Christine glared at Floyd with wide eyes. Trying to calm her startled heart, she asked nonchalantly.

“What are you talking about?”

“Someone used poison. Whether it was aimed at the crown princess, my woman, or someone else, they dared to poison at a gathering of royalty. It’s a terrible act and we must catch the culprit immediately. And.”

Floyd turned to look at his knights.

“My knights are famous for their skills. If I leave it to them, they’ll find the culprit before the tea gets cold. The queen knows this very well, so why does she keep trying to chase me away? Is she trying to protect the culprit? Or…”

Floyd grinned.

“Did the queen poison Elise’s drink?”

Lucas’s hand on Elise’s shoulder tightened. He knew how much Christine disliked Elise. Elise gasped at the thought that she might have been poisoned.

The nobles exchanged glances at the clearly suspicious situation.

Christine realized things were turning unfavorable for her. She guessed that the longer her conversation with Floyd continued, the more this situation would tighten around her neck, but she didn’t know how to escape.

At that moment, Roxiana stared directly at the pale maid behind Christine and asked.

“Was it you? You put the poison, didn’t you?”

Everyone’s gaze turned to the maid.

“N-no. What are you saying? Why, why are you framing me?”

“Well… I saw you leave your post briefly before the maid who filled the crown princess’s teacup came in. For no apparent reason.”

“No. No, I…”

The maid glanced at Christine, and everyone saw it. At that moment, Joseph V shouted.

“Behead this woman immediately!”

The maid didn’t even have time to plead her innocence. The king’s knight instantly drew his sword and cut off the maid’s head.

Screams and laments erupted here and there at the horrific sight.

Joseph V also guessed that Christine was involved in this incident, but he couldn’t make it a fact that a queen of a country used poison to kill the crown princess.

Joseph V glared at Floyd, gritting his teeth.

“Is that enough now?”

“No.”

“Then what else!”

“No matter how I think about it, I can’t imagine why a maid would use poison at an occasion like this.”

Christine, who had regained her composure after the maid’s death, smiled faintly and shot a glare at Floyd as she spoke.

“It was jealousy, Floyd. This child had been eyeing the crown princess position for a while. Everyone knows that. She must have thought that if she killed our crown princess, the position would be hers. Poor thing.”

A pleased smile appeared on Floyd’s lips.

“That could be. Shan, are you done?”

No one had been paying attention to Kirshan. From the moment he entered this place until now, he had been putting teacups, grass leaves stained with tea, and soil soaked with tea into envelopes.

“Yes, I’ve gathered everything.”

Kirshan held up several envelopes for everyone to see and said.

“If we identify the type of poison, we can find who handled it.”

Christine’s complexion darkened again, but Floyd no longer paid attention to her and turned to Lucas and Elise, saying.

“As a wedding gift, I’ll catch the one who tried to kill the crown princess and make them kneel before you.”

+++

The Torkan men were tall, making it difficult to see Roxiana surrounded by them. But Elise managed to find Roxiana among them.

‘Roxiana…’

Roxiana had figured out that the queen’s maid had poisoned the drink. From Roxiana’s cold glare at the maid, Elise recalled a piece of her past memory.

−”Miss Herna. I heard you’ve been saying various things about Elise lately…”

Roxiana was always like that. Whenever someone spoke ill of Elise, she always stood by Elise’s side and fought for her.

‘Roxiana helped me.’

If Elise were now fully loved by Lucas and surrounded by a peaceful environment, she wouldn’t have had such a weak-hearted thought.

The uncertain situation of not knowing when Lucas’s love might disappear, the fear of the queen who used poison even at such an occasion, and the emotional turmoil due to pregnancy momentarily blinded Elise.

She couldn’t resist the impulse.

Elise almost unconsciously shook off Lucas who was supporting her and ran after Roxiana.

Roxiana was walking on the stone path leading to the wide road past the arch at the garden entrance. When Elise blocked her way, Roxiana and her entourage all stopped.

