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Chapter – 06
I’ll Put This Poison Right Into Your Mouth
“Y-your Majesty… W-what is that?”
“Don’t worry. It’s not poison.”
It is poison.
It was the most potent of poisons, made from the neurotoxin of a venomous snake. But Josephine deliberately did not reveal that fact. If she wanted to test Haver right now, this was the only way.
“Then…?”
“I gave careful thought to what you said last time, Haver.”
What I said? Haver quickly racked her brain.
‘What if that woman gets pregnant before His Majesty? We have to stop that at all costs!’
‘Surely it’s not about that?’
Josephine nodded, as if confirming Haver’s guess was correct.
“At first, I also thought your words were excessive and let it go, but no. I wasn’t being rational.”
“W-what do you mean?”
“You know the condition the Imperial Royal Family Council set when Henryus ascended the throne, right? The next generation must absolutely have a legitimate heir as successor.”
Simultaneously, the medicine bottle in Josephine’s hand glittered.
“So, we must prevent the possibility of a bastard being born in advance.”
“Then this is…?”
“This medicine doesn’t affect men. So, I’m telling you to mix this into that red tea so that Elizabeth can drink it naturally.”
Josephine continued her lie effortlessly.
“It’s true it’s something you can’t do to a friend. But what can I do? All of this is for the sake of the Imperial Family.”
She was even repeating the words she had heard from Elizabeth in her previous life.
“Y-Your Majesty. Even so, Fräulein Howzen is… She’s your friend. I can’t do it.”
Haver stopped Josephine in a panic, as if she had heard something she shouldn’t have.
‘If things go wrong and it’s later considered an attempted assassination of the imperial heir, I’ll be dead too, without a doubt.’
Because she couldn’t afford to actually die by any chance.
“Is that so? How strange.”
Upon hearing the answer, Josephine tilted her head.
“You were the one who said we have to stop Elizabeth from getting pregnant first, so why are you saying you can’t do it now?”
“Huh?”
“Or do you have another reason? A reason why you shouldn’t stop Elizabeth for my sake?”
At those words, Haver’s heart sank.
“Your Majesty… You can’t possibly suspect that I’m on that woman’s side now?”
And with that, she slumped down and began to sob profusely.
“How could you suspect me without any evidence, just because I didn’t take on the role of the villain for Your Majesty!”
“……”
“W-was I only this much of a person to Your Majesty? I was only worried that Your Majesty might be in a difficult situation…”
“How long do you plan to keep acting, Haver?”
At the word ‘acting,’ Haver jumped up again.
“Acting, Your Majesty?! I am offering my loyalty to Your Majesty even now, risking death—”
“So you knew that Margrave Dahlen gave me a defective weapon as a gift?”
The corner of Josephine’s mouth, which had been frozen in place until now, twisted on its own.
“How did you know that weapon was broken from the start?”
“…What? Th-that…”
“I’m asking how you know a fact that’s still under secret investigation, that no one else knows.”
Pressing her was pointless. There was only one answer.
“You knew all along, didn’t you? That on the day of the demonstration, that crossbow was defective.”
“Hah,” Josephine let out a cold laugh.
“So from the beginning, you knew it was a defective weapon and didn’t even give me a hint! Because you had to pretend not to know to make me suspect Margrave Dahlen!”
“N-no, that’s not it. It’s the truth. I, I also just overheard things while coming and going—”
“Of course you would say that.”
Josephine shot Haver a piercing look with her icy eyes.
“You must have overheard it from the very people who plotted that scheme, right? Isn’t that so?”
Ah, Josephine added, as if she had just realized something.
“Was that person Elizabeth?”
“What? Why would that woman…?”
“You’ve always disliked Elizabeth, haven’t you? More than I have.”
Josephine narrowed her eyes as she looked down at Haver.
“It was always strange. No matter how much Elizabeth wronged me, you always went out of your way to badmouth Elizabeth, even making up things that didn’t happen.”
Josephine took another step forward.
“Was that all an act too? To hide the fact that you’re actually on Elizabeth’s side?”
Struck right at her core, Haver instantly became tongue-tied.
‘Has she possibly noticed that I’ve been secretly meeting with that woman, Elizabeth?’
