“I greet Your Highnesses……. I’m glad to see you’re safe.”
The knight from Garnet Palace, who was the first to arrive, asked in a bewildered voice.
Looking at Julion in my arms, my body stiffened for a moment, but soon I composed my expression.
“What on earth is going on here?”
“Explanations can wait. These are traitors who dared to attempt to assassinate the crown prince with poison. Capture them immediately and take them away. The fallen Imperial Knights must be brought to Garnet Palace as soon as possible.”
As Julion opened his mouth to speak, I cut him off and gave the command instead.
Julion needed to conserve his strength as much as he could right now.
“Yes!”
The knight placed one hand on his chest, saluted, and immediately issued orders to his subordinates.
Then he came back to support Julion.
“Let me take you to the carriage.”
With the help of the knight, I led Julion towards the carriage.
However, I hesitated as I opened the door.
“Hemion!”
As I expected, Hemion was lying unconscious in the carriage.
First, I laid Julion on the seat and hurriedly attended to Hemion.
‘Thankfully, she’s still breathing.’
She seemed affected by the poison Roxis had used.
The cold sweat dripping down to the point of wetting her hair indicated how much Hemion had suffered.
And yet she made a sound. She truly was a tough one, Hemion Martin.
“Now then…….”
It would be good to have some assistance.
With a regretful feeling, I casually scanned the knights outside the carriage, and suddenly, a familiar face approaching rapidly from behind caught my eye.
“Your Highness!”
“……Zenid?”
I thought it was only the knights, but it turned out she had come along out of concern.
As Zenid approached, she looked at me and Julion, then spoke with a determined face.
“I thought you might need me. Please give instructions, Your Highness.”
Her clear tone eased the anxious feelings I had.
I took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and opened my mouth.
“You’ve come at the right time. I’ll start with first aid. Prepare an antiseptic solution and lavender oil.”
“Understood.”
Zenid immediately unfolded the medical kit without further questions.
Listening to the sounds of her preparation, I focused on examining Julion’s injuries.
His long, deep wounds hadn’t received proper treatment and were in a terrible state.
Not only that, but there were many other injuries.
No matter how resilient Julion might be, facing Roxis in such excruciating pain, it was fortunate that it ended only this way.
“……Rohiriel.”
As I was examining the wounds, Julion called my name with a small groan.
“Stay still. I need to treat these wounds to minimize the risk of infection.”
“I’m fine…….”
As I poured antiseptic onto the wounds, Julion grimaced but said nothing.
“Be quiet. Do you have any idea how messed up your condition is right now?”
“This will heal quickly…”
“Say one more word. I’ll stitch it up quite painfully.”
Receiving a needle and thread from Zenid, I looked at Julion.
Only then did Julion tightly seal his lips.
“Let’s get started.”
Truth be told, even if I wanted to minimize the pain, it would be excruciating.
Currently, we couldn’t use strong anesthesia due to the uncertainty of how the poison in Julion’s body would react.
After completing the disinfection, there were severe areas that needed stitching.
I carefully brought the needle to Julion’s wounds.
‘I’ll only do what’s absolutely necessary, just the minimum treatment.’
Judging by eye, it seemed like at least seven stitches were needed.
While being careful not to sweat more, I quickly started stitching.
“Zenid, more disinfectant.”
“Pantelom, 20 milliliters.”
“We need a healing potion. Do you have the one we made last time?”
“Nine grams of Cartellas, please.”
My hands were busy as I stitched and took steps to prevent infection.
Without Zenid, this treatment would have been impossible.
“I’ll finish it up. Cut it.”
With a decisive snip, Zenid skillfully cut the thread after tying the knot.
“Phew… All done. Are you okay, Julion?”
Julion was holding his uninjured arm up above his eyes.
With slow movements, he lowered his arm a bit and struggled to raise his eyelids.
“…does this really not hurt?”
Resentment flickered in the gaze that looked up at me.
Feeling sorry, I lowered my eyebrows and asked,
“Did it hurt a lot? I had no choice; I couldn’t use anesthesia.”
Julion’s entire body was damp with cold sweat.
Wiping his sweaty forehead and running my fingers through his hair, Julion let out a soundless laugh.
Though weak, his gentle smile sent a tingling sensation somewhere deep in my heart.
Julion ended up like this because of me.
