The Poisonous Princess Who Successfully Infiltrated the Enemy as an Employee - Chapter 69

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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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Episode 69.

A creature, that’s what this was—pure sorcery.
I decided I had to escape this room at once if I wanted to preserve my sanity.
“Please have him deliver those documents and witnesses to His Majesty. That should be more than enough to identify the perpetrator of the Poisoning Incident, as well as provide leads on whoever’s behind it.”
I cleared my throat and hugged the box of Medicinal Herbs that Varcan had purchased.
“Of course.”
Varcan answered curtly, and I nodded in response.
“I’ll take these herbs to the Compounding Room.”
“It’s late in the evening. Wouldn’t it be better to go in the morning?”
I smiled brightly.
“Dillen is waiting for me in the Compounding Room. He’s been working on preparing herbs without rest. I should let him get some sleep soon.”
“……Dillen?”
In that instant, Varcan’s eyebrows—which had been resting in a drowsy state—twitched almost imperceptibly.
But my mind was racing, and I missed that subtle shift entirely, grinning cheerfully as I made for the Bedroom door.
“Yes, an Apprentice Physician from the Imperial Medical Bureau.”
“…….”
“He may be an apprentice, but he’s skilled and sharp-eyed. I suspect he’ll shed that title soon enough.”
“…….”
Still holding the box, I opened the Bedroom door and glanced back at Varcan.
“Well then, I’ll be going. I’ll be back with the antidote!”
I threw out a cheerful farewell before closing the door. Yet for some reason, Varcan offered no reply.
Right up until the door shut, only those dark eyes pursued me.

