Hertian’s face draws closer.

Our breaths intertwine.

His hot breath tickles my cheek.

‘No, this feels just like we’re about to kiss, doesn’t it?’

I gathered my wits that had been wandering off into strange imaginings.

This is clearly for the purpose of treating him.

Of course, even if it’s for treatment, doing this might be wrong.

‘Who would think to feed medicine by mouth just because someone can’t swallow it.’

This time our noses touch. No matter how much I try to shake off distracting thoughts, it’s still embarrassing.

Now I can’t spit out the antidote either.

This was the last of the antidote after all.

I steeled my resolve like before, and with eyes tightly shut, went straight for his lips.

When they actually touched, I didn’t feel much.

Rather, I just wanted to quickly pass along this bitter antidote.

I pushed the antidote bit by bit through his dry, pale lips. The antidote trickled down through the gap where our lips weren’t fully pressed together. Seeing it drip down, I forcefully engulfed his lips. So that not a single drop would spill.

Having lost consciousness, he couldn’t push out what was in his mouth and instinctively swallowed. The remaining antidote in his mouth quickly disappeared.

I slowly pulled my lips away. I gently opened my tightly shut eyes. He still hadn’t regained consciousness.

‘It’s fortunate Hertian is unconscious.’

If he had seen me pressing my lips to his on my own, he might have been displeased.

I wiped the antidote from my lips and slowly moved my body back. It would be troublesome if he regained consciousness right away.

However, my thought of quietly slipping away didn’t last long.

“Huh?”

Just as I had moved far enough that I could no longer hear his breathing, I was pulled back to him. His long arm pulled my neck, causing our briefly separated lips to meet again.

This time it was bare lips without antidote.

Moist lips filled with his feverish heat…

While one person’s eyes were wide open like a rabbit’s, the other’s remained closed.

As if having a nightmare, he furrowed his fine brows in a pained expression and repeatedly sought out my lips. The bitter taste of the antidote had disappeared, and his lips devoured and savored mine as if craving something.

Not stopping there, he caressed my back and waist, then grabbed my clothes. I broke out in a cold sweat, worried my clothes might end up torn to shreds like Hertian’s shirt.

“Herti…”

My voice was ultimately swallowed up between his lips.

This is different from before.

A sensation on a whole other level from simply pressing lips together to administer the antidote.

‘This is strange.’

My heart was in an uproar. Like Hertian’s heart.

My mind was flashing red warning signals.

‘This could lead to big trouble.’

I tried to push Hertian away with all my might, but just touching his burning bare skin made him burrow into me even more. Now his movements were trying to go beyond lips to probe inside.

Crunch.

I bit down on his flesh.

Thanks to that, our lips separated for a moment.

“Are you alright?”

But maybe I bit too hard. He opened his eyes a sliver. The pain seemed to have brought back some of his lost consciousness.

His hot sigh that escaped tickled my face. His eyes that looked down at me through slightly parted lids wavered.

“Hertian… are you coming to your senses?”

At that, he painfully shed tears. A man crying while shirtless and kissing me. Yet that sight was so pitiful that my own heart ached. I reached out to wipe away the naughty tears wetting his smooth cheeks.

“It’s okay now.”

At my reassurance, he buried his face in my shoulder. Then he mumbled in a cracked voice.

“…It’s not enough.”

“That should be plenty. What else isn’t enough…”

My face turned bright red from embarrassment.

“The antidote isn’t… isn’t enough, my body feels strange…”

Ah. The antidote isn’t enough.

I felt like a pervert for having strange thoughts about him. Strictly speaking, it’s because Hertian initiated the kiss that my head is full of those kinds of imaginings.

“Um…”

I patted the back of the man crying with his forehead pressed against my shoulder. My intention was to first separate from him and go get more antidote.

The sobbing sound gradually subsided.

“I’ll go get more antidote.”

I gently detached the black-haired head from my shoulder.

His face was as much of a mess as mine.

This wasn’t someone in their right mind. The light had disappeared from his clear eyes, and he looked like someone who had been bewitched. It was certain that he needed more antidote.

I needed to leave here without stimulating him.

“I’ll be back quickly. So don’t worry and rest here.”

I soothed him in a very gentle voice while surveying the room. I wanted to pour him a glass of water to divert his attention, but I had already used it all on the handkerchief.

I quietly stood up from the couch.

“If you just rest here for a moment, I’ll be right back.”

It felt like I had become a zookeeper.

The Hertian staring blankly at me felt unfamiliar.

Like that, I took one step away, then two, and as I turned my body towards the door.

“Where are you going.”

As soon as he saw my back, his voice rang out. It felt like my hair was standing on end all over my body.

I froze in place.

“…It’s nothing. Please go ahead.”

Then his voice came again.

It was Hertian’s usual kind voice.

