‘Haibick!’

Irena sprang up from her chair and turned her head toward the door.

‘Not a single maid left behind.’

Normally, a few attendants would remain.

Yet in this place, it was only her and the Crown Prince.

She had thought that inefficiency was a calculated insult directed at her, but…

‘It’s a trap.’

At this rate, the culprit behind the Crown Prince’s assassination would unmistakably be Irena, who had been present at the scene.

Irena did not foolishly cry out for help. Instead, she took a small sip of Ikart’s tea.

“Tss, ptuh.”

This one was Haibick as well. The difference was that the concentration was so dense, the intent was chillingly clear.

Who could it be, the one who wished to kill the Crown Prince right before his fiancée’s eyes.

‘Ah, it seems I’ve gotten myself tangled up in something troublesome.’

She was furrowing her brow and rubbing her stinging hand when it happened.

“What are you… doing.”

It was Ikart, whom she had thought had lost consciousness.

His voice, as though dragged out with great effort, was ferocious like a beast caught in a net.

“Well… I told you to leave.”

He ground his teeth with a crack, and the jaw muscles he had tensed bulged. The growling man drew ragged breaths as if enduring the pain.

“……”

The Crown Prince had many enemies. From a young age, articles about his incidents and accidents were published almost every day.

Would someone like him not have recognized poison?

He had likely realized it was poison after taking a single sip.

‘That can’t be right. He already knew. So he deliberately tried to drive me away… those cruel words were his way of showing consideration.’

Enough. What meaning was there in dwelling on such things now?

“I told you. That I refused.”

Irena answered flatly.

Then she picked up his cup and moved away. A red gaze clung to her back.

“Haibick does not evaporate. Take careful note of where this is.”

As she tilted the cup, the tea trickled down and stained the carpet deeply.

“Because it is decisive evidence.”

Even as the sharp-minded man lay dying, he grasped her intent. A fleeting glimmer of something different flickered in those red eyes that had been like those of a bird of prey.

“I’m going to touch you for a moment.”

“……”

Next, Irena carefully examined him.

Dilated pupils, slow pulse, shallow breaths, cold fingertips.

As she had thought.

“This is acute Haibick poisoning.”

“……”

The Crown Prince’s red eyes narrowed like those of a raptor.

For a moment, goosebumps rose along the back of her neck, but she did not let it show.

“It is a poison that first slows the flow of blood from the extremities, then stiffens the muscles. Since Your Highness ingested a highly concentrated dose all at once, if left as is, you will stiffen and die slumped over the table. Likely……”

“……”

“……Within 15 minutes.”

Haibick was a poison known by the nickname ‘the last breath.’

She had heard that what was once used in animal taxidermy had recently come to be used as a hobby among certain dissolute and sadistic nobles.

“I can save you. You are fortunate. The fact that the finest apothecary happens to be with you at this very moment.”

She spoke with deliberate confidence to hide her tension, but Irena had also noticed something strange.

‘Come to think of it? What an extraordinary coincidence. As though I am the one meant to resolve this……’

No, she would think about that later as well. She shook off the rising unease. For now, she had to focus on the man before her.

“In exchange for saving you, please do not ask me too many things.”

“……”

“Can you promise me that?”

Irena looked at the man, frozen in pain.

She was no saint. Nor did she have a gentle enough nature to rashly save a dangerous man without any assurance.

Using one’s life as a bargaining chip was a low thing to do, but she needed at least an empty promise.

“If you understand, blink.”

“……”

“……”

How much time had passed. The red eyes slowly disappeared and reappeared. The sharp tension broke with a dull release.

The rather drastic method she had been prepared to use if he refused to comply fortunately dissolved in her mind.

“The promise…… please be sure to keep it.”

Irena took out a small pouch. Among its contents, she turned a cylindrical cosmetic container in reverse, and a white, pointed needle came out with it.

‘I can do this. I can.’

