“Y-You’re saying zizyphus was in the nutritional supplement?”

Jane’s voice trembled violently as she questioned me. Leah smiled gently, her eyes curving.

“Yes. I added it because it’s good for insomnia. Many servants in the mansion complain of insomnia.”

Of course, the presence of zizyphus was a blatant lie. How could such a rare Eastern herb be added to a nutritional supplement?

But Jane, ignorant of herbology, would have no choice but to believe this absurd lie. After all, she was the one who eagerly purchased the supplement during the sale.

‘What kind of person would gamble with their life?’

The image of Jane downing the supplement right in front of her was vivid in Leah’s mind. If poison had indeed been added to the food, Jane would be unable to detect it.

The herbs Jane took would turn toxic even with trace amounts of zizyphus.

‘For Jane, who has been consistently taking the supplement.’

That toxicity would be close to lethal. The spoon in Jane’s hand began to tremble and shake.

– Clang!

And soon, unable to withstand the trembling, the spoon clattered to the floor. Seeing this, Leah slowly curved her lips upward.

‘As I thought. It was you?’

Bayern’s pawn.

Leah scooped up a spoonful of soup and held it out to Jane.

“My, you should be more careful.”

Jane’s face turned pale at Leah’s gaze, urging her to eat. She was like a mouse trapped in poison.

Jane stared at the spoon Leah offered, then slumped to the floor.

“Come to think of it, Jane took the supplement quite frequently, didn’t she?”

“……”

“So that’s why you can’t detect it.”

Leah bent her knees to meet her gaze.

“Since I put the herbs you stole last night into this food. You can’t eat it because you know it conflicts with zizyphus.”

“H-Hey, Apothecary…”

Jane’s voice quivered as she called out to Leah. And the smile that had been on Leah’s lips instantly vanished.

“How dare you try to frame the Empire’s only Duke, even if you were instigated by the butler.”

“H-How did you…!”

“You know well that the crime of attempting to assassinate royalty won’t end with just your death, right?”

Anticipating what would follow, Jane’s entire body trembled like an aspen leaf.

“Not just you, but your elderly mother in your hometown. And your sick younger brother deserve to die too.”

Not just Jane, but three generations would be exterminated for this grave crime. Jane’s face was covered in despair at Leah’s chilling words.

“How pitiful. The deed you started to save your younger brother will end up killing your entire family.”

“Please, anything but that…! D-Duke!”

Jane let out a scream and crawled to the Duke’s feet.

“Your Grace! I’ve committed a terrible crime. Please, please forgive me just this once.”

“……”

“I had no choice because of my brother’s medical expenses. Sob… I didn’t want to go this far, but the butler threatened me…! It’s true. Please believe me!”

Jane clutched the Duke’s trouser leg and pleaded.

The thick tears rolling down her cheeks left dark stains on the carpet.

‘Asking to be trusted by someone she tried to assassinate.’

If Leah hadn’t noticed, Akkia would have undoubtedly died a violent death. Leah’s gaze turned cold as she looked at the utterly shameless Jane.

The Duke, who had been watching Jane, quietly wrote something down. When Leah checked the note, she saw a concise message written:

[“Prove it.”]

‘Proof of trust.’

Leah’s lips curved slightly at the words he had once said to her as well. She seemed to understand what the Duke wanted to say.

“Prove it.”

“H-How?”

At Jane’s question, Leah and the Duke’s gazes met in mid-air. Seeing that the Duke wasn’t writing anything down, it seemed he was leaving it up to Leah’s discretion.

Yes. The Duke she knew would have said something like this.

“Do as you’re told from now on.”

As if she had accurately grasped his intentions.

A relaxed smile spread across the Duke’s lips as he looked at Leah.

[This is the timeline separator]

Bayern, who had returned from vacation, was sitting face to face with the head maid in the reception room. It was time to order supplies needed for the mansion for the upcoming season.

“Then I’ll place the order like this.”

“Do so. The merchant guild is Parthia, as always.”

The head maid nodded at the butler’s response. Soon the Duke would collapse, so not many household items were needed.

However, Bayern subtly increased the quantities.

‘We’ll need settlement money when we go up to the capital. Heh, this will come in handy.’

As he was scanning the order form he had written with a satisfied look, urgent footsteps echoed down the hallway, approaching.

“Tsk. Who’s running in the mansion?”

“I will discipline the servants more strictly.”

Bayern clicked his tongue in disapproval.

Even though Akkia was sickly, this was still a mansion where an Imperial Duke resided. The discipline in the mansion was a mess.

‘With the Duke in that state, no wonder the servants are like this.’

But the footsteps gradually approached the reception room. And then the door burst open.

“B-Butler! Something terrible has happened.”

“What is it?”

Bayern met eyes with the maid calling for him. She was one of the maids working in the Duke’s bedroom along with Jane.

There was only one reason a bedroom maid would seek him out so urgently.

“The Duke has collapsed!”

Bayern immediately sprang to his feet. Unlike the head maid whose face was turning pale, his eyes were gleaming.

.

.

.

