Chapter 176

"Wh-what?"

All the men's faces, including the Duke, were shocked. "The maid has died?"

The butler notified with a dark face.

"Yes, she has died by bitting her tongue in her mouth." "Huh, what's it? Renald."

The Duke looked back at his second son, who was in charge of the interrogation.

"Well, it can't be! She made the statement so faithfully that I didn't even have to use torture, and why"

Renald muttered like an excuse with a face that the Duke didn't understand at all.

The maid who insisted that she only did what Penelope had told her, trembled at the very moment she was brought in.

There was no falsehood in her face.

However, self-examination was the custom of assassins who lost their mission. The atmosphere quickly became serious.

There was a bizarre silence in the drawing room. "First of all, investigate the actions of the dead maid."

After quite a long time, the Crown Prince ordered in a heavy voice.

"Where did she get the poison, what did she normally do in the dukedorm, what she was doing before the coming-of-age ceremony, and how many contacts she had with the princess."

"...."

"It's too bad that she is dead, because I really wanted to find out if it was the Princess's order, if this is case then it is the way I used to use it on the battlefield."

While shrugging his shoulders like a joke, Callisto was not smiling at all.

Still, looking at him, who seemed to have focused on someone trying to kill the princess, someone carefully added.

"She isYvonne's maid."

"Then, you'd better to include that bitch in this investigation." "Your Highness!"

"You said she wasn't confirmed to be your own daughter yet?" "That, that"

The Duke could not speak. It was true, but there was a law in everything.

The Duke's face was stained with humiliation at the sight of the Crown Prince, who casually controlled the sensitive issues inside the family.

Either way, the Crown Prince concluded at his own will.

"Good for you. At this point, you should check every detail of the commoner, Duke." "Doesn't the Marquis state that Penelope was poisoned and drank it herself?"

Then someone asked back hard.

Callisto turned his head. It was the Young Duke who was impatient to accuse the Princess. "Oh, yes."

The Crown Prince nodded lightly, then turned his gaze from Derrick and looked at the other. "By the way, Marquis of Verdandi, why do you think that the princess doesn't have a self-play?"

The Crown Prince, who managed to remember what he was trying to say before the butler came in, asked.

"That..."

Vinter couldn't answer immediately and shook his lips. It certainly wasn't her self-play if it included a dead maid.

This is because she asked the poison from the office's head through her decent maid. Moreover, before she lifted the glass, she looked at the necklace.

Obviously, she knew that the color of the necklace had changed to the primary color. Maybe she drank something different from the poison he gave her.

Either way, he couldn't grasp the slightest hint of her intentions.

In this state, he couldn't figure out if it would be beneficial or not to tell the Crown Prince everything he knew.

"Marquis?"

The Crown Prince, tilted his head and called him, as if he was in strange state, without an answer. Vinter finally opened his mouth after biting his lips at the glare of the Crown Prince.

"She already has a decent maid."

A good excuse came out.

"Why would she let someone else do such a secret thing when she left her decent maid behind? Why would she do thing like that? Why did she let the temporary maid of Lady Yvonne do it?"

"You've come to conclusion for a long time. That's exactly what I'm saying." The Crown Prince again moved his red eyes to Derrick.

Derrick refuted again.

"But if it wasn't self-play, why was the antidote discovered, and why did Penelope drink wine when she knew it was poisoned?"

"So let's do the investigation, Young Duke."

The Crown Prince said with a glance of his eyes.

"Who is poisoning the princess or is she really poisoning herself to get your attention." ""

"Or maybe the Princess, who noticed the self-written play planned by someone else, was trying to

stop it."

"Well, that's!"

"Let's find out together, huh?"

In his words, three pairs of blue eyes grew so large.

Deep doubts were read in those eyes as if they had never thought about it at all.

Callisto, who knew, Penelope was a woman who was smart enough to make such a choice.

It was understandable that the Duke family had regarded her as a stupid and immature baby. "Investigate all, Duke."

Callisto glared at all three of them in turn.

"Before I, as a witness, intervene directly as a member of Imperial Family, not as a witness."

* * *

Callisto left the Duke's parlor and moved quickly.

He participated in the conversation to find out the circumstances of the Princess' poisoning, but it was a waste of time.

In the meantime, he was very busy worrying about what would happen to an unconscious woman. Almost running down the hall, just as he was about to climb the middle stairs.

"Your Highness."

Someone sitting in the middle hall woke up when he ran in. A hesitant Callisto turned slowly.

"What the..."

The Crown Prince, who would have greeted his aide slyly at other times, stared at him with a hideous expressionless face.

After a few days, the boss's face was very rough.

At times like this, everyone should be careful of what he say and do. Cedric swallowed the dry saliva and managed to say.

"Feha, has asked me to bring back you, Your Highness." "Why."

"The Hronia's rebels have taken over the northern frontier." "Ha"

The Crown Prince, who burst into a smirk, soon turned roughly on the stairs. "Tell him to send the others there because I'm too busy right now."

"Boo, they're camped in the north and they are gradually gaining power in collusion with the remnants of other defeated nations!"

Cedric cried in haste. His shouting face was also covered with frustration.

"The day before yesterday, Marquis Herhett was taken over. The order is to go and suppress it right away."

