The Debt Of Fate-Chapter 280: The True Backlash…

Princess Karen’s Bedchamber

A maid quietly entered and woke the princess. "Your Highness, a message was sent back."

This maid had followed her from Gube to Nexile.

"How urgent is it?" Karen asked, frowning. She had been deeply asleep. Normally, she shared a room with her husband—pretending to be lovingly devoted—but ever since her pregnancy and his worsening health, he insisted she rest separately.

"It is a letter, Your Highness. I did not dare open it," the maid whispered.

Princess Karen sat up and took it. The maid trimmed the lamp so the princess could read.

Karen read the message and frowned deeply. She still did not fully understand the royal court of this kingdom. Her husband, constantly ill, had limited information. No matter how much he trusted her, he could not give her knowledge he did not possess.

She wanted to send the news to the palace, but she had no one she trusted there who could deliver it without drawing attention to herself. This could have been her chance to prove her loyalty—but as a foreign princess, she knew her actions could easily be used against her.

She tossed the letter into the fire and watched it burn.

"Send a message back," Princess Karen said. "Let them spread the news tonight across every inn. By morning, it should be on every tongue."

If she could not use the queen’s misconduct to get closer to the king or the queen mother, she would use it to create a royal scandal instead.

The maid bowed and left.

---

Before dawn, Princess Karen’s order had already taken effect.

Her men were efficient, moving like shadows from inn to inn and tavern to tavern—whispering just enough of the tale to spark curiosity. Although many dismissed it as a drunk man’s rambling, as the news spread, more people began to believe it.

By sunrise, the entire capital buzzed with different versions of the same story.

They spoke of a drunken man in an inn...

A man who claimed someone had paid him to enter a carriage...

A man whose tale always circled back to the former queen.

> "He said he almost lay with the former queen."

Some scoffed, others gossiped, but everyone repeated it.

Soon, the nobles began linking the drunk man’s words to the incident involving the former queen and the general. She had confessed and been mocked for her supposed lack of morals—but now, hearing this rumor, many began to suspect she had been set up.

But who would dare lay a hand on the former queen?

The obvious suspect would have been the king—yet several noble ladies had been at the event that night. And Anastasia was supposed to be in the palace, reconciling with the king. Instead, she had suddenly become her stepsister Elizabeth.

Many could not help but speculate that Elizabeth had orchestrated the entire thing.

Meanwhile, the rumors had also reached the palace.

Queen Mother Mary frowned as she listened. Her son had just sent word to her, asking her to investigate the events of that night thoroughly, clearly because of the new information delivered to him.

It turned out Anastasia had indeed been in the room, just as Mary had instructed.

Because she did not want anything to go wrong, she had deliberately moved away the guards in that area. She trusted her guards, but Mary always believed in limiting the number of people aware of sensitive matters.

Thinking about it now, she could not help but suspect that Elizabeth and her mother had taken advantage of the situation.

"Tell me, which of you leaked my plan?" Mary asked, her voice cold. Someone must have exposed her arrangement.

"Your Grace, everyone involved is loyal to the crown. Perhaps that mother and daughter were already planning to harm the former queen. They simply reaped the benefits of the situation. During the first week Miss Magdalene entered the Duke’s residence to train the former queen, she sent news about Duchess Anita’s questionable behavior. And the former queen was poisoned shortly after. I do not believe a maid would dare such a thing without instructions," Miss Margaret said with a bow.

She had been in charge of arranging everything. If anything had gone wrong on her end, she would lose the queen mother’s favor. Thinking along those lines, she pushed all the blame toward Duchess Anita and Elizabeth.

Mary pondered Margaret’s words. They were logical. The Thompson family had once helped the king ruin Anastasia’s reputation. They could have easily set this up as well. Unfortunately, Anastasia had ended up marrying the general instead.

"Send a message to the prison. If that maid is still alive, I want to begin the investigation from her. And instruct the guards to bring me the drunken man from the inn yesterday," Mary ordered.

---

In the queen’s courtyard, Elizabeth walked through the gardens with two noble ladies trailing behind her, praising her gown and her beauty. She smiled faintly; she had invited these two specifically because they always had something flattering to say.

After the king left her chamber the previous night, she had done nothing but wait for morning—so having her friends admire her felt like the least she deserved.

"Come, I will show you some rare flowers that should bloom soon," Elizabeth said, turning toward another part of the garden.

Three palace servants nearby whispered about the rumor.

"You said the former queen was set up?" one asked.

Elizabeth, who intended to ignore them, paused when she heard those words.

"What are you gossiping about?" she demanded sharply.

The maids exchanged glances but quickly curtsied.

"It is nothing, Your Majesty," one stammered. None of them dared gossip openly about the royal family.

Elizabeth’s gaze hardened when she saw their attempt to hide the truth.

"It is nothing worth Her Majesty’s time... just talk from the streets. Foolish gossip," another maid added, trembling under Elizabeth’s stare.

Elizabeth’s jaw tightened. "Speak plainly."

The third maid lowered her head and pointed at the first maid. "She was the one who brought the news, Your Majesty. It has nothing to do with us. There are rumors about Lady Anastasia. Some drunken fool claims that if he had not entered the wrong carriage, he would have encountered the former queen. He said someone paid him to do it," the maid explained.

Elizabeth stiffened.

Her blood ran cold. Ever since the incident at General Ernest’s house, she had feared Anastasia would spread false rumors. But when days passed and she successfully became queen, she believed there was nothing left to fear.

She never expected gossip to begin so soon.

"I must see the king," Elizabeth thought frantically. "I have to explain that all this was set up by Anastasia."

No matter how foolish she appeared, she understood one thing clearly:

Although the rumors seems targeted Anastasia, the person who would suffer the true backlash...

was herself.