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TMLP Ch. 73 — The Fall of the Enemy
When I heard the word ‘poison’, I thought of one thing.
I thought of Horio, who’d smuggled poison from across the continent through his group.
Where had all the poison Horio smuggled gone? When Valer had learned that Horio had been smuggling poison, had he just stopped him with threats?
‘Caesar’s poison is not the kind that comes from this continent.’
I came to that conclusion as I reflected on the memories of my previous life.
The man who had died of poison in my previous life had said it clearly. He had gotten it from across the continent.
‘Horio and the source of the poison are definitely connected.’
And when all these assumptions were taken into one, the most likely suspect was one.
Valer.
***
“Princess Peresca.”
Midday in spring when the cold had faded away.
As I was leaving the training ground after completing my sword training at the Imperial Palace, a woman’s voice called me.
I looked back, thinking that the gentle female voice was unexpected in a place where most of the knights were males. I was even more surprised when I confirmed the source.
Yulika Brande, with her blonde hair draped, was waiting for me with a firm expression.
‘Have you been waiting for me to finish?’
This was not a place to meet by chance.
It was clear that she’d been waiting for training to finish.
“Good afternoon, Young Lady Brande.”
“Good afternoon. Are you available now?”
“Is there anything I can do for you?” I asked, raising one eyebrow. It was meant as a question of whether I could trust her with the time I would make for her. If she wanted to drag me to the empress dowager’s palace, I wanted to spit and turn around.
Yulika shied away from my sharp words and avoided her gaze.
“I-It’s just… I want to have a conversation over tea for a while.”
“Just the two of us?”
“That’s right.”
Hmm. What to do?
Should I believe this? Or not?
“I’m not up to something.” Yulika, who couldn’t have read my thoughts, confessed with a slightly red face.
“How am I supposed to believe that? There have been a lot of times I’ve been tricked.”
“I just wanted to express my gratitude for the last time, and I have no other meaning.”
Last time?
‘Ah… When she was hit by the margrave?’
I kept my mouth shut and looked at Yulika quietly. She waited for my answer with the face of a suspect waiting for her sentence to be delivered.
I know that Yulika was not as strong as the empress dowager. It would have been obvious if she had something in mind.
‘If I want to catch the tail on the empress dowager, it’s best to poke at the weak points like Yulika.’
I let out a shallow sigh.
“Instead, I will decide the location. Will it be okay?”
Yulika’s face brightened at the conditional permission.
“Yes, of course!”
“Then let’s go to the annex. I’ll call the royal servants and tell them to prepare a seat.”
Of course, I’ll have to call Caesar’s servants.
At my words, Yulika meekly nodded her head. I wasn’t sure if it was sincere or not.
***
The meeting place with Yulika was chosen as the largest room in the annex with good light. All the windows were opened so that the inside could be seen from the outside. Of course, the guards were also placed invisibly.
In the next room, Caesar’s servants were waiting.
All parts were monitored and controlled. Except for one thing.
“Tell them not to touch the tea and refreshments Young Lady Brande will prepare,” I told Rowena who prepared the room.
“If Valer is the one who poisoned His Majesty, then you may be poisoned, too, today.”
If you control it so tightly, she may not use the poison. That’s why you have to leave room.
But Rowena frowned at my words.
“It’s too dangerous, Princess.”
“It’s okay. I know how to distinguish poisons to some extent.”
It was the reason I survived the countless threats of poisoning from my brothers in my previous life. Well, there were times when it was a little dangerous.
‘Actually, I’m not sure if the sensitivity of that time is still valid in Helena Peresca’s body now.’
“And there’s a bigger reason…”
“A bigger reason?”
“It could be the other way around. Yulika Brande may be in danger of being poisoned.”
Rowena’s expression suddenly darkened.
“Do you mean the empress dowager will abandon Brande and attack Peresca?”
“There’s a possibility. The empress dowager is a woman who will do things like that.”
Marianne Valer.
She seemed to have no deep affection or loyalty to Yulika Brande.
“If I prepare tea and refreshments, I will be on the suspect list when Yulika Brande is poisoned. Moreover, it will not stop there. She will reveal that His Majesty was poisoned, and may even ask me for the guilt.”
“The justification must be plausible, that you did it because of your jealousy and anger at His Majesty for abandoning you and getting engaged to Young Lady Brande…”
“Yes. So, leave the refreshments to Young Lady Brande as she pleases.”
“All right. We need to make that fact known to others.”
“It’s nice to be able to deliver what I mean at once.” I smiled at Rowena with satisfaction.
I left the preparations to Rowena, so there was no need to worry anymore. All that was left now was to meet directly with Yulika Brande.
‘Let’s see what this is about.’
***
Yulika, who was sitting opposite me in the room, was somehow exhausted the whole time. Contrary to her, I kept a rather overbearing and arrogant posture, fully reclining in the chair.
“Now, let’s hear what your purpose is, shall we?”
“Is it not possible to just chat and drink tea?”
“Is chatting with me enough for you?” I asked, tilting my head. Yulika smiled bitterly at my cheeky posture.
“Princess Peresca… To be honest, it’s scary.”