Herhett's territory belonged to the North, where the barriers were solid and well-trained by the soldiers. If that's the place, it was already got quite a few heads of rebels.

"What the fuck"

The Crown Prince, who grabbed the stair railing suddenly, turned back to his aide again. His glare glistened with red light as he walked down the stairs.

"Is there no commander in this country other than me? You could've made it into soup and fed it to them right up to their nose, do I have to clean up every piece of shit?"

"...."

"For nearly a decade I've rolled like a dog on the battlefield. But why should I play a fucking war game when I don't know when the woman I love is going to die?"

"His Majesty!"

'One hit!'

Cedric, who closed his eyes at the big hand that was about to hit him, shouted out in a burst.

"His Majesty said that after you completing this mission, he will consider positively your engagement to the Princess."

He then opened his eyes and persuaded the Crown Prince with an earnest voice.

"You know, without His Majesty's... approval and support, engagement cannot be achieved."

It was true. No matter how much he offered his proposal, it was no use if the Duke refused. Before that, it was useless as the princess hated it, but he was confident this time.

(Note: Idk if that refers to Emperor / Duke. because cedric called "his majesty")

Now he already knew what she wanted. Whatever it was, he had the power and the money to fulfill her wishes. Of course, only under the condition that the engagement would be done.

"Shit!"

His fist, which had been lifted high to beat Cedric, was eventually lowered and hit on the railing of the stairs.

Quang—! On the railing, carved with wood, such a decoration was crushed. Cedric trembled, imagining it might have been his own head.

At the onset of his puberty. After being thrown into the battlefield as if he had been kicked out without knowing anything, he rolled like a dog and survived.

As he returned to the capital with the message of his victory, he promised thousands of times that he would never play the Emperor's game all along again. He knew very well that if he accepted now, he would end up offering himself to put a jade leash on him again. But.

"Wait."

He breathed slowly down his heated breath and said as if he were brooding. "Tell His Majesty. The situation is not urgent."

"Come on, you should say goodbye and don't come here anymore!"

Callisto, who shouted, swung up the stairs before Cedric could even catch him. He run, fluttering with his red cape behind him which was never caught by Cedric.

Climbing up to the second floor, Callisto opened the Princess's door to her room straight away.

The dedicated maid, who has now become quite accustomed to his existence, hurried away without a hint of surprise.

Jabbuck, jabuck-.

He walked across the room without hesitation.

Before long time a large pair of shoes stopped near of her bed.

The area around the bed was filled with smoke from the decoding candle burning up. Between the strong scent of herbs, the Princess still closed her eyes as if she was dead.

Her pale complexion, the smell of poison, her bright lips, and her dark pink hair, which had lost its light, gave her the appearance of a corpse.

Other day, the Duke's adoptive daughter didn't even look like this when she tried to fake him and was forced to dress up as if she was sick.

A lively face and a ridiculous figure with a blackish-painted eyelid. 'it was cute.'

A disgusting woman who even dressed up because she didn't want to meet him.

However, Penelope Eckart was even prettier. "Penelope Eckart."

The Crown Prince reached out and touched the lips of a woman with his rough hand. It was already the third day since she collapsed from poison.

She was able to save what it felt like blood was dry all day long. He could see the blood dripping for three whole days.

He couldn't sleep for a few seconds. He was afraid she would die in the meantime.

Fortunately, it stopped now, but he thought dozens and thousands of times whenever he saw her with her eyes closed and her mouth was dripping with blood.

Who dared to make her like this?

The thought of it caused the boiling blood to rise in his head and his mind to heat up.

The Crown Prince quietly murmured, looking down at the princess with his eyes full of unknown emotions.

"Who poisoned you, or whether you drank it yourself with your own hands because you want to die.

Now I don't care about that anymore." ""

"As long as I'm alive with my eyes wide open, you can't die." ""

"Wait for me. I'll come back and crush all the guys that made you suffer like this. I'll freeze their hearts by magic so that they don't die, and tear each limbs apart as much as the blood you shed, and put their foot in their mouths"

The Crown Prince, who was shinning with his red eyes and uttering an increasingly exuberant sound, suddenly stopped talking.

When he said such cruel things, she would usually frown and hated them. 'If you're going to do that, go to the place where I am not there.'

He thought she was going to get up at any moment and gave him a hard time. However, the cold body without warmth did not even move.

"No, no"

Only then did the Prince slowly stopped himself from further cursing. "I didn't mean to say this."

Getting down on his knees as if he were falling down by her bed, he stroked the face of the pale Penelope with his hands.

"Just pretend you didn't hear anything just now, Princess. I'm here to say goodbye. I'm in a hurry now." ""

"I'll be right back. So when I come back, please greet me with your open eyes. I wanted to see that"

Ironically, Callisto, who muttered these rambling words, suddenly turned his face in desperation.

He bowed his upper body. It was the goodbye kiss to his lover.

Their lips were all touched. He pressed his lips against hers, which was as dry and pale as a sheet.

He thought he wanted to give her his breath. "I'll do everything for you."

And he whispered in a small voice. It was a secret no one should hear. So, let's fulfill her wishes. "If you want to go out of here, I'll get you out of here."

"..."

"I will give you love or whatever you wish, I'll do everthing you want."

"Don't die."

Once again he swallowed with his dry lips, imploring desperately, and begging her to live.

"Don't die, Penelope."