"Is that all I can do?"
Surprised by the unexpected answer, Kishian asked.
"I asked if I could just drink what I was told to drink."
"Are you going to drink it obediently? You won't listen to it, but it's still poison."
No matter how special he was, he was not willing to put poison in his mouth.
It would be even more reluctant if it were a poison prepared by an unbelieving woman.
However, I was not mistaken.
He again made a firm proposal to me.
"Let's do this. I'll cooperate as you wish. Instead, what happened yesterday... Forget it."
His gaze turned to my injured shoulder again.
He reached out to caress it, but I stepped back first.
The outstretched hand lingered in the air for a long time, as if it wanted to touch me, but in the end, it was quietly withdrawn.
"You know I didn't mean what I said."
"..."
"If you don't believe it, I can prove it with my actions."
To be honest, I couldn't guarantee it.
Is it possible to just forget the words that I have already heard from him?
I wonder if I can pretend that I didn't hear his true intentions and feel for him again as if nothing had happened before.
Therefore, I did not answer right away, but just looked at him for a while.
His eyes sparkled with golden light like honey in the sun, and they also captured me.
It was the eyes that supported me so that I wouldn't shrink even when I faced Letie.
"...I got it. I'll forget everything. As if I didn't hear anything, as if nothing had happened."
It was only after I spat it out that I realized.
I must have had him in my heart much more than I thought.
***
It was early in the morning when the sun had not yet fully risen.
I quietly got out of bed and headed for my office.
Afterwards, I took out a bottle of wine from a display case in one corner of my office.
It contained poison made from herbs I had received from Elvin yesterday.
He went straight to Albrecht with it.
As if I hadn't fallen asleep even though it was early, the door of the room opened to reveal Albrecht.
"Seeing that you have been here since early in the morning, it seems that you have brought the news that I have been waiting for?"
"Let's go in and talk."
I walked into the room and waited for him to lock the door.
After that, I took the wine out of my arms.
Albrecht's eyes went straight to the wine.
"I'm not going to have a drink at this time."
"This is something to drink for dinner. This is the wine you should give to the Grand Duke for dinner."
"Hmm?"
Albrecht, who had expressed his doubts at what I said, immediately let out a cold sneer.
"Is it poisoning after all? It's ridiculously simple for a long time. And he has a special constitution. I don't know if the poison will affect it properly."
"It seems like he's effect to drugs. I've experimented with sleeping pills in his food before. And it's not just poison. If it were such a common poison, it wouldn't have taken so long to prepare."
I carefully set the poisoned wine down on the table and explained it to Albrecht.
"Using ordinary poison is actually suicidal. If the Grand Duke vomits blood immediately after drinking this wine and collapses, the one who prepared this will be taken directly to the death row."
"Are you saying that it is a poison that shows symptoms slowly over time?"
Quickly, he understood what I was saying.
I nodded and affirmed.
"Drinking this won't kill him right away. But slowly, he dies so slowly that he doesn't even realize it. It will be much later that the Grand Duke dies, so this wine will not be suspected, and his death will be treated as an unknown cause."
"Hmmm..."
"Didn't you say that you were thinking of a way to deal with him safely? I thought this would be the best."
"But I think you're missing the most important part."
Once again, Albrecht had a grin on his face.
Shaking his head pathetically, he pointed out the flaws in my plan.
"He won't drink the wine I gave him. There is no way to drink it. He still regards me as His Majesty's henchman and is wary of me."
"I know."
"Do you know? If you do..."
"So you should drink with me."
Albrecht's eyes wrinkled up.
I added more details before I took a break.
"You can't make him drink this by simply giving it as a gift. I'll arrange a meal. Come and apologize to him for what happened before, and give him this as a gift of apology."
"What happened before?"
"You grabbed my wrist carelessly and provoked the Grand Duke's wrath, and it would be natural for you to offer him wine as an apology for that. Then invite him to drink it 'together,' because if you drink wine first, the Grand Duke will be relieved."
"Are you going to kill the Grand Duke and ask me to die with him?"
"I wonder if that is possible."
Then I took out the pile of herbs I had brought with me.
"I'll give you an antidote. Drink the wine with the Grand Duke, and swallow it exactly five days later. Then you won't be poisoned."
Albrecht's gaze lingered on the antidote for a moment.
He stared at it as if he was worried about it, and then slowly opened his mouth again.
"I'm sure, I don't think I'll get caught using this method... It's just that I don't like the fact that I have to drink poison with him."
"Then you thought you could assassinate the Grand Duke without this much effort?"
I added, taking advantage of his inability to respond.
"If you take the antidote, you won't die."
"..."
"I don't want you to die. I have something to give you."
It was only after hearing that Albrecht's suspicion disappeared a little.
"Well, Your Highness wanted to escape from this place. You'll need my help to do that..."
I had agreed to receive help from him in exchange for me help in killing the Grand Duke.
He would have thought that I, who wanted to escape from the Grand Duke's residence with his help, would not do anything that would harm him.
I added a suitable performance to further convince his thoughts.
"I must get out of here. I've always been waiting for the day when I can escape."
"Do you want to run away like that?"
"Isn't it natural? I have become a substitute for my sister and have been sacrificed to a monster, so who would want to live like this?"
To completely deceive Albrecht, I had to appear to hate the Kishian.
After emphasizing the word monster and showing his disgust, Albrecht finally picked up the wine.
"I see. Let's believe in Your Highness's ability."
If I had made that decision, I wouldn't have had to hold on to this unpleasant space any longer.
I turned toward the entrance to leave.
Albrecht's voice strode close to my ear.
"By the way, where are you going to go after you run away?"
"What?"
"You said you were going to leave after disguising yourself as dead. If you disguised yourself like that, it would be impossible to return to the Imperial Palace. Do you have a place to go?"
I was uncomfortable when he suddenly approached me without permission.
Meanwhile, its hand slipped out and brushed the back of my hand.
I shuddered at the sensation of insects crawling all over my body, and roughly struck off his hand.
"Wherever I go, it's not your business."
"Can I arrange a place for you? I'll make you feel comfortable."
Hearing something that didn't sound like words, I laughed.
If I crawled into the shelter he had prepared, I would surely be subjected to unspeakable, horrible punishment.
"Think about how to behave in front of the Grand Duke when you're talking nonsense, because if you can't feed him wine, everything I've prepared will be in vain."
Even if I shot coldly, Albrecht's expression did not show any signs of displeasure.
Instead, he just smiled with a dirty smile as if he was interested.
"I will keep that in mind. Isn't it necessary to deal with the Grand Duke firmly so that there is a possibility that you will fall into my hands?"
"..."
It wasn't worth talking about, so I walked out of the room quickly.
Even though I hadn't eaten breakfast, I kept feeling nauseous and had to soothe my stomach for a long time.
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