Chapter 47

Adelina focused all her attention solely on the needle.  

“This is a handkerchief for you, Duke. In the empire, women who are about to marry gift their husbands with handkerchiefs they have embroidered themselves. Princess Isabelle told me.”  

Done!  

After several attempts, Adelina finally threaded the needle and pulled it through.  

“I see.”  

Lexion, pretending to stretch, moved his arm behind Adelina and quietly observed her actions.  

The red thread breathed life into the rose petals roughly sketched on the handkerchief.  

A black rose was already completed on the white handkerchief in the basket.  

‘A wife who embroiders for me.’  

Well, even if it’s a custom of Petrus, somehow it didn’t feel unpleasant.  

‘This might be a good opportunity to start the habit of using handkerchiefs, just as Stephan suggested.’  

If it’s a handkerchief given by Adelina, it would be fine to carry it in his pocket.  

“Oh!”  

“Adelina! Are you okay?”  

“I’m fine.”  

Adelina pricked her finger with the needle, sucked on it to draw out the blood, and smiled bashfully.  

‘I keep feeling dizzy… I should probably stop embroidering for today and get some sleep.’  

Had it been even a minute since I thought of this?  

“D… Duke…”  

“Adelina!”  

Adelina, her face turning pale, collapsed towards Lexion’s chest.  

“Poison!”  

Lexion noticed the faint red and green stains on Adelina’s fingertips and checked the threads.  

There was no way such colors would stain the high-quality threads used by the Imperial Family.  

Lexion immediately drew a dagger and pricked his own fingertip.  

“Haa… haa… antidote…”  

Adelina tried to inform him that the antidote was on the bookshelf, but she couldn’t finish her sentence due to her labored breathing.  

“It’s the antidote.”  

Lexion let the blood from his fingertip drip into Adelina’s mouth.  

Blood that had developed antidote properties after exposure to various poisons.  

For a poison this mild, it would serve as a temporary antidote.  

‘No… the antidote…’  

Adelina, unable to swallow or spit out the blood entering her mouth, barely managed to open her eyes and look at Lexion, despite her continued shortness of breath.  

“My blood will neutralize the poison. Drink more.”  

Lexion sucked on his finger, drawing as much blood as possible, and then kissed Adelina.  

‘No… no… the antidote…’  

Adelina wanted to push Lexion away, but she had no strength left in her body, so she had no choice but to let him do as he wished.  

Only after Adelina’s throat convulsed a few times did Lexion release her.  

“They must have coated the needle with poison as well.”  

Judging by the needle, it was one used in ordinary households.  

If it had been the silver needle used in the Imperial Family, it would have changed color immediately.  

The poison, which had sufficiently coated her fingers after long hours of sewing, must have entered her mouth when Adelina sucked on her finger.  

“Lexion…”  

“Adelina, are you conscious?”  

Lexion, holding Adelina, whose breathing had eased considerably, laid her on the bed.  

He soaked a handkerchief with water and meticulously cleaned each of Adelina’s fingers.  

“Lexion…”  

When Adelina weakly raised one hand, Lexion took it and placed it against his cheek.  

“I will kill them. Absolutely.”  

Lexion’s jaw trembled with determination.  

He would have preferred to be poisoned a hundred times over.  

He was accustomed to poison.  

Accustomed to the fear of death, he could endure the pain of a poison that couldn’t even kill him.  

“But not you.”  

At 13, he remembered the boys his age who died in his place.

How scared they must have been. How much they must have suffered.  

How much… they must have resented him…  

Today, Isabelle wasn’t targeting Adelina.  

Isabelle was targeting his fear.  

The fear that someone might die because of him again.  

“Lexion…”  

Adelina called out to Lexion in a gentle voice, as if to comfort him, raising her other hand.

“Adelina. Don’t worry about anything. I’ll kill them all for you.”  

Lexion’s eyes were filled with a red glow.  

“Bring me the antidote… on the bookshelf…”  

Adelina pointed to a book on the shelf.  

“I’ll take care of my revenge… myself…”  

Yes. One should handle their own affairs.  

Adelina, still pale, twisted her lips into a ghostly smile.  

+++

“Good morning, Princess.”  

The next day, at the pre-arranged time for etiquette lessons, now conducted by Princess Isabelle instead of the Empress, Adelina entered the princess’s palace.  

“Marquis’s daughter.”  

Isabelle seemed surprised to see Adelina’s bright expression, but she soon led Adelina into the drawing room with her usual elegant demeanor.  

“I wish to show this only to you, Princess.”

Adelina subtly showed the handkerchiefs in her basket and waited until Isabelle dismissed the maids and attendants.  

“Look. Thanks to you, Princess, I’ve made so many handkerchiefs.”  

Once they were alone in the drawing room, she placed the completed handkerchiefs in Isabelle’s hands.  

“Quite… a lot, in just one night.”  

Isabelle touched the handkerchiefs with a reluctant expression, precisely on the parts where the embroidery wasn’t done.  

