Chapter 30.

Shaken Trust

“Peanut cookies! The Grand Duchess ate a peanut cookie!”

Yuri cried out urgently beside the collapsed Grand Duchess.

Volan and Marshal were also anxiously rubbing the unconscious woman’s wrists.

“Oh, dear! She’s trembling. My goodness, her lips have turned blue!”

“Quickly, call a doctor! Inform His Grace as well!”

One of the maids brought medicine prescribed to counteract the Grand Duchess’s allergy.

“We have medicine that was prescribed in advance. If she takes this, she’ll regain consciousness…”

But just as the maid was about to give it to her, Essika strode over and slapped the maid’s hand away, causing the medicine to fall to the ground.

“Essika!”

Yuri’s eyes widened as she shouted at Essika.

Kallian had just arrived and witnessed her actions. His expression hardened as he strode toward her.

He seized Essika’s wrist roughly.

“Essika, what the hell are you doing?!”

Yuri immediately gave Kallian her report, her eyes flashing.

“The Grand Duchess has a peanut allergy, but Essika prepared peanut cookies.”

Kallian’s grip tightened around Essika’s wrist.

“She even knocked away the medicine when we tried to give the Grand Duchess something to counteract the allergy.”

“What?”

“Essika is obviously trying to hurt the Grand Duchess. How could she do something like this?!”

Kallian’s fierce eyes were fixed on Essika.

“Is that really true?”

His gaze was so threatening that it seemed as though he would strangle her if she answered yes.

Even amid all the commotion, Essika did not blink once as she looked at Kallian.

Her eyes contained not the slightest trace of emotion.

“If she doesn’t have an allergy and you give her allergy medicine, it will be harmful to her body.”

“What?”

“So of course I knocked the medicine away.”

Essika found Kallian’s reaction amusing.

She was also sick and tired of watching Riona put on such an obvious performance.

They were a mother and son who would have been better off living alone together on some deserted island for the rest of their lives. The fact that they were now making fools of themselves together was simply irritating.

“That cookie only has the scent of peanuts. It contains no peanuts whatsoever.”

“…What?”

Kallian’s eyebrow twitched.

“That’s a lie! It’s definitely a peanut cookie. Essika! How dare you do this to the Grand Duchess…!”

Yuri’s eyes even filled with tears as she accused Essika.

Essika strode forward, picked up one of the cookies from the plate, and held it out to Kallian.

“Try it yourself. See whether there are any crushed peanuts mixed into it.”

Kallian’s eyebrow twitched again.

His mother had just collapsed after eating this cookie. Regardless of whether he had a peanut allergy or not, there was no reason for him to want to eat it.

Kallian stood rigidly and demanded,

“Are you saying my mother deliberately collapsed?”

Whenever Essika had clashed with the Grand Duchess, Kallian had never once taken Essika’s side.

He was an exceptionally devoted son.

And Riona had used that fact to torment Essika even more.

A bitter smile appeared at the corners of Essika’s lips.

It could be confirmed immediately simply by eating the cookie, yet Kallian refused.

As though he simply could not bear to admit that he was wrong.

And then—

“I’ll eat it.”

Essika flinched at the sight of the approaching man.

A tall man with black hair, brilliantly deep golden eyes, and a large, solidly built frame.

His black uniform was adorned with medals commemorating his achievements for the Empire.

“Fortunately, I also have a peanut allergy.”

His cold voice slipped into her ears.

What’s fortunate about that…?

He approached Essika and gently wrapped his hand around her wrist.

At the heavy sensation against her skin, Essika’s eyebrow twitched.

The gazes of the two men of different eye colors collided in the air.

Lesban lightly bit into the cookie Essika was holding.

He did so slowly, all while staring at Essika.

After he chewed and swallowed the cookie, a long silence fell over the area.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince, it could be dangerous.”

“I’ll bring the allergy medicine again.”

A maid hurried off, preparing for the possibility of an emergency.

Kallian watched Lesban with a rigid expression, while Essika was equally flustered inside.

“Don’t add crushed peanuts. Make it smell as similar to peanuts as possible. I’ll make sure you suffer no consequences.”

Essika had believed Hemos was skilled enough to do it, and he had indeed made peanut cookies without using any peanuts.

Therefore, if it were discovered that these cookies contained no peanuts, all of Riona’s fainting act would be rendered meaningless.

But she had never anticipated the Crown Prince’s appearance.

“…It’s delicious.”

Looking at Essika, Lesban lazily parted his red lips.

