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Chapter 9
David’s sword was pointed at Lana, and Lana looked utterly bewildered, as if she couldn’t process what was happening.
“Uh… this, well… I mean…”
When Lana saw the silver needle in the juice, now blackened with discoloration, her face slowly turned pale.
David glared at Lana with terrifying eyes. His sword looked as though it might cut off her neck at any second, and I was so startled that I quickly tried to stop him.
“W-Wait a second, David.”
But instead of answering me, David warned Lana,
“Step back.”
Lana obediently retreated several steps backward. David pulled me up from my chair and drew me protectively into his arms.
Lana, trembling with a deathly pale face, looked at me pitifully.
“M-My lady… it wasn’t me. Really…”
“D-David, maybe we should talk about what happened first…”
Though Lana had backed away, from this distance David could still kill her in a single strike.
Faced with this unimaginable situation, my hands began trembling in panic. Afraid David might swing his sword, I grabbed his wrist and pleaded,
“So… can you put the sword down first? Please?”
David glanced down at me when he felt my shaking hands. Seeing the fear on my face, he finally sheathed his sword.
Watching this, tears welled up in Lana’s eyes.
“My lady…”
Swallowing nervously, I asked Lana,
“What happened?”
“I-I mean… when I poked the oranges all over with the silver needle, they were fine. So I just juiced them and brought it here. But…”
“How did you make the juice?”
“W-Well… there’s a tool in the kitchen for juicing oranges or lemons. A juicer… you cut the fruit in half and press and twist it…”
The moment Lana described it, I immediately realized what kind of device she meant.
And I suddenly thought that maybe someone hadn’t poisoned the oranges—but the juicer itself.
“Let’s go to the kitchen together. Someone might have put poison on that.”
David nodded at my words, and Lana led the way.
As she walked ahead of us, her shoulders were hunched tightly with tension.
When we arrived at the kitchen, Lana pointed to a juicer sitting on a shelf near the entrance.
“I used this…”
It was the type of juicer where you crushed the inside of lemons or oranges against a ridged cone.
David and I examined it together.
To prove Lana had really tested the oranges with silver needles after cutting them, the silver needle stained with orange juice was still lying nearby on a cloth used for wiping moisture.
David picked up the silver needle Lana had used and asked her,
“Did you clean the juicer after using it?”
“Huh? Y-Yes. Normally I clean it immediately after use for hygiene…”
Lana answered.
David silently surveyed the kitchen, then picked up an orange from the corner, split it in half, and stabbed it with his own silver needle.
After a moment, he pulled it back out.
The silver needle remained perfectly normal.
David then asked,
“What did you use to clean the juicer?”
“A dishcloth… I wiped it and left it in the sink.”
David gestured with his chin toward the rag lying in the sink.
“That one?”
“Yes.”
David placed a silver needle on the rag Lana had used.
Then he crushed the orange he had just cut on the juicer, making fresh juice that dripped onto the shelf.
After that, he placed a new silver needle into the spilled juice and examined the cloth in the sink.
The silver needle on the rag used to wipe the juicer remained perfectly fine.
The new needle dipped into the freshly made orange juice also stayed unchanged even after some time passed.
David quietly observed this, then asked Lana,
“How do your palms feel? Any stinging or anything?”
“Huh? N-No. I don’t feel anything like that at all.”
Lana hurriedly checked her hands.
Even though it was a poison strong enough to blacken silver instantly, both her hands were completely unharmed.
After observing this, David reached his conclusion.
“I don’t think the juicer or the oranges were the problem. I believe the issue was the inside of the cup.”
“The cup?”
“I suspect someone coated the cup Miss Anise would use with poison.”
Saying this, David began testing his theory.
He took the cups lined up on the shelf one by one and poured water into them.
“Where are the silver rods?”
“In the drawer. With the forks, knives, and spoons.”
David opened the drawer, took out a silver rod, and dipped it into the cup.
The silver rod turned pitch black the instant it touched the water.
“Ah…”
Lana gasped beside me.
Seeing the blackened silver, I bit my lip hard.
So… had the culprit predicted I would drink juice?
I turned to Lana.
“Who brought the oranges?”
“I think they were delivered from the grocery shop we usually use.”
“Do you know when they arrived?”
“When I came down to the kitchen after helping you change clothes, the oranges had already arrived. I think Jean received them.”
So the delivery came around the same time I was changing clothes.
I slowly rolled my eyes in thought and muttered,
“…Wasn’t that around the same time the imperial messenger from the palace arrived too?”
David’s brow furrowed slightly.
The juicer and the shelf holding the cups were both near the kitchen door.
In an instant, the list of suspects grew.
Lana. Jean. The imperial messenger. Whoever drove the imperial carriage. The fruit delivery company.
David thought for a moment before coldly stating,
“Circumstantially, it’s true that many people could have touched the cup. But it’s also true that Miss Lana personally made the juice and forgot to use the silver rod.”
“Sir Knight, it’s true that I made the mistake of forgetting the silver rod. But it really wasn’t me. How could I ever betray my lady…?”
Lana tearfully pleaded her innocence, but David coldly ordered,
“For the time being, step down from personally attending Miss Anise. And do not touch anything. Stop all kitchen duties as well.”
Lana opened and closed her mouth in frustration for a moment, but perhaps realizing her mistake was serious, she finally nodded.
“…Yes.”
My chest felt unbearably tight.
Lana couldn’t be the culprit!
David glared at the dishes on the shelf, then gathered several silver utensils I normally used.
Shielding me protectively from Lana, David said,
“Miss Anise, let’s go upstairs.”
“…Okay.”
Glancing back at Lana, I followed David out of the kitchen.
Lana remained behind, staring at me with sorrow-filled eyes.
Seeing that, my own eyes wavered.
The moment we reached the office, I immediately protested.
“Lana isn’t the culprit! Think about it—Lana saved me from the lake! If she really wanted to hurt me, she’s had countless opportunities before now, but she never did—”
As I fired off my words rapidly, David frowned slightly and cut me off coldly.
“But she is the one who handed you the poisoned cup. And she forgot the silver rod.”
“If she were the culprit, would she really have brought it herself? Someone used Lana!”
In the original story, Lana suffered for seven years and even died for Anise’s revenge.
There was no way she was the culprit.
“We’ll know once we investigate.”
David answered coldly.
I frowned and clamped my mouth shut.
David looked at me bitterly for a moment, then quietly warned,
“Miss Anise, you almost died just now. Don’t trust just anyone so easily.”
His words made my breath catch.
“Just anyone”?
How could Lana be “just anyone”?
Of course, I understood David’s perspective.
He didn’t know the original story, so naturally he’d judge things this way.
But remembering how he’d looked ready to kill Lana without a moment’s hesitation sent a chill through my chest.
[Is David really the male lead? He’s way too cold to Lana.]
[I can’t accept David as the male lead anymore, author. If you quietly switch the male lead now, we’ll pretend not to notice.]
Whenever I used to read comments complaining about David, I had always defended him, saying he absolutely wasn’t cold.
But now…
As I blinked, feeling strangely suffocated, David sighed.
Then he gently wrapped his hand around my fingertips, which had gone cold at some point, warming them with his own.
“I understand that this is painful for you. But Miss Anise… your life is at stake.”
His voice was earnest.
He probably wanted me to say I understood. To promise I’d be cautious of Lana.
But I didn’t want to say that.
I kept my lips tightly sealed.
Then, from outside, the loud sound of a carriage arrived.
David, who had been watching me with a heavy expression, turned his ear toward it and murmured,
“It seems His Majesty the Emperor has arrived.”
