How dare you act so smugly and tell the Grand Duchess to leave her seat. Peiron turned his head back to the blueprint of Lucenport Castle.

The Grand Duchess already knew about all the secret areas inside the castle. The butler should have spoken only in the Grand Duchess’s presence or kept his mouth shut and withdrawn.

The butler was greatly dismayed. No matter how often young men lose control of their youthful vigor and get bewitched by women, he never thought the properly raised Grand Duke would be like this.

Why, of all people, a woman from the South, and the Emperor’s niece at that?

Unlike Beatrice who was lively and bright, the noble lady from Lucenport who didn’t even spend the rumored fortune was not a good match for Peiron at all. The fact that she made Peiron lose his mind like this was already the worst.

“The cause of the food poisoning has been discovered.”

Seeing Peiron not even glancing this way, Beatrice’s words were correct. This was a matter of life and death. Either the Grand Duchess dies, or the butler dies. One of the two.

The butler, who never intended to die, was freshly shocked that things had come to this, but there was no other way. It had already happened and he could not back down.

Just looking at Peiron’s cold attitude, it was clear that the butler’s safety was already in jeopardy.

“The doctor?”

“He couldn’t come because he was treating people. In the meantime, seven more patients were added, totaling twenty-six people. Especially the maids are in serious condition, including those working in the kitchen such as the head chef, sous chef, and pastry chef.”

It was too many people. Only then did Peiron raise his head.

“What’s the cause?”

“Well, that is…”

The butler hesitated while glancing at the Grand Duchess. That familiar signal that she was an inconvenience and shouldn’t be here made Kaella uncomfortable too.

Such hesitation and examining gazes were ominous signs each time. It was also unpleasant how his bloodshot, bulging eyes flickered and glanced at her.

Eventually, Peiron frowned and turned to the butler.

“It’s because of the tea served to Your Highness this afternoon. There was a lot of tea left in the teapot, so the head chef made leftover cookies with the tea water and the remaining tea dregs. Everyone who ate those cookies ended up like this. I heard some people’s lives are in danger.”

It wasn’t surprising that the flavor of the tea Peiron left was strong enough to be used in pastries or baking, but the problem was, if people got sick from eating it, wouldn’t Peiron be in danger too? Kaella was startled.

“So the tea is the problem?”

“Yes.”

“But why should our Duchess not know about this?”

Because of Peiron openly referring to her as ‘our Duchess’, Kaella opened her already surprised eyes even wider. Did I hear wrong?

“The tea… is the tea Your Highness the Duchess brought.”

Right. I must have heard wrong. But the butler’s words were heard very clearly. Kaella was always powerless in front of words that increasingly drove her to the edge of a cliff. The Northern Tower where she was trapped without any of her arguments being accepted naturally came to mind.

“…I’ll have to see the doctor.”

Peiron got up.

*

Night had come. Kaella quietly called the youngest of the maids who had come with her from Ostein. It seemed like it had to be now or never.

“Mary.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Mary, who had now gotten used to the new title of Your Highness, approached Her Highness the Duchess.

“Did you dispose of the letter I gave you last time properly?”

“What? Ah, yes! Of course! You saw me burn it properly, Your Highness.”

There was a time when Kaella tried to send a letter to her father through Mary just in case. Kaella slowly nodded. Right. That happened before.

“Yes. Well done. Take this.”

“What is… this?”

It’s money! The heavy pouch was full of gold coins and some silver coins.

“Use it as allowance.”

“It’s too, too much?”

Mary’s eyes went round, to the point where she would be grateful to receive just one or two gold coins.

“Yes. It’s a lot. If it’s a lot, someone will covet it. Mary. Listen well to what I say from now on.”

Mary always listened well to Her Highness the Duchess’s words. Her Highness the Duchess, who was smart and lovely, taught her many things, so it was very useful to learn them well.

“You must never let anyone find out that you have this money. Not Sessil or Denise either. If others find out, they will covet this and do bad things to you. So you must never get caught, and spend it very little by little in secret. Understand?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Good. Use the silver coins first as much as possible. Little by little.”

Why is she saying these things? Mary tilted her head but answered diligently. If Her Highness the Duchess said to do so, she had to do it no matter what.

“Yes.”

“…Alright.”

