A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 89

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The moment Camilla arrived at the Sorpel Household, she bolted straight to her room. She needed to retrieve something she had left there.
Hersel, the Previous Head of House who had once lost Shinsu, had left her a gift.
A seed-like fruit discovered at his tomb.
‘He said it would detoxify all poisons without exception.’
The instant I heard through Perol that Duke Sorpel had collapsed from poisoning, this seed-fruit came to mind.
Whoosh.
“Miss!”
“Just a moment—”
As Camilla brought the mysterious antidote to Duke Sorpel’s lips, the Healers cried out urgently once more.
“Silence.”
Ludvil stepped forward to block their path. His quiet command forced every Healer to clamp their mouths shut.
Without a word, Ludvil placed his hand on Camilla’s shoulder.
With his permission, Camilla hesitated no further and placed the fruit Hersel had left behind directly into Duke Sorpel’s mouth.
‘He said I just needed to make him swallow it.’
I worried whether he could swallow it while unconscious.
But contrary to my concern, the hard-textured seed-fruit melted instantly the moment it entered the Duke’s mouth and dissolved smoothly inside.
And then something miraculous happened. A faint light began to emanate from Duke Sorpel’s body.
Moments later, the light enveloping his body vanished as if it had never been.
“The, the Duke—!”
And in the next instant, everyone could see it. Duke Sorpel’s complexion had changed dramatically from moments before.
The Healers rushed forward to examine Duke Sorpel’s body. Soon their mouths fell open in shock.
“Good heavens!”
“It appears to be detoxified!”
“Miss Camilla’s antidote worked!”
His pulse and breathing had both returned to normal. The icy-cold body temperature was no longer detectable.
“Haah.”
Only then did Camilla release the long breath she had been holding.
“Camilla!”
“…I’m fine.”
As her legs suddenly trembled and she stumbled, Arsian quickly steadied her.
“I was just… tense.”
Though I showed no outward sign, my heart had been racing with anxiety. It was an untested medicine, after all.
I had used it relying solely on Hersel’s word, and my insides had burned with worry over what might happen if something went wrong.
The Healers’ warnings against using medicine recklessly had pushed my anxiety to its peak, but there was no other option available to us.
“Thank goodness…”
Watching Duke Sorpel, whose complexion had visibly improved from moments before, Camilla exhaled deeply once more.
Then her gaze fell upon a mirror standing in one corner of the bedroom.
“…Hah.”
A hollow laugh escaped Camilla’s lips as she saw her reflection in it.
‘I look absolutely insane.’
My hair was a tangled mess, and my clothes remained in the state I’d left them—hitched up here and there from playing in the water.
No matter how charitably one looked at it, I was utterly unrecognizable as the Duke’s daughter.
But at that moment, I had no time to consider my appearance.
The instant Perol told me that Duke Sorpel had collapsed, all thought fled my mind.
When I heard he’d been poisoned, my only impulse was to get the antidote I possessed into him as quickly as possible.
I lost count of how many times I nearly stumbled on my way to the Sorpel Estate and toward his room.
Thank goodness Arsian caught me each time—without him, my knees would have been shattered.
As I recalled all those frantic actions, I let out a hollow laugh.
‘Why did I act like that?’
It was so unlike me.
Why had I? Why…?
“Mm…”
“Father!”
Duke Sorpel opened his eyes slowly, accompanied by a faint groan.
Ludvil and Ravi rushed to his side in an instant, and I too examined his complexion once more. Then our eyes met.
I forced my rigid expression to soften, and from Duke Sorpel’s lips came a hoarse whisper.
“You’ve… come home.”
At those words, my eyes reddened in an instant. I remembered how he would always be waiting to greet me whenever I returned.
“Yes… yes, Father…”
Father. Why did that word feel so overwhelming today?
As I looked at him offering a faint smile, I finally let the tears fall.
Chapter. Catching the Culprit
“You’ve failed again, it seems.”
“That is…!”
“I told you I would hear no excuses.”
“…I apologize.”
Lania bit her lip as though deeply wronged.
“The poison we provided this time was extraordinarily special. A masterpiece crafted with meticulous care over a long period.”
It was a poison that evaded detection magic and had no antidote—or so we had arranged it to respond only to Lania’s healing magic.
“A failure, no less.”
Daniel clicked his tongue repeatedly.
“I had no idea there was an antidote.”
After Duke Sorpel collapsed from poisoning, I didn’t use my magic immediately. I wanted to push the situation to its absolute limit.
Since I already knew from Daniel that the poison wouldn’t kill him outright, I prolonged the moment as much as possible.
When the Healers arrived and none could neutralize the poison—in that moment of despair—I had planned to save Duke Sorpel with my healing magic.
That way, I would receive more attention and gain people’s recognition more easily.
