Chapter 107

Yuria blankly looked down at Berylia.

Her hands were covered with blood.

The blood that the queen vomited as she drank the Breath of Johannes and fell…

‘Oh, what happened…?’

She couldn’t think of the accident stemming from paralysis.

Fragmentary questions jumped out and confused her.

‘Why did the queen fall?’

Today’s protagonist was Yuria Mavis, her.

‘I thought I would be the one who collapsed?’

‘Why did she drink the Breath of Johannes?’

‘Maybe she knew of my plans in advance?’

She knew in advance, but why…

If she drank it… 

‘The Queen is dead!’

The queen died because of the medicine she brought.

‘…Did I kill her?’

It felt like her heart was going to fall to the ground.

“No… get up, Your Majesty.”

Yuria stuttered, knelt down in her place, and shook Berylia’s shoulder.

Berylia’s white blonde hair was stained with blood, and her cold, pale skin looked just like a corpse’s.

Yuria’s fear grew worse. Her heart was pounding and racing.

She was so frightened that all the strength in her body left.

She had never been such a terrible woman that could kill anyone.

It shouldn’t be like this today…

‘Did I not step out for the Crown Prince today?’

She was thinking of sacrificing herself today for the happiness of the crown prince.

Then after today, she would marry him.

Give birth to a pretty child.

Spend the rest of her life receiving plenty of love from him.

“Why did you fall…!”

It was when Yuria screamed, twisting her face like a demon.

“Ahh!”

A silhouette pushed Yuria hard and held onto Berylia.

It was Rixus.

He ran up to the podium in seconds, and held his pale wife with trembling hands.

The eyes looking down at the bloody Berylia… It was terrible. It was as if he had put all the misery of the world into his eyes.

Yuria was startled.

It was the first time she had seen Rixus, who had always been terribly unimpressed, with such a desperate expression on his face.

Even to a viewer, it looked like his heart was going to dry out.

“…Berylia.”

And then she heard a voice that seemed to break her heart.

Rixus called out to his wife with great pain, like his whole body was being burned in the middle of hell.

He bit his lips hard enough to cause it to bleed. Then, holding the lifeless Berylia, he stood up.

“Call a doctor right now. And a priest who will take care of her condition!”

Yuria, covered in blood, watched the scene blankly.

The crown prince who loved her… For a moment she didn’t understand why he pushed her and took care of the queen first.

“….…”

‘Rixus didn’t love me for even a single moment.’

It didn’t take her more than a few seconds to realize that it was all acting.

A moment of brutal realization.

“!”

The cells all over her body screamed, and it felt like her entire body was shattering.

It was as though her body was torn, and her heart was smashed to the ground and trampled on.

But she didn’t even have time to feel frustrated.

From the distant noble seat came a roaring voice.

“Lady Mavis has murdered the Queen!”

In an instant, as if hit by a bomb, the originally buzzing Great Hall was filled with terrible screams.

“Arrest her now!”

No one noticed, but the corners of a man’s mouth were raised with joy.

It was the one dressed in wolf fur; his red eyes flashed as he enjoyed this fun event.

Immediately, the guards rushed up to the lofty platform and harshly raised the soulless Yuria.

Her slender body resisted like it would break.

“No! No! I didn’t!”

A shriek escaped Yuria’s mouth.

She descended faster than the guards, and cried earnestly to the crown prince who now looked like a dot.

“Your Highness, I didn’t do that! I mean…!”

‘I mean, I really didn’t…’

‘I didn’t mean to kill…!’

“Your Highness! Your Highness!”

But no matter how much she struggled and shouted, the guards who caught her did not budge.

In the end, Yuria was dragged in a miserable appearance and locked up in the northern tower.

That was where one was supposed to be before you executed your sentence, it was a place where prisoners were kept before being tried.

From the beloved daughter of the high-ranking Duke of Mavis, to the terrible position of the queen’s assassin…

Yuria fell vertically like a bird who had its wings cut off and was stuck in the mud.

The lady of the Duke of Mavis tried to kill the queen!

This startling news quickly spread throughout Aktoum.

And among them, the first to be delivered to… 

The person most interested in the news was, of course, Deborah.

She got the news in the Tenesin prison in the cold north.

As soon as she heard it, her face grew weary with contemplation.

“What? Is that true?”

Deborah’s maid, Mary Jane, bowed her head apologetically.

“She was arrested on the spot.”

“!”

Deborah’s olive-colored eyes trembled.

Was that possible? The plan would have been perfect.

The girl suddenly changed plans and tried to kill the queen?

“Mrs Deborah, I cannot kill the queen.”

That suffocatingly soft-hearted girl?

“I told you. I’m not sure she’s such a bad person that she deserves to die.”

It couldn’t be.

It was clear that the queen noticed in the middle and struck first.