She gripped the needle firmly and took Ikart’s hand. The calluses and scars embedded in each knuckle offered a brief glimpse into the man’s life.

“Hoo……”

Irena steadied her breath and drove the needle into the tip of his finger. For someone who was nervous, the technique was merciless.

Prick.

Prick, prick.

Prick, prick.

The sound of flesh being pierced was grim.

Dark blood welled up and spilled from the tips of all ten fingers, staining the front of Irena’s skirt in an unsightly manner.

“I’m drawing out the poison that has accumulated at the fingertips. Please do not misunderstand.”

For a while, strange sounds filled the drawing room, thick with tension.

How much time had passed. She wiped the sweat that had gathered on her brow and cupped Ikart’s cheek.

The eyes that had lost focus weakly regained their sharpness and followed her.

‘The pupils that had been unfocused are now fixed. The heartbeat is……’

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

Fortunately, along with a faint warmth, a slow but steady pulse continued.

At this rate, the poison would not spread to the heart. However, it was still not enough.

‘Where was that.’

She rummaged through her pocket again.

“Haibick, Haibick…… ah, here it is.”

Among the rattling items, a glass vial sloshing with liquid came into her grasp.

‘Will he…… open his mouth willingly.’

Irena stared at the man’s firmly pressed lips. Drained of color and pale, the thin, austere lips were tightly shut.

‘There’s no way he can drink it on his own, is there?’

As Irena alternated her gaze between the glass vial in her hand and his lips, wariness crept into the man’s red eyes.

“Your Highness must know that I truly did not want to go this far, understood? All of this is a very minor collision that occurred in the course of saving a patient with nothing but selfless intent. So……”

With a resolute expression, she firmly secured Ikart’s cheek.

Gulp. A dry swallow passed through her tightened throat.

‘……Did you just swallow?’

His gaze began to bore into her with that very look.

She was sorry, but the opinion of a dying patient was overruled. Before he could assess the situation, Irena moved toward his lips…

“Here we go.”

“!”

She forced the mouth of the bottle in.

“Wh, wh? It’s spilling, it’s spilling!!”

Irena’s voice grew urgent as she calculated the price per weight of the universal antidote.

“Open your mouth. Even if you die, drink first and then die.”

She could not give up like this. Did he have any idea how much this cost? For the sake of this single vial, for the sake of all the experiments she had sacrificed to obtain it, she could not afford to spill a single drop.

She pressed both of his cheeks in so deeply they hollowed, forcing a gap open.

Every time the medicine trickled down the corner of his mouth, her eyes gleamed involuntarily.

‘Just a little more…… just a little more……’

She tilted her head, shifting angles, working diligently, until finally…

Gulp. His throat moved slowly.

“Got it!”

Irena let out a cry of joy and checked on him.

Constricted pupils and reddened ears. And the two hands that had, at some point, gripped her waist. Warmth had returned to his cheeks, and Irena smiled faintly as she cupped them.

“See? I told you I could save you, didn’t I? I truly did not doubt it for even a moment. Of course, who else but me could…… huh? Huh?”

Her joyful self-congratulation did not last long.

“Cough, cough…… ugh……”

After several coughs, the faint scent of blood spread, and something warm trickled down her chin.

‘Ah, this is bad. I’m going to get an earful.’

Irena, having confirmed the blood, stared blankly with a crumpled expression.

The situation was not good. Perhaps even more so than she had thought.

“……The immediate crisis is handled, so when the physician arrives, tell them it is Haibick poisoning.”

“……You……”

“The promise not to ask too many things, please be sure to keep it.”

After reminding him once more, she unhesitatingly tipped her own cup of tea into her mouth.

“Hey!”

A shout struck her ears, but she had no presence of mind to answer, as she was using the last of her strength to overturn the table.

Crash! Clatter!

The delicate porcelain pieces collided and shattered with a tremendous noise.

With trembling hands, she selected an intact teapot and hurled it at the window with all her might.