The Circumstances of Being Chosen as the Villainess’s Favorite - Chapter 161

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 161

“Kyaa!”

I let out a short scream in surprise.

“Ah, Larit.”

However, Lord Claudius paid no mind. He simply buried his face in my embrace and murmured quietly.

“If you hadn’t been here, how lost I would have been…”

“…”

Calming my pounding heart, I gently stroked Lord Claudius’s back.

He seems to have… lost some weight.

Even though he pretends to be composed on the outside, he must have suffered greatly mentally.

Lord Claudius, who had been leaning against me for a while, straightened his body.

“First, the letter that had a negative effect on Her Majesty the Empress was Lady Lopez’s. More precisely, toxic components were detected in the ink used to write that letter.”

Unlike earlier when he was completely disheveled, Lord Claudius now had a calm expression.

“And that ink is identical to the ink from the letter Mother sent to Her Majesty the Empress.”

“Then…”

I couldn’t bring myself to continue and pressed my lips tightly together.

Lord Claudius nodded lightly.

“It seems that rose and ink are also related to my parents’ suspicious deaths. More precisely.”

His pale blue eyes sharpened dangerously.

“It means they were likely murdered.”

“…”

“And it was disguised as an epidemic.”

Lord Claudius continued with a sigh-laden voice.

“However, I’m still not certain how to catch the culprit’s tail.”

Among the late Duke couple’s belongings, I heard there were many documents and letters written with that ink.

But since it was over 15 years ago, tracking the process of how the ink was brought in was difficult.

Moreover.

“I’ve never seen the actual ink bottle.”

Lord Claudius slightly furrowed his brow.

“It’s been too long to be certain, but from what I remember… I don’t think I saw it even before my parents’ funeral.”

“Are you saying someone might have tampered with it before the funeral?”

“Yes. Though it might just be my speculation.”

However, despite his cautious attitude, Lord Claudius’s eyes were already filled with conviction.

Also, from that look alone, I could tell who Lord Claudius suspected.

Probably the same person as me.

High Priest Evans.

And Lord Evans.

* * *

The communal townhouse on the outskirts of the domain.

In that place where the biggest incidents were merely minor disputes between a few ladies.

Imperial knights suddenly came rushing in.

Toward Seraphina.

One knight looked down at Seraphina with cold eyes.

“Lady Lopez. You are under arrest on suspicion of poisoning Her Majesty the Empress.”

“…”

Seraphina looked at the knights with dazed eyes.

‘The knights really… came.’

It felt unreal.

Recently, Seraphina had been living shut up in her room, trembling.

If she didn’t swallow the pills, her hands and feet would stiffen in an instant.

Her stiffened feet could no longer endure high heels.

With her trembling fingers, she couldn’t even hold a light pen, let alone a teacup.

‘…What on earth did that bastard make me take?’

Seraphina felt bitterness welling up from deep in her chest.

Honestly, she hadn’t just sat still either.

She had inquired everywhere about what kind of medicine she had taken.

But the identity of the drug remained a mystery.

Instead, she had to hear a deadly warning from Isaac, who noticed her actions.

“You’re doing something useless.”

…Really, that sinking feeling in her heart.

“If you keep getting on my nerves like this, I won’t be able to give you the ‘special medicine’ anymore.”

At those words.

Seraphina had to cling to Isaac’s legs, crying and begging him not to abandon her.

“…”

Being dragged away by the knights, Seraphina looked at the glass bottle on the shelf.

Inside the glass bottle, there were two pills left.

But being arrested on suspicion of poisoning, there was no way she could take personal belongings.

That meant.

She had to get the next medicine from High Priest Evans immediately…

‘I’m scared.’

Seraphina trembled her shoulders.

When she closed her eyes, she kept remembering.

Isaac raising his index finger straight over his lips, smiling with his eyes.

…Those snake-like eerie eyes.

‘For now… let’s wait a little.’

If Seraphina spoke up, Isaac would also suffer a major blow, that was a given.

So he would come to find her at least once to explain the current situation.

‘And, those pills too.’

As if panic was coming, Seraphina desperately suppressed her increasingly rapid breathing.

‘He’ll definitely give me the pills too…’

Meanwhile, the other ladies in the communal townhouse each looked in shock at Seraphina being dragged away.

“My goodness, poisoning Her Majesty the Empress?!”

“Lady Lopez?”

“What on earth is happening…”

The ladies, overwhelmed by the knights’ menacing presence, lowered their voices and whispered.

Seraphina’s pitiful figure being dragged away like luggage by the knights.

…The fact that she was once a lady who enjoyed the highest popularity in high society was completely unbelievable.

“But you know.”

One lady opened her mouth with a suspicious expression.

“Hasn’t Lady Lopez become too thin compared to before?”

* * *

Seraphina was confined in prison.

Fortunately, Isaac came to find Seraphina right away.

“Lady Lopez.”

Seraphina, who had been crouched small in a corner of the prison, slowly raised her gaze.

“High Priest Evans has come to see you.”

Isaac approached this way, guided by the prison guard.

The prison guard bowed respectfully.

“Please take good care of her, High Priest.”

“Don’t worry.”

Isaac smiled gently toward the prison guard.

It was a benevolent face, as if he couldn’t even kill a single ant.

The prison guard immediately turned around.

As he walked away, he must have met another prison guard, as the faint sound of conversation echoed from the distance.

“High Priest Evans is truly remarkable.”

“I heard he tried to poison Her Majesty the Empress, yet he came here saying he’d try to save her life. Are priests always this compassionate?”

“Well, if things go as the High Priest says, it’s good for us.”

“He said he’d get a confession out of Lady Lopez…”

Waiting for the prison guards to completely distance themselves, Isaac approached closer to the iron bars.

With both hands tucked into his pockets, he looked down at her with a slanted gaze.

The gentle smile from just moments before had vanished without a trace.

His face was expressionless, as if looking at vermin.

“Here, take this.”

Isaac pulled out a glass bottle from his pocket.

Inside the glass bottle, red pills packed tightly together glinted ominously.

“I probably won’t be able to visit often, so I put in plenty. This should last about a month.”

“…High Priest Evans.”

Seraphina called out to Isaac with a trembling voice.

However, Isaac didn’t even listen to her words.

He simply spoke only of his own business.

“An interrogation will proceed soon.”

Interrogation.

At that word, Seraphina flinched and stiffened her shoulders.

Only now did it feel real.

She had truly… become a suspect.

“You know what you need to do there, don’t you?”

To remain silent about Isaac’s involvement.

…And to frame Lady Claudius as the culprit as much as possible.

These were the things Isaac wanted.

Seraphina gathered all the courage she had and didn’t have to ask a question.

“Then, what will happen to me from now on?”

“…”

At that question, Isaac stared at Seraphina for a long while with an unreadable gaze.

And then.

“If you can just frame the Lady as the culprit.”

He curved his eyes slyly like a snake.

“I will somehow keep Lady Lopez alive.”

Seraphina instinctively realized.

The rope thrown down to her was already rotten.

No matter how tightly she held onto it, it would eventually break.

In the end, the only path left for her was to fall.

Even so.

“…Yes.”

Seraphina couldn’t bring herself to refuse that proposal.

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