Love & Poison (11)
The Empress’s suspicious gaze flew straight at me and lodged in my face.
“Could it not be that you switched my medicine, waited for me to drink it, and then pretended to save me?”
“...Your Majesty, I hesitate to say this, but.”
I looked directly into the Empress’s eyes and continued in a calm voice.
“If I had truly intended to poison you, I would not have saved Your Majesty.”
My single sentence stunned everyone in the room into silence.
“How insolent! To spout such nonsense before Her Majesty!”
“Your Majesty, we must detain that woman at once and interrogate her!”
“Indeed! Will you allow such an impudent creature to live?”
Protests flew from every direction, yet the Empress herself remained strangely composed after hearing my words.
She countered in a perfectly indifferent tone.
“Did you not simply change your mind out of fear that you would be caught?”
“Your Majesty!”
Why is this boy suddenly jumping in when he was sitting quietly?
I frowned at Edwin, who had shot up from his seat. I gave him a pointed look, urging him to sit back down, but he clearly had no intention of obeying me this time.
“Rachel only came because she was accompanying me to Lady Bridget’s birthday banquet. Did Your Majesty not personally greet her?”
“But she left her seat midway, did she not?”
The knight still gripping my arm spoke up in a dissatisfied voice.
“Your Highness remained in the garden the entire time, so you would not know. Who can say what this woman did while she was gone…?”
“Is there a single witness who saw Rachel enter this room to switch the medicine?”
Edwin cut the knight off and fired back with his own question.
No one answered.
Since no one had even seen me walking around inside the building, there was no chance anyone had witnessed me tampering with the medicine.
“Furthermore, dozens of bottles identical to the one Her Majesty drank are displayed in that cabinet. How could she possibly know which one Her Majesty would choose and switch it in advance?”
Edwin’s voice was quiet but crystal clear as he laid out his points one by one.
“If she truly meant to poison Her Majesty, she would have had to replace every single bottle in that cabinet with poison. Yet as everyone knows, aside from the imperial family and the servants who work in the Empress’s palace, every visitor must submit to a thorough inspection of their belongings.”
He glanced toward the cabinet and continued.
“Rachel, however, passed that inspection without issue. If she were the culprit, she would have needed to smuggle a large quantity of poison inside. How could she have done so undetected?”
Ignoring the astonished stares directed at him, Edwin turned squarely toward the Empress.
“Therefore, I believe the true culprit must be someone who knows this palace far better than a first-time visitor like Rachel, Your Majesty.”
A heavy silence settled over the room.
The atmosphere suggested that everyone accepted Edwin’s reasoning.
Yet no one dared speak, all of them watching the Empress’s expression.
“Edwin.”
Melanie slowly opened her mouth, addressing the boy who was staring straight into her eyes.
“You have changed greatly. The child who once could not even greet me properly has become quite bold.”
Edwin flinched at her words, then lowered his gaze.
“...Yes.”
Melanie pressed a hand to her forehead, let out a small sigh, and issued a concise order.
“The princes and the duke’s daughter will remain. Everyone else, leave.”
“Your Majesty, your body is still weak. How can you—”
“Precisely because my body is weak, I lack the strength to entertain so many people. I would appreciate it if you would all withdraw.”
At the Empress’s command, the people in the room ebbed away like a receding tide.
The knights flanking me seized my arms once more, preparing to drag me out.
“Leave that woman as well.”
“Pardon? But Your Majesty, this woman—”
“Do not make me repeat myself.”
The moment those ash-gray eyes sent out an icy glare, the knights instantly released me, saluted, and left the room.
In the end, the only ones remaining in the bedroom were the Empress, the First Prince, Edwin, Bridget, and myself.
“The Third Prince has chosen his nanny well. Or perhaps I should say the nanny has found herself an excellent master.”
The Empress leaned against the headboard and offered a faint smile.
Her gaze was fixed on me.
“Lady Rachel Brown, I apologize for suspecting you. You have my gratitude.”
“...Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“In truth.”
After accepting my bow, the Empress lifted one corner of her mouth.
“I already know who the culprit is.”
Of course. I suspected as much.
I lowered my eyes, the corners of my mouth stretching thinly.
I thought it was strange that she dropped her suspicion so easily.
