<CHAPTER 33>
The Spreading Poison
People were urgently summoned.
However, Rexfail did not allow anyone to see Evelyn.
“Your Highness, at this rate something terrible will happen.”
Fenril tried to persuade him, but it was not enough.
With a serious face, Vane sent someone on an errand.
“Are you in your right mind?”
After hearing where Vane had sent the person, Fenril glared at him as if cursing with his eyes and asked.
But Vane only clenched his teeth while staring at the closed door.
“There’s no other choice.”
It was still hard to believe that Raven Marshall was the reincarnation of Crown Princess Evelyn.
However, it was better that the one his lord was holding onto was alive rather than dead.
So Vane chose the most unpleasant option to save the master of the Winter Palace.
Not long after, the person he sent returned, bringing someone along.
The attendants who had long served the Crown Prince looked flustered.
Since the birth of Crown Prince Rexfail, many had died, starting with the Empress.
Camilla felt around Evelyn’s body with her bare hands to check for any glass shards, then pulled out a chair and guided her to be laid down on the floor.
Even in the midst of it, she spread out her skirt widely so Evelyn would not feel cold.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you a priest? Don’t tell me you’re a praying priest?”
She looked as if she would kill him if he said yes.
The priest stammered, saying he was a healing priest with divine power.
Camilla’s eyes turned fierce as she shouted at him.
“Then heal her! If you don’t, I’ll strangle you before His Highness moves!”
It was not the attitude expected of the devout nobles of the Delpeo Empire.
Rather than feeling insulted, the priest felt bewildered and afraid.
“I-I’ll take a look. Just a moment.”
The Crown Prince’s rough breathing was already unsettling him.
Trying to survive among those who seemed ready to kill him, the priest examined the woman lying like a corpse.
“Hm?”
He was startled.
As he reached out to touch Evelyn’s face, Camilla struck his hand away violently.
She then asked belatedly if it was necessary.
“Ah, n-no… not exactly…”
The priest heard something shatter behind him.
It seemed to be the Crown Prince.
“I-it is necessary to check!”
“From what I can see, this person is…”
“You’d better bring out that damn divine power first.”
Rexfail’s breathing was still rough.
The priest could feel the piercing gaze behind him without even turning around.
So he prostrated himself and reported what he had discovered.
In the process, he almost slammed his head into Evelyn’s body, so Camilla shoved him away.
The priest rolled aside, steadied himself, and continued his explanation.
“What?”
All eyes turned to him in shock.
Feeling pressured, he stammered and repeated himself.
“I-it’s true. This person is just… just sleeping…”
“That can’t be.”
Rexfail rushed toward Evelyn.
As if he had forgotten how he had hesitated to even touch her earlier out of fear of harming her further, his movements were now careful and gentle.
With Camilla’s assistance and Vane’s help, Rexfail checked Evelyn’s condition.
Eventually, he accepted that she did not need the priest’s treatment.
Camilla, who had been about to wipe her mistress’s lips with a damp cloth, instead handed it to the Crown Prince.
He seemed to need it more.
However, despite being covered in blood from smashing teacups and other objects, he paid no attention to himself and began wiping the dried blood from Evelyn’s lips.
His touch was so careful that the blood did not come off easily.
But everyone waited patiently.
At last, when Rexfail finished wiping the blood from her lips, she opened her eyes.
“…Rex”
Evelyn realized that the hand hovering over her face belonged to Rexfail.
She gently leaned her cheek into his hand as it followed the curve of her face.
‘I thought I had been poisoned.’
Though her sense of taste was not as sharp as before, she could not fail to recognize the taste of poison she had survived so many times.
So the moment she swallowed the tea, she knew.
‘Poison.’
As soon as it touched her mucous membranes, it spread rapidly, numbing her body.
She had no way to control it.
If it had been before, her body, tempered by the secret techniques of the Embrio family, would have detoxified it on its own.
So Evelyn thought,
‘I’m glad I was the one who drank it.’
