Chapter 42
When I woke up after losing consciousness, it was already morning. Just yesterday my body had been burning up and my head was spinning.
But when I got up, I felt absurdly fine. For a minor supporting character, my recovery speed was practically that of a protagonist.
‘Anyone who saw me would think I’d just taken a nap.’
If only that were really the case…
Then why do I remember everything from yesterday?!
What happened at last night’s banquet was vivid in my mind. I had cursed at Bastian, saying he had a filthy temper, and to Daniel… to Daniel…
‘What do I do?!’
I screamed inwardly. Not being able to control my own mind was this terrifying. “Clara” was far weaker to her impulses than I had thought. This must have been Clara’s instinct.
‘Ahhh… why did you have to kiss him…!’
I felt like I’d already sighed dozens of times in my head. Before I realized it, a sob slipped out.
“Sniff…”
Sarah was down by the bed. Hearing me, she jumped to her feet.
“Princess!”
“Sarah…”
She looked awful, as if she’d been extremely worried. Soon, Mia and Emily, who had been doing their own tasks in the room, came running over.
“Princess, are you all right?”
“Waaah, Princess!”
Sarah placed her hand on my forehead to check my temperature. All the maids were worried about me. Emily cried out through tears.
“I’ll fetch His Highness right away! Please wait just a moment!”
“No… don’t.”
“Yes?”
Emily, who had been about to rush out, froze. I spoke in a hollow voice.
“…Just say I died.”
From embarrassment.
Ah, now I’ve remembered yesterday again. What am I supposed to do?
As I lamented with tears on my face, the door opened. It was Bastian. Entering with the physician, he widened his eyes.
“Clara!”
“Your Highness…”
If I’d simply been quietly feverish, it might have been a touching reunion. But the disgraceful behavior I’d shown in front of him replayed vividly in my mind.
I couldn’t exactly kick Bastian out. With a miserable expression, I greeted him.
“You’re here…?”
After sending Bastian out so I could prepare, I hurriedly washed my face with the water Mia brought. Then I properly welcomed him again.
“Congratulations!”
The physician declared that I had completely recovered. He said my recovery was astonishingly fast and that he would prescribe medicine to help restore my strength, then left.
That left just Bastian and me alone to talk.
“The prince…?”
I wasn’t mentally prepared to face Bastian, but this didn’t seem like a situation where that mattered.
Daniel had supposedly mixed poison into the herbs to target me?
When Bastian first came in, I’d been flustered and unsure what to do. But now, I looked at him and spoke firmly.
“That’s impossible. There’s no way the prince would do such a thing.”
“Yesterday, that maid confessed. She said it was the prince’s doing.”
“No.”
I refuted him without hesitation. I knew the original story.
Daniel quietly biding his time for months just to harm someone?
Nonsense. If anything, the crown prince would make more sense.
In the original story, the one desperate to get rid of Daniel was the crown prince. The previous assassin and this poisoning—thinking it was the crown prince’s doing was far more plausible.
‘The crown prince is trying to put Daniel in danger!’
I shared my thoughts with Bastian.
“I think it’s Crown Prince Matthias. This can’t be something Prince Daniel did.”
“You…”
When I insisted on Daniel’s innocence, Bastian frowned.
“Don’t try to shield the prince. Don’t let that pretty exterior fool you!”
As if clinging to someone caught in a cult, he suddenly raised his voice.
“Pardon? Fooled…?”
I looked at him awkwardly. Well, Bastian probably already knew. I’d openly said I liked Daniel’s looks.
Yesterday’s me… why were you like that?
Still, even if I died of embarrassment, I had to say what needed to be said. I shook my head, trying to stay calm.
“It’s not like that. Politically speaking, the crown prince and Prince Daniel are on opposing sides, aren’t they?”
“…That’s true.”
Bastian nodded with a sullen expression.
“If the crown prince is the type who would use any means to eliminate a political rival, then it wouldn’t be strange for him to have done this. Think about it. Every time I was in danger, Prince Daniel stepped in to save me.”
The crown prince had exiled Daniel to the frontier to protect his position. And Bastian had eliminated his own brothers to protect the throne. A madman recognizes another madman.
Soon, Bastian conceded.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that the crown prince did it.”
“Right? Then where is Prince Daniel?”
“In prison.”
I vividly imagined Daniel, who had done nothing wrong, locked up in prison without even knowing why. Poor Daniel.
I grabbed Bastian’s hand resting on my own and asked carefully.
“Brother… can’t you release the prince…?”
“Release him?”