But then she appeared.
Camilla. The antidote she brought worked immediately, and Duke Sorpel awoke unharmed.
Recalling the tender gaze Duke Sorpel had shown Camilla, I bit my lip again.
That look meant for me had been stolen once more. Why did everything keep falling apart like this?
“We need to deal with that woman.”
“You mean Camilla Sorpel?”
“Yes!”
“Hmm.”
“She’s interfering with our work.”
“I’ll report this to those above us.”
“Thank you!”
Daniel nodded immediately, sharing the same sentiment as her.
“So, where did you say you obtained that antidote?”
I was curious. It was a poison The Cult had prepared over a long period. Not only was there no known antidote, but even its composition hadn’t been properly identified.
I couldn’t fathom how she could possibly have an antidote to it.
“That’s…”
A hollow laugh escaped Lania’s lips.
* * *
“…Hersel, you say?”
“Yes.”
Duke Sorpel recovered with remarkable speed.
In less than a day, he displayed his usual condition, leaving everyone astounded.
Moreover, many people showed great interest in the antidote Camilla had brought.
Even the Healers, who had declared the Duke’s poisoning beyond their reach, were curious about where and how she had obtained the medicine that cured his symptoms in one go.
“I really saw it in a dream.”
To all those people, Camilla offered the same excuse as always.
“A man with no hair at all appeared and said his name was Hersel.”
She wove truth and falsehood together with remarkable subtlety.
“He thanked me for reconnecting the severed Shinsu bloodline and told me to visit his tomb.”
“And then?”
“He told me to dig behind the tomb…”
“So you dug?”
“Yes.”
“You actually dug?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Ravi asked in disbelief.
He had come to acknowledge her foresight ability to some degree, given that she had even found Shinsu.
But he couldn’t help his astonishment at her claim that she had actually gone to a tomb based on a dream and dug there.
“And you found the antidote there?”
“Yes. He said that the Previous Head of House, Hersel, had died from poison. The antidote was created from that very poison.”
“…”
“I was uncertain myself… but it felt too unsettling to simply ignore, so I decided to visit. And there really was something like a seed behind the tomb.”
Everyone’s mouths fell open in disbelief at her words.
“It’s said to counteract most poisons, so I kept it stored separately… but I never expected it would be used like this.”
I couldn’t dismiss her words either. After all, Camilla held in her hands an antidote that had neutralized a poison no one else could treat.
“So, have you found the culprit?”
She deftly steered the conversation in a new direction.
“We haven’t located them yet.”
At Camilla’s question, the butler Rube’s expression darkened. They had searched everyone who had come into contact with the food that day, but nothing had turned up.
“Where are the Kitchen staff now?”
* * *
Clang!
As I pushed open the iron door and stepped inside, a space emerged where dim light seeped through.
Walking along the long Corridor, I could see several rooms barred by iron-barred windows scattered here and there.
With soldiers standing guard at regular intervals, this was the underground prison prepared beneath the Sorpel Estate.
“It’s this way.”
Following Ludvil a bit further, a fairly spacious area opened up ahead. All the Kitchen staff were gathered there.
Camilla had made a request—to have them all assembled in one place so she could meet with them.
“Miss!”
The first to recognize her was the head chef, Jelard. Over the past few days, he seemed to have suffered greatly, his cheeks sunken.
“I-I swear it wasn’t me! The others didn’t do it either!”
With reddened eyes, he cried out earnestly.
“How could anyone dare do such a thing to food! How could anyone tamper with food meant for people to eat…!”
[That’s right. He’s not the one.]
Perol also took his side. Still, seeing his disciple confined to prison seemed to weigh heavily on his heart.
[A man who would toy with food could never exist.]
There were nine people currently imprisoned. All the Kitchen staff and the Maidservants who had carried the food.
Those gathered here were everyone who had come into contact with the food Duke Sorpel had eaten that day.
In other words, the culprit had to be among them.
“I know. Jelard isn’t the culprit.”
“Miss…”
The shock of being imprisoned seemed profound, and at Camilla’s words of trust, tears welled up in Jelard’s eyes.
“You know the ability I possess, don’t you?”
“What… Oh!”
His bewildered expression brightened instantly. After all, Camilla’s ability was already far too famous!
‘Yes, with this Jelard is ruled out.’
There had been a time when I uncovered a fraud.
A nobleman had come to Duke Sorpel with someone he claimed was a business partner, but Camilla had immediately seen through that he was a con artist.
‘A ghost was attached to him.’
A male ghost who had been defrauded and driven to suicide, clinging to the swindler.
Through that ghost, I had exposed the fraud, but those unaware of this fact believed Camilla had manifested yet another ability—a prescient power.
‘They say she has eyes that see the true nature of people, or something like that.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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