Though the canopy obscured my view and I could not clearly see who had entered, I knew.

My throat had dried up like a desert without a single breath of wind, making it difficult to speak, yet I was able to call his name before he reached me.

“Eden.”

The mysterious silver eyes, like a moon that simply shone while keeping to its place, were wavering intensely.

We had only met each other’s gaze, yet the sound of hallucinations from the depths of the ocean reached me. My chest ached from those faint, distant hallucinations.

I could no longer continue speaking.

Because of your eyes. I ended up looking away.

Because of your gaze. I ended up…

“Loa…”

“I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“I’ll return to my room now…”

“Schmitz will be here soon. Stay until then.”

I did not know the reason I met his eyes, nor why I looked away from them. It was simply that I found it difficult to hold his gaze.

A brief silence passed, and it was Eden’s voice that broke it first. At his single word, I found myself meeting those eyes I had struggled to face, directly once more.

“The tea Siobhan gave you was laced with poison.”

“That can’t be.”

“It’s under investigation.”

“What about Sir Sio?”

At my affectionate way of calling Siobhan’s name, Eden’s brow furrowed for a moment.

“You are the victim. Unless other circumstances emerge from the imperial palace, Siobhan will end up bearing the blame as things stand.”

“We have to find out the truth! Even Eden doesn’t think Sir Sio is the culprit!”

A dry cough escaped me at the voice I had raised in an instant. At the sound of that cough, he, who had drawn close before I had noticed, held out a glass of water.

“Stop talking. Your throat is badly damaged.”

My favorite character is about to be falsely accused, and you expect me to stay quiet?

Knock, knock.

The seemingly endless back-and-forth between the two was quickly silenced by the sound of a knock. The owner of that knock was Schmitz, whom Eden had been waiting for.

“Ah, you’re both here. It’s nothing else, really, only that I happened to meet a guest on my way here…”

Behind Schmitz, who wore an exhausted expression as though he had been thoroughly put through his paces, the Emperor made his appearance. Both of them wore surprised expressions at his unexpected visit.

“Oh, fortunately you’re awake.”

“To the Sun of the Empire…”

“No need for greetings.”

The Emperor, who stopped me as I hurriedly tried to rise from the bed to greet him, drew closer. At that sight, Eden offered no response and simply asked a flat question.

“And your attendants?”

“I gave them the slip quite nicely.”

Gave them the slip, is that something an Emperor should be doing?

As though reading my thoughts, the Emperor added,

“Because I’m the Emperor, that’s why.”

Ugh, he caught me…

“The reason I came is that the culprit has been identified.”

It was Eden who stopped the Emperor before he could finish speaking.

What! Why stop him!

“Loa has not yet been treated.”

At his words, the Emperor let out a short sigh and nodded as if in understanding. No sooner had that nod ended than Schmitz approached.

“My lady, how on earth… did you come to drink such poison?”

“Ha ha…”

Schmitz, if I knew, I would have caught the culprit myself…

“Pardon me, my lady, could you open your mouth for a moment?”

At Schmitz’s words, I opened my mouth, and he examined it carefully from various angles before letting out a sigh of relief.

“Fortunately, the poison did not damage your throat. Other than a little irritation from forcefully vomiting, there is nothing else.”

“The blood.”

“Pardon?”

“She vomited a large amount of blood yesterday. Wouldn’t she be lacking in blood?”

At Eden’s words, Schmitz urgently took hold of my arm and checked my pulse.

“Do you feel dizzy right now, or is your heart beating rapidly?”

To his questions, I simply shook my head quietly.

“It seems you recovered while you were sleeping. If such symptoms appear, you must let me know quickly.”

Before leaving the room, Schmitz left behind a great many medicines and nutritional supplements he had prepared, and only after urging me several more times to be sure to call him if anything felt wrong with my body did he finally leave the room.

In the silent room, it was Eden who spoke first.

“So then.”

“……”

“Who is the culprit?”

“It wouldn’t be any fun if I told you right away.”

The Emperor, who smiled brightly the moment he finished speaking, pulled a nearby chair over and sat down in front of me.

“Before I reveal the culprit, let me ask the young lady something first.”

An inexplicable tension wrapped around me at the Emperor’s question. Even though there was no wrongdoing he could know of, it was the pressure that the title of “Emperor” carried.

“What was your reason for saving the Princess?”

What he asked me was a very fundamental question.

