The Poisonous Princess Who Successfully Infiltrated the Enemy as an Employee - Chapter 71

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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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Chapter 71.

***

The moment I slipped out of the Warehouse, ducking low, cold dawn air rushed into my lungs.
I held my breath and surveyed my surroundings.
Fortunately, it was a storage building at the rear, not far from the Princess’s Residence.
They hadn’t taken me outside the Imperial Palace.
They’d hidden me inside it.
Which meant someone with knowledge of the Imperial Palace’s inner workings was deeply involved in this.
‘Are there still spies I haven’t rooted out?’
I lifted my gaze beyond the ridge line.
The sun had fully emerged, tearing through the deep indigo sky in crimson.
Four hours left until noon.
I’d already spent considerable time escaping from the warehouse.
Within that window, I had to return to the Preparation Room, complete the Antidote, save Eleonore, and stand before the Emperor with evidence in hand.
‘I’ll deal with rooting out the trash later.’
Run! Evelyn!
I spurred myself on with a low, breathless chant before taking off without hesitation.
My struck skull throbbed, and my torn left palm burned with each step.
But I couldn’t stop.
The appointed hour with the Emperor was tightening its noose with every passing moment.

***

“No, no! Your Grace! Why are you treating me this way!”
It was the moment I reached the threshold of the Preparation Room, gasping through the corridor.
Dylan’s panicked voice tore through the gap in the door.
“When I came back, she was gone! She’d vanished without a trace!”
A low, cool voice followed.
“Why did you take your eyes off her?”
“Sir?”
“Why didn’t you stay by her side?”
Dylan cried out indignantly in response.
“No! I’m not a bodyguard for the new investigator! Besides, it was the new investigator who ordered me to fetch the Medicinal Herbs!”
“Excuses.”
“Your Grace!”
The low, menacing voice felt oddly familiar.
‘That’s Varcan’s voice, isn’t it?!’
What was Varcan doing here…?
I quickly threw open the Preparation Room door and entered.
Bang—!
“Wait!”
Dylan, suspended half in the air by his collar, dripping with cold sweat, spotted me and cried out.
“Investigator! Where on earth have you been!”
Help me out! Do something!
As I tried to calm Dylan, I spoke carefully toward Varcan.
“Your Grace. Put that hand down. Come on now, that’s not how you handle people. You can’t just grab them like cargo and shake them around like that.”
“…….”
Varcan’s brow furrowed slightly, and he lowered Dylan’s collar as if tossing him down.
Then he approached me with unhesitating strides and asked in a low, composed voice.
“What exactly happened?”
“I’ll explain later.”
But Varcan’s gaze had stopped at my palm, which I’d hastily wrapped with torn fabric from my skirt.
“What’s wrong with that hand? Are you hurt?”
“Ah.”
Varcan reached out his large hand to grasp my wrist. I jumped back in alarm and quickly hid my hand behind my back.
“Don’t! It’s dangerous! Don’t touch it!”
Varcan halted abruptly, tilting his head.
“Dangerous? What are you talking about?”
“It’s just that…”
“Are you really in any position to warn me about danger, when you vanished and now appear wrapped in bloodstained cloth?”
“…”
I bit my lower lip carefully.
Because I hadn’t been able to use a perfect Hemostatic Agent, blood was seeping heavily through the cloth wrapped around the wound.
Worse, the edges of the cloth had turned black where the Menhetry had reacted with my blood, clinging fast.
Explaining that bizarre and dangerous symptom would be tedious at best, and would surely look suspicious.
I retreated quietly.
“In any case, you mustn’t touch it! The bleeding has stopped well enough, so I’m perfectly fine—”
“I need to examine it myself.”
“I’m telling you I’m fine!”
“Then you can simply show me, can’t you?”
“Really! Stop being so stubborn!”
“And who exactly is being stubborn right now?”
Between us two, locked in stubborn deadlock, a voice barely clinging to life slipped in carefully.
“Um, …you two.”
It was Dylan, who until moments ago had been seized by Varcan’s collar.
He spoke from behind the preparation table, stealing glances at Varcan.
“I understand you’re both very busy reconciling your views, but …wouldn’t it be better to finish the Antidote first?”
I quickly stepped back from Varcan and nodded.
“That’s a good idea.”
Then I shoved my bloodstained gloves and dress hem into a sealable container, and administered emergency first aid again with the disinfectant and clean bandages stocked in the Preparation Room.
After changing into fresh gloves, I hurried over to the glass vessel where the incomplete Antidote was still simmering.
I caught sight of Varcan boring a hole through my back with his stare.
“I’ll explain everything later. First, let’s just make the Antidote! We need to clear our names, don’t we?”
Varcan sighed, displeased, and took a step back.
As I positioned myself at the preparation table, Dylan approached and asked quietly.
“But…what sort of relationship do you have with His Grace the Duke—”
“That’s classified as investigation confidential.”
“Ah…”
I cut Dylan off decisively and immediately set about compounding the Antidote.
“Dylan, the Silverill?”
“I’ve already extracted and refined the juice!”
“Excellent.”
I smiled and immediately proceeded to the final stage.
The dark blue solution hunched within the glass vessel began to bubble and boil.
“Reduce the flame.”
Dylan moved at once.
The flickering flame lowered to fingernail height.
“The Nocturbell Precipitate?”
“Filtered three times.”
“The Kaluksia Juice.”
“Right here.”
With Dylan’s efficient assistance, we rushed smoothly toward the finish.
I held my breath to maintain utmost precision.
A single luminous, cold drop of Silverill juice hung at the tip of the dropper.
Drop.
The moment that final drop fell into the boiling solution within the glass vessel.
A small vortex stirred to life with a soft friction sound.
The murky, opaque blue liquid blazed forth in an instant with brilliant silver-blue radiance, churning violently.
A faint, wispy blue shimmer rose above the surface of the solution.
The Antidote was born.

