FMLDM 10

Chapter 10

“The lady is so dazzling I can’t keep my eyes open.”

“…!”

“Lady, I would be disappointed if you looked anywhere else.”

“……”

“When will you look at me?”

Looking into his trembling pupils, I came to a conclusion.

He’s. Crazy.

The narcissistic prince who seemed like he would obsess only over himself was now clinging to me. The situation was both funny and absurd. Seeing the raw, almost predatory look in his eyes, my strange feelings turned to fear. But the problem right now wasn’t Macaron. All my attention was fixed on Coral.

They should be sweet enough to die for each other, so why… Coral wouldn’t do this for no reason…

When I turned my head, Coral was still glaring at Kai with a very angry expression. They say nothing is scarier than indifference, and now Coral was treating Kai like an invisible man. Kai’s face, watching this, kept paling moment by moment. Suddenly arranged meal, Kai’s proposal… I sensed it instinctively.

Kai is up to some mischief…?!

Kai trembled in shock, while Coral gave him a fierce look.

I have to separate Coral and Kai for now.

Just as I grabbed Coral’s hand and was about to head outside—

“Lady, today I should be with Coral’s younger brother…”

I immediately covered Macaron’s mouth and pulled the leash tight. Momont saw Macaron’s strange eyes and his face turned pale.

“Please take care of His Highness.”

Momont’s puzzled gaze fixed strongly on me, but I pretended not to notice. The fleeting cold stare seemed to suspect I was the cause of this mess. I wanted to shout that it wasn’t me, but this wasn’t the time. Lord Momont tried to grab Macaron’s arm to take him away but failed, and soon Lord Aint was urgently called. Like a person fainted by Aint’s hand, Macaron couldn’t move and was dragged outside as he was.

Who would have thought the first family meal would turn into a battlefield chaos…!

After witnessing that, I quickly left with Coral. Kai kept his gaze on me and Coral until we left, but when our eyes met, he quickly bowed his head. Coral seemed to calm down only after Kai was out of sight, her murderous glare fading. Yes, that’s my daughter.

Back in the room, I asked Coral:

“Coral, can you tell mom what happened today?”

That’s how I learned the whole truth of today. Kai said he put ice-needle poison in Macaron’s soup and a “sweet fool” drug in Coral’s soup. He had done this cute little trick to separate me and Macaron. It must have been hard for Kai to accept that his first love became his little sister. Things like repudiation or contract marriage were only my plans, and from Kai’s perspective, it was too early to understand.

Kai, you cheeky brat!

West annex, Macaron’s bedroom.
When Macaron opened his eyes, the familiar ceiling and chandelier came into view. His pounding head felt like he’d been drinking heavily the night before.

“Your Highness! Are you alright?”

“What happened?”

“It seems you were poisoned.”

Macaron raised one eyebrow.

That woman even added drugs now?

He tried to recall the unclear memories but could remember nothing.

“What’s the purpose?”

“……”

“You wouldn’t poison me as a joke. There must be a reason.”

“Well…”

Aint hesitated, which made Macaron’s headache worsen.

“It’s okay. Tell me the truth.”

“Miss Coral seems to have been poisoned as well.”

He slammed the table. Bang! A big vibration shook the floor.

Using my own daughter for this?

Normally, Macaron would never miss such a thing. His sensitive nature had his five senses highly developed, and he had never missed something like this before. For someone to have deceived him meant a great expert in medicine was involved. Not noticing this from even his paperwork was his own fault. He frowned, blaming himself.

So she was probably a spy.

There was no record about her in the files, so trusting her was a huge mistake.

“What about the antidote… did Kai come by?”

Kai was known as having immense healing power in the empire. From the moment he was brought in. If someone deliberately poisoned Macaron, the only one in the family capable of curing it was Kai. Of course, Momont might have hired an outsider, but if so, it wouldn’t have been resolved so quickly, Macaron guessed. But somehow Momont faltered in his speech today.

“Well… Your Highness…”

Seeing Momont’s unusual hesitation, Macaron nodded to urge him to continue.

“It seems it was the doing of Master Kai.”

Macaron paused, struggling to find words. It took him a moment to process what he’d just heard. But Momont’s words couldn’t simply overturn what Macaron had been thinking until now.

“Why Kai…?!”

Watching Momont hesitate, Macaron tried to piece things together. It took him only a few minutes to sort it out.

