“This person is from the North, an orphan we took in and raised. We don’t know why a stable boy would poison the Grand Duke’s food. When we found the child, his tongue had already been cut out! Perhaps you Northerners know this child?!”

Know him?

Medeia’s continued pleading made the red larva sigh.

“Arrogant Northern bastards, won’t you come out when the Young Lady is begging so sadly?”

I see.

So that’s how you appear to ordinary people, Medeia.

A fragile Grand Duchess pleading sadly. A person doing her best to solve the problem.

But I can see it. Her words are actually a provocation aimed at the North.

To ask if the North knows the yellow larva she brought in as the poisoner.

A moment later, the gate of the blue annex opened.

It was Arcadia who walked out. His platinum hair gleamed with cold anger in the moonlight.

A cold voice flowed from Nugent’s mouth.

“What do you mean by asking if we know this person?”

“Ah, Lord Nugent. What do you mean by intention? The Grand Duke is in a critical condition. Shouldn’t we thoroughly investigate every possibility? We simply couldn’t understand this person’s intentions, so that’s why we asked. Please clear up any misunderstandings if there are any.”

Medeia cried out mournfully for all to hear.

Misunderstanding.

The taste of blood fills my mouth, beyond bitterness. I unconsciously clenched my fist.

“This person was a friend who longed for the North and prayed that the Northern knights wouldn’t be hurt in the war against the barbarians.”

“If he missed us that much, why didn’t you let him return to the North?”

Anger began to fill Arcadia’s indifferent reply.

Ah, no, Arcadia. If you get angry, you’ll fall into her trap.

Medeia didn’t miss Arcadia’s anger.

“We wanted to, but it’s such a long distance and he was a weak friend, so we couldn’t send him alone on such a long journey. But to think he would do such a thing right when the Northern knights arrived. We thoroughly investigated and found out he was the culprit, but now we can’t hear his reasons. That’s why we’re asking the North.”

“……”

Arcadia couldn’t continue. Medeia spoke.

“But perhaps even asking about this is rude? What I want to ask is that you don’t doubt our Southern friendship towards the North because of this incident. No matter what, it happened due to our carelessness. So we will take the punishment.”

Medeia raised her delicate wrist towards the air. Then the man standing next to the yellow larva stabbed a sword into the larva’s back.

I covered my mouth with both hands.

Ah……

You cruel one, Medeia.

‘We will take the punishment,’ you say.

But it’s not you who lost his life, it’s the yellow larva.

The boy died without even being able to scream his last.

The black larva said.

“Remember this. This is the end of those who are not loyal.”

***

The only time I saw the yellow larva defend the North was the day before the victory ceremony, when he argued with the red larva on the training ground.

He simply told the red larva, who was criticizing the Northern Grand Duke’s request for a victory ceremony as shameless, how great the hardships the North had endured were.

[If you don’t know, keep quiet! You don’t even know how far it is from the North to the Southern border!]

That was all.

[It’s going to be the most pitiful victory ceremony ever seen anywhere in the world. I heard the maid who serves food talking about it. I don’t like that.]

Those few words were only said to me.

To say that someone who said such things is the culprit who tried to poison the Northern Grand Duke?

Even if no one else knew, I knew. The yellow larva must have been unwittingly caught up in this. He might have been in an unfair situation.

***

The larva’s corpse was moved to the outskirts of the Rahel Forest.

On a dark night with even the moonlight hidden behind clouds, I went to where he had been discarded.

The first death I’ve seen since returning. I wanted to at least place a single flower on the corpse.

With each step, my conviction that the yellow larva wasn’t the culprit grew clearer.

If that’s not the case, there’s no reason to cut out his tongue. He shouldn’t have been able to speak.

Because if he could speak, he would have said he wasn’t the culprit.

The larva was lying face down, carelessly discarded in the grass.

I approached him.

The Southern winter nights were cold. But the daytime is as warm as spring in other regions. Left like this, this boy’s body will return to nature before long.

I wanted to bury him. So I touched his body.

‘!’

Something was strange.

The larva’s back was cold. But it wasn’t stiff like a dead person’s.

I examined him more closely.

‘He’s alive, breathing very faintly!’

I felt around and touched the area pierced by the sword.

‘The sword did enter near the heart. But it went in at an angle.’

The sword had barely missed the heart inside the body. What was ruptured were the tissues between the heart and lungs.

He’s alive, what other reason do I need beyond that?

I embraced the yellow larva.

I didn’t want to see anyone else meet an unfair death anymore.

Bringing the boy to my quarters required more effort than entering the Grand Duke’s guest room through the secret passage.

Soaked in sweat, I laid the larva on a pile of hay. Then I started disinfecting the wound and grinding medicinal herbs.

Assassins are trained to heal their own wounds unless they’re too severe. Because of that, my room had various kinds of herbs and first aid supplies.

***

Despite tending to him all night, the larva’s condition didn’t improve easily. He still hadn’t regained consciousness.

A thin light entered through a palm-sized window. The sun had risen.

‘Is it today.’

On this night in my past life, Arcadia died.

But this life is different. It wasn’t Arcadia but the Belfast Grand Duke who was poisoned. And the South is in a situation where they can’t avoid responsibility.

Even if they killed the yellow larva by presenting him as the assassin, hardly anyone would believe the larva was really the culprit. Rather, it’s strange that they could find the assassin so quickly.

If this situation leaks outside the castle, it’s only a matter of time before rumors that the Southern Grand Duke was behind the Northern Grand Duke’s poisoning reach the capital.

So I had a strange thought.

She must have anticipated all that, so why is Medeia putting on such a clumsy act? Was she that desperate?

