Overnight, the infamous Crown Princess went from a hardworking to a lazy princess.

The King had told her to act like an ignorant princess, but did he forget who she was? How difficult was it for her to revert to her old ways? All she simply needed to do was to stow away her writing materials and turn back into her extremely cheeky self. The last step was to announce herself ceasing all her lessons from today onwards.

Any persuasion or negotiation would no longer work on her.

Through the ajar window, the sun rose above the horizon, spilling warm light through the small gap and into her room. As the morning drum resounded through the palace, a sleepy Eun-bi shot up in her bed, blinking her bleary eyes.

She groaned when she realised she could have slept more. Despite how tired she was, weeks of her training as a princess had her body grown used to waking up early.

When remembering her supposedly renewed goal of living a carefree life in the palace, she flopped back onto her bed and pulled her covers over her head. Hardly a minute later, she began snoring away like a bird whistler, oblivious to what was happening in the world.

But not her court ladies, their anxieties peaking.

They tried to call her awake, shake her, but it didn't work. They enticed her with treats and begged her to leave her bed.

However, Eun-bi snored and remained unmovable as a rock. Even when Court Lady Kim hollered in her ears that the Queen Dowager was visiting her bedchamber—which turned out to be a fat lie—Eun-bi barely bulged.

This left them with their last resort; they put her in proper clothes, placed her on a sedan chair and successfully carried her off to her class. Her head lolled to the back as she dozed away, but the heaving rocking bumped her head against the sides of the sedan, jolting her wide awake.

During class, they forced her to recite lines, but she deliberately forgot everything that they had taught her. It was much more enjoyable to draw circles and animal characters on her paper, or even better, seeing the court ladies' exasperated faces.

"This is atrocious, Your Highness!" The booming voice belonged to none other than Senior Court Lady Yi. "Your behaviour is getting unacceptable!"

Drawing herself closer like death reaper himself, her piercing gaze levelled on Eun-bi.

Her voice, however, came out softer than she expected. "What happened to you? Is something troubling you lately?"

Eun-bi shrugged and pulled out a fried pancake from her little pouch, munching happily despite the rising tension in the room. "I guess I've come to terms that I'm not good at studies and never will be. So why should I study harder? Everyone in the palace knows that I'm a good-for-nothing."

Senior Court Lady Yi fumed and placed her hands on her hips. "Why would you think that way? Which fools have been criticising you behind your back?"

"Well... Some people?"

Senior Court Lady Yi frowned deeply. "Haven't you been working hard lately? Why are you stopping now just because of a few peasants running their mouths off about you?" she sighed, and her eyes narrowed into her hands. "And... Stop eating like a three-year-old child! You're dirtying your hands."

Her sudden kindness surprised Eun-bi. Was she having a dream? Had she imagined everything? Considering how cold-hearted Senior Court Lady Yi often was, this must have been a slip of the tongue.

"It's delicious." Eun-bi grinned and offered her food pouch. "Would you like to try some, too?"

Lips pursed, Senior Court Lady Yi shook her head wordlessly, turned on her heels and left. It left a strange awkwardness in the air as she didn't unleash her usual biting remarks.

But if this continued on, Eun-bi knew it would be a matter of time before the old court lady filed a complaint to the Queen Dowager against the Crown Princess.

And yet, that didn't matter.

If anything bad were to happen, the King had already promised to take responsibility for everything!

Taking another huge bite of her pancake, Eun-bi pondered over what she should do next. Now that class was over, she was free to roam around the palace and do anything she wanted.

She could first visit Accountant Cha's workplace—the Office of Taxation. It was a place where officials monitored the royal expenses and did their bookkeeping.

Accountant Cha was definitely keeping his eyes on the palace's assets, but was he connected to the rebel group Yul was talking about? How were he and his allies intending to rob the silver mine?

And the rebels... Where were they hiding the goods they had stolen over the years?

If Eun-bi wanted to be of help, she could investigate Accountant Cha's past. Looking at that man was as if she was staring at a sealed book—one that was full of secrets.

She could only hope that her later findings might unravel his intention to enter the palace, including acting friendly and getting close to her.

Her sudden arrival at the Office of Taxation had all officials scrambling to their feet and forming two rows to greet her. When she asked for Accountant Cha, a nervous-looking official stepped forward to answer her.

"Your Highness, he didn't report to the palace today. He has applied for a leave of absence today."

"A leave of absence?"

"Yes. Should we send him a message and ask him to return?"

"No!" she exclaimed almost too quickly. "There's no need to ask him to come back. Let him rest. He definitely deserves a wonderful break after working so hard recently. I was even intending to grant him rest days myself."

Turning away from the officials, she couldn't conceal the excitement on her face.

If Accountant Cha wasn't in the palace, this was her opportunity to conduct her own investigation on him. For all she knew, he could be out committing more dirty deeds behind their backs.

That night, Yul had confiscated the pebble that Accountant Cha had hidden. If the latter had already found out that his message to his comrades got intercepted, then perhaps he might have gone out to meet them instead.

Sensing anxious eyes following her every movement, she waved the officials away. "Don't mind me. I'm going to do a cleaning inspection. You may all return to your work."

Voices chorused in response as the men dispersed and shuffled back to their seats. Eun-bi scoured down rows of shelves, her fingers skimming across records as she walked to Accountant Cha's assigned work table. There, she found the ledger written for her academy and their finances.

She needed to be careful. Who knew if Accountant Cha might have an ally in this department and was observing her, too?

After checking around and ensuring that no one was looking, she slipped the ledger under her clothes. She continued her act; checking for dust and mould before returning to her room.

All this time, she had been rather nonchalant and entrusted the work to Accountant Cha, but now she was intending to take it back secretly for a closer look while not alerting him. Later, she would have Officer Hyong sneak the ledger back into the Office of Taxation after work hours.

Now that she knew of her accountant's love for silver mines, she suspected that he might have done more than they knew during his time in the palace.

Taking out all the threat letters that she had received, she flipped through the book and compared the handwriting. Both Accountant Cha and the letters first appeared at similar timings, so she couldn't help but be suspicious of him.

Unfortunately, the handwriting was different. He wasn't the one who sent her those wretched letters.

But if he had the skills, he could easily forge another handwriting. And yet, her intuition told her she was missing something in her story. Whoever wrote those letters hated her to the core, whereas Accountant Cha constantly teased and praised her—which she knew he was acting.

Could he actually be that lunatic to mess around with her?

But what if he wasn't the one who sent them to her? There were certainly several people who disliked her when she got selected to be the Crown Princess. 

Letting out a sigh, she flipped through the ledger, until something caught her eyes and her anger flared like a lightning.

The expenses recorded were much higher than she last recalled, far exceeding the budget that the King had granted them.

That money-digging swindler!