“The soap contains poison.”
The suddenness of his words left Pristin stunned.
“…What do you mean?”
“It’s exactly as I said. The soap contains poison.”
“But how…”
“To be honest, I had my doubts at first.”
Akkad said with a still-serious look.
“But the unique and unmistakable scent was hard to forget. I suspect that sterol is present in the soap.”
“If it’s sterol*… It’s a rare and valuable herb.”
[*EN: The translator had some difficulty finding the plant the author referred to, and this was the closest substance found, although sterol is an organic chemical compound found in plants and not an actual plant itself. It is also possible that this word was made up by the author and is a fictitious plant.]
“Yes. But only to men, to be exact. It is known to enhance their stamina.”
“If women are exposed to sterol for an extended period, it can lead to infertility.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“…So you’re saying Princess Gennant…”
“It seems likely.”
Akkad cautiously concluded his words.
“It appears she gave you this gift with ill intentions.”
“…Ha.”
Pristin let out an exasperated breath, her face filled with disbelief.
“She wore a mask on purpose and pretended to be friendly.”
To relieve her guard. But she couldn’t believe that the intentions were that bad.
Anger swelled up in Pristin’s chest. She couldn’t believe someone would go to such lengths to deceive her.
‘I was a fool thinking I had misjudged her.’
As expected, Tanya didn’t have much intention to get along with her from the beginning. Pristin clenched her fist unknowingly.
“But you don’t have to worry too much. Exposure for a day or two alone won’t cause a big problem for your body.”
“But if it weren’t for Your Excellency, I would have been unable to give birth forever without knowing why.”
In addition, sterol was generally not beneficial to women’s health, and prolonged exposure could lead to various unknown health issues.* Pristin took some comfort in knowing that the substance in the soap wasn’t mercury or a direct poison.
[*EN: Plant sterols are not known to be harmful to women and I could only find one study that linked sterols to infertility; specifically, the study found “Dietary xenosterols lead to infertility and loss of abdominal adipose tissue in sterolin-deficient mice.” According to WebMD, “There isn’t enough reliable information to know if plant sterols are safe to use when pregnant or breast-feeding.”]
‘And it’s not just about me.’
Pristin did not think that only the soap she received would contain sterol. There must have been sterol in the soap that other candidates received. She couldn’t stand still anymore because of it.
Pristin bit her lips and said to Akkad.
“Thank you, Your Excellency.”
“No need to thank me. I’m glad I found out early.”
Akkad asked Pristin with a worried face.
“What are you going to do now?”
“What do you mean?”
Pristin answered, narrowing her eyebrows.
“I believe I need to step forward for the sake of those who may still be unaware.”
“How…”
“Your Excellency.”
Pristin looked at Akkad and asked in a serious voice.
“Will you help me?”
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
A few days later.
“Brelin, how long will it take for the medicine to work?”
Tanya, who was moving back and forth on the rocking chair, asked in a curious voice. Brelin, a maid of Tanya, who was cleaning up the dust on the furniture, turned her head and looked at her.
“Oh, my lady. What’s the hurry?”
“Since we’ve already started the plan, it would be better if the results come out quickly, right?”
“Even so, there is no way to confirm it.”
Brelin spoke in a calm voice, as if not to be too impatient.
“Anyway, this is certain. By the time we finish using all the soap, all the empress candidates will be infertile.”
“Oh, it’s thrilling to think about it.”
Tanya spoke to herself with a satisfactory smile around her mouth.
“I think I’m a real genius. How did you come up with that idea? Even if they were all infertile, would they even know that I did it?”
“I don’t know. What would you do? The evidence must have already disappeared.”
Brelin said to Tanya with a chuckle.
“You had such a good idea. And when all the soap is gone, most likely they will ask if they can use more because they are addicted to it, won’t they?”
“Ah, when that happens, I’ll give them as much as they want. That’s the plan.”
Tanya murmured, pulling the corners of her mouth up high.
“More than that, I wonder most about Countess Rosewell’s soap.”
“Don’t worry. Apparently, she seemed to like it too.”
“Right? It’s a nice scent that’s hard to resist, right? How much effort it took to manufacture it specially.”
As Tanya fiddled with her prettily groomed nails, she let out a pleasant laugh.
“After a while, I’m going to give her some poisoned scented candles as a gift. If she keeps using them, she’ll get sick and die.”
“Are you really going to kill her?”
“I’m going to kill her.”
Tanya answered firmly. Brelin shivered at the unequivocally cold answer.
“If that woman is alive, she’ll only be a nuisance to me. Even though His Majesty is already infatuated with that fox, I can’t wait until he loses interest. There’s no answer other than killing her.”
