The Obsessive Male Lead Is Obsessed With Me! - Chapter 140

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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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Episode 140

“What?”

Even as everyone cowered before the Former Empress’s frost-like rage, the alchemist’s expression remained utterly calm.

“Have you forgotten that Nicole is the only one who knows the poison’s recipe? If you kill Nicole, we cannot detoxify His Majesty the Emperor’s poison. And…”

The alchemist looked at Cayen after confirming the poison refined from the blood Cayen had coughed up.

“It seems you’ve ingested more poison than expected. If we cannot detoxify it like this… you probably won’t live even half a year.”

“Half a year! That can’t be. The Emperor has the oracle!”

“I don’t know anything about oracles. I’m simply giving you my opinion as an alchemist.”

The alchemist then gathered his tools without hesitation.

“If the oracle will protect His Majesty the Emperor’s life, then I have no further need to be here. I shall take my leave.”

“No! Where do you think you’re going!”

The Former Empress reflexively grabbed the alchemist and looked down at her unconscious son with a face ready to cry.

What wrong had her son done that he must suffer like this from birth?

‘Even after becoming Emperor, he cannot find peace…’

The Former Empress wiped Cayen’s face with a wet cloth with an expression of infinite pity, then gritted her teeth and spoke.

“Go… bring Nicole here. Without a single scratch!”

Shortly after, Nicole, who had been confined in the Empress’s Palace, was dragged before the Former Empress and forced to kneel.

Nicole, who had been brought here without any explanation, merely frowned at the sight of the Former Empress raging about whether she thought she’d be safe after poisoning the Emperor.

The person who had poisoned Cayen was not Nicole. It was someone from the underworld who had infiltrated the Imperial Palace on Lionel’s orders.

For Nicole, this was an utterly unjust situation. However, not knowing the truth, she rationalized the situation within her common sense.

‘Did the poison remaining in the Emperor’s body go berserk because of the neutralizing agent that alchemist made…?’

In any case, it was certain that the poison components remaining in the Emperor’s body needed to be detoxified immediately.

And she was the only one who could detoxify that poison. Nicole was so pleased by this fact that she burst into laughter.

“You, you damned thing…!”

Smack! The sound of the Former Empress slapping Nicole’s cheek rang out quite sharply.

Nicole was still the current Empress, after all. People who couldn’t bear to watch turned their heads away.

But regardless of such consideration, Nicole continued to let out giggling laughter. The Former Empress looked disgusted at that laughter which even felt tinged with madness.

“How dare laughter come from that mouth that deserves to be torn apart and killed! Do you understand the current situation? You won’t leave this room alive!”

“I won’t leave this room alive? Well, I think a little differently about that.”

Whether the Former Empress looked at her as if to tear her apart or not, Nicole was feeling liberated for the first time in a while.

Since entering the Imperial Palace, every step had felt precarious like a candle before the wind. Because of the guilt of having committed an irreversible sin and the anxiety of not knowing when she might be discovered.

But now that everything had been exposed, and she had gained the certainty that they still couldn’t kill her, she couldn’t feel more relieved.

“Do you know this? When I first entered the Imperial Palace, I had nothing but the thought of treating His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Ha, who would believe such lip service now?”

“Back then, I sincerely thought I should do so. Because I truly believed that my parents were responsible for Your Majesty the Former Empress being poisoned.”

“What is that…”

The maids and court physicians who didn’t know that Nicole was the daughter of Count and Countess Racal, and didn’t know that the past rebellion was fabricated, visibly wavered.

The Empress startled and raised her voice.

“How dare you speak such nonsense!”

“Your Majesty the Former Empress knows better than anyone that this isn’t nonsense, don’t you?”

“That mouth… shut that mouth!”

Only after shouting did the Former Empress realize her reaction had been excessive.

The maids and court physicians also seemed to realize from the Former Empress’s reaction that Nicole’s words weren’t entirely nonsense.

