Chapter 97……………………….
“Everett.”
“Yes?”
“It’s night… Why are you staring outside like that? Do you actually see something?”
“Ah….”
Everett felt as if she’d been caught thinking about Kyle and snapped back without realizing.
“I see a beautiful, brilliant darkness.”
“Pfft.”
Kyle burst out laughing, and Everett felt a tingling at the back of her neck from his smile.
She shot him a slight glare as he kept chuckling.
“Sorry, sorry. I was waiting for you to look at me, but you kept staring out the window. Guess I got a little jealous.”
Kyle, still smiling, reached out and gently cupped one of Everett’s cheeks.
Then he slowly turned her toward him.
“Look at me, Everett. I’ve had so much to say to you I haven’t even let you speak….”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
What on earth was she imagining?
Noticing how red she’d become, Everett wanted to hide somewhere.
Kyle flashed a mischievous smile at her flustered expression.
“I wanted to do a lot of other things too, but time slipped away… Guess we’ll have to leave that for later.”
“Please don’t tease me, Lord Kyle.”
“I’m not teasing….”
“What is it you wanted to tell me?”
His gentle gaze made her lips feel parched.
She was grateful it was night, and that the carriage lights were dim.
“I’ve been to the Emperor’s secret passage.”
“You found where it leads? Last time you said only a few maps were left.”
“Yes, I found them all. I went in.”
Everett’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“Where does it connect?”
“I confirmed one goes to the Emperor’s study, and it looks like there are other hidden passages as well.”
A few days earlier, before dawn.
The air was thick with moisture, as if rain could pour at any moment.
Clouds blanketed the sky, making it hard to see even a step ahead.
Crunch, crunch.
The sound of Kyle’s careful footsteps filled the stillness where even insects made no noise.
He disappeared into the dense trees and reappeared in a space between two walls.
Dim light seeped into the area—it was the secret passage leading to the Emperor’s study.
It had been built by Ruber, and Kyle now remembered it.
Kyle walked through the passage without hesitation until a thick wall appeared before him.
On the left wall was a small hole through which one could spy on the corridor outside.
This was the very place where Duke Baccard had handed over the poisoned tea to the Emperor.
Kyle lowered his lightstone and examined the surrounding walls and floor.
“Seems this was as far as they used it.”
He placed his hand on the corner between the blocked wall and the side wall, slowly running it down.
When his fingers pressed a certain point, a clattering sound rang out, and the wall slid backward.
From the long-unused passage wafted the scent of old dust and mold.
At the true end of the secret passage, Kyle found another mechanism and pushed it.
This time, instead of another corridor, the Emperor’s study appeared.
Kyle pushed aside a bookcase standing next to the entrance and stepped inside.
“This smell….”
The scent of burned wood—one he’d smelled before—filled the study.
Kyle wrinkled his nose.
Lowering the lightstone so it wouldn’t be visible through the slightly parted curtains, he walked in slowly.
He soon stopped in front of a small table in the inner corner.
An empty teapot and a half-full cup of tea sat there.
Kyle picked up the teacup and brought it to his lips.
He wet only the tip of his tongue, then immediately spat it out.
“That unforgettable taste.”
Even though he spat it out quickly, the taste of the poison lingered on his tongue.
It was a taste he could never forget—or allow himself to forget.
It had been the starting point that made him lose Anish and be reborn as Kyle.
“To think that poison is still in use….”
He trembled, recalling the eyes of the man who had once told him to trust only him—smiling wide, hiding his treachery—while Kyle had foolishly been intoxicated by the poisoned tea.
Confirming it was the same poison he had once drunk, Kyle left the study at once.
Everett’s eyes trembled uneasily as she listened.
“Lord Kyle….”
She leaned closer, calling his name.
“Are you saying you just drank the poisoned tea?”
As she came so close, Kyle widened his eyes.
“Lady Gronji, if you come this close, how can I not feel nervous?”
His cheeky reply made Everett furrow her brow slightly.
“Lord Kyle, this isn’t something to joke about. Did you really drink the poison?”
