“You couldn’t have……”

The duke realized the moment he saw Leah’s half-lidded eyes. That she was in the same state as ‘that night’.

“……Your, Grace……”

A voice half mixed with moans and eyes filled with feverish heat.

‘And above all.’

The man’s eyebrows twitched as he surveyed Leah’s appearance sitting in the bathtub.

The woman’s body exposed nakedly, wet with water. They say subtle exposure is more tantalizing than complete nudity.

The white skin showing through the water-soaked chemise irritated his nerves.

‘Does that woman even know her current state?’

She was just looking at the duke with yearning eyes, as if desiring something.

“Huu……”

Akkia sighed deeply as if suppressing something and ran his hand through his hair. Because he seemed to know what Leah wanted from him.

‘Did she take the medicine again? I told her not to do clinical trials again.’

Biting his lip, Akkia approached the bathtub as if he had made up his mind. Then he leaned down as if responding to the woman’s desperate call.

“Leah.”

He called her name in a low, deep voice. As if thinking she could finally get what she wanted, Leah looked up at the duke with a smile.

“……Your Grace.”

It was quite an innocent and clear gaze. Although the situation they were in now was not so innocent.

Their bodies overlapped with the bathtub between them. Akkia’s shirt was getting damp because Leah was soaking wet.

“……Leah.”

Akkia, holding Leah in his arms, whispered quietly in her ear.

“It will hurt a little.”

And before Leah could react to the man’s words.

– Thwack.

Leah closed her eyes at the sudden impact on her nape.

The next morning. Leah slowly opened her eyes, awakened by the sound of chirping birds.

“It feels nice……”

Leah burrowed deeper into the blanket, basking in the warm sunlight shining through the window. It was a refreshing feeling she hadn’t experienced in a long time. How long had it been since such a peaceful morning?

‘Maybe I’ll sleep in a bit more.’

Just as she closed her eyes, wanting to savor this feeling a little longer.

Suddenly overcome by a chilling sensation, Leah opened her eyes again. Then she carefully surveyed the room.

“This is……”

Although she had only been staying at the townhouse for a few days, she could tell. At least that the bed she was lying on now was different from the one in her room.

Leah sprang up from the bed and began to look around frantically.

“What, what is this……!”

No matter how she looked at it, the place she was lying in was not the room she had been staying in. Faced with this bewildering reality, she quickly tried to retrace her memories of last night.

“I had a fever again last night….. And to cool it down, in the bathroom……”

As the memories gradually came back, her face began to harden. Just then, with a clicking sound, the duke walked in, ruffling his wet hair with a towel.

“You’re awake?”

“Your Grace……?”

Why was that man coming out of there?

‘And what? You’re awake?’

What was that? That affectionate greeting sounded like something a man would say after spending the night together.

Leah trailed off, seemingly flustered by the man’s all too natural behavior.

“Your Grace, why are you……”

“Because this is my room.”

In that moment, she felt her blood run cold.

‘What? His Grace’s room? Why am I in this room……’

Leah’s eyes moved rapidly as if trying to assess the situation. But all thought stopped at Akkia’s next words.

“And I hung your clothes over there, so take them when you leave.”

“Pardon? Clothes, what do you mean…… Huh?”

Following Akkia’s gaze, she saw the chemise she had been wearing last night.

‘It can’t be.’

Leah stiffly turned her neck down to look at the clothes she was wearing. A large shirt that was clearly not her own.

And the moment she saw the shirt, memories of last night flashed through her mind. The image of her immersing herself in cold water, unable to bear her feverishly hot body.

‘Damn it.’

And lastly, perfectly recalling how she had desperately called out for the duke. Leah lowered her head at the unbelievable reality and quietly murmured.

“Your Grace, perhaps……”

Leah’s eyes trembled as she looked at the man.

“Did we……”

He stared at Leah for a moment before tilting his head.

“Well.”

Then he raised one corner of his mouth loosely, as if amused.

“I did exert some effort last night.”

Uttering words that anyone would find suspicious.

‘I’m ruined.’

Leah’s face flushed even redder than last night, thinking Akkia’s words were an affirmation. She felt like she wanted to disappear into a mouse hole if there was one.