***

The completed Antidote was immediately transported to Eleonore’s bedchamber.
After drinking the Antidote and taking the second Stabilizer, Eleonore’s condition began to improve noticeably.
She hadn’t regained full consciousness, but the purple tint in her lips had faded, and the faintest warmth had begun to return to her ice-cold fingertips.
The blue veins that had stood out along her neck gradually faded.
It would take time for all the toxicity remaining in her body to drain away, but at least she would avoid losing her life to the poison coursing through her veins.
I gently swept the tangled strands of hair that had fallen across Eleonore’s forehead back behind her ear.
“You held on well, Eleonore.”
The moment I called the princess by her name so casually, Dylan, who had been monitoring her condition, widened his eyes and stared at me.
But there was no reason to explain my true identity in this situation, so I cleanly ignored his gaze.
Only after I’d confirmed with my own eyes that Eleonore’s pulse had fully stabilized did we slip out of the Princess’s Residence.
I had saved Eleonore’s life.
But this was far from over. The real battle was just beginning.
If I had saved Eleonore’s life with the Antidote, then now it was time for Varcan and the evidence and witnesses he’d gathered to crush and seize everything from the true culprit.
A perfect full stop to the one-week deadline I’d promised the Emperor.
Varcan and I strode forward with unwavering steps and boldly pushed open the grand doors of the Audience Chamber, where sunlight streamed through.
Inside the Audience Chamber, Aisen, the chief investigator of the Imperial Investigation Bureau who had arrived before us and was waiting, stood with a grave expression.
Upon spotting me entering alongside Varcan, Aisen’s eyes widened.
His gaze was as if he were saying, ‘You? Why are you there? Come over here.’
I mustered an awkward smile, then matched Varcan’s pace and walked toward the Emperor, while Dylan, following behind us, crept cautiously toward Aisen’s side with a stiff face.
Even Dylan, who found Aisen’s intimidating expression uncomfortable, seemed to prefer standing beside Aisen to standing before the Emperor.
Varcan came to a stop at a certain distance from the Emperor, and I followed suit, stopping my stride.
Behind the Emperor stood a middle-aged nobleman I’d never seen before, and given how close he stood to the Emperor…….
‘That must be the Prime Minister. Desior Delkin.’
“There is someone who can be called the Emperor’s right arm. The Prime Minister of the Empire, Desior Delkin.”
“The Emperor may be frightening, but the Prime Minister is also someone you must be cautious of. Don’t forget that. Perhaps he’s even more frightening than the Emperor himself.”
Eleonore’s warning that he was a figure deserving as much caution as the Emperor flickered through my mind.
‘To the original work’s protagonists, he’s an invaluable ally, but to our Grand Duke’s household, there’s no greater villain than him.’
Just as I was regarding Desior Delkin with displeasure, Varcan bowed toward the Emperor.
“I greet Your Majesty.”
“I greet Your Imperial Majesty.”
I too gave a light bow.
“I hope you have been well.”
The Emperor’s eyes narrowed.
“You’ve barely made the deadline, it seems.”
“Yes.”
I smiled.
“Which is why things have been quite hectic.”
At my response, the corner of the Emperor’s mouth tilted upward slightly.
I held the Emperor’s gaze for a moment, then slowly removed my gloves.
Then I carefully slipped off the Magical Artifact Ring that had been on my thumb.
Whoooosh—.
The moment the ring separated, the Mana that had enveloped me scattered into the empty air.
The guise of Eve, the new investigator with brown hair and a face full of freckles, washed away like water, and platinum-blonde hair cascaded down onto my shoulders, catching the sunlight.
“Huh?!”
Dylan gasped sharply, looking at me as though he’d seen a ghost.
His eyes darted frantically between my hair, my face, and the ring.
Now he understood.
That the person who had driven him all night was not some nameless new investigator.
And.
Even Aisen, who rarely showed surprise at most things, opened his eyes wide as if they might pop out of his head and muttered softly.
“Y-you’re the new……?”

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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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