Leah looked back and forth between the Duke and the bedroom door. The bedroom maid had gone to deliver the news, so the butler would be here soon.

Glancing sideways, she saw Jane clasping her hands tightly together. Her face was full of tension.

Feeling Leah’s gaze, Jane hid her trembling hands in the folds of her skirt.

‘Well… she’ll manage on her own.’

Her life and her family’s lives were at stake, after all. Leah turned her gaze back to the Duke. Even unconscious, Akkia’s body was shaking with convulsions.

Thanks to the medication Leah had prescribed in advance, the Duke’s pulse had dropped significantly.

At this rate, it would look like he had gone into cardiac arrest within a night. Leah called out to the Duke in an intentionally more agitated voice.

“Your Grace!!”

Akkia was breathing heavily. It was such convincing acting that Leah worried he might actually be experiencing side effects.

‘He’s not really sick, is he?’

While inwardly worrying, Leah pretended to perform emergency measures, about to secure his airway. Just then-

– Bang!

The bedroom door flew open, and Butler Bayern entered.

“Your Grace!”

He saw the Duke lying limp on the bed, and as he approached, his gaze lingered briefly on Jane.

They seemed to exchange something in a silent glance, but it was extremely subtle.

If Leah hadn’t known about the relationship between the two, she might have been completely fooled by how natural it was.

Then the butler, who had approached in one breath, pushed Leah away as she was trying to perform first aid.

“What on earth is going on here! How could the perfectly fine Duke suddenly collapse?”

“Well… He suddenly collapsed. We’re trying to figure out the cause, but there was nothing particularly wrong with him.”

Leah pretended not to know about the situation as she answered. Bayern’s brow furrowed deeply at Leah’s response that she didn’t know the cause.

“How have you been attending to the Duke all this time to not even know the cause of his condition reaching this point?!”

“……”

“He was perfectly fine until breakfast, so why on earth…”

Bayern’s eyes narrowed as he was shouting at Leah. As if he had just thought of something.

“Right. Come to think of it, it’s strange. He was definitely fine until breakfast.”

Bayern’s suspicious gaze now fell on Leah.

“Could it be that the apothecary prescribed the wrong medicine?”

“W-What are you saying?”

“Did you perhaps harbor ill intentions and feed the Duke some strange medicine?!”

Bayern’s eyes were more fierce than ever as he shouted at Leah. Now he seemed convinced that Leah was the culprit.

“No! I only gave him zizyphus tea as usual…”

“Whether what you prescribed was zizyphus or poison, who knows! Save your excuses for the guards, and get out this instant!”

“Poison? I’m the Duke’s apothecary, why would I prescribe poison?!”

Leah cried out as if wronged, but Bayern snorted.

“We’ll find out when we investigate. If anything happens to the Duke, you won’t escape the death penalty.”

Bayern called out to Jane, who was standing behind, in a threatening voice.

“Jane! Go call the domain’s soldiers. And bring something to write a letter with.”

“Y-Yes!”

Jane immediately received the order and left the bedroom.

“Wait! Butler! If we leave him like this, the Duke will be in danger. At least let me perform emergency treatment…”

“You’re not listening.”

Leah grabbed the butler’s trouser leg and pleaded in a desperate voice, but he pushed her body away. Then he called a servant standing outside as if annoyed.

“You there! Take the apothecary to the apothecary room right now! And stand guard until her charges are cleared.”

Bayern looked more triumphant than ever. Not knowing what future awaited him.

‘How foolish.’

Leah twisted her face to hide her twitching lips that kept trying to curl up. Then she protested to the butler in an even more pitiful voice.

“I… I’ve been wronged! Butler!”

Even as she was being dragged away, Leah called out to the butler desperately, but Bayern’s expression didn’t change one bit.

[This is the timeline separator]

It had already been two days since the Duke collapsed.

At first, his pulse seemed to beat faintly, but now it was so weak it could hardly be detected.

‘He’ll go into cardiac arrest soon. Just in time for the Imperial family’s arrival.’

It seems Jane, who had been trembling at the butler’s orders, had done her job properly.

As expected of a money-crazed wench.

After confirming that the Duke had completely lost consciousness, Bayern sent a letter to inform the Imperial family.

And today, a carrier pigeon arrived.

[The Imperial doctors, Lord Rodrigo, the Emperor’s secretary, and priests will arrive today to check on Duke Heidern’s condition.]

Jane was the one who stole herbs from the storage. And Leah was the one who prescribed zizyphus tea, which conflicts with those herbs, to the Duke.

‘Therefore, I am free of suspicion.’

When the people from the Imperial family confirm the Duke’s death, they will suspect Leah first. Moreover, Leah disappeared on the day she was confined to the apothecary room.

“Such a clever girl.”

The quick-witted girl must have sensed something was wrong and fled. She left in such a hurry that all her clothes and personal belongings remained behind, with only Leah herself gone.

“This works out well. Thanks to her, I can easily frame her.”

Even if things go wrong and it’s revealed to be someone’s scheme.

‘The maid will be the one to be punished.’