[CHAPTER 128]
“The Duke of Wentworth told me this medicine was a love potion.”
“Amelia, give it to me.”
Feeling relieved that I could at least say this much, I opened the vial as it was and brought the mouth of the bottle to my lips.
“Amelia!”
This was a kind of performance, and I never intended to actually drink it and die, so just a little.
The taste and smell of the medicine were awful.
The moment it touched my mouth, I spat it out violently.
“Ugh!”
“Amelia!”
“Cough, cough. A love… potion, they said… so, cough.”
“No, this isn’t some love potion. This is….”
Vincent urgently denied it.
That was a relief.
The fact that he said this meant it was now possible to assume that Amelia in her previous life had known the same thing.
“Cough, cough, ugh!”
But my throat kept burning, and the coughing would not stop.
“Amelia, quickly, you need to see a physician.”
Vincent spoke urgently and tried to lift me as I bent over, but the moment I slightly raised my head, Vincent’s expression twisted.
“Amel… ia.”
“Why… ah…?”
Only then did I see the blood pooling on the floor.
I had only brought it to my lips.
I had spat almost all of it out.
At most, only a few drops could have gone in.
Then why was this happening?
The moment I saw the blood, a burning sensation flared in my throat, and my vision began to spin.
Soon, the floor drew closer and closer.
I felt Vincent’s urgent voice and the arms supporting me.
I wanted to say something, but unable to overcome the burning pain and the wave of sleep crashing over me, I fell unconscious.
* * *
Blood dripped onto the floor inside the room.
Red splatters stained the pale bedding and soaked into the floor.
Vincent froze as he lifted Amelia from the ground and held her in his arms.
Her slender body went limp, and crimson blood trickled down from her pale lips.
At that moment, Vincent’s heart dropped heavily.
He overlapped with his past self, who had collapsed and died after drinking tea in his previous life.
“Amelia.”
He called her name once more, but Amelia had already lost consciousness.
With trembling lips pressed tightly together, Vincent brought his ear close to her face and placed a hand on her neck.
She was still breathing.
Her pulse was there.
But she was unconscious and had vomited blood.
Vincent, who knew better than anyone what kind of poison this was, was seized by anxiety as if icy air wrapped around his entire body.
This was not a simple medicine.
It was certainly not a love potion.
It was poison.
The very poison that had killed him in his previous life.
Even as his reason told him so, Vincent’s heart desperately wanted to deny it.
Why did she drink it?
To prove that she had no intention of giving it to him?
Or because she truly believed it was a love potion?
Then why, unlike his previous life, did Amelia drink it herself right in front of him instead of giving it to him?
Whatever the reason, the doubts and distrust that had filled his mind until now seemed to shatter into pieces at this moment.
Even as he wanted to trust Amelia, he had thought she might betray him someday.
The anxiety that had grown since the moment the Mage Tower Master showed interest in her exploded the instant he saw the vial.
Was she still the duke’s puppet?
Then what was it that she had shown him?
But faced with Vincent’s suspicion, Amelia swallowed poison to prove her innocence.
Leaving behind those incomprehensible words, “a love potion.”
Vincent took out a handkerchief.
He gently wiped the blood-soaked lips of the woman in his arms.
Her small hand hung limp without the slightest movement.
Her breath was there, but it trembled faintly.
Closing his eyes, Vincent steadied his breathing.
He clenched the handkerchief tightly in his palm to hide his trembling hand.
“Vivian, are you there?”
The restless pacing outside the door stopped, and the moment Vincent’s words fell, the door burst open.
“My lady!”
“Go at once and summon the imperial physician.”
Vivian fidgeted as if she wanted to rush straight to Amelia, but in the end, she obeyed Vincent’s order and ran out into the corridor.
“Your Highness, you’re still here— oh!”
She nearly collided with someone, but without even checking who it was, Vivian dashed down the hallway in a panic.
“Your Highness, the matter isn’t finished yet—”
With a bewildered expression, Oscar watched as Vincent carefully laid the limp Amelia onto the bed and sensed that something serious had happened.
“Oscar, go and bring Sylvia.”
“Lady Sylvia? Ah, yes. Understood.”
As he answered, Oscar ended up seeing it.
Vincent tightly holding Amelia’s hand.
And Vincent’s face, drained completely pale.
Though he usually appeared calm, he was clearly afraid now.
Even as he heard Oscar leave, Vincent did not take his eyes off Amelia.
What did I miss?
Something was wrong.
Something had been overlooked.
Even amid his distrust of her, Vincent had harbored a single “what if.”
A faint hope that perhaps the Amelia of this life might make different choices from her previous life.
But both distrust and hope felt meaningless as he looked at Amelia collapsed before his eyes.
All that remained was the fear that she might die like his past self had.
“Please, Amelia.”
Holding Amelia’s cold hand between both of his, Vincent brought her fingers to his lips.
“I’m sorry for everything.”
He hoped that whatever had revived him would also reach Amelia.
And that a miracle would appear in this life, not the next.
As Vincent prayed desperately to a god he had never once sought, the imperial physician and Sylvia arrived one after the other.
Vincent sprang up, gave the imperial physician space, and showed him the vial he had prepared beforehand.
Inside the transparent vial, about half remained of a murky liquid.
“She drank this and vomited blood. Examine it carefully.”
“Understood. I will first check the patient’s condition. Please step outside for a moment.”
At the physician’s words, Vincent, Oscar, and Sylvia stepped outside the room.
Inside, it seemed that Vivian and the maids were removing Amelia’s outer garments.
Vincent handed the vial to Sylvia.
“Do you know what’s inside?”
Sylvia lifted the vial and examined it from different angles.
A faint light flickered from her hand and then vanished.
“It’s reacting to mana. It doesn’t seem to be a simple poison, but rather a magical concoction. However, for a magical potion, it has a lot of impurities….”
Normally, potions made through magic were nearly clear, but this one was visibly cloudy at a glance.
“Amelia drank it. We need to find out what it is quickly.”
Though worry for Amelia was evident on Sylvia’s face, she could not hide her curiosity.
“I’ll take it to my room for a moment and come back. My tools are there. I’ll need to examine it closely.”
Vincent did not scold Sylvia for that.
Whatever it was, the result mattered most.
“Be quick.”
With Vincent’s permission, Sylvia hurried down the corridor.
Vincent paced the hallway anxiously, glanced through the half-open doorway, then turned away.
“Your Highness, they say you may come in.”
At Vivian’s words a moment later, Vincent quickly entered the room and urged the imperial physician on.
“Tell me.”
“I cannot say exactly what kind of substance it is, but….”
“It’s poison, and a magical one.”
“I see. However, it does not appear to be an immediately lethal toxin. Perhaps because the amount ingested was small, her esophagus and stomach have been damaged, but her life does not seem to be in danger.”
At the physician’s words, Vincent finally let out a sigh of relief.
The physician continued.
“However, she is not in a condition to swallow medicine, so it would be better to use another method….”
Vincent immediately thought of Sylvia.
“When the mage arrives, treat her together.”
“Yes, that should work. Then I will go prepare some medicinal ingredients.”
After the imperial physician left, Vincent quietly looked down at the sleeping Amelia.
