<CHAPTER 13>
A Person of the Embrio
“…There’s nothing to explain.”
Evelyn responded calmly.
But Rexfail was not the type of person who would be fooled by such a casual answer.
“Marshall.”
Startled by the sudden word, Evelyn lifted her head and looked around.
She wondered if someone from the Marshall family was nearby.
Seeing her reaction, Rexfail laughed.
“I’m talking about you.”
“Raven Marshall.”
“That’s the name of the body you’re in.”
Only then did Evelyn remember that she had heard something related to that before.
“I told you, I was injured and my memory—”
“I know.”
“You were injured half a year ago, and because of that you lost your memory.”
“But how do you explain the fact that the person himself changed?”
“That’s just a side effect of losing my memory—”
“Evi, Evi.”
He cut off Evelyn’s words as if soothing a child.
“You’re not the first person to lose their memory.”
“There are many people whose memories become confused after an injury.”
“But the physician said he has never seen a case like yours.”
“There are many things in the world that can’t be explained with words!”
Evelyn shouted as if having a seizure.
Rexfail held her down gently with the blanket and met her eyes for a moment before closing his own.
“I know.”
“I know, Evi.”
“I know.”
“I know it.”
The more Evelyn spoke, the more suffocated she felt.
Rexfail clearly had no intention of believing her words.
Strictly speaking, Rexfail’s judgment was correct.
But Evelyn was worried about how he had come to such a conclusion.
Is his mind really alright?
He believes that I was resurrected in someone else’s body?
Really?
It was difficult not to question the sanity of a man who so easily believed something that should be impossible to believe unless one had gone mad.
“If I…”
Without realizing it, she licked her dry lips.
Rexfail’s gaze followed the pink tongue that briefly appeared.
The man lost in thought ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek.
“If I am Evelyn… would anything change?”
A dreadful silence filled the space between them.
Very slowly, Rexfail lifted his body.
His unreadable gaze moved somewhere far away before returning to Evelyn.
“It would change.”
The words he finally spoke were rough and unpleasant to hear.
Yet they sounded desperate.
“A lot.”
His whisper sounded painfully clear.
Suddenly Evelyn felt an overwhelming urge to confess everything.
Starting with the fact that she had died and come back to life wearing another person’s shell.
And even the feelings that her original body had once held.
She felt the desire to reveal that deep and heavy heart and finally feel relieved.
“I…”
Rexfail, who had been about to say something with a yearning expression and a choked voice, suddenly stopped.
His face twisted in pain.
He struggled to hold something back.
But he could not stop what surged up from within him.
“Rexfail?”
Black blood poured out.
Each time his body jerked, an enormous amount spilled out.
Evelyn felt as if he might die at any moment.
“Wh-why is this happening?”
“Why?”
Panicked, Evelyn pushed the collapsing body aside to try to save him.
At that moment the door burst open and several people rushed inside.
“Don’t move, Raven Marshall!”
Evelyn was dragged down from the bed.
She was pinned to the floor.
In an instant too fast to resist, she was forced onto her knees.
Her hands were tied behind her back and her hair was pulled upward.
Her upper body was forced forward, exposing her heart and throat.
“How dare you attempt to harm His Highness the Crown Prince!”
She could not even shout that it was a misunderstanding.
The sword thrust toward her throat and the firm grip on her arms prevented her from moving.
While she felt the depth of her helplessness, Vane quickly approached the bed to check the Crown Prince’s condition.
“How is he?”
The physician who had come with Vane swiftly checked the Crown Prince’s pulse and breathing.
He also examined the amount, color, and smell of the blood Rexfail had vomited.
Evelyn did not know what the physician meant when he shook his head.
But she guessed it was not good.
And her guess seemed correct.
Vane’s handsome face twisted badly.
“Marshall.”
“You will treat him.”
As Vane approached, the swords that had been pointed at her throat withdrew.
However, his hand now gripped her neck directly, so the situation was not truly better.
With her throat squeezed, Evelyn spoke.
“I’m not a physician.”
“But you must know how to deal with poison.”
“You belong to that Embrio.”
Evelyn’s eyes widened.
How could these people believe something so naturally that even she herself had struggled to believe?
Was dying and being reborn in another person’s body really something that could be accepted so easily?
