The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 87

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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 87. LOVE & POISON (11)

“Couldn’t it be that you switched my medicine, then waited for me to drink it so you could pretend to save me?”

The Empress’s suspicious gaze flew over and struck my face.

“…Your Majesty the Empress, I apologize for saying this.”

I looked straight into the Empress’s eyes and continued speaking.

“If I had made up my mind to poison you, I would not have saved Your Majesty.”

At my single statement, everyone in the room was unable to hide their shock.

“How insolent! How dare you spout such nonsense in whose presence!”

“Your Majesty, you must immediately confine and interrogate that woman!”

“That’s right! Do you intend to let such an impudent woman live!”

Protests flew from here and there, but the Empress herself remained calm even after hearing my words.

She asked back in an indifferent voice.

“Didn’t you change your mind because you were afraid of being caught?”

“Your Majesty the Empress!”

No, why is that kid suddenly stepping forward when he was staying quiet?

I frowned as I looked at Edwin, who had suddenly shot up from his seat.

I gave him a look meaning he should sit down quickly, but this time the kid seemed to have no intention of following my words.

“Rachel only came to attend Bridget Lordling’s birthday banquet with me. Didn’t Your Majesty personally receive her greetings as well?”

“But didn’t she leave her seat in the middle?”

Then, the knight who was holding me spoke up with a displeased voice.

“Your Highness was in the garden the whole time, so you wouldn’t know, would you? What this woman might have done while she was away from her seat…”

“Is there anyone who saw Rachel enter this room to switch the medicine?”

Edwin cut off the knight’s words and threw back a question.

But no one could answer.

Since no one had seen me wandering around inside this building in the first place, there was no way anyone could have seen me enter to switch medicine.

“And there are dozens of bottles that look exactly like the medicine bottle Her Majesty the Empress drank displayed in that cabinet, so are you saying she knew which one Her Majesty would drink and switched that specific bottle?”

Edwin argued point by point in a small but clear voice.

“So if she intended to commit poisoning, she would have had to replace all the medicine in that display cabinet with poison. But as everyone knows, except for royalty and attendants working in the Empress’s Palace, everyone undergoes a belongings inspection each time they enter the Empress’s Palace.”

The kid continued speaking while casting his gaze toward the display cabinet.

“But Rachel passed the belongings inspection without any problems. If Rachel were the culprit, she would have had to bring in all that poison while hiding it, so how could she have passed the inspection safely?”

Edwin turned his head toward the Empress, ignoring the people looking at him with surprised faces.

“So I think the culprit must be someone who knows this place better than anyone, not Rachel who visited the Empress’s Palace for the first time, Your Majesty the Empress.”

Silence flowed through the room.

Everyone seemed to agree with Edwin’s words.

But they were all watching the Empress’s reaction and couldn’t say anything.

“Edwin.”

Meanwhile, Melanie slowly opened her mouth toward Edwin, who was looking straight into her eyes and arguing.

“You’ve changed a lot. You used to be a child who couldn’t even greet me properly.”

Edwin’s shoulders flinched at her words, then he immediately lowered his gaze.

“…Yes.”

Melanie sighed while holding her forehead, then gave a short command.

“Everyone leave except the princes and the ducal lordling.”

“Your Majesty, you’re still not well, so how can…”

“Since I’m not well, I don’t have the energy to deal with many people. So I’d like everyone to leave.”

At the Empress’s order to leave, the people in the room finally flowed out like a receding tide.

The knights on either side of me also grabbed me again and tried to drag me out.

“Leave that woman here too.”

“Pardon? But Your Majesty, this woman is…”

“Don’t make me say it twice.”

When her gray eyes sent a cold gaze, the knights immediately let go of my arms, saluted, and left the room.

Those remaining in the bedroom were only the Empress, the 1st Prince, Edwin, Bridget, and me.

“The 3rd Prince has a good caretaker. Or should I say the caretaker has an excellent master.”

The Empress smiled faintly while leaning against the headboard.

She was looking at me.

“Rachel Brown Lordling, I’m sorry for suspecting you. I express my gratitude.”

“…Thank you.”

“Actually.”

The Empress received my greeting and raised one corner of her mouth.

“I already know who the culprit is.”

As expected, was that it.

I lowered my eyes and stretched my lips into a long line.

‘I thought it was strange that she withdrew her suspicion more easily than expected.’

The Empress seemed to have known all along who the culprit was that tried to poison her.

“Pardon?”

“What do you mean by that, Aunt?”

