Chapter 89 …
I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt the sensation of defying gravity.
All I could hope was that wherever my body slammed into, it wouldn’t hurt.
Thud—
“Are you alright, my lady?”
Fortunately, the place my frail body landed was Mikhail’s chest. He had half-collapsed onto the floor and barely managed to catch me.
“I’m fine, thanks to you.”
A sigh of relief escaped both my lips and Mikhail’s at the same time.
I quickly got up and looked out the window to assess the situation.
There was no way the coachman had stopped the carriage for no reason. Something urgent must have happened.
“It sounded like something hit us from behind…”
Yep. The carriage carrying the dresses had rammed straight into ours.
“My lady, I’ll go check.”
“Alright. What on earth is going on now…”
Shaking my head, I pressed my fingers into my temples. Just when I thought I could finally relax, a random traffic accident had to happen.
While I lay slumped over the soft seat waiting for Mikhail to return, I heard the carriage door open and close.
It seemed he had already finished checking the situation and come back.
Creak, click—
“You’re back fast. Don’t tell me the carriage broke down?”
“It’s been a while, Lady Ariel.”
“…?”
That wasn’t Mikhail’s voice. It sounded familiar, though.
Holding my breath, I slowly lifted my stiff eyelids. Sitting across from me was a man in unmistakably suspicious attire.
The man, cloaked entirely in black robes, slightly lowered his hood to reveal his face.
His golden eyes gleamed sharply.
“Crown Prince Ricardo?”
My eyes wavered aimlessly as I recognized the intruder. A dumbfounded sound slipped from my lips.
“My lady, there isn’t much time. Will you listen to me for just a moment?”
Hypnotized by his urgent voice, I nodded.
Ricardo spoke rapidly, as if firing off prepared lines without even pausing to breathe.
“I know you just met my mother. In the basement of the late Empress’s quarters in the eastern palace.”
“…That’s right.”
“I don’t know what was discussed there. But there’s something I must tell you.”
He took a brief breath, then spoke in a low, cautionary tone.
“Please, no matter what happens, do not go near the Fountain of Nepirion for the time being.”
“Can you tell me why?”
“That is difficult. And not just you—no Valienor should go near the Fountain of Nepirion. Including Duke Valienor. Will you promise me?”
His clear golden eyes pierced into my chest.
If I dared judge, his words seemed sincere. Both my sixth sense and intuition were screaming the same thing.
“I promise.”
At my immediate answer, Ricardo exhaled sharply. Color returned to his previously pale face.
“Thank you for trusting me. And…”
“And?”
“Please protect Rishar well. I’m begging you.”
His face—gentler than a priest’s—twisted in anguish. Even mentioning Rishar seemed to pain him.
Before I could respond, Ricardo vanished like the wind.
A moment later, Mikhail rushed back and flung the carriage door open.
“My lady, are you alright? I sensed someone inside the carriage.”
“Come in first. I’ll explain.”
Steadying my breathing, I replayed the events that had just unfolded.
Those desperate eyes. That candid tone. The unmistakable message.
I didn’t know the reason, but the meaning of his actions was clear.
The Crown Prince Ricardo and the First Empress wanted different things.
And something unpleasant was going to happen near the Fountain of Nepirion.
“How are things outside?”
“The carriage, the coachman, and the horses are all fine. Strangely enough.”
“Ah… so the collision was just bait. Crown Prince Ricardo came to see me while you were gone.”
“…!”
I relayed everything Ricardo had said to Mikhail—except for the part where he asked me to protect Rishar.
Mikhail’s facial muscles stiffened. To others, he looked as expressionless as ever, but to me, he looked gravely serious.
“The Empress definitely said I had been drinking the fountain water. She even claimed it was a miracle cure for my chronic illness.”
“That is an absurd lie. Not only is the fountain’s efficacy unproven, but it has never been discussed with the Duke. Unless someone secretly mixed the water into your food…”
Mikhail suddenly trailed off and sighed.
After all, during the long time I stayed in the annex, there was no way to guarantee that hadn’t happened.
“Hey… the Empress also knew I’ve been collapsing a lot lately. Do you think there’s a spy among my close aides?”
