His eyes were as heavy as a thousand pounds.

Yurian exerted force on his eyelids that kept trying to close again.

When he opened his eyes with all his might, he saw a familiar ceiling.

“Yurian!”

As he slightly squinted his eyes at the suddenly brightened view, he heard his mother’s anxious voice.

When the glare subsided, he was finally able to look around.

He saw the pure white ceiling and his mother’s tear-stained face. And Meyers, his personal physician, was looking down at him.

“Young Master Yurian. Can you see me?”

Yurian slowly nodded in response to Meyers’s words.

Fortunately, his body moved as he willed.

Meyers brought the penlight he was holding close to his eyes and examined the reaction of his pupils.

Then he reassured the Duchess, who was pacing back and forth nervously.

“His condition is fine. He has fully regained consciousness.”

“What about elsewhere? Quickly check if everything else is alright!”

At the Duchess’s urging, Meyers nodded to the maid standing by near the bed.

The quick-witted maid hurriedly approached the bed.

With the maid’s help, Yurian sat up, leaning against the headboard of the bed.

Meyers sat at the edge of the bed, spreading all his fingers and holding out his palm.

“Young Master Yurian. How many do you see?”

Yurian slowly answered, looking at the five fingers visible before his eyes.

“Five.”

“Then how about this?”

When he folded three fingers and waved, Yurian answered more clearly.

“It’s two.”

“Does anything else hurt?”

“My head is ringing a bit, but it’s fine.”

Other than his body constantly feeling limp, there was nothing particularly wrong.

Yurian tried wiggling his fingers.

When he collapsed, he couldn’t move as if his whole body was paralyzed.

Thinking about that moment made his head dizzy.

“You say your head is ringing a bit. Check again. And prescribe some good medicine too.”

“But Duchess. Young Master Yurian is already taking too many supplements. That should be enough for his health to recover.”

“No!”

A sharp scream that seemed to tear through the air echoed in the room.

“If Yurian gets sick, will you take responsibility?”

“…N-No. Then I’ll first prescribe medicine that will allow him to rest well.”

“And come check his condition every day. We can’t let any problems arise.”

The Duchess, who was always gentle and elegant, became sharp and irritable only when it came to Yurian.

Meyers could only nod with a tense expression.

He knew all too well how much the Duchess cherished Yurian, her only blood relative.

If there was even the slightest abnormality in Yurian’s health, not only his career as a physician but also his life would be in danger.

So it was best to follow her orders.

“It would be better not to engage in outdoor activities, right? It hasn’t been long since he collapsed.”

“Moderate outdoor activities should be fine. It would be good for Young Master Yurian to get a little sunlight.”

“But can’t that be sufficiently supplemented with nutrients? Yurian still has a lot of studying to do.”

“That’s true, but…”

Meyers, who was about to say ‘Young Master Yurian is still young, so he needs time to play outside,’ met the Duchess’s flashing eyes and bowed his head.

Meyers nodded again without a word this time.

Yurian, who had been watching the two’s bickering, covered his ears with both hands.

His head hurt.

His mother’s voice talking about mountains of studying as soon as he woke up made his head spin.

For now, he just wanted to rest. Yurian carefully raised his hand and spoke.

“Mother. I want to sleep more first.”

“Oh, Yurian. Does your head still hurt?”

“Yes…”

Answering in a voice that seemed to crawl, he nodded, and Leriana approached him with a gentle smile.

Then she tenderly stroked his golden hair that looked just like hers.

It was a touch full of affection, but Yurian flinched.

“Meyers says you’re fine. So you must be alright. For now, it would be good to rest well today. And let’s start the things you need to do again from tomorrow.”

Leriana, who had warmly comforted him, laid him back down on the bed.

Then she slightly nodded to the maid.

The maid opened the door, politely greeted and showed Meyers out, then nodded to the knight and the bound maid waiting outside.

“My lady. We have brought her.”

Yurian blinked weakly as he watched the people who rushed into the room.

“Yurian. This mother is so happy that you’re safe. But there’s one thing I want to ask.”

The Duchess turned around and coldly glared at the maid kneeling on the floor.

The maid, with her arms tightly bound with rope, struggled and shouted.

“Let me go! My lady! It wasn’t me! It really wasn’t me!”

As the knight pulled the rope tighter, the maid lost balance and fell to the floor.

With her face pressed against the cold marble floor, the maid cried endlessly.

