Episode 99. Reality (2)
Walter Ertmann was never ignorant of poison.
When he put his mouth to the tea Cedric had served him, he recognized the numbness on the tip of his tongue.
‘It’s poisoned.’
No matter how resistant Cedric is to poison, he is not completely immune. Cedric wasn’t someone who casually drank poison even under normal circumstances. So Cedric wouldn’t have intentionally prepared a poisoned tea for both of them.
It’s more like Cedric or someone else was trying to kill him.
“…… The tea smells nice.”
“Is it? I’m glad it fits your taste.”
Cedric replied dryly as he sipped his portion of tea. He seemed completely uninterested in whether Walter raised the teacup to his mouth or not.
Anyone who had been poisoning it would definitely want to check whether Walter was drinking his tea or not, but judging from Cedric’s attitude, he was not the culprit.
The remaining options were obvious.
‘The second prince, or Empress Katarina.’
In fact, one could consider them one and the same, who committed the act would undoubtedly be known.
Perhaps they’re planning to kill Walter in a confrontation with Cedric and then somehow pin the blame on Cedric.
‘Why are you sending the Third Princess to me to create such a scandal…….’
The close relationship between Cedric and Walter was already known to the outside world, so he needed a reason to start a feud between them. He was expecting it, but it was more obvious than he thought.
They probably need a reason to discredit Cedric somehow.
‘They don’t know the subject.’
Cedric had already maneuvered to receive most of the Emperor’s authority due to the Emperor’s illness. In this situation, would Cedric just sit back and allow blame to be placed on him?
Under Walter’s full support, Cedric’s power was stronger than ever. It is too strong to be overturned by the death of one man,
And with Odette, Duchess of Ertmann, on Cedric’s side, there was no reason to change that, even if killing Walter were to unbalance and confuse the forces. Arnold would be willing to take Cedric’s side for Odette’s sake.
So what Blake was doing now was nothing more than a last-ditch effort. It was a move made by someone who sensed defeat.
Normally, there wouldn’t have been any reason to play along with this. At least, if Odette had been by his side.
– I’ll believe you, that you’re not cheating. I believe you are the person I know.
– But I will keep my distance from you as before.
– I don’t have a basis for trust, and if I stay close to you now, my faith will be shaken.
When Odette tells him that she can’t stay close to him until she can trust him completely, Walter can’t say a word, even though all he has to do is say the words that came out of his mouth when he met Lizaina in the garden of the banquet hall, disguised as Odette.
The words of Lizaina’s mockery, when her true identity was revealed, would never leave his mind.
Even though she faced Walter’s angry face, she burst into laughter instead and asked.
– Hah! Odette doesn’t know anything, does she? No wonder that foolish girl welcomed you. If she had known this, there’s no way she could have accepted you if she knew this, What a fool!
– ……What?
– Keep hiding as you have so far. I don’t know when you’ll die, but I’ll pretend not to know.
Walter tried to ask more, but Lizaina ignored him and walked away.
But in truth, he didn’t need much further explanation.
He knew that Odette, who had spent her entire life cowering to survive, was a cautious and wary person.
If she had known that he was about to die, she would never have stepped into his comfort zone in Ertmann if she had known that he was about to die.
Walter didn’t want to lose even the smallest amount of distance Odette had left. He didn’t have the courage to lose it.
He would rather keep a cowardly silence than reveal the truth and be abandoned.
‘Even if I reveal the truth in the first place, there is nothing I can say.’
Would he tell Odette now that he’d returned with the holy relic? Would he tell her the uncomfortable truth that she’d killed herself and that he’d loved her in the past?
In the end, the truth he could reveal was not complete, and if Odette even caught on to that fact, everything would return to square one. So nothing mattered.
At the end of this conflict, poisoned tea was placed in front of Walter.
‘I might as well end it this way. Maybe it’s better that it ends this way.’
Perhaps this is an opportunity, Walter thought.
Since he couldn’t know how much time the relic had left, instead of waiting anxiously for that someday when his traces would disappear, perhaps it would be better to seize this opportunity.
‘Maybe I should have just seen Odette once.’
With that last thought, Walter emptied his teacup.
