Chapter 30
“Hm? Your Majesty…? Sir Anais?”
Rath Arahan, who had arrived just in time to deliver documents to Karlcia, tilted his head at the unusual pairing before him—Anais, burning with fury, and beside him Karlcia, who appeared unnervingly calm.
It had been a very long time since Rath had seen Anais this enraged.
Even when Elizabeth’s name had once been splashed across headlines, Anais had never shown such open fury. In fact, Rath could not recall seeing him like this since he himself had been very young. The strange combination only deepened his curiosity.
“Ah, Rath. Leave the documents on the desk. I’ll deal with them as soon as I return from the medical wing.”
“…The medical wing? Are you unwell, Your Majesty?”
“…….”
For a brief moment, Karlcia hesitated.
Should he tell his close friend the truth, or not? The boy who had openly admitted that he had taken an interest in Elizabeth—what kind of expression would he make upon hearing this? The thought unsettled him.
There was, however, someone entirely unconcerned with Karlcia’s dilemma.
Anais, still seething, was grinding his teeth.
“Those vermin… how dare they lay a hand on our Ellie….”
“…Ellie? Then—has something happened to Lady Arlesia?!”
“…Haah. Yes. She collapsed after drinking poison. We’re on our way to confirm her condition.”
“……!!!”
The documents slipped from Rath’s hands before he even realized it.
Seeing this, Karlcia slowly shook his head. She may have changed, but in his mind Elizabeth was still a villainess. That was why he couldn’t understand it.
That the Saintess—Osborne—would attempt to kill a villainess? Absurd.
Anais’s reaction was understandable; Elizabeth was his granddaughter.
But Rath’s response—that was unexpected.
No matter how much Rath claimed to care for Elizabeth, it wasn’t as though he could be ignorant of the rumors surrounding her. Thinking it an overreaction, Karlcia was about to continue walking—
When Rath grabbed him again.
“What—! No, Sir Anais, what is the meaning of this?!”
Anais did not answer.
He merely stared straight ahead, eyes blazing, fixed on the path leading to the medical wing.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Rath hurriedly gathered the fallen documents and followed after him.
Bang!
Just how long would that door survive?
At the thunderous noise, which sounded as though the door might fall off entirely at any moment, the imperial physician let out a deep sigh and raised his head. The irritation that had filled his mind moments earlier vanished instantly upon seeing who had entered, replaced instead by shock—and fear.
“…G-greetings… to the radiant light and eternal sovereign of the Morc Empire—”
Karlcia did not even pause to hear the greeting.
He simply quickened his steps toward the woman lying on the bed.
The man who entered behind him did the same.
The imperial physician was dumbfounded. It was one thing for the Emperor and the empire’s sole Duke to ignore his greeting—but both of them heading straight for the patient?
If he failed to save that woman, he felt certain he would not leave this room alive.
The moment Rath checked Elizabeth’s condition, his voice rose sharply in anger.
“What happened here?!”
“She collapsed after drinking black tea brought by a maid of the Luciella Marchioness’s estate. According to Ain’s report.”
Anais was the first to answer.
His voice had calmed slightly compared to earlier, but the murderous intent and rage beneath it were unmistakable. Karlcia ignored Anais’s glare and continued to examine Elizabeth closely.
“Imperial physician. Explain.”
“…Th-that is….”
“You will speak plainly.”
The Emperor’s voice cut through the room like a blade slicing the air.
The imperial physician panicked. He knew it was poisoning. But he didn’t know what poison it was. Without knowing that, he couldn’t prepare an antidote—and admitting that outright would likely cost him his life.
“She… ingested poison—”
“To anyone with eyes, it’s poisoning,” Rath snapped coldly.
His words carried an unspoken demand: What poison? And where is the antidote?
The imperial physician understood that perfectly.
But he truly did not know.
“…Your Majesty!! Please—execute me at once!!”
The physician suddenly dropped to his knees, begging for death.
Karlcia, who stared at him in disbelief, neither told him to rise nor interrupted. He simply waited to hear what would come next.
