<CHAPTER 27>
To the Crown Princess
“Let me make this clear, I will not play along with you.”
Camilla knew her place.
She also knew what the Count and Countess who had belatedly taken her in were scheming, but she didn’t want to play along and end up with her head chopped off.
The Crown Prince’s heart was clearly directed toward the mistress of the Winter Palace, and she didn’t want to step into such a situation and suffer a terrible fate.
“Very well.”
Having said her piece, Camilla Berzac gave a small bow to His Highness the Crown Prince and withdrew.
Ivy Ibiton, who had been flirting near Rexfail, smiled with a satisfied face, then pouted her lips and pointed at Lady Rerol.
‘She wants me to get rid of her.’
Cold sweat trickled down.
If His Highness the Crown Prince were to realize her intentions, it seemed her life would be difficult to sustain.
‘I didn’t say to get rid of Fenril too!’
So Vane decided to make the best choice.
“Oh, my hand suddenly!”
Grabbing his hand—which was perfectly fine despite wearing several layers of gloves—and making a fuss, Vane, who had been about to transfer forward, ended up jumping right into the pond.
“Vane!”
Fenril called out to him with a bewildered expression, mixed with some laughter.
However, since becoming an object of ridicule was better than facing a life-threatening crisis, Vane charged forward like an ox without horns.
“Aah. My hand, my hand!”
In his panic, he grabbed Lady Rerol, who had approached the pond, and abruptly pulled her up.
“It hurts! Please guide me to a physician!”
“I, I haven’t been here long, so I don’t know the way……………….”
“I know, so it’s fine.”
Having quickly asserted his will in a small voice, Vane disappeared, supported by—or rather, dragging—Lady Silayan Retol.
“Ahem, ahem.”
In the meantime, Lady Ivy cleared her throat and recited the verse she had memorized.
“If permitted for but a moment, I would dedicate myself only to you.”
Rexfail wondered if a new poem had been created without his knowledge, but Fenril immediately knew she had misrecited the poem.
While suppressing his bursting laughter, she finished her creatively twisted recitation of the classic poem.
“How is it?”
Rexfail felt it wasn’t worth answering, so he furrowed his brow once and averted his gaze.
The past two years seemed to be telling him to swing his sword according to his temper, but he didn’t want to stain the place where Ivy would soon arrive with blood.
So he chose to simply ignore her.
It was Fenril who assisted her.
“How creative.”
Ivy furrowed her brows.
What a tactless man, couldn’t he just step aside on his own?
She revealed her displeasure, but Fenril didn’t budge an inch.
He was in the closest position to the Crown Prince, and after inspecting the prepared food, he called someone and ordered an examination.
“Why are you doing this?”
Ivy felt her heart drop.
If ‘that thing’ she had prepared was discovered beforehand, she might be arrested for insulting the imperial family before she could even carry out her scheme.
“Ah. It is customary to inspect any food not prepared by the Crown Prince’s palace or the Imperial Kitchen Department. It’s just a simple inspection, nothing serious, so please wait a moment.”
Saying this, Fenril fumbled a bit as he performed the duties that Vane should have done when Head Servant Reed was absent.
While he was speaking with the administrator, Ivy boldly sat at the Crown Prince’s feet and leaned her body forward.
“………………Why is she sitting there?”
The Crown Prince furrowed his brows, unable to understand the intentions of the woman sitting like a puppy before his chair.
Ivy had pressed her prominently exposed chest against the Crown Prince’s shin, but when there was no reaction, her pride was hurt and she bit her lips.
“I wanted to see you since the last time we met.”
“Ah, I did want to see you as well.”
Rexfail smiled lightly and reached out his hand to place it above her head.
Then, as he had done before, he playfully lifted her hair with his hand and scattered it to let it fall.
“Do you like my hair?”
Her snorting grew stronger.
But Rexfail was lost in thought and didn’t notice.
Or rather, he might have noticed and simply ignored it.
Anyway, he didn’t react, and Ivy grew bolder.
“Your Highness…………….”
“..……………Your.”
Ivy’s slender fingers moved as if playing a piano on Rexfail’s firm thigh.
“Why must I tolerate your impertinence?”
“Ack!”
At the sudden scream, people’s gazes converged on Ivy and Rexfail.
“Fen.”
