The commander’s lips parted and froze at those words.

Clearly, he hadn’t expected such an answer. But for Serena, that’s really what she would have thought.

‘I wouldn’t think a person had changed.’

The face, appearance, and voice are all the same. It would be stranger to think the soul had changed.

“I was almost abandoned by Magnus and was driven to the annex, and I deeply regretted it then. Because it was lonely being alone in the annex.”

Serena made up a suitable excuse.

The commander fell silent again at Serena’s words. He seemed unable to find words to say.

“…Usually, people think there must be some reason. They wonder if they might cause trouble again.”

“I thought that was a generalization of thinking. How do you know what ordinary people would do? What’s the standard for an ordinary person in the first place? Are you using yourself as the standard?”

“…Duchess, I’m not trying to joke around right now.”

“I’m not joking either, I’m asking. If you want to persuade me, don’t bring up such nonsense, but add a reasonable explanation.”

As Serena pressed him, the commander closed his mouth again. He slightly frowned his previously expressionless face.

I shrugged at the finally revealed emotional fluctuation.

‘It was good to ask him to take off his helmet.’

It was certainly easier to push and pull when you could read expressions.

“And I didn’t ask about ordinary people, I asked about your thoughts. So what are you trying to explain to me?”

“You knew methods of using and producing medicinal herbs that even the imperial doctor didn’t know.”

“I developed them on my own.”

“The position of imperial doctor is one that only the best physician in the empire can hold. There’s nothing he doesn’t know.”

“Maybe it’s time for him to retire due to old age. And how do you know if he’s the best? There could be hidden masters.”

Serena answered with a snort.

The commander’s head throbbed at her response, like she was telling him not to talk nonsense while holding her head high.

While Magnus von Kelahinum tried to overwhelm him with power and pressure, his wife was trying to deal with him using seemingly logical illogic.

“If you continue to be this uncooperative, we’ll have no choice but to use rough methods.”

“What rough methods are you talking about using on me, a duchess, without any proof? Do you even have that power?”

Serena said, trying hard to hide her pounding heart.

In a deal, or anything, what you need when talking to someone is guts. It’s a fight of who can bluff until the end and who gives in first.

‘Magnus told me to trust him, so…’

Serena had nothing else to believe in right now.

“Even His Highness the Crown Prince couldn’t lay hands on me recklessly without evidence.”

Because Magnus wouldn’t sit still.

“The reason I’m being pointed out as the culprit is because I treated His Majesty the Emperor with new medicine that even the imperial doctor doesn’t know… Don’t you think that’s too far-fetched?”

“The imperial doctor said this. That the prosthetic limbs you make and the method of producing that medicine would have come out someday in the future.”

“So? People develop and grow. It’s natural to gradually lead better lives, isn’t it?”

“If it had come out a little later, I wouldn’t have doubted you.”

The commander spoke very slowly.

He slowly turned his gaze to me and met my eyes.

“Yes, if it had come out decades, or even well over a hundred years later.”

“……”

That far in the future?

My face frowned involuntarily. In fact, these things were so obvious to Serena that she hadn’t even thought about it.

To begin with, since she started learning from over there, she didn’t know well how the medicines here were produced.

“You proceeded with treatment using completely unknown drugs, and now completely unknown drugs have been detected in His Majesty’s body who received that treatment. Moreover, it’s said that you’re a person who even has a record of attempting to poison someone.”

A sharp killing intent heavily pressed down on the air. The commander’s sharp gaze glared at Serena.

It was clearly a gaze full of hostility and animosity.

As if the expressionless face he had maintained until just now was to hide the emotion so full of disgust that it was dazzling.

“In this situation, if we don’t suspect the Duchess, who should we suspect…”

“……”

“Please tell me once.”

Serena took a deep breath, forced strength into her trembling lips, and tried hard to smile.

“You’re being rude, Commander.”

“I never had any courtesy to show to criminals in the first place. If you weren’t the lady of the Kelahinum ducal family, you should have been having this conversation with me while bound in chains and screaming.”

He speaks so well about torturing.

Serena tightly clenched her hands on her knees. She knows she shouldn’t be scared, but it’s impossible not to be.

He is deliberately pressuring her right now.

“Let’s say you’re right, Commander. Do I look that stupid to you?”

“I won’t listen to nonsense.”

“That’s right. Do you think I couldn’t think of what you could think of? That I would blatantly try to poison His Majesty, whom I’m currently treating, with a poison that doesn’t exist in this world? Even a child would see that and go, ‘Oh, the culprit is the Duchess!’ In such an obvious situation, does it make any sense that I would do such a thing? No.”

Serena, who was speaking, shook her head lightly.

She snorted and opened her mouth arrogantly.

“Do you think that when I, of all people, seriously decide to poison someone, there would be such a thing as a failed attempt? How many unknown poisons do you think I know that you don’t? Even now, I can think of dozens of ways to kill without getting caught. There are poisons that can’t be detected and poisons that only show their effects years after being administered. With all these… methods, why on earth? Why would I use such a stupid method that would end in failure to try to poison His Majesty… I really want to ask.”

How many poisons does he think Serena knows?

Poison can also become medicine.

If handled incorrectly, it’s poison, but if handled well, it can become medicine.

In the end, anyone who handles medicine in this era can be considered to handle poison just as well.

If we’re arguing, the imperial doctor who continuously managed from the side could sufficiently be a suspect too.

“Do I look that stupid to you, Commander?”

“……”

The commander closed his mouth again at the voice that shot back, dumbfounded.

He seemed to think about something and then nodded lightly.

“The Duchess’s argument has a point.”

“Of course it does, I only said correct things. Who in the world would attempt an assassination in a way that has the highest probability of being suspected?”

Above all, Serena had absolutely nothing to gain from killing the Emperor.

If it’s to the extent of committing murder, shouldn’t there be something to gain?

When executing something, there needs to be a purpose.

“Above all, what do I gain from assassinating His Majesty? I don’t know, so if you’ve thought of something, tell me.”

She asked sincerely because she had absolutely no interest in politics.

The only thing that can be gained from killing the Emperor is the imperial throne.

But that’s already the Crown Prince’s.

Is the position of Crown Princess vacant then? Sorry, but that’s not the case either.

The Crown Prince isn’t the type to take a concubine, and the ducal family probably doesn’t have any secret connection with the Emperor.

“No, I really don’t know. What on earth do I gain?”

“……”

“Surely you don’t know either, right? To kill someone, there needs to be a reason and a purpose. I have no reason to kill His Majesty. Why? That was the first time I’ve properly met him face to face.”

It was the first time she had a proper conversation and faced him while treating him, she didn’t even know him before that.

“If I kill His Majesty, is there anything for Magnus or Father to gain?”

“……”

The commander couldn’t say anything.

Because her words were reasonable.

There’s nothing for the Marquis family and the Duke family to gain.

The ducal family and the marquis family were already on good terms with the imperial family to begin with.

This incident will only worsen the relationship between the Duke’s family, the Marquis’s family, and the imperial family.

If anything, it was a matter where the losses outweighed the gains.

“…According to information, you didn’t like His Highness the Crown Prince and Her Highness the Crown Princess.”

“Why would that lead to assassinating His Majesty? Even if I don’t like His Highness the Crown Prince, if His Majesty passes away, the person I don’t like will only ascend to the throne as Emperor, right?”

At the question of whether it wouldn’t be more beneficial to let him live long, the commander fell silent again as if he had become a mute who had eaten honey.