~Chapter 102~
The first person to notice something wrong with Joseph was Mariana.
At first, she thought he was just being fussy. But when the child’s face suddenly turned pale, she screamed instinctively.
“Joseph? What’s wrong, Joseph?!”
“……!”
Including me—who had been weakly chewing my bread—countless eyes turned at once toward the young prince.
Anyone could tell something was terribly wrong.
Behind us, the Empress’s maids turned deathly pale and shouted.
“Poisoning!! Close the chapel! Don’t let the culprit escape!”
“I will fetch the imperial physician immediately!”
“Your Majesty! Your Highness! Are you all right?!”
Startled fully awake, I hurriedly turned to look.
Joseph’s face was white as paper—something was clearly wrong. But if it were poisoning, neither the Empress, nor Rosalind, nor I showed any symptoms.
Normally, during the Eucharist, priests handed out the bread one by one.
But this was the imperial palace, and only high-ranking ladies were seated here. To prevent poisoning, guests personally chose their bread.
It was done so no one could predict who would take which piece.
“No, it’s not poisoning!”
“Elicia?”
“His airway is blocked. His mouth is open, but there’s no sound of breathing!”
Half-panicked, Mariana screamed.
Poisoning would have been bad enough—but if his airway was blocked, there was no time to wait for physicians.
Even a few minutes of delay could cost her beloved child’s life.
She began pounding Joseph’s chest wildly.
“Wake up! Please, your mother is here! Not like this—no, you can’t!”
“Kh—”
But despite his mother’s desperate cries, Joseph made one final weak sound and then fell silent.
More than a minute had already passed since his breathing stopped. How much longer could such a small child endure?
There was no time to think.
I shouted at the Empress, who had completely lost her reason.
“I’ll do it! Sit Joseph upright and lean his upper body slightly forward!”
I had never done this myself, but I remembered being taught by a priest.
I hurriedly removed Joseph’s jacket, leaving only his thin shirt. I found the position of his shoulder blades and struck hard between them with the base of my palm.
“Elicia, what are you doing?!”
“Don’t stop! One more time!”
If striking the back didn’t work, the next step would be pushing the abdomen upward.
I had no confidence in that at all, so I prayed this would work—and struck his back again with all my strength.
“Cough! Kh—!”
Joseph coughed violently and finally spat out a lump of bread.
Once the blockage was gone, he gasped for air, then began to tremble and cry loudly.
His pale face quickly returned to its normal color.
Seeing this, Mariana threw away all dignity as Empress and dropped to her knees. She pulled her son into her arms.
“Ah, God!”
“Waaah! Mother—!”
“I’m sorry, Joseph. Mother… Mother is sorry…….”
How much time passed after that?
The imperial physicians arrived in a rush and examined Joseph, who had fallen asleep from exhaustion.
Some of them were men, but unlike earlier, no one complained.
Mariana’s desperate tears had moved the hearts of all the women watching.
After finishing their examination, the physicians reported to the Empress.
“Fortunately, this was not poisoning. The Duchess of Lombard’s judgment was correct.”
“We must observe him further, but thanks to her quick response, there should be no lasting effects.”
“Thank goodness…….”
Mariana finally let out a long breath of relief.
After sending the sleeping child and the physicians back to the palace, she gently took my hand.
“Thank you, Elicia. You saved me.”
“…….”
“Joseph is my life itself. If I had lost him, I would not have been able to go on living.”
“What I did wasn’t much. Joseph endured it well.”
“There are so many things I want to talk to you about. But we’ll have to do that later.”
The hall was still noisy.
Because the incident had happened in the seat of honor, everyone had seen it clearly.
Letting out a quiet sigh, Mariana fixed her disheveled hair, wiped her wet eyes, and began walking through the hall to calm everyone.
Instead of being comforted herself, she started reassuring those who had been frightened.
Thanks to Mariana’s composed response, the chaos quickly settled.
And by the time the interrupted ceremony was fully completed, dawn had already broken.
Isabellaaa!!
I had been held up by the Empress for far too long.
Unable to give up my desire to grow closer despite the entire universe getting in the way, I hurried outside.
But the chapel—and the sacred grounds around it—were completely empty.
Staring blankly at the sight, bitterness suddenly welled up inside me.
This chance… after all that effort……
The opportunity to form a private connection with Isabella la Ferran—the person I loved, respected, and admired most in the world after my parents—had slipped away.
If only I hadn’t helped the Empress from the start.
Then maybe I could have sat beside Isabella all day, talked with her, and left a good impression.
Maybe it could have grown into exchanging letters every year!
She was famous for avoiding social events unless it was an important ceremony like today. I had no idea when I might see her again.
Perhaps not at all, while I remained in the capital……
No. Still, I saved a child. That’s enough.
I would soon return to Lombard anyway. What did currying favor with the Empress matter?
Because I was sitting right beside Joseph, I noticed his condition immediately.
If I had been seated farther away, I wouldn’t have noticed his breathing stop. Something truly terrible could have happened.
If I think of this as God’s will to save a life……
Even as I thought that, I kept rubbing my burning eyes for no reason.
That was when something heavy settled over my shoulders.
“Ellie, are you all right?”
Edwin was looking down at me with concern.
Despite my exhaustion, I asked in surprise.
“Why are you here, Ed?”
“I heard something happened during the Eucharist. I thought Ellie must have been badly shaken, so I couldn’t just sit still.”
“You came out as soon as you heard? The ceremony was delayed for a long time……”
The Offering Ceremony normally ended when the evening star appeared.
But now, not even the evening star—the sun was rising.
That meant Edwin had been standing outside for hours.
Shocked, I touched his cheek.
“It’s cold! Even in spring, dawn is still chilly…….”
“Ellie seems to forget where I come from sometimes. It’s embarrassing to call southern winds ‘cold.’”
“…….”
“I’m more worried about you. It was hard, wasn’t it?”
It was just an ordinary sentence.
It was hard, wasn’t it.
Such a simple, unremarkable line—but in that moment, the dam inside me broke, and a single tear rolled down.
Edwin calmly wiped my wet cheek.
But as if to mock the effort, more tears followed.
“Yes… it was hard…….”
Everything else would have been fine. I could have handled it.
If the Emperor got petty over humiliating an official, I could just flee north.
No matter who he was, he couldn’t kill his niece without reason.
As for Isabella, while she stayed at court, I might have found another chance through Katerina.
After all, Isabella’s maternal grandmother was from the Fabian royal family.
But when little Joseph’s breathing was fading—
What if I couldn’t save him? What if I failed to save that child who had looked so happy over something as simple as finger shadows?
I replayed the movements I had learned from Father Filio dozens—hundreds—of times in my head as I struck his back desperately.
Only now did that tension come rushing back all at once.
“It was really hard…….”
“Shh. It’s all right now.”
Everything felt tangled.
Overwhelmed by exhaustion and relief, I leaned into Edwin’s arms. My tears soaked his chest in silence.
Edwin held me for a long time without saying a word.
Then, when I finally began to calm down, he spoke in a steady voice.
“Ah—by the way, I ran into Marchioness Ferran. Just before you came out.”
