Episode 11

‘How is the Northern Territory?’

‘…It snows a lot there.’

‘What’s good about the snow?’

I ignored the coldness of the handcuffs on my wrist as I asked.

The capital of the Empire rarely saw snow. When I fled from the Duke’s house, I headed to the warm south, where snow was even rarer.

I felt blood trickling from somewhere on my head. It was from the torture I had endured earlier. It wasn’t painful, just a bit bothersome.

My vision was already blurry. I sighed and simply closed my eyes. It seemed better than having blood droplets seep into my eyelids. I wanted to focus on the voice of my opponent instead.

‘When it snows…’

I let go of other senses and focused on my hearing.

‘When it snows?’

I didn’t want to think about anything. Not this wretched prison, not Aria, not the Duke, not Seth, not Servi, not even my ex-husband.

I wanted them out of my head. I wondered if I wanted to kill them, but then the next moment, I felt like I wanted to die myself. These thoughts darkened my mind.

I wanted to leave this world. If I couldn’t, I just wanted it to end.

Soon, I might hear the footsteps of the torturer coming for me from afar.

It could be the Crown Prince, or perhaps an unknown knight of the imperial family. I had to forget about all that.

Instead of the things that tormented me, I had to focus on the things that kept me here.

So, I kept talking to Chris, the person I cherished most in this world.

‘What’s so good about the snow?’

‘It becomes quiet.’

‘……’

‘Unlike this noisy capital…’

Chris exhaled deeply. I could feel the breath that came with a sigh.

‘All around… it becomes very quiet.’

I imagined myself lying on the pure white ground. Just lying there, looking up at the falling white specks, free from any restraints.

I was so focused that I could even imagine a few snowflakes sticking to my eyelashes.

As I continued this imagination, I found Chris, whose face I didn’t even know, lying beside me. Doing nothing, just lying together, feeling the snow falling on us.

‘I like that tranquility.’

‘I see.’

‘That peace…’

Peace.

The peace I hadn’t been able to attain for a long time.

‘That peace is my solace.’

A flash.

As I opened my mouth to speak, a cracked voice came out.

“Then and now.”

I was using you to gain the peace I desired.

I reached out slowly, feeling the sensation in my hand. It was a relief; it meant my gamble had paid off. My vision returned quickly as well.

“…Is this what they call an antagonistic effect?”

It was something I had learned long ago, back in Korea before my possession.

For instance, aconite and pufferfish are both deadly poisons, but if ingested together, they inhibit each other’s effects. The poison spreads more slowly than usual.

‘I heard that’s what they call an antagonistic effect.’

And in the meantime, treatment can be administered. It was a risky endeavor that could only be attempted because the main temple had priests with healing abilities.

Fortunately, I knew what poison Chris had consumed.

He had once mentioned what he believed he had ingested, beyond the prison wall.

‘It must be Sky Celery.’

A highly toxic herb found only in high mountain regions. Not deadly in an instant, but consuming it in large quantities at once caused severe side effects and left few traces.

After my regression, while preparing for the sacrament, I found out what could counteract its effects. I smiled faintly, thinking of Aria.

“Of all things, it had to be lemon.”

That was why I didn’t refuse the lemon tea Mari had offered me before I left the Duke’s house.

‘I even considered swallowing the lemon slices… Luckily, water works just as well for us.’

Nevertheless, it was a gamble. It might have come to nothing.

‘Now then.’

As I tried to lift my upper body slightly, the world spun around me. There was a clattering noise of something falling.

I heard the door to the room I was in being opened.

“You shouldn’t get up yet.”

“……”

“I will call for the priest again soon.”

I blinked a few times, trying to clear my slightly blurry vision, and lifted my head.

“Your Grace, the Grand Duke.”

“Yes.”

“You haven’t left yet.”

This was somewhat unexpected. I thought I would be moved to the Duke’s house at least when I woke up.

‘Since the wine this time was offered by the Duke’s retainers.’

Then, it was highly likely that the Duke’s household had poisoned it.

‘If it were them, they would have tried to take me to the Duke’s house to cover up the poisoning.’

And then, they would have taken out their anger on me again. I expected to wake up to the familiar sound of friction and the stinging pain on my cheek.

