Love & Poison (10)
“Your Majesty!”
“Auntie!”
Once the situation had been somewhat brought under control, the first ones to burst into the empress’s bedchamber were First Prince Adrian and Bridget.
Adrian, who usually wore an indifferent expression, looked more shaken than anyone else.
Bridget also seemed startled; her large eyes shimmered with unshed tears.
“What on earth happened here?”
At Adrian’s question, a servant bowed his head respectfully.
“I beg your pardon, Your Highness. It appears Her Majesty the Empress may have ingested poison.”
“What? Poison?”
Adrian’s pupils trembled violently.
“Are you saying someone nearly assassinated my mother?”
“That is our current assumption. Once Her Majesty awakens, we will investigate the circumstances…”
Just then, another person stormed noisily into the bedchamber.
It was Edwin.
“Rachel!”
Edwin saw me standing with both arms held by knights and his face turned deathly pale.
He tried to run straight to me but was blocked by the servants.
“W-why is Rachel…”
“Her Majesty the Empress was nearly poisoned. This woman was the first to discover Her Majesty in that state.”
“What? P-poisoned?”
The shock of the word “poisoned” lasted only a moment. Soon Edwin’s face filled with utter confusion.
“But why… why Rachel…”
“Given the current circumstances, she is the most suspicious person. Once Her Majesty wakes, she will be questioned directly. Please wait patiently until then, Your Highness.”
Edwin looked helplessly at the servant’s words, then turned his gaze toward me.
I quietly shook my head at the boy, whose face looked ready to burst into tears at any second.
There’s nothing I can do in this situation.
I was the first witness to see the empress collapse and the benefactor who had saved her life.
But to those who don’t know the full story, I’m simply the most likely suspect.
Besides, this was the empress’s palace.
I should be grateful they hadn’t beaten me on the spot simply for entering her bedchamber without permission.
“…Understood.”
After watching my gesture, Edwin obediently lowered his head and sat down on the chair a servant offered him.
Bridget sat beside him, but unlike in the garden, she didn’t spare him even a single glance.
Anyway.
I glanced sideways at the empress’s personal physician, who was working frantically on her treatment.
It’s fortunate the doctor isn’t that bastard Sass. Does the empress already know he’s aligned with the Second Prince’s wife?
With that thought, I scanned the people gathered in the bedchamber.
Everyone seemed to be waiting with one heart for the empress to wake.
How much time had passed while the physician and maids tended to her?
“Mmm…”
Finally, a low groan slipped from between the empress’s tightly closed lips.
The physician called out to her in an excited voice.
“Your Majesty! Are you awake?”
The moment she regained consciousness, the empress frowned.
It was only natural to be startled—opening her eyes to find so many faces staring down at her.
“Your Majesty collapsed after ingesting poison. Do you remember what happened?”
At the physician’s question, the empress pressed a hand to her forehead, still frowning.
She seemed to think for a long time before slowly shaking her head.
“I only took the medicine I usually take.”
At her words, the physician’s face turned ashen.
After all, he was the one who had prescribed it.
“It wasn’t me! I know nothing about this! I swear!”
When everyone’s suspicious gazes turned on him, the doctor shook his head desperately, looking wronged.
He threw himself flat on the floor and sobbed.
“Your Majesty, I have served you for over twenty years! How could I possibly dare to… to do something so vile as poison you…”
“If not the physician, then who could have tampered with Her Majesty’s medicine!”
“I told you, it wasn’t me…”
The servants accusing the physician, the physician protesting his innocence—the commotion was about to fill the entire bedchamber with noise.
At that moment, Empress Melanie quietly raised her hand.
“Everyone, be silent.”
Still pressing her forehead, she continued in a calm voice.
“The physician is not the culprit.”
“How can you be so certain, Your Majesty?”
At the servant’s question, the empress answered in a composed tone.
“He prescribed the medicine a week ago. I have taken the same prescription for three days since then. I was perfectly fine until now—why would something like this happen today?”
“What if the medicine was swapped?”
At that, Adrian rose from his seat.
The prince spoke in a calm but sharp voice.
“Isn’t the only person who knows exactly what medicine my mother takes this physician?”
“Your Highness Adrian! I truly know nothing!”
The empress’s physician raised his voice in protest, but Adrian didn’t even glance his way.