At the Empress’s words, Edwin and Bridget looked at her with surprised eyes.

Unlike the two of them, 1st Prince Adrian only showed surprise for a moment before immediately wearing his characteristic indifferent expression. Perhaps he had guessed who it was from his mother’s words, as quiet anger was burning in the kid’s eyes.

“Who is it?”

Bridget asked back in an agitated voice.

“Who on earth dares to do this to Aunt…!”

“Isn’t it obvious.”

Melanie let out a bitter laugh.

“Think about who’s not in this place.”

“Surely not…”

Edwin couldn’t continue his words and just blinked his eyes.

I asked in the kid’s place.

“Are you suspecting His Highness the 2nd Prince?”

It was a reasonable suspicion.

2nd Prince Lloyd had not shown himself despite the Empress drinking poison and collapsing.

Judging from the words exchanged by the knights who had been coming and going earlier, it seemed he had returned to the 2nd Prince’s Palace as soon as the Empress left her seat in the garden.

“Of course, that child didn’t carry out this deed directly. But the 2nd Princess Consort would have given that child a hint. To leave the scene immediately when a commotion breaks out, or something like that.”

Unlike the shocked Edwin and Bridget, the Empress continued speaking with a calm face.

“This isn’t the first or second time this has happened, and no matter how many times I replace the maids, it’s still like this.”

She picked up the water glass on the bedside table and raised one eyebrow.

“I was careless today. Since it was an unscheduled banquet, they must have taken advantage of that opportunity.”

Upon hearing those words, Bridget tried to act nonchalant, but her two hands gripping her skirt were trembling.

“It’s my fault, if I hadn’t said I would hold a birthday banquet at the Imperial Palace…!”

Edwin looked worried seeing her like that.

“Oh my, Bri.”

The Empress also seemed to notice her niece’s condition and called her in a gentle voice.

“It’s not your fault, so don’t blame yourself.”

“But…”

Bridget whimpered with eyes full of tears.

“Because of me, Aunt…”

“It’s not like that. Come here.”

The Empress pulled Bridget, who approached hesitantly, into her arms and hugged her.

“Don’t cry. Today is your birthday, and if such a beautiful face gets wet with tears, won’t this aunt’s heart ache?”

Bridget nodded while biting her lips tightly as if trying to hold back tears.

The Empress gently stroked Bridget’s head.

“…I didn’t know.”

At that moment, Edwin opened his mouth with a bewildered voice.

“I had no idea Her Majesty the Empress was under threat.”

“Threat.”

At his words, the Empress let out a bitter laugh.

As if the word ‘threat’ was laughable.

“She’s a pitiful woman who mistakenly believes she can receive the Emperor’s love by placing her child on the crown prince’s throne.”

She lowered her eyes as if recalling the 2nd Empress.

“That woman is truly foolish. She should know better than anyone that His Majesty doesn’t truly love any woman.”

I quietly shook my head at Melanie’s words.

Her words were half true, but half false.

‘Cabellius III had one woman he truly loved with all his heart.’

It was once a very famous tale that stirred the entire Empire.

Because the cold-blooded Emperor who had massacred even his own blood relatives to ascend the throne gave his heart to only one woman, who was of commoner origin, and he placed her in the position of 1st Empress.

‘Yes, what the 2nd Empress orchestrated back then was…’

I recalled Empress Helena, who had visited the organization long ago.

She was much younger and more beautiful than now, and she had commissioned an assassination at that time.

Although it wasn’t a request I handled personally, I knew the details.

It was an operation that none other than Ian had taken on.

‘To assassinate the Empire’s 1st Empress.’

It was a fairly successful operation.

As Helena, the client, had wished, the 1st Empress lost her life, and they were even able to easily dispose of the unborn child in her womb.

“You must have been very shocked as well, so go back and rest now.”

Melanie pulled the bell cord hanging above the bed.

Then the maids who had been waiting outside entered. As soon as they came in, they tidied up around the Empress and stood ready with new clothes and rice porridge to soothe her stomach.

“Bridget, I’m sorry you had to experience such an unpleasant incident on your birthday.”

“It’s not something you need to apologize for, Aunt.”

Bridget bowed according to proper etiquette, then hung her head low.

She still looked guilty, as if the Empress’s near-death experience was her fault.

Melanie looked at her niece with pitying eyes before turning her gaze to me.

“Rachel Brown Lordling.”

“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress.”

“I would like to reward you for saving my life.”

I slowly raised my head at her words.

“If there’s something you desire, tell me. I’ll grant you anything.”

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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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