***

The moment I opened the Compounding Room door, the scent of herbs enveloped my face.
At the same time, Dillen—with dark hollows beneath his eyes—spotted me and shot to his feet.
“Oh! You’ve finally arrived!”
He rushed toward me with barely suppressed relief.
“I’ve finished the basic preparation of the herbs you mentioned, ……but, ……wait—?”
Dillen’s pupils trembled faintly as he recognized the herb box in my arms.
“W-what are those herbs?”
“These?”
“Yes……. Surely not—?”
I chuckled softly and thrust the box into Dillen’s arms.
“Why not? They’re ingredients for a recovery tonic that Her Highness the Princess will need once she wakes. I’d appreciate your help preparing them too.”
“What? Again……?! But we’re already pressed for time with the antidote…….”
His eyes fixed on me with unmistakable resentment. I lifted my shoulders in a shrug, as if to say *obviously*.
“Should I do it? I’m a Court Investigator, not a physician with the Medical Bureau. The Imperial Palace’s physician is you, Dillen.”
“No, well……. That’s, that’s true. Yes. I’m, ……I’m the one who should, ……do it.”
“Thank you.”
“Yes…….”
Dillen released a resigned sigh and began grunting as he hauled the box to his workbench.
I immediately began examining, one by one, the herbs he’d already prepared for the antidote.
‘Oh……. It’s flawless.’
Before compounding begins, how herbs are prepared determines whether their potency differs vastly or not at all.
Though I’d given detailed instructions with that in mind, Dillen had executed the work far more meticulously and precisely than I’d anticipated, carefully preserving the fiber structure of each specimen.
I glanced sidelong at Dillen, who was grumbling over the box.
‘So this is what it means when the Imperial Palace’s physician is different.’
I hastily shed my outer robe and exchanged my gloves.
‘All right, let me begin.’
There was no time to spare.
A considerable amount of time had already passed since the poison began spreading through Eleanor’s body.
I’d taken measures to prevent the Poisoning Symptoms from worsening in the interim, but there was still a difference between that and drinking the antidote to make a complete recovery.
“Dillen! Please grind the Nocterbell first. As fine as you can make it.”
“Yes, understood.”
“And extract the juice from just half a segment of Kalurksia root.”
“Yes!”
Dillen immediately grabbed the mortar.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of dried medicinal herbs crumbling filled the Compounding Room.
I checked the glass tube over the flame.
“Half a measure of Kalurksia.”
“Right here.”
“The juice separately.”
“Already strained.”
…….
I glanced sidelong at Dillen.
‘What is this guy?’
He handed me tools and materials with such seamless precision that he might have been my dedicated assistant for decades—offering exactly what I needed before my hand even reached out for it.
He even anticipated the next step without being told and had everything ready before I could ask.
“Here’s the ground Nocterbell. I’ll transfer it over here.”
…….
“And the distiller is all set!”
…….
For an apprentice, his medical knowledge was impressive, and his familiarity with medicinal herbs was anything but lacking.
For every instruction I gave, he executed ten; every movement was clean, economical, swift.
‘I’d love to spirit him away to my estate.’
Lock him in the basement and have him brewing potions all day—that was the caliber of talent he possessed.
With a flawless assistant finally at my side, time in the Compounding Room began to blur with brutal speed.
Boiling.
Cooling.
Straining.
And boiling again.
Azure light flared and faded, silver foam swelled and burst, and failure piled upon failure.
“This time, extract the juice from the Lisert Leaf first. Be careful—no impurities.”
“Yes!”
“What about the Silverill I asked for before?”
“The Imperial Palace currently has no fresh Silverill as you specified—only the dried variety. I’ve put in an emergency requisition, so we should be able to source it before tomorrow comes.”
“That’s the key ingredient for this antidote. We absolutely must have it.”
“Don’t worry! If those physicians at the Medical Bureau can’t get it, I’ll scale the rock face on the Back Mountain and harvest it myself!”
At the sight of Dillen’s clenched fists and bloodshot eyes, I couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
And so we remained locked in the Compounding Room, spending another full day there.
We became so consumed that we forgot to take the Helbain Sedative, and when hunger pangs hit, we fumbled desperately for a medicine bottle to drink from instead.
Only the bubbling of herbs and the scraping of the mortar broke the hellish silence of the Compounding Room.
The one stroke of luck was that the Imperial Palace was overflowing with materials.
Antidotes were always like that.
Instant success was nearly impossible.
They were completed slowly, painstakingly, using failure itself as the foundation for success.
Exactly as it was happening now.
“Oh! This time the reaction is different!”
On the twenty-seventh attempt, a faint luminescence finally began to glow inside the glass tube.
Only then did I allow myself to breathe.
‘We have it.’
Only the final stage remained.
The week’s deadline I’d promised the Emperor now stood a mere eight hours away.
I blinked my dry eyes and muttered softly.
“Once the Silverill arrives, we should have it…….”
At that, Dillen, who had been doggedly matching my pace all this time, suddenly slumped to the ground.
“Ahhh……!”
Pant, pant, pant—he wheezed and whimpered.
“All feeling has left my fingertips…….”
But I gave him no sympathy and answered without mercy.
“If you’ve still got the energy to complain, you’re not suffering nearly enough.”
“No……. It’s not that—.”
“If you’ve got the breath to argue, use it to check on the Silverill’s arrival. Do you want the Princess to die?! Move! Now!”
“Y-yes, I’m going……, going now…….”
Dillen walked out with a completely vacant expression, moving mechanically as though his body had been hollowed of all purpose.
Once his footsteps faded entirely into the distant darkness, the Compounding Room fell silent in a way that felt almost unnatural.
Bubble. Bubble.
Inside the transparent glass tube, a faint blue liquid rose and fell in a slow, rhythmic boil.
“……Sigh.”
Alone in the narrow space, the taut cord of tension I’d been holding stretched across my shoulders eased—just slightly.
The moment that tension loosened, the exhaustion that had been pressing down on me for two days crashed over me like a drowning wave, merciless and total.
“Just a little longer…….”
I forced my eyelids open—heavy as lead—and watched the intensity of the flame.
“Just a little longer. Hold on.”
Eleanor was hanging by a thread at the edge of death even now. Every single minute mattered; I had to deliver the antidote sooner rather than later.
With trembling hands, I began clearing away the empty glass bottles scattered around the workspace, preparing for the final stage.
And then, moments later.
Creak—.
I heard the sound of the door opening behind me.
Unable to tear my eyes from the bubbling liquid in the glass tube, I didn’t bother turning around as I spoke.
“Back already? Do you have the Silverill? Has it arrived?”
“…….”
But there was no answer.
With the antidote completion within reach, I failed to register the wrongness of that cold, unfamiliar silence, and I pressed forward.
“Time is running out, so hurry and put it in the mortar, grind it very fine—.”
In that instant.
Crack!
A brutal blow struck the back of my head, and my vision plunged into darkness in an instant.
Rough hands seized my falling body, and then I lost consciousness entirely.

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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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