Chapter 25
Noctem continued to stare at Charlotte and Adrian.
More precisely, he glared at Adrian Verche as if he were about to kill him for trying to seduce the innocent Charlotte.
‘Where do you think you’re putting those filthy hands?’
When Adrian tried to place his hand on Charlotte’s shoulder, Noctem’s hand reflexively moved to the sword at his waist.
Fortunately, Charlotte stepped away from Adrian first. If she hadn’t, Noctem’s hand gripping the sword would have moved before anything else.
After that, Adrian eventually drifted away from Charlotte’s side, which was a relief to everyone.
Only then did Noctem withdraw his wary gaze and return his focus to Charlotte.
Since the initial commotion, she had stood quietly against the wall like a delicate flower, not causing any further disturbance.
But something still bothered him.
‘That wine…’
A glass of red wine with just a sip left. She wasn’t drinking it, yet she held it strangely.
No, it had been odd since the moment she first drank it—as if she were swallowing a terrible poison.
‘…!’
A sudden chill ran down his spine. Not even when he had been surrounded by monsters had he felt this kind of dread.
‘…No.’
He had never felt anything this terrifying before.
Without reason, his heart thudded heavily in his chest, and cold sweat beaded on his palms.
It worsened as he noticed the faint tremble in Charlotte’s stance.
‘Quickly, I need to—’
His body moved faster than his thoughts. The moment he thought, ‘I need to go to Charlotte,’ he was already standing in front of her.
“…Lady Charlotte.”
Seeing her up close only confirmed his suspicions—she had ingested poison.
“Are you alright?”
Of course, she wasn’t. He knew that, and asking the question only made him feel pathetic.
Suppressing a curse between his teeth, Noctem reached out to her.
Or rather, he tried to.
Splash!
Before his hand could reach her, wine splattered across his face.
Drip, drip.
The wine soaked his hair and skin before falling to the floor.
Gasps of shock erupted from the surrounding crowd, but Noctem could do nothing.
‘Why…’
She was the one who poured the wine on him—so why did she look more pained than he did?
A strange feeling churned inside his chest. Ridiculously, it was sadness.
But only for a moment.
The agonized expression on Charlotte’s face vanished as quickly as it had appeared, as if it had never been there. As if he had imagined it.
“…I thought you’d dodge it. Aren’t you the proud Sword Master of the Emperor’s faction?”
Her mocking voice cut sharply through his ears. Again, he couldn’t say a word.
“Oh my, why that face? Ah, is it because of the restaurant? I heard you broke off your engagement—because of me, they say.”
“……”
Her lips and the inside of her mouth seemed unusually red—almost as if she had been drinking blood.
It wasn’t just an illusion. He could smell blood from somewhere.
‘Poison strong enough to make her cough up blood…’
Why would she drink something like that? Judging by her behavior, she must have known—but why?
Confusion. That was all he felt.
And as if to break him further, Charlotte leaned closer to him.
“Pfft, you fell for it so easily… You’re too naïve. How boring.”
Her whispered words tickled his ears—and simultaneously, they were excruciating.
‘Boring?’
Strangely, rather than anger, Noctem felt a question arise. More precisely, it was desperation.
‘What was so boring?’
If she told him, he could change. If she just said the word…
It was at that moment Charlotte’s voice rang out, loud and clear.
“Well, thanks for coming all the way over here.”
“…!”
That was when the betrayal hit him like a wave.
Her words confirmed that she had been using him all along.
Yet, even then, Noctem could not be angry with her.
“Charlotte!”
Because her body was collapsing.
Instinctively, Noctem caught her. Regret surged through him too late—but he still couldn’t let her go.
Not until the frantic attendants of the Duke’s household arrived to take her away.
After Charlotte collapsed, high society erupted like never before.
Duke Daphne, furious, publicly accused the Emperor’s faction of being behind the poisoning.
His anger seemed natural—his daughter had been poisoned. But the nobles knew the truth.
Everyone was aware that Duke Daphne despised his legitimate daughter, Charlotte Daphsine.
So, for him to shed tears and express his rage now was laughable to those in the Emperor’s camp—especially when he pointed to Noctem Aphros as the culprit.
Still, Noctem did not retaliate.
Instead, he handed everything over to the Emperor’s faction and quietly withdrew from the public eye.
Society interpreted Noctem’s retreat as a calculated political move. And as he disappeared from view, what little public sympathy remained for Charlotte also vanished.
But the truth was…
“My Lord, you should stop drinking now.”
Tei, his attendant, was desperately trying to dissuade Noctem, who was drinking straight from the bottle.
Despite clearing them repeatedly, empty liquor bottles piled up in the office.
Yet, Noctem drained another bottle and gave a curt command.
“Bring more.”
“There are dozens of bottles lying around. Please, my Lord…”
“That’s an order.”
At his unyielding tone, Tei could only clench his teeth and obey.
“…Yes, my Lord.”
With that, Tei left the room slowly, his footsteps dragging behind him.
The office door creaked open and shut weakly.
Taking a deep breath of the heavy, liquor-scented air, Noctem sighed.
“…This is a mess.”
Ever since coming to the capital, his mind had been in chaos—and the root of that chaos was Charlotte Daphsine.
Why had she drunk the poison?
At first, it had been mere curiosity. Then, it became an obsession. And finally, it turned to rage.
Three days after the incident, Tei brought him a report on Charlotte Daphsine.
But reading it didn’t soothe him—it only made things worse.
“Damn it!”
He crumpled the paper in his fist as soon as he read the first line.
Summary: No individual named ‘Noctem’ exists within the Empire.
It is suspected that the Duke’s household planned to make Charlotte Daphne the Grand Duchess.
Charlotte appears to have actively participated in this scheme.
It is highly likely she approached His Grace with deliberate intent.
Confirmed close association with Marquis Adrian Verche.
Noctem regretted ever asking Tei to present reports in a summarized format.
Grinding his teeth, he fought back the urge to storm to the training grounds.
Instead, he forced himself to read the entire document, despite already knowing the conclusion.
The more he read, the more ridiculous he felt.
“So I fell for such a pathetic scheme?”
Everything—her vulnerability, her tears, her desperation—had all been an elaborate act to seduce him.
“…Damn it all!”
He drowned himself in alcohol to cope. Without it, he feared he would truly lose his mind.
“What the hell did you do to me?”
As his half-drunken voice echoed through the room, he swore—never again.
But that flimsy resolve shattered the very next day.
When Tei brought him the poison Charlotte had drunk.
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