around with knights dangling off me like ornaments?

‘What kind of sightseeing is this? It's not like I'm a violent criminal being transported to prison.'

What was even the point of leaving Celine behind at this rate!

Sighing inwardly, I stepped down from the carriage and rolled my eyes over the sights of the duchy's market district.

The town was bigger and grander than I'd imagined.

I'd assumed the brutal climate would make it bleak and desolate, but instead it seethed with a vitality fierce enough to swallow the cutting wind whole.

The gruff haggling of mercenaries and fur-wrapped northerners tangled with the ringing of hammers from the smithies, churning from every direction.

Keeping one eye on the knights, I studied a quieter side street.

‘I think the herb shop sign I spotted from the carriage was down that alley…….'

The problem was, even if I found the herb shop, I couldn't very well bring the knights along.

No one in their right mind would let a mentally unwell princess purchase poisonous plants.

‘How do I shake them off……?'

Just as I was racking my brain for a way to ditch the knights—

As if the heavens had decided to lend me a hand, a commotion erupted at the edge of the market.

“KYAAAHH—!”

“Grab him! Pickpocket! Catch that man in the red vest!”

Right in front of the busiest shop in the whole district, a clamor of shouts burst out.

An apple cart toppled over, and from another cart shoved aside, sacks came tumbling down in a cascade.

People scattered in fright, screams breaking out here and there. It might as well have been a battlefield.

“Get that bastard!”

At that moment, the red-vested man being chased shouldered violently through the crowd — and came running straight at me.

“Move!”

The man drew his blade with a snarl.

The two knights guarding me reacted on instinct, stepping in front of me and drawing their swords in unison.

CLANG—!

Steel met steel with a piercing shriek, and in an instant the surroundings dissolved into chaos.

I realized at once.

‘Now!'

Every eye — the knights' included, and every onlooker gathered in the district — was fixed on that burning wreckage of a scene.

Seizing that brief window, I hauled my scarf up even higher to bury my face and bolted without a single glance back.

Putting my years of racing through mountains to use, I slid like a shadow into the narrow, dark alleyway. The first building my eyes landed on — and without hesitation, I swarmed up the tree beside it, to the height of its second floor.

Back when I gathered herbs, I'd often scrambled up trees like this to dodge the mountain beasts I crossed paths with now and then.

‘Thank goodness I changed into commoner's clothes before coming out.'

In a princess's cumbersome gown, forget climbing a tree — I'd have struggled just to hide in the alley.

Granted, even in commoner's clothes, I was wrapped head to toe in my cloak and gloved to the fingertips, which made the climb a bit of a chore.

‘But at least all this bundling means I won't get any scrapes.'

Perched at the top of the tree, I watched the knights from a distance. They'd only just realized I'd vanished, apparently, and were hunting for me.

“Not over here either!”

“Check the other alleys! Hurry!”

They searched the nearby lanes, then soon moved off toward the far side.

Hidden among branches shaded by the building's shadow, I watched them recede and snickered to myself.

‘It would never occur to them in a million years that a princess climbed a tree.'

Phew. Only then did I let out a breath.

That was when it happened. A gaze — from somewhere.

‘……Below!'

My animal instincts shrieked danger from beneath the tree.

I quickly ducked my head and looked down.

And my eyes locked dead-on with a pitch-black gaze staring up at me.

A man with a hood pulled low and a mask covering his face.

Nothing of him showed but those jet-black eyes. Uncannily still, that gaze looked up at me with a quiet that somehow made it more threatening.

In an instant, my fingertips tightened around the branch.

Those eyes. That chill in the air.

I swallowed once, then carefully opened my mouth, voice wary.

“What are you looking at.”