Stupid Yuria was the victim.

However… Even if the queen noticed it, what about the crown prince?

Deborah asked, pressing her face against the iron bars.

“The Crown Prince? Didn’t the Crown Prince take Yuria’s side?”

Mary Jane shook her head calmly with an emaciated face.

“He took the queen and left right away.”

“…Yuria, that stupid bitch! Oh, no!”

If he drank the Heart of Eros, there was no way he would.

Even if the queen had vomited blood on the spot, he would have tried to protect Yuria.

In the end, it was clear that the clever crown prince and queen knew the situation in advance and made plans accordingly.

Deborah endured the sensation of having her whole body tremble with chagrin and anger and flesh crumbling into powder.

Now it was a dead end street. There was nowhere else to go. Intuitively, she felt it.

Deborah shifted her eyes and cried like a madman.

“Pamela, let me meet Pamela!”

But, unfortunately, she still had a period of detention.

“Please, tell her that I’ll look for her as soon as my detention is over! This Deborah…!”

Deborah’s desperate voice shook the prison cell, but the iron bars containing her didn’t move.

* * *

No matter how much he wiped the blood off the dress, it didn’t go away.

And yet, obsessively, Rixus wiped the blood on his wife’s cheek, dress and chest.

Before he knew it, his large hands and face were covered with blood as well.

Lying like a pale corpse covered in dark red blood, she……

Except for the bloodstains, she still had the image of a happy bride, so there was no sense of reality.

“Berylia…”

He wanted to take out his own life and feed her.

He wanted to donate his blood as well.

However, there was nothing he could do.

Although he was a hero for the empire in countless crises, he failed to keep the woman he loved the most.

Even at the wedding.

A deep sense of helplessness and despair pierced his heart.

Rixus desperately held her small hand, and endured the pain that was as if his bones were dismantled and reassembled every second.

The priest approached the crown prince, who had lost all his energy within a few minutes, and opened his mouth cautiously.

“The drug that Her Majesty the Queen has ingested is the Breath of Johannes. It’s a powerful antidote… but if someone who is resistant to poison ingests it, it will recognize the whole body as poison and attack entirely.”

With red bloodshot eyes, Rixus asked,

“Her life is ….”

“She doesn’t have a life-threatening condition. Actually, when she ingested the Breath of Johannes…”

The priest seemed a little hesitant, but he continued carefully.

“She was addicted to poison. That’s why the Breath of Johannes’ seems to have worked as a detoxifier.”

Rixus’ eyes widened.

‘She knew in advance.’

Berylia, she knew what was going to happen to her.

He warned,

“You must not tell anyone.”

“…Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

It took a while for the priest to step out. After that, Ires hurried in.

Ires was given a special order to investigate the scene in the shortest possible time.

After he had done so, he ran here at once. Because he knew how his master felt.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince, something strange has been discovered at the scene.”

“Say it.”

“Your Highness, the wine bottle meant for Lady Yuria contains poison.”

“….…”

Rixus’ eyes darkened.

Berylia, obviously, knew what wine Yuria was going to drink.

But she prepared poison to feed her?

Aside from why she was trying to kill the lady, it didn’t fit in with logic.

But what if Yuria tried to make her own play with poison and the Breath of Johannes.

If Berylia had noticed this in advance, and if she risked her life to defend it.

……It was then that the yoke of logic entered.

She ‘drank it on purpose.’

For a moment, Rixus felt dizzy, like his feet were going out.

His heart went cold.

Two drugs to kill, and she drank one ‘intentionally’.

Meanwhile, he knew nothing of it.

How much longer had she been fighting such a cruel war?

How hard was it to come to this unfamiliar Aktoum because of him and struggle alone, all without him knowing.

Without knowing that, he believed that it would be a happy marriage… Wasn’t he an absolute idiot?

He suddenly remembered the sight of her tears at the wedding.

“Why are you crying like this?”

“I like it.”

“….…”

“…I love you so much, Rixus.”

Rixus let out a painful breath, as if his heart had been crushed.

He thought he knew a lot about her, but he knew nothing of her.

Those anxious eyes that he saw from time to time.

Despite reading those glances, he did not actively seek out and dig into it.

‘I was afraid she’d move away from me.’

In the end, her vigilance made her uneasy on her own, leading her to fight in solitude.

She couldn’t speak to herself, leaving her to do this on her own.

Regrets flooded him, placing him on the cusp of madness.

Had he known it would make her so lonely, he wouldn’t have brought her!

Even if he would have suffered without her, stayed alone all his life, and withered to death… 

…He should have left it like that.

Now, he could never leave it like that.

“Never……”

Never again.

“I won’t let you fight alone.”

So, please.

“Wake up quickly, Berylia…”

With tears in his reddened eyes, he kissed the back of his wife’s hand earnestly.