Chapter 30
Feeling the cool sensation, her tightly closed eyelids slowly opened with difficulty, then fell weakly again. Seeing her breathing hot, as if she had a fever, he felt confused.
Even while she was not fully conscious, faint words slipped from between the woman’s teeth, as if she was resenting the empress, then scattered away helplessly.
If he truly didn’t know that the empress had done something like this, he would have to rethink his relationship with her.
A fundamental question began to grow in Ricardo’s mind — whether he had misunderstood this woman.
He could not understand why she would suffer such treatment if she were truly someone who had conspired with the empress to marry him.
He could not believe she was acting in front of him.
If she had wanted to seduce him, she would have chosen a different, less ridiculous method.
He looked down silently at Stella, who was breathing heavily in pain.
The woman’s thin wrist was holding his arm as if it were a lifeline. The bruises had not yet faded, and her white skin was stained dark blue.
“If being the duchess’s wife was such a good position, I wouldn’t have been pushed here just because the runaway young lady left.”
The meaning of the words she had said before sounded slightly different now.
“I hope the duke can rise to the highest position soon. Then you can escape the shadow of Her Majesty the Empress.”
He looked again at the woman’s face, which was slightly damp with sweat.
“Wat… water…”
Supporting her upper body and pouring more water, her small lips drank it like a child.
Even after drinking one glass, it was not enough. She grabbed his hand that was trying to pull the glass away from her mouth and refused to let go.
As he placed the empty glass aside, the woman’s shoulder leaned weakly against his tilted shoulder. The hot breath touching his neck felt like it could burn him.
When he did not reject the woman’s body, which was pushing into him like a sick child, her slender body clung to him desperately.
He stayed like that without moving until the night deepened.
The love potion made by the sorcerer, following the empress’s sly plan, failed to break Stella’s will, but it created an unexpected turning point between the two.
Light that was unusually bright slipped through the gap where the curtains failed to fully cover the window. The fresh scent of moisture from the forest tickled the nose more pleasantly than any perfume.
“Mm…”
Rubbing her cheek happily against the soft pillow, her eyes slowly opened.
The morning seen through her eyes was quite different from usual. Small sparrows were chirping on the arched window frame, and the golden-painted ceiling looked luxurious.
Wondering if she had possessed another body again, her half-open eyes suddenly widened.
“Huh!”
She sat up and quickly looked around the room. Seeing a familiar face, she let out a sigh of relief.
“Ena…”
Ena, who heard the sound of her waking up, turned to her with bright eyes.
“You’re awake? Since you’re not feeling well, you should sleep more. I think I woke you because I was moving around.”
Brushing her messy hair with her hand, she checked her clothes.
She couldn’t remember how she fell asleep last night. She even wondered if she had slept without changing clothes, but fortunately she was wearing her nightwear.
“Not feeling well?”
She asked, confused since she felt no different from usual.
“Master told me to take good care of you because you weren’t feeling well.”
As Ena tilted her head, something rang in her head like she had recovered a lost memory.
Ena joined her hands and brought them cutely to her cheeks, trying not to laugh.
“In the morning, I was so surprised. I knocked softly because I thought you were still sleeping, but Master was sitting on the edge of the bed, just looking at you. I thought I was seeing things.”
Her hands moved to cover her mouth shyly as she laughed.
“I didn’t know I had entered the room. Master was just quietly looking down at you while you were sleeping. That was the first time I saw Master’s face like that… Ah! Of course it had to be the first time. Hehe.”
The sound of sparrows from the window frame and Ena’s chatting voice seemed to make a cheerful harmony.
“It really feels like the two of you are a loving married couple now…”
While Ena was moved with emotion, I couldn’t avoid the memory of my own embarrassing behavior from last night.
After drinking the wine that seemed to seduce people with its sweetness, my body became strange, and at that exact moment Ricardo came in. Everything I did — clinging to Ricardo’s neck and hanging awkwardly — came back clearly.
“Ah… huu…”
As the blurred memory replayed more vividly in my mind, I closed my eyes.
A sigh close to a scream escaped my mouth.
“I’m going crazy…”
I just wanted to dig a hole somewhere and hide.
Seeing me like that, Ena became startled and came closer.
“Lady, are you okay? You really don’t look well. I’ll go call a doctor right away.”
The moment Ena turned her body, I quickly grabbed her hand.
“No, I’m fine. Just bring me a glass of warm water, Ena.”
“Are you sure you’re really okay? I’ll bring it right away.”
After she left the room with quick steps, I finally struggled to get up and sit on the bed.
I hoped yesterday was just a bad dream, but the wine stain left on the carpet proved it was real. It was embarrassing and painful, but I had to accept it.
I stood up from the bed and bit my nails nervously. This was my habit when I was in trouble, but now I was doing it faster than usual.
‘After drinking the wine that the empress gave me yesterday, something went wrong. She must have mixed something in it.’
The empress wouldn’t have put poison into the wine after working so hard to bring Ricardo’s bride back from afar.
Remembering the changes in my body, I understood.
The empress must have planted people in the duchy, and news about the duchess couple’s relationship must have reached her ears.
Because of that, she probably interfered, pretending it was for my sake.
Of course, it wasn’t really because she cared about me. Hearing rumors that the duke and duchess were cold toward each other, she must have been anxious that the marriage might have problems.
According to Ena, Ricardo left the room in the morning, so the story would definitely have reached the empress.
She must be smiling with satisfaction right now.
There is a limit to how much one can play with people.
‘Ricardo must have noticed something was strange too, right?’
I remembered how he snatched the wine glass I drank from yesterday and threw it away.
‘Yes. He definitely knew.’
Only then could I escape a little from the shameful guilt of last night.
Feeling suddenly tired, I collapsed into the chair at the table.
Even though I was married, I didn’t expect the empress to be this persistent and troublesome.
I pressed my temple in annoyance.
‘Both Yelena and the empress are driving me crazy.’
Still, learning Yelena’s identity clearly made the hunting competition worth attending.
As soon as yesterday’s hunting competition was stopped, Yelena did not attend the party and hurried back to the capital.
Now that her plan to harm me had failed, I wondered what she would plan next.
Before her methods became more cruel and she tried to kill me like in the original story, I had to expose her true face to everyone first.
Several days after returning from the resort, I quietly visited Ernheart and asked him to investigate how the duchess’s arrow could have ended up in someone else’s hand.
But then.
“Under His Excellency’s order, we already investigated it. I returned to the capital during the hunting competition to look into it.”
Hearing that Ricardo ordered the investigation, I felt a little confused. I thought he would treat it as a simple accident like the others.
“…You already investigated? Then…”
“We found that one of the blacksmiths who worked at the forge that made the arrow disappeared suddenly a few days ago. When we visited his house, he wasn’t there either.”
“Ah…”
As soon as I heard that, a rough scenario formed in my mind.
Someone must have ordered him to make arrows like mine, but he probably didn’t know I had asked Ernheart to engrave a mark.
So only that arrow had no mark.
It was obvious who it was.
As if he knew I understood, I slowly nodded and asked again.
“So you still haven’t found that man?”
Ernheart hesitated for a moment, wondering whether he should answer, then spoke carefully.