But she couldn’t just admit everything right here and now.
If she did, she would be branded a traitor without fail. That meant only death.
“Having the maids drive Margrave Dahlen away was also to prevent me and the Margrave from meeting, wasn’t it? Otherwise, the fact that you drove a wedge between me and the Margrave might come to light.”
“No, Your Majesty…! P-please listen to me.”
“You know what, Haver? That misfire accident wasn’t Margrave Dahlen’s fault. The one who tampered with the crossbow wasn’t him, but an armory keeper who was bribed by someone.”
Haver’s vision grew dim. Josephine, who knew all the details, was becoming terrifying.
‘How on earth does she know all of that?’
Of course, Haver couldn’t possibly know.
All the truths Josephine had mentioned were things that would originally only be revealed about a year later in the investigation results of the demonstration incident.
So unless Haver was colluding with someone outside the Empress’s palace, it was impossible for her to know this in advance.
“Even so, if you won’t confess your crime, I’ll have no choice but to meet Margrave Dahlen the day after tomorrow and ask him directly.”
“Y-Your Majesty.”
“If it’s true that you slandered Margrave Dahlen, then even you will not be forgiven. Haver.”
A previously unseen murderous glint flashed clearly in Josephine’s pupils.
“The crime of betraying me is by no means light. You will surely have to atone with your death.”
Her dry voice, mentioning death, was infinitely calm.
She seemed truly determined to abandon Haver.
“Your Majesty the Empress, I, I was wrong. Please, for the sake of our past bond, spare my life at least!”
In the end, Haver began to prostrate herself and beg.
“Please, give me one last chance. Think of how loyal I’ve been to Your Majesty all this time. Huh? So please, a chance to be forgiven by Your Majesty…”
Roll—
Before her words even finished, something rolled to the feet of the kneeling Haver.
It was the very medicine bottle Josephine had been holding just moments before.
“This is…”
“It’s your last chance to prove your loyalty.”
Josephine added coldly.
“You know what to do, right?”
Haver reverently received the bottle with both hands.
The translucent liquid inside shimmered and shook along with sparkling pearls.
“What, can’t you do it?”
As Josephine’s chilling voice flew at her again, Haver snapped back to her senses.
“A-ah, no. How could I dare?”
Finally, shedding tears drop by drop, Haver gave the answer Josephine had been waiting for all along.
“I’ll… sniff… mix this medicine into the red tea without anyone knowing. And then I’ll personally deliver it to the Elize Palace and come back…”
Got her. Josephine rejoiced inwardly without showing it on her face.
“I knew you would say that.”
She then relaxed her stiff expression and gave a faint smile.
“I’ll leave the handling of things afterward to you as well. You can do it, right?”
Haver, still shedding chicken-dung-like tears, nodded her head.
“I, I’ll also tell the Elize Palace that the Knights said there were no problems. Don’t worry.”
Josephine slowly nodded at Haver’s pledge.
“I’ll trust only you.”
It was almost complete. She had replaced the teacup with a new one to block Elizabeth’s scheme, and had also sealed the mouths of the traitors close to her.
But this much was insufficient.
“Look forward to it, C.C.”
In the past, Elizabeth had staged a false-flag operation, even manipulating Siegfried, to frame Josephine.
As a result, Elizabeth succeeded in completely stealing Henryus’s favor, and Josephine lost Henryus’s love that very day.
Although they failed to pin her as the culprit due to lack of evidence, that alone was enough.
For the true nature of the potent poison Elizabeth put in Henryus’s teacup was precisely ‘suspicion.’
“That poison you put in Henryus’s teacup in the past—this time, I’ll put it right into your mouth.”
In this lifetime, things had to be different.
The one who framed her friend and tried to harm her had to be Elizabeth, not her.
If that happened, then that initial suspicion Henryus harbored would also be directed at Elizabeth this time.
“This time, you die too. Together, nicely, with Henryus.”
A chilling thrill rose to the corner of Josephine’s lips.
The reason God had sent Siegfried in this life was here.
God had finally given her a chance too.
This time, it was her turn to frame Elizabeth.
With that potent poison in the red tea, to make Elizabeth the new true culprit of this incident.