They kept their heads deeply bowed without moving, as if they had ears but no ears. Because they knew that one wrong move could get them sent back to their hometowns without anyone knowing, just like some court physician or maid manager.

‘I should have left the Imperial Palace long ago…’

‘Now leaving would be even more dangerous, damn it.’

While the maids and court physicians trembled thinking they were doomed, the Former Empress felt her neck tighten.

Despite all that silencing, hadn’t the fact that Nicole wasn’t the real owner of the oracle eventually leaked out? This matter would also become a rumor sooner or later.

How would she handle the aftermath? The Former Empress momentarily felt dizzy, but…

‘So what? What’s so important about rumors spreading?’

The person who committed that act was the Former Emperor. She was purely a victim. What did it matter to her whether the Former Emperor’s honor rolled in the mud when his deeds became known?

Feeling much more at ease with this thought, the Former Empress opened her mouth toward Nicole.

However, Nicole spoke first.

“I will absolutely not treat His Majesty the Emperor until the fact that my parents were falsely accused is announced, until their honor is restored.”

“You insolent thing! Do you think you’ll be safe if you don’t treat the Emperor!”

“I wouldn’t be. I’ve been prepared for that from the start. If you can’t do it, just kill me.”

While confined as a criminal in the Empress’s Palace, all Nicole could do was think.

From how things had come to this to what would become of her future, Nicole pondered endlessly.

Then a question arose.

‘Where on earth did my lost alchemy notebook go?’

She had thought the Former Empress must have picked it up.

But if the Former Empress had secured that notebook, the Emperor’s body should have been treated at least when another alchemist was called.

But seeing that the Emperor was still in that state and she had been summoned here, it seemed the person who picked up the notebook wasn’t the Former Empress.

That was enough. At least she could die together with the Emperor. With that certainty, Nicole could smile once again.

“Now, make your decision. Will you kill me and let the Emperor die too?”

“You, you shameless thing, how dare you speak so boldly without knowing your place!”

The Former Empress raised her voice, but that was all.

She could neither strike Nicole again nor order the Imperial Guards to drag her away and kill her.

Just as the Former Empress seemed to have made up her mind and was about to speak.

“…Just, kill her.”

“Cayen! Are you conscious?”

The Former Empress hurriedly returned to Cayen and supported his body.

With the Former Empress’s help, he barely managed to raise his upper body, crumpled his blood-stained clothes with a disgusted gesture, and looked down at Nicole with cold eyes.

“Isn’t she the woman who, extorted someone else’s oracle. Cough! …What can you trust about that woman to entrust my life to her?”

“But…”

“I don’t need, help from such a woman.”

Cayen’s gaze glaring at Nicole was sharp enough to stab and kill a person if it had been an actual blade.

It had to be. Because that woman had extorted the oracle and fed him something like a mind-control drug, causing him to lose Cecilia right before his eyes!

“Guards, …cough! Quickly, drag that woman away and…”

“Hahaha! Ahahaha!”

Just before the order to kill was given, Nicole’s laughter rang out loudly in the room.

It was the brightest voice they had heard so far.

People no longer looked surprised and stared at Nicole as if looking at a madwoman.

Surrounded by those gazes, Nicole looked at Cayen with a face that showed she was beside herself with joy.

“Hahaha, haha…! Ah, thank you so much, Your Majesty. Thanks to Your Majesty, my curiosity has been resolved.”

“What?”

“I know best. Your Majesty’s body is no different from a cracked vase.”

Poisoned while still a fetus, with mind-control drugs, and even the neutralizing agent that alchemist had carelessly made with just ingredients without knowing the exact recipe.

His body couldn’t possibly be fine. Moreover, divine power didn’t work on him.

So no matter how hard the temple tried to fulfill the oracle, even if the Pope came, it was impossible to heal his body with divine power.

But then how could his predicted cause of death possibly be suicide? That was the one question she hadn’t been able to answer until now.

“Let me give you a question. If someone dying from poison throws the only antidote in their hand to the floor and breaks it, and thus dies from the poison, would that person’s cause of death be poison or suicide?”

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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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