“I only touched it with my tongue and spat it out right away. I’m really fine.”
Everett bit her lower lip tightly, then let out a small sigh.
Kyle liked the worried look in her eyes very much.
“If I’d known you’d worry this much, maybe I should’ve actually taken a sip. You could show me this much care all the time, you know.”
“Lord Kyle! Don’t say such things. You don’t even know what kind of poison it is—you could’ve died!”
Just then, a fleeting, sorrowful expression crossed Kyle’s face.
“I know exactly what kind of poison it is.”
“You do?”
“Yes. I took it once a long time ago.”
“A long time ago? When?”
Kyle paused for a moment, then spoke slowly.
“There was a nameless healer in the countryside. He was good with poisons, especially using them to ease pain. He had a real talent for it.”
“Ah, you must’ve encountered it while traveling along the borders. If it tastes the same, then… who brought the healer’s poison all the way to the capital?”
Kyle’s expression darkened.
Everett knew it meant he didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
Sometime along the way, Kyle had developed a habit of falling silent or looking pained mid-conversation.
Whenever that happened, Everett would stop speaking too, sharing his silence.
And so, the two of them sat in their own thoughts until they arrived at her estate.
Viscount Alaine Kind Kestarican.
A noble of the Bartmann Empire with one of the greatest fortunes.
But contrary to his reputation, Alaine was just a pitiful old man who had lost the only daughter he had and with her, the meaning of life.
Greedy relatives coveted his wealth, and his son-in-law didn’t even bother to hide his avarice.
The mansion, filled with memories of Dora, now felt like nothing but a massive coffin waiting for his death.
The only time he could escape the eyes watching him was when he took his walks.
He walked the same path he and Dora had walked every day, now shuffling along alone.
“Hoo….”
He could feel clearly that he was dying day by day.
The sky was low and dark, as if rain would pour at any moment. Maybe that was why his chest felt heavier.
Stopping and starting again, Alaine eventually collapsed onto a wooden bench midway through the path.
“Ha… I suppose there aren’t many days left for these walks.”
He looked up at the cloud-heavy sky and let out several deep sighs.
“With stamina enough to walk such a long path every day unaided, should you really be worrying about that?”
A man’s voice came from somewhere.
Startled, Alaine quickly looked around—this was a deserted place.
“Wh-who’s there?”
The voice came from behind the thick tree standing behind the bench.
A man in a gray hood stepped out halfway, and Alaine’s face went pale.
“Wh-what are you? Why are you hiding here?”
He tried to bark loudly to hide his fear, but his old voice still trembled.
When the man removed his hood, Alaine shot to his feet.
He trembled even more than when he hadn’t known who it was.
“L-Lord Kyle.”
Kyle spoke before Alaine could bow his head.
“Sit back down, Viscount Kestarican. I didn’t come here to receive your greeting.”
Kyle told him to sit, and Alaine finally turned back to the bench, sitting rigidly.
“No need to be so tense. I only came to talk briefly.”
“Y-yes, my lord.”
“I heard your story late. It must have been hard on you.”
“It’s nothing.”
“But… I heard it’s still hard for you now.”
“I… hard for me?”
Alaine’s heart pounded just from Kyle’s presence.
And now, with these incomprehensible words, he didn’t know how to respond.
His confusion showed plainly on the back of his untidy head.
Kyle let out a faint sigh.
“Some time ago, a woman claiming to be your wife asked me to curse you—to kill you.”
Kyle spoke bluntly, but Alaine only slumped his shoulders.
Kyle sensed it instantly.
This wasn’t the first time.
“There are plenty of people who wish me dead. Among them, the one who waits most eagerly…”
Alaine trailed off and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
“It’s pathetic to say with my own mouth… but it’s my son-in-law, Chad, and the maid he hired to ‘care’ for me, Joanne.”
Those were the same names Everett had mentioned.
“You knew, yet took no action?”
“I only found out recently.”
“How?”
“Ever since Joanne came, after every meal my whole body feels heavy and I can barely stay awake.”
