Chapter 171
A precarious prelude
Charles’s face, initially furrowed in confusion, slackened into an expression of shock.
“M-Milord… what are you saying?”
“Don’t question me. Just answer, Charles.”
“Milord…!”
“I already know, so don’t even think of lying to me.”
Izar looked at his longtime aide with a chillingly blank expression. Charles’s face registered a wounded shock, as if he’d been falsely accused, but Izar wasn’t buying it.
What had Freesia’s maid reported to him before he left the capital?
〈Before the accident that day, someone tried to offer the Madam a drink laced with something dangerous!〉
Someone had attempted to harm Freesia the moment he said his goodbyes to her.
Hearing this, Izar’s already taut nerves snapped completely.
A d**g that could cause a woman to lose a child.
Just thinking of how such a concoction might have damaged Freesia’s already fragile health, when her life span was dwindling by the day, made his blood boil.
〈But the Madam said it was more important to focus on other things first, so she told me to leave it for later.〉
Thankfully, Freesia had sensed the danger and hadn’t even touched the drink.
But was that really something to be grateful for? The casual way she’d dismissed the matter, saying that there were more important things to handle…?
‘Such things must be all too familiar to her by now.’
Izar remembered all too vividly.
The beatings from Electra, the ordeals at the Antares estate.
But the fact that someone had attempted this despite him openly recognizing her as his wife left him seeing red.
If this was happening now, had something similar happened in their past life…? Could they have lost their child to such poison?
‘The child we lost beneath the wild rose bushes.’
He had never actually seen this child. At first, he had only half-believed Freesia’s story, but soon enough, he began to yearn for the child’s existence, to miss it.
Whether it was the tenderness in Freesia’s face when she spoke of the child, or his obsession with the possibility of the three of them together, he couldn’t tell.
But knowing that someone had tried to harm their child filled him with an excruciating pain, as if his temples were being pierced.
Even the pain from the wounds he’d sustained battling the dragon was nothing in comparison.
So, until the moment he departed in search of Freesia, he had tenaciously questioned those responsible for preparing the drink, alongside the Imperial Grandson.
“…In the end, the servants confessed. A knight, hiding his insignia, paid them in silver to add a certain spice to the drink meant for the Duchess.”
“Milord, with just that, you can’t assume it was me—”
“And the last one to join my summons was you, Charles.”
Finally sensing that all hope was lost, Charles sank to one knee, pleading desperately.
“Please… forgive me!”
“Ha…”
“But, Milord, at the time, I truly believed it was for the good of the Duchy!”
As a knight, he hadn’t wanted to resort to the shameful method of poisoning a woman.
But watching what was happening during the hunting festival had made it unbearable.
The hunt was traditionally one of the few opportunities for high-ranking nobles to showcase their prowess and honor their families.
What could that woman possibly know to urge his lord to give it all up with her pillow talk?
They had been told it was to strengthen ties with the imperial family, but it sickened him to see his liege treated as a mere bodyguard, enduring the emperor’s disdain.
〈That useless woman!〉
Charles wasn’t alone in his frustration—the younger knights under his command had been equally irritated.
Seeing Albireo Deneb insult his lord, he’d finally reached his limit.
〈We cannot leave her unchecked.〉
Charles had headed to the place where the refreshments for noble ladies were prepared, knowing it wouldn’t raise suspicion if a knight came seeking a drink in the summer heat.
And the timid maids who couldn’t refuse a knight could be easily silenced with a few silver coins.
‘There was no other way.’
He’d convinced himself it was their last chance to right the wrongs, as the Elder Madam had suggested.
But if he’d known what would follow… if he’d known that the Duchess had some special power…
“No one could have predicted the monster attack! That was just a coincidence—!”
Charles tried to explain frantically, but his voice was cut off by a flash of white light.
A moment of dizzying silence followed.
“Uuugh— aaagh…!”
Charles clutched his left wrist, gasping in pain. The hand had been attached to it just moments before now lay on the ground.
Izar spoke indifferently to his subordinate’s choked, pained cries.
“We’re already short on staff, so I’ll spare your life.”
“Ah… Milord…!”
“The proper punishment will be delivered in the duchy once my wife has been rescued.”
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