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Chapter – 22
The Virulent Poison Called Suspicion
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Just now, everyone saw the Imperial Guards putting shackles on Prince Siegfried’s wrists and escorting him away from the Empress’s palace.”
Theodore expected his hot-tempered master to immediately fly into a rage at the Empress.
But just as he seemed ready to overturn the desk he was gripping, Henryas slowly sank back into his chair instead.
“Is that so… The Empress isn’t involved in any trouble, is she?”
He even went so far as to worry about the Empress. Theodore, sensing something different about Henryas’s demeanor, replied in the affirmative.
“At least when she watched the Prince being taken away this morning, she appeared healthy and unharmed.”
“The Empress came outside?”
Henryas’s temper flared. Theodore flinched and stepped back.
“And yet she used her illness as an excuse to turn everyone away for days? Were you slacking off?”
“Absolutely not, Your Majesty. I visited the Empress’s palace diligently, at least twice daily, morning and evening, these past two days.”
Theodore shook his head repeatedly, looking aggrieved.
“Every time, I was told Her Majesty the Empress is in poor health and cannot receive anyone. It’s the truth.”
Henryas’s brown eyes blazed, following him.
Wearing a pained expression, Theodore desperately swore it was true.
“However, today, Her Majesty the Empress was surrounded by several layers of guards from Grand Duke Artua’s command, making it impossible to even approach…”
“Nice excuse. Today you just watched from afar and came back, and now how do you plan to deliver a message? Will you scale the walls of the Empress’s palace?”
The Emperor was in a foul mood because the Empress, for several days now, had refused to see anyone he sent. It was the first time he had been ignored like this by her.
So Theodore tried to understand him, but it was useless. No matter how much he pleaded, she wouldn’t see him.
‘Well then, why doesn’t Your Majesty go to the Empress’s palace yourself and beg for an audience…’
Swallowing his complaints, Theodore watched Henryas’s expression.
“Fine. You, take Lord Dolkin and try to see the Empress again today. She shouldn’t be able to turn away the palace physician I send.”
“Y-You intend to leave the Empress as she is?”
Theodore found himself retorting to Henryas without thinking. Immediately, a twitch distorted Henryas’s brow.
“The Empress? Is there a problem with what I said?”
“She imprisoned Prince Siegfried in the dungeon on her own, without any prior discussion with Your Majesty.”
Henryas’s hand, which had been tapping a pen on the signature line, slipped.
The official document he was about to sign almost tore, but Henryas seemed calmer than expected.
“So?”
“Rumors circulating in the capital since yesterday are unusual. They say the Empress abused the Prince so severely he’s hovering between life and death…”
Riiip—finally, the paper tore. There, Henryas’s barely maintained composure shattered completely.
“It’s just nonsense. The Empress must have had her reasons.”
“At the very least, the situation must be rectified. In this state, with the Empress imprisoning the Prince, doesn’t it make the rumors seem true?”
Theodore was puzzled by Henryas, who was acting uncharacteristically passive.
Originally, he was the one who was extremely wary of the Empress’s involvement in state affairs. But since the tea party incident, the Emperor’s attitude had changed.
Far from stopping the Empress’s independent actions, he was even protecting her. Theodore felt something was seriously wrong.
“The Empress merely mobilized the Imperial guards. That’s well within the Empress’s authority, so don’t interfere unnecessarily.”
Rather, Henryas was in a better mood than one might think. In fact, he was quite pleased. He had been since hearing the news that Siegfried had been imprisoned by none other than the Empress.
‘She must be disappointed in him.’
He repaid kindness with enmity, didn’t know how to be grateful for being saved, and crawled back ingratiously only to end up like that. That’s the savagery of the Nordens.
So, suspicions that she had been toying with Elisabeth would also one day be revealed as misunderstandings. The one who tried to use her heart was Siegfried, and the one who was always sincere was Henryas himself.
If he didn’t think that way, he couldn’t bear Josephine turning her back on him. Not even for a moment.
“This could escalate into a diplomatic issue. After all, it was the Empress who took the Prince from Your Majesty under the pretext of facilitating the talks.”
Suddenly, Theodore’s tone, which Henryas had always half-ignored, felt particularly grating today. His manner of saying ‘Empress’ without proper honorifics was something Henryas had overlooked without much thought until now.
“What are you trying to say?”
“The Empress should be held accountable for this. If these talks don’t succeed, war could break out again, and if that happens, it would all be the Empress’s responsi—”
Bam! Finally, Henryas slammed the desk. Theodore reflexively shrank back.
“Listening to you, there’s nothing you won’t say. Before being my wife, the Empress is the mother of this nation. Why do I feel not an ounce of respect when you speak of Her Majesty?”
“N-No, Your Majesty, that wasn’t my intention…”
“Wasn’t it? Did you think I was unaware that you, and everyone else, have been conspiring to look down on the Empress all this time?”
Henryas’s voice resonated, oscillating between coldness and authority.
“It’s the same this time. Does it make sense for you, who at least receives the Empire’s stipend, to defend a Norden prince over this nation’s Empress based on street rumors?”
Theodore immediately fell silent. But he wasn’t without a sense of injustice.
And understandably so, because the one who initially considered it natural for the Empress to be treated that way by everyone was Henryas himself.
So until now, there had been no problem. It was natural since the Emperor himself had tacitly agreed to that tone.
But now, to speak of propriety towards the Empress, from his perspective, it was unfair.
“Moreover, the Empress was almost poisoned at the tea party while already injured. How much more do you need to push her before you’re satisfied?”
Henryas was genuinely angry. It was a moment that rendered meaningless all the times everyone mocked the Empress for being shunned by the Emperor.
“From now on, show proper respect to the Empress. Theodore. I’ll be watching. There won’t be a second chance.”
“Y-Yes, I’ll remember. I will visit Her Majesty the Empress immediately.”
Theodore bowed his head and promptly corrected his honorifics.
“H-However, Your Majesty, you do know that Fräulein Hausen wasn’t really targeting Her Majesty the Empress, don’t you?”
This time, it was Henryas who fell silent. He was right. But that didn’t mean it made sense that Josephine had truly tried to poison him.
Yet, the victim and the suspect in this incident were already clear.
‘Even if I don’t know, Joe might have wanted to kill her.’
Taking advantage of his troubled thoughts, Theodore delivered the news he hadn’t finished.
“Your Majesty, actually, news also arrived from the Elize Palace this morning.”
Henryas’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“There’s a message that Fräulein Hausen’s burns are severe and she has been bedridden for days, and it would be good if you could visit, even briefly, today…”
“That’s enough. Using illness as an excuse to summon me can’t go on day after day.”
Of course, Henryas ultimately couldn’t suspect Josephine as the culprit. He firmly rejected Elisabeth’s wish.
The poison Josephine had put in his cup that day was slowly taking effect.
In this world, there was no venom more potent to Henryas than the one called Suspicion.
With an unprecedented coldness, Henryas replied to Theodore.
“It’s a busy time dealing with state affairs. Tell her to take care of herself. And if she has any sense, tell her not to take a single step out of the Elize Palace.”
“Harriet, did you handle the matter well?”
At that moment, Josephine had secretly summoned someone to Siegfried’s now-empty bedchamber.
It was the same scrawny palace maid who had brought her the real medicine last night.
“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress. By now, rumors must have spread not only through the palace but throughout the capital.”