He probably still can’t accept Calypso as his mother. But even so, he wouldn’t poison someone.

Macaron, who had been watching Kai closely over time, was certain of that. A dark shadow fell over Macaron’s face.

“So Kai is the culprit now?”

“I heard it from Miss Coral. But I didn’t think he was the culprit because of that. It was written in the medicinal documents Kai made.”

Macaron’s face darkened.

“Kai… made the poison?”

His voice trembled slightly at the dizzying thought. Though he thought Kai was a mischievous child resembling his younger self, he never believed Kai could be someone who could kill. Gulping nervously, Macaron looked at Momont, who hesitated before finally confessing.

“Well, it’s not poison exactly, but some other drug.”

Momont, unusually nervous, struggled to find words, but Macaron’s serious gaze ignored it.

“Then what is it?”

“It seems to be an emotional-type drug. Something that makes people like or dislike others… What Your Highness took was probably the former.”

Macaron breathed a sigh of relief. Although either way was wrong, using a deadly poison and an emotion-affecting drug that would wear off in a few days were different levels of severity.

“But why would Kai do that…”

“Master Kai seems to have been following Miss Coral closely. In the academy, no one didn’t know him. Everyone considered him the ‘fixer’ of the lady.”

Macaron smiled as if it was a funny matter. But suddenly his parental curiosity was piqued.

“What does Coral think?”

“Well… it seems to be a one-sided love by Master Kai.”

“……”

Momont continued, interpreting Macaron’s silence as permission to do so.

“There are many boys following the lady. Kai is one of many. But he is the most proactive, so no one doesn’t know him.”

Momont sensed something was going wrong and quickly changed the subject.

“Of course, Miss Coral also seems to have good feelings toward Master Kai.”

Foolish kid. Macaron swallowed words he couldn’t spit out and recalled Kai’s past antics — folding 100 flowers and casting magic on them nearly blowing up the house, and now this…

“Go.”

“Well, um…”

“Is there more to report?”

Ignoring Momont’s hesitation, Macaron closed his eyes and leaned back.

“…No.”

How anticlimactic. Probably more useless chatter. As Macaron lay down, he soon realized why Momont had hesitated. Strange memories started to invade his mind.

What… is this?

Fragments of memories attacked his mind like shards. Most were so absurd they made him chuckle.

“The lady is so dazzling I can’t keep my eyes open… dammit!”

Each time he mulled over the memories, Macaron banged his head into the stack of papers, which soon soaked through and scattered across the room.

Unable to sleep all night, Macaron’s eyes turned hollow gray.

Should I just pretend I don’t know and shamelessly go out?

Macaron didn’t want to face Calypso for at least a year. Since the contract lasted a year, avoiding her until then seemed like a method. But… considering Coral was dragged into Kai’s incident, his reason wouldn’t allow it. Better to go crazy than to be a shameless bastard. All day, Macaron devoted himself to making an antidote. Nothing was better than not thinking. Finally finishing the antidote, he gulped it down and had no choice but to think again about Calypso’s problem. Remembering her personality from before, Macaron worried she still wasn’t moving.

She must be… really angry.

No one read his thoughts, but he felt sorry for suspecting her first when the drug incident happened. Macaron strode toward the east annex. Since it was previously decorated, it had a distinctly cozy atmosphere different from the west annex. On the luxurious white wallpaper hung several portraits that seemed to be Calypso’s handiwork. He knew she was skilled with her hands but didn’t expect her to be so good at painting… Each portrait was so exquisite it made him marvel.

Just then, the door clicked open, and Calypso appeared.

“What is it?”

Her cat-like upward eye corners. The one lip curled up. Her gaze like looking at a bug. Her expression looked very angry. Seeing that, memories from the previous day came vividly to Macaron. Standing with her arms crossed, she looked like she was sneering.

“I apologize for yesterday’s rudeness.”

Calypso gave a strange expression, as if her mouth twitched, looking down at him from a step above.

“Are you feeling better now?”

Though it was a normal question, Macaron couldn’t shake the feeling she was mocking him. Actually, on the way here, he’d thought a lot.

Should I pretend I don’t remember? If I acted like I forgot yesterday…

Hiding his awkward feelings, Macaron clenched his fist and answered,

“I’m feeling better.”

At that moment, disappointment flashed across Calypso’s eyes.