Her Highness the Duchess nodded along.

“I’ll hide it tightly and think three times before using it only when I really want to buy something, very little by little.”

“Use it where needed. Don’t save it too much either.”

“Still, Your Highness. It’s precious. I’ve never seen this much money before. Thank you.”

“…It’s because you’ve done well. Now go along. Put that in your pocket and cover it with your apron.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Thank you.”

Mary bowed her waist and withdrew meekly. Her heart felt like it would burst. Her Highness the Duchess gave her a very precious gift! I’ll save it well and use it usefully when I get married later.

There was no one to marry, but Sister Denise said you must save up for a wedding fund. Mary’s footsteps were light as if flying.

*

“Confess.”

Peiron said coldly.

“You should only say things you can take responsibility for.”

The butler unknowingly broke out in a cold sweat as he opened his mouth.

“There was a lot of tea left in the teapot, so quite a lot of cookies were made.”

It was already a difficult time. Using a little extra flour, sugar, salt and eggs could give a great flavor if it was the Southern tea the Grand Duchess brought as part of her dowry.

The head chef familiar with Southern cuisine made a lot with his skills, enough to generously share. And the maids who invited friends and shared the precious cookies a little each suffered from mild symptoms, while those who ate a lot alone went back and forth between life and death.

“There are no other commonalities besides those cookies.”

The butler who overturned the temporary kitchen said firmly. Even Darinka, who was busy tending to the patients, acknowledged that. Peiron glanced at Darinka, and she quickly nodded.

“Yes, the cookies seem to be it after all.”

But as she said that, she also examined the Grand Duchess who had come with Peiron. As the Grand Duchess’s court physician, checking the Grand Duchess’s complexion and condition was a habit. In Darinka’s view, the Grand Duchess’s complexion did not look good at all.

“I personally inspected all the ingredients that went into the cookies to see if they were fine, Your Highness. I even drew new well water.”

The butler spoke in an agitated tone. He wanted to reveal this matter in front of more people, but the Grand Duke only allowed a few.

So only a few knights who were close to the Grand Duke and had known the butler for a long time, the court physician, and the Grand Duchess were present. The witnesses the butler prepared had to wait outside the door.

“To properly know what the problem is, we have to wait for the results to come out through chemical experiments…”

“I ate it myself, but am I not fine! Don’t recklessly interrupt in front of His Highness the Grand Duke.”

As soon as Darinka said a word, the butler cut her off. He seemed to have already reached a conclusion about the incident. Somehow, the butler looked like a madman.

“Ah. Did you eat it all?”

The Grand Duke’s expression was saying something like ‘Go ahead and babble as you please’. Darinka looked at the Grand Duke’s expression and somehow got chills on the back of her neck.

His expression seemed to mean ‘Go ahead and babble as you please’, but the butler didn’t seem to notice.

“Yes! I ate it all. Isn’t it a very serious matter for a disease to occur in the castle? Flour, eggs, sugar, salt, and yeast have no issues at all. They’re being managed very cleanly.”

“The new head chef is a clean and skillful person.”

“Ah, yes. That’s true.”

When the Grand Duke pointed out something unexpected, the butler inadvertently ended up complimenting the head chef the Grand Duchess newly appointed.

The butler, who had no such intention, answered glumly and moved on. That wasn’t important right now, but the Grand Duke was subtly straying off topic.

“But since he caused this problem, the head chef must also take responsibility.”

“I heard he’s lying unconscious right now.”

When Peiron glanced at Darinka, Darinka quickly nodded.

“It’d be a bit difficult for him to take responsibility.”

“You mustn’t let go of the sin of neglecting ingredient management, Your Highness.”

“Didn’t you just say all the ingredients are being managed very cleanly?”

It was certain. The Grand Duke was nearly mocking the butler now. Still, the butler tried to bet on the head chef too with all his might.

“That’s true, but he should have properly checked the condition of the teapot or tea leaves.”

As the butler said that, he held out the tea Kaella brought as part of her dowry. Nothing was as certain as what could be seen with the eyes. That was the precious Southern tea Lord Ostein specially selected for his daughter who particularly liked it.

To the eyes of Lucenport people who considered spending that much money on mere drinking tea a waste, it was a luxury item. To commoners it was so, and to nobles including the butler who valued propriety and rules, it was an object that stimulated an inferiority complex.

