TPHW 06

Chapter 6

Seeing Phetra so angry that the blue veins in her neck were standing out under her skin, I sneered inwardly.

That’s why—
why did you come picking a fight with me?

She must have thought I would shrink back like before, cry, and run away.

“I wonder if she’s underestimating me, or if she’s just short-sighted.”

If I were Phetra, I would have been suspicious that Blanche suddenly went out when that was unlike her—but I would have watched for a few more days first.

The fact that she got nervous and came running over just because I went out once meant she was not as bold as she pretended to be.

And besides—

‘Is it normal for the Queen to be leading state affairs?’

When the king was still alive and perfectly fine?

It was not even a regency, so what was this supposed to be?

‘This is overstepping, lady.’

I had a lot to say, but I held it in.

I put my fingertips together and let out a slow breath, then shifted my weight to one leg.

“Actually, I’ve gotten a little annoyed lately.”

“Annoyed…?”

Phetra glared at me.

Her face looked like a cat staring at a mouse that dared to squeak fearlessly in front of it.

Her green eyes shone sharply like a snake’s.

Ignoring her stare, I spoke in an indifferent tone.

“It’s boring.”

I shrugged.

“I’ve lived in the palace for twenty years, and all that keeps happening is that I almost die. It doesn’t look like I’ll live very long anyway, so I decided I want to enjoy myself without regrets.”

“Ha.”

Phetra let out a hollow laugh, stunned.

The knuckles of the hand clutching her skirt turned white.

…

“I heard the Princess had changed, but you really have changed.”

“Oh my. Really?”

I asked with a bright smile.

“In a good way, or a bad way?”

Phetra gave me a rotten smile.

Her lips twisted.

“Both.”

The green eyes in her raised gaze gleamed disgustingly like snake scales.

Oh…

That was a little scary.

Cold sweat slid down the back of my neck.

I could feel each drop slowly tracing the curve of my skin.

A chill ran down my spine, but I refused to bend before Phetra.

I held my chin firm and stared straight into her cold green eyes.

“Thank you. At least that means I changed in a good way too.”

My voice came out calmer than I expected.

Soft and gentle, like I was offering someone a warm cup of tea.

“Haha. Our Princess is very positive, isn’t she?”

Phetra’s laughter spread through the palace garden.

But that laugh felt sweet as honey and bitter as poison.

The corners of her lips were elegantly raised, but her eyes were not smiling at all.

If anything, they were icy as they swept over me.

“Yes! I plan to keep living positively from now on!”

I answered even more brightly on purpose.

Then I pressed one hand to my forehead and acted as if I had just become dizzy, speaking weakly.

“May I go rest now? Just as Your Majesty said, I think I still need rest.”

“…Go ahead, Princess.”

Phetra’s sweet voice became even colder, like ice frozen over a winter lake.

When I saw her jaw tighten slightly, I smiled to myself.

…

“Yes!”

I greeted her cheerfully, then turned around.

In the frozen atmosphere, I alone walked back into the palace as lightly as if I were humming a happy song.

The hem of my dress swayed in the wind and brushed against my ankles.

I could feel Phetra’s sharp stare stabbing into my back from behind.

It felt like dozens of needles were pricking my skin.

Hmph.

This is a declaration of war, lady.

Just then, Andy’s voice came quietly from behind me.

“It’s my first time seeing Her Majesty make that kind of face. Princess, you’re actually very good at saying things that make people furious.”

It sounded like she was scolding me, but when I glanced back at her, Andy was smiling proudly.

Her cute face practically said, My girl did well!

She looked like a mother cat proudly watching her kitten succeed in hunting for the first time.

The moment I realized Andy was truly supporting me and standing behind me, strength returned to my legs, which had actually been trembling.

The muscles in my shoulders, tight with tension, slowly relaxed too.

Then I lifted my chin arrogantly and said,

“Yeah. I’m good at insulting people in a roundabout way.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means what I just did.”

I gave a small laugh and headed toward my room.

My footsteps rang across the marble hallway.

As I walked, I fell into thought.

I won today’s clash against Phetra, but this was not the time to feel happy.

There was a high chance that an enraged Phetra would soon come up with another plan to kill me.

She was not someone who acted carelessly on emotion.

She was the type who calculated everything carefully—

but when her pride was hurt, she would definitely become even more extreme.

…

When I returned to my room, I closed the heavy door and sat down at the desk.

The chair creaked as I pulled it out and sat.

