Chapter 22
When Charlotte opened her eyes again, a familiar ceiling came into view. Her eyes felt so dry that she could barely keep them open, and her entire body felt as if all its moisture had been drained.
She tried to move her fingers, exerting a slight effort to twitch them a couple of times. At that moment, Anna, who had been dozing off while leaning against the bed, suddenly jolted awake and turned to her.
“Lady Charlotte! Y-you’re awake…! I’ll call the physician right away!”
Afraid that she might be scolded for not having the physician by Charlotte’s side, Anna quickly took the initiative. She dashed out of the room in a flustered hurry, leaving Charlotte frowning at the lingering pain in her head.
‘How did I get here…?’
Her memory was hazy, like the sensation of downing a bottle of high-proof liquor.
Charlotte took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. Repeating the action several times, the nausea that had been making her head spin gradually subsided.
At the same time, the final scene before she lost consciousness replayed in her mind.
“…Oh, no.”
Charlotte buried her face in her hands with a deep sigh.
She wanted to deny it, to tell herself it wasn’t true—but the one who had picked her up and held her in his arms had, indeed, been Noctem.
It would have been better if he had just left her there. And yet, a part of her, creeping up like an unwanted thought, felt glad that he had held her.
Strangely enough, that embrace had felt familiar, too.
“…Haah. I must be losing my mind. How much longer am I going to be like this?”
What a ridiculous thought.
Charlotte scolded herself sharply. She was sick and tired of seeking traces of her past husband in the Grand Duke of this place.
After murmuring a few more words of self-reproach, she lowered her hands from her face.
“Lady Charlotte! I-I’ve brought the physician!”
Right on cue, Anna entered the room, dragging the physician in with her. Charlotte flinched slightly at the realization that they hadn’t knocked, but seeing Anna’s worried expression, she let it slide.
Anna then forced the physician down onto a chair in front of the bed, half out of impatience and half out of fear.
“There should be nothing seriously wrong, my lady.”
Even before checking her pulse, the physician was already setting the stage for his conclusion. It was such a familiar response that Charlotte couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I thought as much.”
“…Ahem.”
The physician cleared his throat awkwardly at her unexpectedly cynical reaction.
For some reason, she seemed harder to deal with now than when she used to throw tantrums.
Stealing cautious glances at her, the physician finally reached out and checked her pulse. Fortunately, there was nothing particularly concerning.
“The poison has momentarily weakened your vitality. Since it accumulates in the body, you will need to rest and recover in a place with fresh air.”
“I see.”
In other words, he had no intention of giving her an antidote. Charlotte hadn’t expected one anyway.
‘Most antidotes contain rare northern herbs that are difficult to obtain.’
As a result, their prices were astronomical. Even the ducal estate probably didn’t have much in stock.
‘They wouldn’t waste a precious herb on something as trivial as this.’
Moreover, the physician before her was the most prominent among those serving the ducal household—an individual whose actions were dictated entirely by power and influence.
Given his close ties with the Duke, he was undoubtedly aware that Charlotte would soon be exiled to the frontier.
“…Ahem. I will prepare a tonic for you.”
“Alright.”
As expected, he made no mention of an antidote, and perhaps feeling guilty about it, he kept sneaking glances at her before hastily making his escape.
“…A-are you alright, my lady?”
Anna, who had been quietly observing the situation, hesitantly spoke up. It seemed she had also realized that the tonic was not an antidote.
“I’m fine.”
“A-ah, I see…”
There was a hint of confusion in Anna’s eyes. She was likely debating whether to explain that the tonic wouldn’t neutralize the poison.
Charlotte, feigning ignorance, simply waited for her to speak. However, instead of continuing, Anna simply lowered her head and excused herself to prepare lunch.
“…What was I even expecting?”
When the door closed with a dull thud, Charlotte muttered to herself as she gazed at the cold and desolate room.
If it had been the Anna from before her regression, she would have been the first to lash out at the physician, demanding an explanation on Charlotte’s behalf.
But this Anna was not that Anna.
She already knew this, and yet, why did it still hurt?
‘Is there anyone as foolish as me?’
Probably not.
Charlotte let out a dry chuckle before taking a sip of water from the bedside table and picking up the book she had been reading.
The only sound that remained in the room was the quiet turning of pages.
As expected, the Duke did not visit her.
She had assumed he would come storming in, yelling at her for failing the mission he had assigned her.
‘Is it because of Noctem?’
Although it had been Charlotte who had messed up everything from start to finish, the Duke seemed determined to tie Noctem into the situation no matter what.
Still, she had thrown wine at him, blocking any further contact, and had even insulted him in front of everyone, so things probably wouldn’t get too complicated.
Not that it stopped her from worrying.
‘He must have been shocked.’
Charlotte was likely the first person in his life to humiliate him so thoroughly.
She wanted to apologize somehow, but she quickly suppressed the thought.
“No, this is for the best.”
Considering the original story, this was the right course of action.
Rather than clinging to Noctem and begging him to marry her, she had humiliated him in front of the entire nobility.
Of course, she planned to quietly leave the capital soon, but it was better to eliminate any risks, just in case.
Her gaze flickered toward the letter paper on the desk, but she quickly forced herself to focus on the book instead.
Yet, even after several dozen minutes, she had not turned a single page.
Two Weeks Later
While Charlotte had spent the past two weeks in seclusion, enjoying a peaceful life, the social scene was in complete chaos.
The ‘Lady Charlotte Poisoning Incident’ had thrown everything into turmoil.
Since the servant who had carried the poisoned wine had mysteriously vanished, the investigation quickly reached a dead end.
The noble faction immediately pointed fingers at the imperial faction, arguing that the culprit had to be someone from their side.
“The daughter of the noble faction’s leader was poisoned! Who else would want to harm her but the imperialists?”
They even accused the Grand Duke, claiming he had approached Charlotte at the moment of her collapse to ensure the poison had taken effect.
The imperial faction, of course, vehemently denied the accusations.
They countered by pointing out that Lady Daphne had been oddly fixated on the wine glass, even fidgeting with it before drinking.
Neutral witnesses also testified that she had deliberately left a sip untouched and gripped the glass tightly as she collapsed.
However, the noble faction dismissed these arguments as baseless.
With neither side able to produce concrete evidence, the dispute devolved into a mudslinging brawl.
Even the Duke had publicly wept, claiming, “My daughter must leave the capital to recover from the poison’s aftereffects!”
“…But everyone knows they wouldn’t feel sorry for me.”
Charlotte set down the imperial newspaper, which detailed the incident in painstaking detail.
“If it had been Dana who drank the poison, the reaction would have been different.”
The noble faction would have used the incident to their advantage, rallying public sympathy.
But the victim was Charlotte.
“Most of them are just glad I’m leaving the capital.”
Some had even openly expressed gratitude that the ‘wicked witch’ was finally being exiled.
Charlotte didn’t dispute it. For twenty years, she had indeed been a ruthless figure in the empire.
“…At least they’re not targeting Noctem.”
She turned her thoughts elsewhere.
Soon, she would leave for good.
But before that—
“I need to see Adrian.”
And also, Kai.