I had always been willing to sacrifice flesh and bone to achieve my goals.
It was the same this time too.
I thought it was acceptable to sacrifice some lives to capture Roxis.
But I never thought that one of those lives would be Julion.
‘If I had known it would come to this, I would have considered other options.’
Not only Julion but also the imperial knights, and even Hemion, suffered.
This, of course, made Roxis completely guilty of treason.
The attempted assassination of the crown prince was different from what Yeffa had done.
In Cassian’s case, Roxis would definitely not be spared.
‘Roxis was not an important hand to my father anyway.’
Still, cutting off one of Cassian’s limbs was equally severe.
The Duke won’t be able to evade responsibility.
If you think about it that way, it was undoubtedly a well-done affair.
I succeeded in achieving the outcome I wanted.
However, for the first time, I regretted my choice.
‘If only I had found a way where no one got hurt, where I didn’t lose anything.’
It would have been better.
“Rohiriel.”
As I was beating myself up, Julion called out to me.
Responding with a glance, Julion continued speaking.
“Still, thank you. I guess this is how a patient feels.”
Julion’s lips, which had drawn a smile, didn’t know when to come down.
He should still be in a lot of pain.
I’m sure the poison is still in there, and it’s hurting.
Why do you keep smiling like that?
“Don’t smile like that.”
I unintentionally blurted out my inner thoughts.
A hint of confusion appeared on Julion’s face, but I turned my head without providing further explanation.
Since I wasn’t sure why I told him not to smile, I had nothing more to say.
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
An emergency situation unfolded at Garnet Castle.
Several patients were being brought in, and among them was even the Crown Prince.
All the medical staff rushed around, causing chaos.
“Hey, bring more dry towels!”
“Painkillers! Don’t we have any painkillers?”
“We’re running out of Lafrom; when are we getting more?”
“We need hot water, doctor!”
“Here’s some disinfectant!”
The knight order was in a battered state from fighting Roxis’s subordinates in their poisoned state.
Fortunately, there were no critically endangered patients.
“When you see Dr. Barmid, tell him to come to me.”
“Ah, understood!”
I informed a passing subordinate and headed straight to the pharmacy.
It was to create an antidote.
‘First, I should take the Aperium potion….’
I took out a pre-made blue potion from the drawer, swallowed it in one gulp, and disposed of the bottle. Just then, Zenid came in carrying a bunch of herbs.
“Your Highness, these are the herbs you mentioned.”
“Thank you. Shall we start the analysis first?”
The herbs I asked Zenid to bring were all for identification purposes.
There was only one antidote.
It would be used to identify its components.
“Zenid, put this blood into the testing reagent.”
“Yes.”
And so she began testing Julion’s blood.
In about a week or ten days, all the results will be out.
Then I would compare them with the components of the antidote…
‘A week to ten days? No, it can’t be. It’s too late.’
During that time, Julion and the other knights would continue to suffer.
The image of Julion, who had smiled, assuring me that he’s okay, flashed in my mind.
‘I have to hurry. As fast as possible.’
My heart felt urgent.
I had suspected a neurotoxin similar to the one I created to poison Roxis, but I didn’t know what symptoms might manifest over time.
The longer I drag it out, the more life-threatening it could be.
“Aah……!”
In my haste to prepare the reagents, I accidentally spilled them all over the place.
“Your highness, are you alright?”
Watching Zenid clean up the spilled chemicals, I wiped my face.
Why do I feel so uneasy?
Even when reviving the chief physician, whom I thought was dead,
Or when the Emperor had a seizure and I had to hastily prepare medicine.
Even when saving the Emperor as a last chance,
‘I wasn’t this anxious back then.’
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again to pick up the vials.
As I picked up the vial again, the door opened, and the man I had been waiting for entered.
“I greet her highness.”
Dr. Barmid greeted me with his characteristic warm gaze.
Looking at the piled-up herbs, flasks, and reagents, he seemed to grasp the situation at once.
“I got a rough idea of what happened. Can we start by looking at the antidote?”
“Of course. Here.”
Dr. Bamid took the antidote and examined it closely, then shook his head.
“How far along are you in the identification process?”
“We’re just getting started.”
“Hmm… I see.”
With a contemplative expression, he sniffed the antidote, squinting as if trying to identify its smell, and examined it closely.
Then he handed the vial back to me and began to speak.