“For now, we should report this to the Duke as soon as we return to the hotel. It would be best to discuss it together on the way back to Valienor tomorrow.”
“Okay. Oh, right—where is the Fountain of Nepirion?”
“It is located at the Nepirion family’s private villa on the Mahala Plateau, northeast of the capital.”
“Have you ever been there? What kind of place is the Mahala Plateau?”
“You can think of it as a dense forest region filled with evergreen trees year-round. The villa and the fountain lie at its center. Only direct members of the Nepirion line may enter, so I have not seen it myself.”
“I see… The fact they’re hiding it so tightly is suspicious.”
A mysterious fountain surrounded by dense forest.
Suddenly, an image I had forgotten flashed through my mind.
Meterio, drenched in water, collapsed in the middle of a forest. And Crown Prince Ricardo staring straight at him.
“Could it be… the scene in Brody’s painting…?”
An involuntary gasp escaped me. It might be a stretch, but my instincts were usually right.
Unable to hide my confusion, I stared intently at Mikhail, hoping he would read my thoughts and agree.
As expected, my AI-like secretary did not disappoint.
“I will contact Brody and have him identify the species of the tree in the painting. If it turns out to be an evergreen…”
“Then there will be no doubt. The Empress is planning to kill Father at the Fountain of Nepirion. I don’t know why—but the Crown Prince intends to stop it.”
“My lady, please don’t worry too much. No one simply needs to go to the Nepirion Fountain.”
“Right. Once we reach the hotel, we must inform Father immediately. As quickly as possible.”
“Yes, my lady.”
At the end of the exhausting day, I returned to the hotel. After tightly hugging my younger siblings who came to greet me, I headed straight up to the second floor.
They trailed behind me, chattering.
“Big Sister, are you alright?”
“Unni, nothing happened, right? That First Empress seemed even weirder than Roxanne.”
“Hey, don’t worry about me and go to bed already. We retrieved the dress, so we’ll unpack it once we return to Valienor.”
“Okay, Unni.”
“Yes. Please rest well too, Sister.”
Once my perceptive siblings stepped away, the cat started making a fuss.
As if protesting being left alone at the hotel all day, the cat yowled for quite a while.
“Myaaaa! Myaaa!”
“Good grief, you’re so noisy. Fine, fine—I was wrong.”
Brazenly talking back to Liri’s complaints, I scooped the cat into my arms.
At the unexpected reaction, Liri’s golden eyes widened into circles. I leaned close to the cat’s ear and whispered quietly.
“I have something to talk to you about, so let’s go in first.”
“Mya!”
After that cheerful reply, the door shut firmly.
After letting Liri roam the room, I pressed my ear to the door to make sure my siblings hadn’t followed.
“Davina and Jeremiah are in their rooms. A cat’s hearing is several times sharper than a human’s, so you can trust me.”
Rishar, already transformed back into human form, had come right up behind me.
His yellow pupils shone brightly in the moonlight. He looked excited to finally have time alone together.
“So what did you want to talk about? I was worried sick when you said you were going to meet the First Empress.”
“Let’s sit and talk first.”
I tugged on Rishar’s sleeve and pulled him deeper into the room.
Sitting side by side at the edge of the bed, I took a slow breath and began.
“Did you know there’s a secret room in the basement of the eastern palace?”
“How do you know about that, noona?”
“The First Empress invited me there today.”
“…Ah. So that woman found Mother’s basement.”
“Do you know what’s in that basement?”
“I only went there once when I was little. It was extremely white and bright. I just remember a lot of glass bottles like alchemy tools and books.”
There didn’t seem to be a shred of deceit in Rishar’s innocent expression as he described the basement.
But his description was quite different from the basement I had seen.
To clear up my doubts, I questioned him again.
“The basement I saw was very dark and secretive. And there weren’t any glass bottles at all. Instead, there was a huge statue for Abelungen followers. Does any of that ring a bell?”
“What? The basement was dark? And Abelungen?”
Shock flashed across Rishar’s clear face. He stared blankly at me, then cautiously asked—
“Noona… just in case— you’re not suspecting me, right?”
