How To Survive As a Villain on the Verge of Death

“You can confirm that all the Knights soldiers heard the conversation between the two of them.”

After searching Lana’s room, as expected, a bottle of pills was found, and a doctor was called to find out what it was. Crucially, the lady-in-waiting who was monitoring Lana personally witnessed her drug my food. She told everything in detail.

As her explanation continued, the two men’s expressions diverged sharply. As she listened to the circumstances, the Empress’ face turned whiter and whiter. Arentine, on the other hand, glanced at her with his stern gaze.

“Send those two to the Ministry of the Interior. I will order a strict interrogation.”

“Yes, I will tell you to send it right away.”

Here, the Imperial Knights guarding the Imperial Palace and the Ministry of Home Affairs in charge of affairs within the Imperial Palace were separate. Now without the Emperor, the Crown Prince was directly managing the Ministry of Home Affairs.

“Your Majesty the Empress.”

Arentine politely asked the Empress.

“Some of the maids in the Empress’ palace may be involved, so please allow me to investigate.”

Only the tone was polite, but in reality it was no different from coercion. The Empress dug into her trap and sat down alone, and an opportunity like this should not be missed. Arentine was too gentle and weak for a crown prince, but he seemed to have the ability to judge the situation. The Empress stuttered her words with her astonished eyes.

“What, what?”

“Since the person who instigated the princess to give her medicine is a person from the Empress’ palace, shouldn’t we investigate her accomplices?”

“But… Don’t you have any proof that she did it?”

“Mother, the royal knights soldiers overheard the fact that the lady-in-waiting of the Empress’ palace directly said that she gave her medicine to my lady-in-waiting.”

She didn’t tell him that, she didn’t know what he heard.

“Yeah, but…”

The Empress broke out in a cold sweat with her pale face. She seemed to have no idea how to deal with the situation.

“Of course I believe it has nothing to do with mother. Her circumstances will come to light before His Majesty returns, right?”

She scratched the insides of the Empress in a soft voice. For an instant, the Empress glared at her with menacing eyes. Had she ever seen such an emotional person? So, why did she work so poorly?

‘Well, in the first place, this work must have been carried out roughly after receiving the Emperor’s order.’

It was a sudden and improvised plan, so there was no way he had prepared properly. Arentine, as if there was nothing more to hear, called the servant and gave an order.

“Call the chamberlain.”

He quickly ordered a few things. Move the two people in the princess’s palace to the Ministry of Home Affairs investigation room. And investigate the ladies-in-waiting in the Empress’ palace. The Empress just sat there blankly listening to his story. After the rough tidying up, she put a handkerchief to her mouth with her head down and sniffled.

“It’s so scary inside the imperial palace. It’s really scary that someone is trying to hurt me.”

The Empress glared at her like that with disgust. Arentine also looked at her with a slightly surprised look. She really couldn’t play like that. She used to scold Terrence for not being good enough.

“I’m sorry.”

But there were also people who took it seriously. Arentine apologized to her.

“It’s embarrassing to have this happen when the wedding is just around the corner.”

She thought this older brother hated Eve, but surprisingly, he was kind to her. Was it because he felt guilty that this happened while she was in the imperial palace?

“Me, so that’s what I mean.”

She got what she wanted at this point.

“Can I stay at the Great Temple until the wedding day?”

“What?”

The Empress, who had kept her mouth shut with a pale face, was startled by her words and questioned her.

“Why?”

“Actually, after listening to mother before, I thought about what it would be like to pray in a monastery until marriage.”

She had told the Empress as a counter-threat that she was going to a monastery before.

“But the monastery will be too hard in this cold weather. I want to wait for the wedding while praying at the Great Temple. It seems safe there. I hope no one does bad things in the temple.”

Unlike the Empress, who fiercely protested, Arentine agreed with her words.

“It’s not a bad idea, but are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m on probation anyway, so it’s better to stay in the temple and be quiet.”

“You don’t have to be sober anymore. Since such a great thing happened, even His Majesty the Emperor will understand.”

The Empress only glared at her with a resentful expression, as if there was no more noble family to oppose. She was silent for a moment, then turned around. She then, without saying a word, slammed the door on her and walked out. She seemed to be going back to the Empress’s palace and trying to sort things out there.