“Shall we finish talking, Cedric?”
He awaited death.
* * *
Walter was dead.
Odette couldn’t come to her senses as she was trying to trace the outline of the reality that was right in front of her.
Perhaps she even screamed. No, it was more like she gagged.
Odette blacked out, so her memory is not complete.
It felt like she could vividly recall the warmth that had been in her hand just moments ago, but the owner of that warmth was now coldly in front of her. The sharp pain before dying was clear in her memory.
Yet, what she could accept was the fact that she could finally leave this life behind and that she wasn’t alone in her final moments. Knowing there was someone who loved her just before dying made her fall and betrayal feel even more poignant.
Then what were you so willing to close your eyes for?
She still have something to say to him…….
“……-tte, Odette!”
Odette slowly lifted her eyelids. A familiar face appeared in her blurry vision.
A faint voice escaped through Odette’s parted lips.
“Cedric…… brother.”
“Are you coming to your senses? What on earth happened…….?”
He explained the situation in short bursts, his face showing considerable fatigue.
The tea that Walter drank had been poisoned, and Odette had lost her temper when she saw him collapse.
And that the situation had been kept under wraps to keep it out of the Palace.
That was for two reasons.
The first was to prevent the situation from turning against them, as Empress Katarina would most likely try to use it against them.
And the second was.
“Walter conditions is…… a strange situation to describe.”
“……What?”
“Don’t you remember? Odette, you used your power on Walter?”
Cedric said that Odette was sobbing, losing her senses, and injected magic power into Walter.
Other people might not recognize it, but it was clearly Odette’s ability to give life.
“Because of that, he’s still hanging on, although he’s unconscious. But he’s as good as dead.”
The life Odette breathed into him was like an ember that would soon go out.
At this rate, Walter’s death was confirmed.
Cedric sighed, running a hand roughly through his hair.
“The question is why he drank the tea in the first place. There’s no way he didn’t know about the poison in his tea, so why…….”
And at that moment, Odette understood Walter’s intentions.
Tears welled up and streamed down her cheeks.
“……Walter drank it even though he knew.”
“What?”
“He was preparing for his own death, that’s for sure, and he thought this was…… his chance…….”
Odette sobbed and told Cedric everything she knew.
From their contract marriage, to the strange clause in the contract, to the holy object.
“The person who uses the relic must inevitably disappear. So Walter…… chose to definitively die with this opportunity……for me.”
That way, Odette could safely inherit Walter’s estate and live her life securely.
The more she spoke, the clearer Walter’s intentions became, and it brought tears to her eyes. How must he have felt, managing Odette’s life after his death? It was unfathomable and suffocating.
Just before she jumped off the terrace, Odette remembered her thoughts.
‘No one will live for me.’
She wondered if anyone would sacrifice themselves for her, she thought unconsciously.
She was so worn and tattered by then.
She had sacrificed so much for Clovis, and she wanted to be rewarded for it.
But faced with reality, she realized how foolish and selfish that thought had been.
Even if Louis didn’t love her, even if he didn’t sacrifice himself for her.
She just wanted to regret dedicating her life for Louis sake, so please, ‘I wanted to save Walter’.
Odette burst into tears and suddenly clutched Cedric’s hand tightly.
“Brother. Is there no way? Please, we have to save Walter. I can’t leave him like this……. I heard there’s another relic in a different part of the continent, maybe that one—
“No! We can’t do that. I can’t let you sacrifice yourself like that. Walter wouldn’t want that either.”
“But—”
“There is a way.”
Cedric sighed and then spoke.
This was meant for Odette, not Walter, but he had a feeling that if he let this go on, Odette would say some bullshit about saving Walter at the cost of her life.
‘I can’t let him die, not for now…….’
He have no choice.
“I have a relic called <Ariella’s Ring> in my possession, known for its powerful healing abilities, capable of saving even someone on the brink of death.”
“……! Then can’t we use that—”
“on’t get too excited. All I have is the physical ring. It requires a gemstone to work, and unfortunately, I couldn’t obtain one.”
It was an item in Empress hand.
Odette’s eyes lit up at Cedric’s next words.
“……So, if we can obtain the gemstone, we can save Walter, right?”