“This is the tea we’ve been using so far. The tea Your Highness has been drinking. Look at this! The color of the tea at the very top has changed a bit. There’s a very slight hint of moisture left.”

The butler gently poured the tea leaves onto paper. The dried tea gave off a fragrant smell. He was confident.

The Grand Duke was listening to him for now, and there was no color in the Grand Duchess’s face. He had already perfectly crafted the incident. No matter how bewitched the Grand Duke was by a woman, with this much, he would have no choice but to believe his words.

“Masked by the aroma, but if you take it out slightly like this, you can detect a slight foreign smell mixed in. Smell it. The court physician here has confirmed this as well.”

Peiron looked at Darinka instead of smelling the scent. Darinka answered with a very difficult expression.

“It’s perfura.”

It was a famous poisonous herb. A poison that caused severe vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain when ingested before leading to death, it was also sometimes refined and applied to arrows or swords.

“Are you certain?”

“Yes, that’s right. I experimented as well, and for now, the problematic substance is poison refined from perfura.”

She had no choice but to acknowledge that since it was the truth. The butler barely suppressed the corners of his mouth that tried to go up on their own.

“Your Highness has been drinking a terrifying tea all this time. It’s such a frightening thing. But if it were only this one thing, I would not have hastily reported such a tremendous matter. But unfortunately, there is one more.”

The butler took out the Blaneau wine, another of Kaella’s dowry items that had an issue last night. The wine was new and, as characteristic of Blaneau wine, was sealed with a cork piece and candle wax instead of a wood piece and oiled cloth.

“This is the wine that was supposed to be used tonight. Look here. The candle wax is different, right? The color is the same, but one more layer of candle wax is covering it. When comparing it to other new wines, it’s clear that someone tampered with it.”

The butler took out another Blaneau wine to compare the seals. This kind of thing had to be done thoroughly, without any gaps.

“So I opened this wine once more in front of several people, not just myself. Then, the smell of perfura came out again. Of course, like with the tea, the strong aroma of the wine can mask it, but a faint smell comes from inside the bottle.”

The Grand Duchess’s gaze slid from the wine to somewhere in the air. She kept her mouth shut and just listened without any rebuttal.

“So?”

“Pardon?”

“So, is that all?”

“No one can touch the wine for last night or the tea to be served to Your Highness besides Her Highness the Duchess.”

Why are you asking again when a wise person would have understood by this point? The butler looked at Peiron with wide eyes as if asking if he still didn’t get it. It was strange. With this much, there was no need to say more, but?

“No, I meant do you have anything more to say besides that.”

Peiron said while rubbing his brow.

“Of course there’s more. I’d like to bring in a witness. Please allow it.”

“Go ahead.”

It wasn’t just the clumsily brought wine and tea as dowry that caused this incident. The butler had very definite evidence. Evidence Beatrice had prodded him with.

A maid who cleaned entered, trembling.

“Now. Tell us what you saw, where, and how.”

The maid, sweating profusely while being very conscious, already had all her fingers crooked and nearly no nails from hard labor. She looked to be in her mid-30s, but she was probably much younger than that. Hard work ages people.

“I, I clean the bedroom where Her Highness the Duchess stays. Every, every day. I do it every day, and the, the day before yesterday while cleaning…”

The maid glanced at the butler before continuing.

“So, something fell between the vanity drawer and, and the wall, so I took it out to dust too. I took it out, but it seemed like a precious medicine bottle so I didn’t touch it and put it back in that spot. It seemed like it was deliberately hidden…”

“Is this it?”

The butler held up the crystal bottle that was Kaella’s most important dowry item she had carried with care. The poison inside it was not filled to the brim, but filled slightly short as if someone had used some.

“Yes, yes, that’s right! That’s exactly what I saw!”

“Your Highness.”

The butler spoke in an agitated voice.

“The poison refined from perfura is inside this delicate Ostein crystal bottle! I heard that maid’s words and brought it to test it just in case, but as expected, it turned out like this! It’s a great relief that Your Highness is safe!”

He glanced at the Grand Duchess.

“It must be regrettable for things to turn out this way.”

Kaella stared at the butler expressionlessly.