Outside the window, the sun was setting, and orange light spread into the room, casting soft shadows.

I began seriously making plans.

As I picked up the pen, the cool metal touched my fingers.

I opened the ink bottle and carefully wrote across the paper.

The scratching sound of the pen filled the quiet room.

As expected, just because this was the world inside a novel did not mean I could take it lightly.

People lived here too.

It was no different from reality.

Power struggles.
Schemes.
Betrayal.

It was just a far more brutal world than office politics in my previous life—

a world where lives were actually on the line.

There is no such thing as something for free in this world.

If you want wealth or power, you cannot be lazy.
You have to keep moving endlessly and work to stay several steps ahead of everyone else.

That was a truth that had not changed, in my previous life or in this one.

In that sense, Phetra had definitely worked harder than the original Blanche.

Usually, when a queen seizes power like this, the common cliché is that the kingdom starts to collapse.

But that had not happened here.

Which meant—

she was actually governing the kingdom well.

Of course, trying to assassinate me was still a crime, and choosing such extreme methods meant she was not someone worthy of respect.

But still—

how hard must she have worked to dream of becoming queen, despite not even being part of the Snow royal family?

She married a man fifteen years older than herself just to enter the palace.

Even after being declared infertile, she prevented him from taking a concubine.

And with the power of her birth family, she took control of noble society.

None of that could have been easy.

‘She’s not an ordinary person.’

Politics…

In my previous life, I had no interest in office politics.

…

I simply built results and proved myself through ability.

I spoke through numbers.
I showed results.

That was enough.

But here, numbers alone would not be enough.

I needed to move more carefully.

Because I was no longer just Manager Jeong Yeo-jin.

I was sitting in the enormous position of Princess Blanche.

A place where every eye was on me, and every action became a political message.

‘But if I’m going to do this, I’ll do it properly.’

I had always prided myself on working hard at everything.

I could not say I was perfect—

but I was confident I could work as hard as Phetra.

No, I was confident I could do even better than her.

Because I had a weapon she did not know about.

That weapon was—

the knowledge of the original story.

‘To use that, I need to get out of here.’

I scribbled with my pen and nodded.

Ink soaked into the paper, forming black letters.

The candlelight flickered, casting shadows across the desk.

Duke Jeyan and Marquis Briard told me to stay inside the palace, where it was relatively safe.

But I thought differently.

The threat of assassination was the same inside or outside the palace.

In fact, the palace might be even more dangerous.

And this palace was already completely in Phetra’s hands.

From maids to knights.
From cooks to administrators.

Everyone watched the Queen’s mood, not the King’s and not the Princess’s.

Just look at how everyone kept silent even though they knew the Queen hated the Princess and wanted her dead.

There had already been a poisoning attempt, yet no one investigated it.

No one even pretended to suspect Phetra.

‘What a complete mess.’

Honestly, other than Andy Glanse, I could not trust anyone in this palace.

Even the man called my father, the king himself, had abandoned me.

That already said enough.

His own daughter had almost been poisoned to death, yet he let it pass without a proper investigation.

…

“This man is trash too.”

I frowned.

Lines formed between my brows.

When I put the pen down on the desk with a sharp tap, the ink bottle rattled.

I did not know how deeply the king had been charmed—no, fried and eaten alive—by his wife, but he was clearly a scarecrow with no opinion of his own.

He wore a crown, but in reality he was nothing more than a puppet.

So—

I had to make my own board to play on.

Not in this palace.

But somewhere I could hold the initiative.

“I’ll make sure they acknowledge me.”

My purple eyes shone as I continued writing down my plan.

I wrote until my wrist ached.

Seriously. Carefully. Perfectly.

And a few days later—

I stood in front of the king’s office.

I steadied my breathing for a moment before the heavy oak door, then knocked.

Knock, knock.

The sound echoed down the hallway.

“Come in.”

When I opened the door and stepped inside, I saw the king buried under piles of documents.

Felix Snow, with the same silver hair as Blanche.

But his hair hung lifelessly, his face was thin, and even his complexion looked pale.

He sat on the throne, but it looked as if the seat itself was crushing him.

His shoulders were bent, and his back was hunched.

“Blanche? What brings you here?”

Felix Snow did not welcome the daughter who had come to see him herself.

He only looked surprised.

His brows rose, and his mouth opened slightly. He looked clearly annoyed.

As if an unwanted guest had come to visit.