It appeared the Empress had known the identity of her would-be poisoner from the very beginning.
“What?”
“What do you mean, Aunt?”
Both Edwin and Bridget stared at her with wide eyes.
Unlike them, First Prince Adrian only showed a brief flash of surprise before returning to his usual indifferent mask. Perhaps he had already guessed from his mother’s words; quiet fury burned in the boy’s eyes.
“Who is it?”
Bridget’s voice trembled with agitation.
“Who would dare to—!”
“Is it not obvious?”
Melanie let out a bitter laugh.
“Think about who is missing from this room.”
“Surely not…”
Edwin could not finish the sentence; he merely blinked in disbelief.
I spoke for him.
“Are you suspecting His Highness the Second Prince?”
It was a perfectly logical suspicion.
Despite the Empress collapsing from poison, Lloyd had not shown his face.
From the conversation between the knights earlier, it seemed that the moment the Empress left the garden, he had returned straight to the Second Prince’s palace.
“Of course the child himself did not carry out the act. But the Second Princess Consort must have given him some signal—to leave the moment a disturbance arose.”
Unlike the shocked Edwin and Bridget, the Empress continued in a perfectly composed tone.
“This is hardly the first or second time something like this has happened. No matter how many maids I replace, the result is always the same.”
She picked up the water glass from the bedside table and arched one eyebrow.
“Today I let my guard down. Since the banquet was unscheduled, they must have seized the opportunity.”
Bridget tried to appear indifferent, but the hands clutching her skirt were trembling violently.
“It is my fault. If I had not insisted on holding a birthday banquet in the imperial palace…!”
Edwin’s face filled with concern at the sight.
“Oh, Bri.”
The Empress, noticing her nephew’s distress, called to her gently.
“It is not your fault, so do not blame yourself.”
“But…”
Bridget’s eyes brimmed with tears as she choked out a sob.
“Because of me, Aunt nearly…”
“That is not so. Come here.”
The Empress drew the hesitant Bridget into her arms and held her close.
“Do not cry. Today is your birthday. If such a lovely face is stained with tears, how could this aunt’s heart not ache?”
Bridget bit her lip hard, trying to hold back her tears, and gave a small nod.
The Empress gently stroked the girl’s hair.
“…I did not know.”
At that moment, Edwin spoke in a stunned voice.
“I had no idea Your Majesty was under such threat.”
“Threat?”
The Empress gave a short, incredulous laugh, as though the word itself were laughable.
“She is a pitiful woman who believes that seating her child on the crown prince’s throne will earn her the Emperor’s love.”
She lowered her eyes, as if picturing the Second Princess Consort.
“That woman is truly foolish. She, of all people, should know that the Emperor has never truly loved any woman.”
I quietly bowed my head at Melanie’s words.
Half of what she said was true. The other half was not.
Cabelius III once had a woman he loved with genuine sincerity.
It was a famous anecdote that had once set the entire empire abuzz.
The cold-blooded emperor who had slaughtered his own siblings to seize the throne had given his heart to a commoner and even seated her as his first empress.
Yes… and what the Second Princess Consort commissioned back then was…
I recalled Helena, the Second Princess Consort, who had visited the organization long ago.
She had been far younger and more beautiful then. At the time, she had requested an assassination.
Though I had not taken the job myself, I knew the details.
Because it had been Ian’s operation.
The assassination of the Empire’s First Empress.
It had been a rather successful mission.
Just as the client Helena desired, the First Empress lost her life, and the unborn child in her womb had been disposed of with unexpected ease.
“You must all be quite shocked. Go back now and rest.”
Melanie tugged the bell rope hanging above the bed.
The waiting maids immediately entered. They tidied the area around the Empress, prepared fresh clothes, and stood by with warm porridge to soothe her stomach.
“Bridget, I am sorry you had to experience such an unpleasant event on your birthday.”
“It is not something for Aunt to apologize for.”
Bridget offered a proper curtsey, then hung her head deeply.
She still looked as though she believed the Empress’s near-death was entirely her fault.
Melanie watched her nephew with pitying eyes before turning her gaze to me.
“Lady Rachel Brown.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I wish to repay you for saving my life.”
I slowly lifted my head at her words.
“If there is anything you desire, speak. I will grant you whatever it is.”