While she was too stunned to speak, wondering whether her own thinking had been narrow all along, Vane kicked her hard in the stomach.
“You will vomit as much blood as His Highness has shed.”
“You will grow as weak as he grows in pain.”
“So if you know the antidote, it would be wise to spit it out quickly.”
Though he tried to speak harshly with a fierce expression, Vane’s voice trembled.
Evelyn realized he was afraid.
And she remembered something she had forgotten.
He’s still…
After their wedding vows had been completed and the banquet ended, the two of them had faced each other in the room prepared as their bridal chamber.
Evelyn had been waiting for him to remove the thick veil she had worn throughout the banquet.
But when Rexfail entered the room, he passed by her and walked to the bed.
Then he never rose again.
At that time she had known nothing.
Evelyn had been too busy holding back tears of humiliation.
But she later learned the truth.
He had long been poisoned.
He suffered from periodic agony.
Even on that first night of their marriage, while she struggled not to cry, he had been enduring pain behind her.
Until morning came.
When Vane entered with the maids and checked the Crown Prince’s condition, Evelyn had still been standing with her back to the bed.
Rexfail had been collapsed over the bed, groaning.
He had endured pain so severe that he could not move even a finger the entire night.
He had been poisoned with that kind of poison.
And even now, it was still the same.
“I… don’t know.”
The words she spoke with trembling breath were the truth.
Evelyn did not know the name of the poison that had poisoned Rexfail.
Naturally, she did not know the cure either.
If I had known, I would have cured him while I was still alive.
I would never have left him in such pain.
But Vane did not believe Evelyn.
“You were trusted enough to pull a trick like this.”
“And yet you claim you don’t know something that important?”
“Do you think that makes sense?”
He grabbed a sword from the knight beside him and pointed it at her.
But he could not support its weight and eventually dropped it.
Staring at the fallen blade in frustration, he clenched his teeth and shouted at her.
“What are you trying to gain by deceiving His Highness with this pointless act?”
“What do you gain by making him suffer like that!”
“Lord Acrid!”
Gail rushed forward and clung to Vane, who was interrogating Evelyn.
“What are you doing to Her Highness!”
“His Highness the Crown Prince ordered us to treat her as he treats her!”
“Let go!”
“You stupid heathen brat!”
Furious, Vane shoved the boy who looked no older than thirteen or fourteen.
A man who spent all his time buried in documents lacked physical strength.
Even pushing away a small child left him panting.
“Don’t treat Her Highness rudely!”
While Vane struggled for breath, Gail rolled across the floor but quickly got up and rushed forward again.
He shoved away the people holding Evelyn.
With his small body, he stood protectively in front of her.
“Gail! You foolish brat!”
“Who are you calling foolish!”
“If you refuse to see the truth, Lord Acrid will regret it later!”
A heavy fist wearing a knight’s gauntlet blocked the punch aimed at the boy’s head.
“Stop, Lord.”
Fenril stood there with a troubled expression.
He gestured for Vane to step back.
“Fenril? Have you lost your mind?”
“No, it’s not that…”
“Just calm down first.”
Fenril spoke with a face that showed he did not like this situation either.
“I don’t want to believe it either.”
“But that woman is strange.”
“For now… we need to treat this a little differently.”
“Fenril!”
“I know, I know…”
“But my mother said that those with gypsy blood sometimes see different paths.”
“So let’s at least listen to what Gail says.”
“You believe such superstition?”
“No, it’s not that I believe it… it’s just… well…”
Fenril tried to mediate.
But his words only made Vane even angrier.
“At a time like this you say nonsense like that!”
“With people like you beside him, it’s no wonder His Highness is saying strange things!”
“No, that’s not what I meant—”
But Vane did not allow Fenril to finish.
He rushed forward and punched Fenril while shouting.
“Do you know who the woman is who raised that Raven in this hut?”
Evelyn had been staring blankly at Rexfail lying on the bed while the physician treated him.
At those words, her gaze shifted toward Vane.
Simila?
Why her?
Her confusion quickly deepened.
“She was the wet nurse of the current Duke of Embrio!”
“That woman is Viscount Cannite!”
At that revelation, the color drained from both Fenril’s and Evelyn’s faces.
