Chapter 19
After taking the antidote, I returned to the banquet hall. I wandered around, looking for Lady Stover, but I couldn’t find her anywhere.
The anger that had flared up like a fever had already subsided.
“Could she have sensed that I realized something and already run off?”
No matter where I looked, there wasn’t a trace of Lady Stover. Not even at the center of the hall, where the crowd was thickest.
As I was checking faces one by one, surrounded by people, I suddenly coughed.
“Cough…!”
Then it came again, several times in a row.
“Cough, cough!”
It was a bad sign. This was exactly how my coughing fits began.
I stopped walking and pressed my hand against my mouth.
“Cough, cough…!”
I had taken medicine—so why now…?
Suddenly, I remembered the antidote I had taken. Could it be that the antidote had not only counteracted the drug in the champagne, but also nullified the effects of the cough and hemoptysis medicine?
I was doomed.
It might have been better than a violent incident, but coughing up blood was a huge problem for me.
“Cough!”
Once it started, the coughing wouldn’t stop.
The attendant who had accompanied me to the banquet should have brought my sedative as well, but the hall was huge, and I felt like I’d start spitting blood before I could even find them.
People began to notice my unusual state and started approaching. It was already too late.
“Madame Duchess? Are you all right?”
“Cough! Don’t worry about me… cough! Enjoy the banquet, cough!”
Telling them not to worry seemed to have no effect. To make matters worse, once a few people started paying attention, the crowd quickly swelled.
“Oh my! Is the Duchess sick?”
“Are you okay?”
I couldn’t answer—they were watching me cough up blood.
“Oh my! Blood… blood! It’s blood!”
“Ahhh!”
Some screamed.
After that, it only got worse. My hemoptysis wouldn’t stop, making it seem as if I were about to die, while everyone stared in shock.
I wanted to escape the crowd, even belatedly, but I was too weak to move.
Meanwhile, that servant had run off. Insolent fool.
Then it happened.
“Your Grace!”
“The Duke has arrived!”
Chiron appeared.
Strangely, hearing his voice gave me some relief.
He couldn’t directly help my condition, and I hadn’t been waiting for him, yet his presence felt like a savior today.
Through my haze of coughing and sitting on the floor, I saw the crowd parting, and then a man walking through them.
He bent down slowly to meet my eye level.
Chiron said nothing, his expression cold and unyielding.
He wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me effortlessly.
The last time I saw him, his expression hadn’t been this grim. Now, he looked like someone who could kill without hesitation.
Was he thinking that I had soiled the Duke family’s honor with blood?
Chiron began walking with me in his arms.
“Make way.”
That was all he said. The harsh tone made the onlookers part, clearing a path.
He remained silent the entire way out of the hall, except for the sound of my uncontrollable coughing.
Only when the attendant caught up did Chiron finally speak.
“We need a room where my wife can rest.”
“I’ll find one immediately.”
“Don’t dawdle—quickly.”
The attendant ran to secure a room.
Soon, they returned with a room and guided us inside.
Chiron carefully sat me on a large sofa in the center.
The attendant brought the sedative, and after taking it, my coughing slowly began to subside.
Until it completely stopped, Chiron remained silent, staring at me with a scarily intense gaze.
Once I started to feel better, he finally spoke, his voice low and grim.
“Was there an incident while I was away?”
His cold, interrogating eyes were fixed on me.
Was he displeased that the person who ruined the banquet was his wife?
Explaining everything would take time.
“It was Lady Lucy Stover.”
“…Stover? The daughter of that Marquis?”
“Yes. You should know—your family had wanted to arrange a marriage with her.”
The Marquis had once sent daily letters and tried to arrange meetings with Lucy Stover, so he must know.
Chiron frowned, recalling vaguely.
After a moment, he muttered in disbelief:
“Ah… that woman. I can barely remember her face.”
Was this man really so indifferent outside of work? Not even remembering Lady Stover’s face?
“Bring her here.”
He gave a brief order to his subordinates.
“Yes, sir!”
“But… didn’t you take medicine before coming?”
His questioning wasn’t over.
“I did.”
“Was the doctor incompetent? The medicine didn’t work?”
“It wasn’t that the medicine didn’t work.”
It wasn’t the doctor’s fault—it was Lady Stover’s doing.
“The medicine didn’t fail. I unintentionally took the antidote because of Lady Stover, and that nullified the effects of my medicine.”
“Antidote?”
Eventually, I told him the whole story: from Lady Stover talking to me in the waiting room, offering me champagne, me finding out the truth about it, to taking the antidote.
“I have proof, thanks to the notebook you gave me.”
I pulled out my magic notebook. Chiron stiffened as he read it.
“I tried to find Lady Stover, but I couldn’t. She may have already run away. The attendant who helped her escape also fled, but that attendant gave me the antidote, so it must be taken into account.”
Chiron nodded heavily.
“Bring the cooperating attendant as well.”
He ordered his subordinates, who immediately dispersed.
As the footsteps faded, silence filled the room.
Being alone with my husband still felt awkward—unbelievably so for a couple married a year.
“Aren’t you leaving?”
Unable to bear the awkwardness, I asked.
“I’m not leaving.”
He answered as if it were obvious.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re sick.”
Such a concise answer felt incredibly strange. This wasn’t the Chiron I knew.
From overreacting to a sprained ankle to now, I couldn’t help but doubt his sanity.
‘…Has his mind gone crazy?’
A sick wife, a potentially insane husband—it wasn’t impossible. Since I had developed new abilities after possession, maybe Chiron had gone mad too.
Or maybe… he was a possessor or a time-rewinder.
My thoughts spiraled.
Could he have gone through life, returned, and decided to treat Ekette differently? Perhaps in the future, Ekette would take revenge, and knowing this, a reborn Chiron chose to treat her well.
I laughed at my own overactive imagination.
“Are you… living a second life or something?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Did you die and come back?”
His eyes narrowed suspiciously.
He swallowed dryly, like someone confronting a troubling situation.
“Are you in a lot of pain?”
His voice was cautious, as if I might be speaking nonsense due to illness.
“Ahaha, no. I’m not sick, just lost in thought for a moment. Sorry.”
The thought of a married couple suspecting each other of insanity was amusing.
I realized my scenario was pure fantasy.
Yes, Ekette wouldn’t have taken revenge on Chiron, and he didn’t rewind time. A poor deduction.
At that moment, Chiron’s subordinate returned with a report.
“How’s it going? You haven’t failed to find her, have you?”
“We’ve located the servant. There are eyewitnesses saying Lady Stover left the banquet hall in a rush. We’ve searched the hall but couldn’t find her; we are now searching outside.”
She couldn’t still be inside. She would be escaping, especially after seeing me coughing up blood.
Chiron gritted his teeth.
“She thinks she can escape, does she?”