“I know she has been poisoned, and that her condition is critical! But at present, we cannot identify what poison Lady Arlesia ingested, so—”
As the physician spoke, Karlcia turned his gaze back to Elizabeth.
Osborne couldn’t have done this.
And yet—what was this irritation gnawing at him?
How amusing. At the ballroom, merely looking at your face irritated me. And yet now, seeing you lying here, barely breathing, irritates me even more.
Yes. He had never been friendly toward her.
Because she danced the first dance with his close friend?
Because she wore red, a color he despised?
Either could have been the reason—or perhaps none at all.
The truth was simpler: the moment he saw red, he felt irritated.
And when he learned that she was Elizabeth Arlesia—the witch, the villainess—
The irritation doubled.
How could he not know that name? He had heard it to the point of exhaustion. The sole granddaughter of House Vincent. A former candidate for Crown Princess, once chosen by the late Emperor.
Of course, all of that had been rejected by Anais, so it was doubtful she herself had ever known. What remained etched in Karlcia’s memory, however, was merely this:
She resembled the red he despised.
Having withdrawn from society and confined herself to only minimal engagements, she had already cemented her reputation as a villainess.
“Is there any way to identify the poison?”
“…At present, it appears the poison has already been absorbed. If there were any unabsorbed residue remaining, it would be possible.”
“Even if I favor Lady Luciella, there can be no exceptions in public matters. And the noblewoman threatened by poisoning belongs to House Vincent. That is no different from a warning directed at me, the Emperor himself. Marquis Anais Vincent—conduct a thorough investigation and report directly to me. If necessary, mobilize an imperial investigation unit and uncover the truth without omission.”
“The Guardian Knight Order is already investigating the marchioness’s estate.”
Karlcia stared blankly at Elizabeth for a while longer before speaking again, his voice heavy.
“…Imperial physician. Raise your head.”
“…….”
Only then did Karlcia seem to recall the man prostrated before him. He ordered him to lift his head. The physician was drenched in sweat, clearly terrified that he might be executed on the spot. It left Karlcia with an unpleasant taste in his mouth, but he forced himself to endure it.
This was not the physician’s fault.
If there was fault, it lay either with the woman collapsed before him—
—or with the woman he had once considered as Empress: Osborne Luciella.
“Your Majesty.”
“…….”
Rath, who had remained silent, cautiously called out.
Karlcia turned to him.
“Even if the Guardian Knights bring back evidence, it may be too late. As the imperial physician said, time is critical.”
“I know. But what alternative do we have?”
“There is a priest who treated Elizabeth before.”
“How would you know that?”
“Because Lady Luciella once requested permission to bring a temple priest into the Empire. I approved it.”
“And what difference would a priest make? The poison has already been absorbed. Even with divine power and healing arts, there are limits.”
“Even so, he may be able to prevent it from spreading further.”
“…Rath. Bring that priest before me immediately.”
“Yes. I will obey the imperial command.”
After Rath left to summon the priest, and the flustered imperial physician was also dismissed, Karlcia finally let out a deep sigh.
“Brat. If you lay even a finger on our Ellie while I’m gone—”
“That will not happen, Sir Anais.”
“I will leave several Guardian Knights here as escorts. I will now head to the Luciella Marchioness’s estate.”
“Yes. Understood.”
Once Anais departed as well, Karlcia realized the room contained only himself and Elizabeth, who lay unconscious after vomiting blood.
He frowned.
Osborne couldn’t have done this.
And yet it also didn’t feel like the woman before him had staged this herself by deliberately drinking poison.
And then—what was this sense of déjà vu?
『I’ll protect you.』
He didn’t know whose voice it was.
Why was that line—spoken by a small child who sometimes appeared in his dreams—surfacing now, so vividly, like a memory?
Karlcia didn’t know.
“Come to think of it… I haven’t had that dream in quite some time. Well. It doesn’t matter.”
He adjusted the blanket over Elizabeth’s bloodless form, covering her properly, then turned and left the medical wing, heading back toward the Emperor’s Palace.
