TMME 08

Chapter – 08

Are You Challenging Me Now?

‘Siegfried?’

The person who had prepared the tea was Elizabeth. The person bringing this tea to today’s tea party should, of course, have been a servant from the Elise Palace.

Yet, strangely, the person who brought the tea was Siegfried.

“Ah, Sir Siegfried brought it?”

Elizabeth’s reaction was as if she had expected this, completely natural.

‘This is strange.’

Josephine felt uneasy as she looked at Siegfried’s beautifully chiseled, sharp white jawline.

If Huber had done his job properly, that tea should have returned to the Elise Palace without any issues.

In other words, there was no reason for it to have passed through Siegfried’s hands.

“Why are you standing there blankly? Report without delay.”

Henrius clicked his tongue and frowned.

‘Report?’

Only then did Josephine belatedly recall the task Henrius had entrusted to Siegfried.

Henrius scanned Siegfried with a suspicious look and asked.

“Did you inspect it properly?”

Inside the teapot Siegfried was now holding was the poisoned tea.

The extreme poison she had secretly mixed in, even deceiving Huber.

‘Could it be, he inspected it for poison?’

She had let her guard down. Indeed, Henrius’s paranoia was never something to be taken lightly. She should have anticipated that even a gift from his beloved mistress would be no exception.

Even before she could click her tongue at Henrius’s thorough, paranoid personality to the very end, Josephine’s heart began to pound as if it would burst.

‘No.’

In an instant, he became the black lion holding her lifeline.

All he had ever done for her was expose her. Naturally, he had no reason whatsoever to participate in her dangerous scheme.

In such a situation, the dream-like scenario of Siegfried lying for her was impossible.

If so, he must have discovered the deadly poison in the tea. Then, it was only a matter of time before he revealed the truth.

“The poison…….”

For the first time, the man’s thick, blood-colored lips parted soundlessly.

The gloomy gaze trapped within his black, tousled hair briefly met Josephine’s.

“…There was none.”

What? For a moment, Josephine thought she had misheard. Her heart, which had been pounding so violently it seemed to leap out of her chest, instantly calmed.

“Hmph, as expected.”

Only then did Henrius withdraw his suspicion. Elizabeth, as if she had been waiting, melted his soul with a coquettish smile.

“Ah, Your Majesty. What kind of dreadful joke is that? As if I would put poison in the tea I prepared for you?”

“Of course not, Ella. But you must always remember that someone might try to exploit your beautiful goodwill.”

Henrius’s words, which felt like a pointed jab at her, didn’t register clearly in her ears now.

‘Why on earth?’

Only that question remained as a huge ripple in Josephine’s heart.

‘Why did he lie for me?’

Even if she secretly pinched her thigh hard, it only stung, and she didn’t wake from this unbelievable dream.

‘He helped me.’

Siegfried. Once again, he was trying to take hold of her fate. As if he couldn’t just let her die like this, without any conditions or price.

‘Does he… know everything? About my plan?’

Josephine looked up at Siegfried again. But Siegfried, as silent as ever, said nothing. He stared into the distance as if he hadn’t just lied for her, not even glancing her way.

“Now, relax and have some tea, Your Majesty. Do you know how hard I worked to prepare this?”

Elizabeth smiled brightly, loosening the tense atmosphere.

Henrius looked at Elizabeth, who fluttered her pink dress as if dancing, not hiding his affectionate gaze.

“I personally made a fruit preserve with precious seasonal fruits that only grow in the eastern summer. I brewed it with hot tea.”

Elizabeth took the teapot Siegfried had set down and poured tea first into Henrius’s cup.

The fresh, fruity aroma that immediately spread visibly softened Henrius’s demeanor.

“Hmm, the scent is lovely. Ella, I only knew you had a pretty face, I didn’t know you had such a talent.”

“You flatter me. They say if you brew tea like this with eastern seasonal fruits in summer, it helps you bear the heat less. Perfect for Your Majesty, who is vulnerable to the heat, right?”

Elizabeth deliberately let her dazzling, glossy silver hair fall as she flattered Henrius.

“Originally, my father strictly instructed that it should be presented only to His Imperial Majesty…….”

Then, Elizabeth approached Josephine.

“Today, I’ll specially pour a cup for the Empress, whom I love dearly. And you must get along well with His Majesty from now on, okay?”

This was disastrous.

Who could have imagined that the tea would return to her like this? As an unforeseen crisis, absent in her previous life, suddenly arrived, alarms rang wildly from deep within Josephine’s consciousness.

“No, I’ll decline.”

Josephine deliberately did not hide her pale, drained face as she spoke.

Elizabeth blinked her rabbit-like, round crimson eyes and stepped back.

“Why? Jo, you like tea. Is it because you still dislike hot tea like when you were little?”

“No, that’s not it.”

A buzzing sound rang in Josephine’s temples.

“……I burned my esophagus while eating a few days ago. So the palace physician said I mustn’t have anything hot for a while.”

“Really? The aftereffects are still that severe?”

Elizabeth asked with exaggerated concern.

Josephine subtly rolled her eyes and signaled to Huber.

“Y-yes, that’s right. So Her Majesty the Empress has only been having cold foods for the past few days, and I’ve even cooled down her warmed medicine before serving it. Her throat has also been more sore lately.”

Huber, picking up on the cue, supported Josephine.

“So that’s how it is. I appreciate the thought, but I must decline today.”

While saying this, Josephine’s insides were in turmoil. Her heart was still pounding. She knew what poison she had put in that teapot. Who would have thought she would end up in a position to be poisoned by her own poison?

“But it’s made with very rare fruits my father imported. For my sake, wouldn’t a cup or two be alright?”

“No, C.C. I don’t want to drink anything hot.”

Josephine openly made a stern face.

But Elizabeth’s expression as she observed Josephine’s reaction was a bit odd. There was no sign of embarrassment or apology.

“Come now, Jo. Just have one cup. I went through so much trouble to get it and make it. Are you going to disregard my sincerity?”

“Fräulein Hausen.”

A low, heavy authority now laced Josephine’s voice.

“Are you deaf?”

Fräulein Hausen. Called by that title once more, Elizabeth’s expression instantly hardened stiffly.

“Or is the Hausen name challenging the authority of the Empress now?”

“Jo… Th-that’s not what I meant. How can you speak to me like that?”

The hands holding the teapot trembled violently.

“F-fine, if you don’t want it, you don’t. Do you have to insult me like this? I really didn’t know you were still in such pain…”

“Didn’t know?”

Josephine was dumbfounded.

“How can you say you didn’t know?”

“Empress, what’s come over you all of a sudden?”

“Your Majesty, please stay out of this. This is a matter between the two of us.”

Blocking Henrius, Josephine looked at Elizabeth again.

“You shouldn’t say that. You know. You know exactly why I truly came to hate hot tea.”

Josephine had to pause for a moment to continue.

“You know why my voice changed like this too. You know it all.”

“W-why bring that up now? I told you back then. I really didn’t know anything—”

“Why? Because I could never forget that incident for a single moment. C.C.”

All eyes in the room were drawn to them.

The Empress’s voice had always been an object of ridicule. The cracked, stifled voice, as if struggling underwater. The sound likened to wringing the neck of a sick hen—how much had people gossiped about it behind her back?

“Because your so-called friends back then ruined my throat like this. Isn’t that right?”