Love & Poison (9)
I knew it. No one seems to have noticed I slipped away.
I leaned against the wall in the main corridor of the empress's palace, quietly observing the situation outside.
Judging by the view of the garden through the window, the banquet still had some time before it would wrap up.
But why is that kid hanging his head again?
The golden crown of his head visible in the distance drooped like a wilted flower. Did something happen while I was gone? The atmosphere around him didn't seem particularly off, though.
I do feel a little bad for leaving him alone.
Still, I couldn't waste this rare chance to visit the empress's palace without gaining anything from it.
Besides, the one who sent assassins after Edwin might not have been the second empress.
I narrowed my eyes.
The one who tried to kill Edwin during the hunting competition belonged to the organization.
If it involved Angel's Breath, if it involved Ian, I needed to investigate even more thoroughly.
So I have to find out exactly who the mastermind is.
I stepped away from the window and walked deeper into the corridor.
The main building of the empress's palace was a massive E-shaped structure with three floors. I was currently at the far left end of the second-floor hallway.
As expected of the empress's palace, there are a lot of people around.
Knights and maids constantly moved through the corridors, but none of them noticed my presence. I erased my presence completely and hid behind walls or pillars before they could get close.
It was something impossible unless you'd once been an assassin.
Nothing special here either.
I wandered through the empress's palace like a silent ghost. Most of the countless rooms were empty guest chambers.
While rifling through room after room without anyone noticing, I opened a door in the middle of the third-floor corridor.
This must be the empress's bedroom.
It was clearly the room used by the empress. The only bed with gold and crimson bedding neatly arranged on it confirmed that.
I quietly closed the door and carefully scanned the interior.
On the wall opposite the massive bed hung a sacred painting depicting the empire's founding myth. Between the bed and the painting stood an elegant-looking desk and chair.
Keeping a desk in the bedroom? Is she a workaholic or something?
I approached the desk and carefully leafed through the documents, making sure to leave no trace.
All administrative paperwork.
Unfortunately, every document on the empress's desk related to internal palace affairs under her jurisdiction.
Well, it's only natural to keep less important things out in the open.
I returned the papers to their original positions and checked beneath the desk.
There were three drawers. The last one was locked.
"Hmm."
I pulled out a small hairpin, bent it, and inserted it into the lock.
My lockpicking skills had been acknowledged even in the back alleys, but this time it didn't work.
That means it's not an ordinary lock.
I ran my hand along the bottom of the drawer and felt a slight groove. A faint flow of mana emanated from the ornate carved pattern in the wood.
It was a magic formula.
Carving a magic formula into furniture. The financial sense of the high and mighty never ceases to amaze.
Mages were common, but those skilled enough to inscribe magic formulas into objects were rare. Only members of the imperial family or high-ranking nobles possessed both the wealth and power to enchant the desks they used.
Still, they all just end up hiding their dirty little secrets.
People's minds worked in similar ways.
In that case, maybe the empress had hidden something similar to what the banished head maid had?
If so...
My lips curved into a long smile.
Then I definitely need to open it.
Information was expensive, and the secrets of the powerful were the most valuable of all. The chance to obtain something so costly for free was impossible to resist.
"I didn't expect to use it like this."
I gave a self-mocking smile and placed my palm back on the drawer handle.
Concentrating every ounce of focus on my fingertips, I pulled the drawer again.
This time it slid open smoothly.
They never saw it coming. They probably didn't even want to believe an assassin could wield mana.
Mana, the driving force of magic, was a kind of energy possessed by all living beings. However, extremely few could sense the mana within their own bodies.
That was why half of those who could control mana became mages, and the other half chose the path of knighthood. A girl born as an orphan in the back alleys had become neither—she had to become an assassin instead.
Well, at least I can still use mana in this body. That makes things much easier.
Even the 'special' nature of my mana was the same as when I had been Kyla.
What a strange coincidence. They said similar things attracted each other. Maybe it was because this body possessed mana of the exact same property that I ended up possessing it?