Melanie let out a small sigh at her son’s words and shook her head.
“I know this man well. He doesn’t have the nerve for such a thing.”
She took a moment to steady her breathing, then looked around at everyone gathered in the chamber and asked,
“But how am I still alive? When I lost consciousness after drinking the poison, there was no one beside me.”
This time, every gaze in the room turned to me.
Melanie looked puzzled for a moment, then slowly shifted her eyes.
When her gaze landed on me, her brows drew together.
“You are…”
“This woman is the nanny of His Highness the Third Prince—Rachel Brown.”
One of the knights holding me answered in my place.
“She claims to have discovered Your Majesty after you collapsed.”
“She discovered me?”
Melanie frowned as she stared at me.
“How?”
Her expression made it clear she couldn’t understand how the Third Prince’s nanny had found her collapsed in the bedchamber.
“That is…”
“I couldn’t find the restroom, Your Majesty.”
I answered quickly before the knight could interrupt.
As expected, the empress’s face grew even more incredulous at my words.
“The restroom?”
“Yes. I was in such urgent need that I left the garden without even asking His Highness Edwin for permission. I asked passing servants for directions, but I ended up getting completely lost.”
I deliberately kept my eyes downcast and held my breath at intervals.
Blood rushed to my face, turning it red.
To anyone watching, it would look as if I were blushing with shame at having to speak about the restroom myself.
“It was truly urgent. Knowing it was rude, I still entered the main building. I intended to ask the servants inside to show me to the restroom. But there was no one in sight.”
It was a bold-faced lie.
But if I claimed I simply hadn’t run into anyone, who could call it a lie?
In truth, no one inside the main building had seen me, so there was no fear of being exposed.
“Then I saw Your Majesty entering this room. Only then did I realize I was an uninvited guest who had entered without Your Majesty’s permission, and I tried to leave at once.”
The empress stared at me steadily, as if telling me to continue.
It wasn’t a bad reaction.
“But then I heard a loud noise from inside the room. It sounded like something falling to the floor, and I grew worried. So, despite knowing it was rude, I called out to Your Majesty several times from outside the door. But there was no answer.”
Everyone, including the empress, was focused on my story.
I took a short breath, shook off the knights’ arms, and knelt on the floor.
“Please forgive me, Your Majesty! Not only did I enter Your Majesty’s bedchamber without permission, I know that laying hands on Your Majesty’s sacred body is a grave crime! But I could not simply stand by and watch a person foaming at the mouth and dying!”
Realistically, how many people could watch someone collapse and foam at the mouth right in front of them without doing anything?
Especially if that person was the empress of the empire—anyone would have done whatever it took to save her.
When I pleaded in a desperate voice, sympathetic sighs rose from several directions.
“But how did you know Her Majesty had drunk poison? The moment you saw her, you decided it was poisoning. Doesn’t that prove you could be the assassin?”
Someone in the room voiced their suspicion.
“There was a glass bottle rolling beside Her Majesty. I wondered if she might have drunk poison, so I put my finger down her throat to make her vomit. I know this too is an unforgivable sin, but I had no choice.”
I slightly lifted my head and deliberately met the empress’s eyes.
“Because I wanted to save Your Majesty.”
I quietly emphasized that I was the one who had saved her life.
Melanie frowned.
“…How can I believe those words?”
At that moment, the physician who had been quietly observing stepped forward cautiously.
“Your Majesty, what this woman says is not wrong. When I entered the bedchamber, I clearly saw saliva and vomit on her fingers.”
At the physician’s words, the empress scanned me from head to toe with an expressionless face.
“…If the physician is correct, then it seems you are most likely my savior.”
I lowered my eyes as if frightened and let my shoulders tremble slightly.
Several people sent me sympathetic glances.
Edwin, still seated, looked anxious; his eyes darted back and forth between my complexion and the empress’s expression.
“Stand up.”
At the empress’s command, I rose unsteadily to my feet.
“You are the Third Prince’s nanny, correct?”
At her question, I bowed my head deeply once more.
“I want to believe in your good intentions as well. However, the story that you got lost, happened to enter this place, and found me is difficult to believe. The fact that no one in this palace encountered you means there is also no one who can prove your innocence.”
The empress leaned back against the head of the bed and gazed at me steadily.
“So how do you intend to prove that you did not try to assassinate me?”