Bastian frowned. Even after saying it might have been the crown prince, he still seemed displeased with Daniel.
“Yes. I’m completely better now… and the prince isn’t the bad one. He’s such a righteous and kind person.”
Bastian’s expression didn’t improve. If anything, he looked more irritated than before.
Was that wrong?
Maybe I said something I shouldn’t have. Still, even now, I was worried about Daniel suffering in prison.
‘I need to persuade him quickly.’
Suddenly, I remembered Bastian’s reaction from yesterday. Looking at his displeased face, one plausible method came to mind.
It seemed like the fastest and most effective option.
Should I close my eyes and do it just once?
No… it’s still hard….
As I hesitated and stared at him, Bastian tilted his head.
“What are you thinking about right now?”
Just as he finished speaking, I planted a quick kiss on his cheek.
“!!”
Bastian made a strange noise. His face instantly turned bright red. As if he’d been slapped, he clutched his cheek with one hand and stared at me.
Wow, this is so embarrassing…!
My face burned too. Fidgeting, I grabbed Bastian’s hand again.
“Please, brother…”
I looked up at him with desperate eyes.
“Please… okay?”
It was worth doing something I shouldn’t have done to my brother. In the end, Bastian granted my request.
That afternoon, Daniel came to my bedroom together with Bastian.
“Princess…!”
Daniel’s face lit up the moment he saw me. Was yesterday’s incident really nothing to him?
As if that were the case, Daniel quickly walked over and then dropped to one knee in front of me.
“Prince?!”
Why was he kneeling all of a sudden? As I cried out in surprise, he took my hand. Pressing it to his forehead, Daniel closed his eyes.
“That Her Highness is safe…”
His voice was full of emotion.
“That you’re safe… I’m truly relieved.”
He let out a small sigh with his eyes still closed. My heart began to race, in a different way than when I’d been poisoned.
As I lowered my hand, Daniel slowly opened his eyes. His deep blue eyes, as if they could pull me in, were fixed on me.
“I prayed that you would open your eyes safely. I was so worried about what I’d do if you never woke up…”
Daniel’s face was filled with joy.
“Thank you so much for coming back to us, Princess!”
The moment I saw his bright smile, my heart dropped with a thud.
‘This is why Clara fell for him…!’
It was truly terrifying power. I couldn’t help clutching my chest with a gasp.
Only after Bastian pulled Daniel away, grumbling that he’d lost his mind, were we able to talk a bit more calmly.
Though… was this really calm?
“What about the fever? And the poison?”
Daniel fired off questions in rapid succession. I answered in a small, muttering voice.
“The fever’s gone… I’m not in pain anymore.”
Yesterday’s memories resurfaced vividly. Maybe it would’ve been better if I’d never woken up. Feeling gloomy, I offered Daniel a belated apology.
“Prince… um, about yesterday… it’s not that I wanted to do that at all…”
‘I’m really sorry for unintentionally sexually harassing you!’
I was about to say that, but Daniel shook his head.
“I understand. You were poisoned, weren’t you?”
“Th-that’s true…”
Poisoned, and my instincts overpowered my reason.
After a brief silence, I studied him and asked,
“Then… will you forget about yesterday? Yesterday, I wasn’t in my right mind because of the poison.”
I planned to chalk up my insanity to the poison. Though clutching my chest earlier bothered me a little.
Then Daniel abruptly shifted his stance.
“What happened between us yesterday? I don’t remember anything at all.”
That’s going too far!
It was almost frightening how sincerely he asked what had happened. Still, it was a relief that he was willing to bury the incident.
‘This Daniel tried to poison me?’
No way. I turned to look at Bastian. He was staring at Daniel with an expression that said, You’ve got to be kidding me.
‘The prince isn’t a bad person.’
With that meaning, I subtly shook my head.
Daniel quickly noticed the exchange of glances. With a downcast expression, he said,
“I swear I have no connection to that maid, but I won’t claim I bear no fault. This happened because of me.”
He, too, seemed to suspect the crown prince. But Daniel didn’t stop at acknowledging responsibility. With determined eyes, he continued,
“I will pay the price. What must I do for Your Highness to feel at ease? Just say the word. Even if you tell me to serve you like a slave, I will atone to you for the rest of my life.”
I was horrified.
“No, there’s no need for that!”
When he tried to kneel again, I stopped him. What kind of prince kneels this easily?
I stared at him wide-eyed and said,
“We can just ask the maid again who ordered her to do it.”
To get the answer he wanted, Bastian immediately began that “questioning.”
