IMHMF 29

Chapter 29

Because my view was blocked by the canopy, I could not clearly see who was coming in, but I knew who it was.

My throat was so dry, like a desert without even a single breeze, that it was hard to make a sound. Still, I could call his name before he reached me.

“Eden.”

His strange silver eyes, like the moon that simply stayed in its place and shone, were trembling strongly.

The moment my eyes met his, I heard a strange sound from deep beneath the sea. Because of that faint sound, my heart ached.

I could not say anything more.

Because of your eyes, I could not help but look away.

Because of the look in your eyes. I just….

“Loa….”

“I’m sorry for making you worry.”

“There is nothing you need to be sorry for.”

“I’ll go back to my room now….”

“Schmitz will be here soon. Stay here until then.”

I did not know why I had looked into his eyes, or why I had looked away from them. It was simply difficult to keep looking at him.

A short silence passed, and Eden was the first to break it.

At his words, I looked straight into the eyes that I had found so difficult to face.

“The tea Siobhan gave you had poison in it.”

“That can’t be true.”

“We’re investigating it.”

“What about Sir Siobhan?”

At the gentle way I called Siobhan, Eden’s eyebrows twisted for a moment.

“You are the victim. If nothing else comes to light in the Imperial Palace, Siobhan will have to bear the crime as it is.”

“We have to find out! You don’t think Sir Siobhan is the culprit either, do you, Eden?!”

The sudden shout made me cough dryly. At the sound of my cough, he had already come closer and held out a cup of water.

“Stop talking. Your throat is badly damaged.”

My favorite character was about to be falsely accused. How could I just stay still?

Knock, knock—

The argument between the two of us, which seemed like it would never end, quickly died down at the sound of knocking.

The person behind the knock was Schmitz, whom Eden had been waiting for.

“You’re both here. Actually, on my way here, I happened to meet a guest….”

Behind Schmitz, who looked exhausted as if he had been through a lot, the Emperor appeared.

Both of us looked surprised by his unexpected visit.

“Oh, fortunately, she’s awake.”

“To the Sun of the Empire….”

“You don’t need to greet me.”

The Emperor stopped me as I hurriedly tried to get up from the bed and greet him, then came closer.

Eden did not say anything about it. He simply asked in a calm voice,

“Where are your attendants?”

“I shook them off on my way here.”

He shook them off? Was the Emperor really allowed to do that?

As if he had read my thoughts, the Emperor added,

“Because I’m the Emperor.”

Ugh. He noticed….

“I came because the culprit has been found.”

The one who stopped the Emperor from continuing was Eden.

What? Why did he stop him?!

“Loa has not been examined yet.”

At his words, the Emperor let out a short sigh and nodded as if he understood.

As soon as he finished nodding, Schmitz approached me.

“Young Lady, how did you end up drinking such poison?”

“Haha….”

Schmitz, if I knew that, I would have caught the culprit myself….

“Excuse me, Young Lady. Could you open your mouth for a moment?”

At Schmitz’s words, I opened my mouth. He carefully examined it here and there, then let out a sigh of relief.

“Fortunately, the poison did not damage your throat. Other than the slight damage from forcing yourself to vomit, there is nothing serious.”

“What about the blood?”

“Pardon?”

“You vomited a lot of blood yesterday. Wouldn’t you be short on blood?”

At Eden’s words, Schmitz hurriedly grabbed my arm and checked my pulse.

“Do you feel dizzy now, or does your heart feel like it is beating quickly?”

I only quietly shook my head.

“It seems you recovered while you were sleeping. If you experience any of those symptoms, you must tell us immediately.”

Before leaving the room, Schmitz left a large amount of medicine and nutritional supplements he had prepared. He repeatedly told me to call him if anything felt wrong with my body, and only then did he leave the room.

In the silent room, Eden spoke first.

“So.”

“…….”

“Who is the culprit?”

“It wouldn’t be fun if I told you right away.”

The Emperor smiled lightly as soon as he finished speaking. Then he pulled a nearby chair over and sat in front of me.

“Before I tell the Young Lady who the culprit is, let me ask her something first.”

At the Emperor’s question, an unknown tension wrapped around my body.

Even though I had done nothing he could know about, the pressure that came from the word Emperor was enough.

“Why did you save the Princess?”

What he asked me was a very simple question.

Why did I save her?

A person, especially a young child who should have been protected, was in danger right in front of me. How could I have ignored her?

“The Princess said you seemed to be in a great hurry, as if you were going somewhere.”

Stay calm. I needed to protect my alibi and give an answer convincing enough for the Emperor to accept.

“If I seemed to be in a hurry, it was because Her Highness the Princess was in danger. At the time, Eden and I were supposed to meet Sir Enoch, but I decided that protecting Her Highness was more important than keeping that appointment.”

“…….”

“After helping Her Highness safely, I had to hurry so I could keep my appointment. If my actions caused any misunderstanding, I ask that you forgive me.”

The Emperor listened to me without making any gesture or saying a word.

“Also, if what the maid gave her had been an ordinary drink, then I would only have had to apologize to Her Highness. But if it had not been an ordinary drink and something had happened to Her Highness right in front of me, I would have regretted it even more.”

When I finished speaking with a slightly trembling voice, the Emperor finally nodded.

“As expected, you are a rare young lady.”

“…….”

“Hylus, it seems you have gained a very good wife.”

At the Emperor’s words, Eden did not answer. He only nodded.

That shocked me quite a bit.

He didn’t even deny it when the Emperor said he had gained a good wife. He just nodded…?

“Good. Now I’ll tell the Young Lady who gave her the poisoned tea.”

The truth the Emperor told us was this.

After Princess Resilla was almost attacked, there were maids who cleaned up the poison that had been spilled.

One of them was responsible for wiping the floor at the end, so she did not think much of it. At that time, a small amount of poison got onto her hand.

Without knowing that there was poison on her hand, she continued working, touched the teacup, and even gave the tea to Siobhan.

The poison was harmless when it touched the skin, but became dangerous once it entered the body.

At the time, there had been many other servants around, from when the maid cleaned the poison until she gave the tea to Siobhan. So it was clear that there had been no sign that she had deliberately put poison into the tea.

After finishing his explanation, the Emperor looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking again.

“There is one strange thing, though.”

“…….”

“We still haven’t found out what the poison is.”

The fact that the Emperor himself had investigated but still could not identify the poison was a very serious problem.

It meant that someone from a powerful family had carefully hidden what they had done.

“Did you interrogate the maid who tried to harm Her Highness the Princess?”

“Of course.”

“What did she say?”

“She said she only received the poison in exchange for money. She said she did not know what kind of poison it was.”

“…….”

“When she tried to tell us who was behind it, she died because of a curse. She did not even seem to know that she had been cursed.”

The word of the curse.

A forbidden spell that brought death if a certain word was spoken.

Not only had they used such a spell, they had even hidden it from the person who had been cursed.

It was a spell placed on her to completely hide the identity of the person behind it.

“Her Highness the Princess is very worried about you.”

“About me?”

“She probably thinks you collapsed because you saved her.”

The kind-hearted little Princess.

“Please tell Her Highness that I am fine, so she does not need to worry too much.”

“That’s what I wanted to tell you.”