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Chapter 53: The trial of the villainess (part 2)
[Shael’s POV]
As soon as Eran arrived, Shael spoke to him.
“Now, return the serpent orb.”
There was no way Eran would agree to that.
“Come to think of it, I remember why you tried to make me drink the Obedience Tree Sap.”
“…”
“You said you did it because you wanted to know if I liked you.”
‘I tried to make Eran drink the Obedience Tree Sap, and then even said that as the reason?’
Shael hated her past drunk self. She didn’t do anything well, and she foolishly wasted that good opportunity.
‘No, actually, there was only one thing I remember.’
[I’m not cheating on you, so you don’t have to worry.]
But that was all. It must have been what Eran said after drinking the Obedience Tree Sap, so it was a harvest in its own way, but that result that was not enough for the utilization of the Obedience Tree Sap.
At that time, Eran said to Shael. “You begged me not to cheat on you.”
“I didn’t say that.”
‘Obviously, I wouldn’t have!’
Eran looked at Shael, who was in agony and laughed.
It was next that Eran took out the serpent orb with a slight smile.
[I like you.]
[I love you.]
Shael hear her own voice coming from the serpent orb.
Until yesterday, that serpent orb had belonged to her. In other words, those words from the serpent orb were recorded during she was drinking with Eran yesterday.
And serpent orb couldn’t be manipulated.
“…”
Shael couldn’t help but panic. She didn’t know why she said those words.
No matter how drunk she was, there’s no way Shael would say such embarrassing words!
So she just kept denying it.
At the same time, she convinced herself that she only said that because she was drunk at that time and wasn’t in a normal state of mind..
***
And again the next day.
Shael woke up feeling tired. She couldn’t sleep, recalling the conversation she had with Eran after drinking the Tree of Obedience.
But no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t come up with an answer, and her head kept throbbing.
There was no harvest despite all the hard work.
And, just as Shael was about to give up trying to recall what happened, a memory popped into her head.
A memory where she was hugging Eran began to emerge in Shael’s mind in detail.
Shael shook her head and tried to clear her thoughts, but even that was no use.
She remembered the feeling of burying her face in Eran’s chest!
It was too vivid a memory to be an illusion.
“Wh… why!”
‘Why the hell would I do that?’
Not only that. It was the same for the things recorded in the serpent orb. She had done something she would never do.
She hated to believe it, but Eran said that she even begged Eran not to cheat on her.
Then, Eran’s words came to Shael’s mind again.
It was as if Eran was by her side, [Did you know that when you get drunk, you tell your true feelings?]
It was also something she had read in a book.
Soon, Shael shook her head.
She vowed that the next time she went to Azbel family’s library again, she would tear up the pages of that book as well.
Shael finished her preparations and looked at her watch.
Eran would come early today.
She had woken up late, and the clock pointed to the time Eran was supposed to come.
“…”
But Eran didn’t come. Even though the time for Eran to come had already passed.
To be honest, only a little bit of time had passed, but to Shael, the difference was significant.
Shael again convinced herself, ‘I am feeling this way because I have no one to bully. I am looking forward to it because I am bored.’
‘It’s obvious. There is no other reason than that.’
Kikiiik!
Hearing the sound of the door being opened, Shael spoke without even looking at the door.
Because it was obvious who had came in.
“You’re late!” Shael said in a dissatisfied tone.
Normally, some lame excuse would have come back as the answer.
But this time it was different.
“Eran can’t come today.”
What she heard wasn’t Eran’s voice full of excuses. It was Duke Jespen’s voice.
Shael reflexively opened her mouth to ask, “Why?”
“He seems to be suffering from a high fever. He told me he might not be able to come tomorrow as well.”
‘Is Eran suffering from a high fever?’
Shael immediately stood up from her seat.
In her head, she thought back to the words the Azbel family physician had said to her in the past. (G: in chapter 36 part 2)
[First of all, the patient’s body will get weak… and they’ll sleep a lot. When things get worse, they’ll have a really bad fever.]
[After suffering a fever, they’d get strangely healthy.]
And after that.
[And die within a week.]
A trial she had thought would never come, was finally here.