The outstretched hand was likely to receive a sword.
Fenril naturally stopped his hand that was moving toward his waist and cautiously tried to dissuade him.
“She will arrive soon, will you be alright?”
“Shall I give it to you?”
At Fenril’s words, Rexfail pushed Ivy away as if his interest had been broken.
Ivy, who had fallen to the floor, was so miserable and humiliated that tears streamed down her face without her realizing it.
“Leave.”
For Rexfail, this was quite a generous mercy.
In recent years, he had not known mercy, and had torn apart anything that displeased him.
However, those blinded by honor and ambition did not know how to retreat.
“Th, this was given by Lord Raven.”
She held up the small medicine bottle she possessed.
Panzyal tried to examine it, but was stopped by Rexfail.
“It, it’s incense. They said it would all fly away if opened, so I should try it all at once.”
This was her own scheme.
Rather than feeding it, she had prepared this form of drug to intoxicate him by opening it near the Crown Prince.
“Your Highness, we must inspect it.”
Though Fenril tried to dissuade him, Rexfail fell into thought for a moment.
“Ivy gave it?”
“Y, yes!”
Ivy answered with a trembling voice and nodded her head.
There wasn’t a single lie.
The bottle containing incense was one of the gifts she had received, and when Ivy coveted it, Raven had given it to her.
The incense had been separately requested from someone who came from the Ibiton family.
She hadn’t said that Raven had given her the incense as well.
If problems arose later, she could claim from the beginning that the incense had been inside.
However, from the start, there would be no one who could reveal what problem there was with incense that would fly away the moment it was opened.
‘There will be changes in His Highness’s condition, but by then it will already be too late.’
Ivy examined her surroundings carefully.
Confirming that there were no women except herself, she approached with a reluctant gesture and placed the bottle in the Crown Prince’s hand.
“Your Highness.”
p>Fenril called out to him once more, but Rexfail raised his hand to stop him.
He had not been deceived by Ivy’s intentions.
Even if the bottle had been from Evelyn, the incense inside could have been placed by someone else.
The reason he accepted the bottle while harboring such suspicions was because it had come to him through others from Evelyn.
He was jealous to the point of being ridiculous over even the smallest things.
So Rexfail took the bottle and held it in his hand.
He grasped tightly and held onto ‘Evelyn’s thing’ that had come to him through Ivy’s hand, keeping it firmly in his grip.
Though it couldn’t be, he even felt as if Evelyn’s body heat was being transmitted.
“Ha.”
He rose, trying not to be deceived by the false sensation.
Evelyn seemed to be too late.
“There…”
Just as he was about to send someone to find out when Evelyn would arrive, he felt something shift in his hand.
“Your Highness!”
By the time Fenril came running in alarm, it was already too late.
The glass bottle had broken and fallen, and the smoke enveloped Rexfail before dispersing.
“Are you alright? You there, maid! What was inside?”
“I, I don’t……………….”
Saying this, Ivy examined Rexfail’s condition while clinging to him.
The Crown Prince’s eyes were red, and his breathing grew rough.
‘Good. He’s been poisoned!’
Ivy inwardly rejoiced.
She pushed her way through the flustered people and drew close to Rexfail.
“Oh my, what do we do. What do we do, Your Highness.”
While doing so, she didn’t forget to grab her bleeding hand and place it upon her soft, ample chest.
Twist, the man’s swaying grip tightened.
The shape of the flesh being grasped distorted.
However, even that pain felt like proof of victory, so Ivy snorted and twisted her body.
Seeing the roughly pulled body, Ivy smiled faintly at the confusion of the escort knight and the others.
‘You should have treated me well from the start.’
Her high nose touched the soft flesh between her neck and shoulder.
With a light moan, just as she was about to tilt her head back.
“Kyaaah!”
Her body, lifted without hesitation, was literally thrown far away.
“Aack!”
Her outstretched hand seemed to have been injured as it slipped while falling.
However, no one paid attention to the lady screaming in pain.
“Are………………you alright, Your Highness?”
When Fenril cautiously approached, a hand suddenly shot out and grabbed him by the collar.
“…What?”
Fenril couldn’t immediately catch the words that burst out between rough breaths.
Rexfail tore off his cravat and growled out.
“To the Crown Princess.”
Fenril knew who he was referring to.