“All right, but if you give presents too often, she will definitely become suspicious.”
“I told you. She’s like a fox.”
Tanya frowned as if she didn’t like it just thinking about it.
“Don’t worry. I have that thought too. I’ll make sure it doesn’t get caught.”
“Yes, my lady. You’re really cool! Master will definitely be proud of you.”
“That’s right. I’m proud of myself too.”
“Your Highness.”
Then came the voice of Madame Bertha, the court lady, from outside. Tanya quickly shut her mouth, and then opened it again a moment later.
“What’s going on?”
“I have a letter from Camer Palace.”
“A letter?”
Tanya ordered, narrowing her eyebrows.
“Come inside.”
Immediately, Madame Bertha came inside and handed a letter to Tanya. Tanya stared at the letter as if it were Pristin, and slowly opened it. It contained the following.
—I would like to hold a tea gathering at Camer Palace. We would be grateful if you could attend and grace us with your presence.
Tanya stared at the concise content for a long time.
“A sudden tea gathering?”
“What is she up to?”
“Well.”
Tanya murmured disapprovingly.
“Are you already trying to act like an empress?”
“No way. The countess isn’t even a candidate for empress.”
“There is no law that requires an empress to come out of the candidates for the empress.”
Tanya’s eyebrows furrowed in disdain.
“Are you going to attend?”
“…I don’t know.”
Tanya tilted her head slowly and asked.
“Isn’t it better to attend rather than continue to be bothered?”
“What are you afraid of? You should attend. Go and show off your elegance as a potential empress.”
“That would be nice, right?”
Tanya nodded loudly as if she had decided.
“All right. Tell them that I’ll attend.”
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
Pristin’s tea meeting was scheduled to take place three days later. Although it was not the most relaxed schedule for a tea gathering, all ten of the invited empress candidates were curious about it, but ultimately they had time to spare.
The ten candidates all gathered in time at Pristin’s Camer Palace.
“I was hoping to catch a glimpse of His Majesty’s face while coming here…”
“It’s not easy to see His Majesty’s face even if we stay near the central palace.”
“Well, considering how busy he is.”
“Countess Rosewell probably can’t see him either, right?”
“Of course not. I heard Countess Rosewell is busy with the herbal garden.”
“Let’s not worry about unnecessary things.”
Pristin was not only a topic to Tanya, but also to the other nine candidates. A young unmarried woman who stayed in the Imperial Palace even though she was not a candidate for empress. Camer Palace was even the closest to the central palace.
However, no one heard any stories of Pristin having any contact with Jerald, and whenever talk of Pristin’s relationship with Jerald came up, she showed an indifferent and dry response, leaving the candidates doubtful and confused.
As a result, Pristin had taken on a neutral relationship with the other empress candidates, neither enemy nor ally.
“In any case, the countess doesn’t seem like someone with a hidden side. Let’s just trust her for now.”
That was about to change starting from today. Pristin sat upright on the chair, getting ready brilliantly. The maids of Camer Palace had been tirelessly beautifying her since the morning. They carefully adorned her with countless accessories, doing their best to make Pristin shine the brightest.
“We’re done, Countess.”
It was almost at the time of the meeting that the words were heard. Pristin rose quickly from her seat.
“I must hurry. The host cannot be late.”
“Everyone is coming one by one right now. It’s at Camer Palace anyway, so you’ll never be late.”
“Is ‘that’ ready, Madame Korsol?”
“Of course. Don’t worry, Your Excellency. I’ve confirmed that everything is fine.”
“Good.”
Pristin nodded with a cold smile.
“She will regret playing tricks in front of an herbalist.”
───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
Camer Palace’s drawing room was larger and more colorful than that of Shrun Palace.
When she first entered the drawing room of Camer Palace, Tanya was the first to notice and analyze this fact.
‘They gave the best palace to the empress candidates, he said!’
Strictly speaking, however, the servant did not lie. It was the best palace among the candidates. However, Pristin was not a candidate for empress. In any case, Tanya was worried in her mind whether she was being compared to Pristin among the candidates because Pristin held a tea meeting immediately after her tea meeting. Nothing would hurt her pride more than that.
‘You didn’t hold a tea party after me on purpose, did you?’
It occurred to Tanya that maybe Pristin did it to pester her. After looking around the drawing room of Shrun Palace, she deliberately set up a tea meeting next to embarrass her.
In fact, Pristin’s tea meeting today was a reason that was completely far from what Tanya was thinking, but Tanya, who was not aware of the fact, couldn’t help but consider Pristin an annoying presence that scratched her pride.
“Thank you all for coming.”
Pristin greeted the ten candidates with a gentle smile, unaware of Tanya’s thoughts.