Even for an emperor who favors the Laherts… the assassination attempt on an Imperial Grand Duke isn’t something that can be overlooked. It means things could turn out even more unfavorable for the South.

Thinking of the emperor made a corner of my heart ache.

I leaned my head against the wall.

“Yellow larva. Grand Duke Sion Belfast. Arcadia. Medeia. Yellow larva. Northern Grand Duke. Arcadia……”

Without realizing it, I kept muttering the names of those involved.

“Arcadia…… Medeia…… Northern Grand Duke……”

Then I suddenly closed my mouth.

In my previous life, Medeia, who decided on assassination with her father, sent me to kill Arcadia. But in this life, that plan itself must have collapsed.

The attempt on the Northern Grand Duke’s life is already holding the South back. Yet Medeia tried to link the poisoning attempt to the North.

Last night.

[When we found the child, his tongue had already been cut out! Perhaps you Northerners know this child?!]

Medeia clearly said that.

‘Is this person acquainted with the North, she said.’

I know Medeia. She achieves what she wants by any means necessary.

She wants the larva to be acquainted with the North, and intended for that conclusion, so she said those words.

But why?

Saying that the person who tried to kill the Grand Duke might be acquainted with someone within the Northern knight order is tantamount to saying the North was in cahoots with the Northern Grand Duke’s would-be assassin.

It’s no different from saying there’s a mastermind behind the assassination attempt within the knight order.

To shift the blame for the South’s wrongdoing onto the North?

But there’s no evidence, is there?

It’s clumsy, unlike Medeia.

The meticulous Medeia is a person who thinks of every possibility. At least in my previous life, that’s how she was able to secure the position of the emperor’s adopted granddaughter.

She took me in looking far into the future, and ultimately killed me the night before becoming the adopted granddaughter. After confirming that my blood turned the holy sword ‘Lucella’ gold, she must have lied that it was her who changed the color of the sword.

She might have collected my spilled blood separately, no, she probably did. Because there might come a time when she needs to prove the blood again.

That’s how thorough she is. She’s not one to carelessly utter such words without evidence.

Then what if she creates evidence that the mastermind behind the poisoning attempt is someone from the North?

For example, if the poison comes from within the Northern knight order…?

‘……!’

Suddenly, a cold premonition pressed down on my chest.

What if that poison is found in Arcadia’s room? Arcadia will become the Northern knight who was in cahoots with the assassin.

If Arcadia dies like in my previous life.

They’ll announce that he chose suicide out of guilt for trying to assassinate his lord.

“Surely… surely not to that extent.”

But once a hunch came, it wouldn’t let me go. She had already planted the ‘seed’ of suspicion in everyone in front of the annex that the mastermind behind the yellow larva might be someone from within the North.

The planted seeds will sprout in different ways in people’s hearts.

That night. As soon as the sun had fully set, I rushed to the blue annex.

I pulled up the black cloak I had taken out to hide my body all the way to the top of my head. At my waist, I wore the white sword I had received from Medeia long ago.

‘I hope there won’t be a need to use this sword today.’

***

A few hours earlier.

Medeia Lahert was in her office with her father, the Grand Duke. An office the Grand Duke had personally created for her, who would turn twenty-one in a month.

The elegant birch bookcase with gold trim was something Medeia particularly cherished in this room. She stood in front of that bookshelf, running her hand over the many books she had read.

“Medeia. I know you’re clever, but that’s a bit, no, very risky business.”

Her father, Grand Duke Lahert, said.

Medeia thought that her father, despite his withered appearance, was cautious and cowardly.

“Father. The news that the Grand Duke was attempted to be poisoned by the House of Lahert will spread to the capital faster than we think.”

At those words, the Grand Duke frowned, putting his hand to his head.

“I’ve already thought about what to say to His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Yes, you’ll do that better than anyone else in the world, Father.”

“But?”

“We haven’t gained anything, have we?”

“Gained?”

The father looked at his daughter. Golden hair like the sun, noble red eyes, his pride, Medeia.

That daughter added that they should gain something from this incident, which was already burdensome enough just to maintain loyalty and face.

“Yes, something to gain.”

“Tell me. What on earth is it?”

Medeia smiled on her red lips.

“Killing one nameless larva won’t be enough for us to clear our name. It’s not easy to say it’s the Northern Grand Duke’s own ploy because the question ‘why?’ arises. He’s a war hero, after all. So it’s better to create an even more unbelievable incident.”

“An unbelievable incident?”

“People will whisper that the Southern Grand Duke who tried to poison the Northern Grand Duke at this time made a misjudgment. Because it’s a clear misjudgment to anyone who sees it. To suppress those whispers, we need to create someone who made an even bigger misjudgment. Someone who committed an even more unbelievable mistake, namely Arcadia Nugent.”

Lahert swallowed dry saliva.

“Isn’t it splendid if he’s the very person who tried to poison Sion Belfast?”

“But the risk is great.”

“Arcadia, who has harbored doubts about my father’s death, tried to assassinate the Northern Grand Duke but couldn’t bear the guilt and committed suicide. Isn’t that reason enough for suicide?”

“……”

“And while we’re at it.”

Medeia smiled bitterly.

“The Northern Grand Duke, who was in critical condition due to the poison, ends up following his subordinate in death. As a result of rejecting the Southern doctors, how about that?”

Grand Duke Lahert stood up abruptly from his seat.

“Is that… possible?”

“A lie too astonishing sometimes has more power than the truth. The Northern Grand Duke will pay the price for staging this farce, Father. With Arcadia gone, the knight order will be shaken, and it’s easy enough to worsen the condition of the Grand Duke who has already coughed up blood.”

The Grand Duke uttered words of sincere admiration.

“Medeia, you’re my daughter but you’re too precious. The Emperor will surely recognize you.”