She stared blankly down at the headless corpse and asked in a trembling voice.
"What... do you plan to do now?"
Thalia hugged Khan's damp neck tightly, unable to say a word.
Tiuran, who had been quietly watching the scene for a while, finally let out a heavy sigh and approached the pool of blood.
"...First, let's recover the body."
Then, she grabbed Marisen's leg and dragged her down a shallow, overgrown slope.
Thalia's eyes widened. She never imagined that Tiuran would be the first to step forward and try to cover up the body. She stealthily got up and approached Tiuran.
Tiuran was digging through the layers of fallen leaves and humus with a thick branch she had picked up from somewhere. Before long, a hole large enough for a person to lie down in was created. As Tiuran was neatly laying the bloodstained corpse inside and covering it with soil, she looked around as if she had belatedly noticed that the area above the shoulders was empty.
Marisen's head was buried under a bush a few steps away. Tiuran carefully picked it up, came back down the slope, placed the head beside her body, and began to gather soil and fallen leaves to fill the hole.
Finally, as the body completely vanished, Tiuran brushed the dirt off her hands and spoke.
"There is a spring a short distance away. I think it would be best to wash off the blood there."
Thalia immediately took Khan and chased straight after Tiuran.
Just as she had said, not long after, they were able to find a small spring amidst the dense birch trees. Bending down in front of it, Thalia vigorously rubbed the mottled bloodstains on Khan's mouth and the nape of his neck with the ice-cold spring water.
"It would be best to wipe the bloodstains off Your Highness's clothes as well. Please give them to me."
Tiuran held out a hand toward her and spoke. Thalia took off her coat and handed it to her without a word.
Tiuran soaked it in the spring water to rinse off the blood, squeezed out the water tightly, and handed the damp coat back to her.
"If you go to the castle gate now, you will run into soldiers. There is a secret passage, so it would be better to go through there.'
"Secret passage?"
Thalia, who was draping her wet coat over her shoulders, frowned and asked back.
Tiuran shrugged lightly as if it were no big deal.
"It's a passage I discovered by chance while organizing the warehouse. If we use it, we'll be able to enter the castle without being seen by the soldiers."
Then, before she could even answer, she began to walk quickly. Thalia followed her in a daze. All sorts of questions arose in her mind, but she was too confused and exhausted to weigh them all in detail.
“It’s over there.”
How far had they walked along the bumpy path overgrown with trees and bushes? At the bottom of the steep slope, she saw a pile of huge rocks. Tiuran approached it and pointed to a narrow gap between the rock walls.
“You can just go inside.”
Thalia peered into the dark cave with a suspicious expression. Inside the cave, which was about 5 khvets (about 150 centimeters) high, there were roughly carved stone steps leading up.
Tiuran stepped inside as if it were a familiar place, lit a lamp hanging on the wall, and nodded toward Thalia.
"The ground is uneven, so please follow carefully."
Thalia, who had been hesitating for a long time while embracing Khan, soon cautiously stepped into the cave.
As she descended the stairs, a relatively wide passageway came into view. She looked around. Stone pillars stood at regular intervals on both sides of the passageway, and rusty iron rings were embedded in the walls here and there. It appeared to be hundreds of years old at first glance.
"Where does this tunnel lead?"
"It is connected to the main building's underground warehouse. You just need to walk about ten minutes further from here."
Tiuran replied calmly and started walking ahead again.
Thalia, who had been quietly gazing at that calm profile, finally voiced the question that had been swirling in her mind.
"How long have you known... that Marisen is harming me?"
Tiuran hesitated for a moment, then resumed walking and replied calmly.
"I have harbored suspicions ever since Your Highness suddenly collapsed during your tour of the East."
Thalia froze in shock.
"You mean you've been suspecting that woman for that long?"
"It wasn't that I suspected Marisen was intentionally harming Your Highness from the beginning. I just thought something was strange."
She spat it out as if making an excuse.
"The medicine I prescribed at the time was not the type to cause that level of side effects. So at first, I wondered if there had been an adverse reaction between the medicine prescribed by Marisen and the reagent I created."
At that moment, a memory of that time flashed through Thalia's mind.
"Come to think of it, Marisen once said she wanted to check the medicine you made. She said she wanted to check the ingredients..."
“As expected.”
A dark shadow fell over Tiuran's face.
"It seems that Lady Marisen possessed profound knowledge regarding the toxic reactions that occur when various medicinal herbs are used in combination. Based on that knowledge, she must have mixed herbs that amplify the toxic reactions of the reagent I created into the ointments or incense sticks Your Highness was using at the time."
Thalia felt a chill run down her spine. She recalled that Marisen had been acting as her personal healer alone for a while following the incident where she had lost consciousness. If Tiuran’s suspicions were correct, Marisen had effectively eliminated the person who was getting in the way of her mission.
She stuck to it in a firm tone.
"So you said you'd return as my healer? Because you thought Marisen was suspicious?"
Tiuran nodded.
"I wanted to observe her prescriptions and treatment process up close. I couldn't accuse an innocent person based on mere suspicion, so I intended to look for clear evidence."
Suddenly, a bitter sensation spread across the corners of her mouth.
"However, contrary to my expectations, there were no particularly noticeable problems with her prescription. So for a while, I even wondered if my suspicions might have been wrong."
Thalia retorted as if she couldn't understand.
"You mean there wasn't anything suspicious about it?"
"Yes, there were no major issues with the individual medicines she created. However, it appears she combined them in a way that caused various side effects and symptoms of addiction when used simultaneously. It seems she also alternated between incense sticks, ointments, and reagents in minute quantities, subtle enough that I couldn't even notice."
A heavy sigh escaped her lips.
"Then, seeing Your Highness recently recovering your health, she became anxious and started using even more toxic herbs. That is how she ended up getting caught by me."
Thalia wore a look of utter devastation.
Was it all just that woman's scheme—the hallucinations and auditory hallucinations she had suffered, and even the terrible pain and convulsions that tormented her every night?
She ran her hand over her forearm, which had become gaunt again for the first time in a few weeks. The skin, which had had a pleasant flush over the years, had turned pale enough to be clearly visible even in the darkness.
Thalia, who had been staring blankly down at the back of her hand where the veins were bulging, suddenly asked in a subdued voice.
"So, how damaged is my body?"
Tiuran, who was stepping onto the stairs at the end of the tunnel, stopped abruptly and turned to look at her.
Thalia, avoiding her gaze and lowering her eyes, struggled to move her lips.
"Does this mean I can never have children again?"
“Not really.”
Tiuran grabbed her shoulder with one hand.
"To be honest, Your Highness has indeed become very frail. However, it is not yet beyond recovery."
Thalia looked up at her with tears welling up in her eyes. Tiuran continued in a gentle tone, as if comforting a younger sibling.
"Please don't worry too much, as I will help you fully recover your health. Now that we know what medicine you used, finding a way to detoxify it won't be difficult."
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