A wave of relief washed over me from deep inside. But as soon as I turned my head, I almost let out a yelp at the sight of the massive chest muscles before my eyes.

“When did you… come here?”

He had approached right in front of me without a sound and was now looking down at me, breathing heavily again.

Now I was more scared than afraid.

Because he seemed like a different person.

‘The Empress must have given him a drug that breaks people.’

Afraid that he might break.

Because the Hertian I knew would never do such a thing to me.

Soon his face appeared, as messed up as mine.

“Go quickly!”

Hertian again.

It’s like his sense of self is coming and going.

“Hurry!”

He cried out painfully, covering his face.

“I can’t go unless you let go of my hand, right…?”

I said that, but his hand was gripping me.

He looked down at his own arm and let out a small sigh.

“I keep wanting to touch… I want to touch and hold you.”

He painfully tried to pull his arm away. But it was useless. The more he tried to pull away, the stronger the force on his hand became.

“Ugh.”

Eventually the grip became strong enough to hurt me too. I quickly composed my expression to hide it, but he had already seen.

He lowered the hand holding his arm and took out a large vase from the display cabinet.

“Hertian?”

“It seems I won’t be able to let you go, my lady.”

“Is your body being controlled or something?”

I asked worriedly. What kind of drug could change a person this much?

“I’m being thoroughly overcome by instinct.”

He raised the vase high.

“What are you trying to do with that?”

“If I don’t do this, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself.”

“No, stop!”

But my call ultimately failed to stop him.

Thanks to Hertian knocking himself out, I was able to safely escape the room.

‘How much pain must he have been in to hit himself on the head.’

I shook my head, recalling Hertian collapsed on the floor.

Before I knew it, I had arrived at the lab while inwardly cursing the Empress.

This time, I gathered both treatment for his head wound and the antidote.

‘What in the world is going on?’

The situation that had unfolded before me just ten minutes ago still felt like a dream. But as if proving it wasn’t a dream, my swollen lips were still hot.

“No, no. This was clearly an accident.”

Hertian was intoxicated by the drug, and even he had difficulty controlling his body.

If that wasn’t the case, there would be no reason for him to kiss me.

Just as I was trying to give him the antidote, he too had no choice because of the effects of the drug.

‘Please stop acting up, heart.’

Even if I came to that conclusion, it didn’t make what happened go away.

Back in the room.

Seeing Hertian made my side feel ticklish.

‘Why does he have to be handsome and have a great body on top of that.’

I blamed his perfect appearance as I roughly opened the antidote bottle.

“I’m truly sorry about earlier.”

Now neatly dressed, he apologized to me in criminal mode. It seemed his senses had returned after sleeping it off. That was a relief. That his mind hadn’t gone strange.

“Drink it all.”

Still, I prepared a strong antidote. To thoroughly purge any remaining effects of the drug from his body.

Hertian swallowed the antidote without a word.

The clock had already passed well into dinner time.

“We’ve missed dinner time.”

Fortunately, or strangely, my parents who are usually strict about meal times hadn’t mentioned dinner today.

“Just in case, I’ll tell my parents I’ll eat separately.”

“Please do so.”

He also averted his gaze and quickly urged me to go.

Both Hertian and I were avoiding talking about what happened earlier. But we couldn’t pretend not to know forever. I broached the subject first.

“And I should tell my parents about the Empress. If there are any of the Empress’s pawns in our house, my parents could be in danger too. I’m worried that the person who put Hertian in this state might do the same to my parents in the capital… I’m concerned.”

I feel bad bringing this up to Hertian, but I am truly worried.

It would be even worse if there were pawns among our household staff.

Even now, when my parents are being extra cautious after being betrayed by Melson once, someone could be betraying us.

“There’s something I need to say first.”

He stopped me in surprise.

“I feel sorry towards Hertian. I don’t want to make a big deal of this either, but seeing Hertian in pain right before my eyes, I can’t just stand by and do nothing.”

We can’t keep turning a blind eye to the Empress’s constant provocations.

Avoiding it is no longer the best strategy.

“This incident was not the Empress’s doing…”

He seemed to clearly know who had drugged him.

I sat down across from him with surprised eyes.

Not the Empress?

If not her, there was only one person who came to mind.

“Could it be Prince Serdis?”

Serdis must also be displeased that I became his wife. If not the Empress, it could only be Serdis.

My head drooped in guilt.

“I’m sorry for causing you to suffer such humiliation because of me.”

“It wasn’t Serdis either.”

He shook his head slowly. Somehow, he covered his face and sighed, avoiding my eyes. He looked like it was difficult to speak.

This was the first time I had seen Hertian hesitate this much with me.

Fear gradually grew.

“Who on earth could it be…?”

After hesitating, he opened his mouth.

“It was the Countess.”

What?

My mother?