“I’m wronged. Poison, I didn’t even know there was poison in that pie!”

The Duchess, who had been silently listening to the maid’s words, crossed her arms.

As if she wanted to hear more, she raised the corner of her eye and asked in a low voice.

“Then are you saying someone else is the culprit?”

“Yes, yes! Surely someone else did this to frame me! How could I try to harm Young Master Yurian!”

“You need to tell everything you know. Prove your innocence.”

The maid bit her trembling lips hard and then released them.

She had to prove somehow that she was not at fault. If she couldn’t do that, her tongue might be cut off and she would be driven out of the mansion like this.

Even that would be an extremely merciful treatment.

She would have nothing to say even if her head was cut off right away.

Even if by some miracle she managed to leave the mansion with her limbs intact, she would never be able to work as a maid again.

No family would hire a maid who had been disgracefully driven out of a mansion.

She had no idea where things had gone wrong.

She had only done her job as she was told.

Surely, until she entered Young Master Yurian’s room, she had only been thinking about being praised for bringing the peach pie he liked.

However, for some reason, the reaction of the tutor and Young Master Yurian in the room was cold.

Was the problem that kind Young Master Yurian took the peach pie just before the angry tutor, who was furious saying he had never ordered to bring a peach pie, was about to drive her out?

[You just said you were hungry, teacher. I think it would be good to eat it as a snack in a little while. I’m not very hungry, so please eat a lot.]

At the order to put it down and leave, she bowed and left the room.

But a little while later, when she heard a thud and opened the door, the tutor was already dead.

Fortunately, Young Master Yurian survived, but he lost consciousness and collapsed.

The maid was truly wronged. Because she had never poisoned the pie.

Unless she had received a poisoned pie from the beginning.

Then suddenly a plausible thought occurred to the maid’s mind.

She certainly hadn’t brought the pie directly from the kitchen. She had received it from a black-haired kitchen maid in between.

“I, I have something to say!”

The maid was now beginning to understand all of this nonsensical situation.

That black-haired maid.

Yes, that black-haired maid was the culprit.

She had handed over the poisoned pie to her and tried to frame her for the crime.

The maid wet her parched lips with saliva and opened her mouth.

“I didn’t bring that pie from the kitchen! I only delivered to the young master what a kitchen maid handed to me when we met in the third-floor corridor!”

Hearing those words, a strange light flashed in the Duchess’s red eyes.

“Did you say a kitchen maid?”

“Yes! It was the black-haired kitchen maid who they said had just entered as a new employee.”

“Sounds like you’re talking about Heidi.”

As soon as she heard the name ‘Heidi’, the maid nodded vigorously.

“Yes, that’s right. Heidi.”

“Are you saying that girl handed you the poisoned pie?”

“Yes! In my opinion, it seems like that maid did it. To frame me for all the crimes!”

The maid said, shedding tears in indignation. It was quite a credible story.

Even the knight standing behind was listening intently to her words.

Although they couldn’t fully believe the maid’s words yet, according to her story, there was one more suspect.

“And the Chief Chef! Since the Chief Chef made that pie, couldn’t that person be the culprit too?”

The Duchess calmly affirmed while stroking her chin.

“Yes, your words have a point. For now, we need to interrogate all of them.”

“In my opinion, the maid named Heidi is the most suspicious. When she handed me the pie, she glared at me until the end and muttered something to herself. She looked very sinister!”

The maid exclaimed in an excited voice.

“Alright. As you say, let’s first bring in the maid named Heidi. Take Heidi to the underground prison immediately.”

The knight standing behind the maid bowed his head.

Just as he was about to leave to capture Heidi, someone’s voice was heard.

“Wait a moment. Stop there.”

Although it was a weak and youthful voice, the knight had no choice but to stop in his tracks.

The owner of the voice was none other than Yurian.

“What’s wrong, Yurian?”

“Mother, Heidi is not the culprit.”

Yurian, who coughed lightly, got up from the bed again.

“Yurian. What do you mean?”

The Duchess’s red eyes sank coldly.

Her lips hardened as if she never dreamed Yurian would defend Heidi here.

However, Yurian straightened his back and spoke, regardless of the Duchess’s gaze.

“I said Heidi is not the culprit.”

“How do you know that? You collapsed as soon as you ate the poisoned pie.”

At those words, Yurian shook his head very slightly.

“No. I know who poisoned it. I witnessed someone acting suspiciously before eating the pie.”