Even if it wasn’t right after my regression, waking up to pain and shouting was not unusual.

…How long has it been since I woke up without sharp pain or loud yells?

There was no time to dwell on it.

I looked around with eyes still unfocused. The light seeping through the window was blinding. As I frowned, I saw Chris slowly approach the curtain.

Swish.

The sound of the curtain being drawn was followed by the room becoming dark.

“Are we still in the main temple?”

“The High Priest has provided treatment and hospitality.”

“And Your Grace…”

There was another unexpected thing. Chris had stayed by my side.

‘I thought he would have gone to attend an internal meeting of the Grand Duke’s household.’

Anyway, in this situation, there was no way Chris hadn’t noticed that the drink he had was poisoned. He could have gone to discuss it with his retainers or knights. But for some reason, Chris stayed with me.

Since Chris hadn’t left yet, now was the opportunity.

‘I originally planned to continue our conversation later, but this works too.’

If I could form an alliance right now, there was no reason not to. Chris looked at me with eyes that seemed to want to say something.

“Lady Reinhardt.”

“……”

“You said the wine this time was provided by the Duke’s household, correct?”

‘The grapes used for this wine were from the Bulrian territory, given by the Duke’s household.’

I smiled faintly.

“Do you believe me now?”

“What’s your scheme?”

“I have no scheme. I just wanted to prevent this from happening to Your Grace.”

I spoke honestly again.

“I wanted you to trust me and didn’t want you to suffer.”

Chris remained silent for a moment before speaking.

“…You didn’t have to drink it.”

“No, I did.”

“I was raised to be immune to all kinds of poisons since childhood.”

A calm voice replied.

“I can identify what you ingested just by observing you closely.”

I looked at his face unconsciously. Chris’s eyes darkened further in the shadow.

“If it was a poison that you recovered from so quickly, it might be suspected that the Duke conspired with you to pretend you took the poison instead of me…”

“…Did it hurt a lot?”

Chris paused at my question. His face remained cold, but there was a hint of agitation.

“……”

After a long silence, he spoke slowly.

“What do you mean?”

“Growing up immune to poison means you ingested it regularly.”

I now knew from experience that ingesting poison is far from pleasant. It felt like my heart was being gouged out, my blood coursed violently through my veins, and I felt nauseous and dizzy. Even after drinking the tea that preemptively blocked the poison, I was scared.

I feared I might die and wake up to a slap again.

This man experienced such things from a very young age.

“I’m sorry.”

“……”

“You shouldn’t have had to go through that.”

When I whispered sincerely, Chris remained silent. After clenching and unclenching his fists a few times, he looked at me again with cold eyes.

“Why did you go this far?”

“……”

“You could have just warned me…”

“If I had told you it was poisoned, would you have believed me?”

“…Even so, why did you go to such lengths?”

I let my fur shawl slide off, exposing my injuries again. Chris’s eyes, resembling lilacs, darkened in the shadow as they caught the light.

Then he spoke, his eyes slightly trembling.

“Were you told to seduce me?”

“……”

“Did the Duke order you to do so, even at the risk of your life?”

I had intended to show my wounds, not my body. It seemed I had been misunderstood.

I paused at his next words.

“…Did they say they would hit you again if you didn’t?”

I saw his eyes change from hatred to momentary pity as he looked at my exposed wounds.

‘I didn’t want him to look at me like that.’

Part of me didn’t want to be seen as an object of pity, but another part desperately wished that at least one person would sympathize with me.

I tried to smile nonchalantly as I looked at Chris.

I couldn’t reveal the whole truth yet. He wouldn’t believe I had regressed.

So, if I mixed a bit of falsehood with the truth?

…That seemed acceptable. So I spoke.

“Yes, Your Grace. The Duke might want that from me, but I genuinely want to be on your side.”

“Why?”

I just smiled softly.

“Because I’m sick of it.”

Tl/N: Hi I just wanted to clarify some things Both the families Reinhardt and Elzerian are Grand Duke families but to not make any confusion I use only “Duke’ for the Reinhardt family. Also, as you guys have seen there are a lot of scene changes and I have been using — to Interrupt the scenes, I won’t be using that Sorry but. I will italicize them so you guys can understand better. Thank you for reading.