I shook off the trivial thoughts and frowned.
They're all letters.
The locked drawer was stuffed full of letters.
Every single one had been sent by the same person.
They're marked with initials instead of a name. Must be one of the empress's agents.
At the bottom of each letter was the same initial written in the same handwriting.
I quickly skimmed through the contents. Most detailed the movements of noble families supporting the second prince. Names of various houses flashed by in an instant.
They were all prestigious families whose names I had heard countless times in my previous life.
Then an unfamiliar family name caught my eye and I paused.
The Miller barony?
It was a noble house I'd never heard of before.
Strange. All the families mentioned in the previous letters were at least count rank or higher.
The sudden appearance of an insignificant barony was odd.
A newly risen noble family?
I read the letter carefully.
Then a familiar word jumped out at me.
"...Ian?"
I read the word aloud without thinking and immediately frowned.
Of all the unwelcome coincidences, the name of Baron Miller was 'Ian.'
It must be a namesake, but...
Seeing the name of the lover who had killed me like this left a sour taste in my mouth.
I stood there motionless with the letter in hand when I heard hurried footsteps climbing the stairs.
I quickly shoved the letter back into the drawer and closed it.
Just as I tried to leave the room in a hurry, the presence had already reached the door.
Damn it.
Losing focus because of the name Ian had been a mistake.
My heart raced as the doorknob began to turn with a creak.
Without hesitation, I threw myself out the window beside the desk.
Thank goodness for the terrace.
I hadn't noticed it earlier, but the empress's bedroom had a connected terrace.
Thanks to that, I avoided the disaster of falling out the window completely defenseless.
I held my breath, clinging to the terrace railing, when I heard the door open and someone enter.
It's the empress. Why did she come back?
I pressed myself against the outer wall and peered inside through the window.
The empress who had returned to her room looked unusually pale.
She walked over to the cabinet beside the door and hurriedly flung it open.
Inside were dozens of glass bottles filled with a translucent crimson liquid.
What are those?
I watched her movements with suspicion as she took out one of the bottles, quickly uncorked it, and drank the potion. Her movements were natural and practiced, as if she'd done it many times before.
After drinking the potion, the empress looked relieved.
Does she have some chronic illness?
Anyway, now that the empress had entered the room, going back the way I came would be impossible.
After a moment of thought, I was about to climb down the outer wall connected to the terrace railing when—
Thud.
A dull sound came from inside the room.
I reflexively turned my head and saw the empress collapsed on the floor.
She was convulsing with foam at her mouth.
The sight of her seemingly on the verge of drawing her last breath was extremely alarming.
Poison?
I grabbed the window handle, about to enter the room, but hesitated.
For a brief moment, doubt held me back.
If I step in now, I might become a suspect.
The fact that the third prince's nanny had entered the empress's palace was already suspicious enough.
But if I did nothing, the empress might lose her life.
After a short internal debate, I finally opened the window and slipped inside.
The empress on the floor was already half-unconscious.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty the Empress!"
I gently shook her and inserted my fingers into her mouth to make her vomit up the poison.
She thrashed in displeasure at the sudden intrusion of fingers in her mouth, then finally retched.
She's thrown it all up.
It seemed the poison hadn't been fully absorbed yet.
Her pulse was normal, and her breathing wasn't too bad.
I quietly looked down at the empress, who had expelled all the poison.
Now what?
I couldn't sense any other presence nearby.
That meant if I quietly left now, no one would ever know I'd been here.
"Ugh..."
At that moment, the empress let out a pained groan.
Even though she'd vomited the poison, she must have absorbed some of it. She wouldn't be fine.
After a brief hesitation, I laid the empress down on the floor.
Then I picked up the vase on the table.
Splash.
I poured the water from the vase over my own face, then flung open the door and rushed out.
"Her Majesty the Empress! Her Majesty has collapsed! Someone help!"
I shouted at the top of my lungs as I ran down the corridor. Knights and maids came rushing up in a frenzy.
In an instant, the empress's palace turned into complete chaos.