“It must be scary because you have sinned against me.”
“Everyone in this imperial castle is scary. His Majesty, his servants, even your servants.” Saying that, Yulika shuddered lightly. “It’s not just people. Everything is scary. It’s terrible.”
“Is that so? But aren’t these things all that you wanted to have?”
“The things I wanted to have…” Yulika muttered to herself, her eyes lowered. “It was not what I wanted. It was something I had to have.” After a while, she raised her head and looked at me. “Otherwise, the meaning of my existence will be lost. I am Brande. So I have a duty to live for Brande.”
I quietly folded my arms and heard Yulika’s trembling voice. “For that reason, I have a request for you. Please… keep what you saw that day a secret.”
“Are you talking about when the margrave slapped you?”
“It was just a light friction between family members.”
“Violence is not light friction. Don’t you think it’s unfair to live like that?”
“My father is usually kind to me. So I don’t want to tarnish his honor.”
The victim’s lips surrounding the perpetrator were visibly shaking.
I let out a sigh.
“Young Lady. If you ever tried to oppress a weak person with violence, you are not a kind person.”
“No. It’s just because he loves me.”
“Because he loves you?”
My expression was blatantly distorted. A sneer was stuck in the corner of my mouth.
Yulika’s face flushed. Her inner feelings were exposed.
“Absolutely! What parent does not love their children?!”
“There are a lot of parents like that, Young Lady.”
Because my parents had been like that too.
“The significance of human existence is determined by ourselves. You don’t live for Brande, you live for yourself.”
But, you couldn’t.
I was convinced as I looked at Yulika, who bowed her head without saying anything.
I didn’t know what environment she was brought up in, but I could guess.
If she didn’t become an empress, she was useless. If she didn’t do her part, she couldn’t earn the love of her parents.
The assumption that her parents might not love her was too disturbing to imagine. Once she denied that, she would have no place to rely on.
“… I will keep it a secret,” I said after a long sigh.
Yulika, who had her head bowed, looked at me with eyes twinkling.
“R-Really?”
“I don’t have a light mouth enough to talk about other people’s families affairs.”
“Ah… T-Thank you. I didn’t know that the day would come when I would be so grateful to you, but…”
“But if the same thing happens again in front of my eyes, I will intervene again,” I warned firmly.
Yulika quietly shook her head at my words.
“It will not happen in the future. I will work harder and gain the trust of His Majesty soon.”
It would be impossible even after a lifetime.
‘By the way, why am I giving Yulika life counseling?’
I didn’t even have that many friends. There were a lot of young girls around me, but I had never told anyone this before.
“Anyway, thank you for listening today. I was worried about what would happen if I was ignored,” Yulika said with her face somewhat relaxed. “I want to introduce a good tea in return.”
Yulika called her attendant and ordered something in a whisper. After a while, the servant appeared holding another teapot.
There was still a teapot full of tea left on the table, so I asked Yulika, wondering, “Is it another tea?”
“Yes. It’s a very classy tea. It was specially given to me by the empress dowager, and I want to give you a special taste as well,” Yulika said proudly.
I want to show off the dowager’s love. Her face had been dying just a while ago, but it seemed that she had recovered quite fast. This fellow must be someone who couldn’t live without the belief that she was loved by someone.
“Then I should be glad to receive it.”
“Yes. You’ll probably be surprised. It smells really good and deep.”
Yulika poured it directly into my teacup and her own teacup, respectively, dividing the tea. A bright, rosy liquid filled the teacups.
As she had said, the scent was really good. To the point where I lift the tea cup and smell it without realizing it.
‘What’s this? It’s the first time I’ve ever smelled a scent like this.’
“How is it? It’s nice, right?”
“Yes. What tea is this?”
“It is said to be a kind of flower tea.”
After saying that, Yulika savored the aroma of the tea and took a few sips.
‘Flowers…’
I took the teacup to my mouth only after confirming that Yulika had drunk the tea.
The intense sweetness spreads in my mouth. There was no added sugar, but it was sweet enough to make the tip of the tongue tingle.
“… Ha!”
The taste made me laugh out loud.
Flower tea?
This?
“Wh-What’s wrong with you? … P-Princess?!”
I jumped up from my seat and opened the lid of the teapot. Inside, pink flowers in full bloom were floating in the water.
At first glance, it resembled a rose, but rose tea did not have this sweet taste.
This was not tea.
“Maid!”
At my call, the servant who was waiting in the next room rushed out.
I handed the teapot to the attendant and said, “Bring this to Ms. Evergreen right now.”
“W-What are you doing, Princess?!” Yulika jumped up from her seat, angry as if she had been insulted.
“What am I doing? I’m curious too,” I said, looking at Yulika with a cold gaze.
“Let’s wait together. Are you an accomplice, or are you just being used?”
“What? What do you mean being used…?!”
I grabbed the top of my teacup and slammed it on the table. The teacup broke into pieces and the shards splashed everywhere.
Yulika slumped back into her seat with a scream.
“If you are an accomplice, then I will kill you with my own hands.”
At my, whose anger did not go away, voice, Yulika’s face became white as a blank sheet.