Essika stared blankly at him for a moment before hurriedly averting her gaze and pulling her wrist free from his hand.

Lesban continued looking at Essika for quite some time before speaking to Kallian.

“There are no traces of peanuts in the cookie. If you ask the imperial palace’s physicians, you’ll learn that I have a peanut allergy.”

At those words, Kallian looked at Essika with a bewildered expression.

“So your wife is… innocent.”

Essika’s gaze remained cold.

Kallian realized belatedly that he had made a mistake, but the opportunity had already passed.

Yuri could only stare with a stiff expression at how abruptly the situation had ended.

“The Grand Duchess has opened her eyes.”

A short while later, the maids helped the Grand Duchess sit up.

When Kallian saw his mother weakly open her eyes, he hesitated briefly before approaching her with a rigid expression.

“Mother, are you all right?”

“…I felt a little dizzy…”

The Grand Duchess touched her forehead.

Essika barely managed to suppress a laugh.

Riona is putting everything she has into this performance.

She must want to tear me apart and kill me inside.

She had spent several days lying in bed, stoking Kallian’s hatred of Essika, only for all of it to come to nothing.

“What happened, Mother?”

“I don’t know. Everything suddenly started spinning… Perhaps it was anemia.”

Volan and Marshal spoke with worried expressions.

“Still, it’s fortunate it wasn’t a peanut allergy.”

“Exactly. It seems she simply became dizzy for a moment. With how much she worries about His Grace every day… It’s only natural that her health would suffer.”

Marshal exaggerated her concern while watching Kallian’s reaction.

Kallian supported Riona’s body and helped her lean against him.

“I’ll take you to your bedroom. Shall I carry you?”

“No, Your Grace is so busy… Ah!”

At Riona’s unsteady movement, Kallian immediately carried her on his back without another word.

Then he turned toward Lesban.

“I apologize, Your Highness the Crown Prince. I will take my mother somewhere she can rest and then return.”

Lesban gave him a cold nod before immediately walking away.

The maids followed behind Kallian as he carried Riona.

Essika calmly watched the scene as though she were an audience member watching a play.

Then she slowly turned her gaze toward Lesban.

He looked at Essika with somewhat languid eyes and spoke.

“The Duke seems to be busy, so the Duchess will have to entertain me.”

Essika’s heart began beating a little faster.

With Kallian supporting her, Riona struggled to lie down on the bed.

Looking at Kallian’s rigid expression, Riona reached out and stroked his cheek.

“I’m sorry that my health is so weak. His Highness the Crown Prince came to visit, and yet I ended up taking away so much of your time…”

Kallian looked at Riona with slightly wavering eyes.

Throughout the journey here, Essika’s expressionless face had kept appearing in his mind.

She had looked so calm, almost as though she had expected something like this to happen.

Then are you saying my mother deliberately collapsed?

Even his own shout from earlier seemed to echo chaotically in his ears.

“…”

There had been another occasion when his mother’s health had suffered because of Essika’s mistake.

His mother had been bedridden for an entire week, while Essika had stood outside her room and begged for forgiveness every day.

I didn’t know this would happen.

Essika’s tearful face from that time, looking as though she had lost her mind, remained vivid in his memory.

What if that incident… had another side to it as well?

“Kallian…?”

Riona called his name softly.

The warmth that had always filled his mother’s eyes now seemed suspicious to him.

Coincidence?

How likely was it that she would happen to become dizzy at precisely the wrong moment?

Right after biting into a cookie that smelled like peanuts.

Riona had always been physically weak, and whenever doctors came to the household, Kallian had worried about her.

But even those memories now stirred suspicion within him.

“Don’t worry about your mother. Hurry and go see His Highness the Crown Prince.”

Kallian nodded and stood.

As he was leaving, he saw Yuri standing there with her head lowered and her fists tightly clenched.

Kallian stopped in front of her and gave her an instruction.

“Take good care of Mother. And…”

Essika’s calm gaze from earlier was still lodged in his heart like a wedge.

Only moments ago, he had been furious with her for rejecting his goodwill…

Yet now, he felt as though everything had returned to the beginning.

“…You are merely the head maid, and Essika is the Duchess.”

Yuri’s eyes trembled.

“No matter how close the two of you may be, refrain from calling her by her name from now on.”

Yuri felt an enormous wall between herself and Kallian, one she had never sensed before.

She wrapped her trembling hands around each other.

Lowering her head slightly, she answered him.

“I will keep that in mind, Your Grace.”