Hiding the Fact That We Are Dating From the Amnesiac Villain - Chapter 15

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

Chapter 15
‘Perhaps there’s more to this story than meets the eye.’
Freena made her way toward Count Seiton’s Guest Room.
This was before Havel’s regression.
In the novel, Havel was merely a common knight during this period, so he couldn’t have witnessed firsthand whatever covert machinations unfolded within the Banquet Hall.
The protagonist’s knowledge consisted only of rumors that circulated among people later.
So if Freena’s reasoning was correct….
‘Someone is poisoning Count Seiton’s ceremonial wine.’
The wine would still be in the Guest Room. That’s why Freena waited here now.
Moments later.
Footsteps echoed through the Second Floor Corridor.
An Attendant emerged from Count Seiton’s Guest Room, carrying the ceremonial wine on a silver platter.
That Attendant was likely….
‘An assassin hired by someone.’
The probability that this was an assassin masquerading as an ordinary Attendant was high.
The Attendant headed toward the servants’ passage leading down to the Banquet Hall, wine in hand.
Now he would deliver that poisoned drink to Declyn.
* * *
“You there. Fetch the ceremonial wine from the Guest Room at once.”
As Count Seiton’s command fell, the designated Attendant moved without hesitation toward the Guest Room.
He was a professional assassin who had infiltrated the Imperial Palace with forged credentials.
‘If I just complete this task….’
He’d been promised an enormous sum merely for poisoning the wine.
The mission itself wasn’t difficult. All he had to do was deliver the poisoned cup.
But as with all assassinations, failure carried a terrible price. Especially when the target was….
“Oh, my apologies!”
A maid suddenly burst from nowhere, colliding into him with such force that she nearly knocked him over.
In that instant, pink hair tumbled across his vision as a sticky beverage cascaded down his body.
‘What in the world!’
On his way to commit murder, some clumsy maid had the audacity to ruin everything!
Her uniform seemed slightly different from the maids he knew, but her tattered clothes marked her unmistakably as Imperial Palace staff.
‘How dare this wretched woman!’
Just as he was about to unleash his fury, another thought flickered through the assassin’s mind.
The mission was already complete. He’d mixed the poison into the wine as instructed.
The assassin suppressed his rage and looked down at the trembling woman before him.
Her wavering pink eyes were almost pitiful to behold.
A cruel smile twisted across his lips as he regarded the maid.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done!”
The assassin, maintaining his Attendant disguise, unleashed a harsh rebuke at the woman. Dealing with such a foolish maid was child’s play to him.
“This wine I’m carrying is a ceremonial offering for someone so exalted that you couldn’t even dream of their station in your entire lifetime!”
“A, a person of great importance?”
The maid immediately filled with fear, exactly as the Assassin desired.
“That’s right. Grand Duke Caesar himself. You nearly shattered this precious wine because of your clumsiness.”
The Assassin lowered his voice in a threatening manner.
Controlling such lowly, foolish creatures was simple. Especially when fear had already taken root in them.
“Th, thank goodness. At least the bottle didn’t break….”
“Thank goodness? Look at me! How am I supposed to enter the Banquet Hall looking like this and meet the Grand Duke!”
“Ah, w, well then, h, how….”
The maid stammered severely, completely terrified. Her pink eyes trembled as though tears might spill forth at any moment.
‘Now that I think about it, she has quite an unusual appearance.’
Pink hair and pink eyes.
The pink eyes in particular were something I had never seen before in my life.
And her unusual appearance would actually prove advantageous.
‘I can make a deep impression!’
I had been deliberating over whom to frame for an assassination attempt.
A lowly, powerless, incompetent person was ideal. And such a person stood right before my eyes.
“What’s done is done. You’ll deliver the wine in my place.”
“Y, yes?”
“Are you telling me to enter the Banquet Hall looking like this! What noble would accept service from an Attendant drenched in wine!”
“Ah, w, well then….”
I spoke to her gently, as though soothing a child.
“You must go in.”
“….”
“It’s nothing difficult. Simply pour the wine and leave.”
The maid before me would become the murderer of a war hero. In my stead.
Everything had unfolded remarkably smoothly.
The maid, receiving the wine glass, hesitated before finally accepting it.
As I watched her pathetic figure shuffle toward the Banquet Hall, I clicked my tongue.
Even a death row inmate knows the fact of their own death.
Yet this foolish commoner, ignorant of the death awaiting her mere steps ahead, walked willingly toward the execution ground.
* * *
As the Assassin’s gaze shifted elsewhere.
Freena, the maid who had received the poisoned wine cup, quickly concealed herself in a dark corner of the Banquet Hall.
She withdrew a silver spoon she had secretly hidden in her bosom and dipped it into the red liquid of the wine cup.
Sizzzzle—
The pristine silver tarnished to black in an instant.
‘As I suspected. This wasn’t Count Seiton’s doing.’
While he certainly desired to kill Declyn immediately, he would never poison the wine he was sending, nor would he do so with his own family’s wine cup.
Much less his own family’s wine cup.
…Then there was only one person capable of such an act.
It was all Declin’s machination.
* * *
“Your Excellency! Congratulations on the glorious victory. All of this is thanks to your wisdom in leading the Caesar Knights!”
“Your Excellency, it has been far too long. I am from the Gillard Family….”
Countless greetings and cheers poured down upon Declin, the center of the banquet.
Everyone seemed desperate to draw near him, weaving their own family names alongside his.
Declin offered them all a radiant smile.
The grace and beauty emanating from his face left them all breathless.
All except one.
Count Seiton alone remained unmoved.
His complexion had already turned ashen before Declin even entered the Banquet Hall.
Declin approached him with unhurried steps.
“Count, it has been quite some time.”
At his greeting, delivered with a subtle smile, Count Seiton’s face grew even paler.
“Ah, now that I think of it, you visited me just two days ago. Surely not that long, then.”
At the barbed remark, Count Seiton’s lips trembled.
He had long been the leader of the opposition faction, openly hostile to Declin.
Twelve years ago, he had been certain beyond doubt that the position of heir to the Caesar Family belonged rightfully to his nephew.
But then the Grand Duke’s family was murdered in some incident, and a bastard whose very existence had been unknown suddenly appeared.
That was Declin.
Everyone had rejected the boy. Yet when he gained legitimacy from the Emperor himself and overturned the board, a vicious hatred was carved into Count Seiton’s very bones.
But now, facing Declin, the emotion dominating Count Seiton’s inner world was not anger—it was terror.
“Congratulations on your victory, Your Excellency….”
…Damn the bastard. How in the world did he survive?
Enemy Territory was a fortress blessed by nature, and it was the war that had dragged on for a century because of it.
So he had confidently planned to seize power, certain that place would become Declin’s grave.
And yet… Declin had returned alive.
‘This monstrous wretch. He should have died there!’
Count Seiton could not believe the reality that his own family now stood on the brink of annihilation.
Moreover, the fate of his house now rested in the hands of that young whelp he had once scorned.
A deep contempt seeped through his entire being.
“Is that all?”
At Declin’s single word, the Count’s eyes widened.
“…Yes, yes?”
Declin’s gaze slowly turned toward the attendants.
Soon his eyes came to rest before the Seiton seal.
Count Seiton broke into a cold sweat internally.
What was Declin thinking?
That man who had sent back the severed head of my spy just two days ago.
What scheme was he plotting by personally selecting Seiton’s attendant?

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