“I, um, ah……”

Leah’s mouth only sputtered meaningless sounds, unable to utter any words. Finally, Leah rushed out of the room as if fleeing and collapsed on the floor as soon as she entered her own room.

“I’m going crazy. I’m going crazy!”

She writhed, clutching her head, and let out a lament.

‘The side effects didn’t end with just that one night?!’

It was the worst. To experience such side effects twice.

And what was even worse.

“It means it could happen again……”

There was no guarantee that something like yesterday wouldn’t happen again in the unpredictable future.

“Ha.”

It was hopeless.

How many more times would these symptoms come? Surely not. For her whole life…….

“Absolutely not.”

Leah sprang up from her seat as if she had imagined something terrible. She wasn’t some animal in heat.

She couldn’t just sit by and watch this state that might never end.

‘Now is not the time to be thinking like this.’

Leah hurriedly began writing down the side effects she had experienced on a blank piece of paper. She filled in all the detailed symptoms before she could forget even one, then fell into contemplation.

She felt certain that Professor Rams must know something more. He had known that the venom of the Priapus spider could be used as an aphrodisiac.

“I guess I’ll have to meet the professor again.”

With that thought, Leah sprang up from her seat.

Emperor Ilei was in his office, continuing to sign documents. After a couple of knocks, Marquis Rodrigo opened the door and entered.

“What is it?”

The emperor put down the fountain pen he was holding.

Marquis Rodrigo, who had greeted him with due respect, approached Ilei.

“It’s about the apothecary of Duke Haidern you mentioned before.”

“Ah. Did you find out anything?”

The emperor’s face brightened as the marquis brought up Haidern.

“The apothecary’s name is Leah. She’s an apothecary who came up from Tren, and passed the apothecary exam at the youngest age. Her first assignment is Duke Haidern’s estate.”

It was a common name for a commoner woman. Ilei stroked his chin at the marquis’s report, which didn’t particularly strike his ear.

“But there is one peculiar point. Recently, the apothecary met Professor Rams, the herbologist, alone.”

“Professor Rams?”

The emperor’s eyes sparkled with interest. Rams was a famous figure even the emperor knew.

“It seems the apothecary met with Professor Rams separately on the duke’s orders.”

The emperor’s eyes narrowed sharply, seeming to agree with the marquis’s opinion.

“That’s highly likely. Do you have a portrait or background of that woman?”

“Ah, here it is.”

Ilei, feeling something fishy, picked up the report the marquis handed over.

His gaze passed over the text detailing her life from birth, growing up as an orphan, and landed on Leah’s portrait.

A pale face with distinct features, and flowing red hair. Lastly, Ilei’s gaze cooled as it fell on her unusual leaf-green eyes.

‘This woman is……’

She was definitely a woman Ilei had encountered before.

That day when he went out to inspect the rampant human trafficking in the capital. The woman he had saved just before she was about to be caught by those men, sitting in a deep alley.

‘So at the imperial palace……’

When he met her at the palace, he thought she was just one of the many palace servants. So he even felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

A bitter smile spread across Ilei’s lips. He put down the report he was holding on the desk.

“What is Professor Rams’s main field of study?”

Suddenly, Ilei became curious about Professor Rams, whom Marquis Rodrigo had mentioned.

“He mainly researches rare herbs. Among them, it seems he has done a lot of research on poisonous plants.”

“He researches poisonous plants rather than medicinal herbs?”

The duke’s apothecary surely wouldn’t have met Rams just to broaden her knowledge of herbology.

It must be deeply related to the duke, without a doubt.

‘What could it be? The reason why Akkia’s apothecary had to meet a poison expert.’

Ilei’s nerves were on edge at the mention of poison research.

‘Akkia wasn’t weak from birth.’

Akkia was certainly not sickly when his mother, the previous empress, was still alive. But after the previous empress died, he began to fall ill little by little from some point on.

And eventually, he left the imperial palace, his physical condition having deteriorated to the point where he could not succeed to the throne.

‘I have a bad feeling about this.’

A nagging feeling that he was missing something important. Ilei, tapping his fingers on the desk, looked at the marquis.

“Marquis. Where is Rams now?”

Ilei’s face froze as cold as ice.