“Eve.”

She was looking at the back of the Empress and heard Arentine’s voice.

“I will send my knights to the temple.”

“The knights?”

The prince also had knights. Well, since he was going to war, he probably had at least a little bit of personal troops.

“I will protect you.”

“I heard you’re going back to the battlefield soon? Shouldn’t you take the knights with you?”

“I intend to remain in the island for the time being.”

Arentine declared firmly in a cold tone.

“I can’t just leave the palace empty when an incident like this happened. I will explain the situation to His Majesty the Emperor, and I will remain here.”

In fact, from his point of view, it is much better to work in the palace without the Emperor than to go to the battlefield where the Emperor was and not play a big role. After all, Arentine’s work would flow differently from his original work. Arentine wasn’t a person who greatly influenced the original work, so she wondered if it’s okay… 

“If something like this happens in the future, tell me in advance.”

Arentine sighed as he saw her standing there in silence. He looked very tired.

“I may not have taken care of you much, but it’s not to the extent that I can’t help you when you need it.”

A strange emotion flowed from his blue eyes as he looked at her. He probably felt guilty as his older brother that she had been through this. And he seemed to have realized that she couldn’t rely on herself enough to handle this on her own. Yes, because Eve was treated like a bug in the original work. Of course, she couldn’t think of relying on him even though he was her older brother.

Looking back, she thought she was thinking too much of a stranger.

‘Seeing it in person, unlike the original work, it seems that he has affection as an older brother in his own way.’

She readily nodded.

“Alright.”

* * *

As soon as the next day dawned, she packed her things and headed for the Great Hall, leaving behind the chaos in the imperial palace. Before leaving the princess’s palace, he handed out the remaining jewels and gifts to the maids, maids, and the few attendants she stayed with.

“Thank you all so far.”

She was not getting married right away, but she was going to the Great Temple. She probably wouldn’t come back to the princess’s palace, so she was trying to say goodbye in advance.

Yesterday evening, people sent by the prince had already taken Lana and the maids of the Empress’ palace. After that, she worried about what the Empress would do and how the Emperor would react if he heard the news. Anyway, it was good to leave the imperial palace and take refuge in the Great Hall. It would be much easier to go out if it was on the front side. It was good to get out of the shadow of the Emperor and Empress, at least for a while.

She packed her things, loaded them into the wagon, and headed for the Great Temple. 

The maids to go with were Nell and Chloe. She was thinking of taking these two with her when she moved to the Grand Duchy.

The head lady-in-waiting of the imperial palace said that she could take any of her ladies-in-waiting at the time of marriage, but she would feel comfortable taking care of the maids there if the Grand Duke went to the mansion anyway. The wagon headed for the Grand Temple along a familiar road. Come to think of it, this is already the third time she had been here.

It felt like she only came here often. When she arrived at the temple, the head priestess directly guided her to the lodging on the west side of the temple. The hostel was a quiet wooden building on one side of the garden. A light blue roof was put on the white walls, and withered ivy was attached to the outer wall like decoration. Fresh green leaves would have covered the beige stone walls in the summer, but now the entire vine had turned a dark gray as the leaves withered. Shrunken leaves hanging in places from the bony stem seemed to symbolize the traces of summer.

After passing through the entrance and entering inside, the priestess smiled calmly and said,

“The temple of Rastana is right next to you,” she said. “Since the wedding will be held soon, I thought it would be nice to stay here, so I chose this accommodation.”

At those words, she looked at the white building through the hallway window. In this building where she was staying, a pure white temple stood over a garden. The temple of Rastana, the god of love. This is where Eve’s, no, her wedding would take place.

“It’s Rastana’s holiday soon, so a celebration will be held here. On holidays, they bring lanterns near the temple, and they look very beautiful at night.”

“Right.”

Rastana’s Feast appeared in the original work as well. It’s a holiday honoring the god of love, so it was said that it was a day for lovers to make lanterns and bring them home.

That Lastana’s feast day is 5 days away. She really wanted to come to the temple on this day, but fortunately the date was narrowly matched. The priestess kindly explained and opened the door.

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