Otherwise, Rexfail would have been in danger.
So even as she coughed up blood, she closed her eyes with relief.
But now that she had woken up like this, perhaps it hadn’t been poison after all.
‘That’s strange.’
However, Evelyn no longer had the strength to think further.
Her body, which had been poisoned and recovered in such a short time, was screaming at its limits.
‘Even if I died, it’s fine… as long as Rexfail is with me.’
As she smiled faintly at the small comfort and drifted back into sleep, tears fell from Rexfail’s eyes.
Relieved, the trembling man reached out and embraced the woman he had finally regained, the one he thought he had lost again.
Rexfail gave an order.
“Summon the physicians and have them examine her for any abnormalities.”
Since it was not a matter of treatment, they would not be able to apply or administer anything.
Thinking it would be difficult to tamper with anything, the Crown Prince called for physicians.
“Call knights to monitor them.”
Fenril understood that the Crown Prince was not referring to knights of the Imperial Guard.
He wanted knights who served only him and followed only his commands.
Men who could cut down even the innocent if necessary.
“…What about Miss Ibiton?”
Watching the situation, Vane thought they had avoided the worst.
Fortunately, the master of the Winter Palace had not died and was merely asleep.
Therefore, to avoid being held accountable by the powerful Ibiton family of the south, he believed Ivy Ibiton should be released from prison.
Vane thought it was the best decision for the Crown Prince, but Rexfail thought otherwise.
“Execute her.”
“…Pardon?”
“Fen. Send the knights.”
The man, consumed by madness, had no intention of sparing the vile woman who tried to harm his consort.
“B-but there’s no problem now!”
“You were the one who told me that if I don’t cut the root when there’s no problem yet, I’ll regret it later, Vane.”
From long experience, Vane Acrain knew.
This was not something that could be negotiated.
The Crown Prince had made his decision and had no intention of reversing it.
If he tried to persuade him, his own head would roll first.
With a chilling premonition, Vane’s gaze shifted to the woman in the Crown Prince’s arms.
‘It would’ve been better if she had died!’
If that had happened, killing Ivy Ibiton would at least have justification.
‘If only she dies now!’
For a moment, Vane even thought it might be better to remove that woman from the Crown Prince’s side.
He himself had nearly died several times from seizures he experienced.
The Anabi Order claimed it was divine punishment for the royal family’s lack of faith.
Everyone close to the Crown Prince knew that they had taken him as a child to the Grand Temple and subjected him to brutal torture under the guise of religious education.
Yet now, Vane Acrain, one of the Crown Prince’s closest aides, had brought in a priest of the Anabi faith.
People watched the situation anxiously.
“Please, go in.”
“Am I… permitted?”
The frightened priest asked.
With a crooked expression, Vane pushed him forward and opened the closed door.
Immediately, a vase flew and shattered upon impact.
“I told you not to bring anyone in!”
The blood-soaked Crown Prince looked completely mad.
Nothing in the room remained intact, except for the tea table.
And the woman lying across it.
“Will you just leave her like that?”
The priest grasped the situation.
The woman lying there must be the lover the Crown Prince cherished beyond life itself.
And he had been called to treat her.
‘I might die.’
Seeing no renowned physicians of the Imperial Palace, he assumed they had already died and been carried out.
As the priest trembled, Vane spoke.
“Go in and treat her. Then there will be no problem.”
Vane stepped aside to make way.
Fenril entered first and attended to the Crown Prince.
But the priest was pushed aside once more.
It was Camilla.
Looking as though she might burst into tears, she ran to her mistress.
“When exactly are you going in?”
Vane glared at the priest impatiently.
Flustered, he carefully stepped into the room.
The smell of blood filled the air, and a pale woman lay collapsed on the table.
Feeling as if the Crown Prince would leap at him and tear out his throat the moment he touched her, the priest moved with extreme caution.
Vane approached and, with a rough hand, tilted Evelyn’s body backward.
