Chapter 157: Chapter-157

The guards standing nearby jerked to attention, their hands moving toward their weapons before freezing in confusion. Attack the person who just assaulted someone in front of the Empress? Or… wait, the ’Empress’ was the one who’d done the slapping…

Heena looked down at Seraphina sprawled on the marble floor and said in the most cheerful, innocent voice imaginable:

“Oh my! Lady Seraphina! Is that you?”

She brought one hand to her chest in mock surprise, her expression the picture of concerned confusion.

“I’m ’so’ sorry! I thought you were a monster trying to enter my office! With all that makeup running down your face from crying, and that expression—I genuinely thought some kind of enemy creature had infiltrated the palace!”

Seraphina stared up at her, tears now streaming down her face—half from the slap, half from genuine shock and pain.

Heena gracefully lowered herself to a squat, getting down to Seraphina’s level on the floor, and looked at her with wide, innocent eyes.

“I was just trying to protect the empire, you understand. When you see something that looks like a threat, you strike first and ask questions later. That’s basic security protocol.”

She reached out as if to help Seraphina up, her smile absolutely saccharine.

“Here, let me help you. I feel ’terrible’ about this misunderstanding.”

The guards, who had served under Heena long enough to recognize when she was being deliberately malicious while maintaining plausible deniability, carefully kept their expressions neutral. One of them developed a sudden intense interest in the ceiling. Another found the wall absolutely fascinating.

System 427 materialized beside Heena, floating nervously.

“Host,” he whispered, “what are you doing?!”

“Helping,” Heena whispered back, still maintaining that innocent smile.

“That’s not what—”

“Shh,” Heena said, waving him off.

She stood up and extended both hands toward Seraphina in a gesture of assistance.

“Come on, Lady Seraphina. Let me help you up. We can’t have you sitting on the cold floor—you might catch a chill!”

Seraphina, still dazed and in pain, reflexively took Heena’s offered hands.

And immediately regretted it.

Because as Heena “helped” her stand, she somehow managed to step on Seraphina’s feet.

Hard.

“Oops!” Heena said brightly, shifting her weight. “Sorry, lost my balance there for a moment—”

’Step.’

She stepped on Seraphina’s other foot.

“Oh goodness, these palace floors are so slippery—”

’Step step.’

Both feet again, with what felt like deliberately applied pressure.

“Really should talk to the maintenance staff about that—”

’STEP.’

Seraphina was making small whimpering sounds now, tears flowing freely down her face, but Heena kept that bright, helpful smile plastered on her face while continuing to systematically step on every part of Seraphina’s feet she could reach while “assisting” her to stand.

“There we go!” Heena said cheerfully, finally letting go of Seraphina’s hands once the girl was upright—though swaying slightly and clearly in pain. “All better now! See? No harm done!”

Seraphina’s face was red and blotchy from crying, her feet were almost certainly bruised, and the handprint from Heena’s slap was clearly visible on her cheek.

“No… harm…” Seraphina managed to choke out, looking like she couldn’t quite believe what had just happened.

“Exactly!” Heena agreed brightly. “Just a little misunderstanding. These things happen!”

She turned to the guards, her expression becoming more serious.

“Find out whoever let her enter this palace and cut off their hands.”

The temperature in the corridor dropped by several degrees.

The guards’ faces went pale, their eyes widening in shock. Even seasoned imperial guards who’d seen plenty of harsh punishments weren’t expecting ’that’.

Seraphina’s head snapped up, her tear-stained face going white. “Your Majesty, if you’re angry with ’me’, then why—”

Heena raised one hand, cutting her off mid-sentence.

“Lady Seraphina,” she said with dangerous pleasantness, “first of all, I did not give you permission to speak. Secondly, you should consider yourself fortunate that I’m being so benevolent.”

Her smile was absolutely chilling.

“I only ordered their ’hands’ cut off. I could have ordered their heads removed. So you should be grateful I’m letting them live.”

Seraphina looked like she might faint.

Heena turned back to the guards, her expression thoughtful. “Oh, and make sure Emperor Consort Larus doesn’t find out about this incident. He’s still adjusting to palace life, and I don’t want him worried.”

The guards nodded quickly, clearly relieved at this slightly less violent instruction.

“Also,” Heena added, almost as an afterthought, “if the person responsible isn’t from a particularly important family, give them thirty gold pieces as compensation for the… inconvenience… of losing their hands. Enough to hire a good healer, maybe get magical prosthetics if they’re available.”

The guards exchanged glances that clearly said ’you should just execute them, it would be more merciful’, but they wisely kept their mouths shut and nodded.

“Yes, Your Majesty. We’ll see to it immediately.”

They bowed and left to carry out her orders, taking Seraphina’s “escort” with them but leaving the girl herself standing there in shock.

Heena turned her attention fully to Seraphina now, her expression shifting from cold authority to false pleasantness.

“So, ’my lady’,” she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm, “what the f—what the hell—I mean, ’why exactly are you here?’”

Seraphina’s face was already pale from the shock of Heena’s casual brutality, but she gathered herself with visible effort and said, “Your Majesty, I came here because I have something important to tell you. It’s about the cons—”

’AAAAAHHHHHHH!’

A loud, piercing scream echoed through the palace corridors, cutting off Seraphina mid-sentence.

Heena’s expression changed immediately from annoyed to alert. Her face went slightly pale as she recognized the direction of the scream.

“What the—”

She started walking quickly toward the source of the sound, and in her haste, reached out to grab Seraphina’s hand to pull her along.

At least, that’s what she ’meant’ to do.

What she ’actually’ did was miss Seraphina’s hand entirely and instead grab a fistful of the girl’s elaborately styled hair.

And pull.

Hard.

“OW! OW OW OW!” Seraphina shrieked, stumbling after Heena as she was dragged along by her hair. “Your Majesty! My hair! You’re pulling my—OW!”

“Keep up,” Heena said distractedly, not really paying attention to what she was holding, focused entirely on getting to whoever had screamed.

She walked quickly down the corridor, around a corner, past a group of shocked servants, and into one of the palace’s side galleries—all while maintaining her death grip on Seraphina’s hair.

Seraphina was crying in genuine pain now, tears streaming down her face, trying desperately to keep pace while being dragged by her scalp.

“Please—Your Majesty—you’re pulling my—PLEASE—”

They reached the source of the scream—a small reception room where a noblewoman was standing with her hands on her hips, berating a servant who was cowering on the floor.

Heena finally stopped, put her hand to her chin in a thinking pose, and—

Realized there was a substantial clump of hair tangled in her fingers.

She looked down at her hand.

Looked at the hair.

Looked at Seraphina, who was touching the side of her head where a very noticeable bald patch now existed.

“Oh,” Heena said mildly. “My mistake. I didn’t see that.”

’See’ it? She’d ’done’ it!

Seraphina touched the bald spot on her head—about the size of a fist, right near her temple where Heena had grabbed—and let out a sound that was half sob, half scream.

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