“Um, Roxi…”

Roxiana stared with cold eyes at Elise, who was catching her breath after running with her heavy body. Only after facing those emotionless, cold eyes did Elise come to her senses as if doused with cold water.

‘What am I doing…!’

She had forgotten that they were no longer in a relationship of helping each other. There must have been a reason for framing the queen’s maid as the culprit on the spot, but she had mistaken it for being done to help her.

It was because of the fear of nearly being poisoned as soon as Lanian left. It was because of the terror that the queen’s blade might pierce her neck at any time.

Even as Elise trembled with fear, embarrassment, and despair, Roxiana’s cold gaze didn’t waver at all.

“Elise.”

But unlike her icy gaze, her voice that flowed as her lips parted was incredibly kind. That honey-sweet voice once again stirred Elise’s heart. To Elise, who was looking up at her with expectant eyes, Roxiana said gently.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be following Lucas instead of following me?”

“Huh…?”

“How do you know what the queen, who failed at poisoning, might be telling Lucas?”

Elise’s face turned pale as she gasped. Roxiana turned around abruptly and stared blankly at Elise running away before letting out a small sigh.

Robert, who had been glaring at Elise with angry eyes, muttered.

“I don’t know what she expected following the princess. How shameless…”

“Indeed. She must have been thinking of old times.”

A fleeting sadness crossed Roxiana’s eyes.

Elise, why did you and I become like this? If nothing had happened between us, if you had just suppressed that jealousy and greed a little, I would have rejoiced with you over your pregnancy and waited for that child to be born. I wouldn’t have thought of using your pregnancy. I wouldn’t have been praying that the child inside you doesn’t resemble Lucas.

It wasn’t very pleasant to watch Elise running around here and there, looking gaunt with a belly so swollen it showed even through her voluminous dress.

She thought she could laugh like Floyd, who guffawed every time Lucas writhed with jealousy, but laughter didn’t come.

After boarding the carriage, Floyd said.

“You don’t seem to be in a good mood.”

“How could that be? I feel like dancing with joy.”

“You can stop here if you want. You don’t have to see it through to the end.”

Where is the end?

Roxiana wondered for the first time.

Where is the end of this revenge? How far do I have to go before I feel it’s the end?

Elise, Lucas. Will your deaths be the end of this path? Will I feel satisfied when I see you die miserably? Will I be able to laugh heartily then?

Even if you die, it won’t bring my family back to life, will I be able to laugh while watching your miserable end?

Thinking of laughter, she recalled Elise’s laughter when she visited her in the underground prison. That face laughing while crying was vivid.

−”I wish the princess would die without even getting to smell Adelia’s scent… That’s my wish…”

As that spiteful voice came to mind, her momentarily dulled heart hardened.

Yes, me too, Elise. I wish you would die without even getting to smell Adelia’s scent. That’s my wish. I feel like I can sleep soundly only when that wish comes true. I think I can finally laugh then.

“I’m not stopping.”

Roxiana said in a more resolute voice.

“I’m just looking forward to it. How will the queen wrap up this poisoning incident? How will Lucas react to the rumors spread among the public? And how will Elise overcome all of this?”

Roxiana turned to Floyd and smiled brightly.

“Aren’t you really looking forward to it?”

+++

Although Elise had disappeared somewhere, Lucas didn’t look for her. His mind was filled only with the fact that ‘Mother tried to poison my wife.’

How dare she do this to my wife. The woman I chose. The woman carrying my son.

He didn’t even care where that woman was or what she was doing.

“How could you do this!”

Even though Christine said they would talk later, her son followed her all the way to the queen’s palace, shouting angrily as she watched him.

“How could you do this to my wife? No matter how much you dislike her, you shouldn’t have done this. It wasn’t right!”

“Crown Prince, please listen to me…”

“You’re just going to make excuses, aren’t you? Poison, Mother. Poison!”

“It was the maid who…”

“Who would believe that? No one who was there will believe it. That poor woman must have just followed your orders! Mother, Elise is carrying my child. How could you be so cruel? How could you be so terrible?”