Why did I save her, he asks. A person, and a young child who ought to be protected at that, was in danger right before my eyes. How could I possibly ignore that?

“According to the Princess, it seemed as though you were in quite a hurry, as if heading somewhere.”

Stay calm. I need to maintain my alibi and give a persuasive answer that the Emperor will find acceptable.

“If I appeared to be in a hurry, it was because the Princess was in danger. At the time, I had been in a situation where I was to meet Sir Enoch together with Eden, but I judged that protecting the Princess was more important than keeping that appointment.”

“……”

“After safely helping the Princess, I had to hurry in order to keep the appointment. If my actions were liable to cause any misunderstanding, I ask for your forgiveness.”

The Emperor listened to my words without making any gesture or saying anything.

“Furthermore, if what the handmaiden had offered was an ordinary beverage, then it would simply be a matter of apologizing to the Princess. Had it not been an ordinary beverage and the Princess suffered an accident right before my eyes, my regret would have been far greater.”

As I finished speaking with a slight tremor, the Emperor finally nodded.

“As expected, you are a rare young lady.”

“……”

“Hylus, it seems you have found yourself quite a fine wife.”

At the Emperor’s words, Eden made no reply and simply nodded. That sight came as quite a shock to me.

He just nodded without even denying that he had found a fine wife…?

“Very well. Now I shall tell you who the culprit is that fed the young lady the poisoned tea.”

The full account the Emperor relayed was as follows.

After the incident in which Princess Resilla had nearly been attacked, there were handmaidens who had cleaned up the spilled poison. Among them, one had thought nothing of it since she was the one assigned to do the final wiping of the floor, and at that time, a small amount of the poison had gotten on her hand.

Not knowing that poison was on her hand, she had gone about her work, touched the teacup, and even handed the tea to Siobhan.

The poison was harmless upon skin contact, but dangerous once it entered the body.

Since it was not only that handmaiden who had been present from the time of cleaning until the tea was handed to Siobhan, but many other servants as well, it was certain that there had been no circumstances suggesting the poison had been added deliberately.

The Emperor, having finished speaking, wore a briefly contemplative expression before opening his mouth once more.

“However, there is one strange point.”

“……”

“What the poison is has not yet been identified.”

The fact that the Emperor himself had taken part in the investigation and yet had been unable to identify the poison was a very serious problem. It meant that this was something a high-ranking family had carried out while concealing it thoroughly.

“Have you interrogated the handmaiden who intended to harm the Princess?”

“Of course.”

“What did she say?”

“She said she had merely received money and been handed the poison, and that she did not know what kind of poison it was.”

“……”

“When she tried to name the ringleader, she died from a curse that had been placed on her. It seemed she herself had not known such a curse had been placed on her.”

‘The word of the curse.’

It was a forbidden spell that brought death upon the utterance of a specific word. Not only had they used that spell, they had even concealed it from the person herself.

It was a spell cast to thoroughly conceal their own identity.

“The Princess is very worried about you.”

“About me?”

“She likely thinks you collapsed because you saved her.”

The tender-hearted little Princess.

“Please tell the Princess that I am fine and that she need not worry too much.”

“Which brings me to the matter at hand.”

“Would it be all right for the Princess to come visit you?”

I personally would not mind, but I am a prospective duchess, and this is Eden’s home.

I could not readily answer the Emperor’s question. As though sensing my dilemma, Eden opened his mouth before I did.

“Once you have returned to the palace, please let the Princess know she is welcome to visit.”

“Very well. Rest now. And forgive that poor knight already.”

Even without the Emperor naming which knight he meant, I could tell.

It must be Siobhan.

The Emperor, who had been waving his hand with a bright smile before my eyes, produced a small magic stone and vanished in an instant with a flash of light.

“Is Sir Sio under house confinement?”

He did not answer my question, so I pressed him.

“Eden.”

“…He’s in the underground prison.”

“Eden!”

“I watched you spit up blood right before my eyes. If it was because of my knight, I cannot forgive him so easily.”

His voice was clearly calm, yet it was filled with an indescribable anger. It was not the cool voice I had usually perceived, but a voice that seemed to be holding something back with great effort.

It was not that I was unaware he had been worried about me, but now that it had been revealed Siobhan was not the culprit, I thought it should not matter anymore.

The atmosphere, which had been somewhat warm, quickly turned into a cold silence.

“Rest now.”