“Oh…”  

The red blood flowing from Isabelle’s fingertips formed a round shape on the white handkerchief.  

“Oh dear! Princess! I must have accidentally left the needle there while embroidering. What to do.”  

“Ugh!”  

Before Isabelle could put down the handkerchief, Adelina swiftly pretended to touch it and pricked Isabelle’s hand with another needle.  

“You…”  

Isabelle clutched her left chest, glaring at Adelina with bloodshot eyes.  

“Haa… haa…”  

Just like Adelina the previous night, Isabelle’s breathing became labored.  

“Imperial… Imperial physician…”  

Isabelle managed to squeeze out her voice, reaching out towards Adelina.  

Tears began to form at the corners of her eyes from the pain that felt like her lungs were tearing apart.  

“Oh dear… Princess. You’re making such a fuss over a little needle prick. If you suck on it, the bleeding will stop soon. Go on, try it.”  

Adelina grabbed Isabelle’s hand and shoved the bleeding finger into Isabelle’s mouth.  

“Ugh… mmph…”  

Isabelle shook her head desperately.  

“Suck on it, Princess.”  

Adelina held Isabelle’s chin and covered her nose with the handkerchief.  

“Ugh… ugh…”  

Isabelle’s eyes, filled with terror, seemed about to pop out.  

‘Crazy! Is she really trying to kill me!’  

Adelina’s grip was so strong that Isabelle couldn’t escape.  

Her throat felt like it was burning and stinging, and she couldn’t even make a sound.  

Cold sweat began to break out from the intense fear.  

“Oh dear. Princess, it seems you’ve had a sudden indigestion. Let me perform some emergency treatment.”

Adelina lifted Isabelle’s hand with a truly sympathetic expression.  

“Ugh!”  

When Adelina grabbed the needle, Isabelle tried with all her might to pull her hand away, but it was futile.  

“Princess, don’t worry. This is my specialty. You just need to prick the Shaoshang point here.”  

Adelina smiled sweetly and pricked the skin just above Isabelle’s nail with the needle.  

“Ugh!”  

“Princess, the blood is so red, it seems you’ve had a severe indigestion. But don’t worry. I’ll prick all ten fingers for you.”

“Ugh…”  

Adelina held Isabelle’s trembling hand and pricked the nail area of all ten fingers with different needles.  

As blood pooled at the tips of her nails, she pressed them with the handkerchief to draw out as much blood as possible.  

“Princess, I’ve pricked all ten fingers.”

Only after staining ten handkerchiefs with blood did Adelina stop her actions.  

She tossed Isabelle’s hand aside and elegantly sat on the sofa, tidying her disheveled hair and clothes.  

“Haa… haa…”  

Isabelle, her face pale, glared at Adelina in anger.  

“It seems the time has passed. You should be able to breathe comfortably now.”

Snorting at Isabelle’s expression, Adelina looked at the clock on the wall and slowly stood up.  

As Adelina had said, Isabelle’s breathing eased.  

“What is the meaning of this! You should have called the Imperial physician!”  

As her breathing became more comfortable, Isabelle gritted her teeth and spoke in a hoarse voice.  

Still suffering from the aftereffects of the poison, her throat stung when she spoke, so she clutched it with both hands.  

“If I called the Imperial physician… how would I explain it?”  

Adelina looked down haughtily at the still-pale Isabelle.  

“What?”  

“Princess, you were pricked by a needle and collapsed. It seems to be poisonous. The needle appears to be poisoned. But curiously, this needle and thread were given to me by you, Princess. So you gave it to me like this?”

“Young Lady.”  

Realizing her scheme had been exposed, Isabelle called out to Adelina in a flustered manner.  

But soon, her characteristic arrogant smile appeared on her lips.  

Perhaps her fingertips still hurt, as she clasped her hands tightly together.  

‘So what are you going to do about it?’  

What could you possibly do? Even now, you couldn’t kill me.

Adelina frowned as she watched Isabelle’s expression change back to one of confidence and arrogance.  

“I’ll give these handkerchiefs to you as a gift, Princess. I decided to make a knot for Duke Lexion’s sword in the Ernst style.”  

“Adelina, do you think you can survive after humiliating me?”  

Isabelle threatened with a harsh voice, her eyes still fierce despite her hoarse throat.  

“I survived death yesterday, so another miracle might happen.”  

Adelina pushed Isabelle back into the sofa as she tried to stand.  

“Adelina. Florin.”  

Isabelle, collapsing onto the sofa like a crumpled piece of paper at Adelina’s gesture, gritted her teeth.  

Blood slightly oozed from her nails as they hadn’t fully clotted yet.  

“Thank your parents. If you weren’t the Princess, I wouldn’t have let it slide. But. If you play such tricks on me again.”

“Ha. Do you think you can kill me! How dare you threaten the Empire’s Princess!”

Isabelle shouted, cutting off Adelina’s words, clutching her throat.  

She took deep breaths to endure the pain.  

“Well. I told Leophris that I’d cut off his thing.”  

Adelina bent down to meet Isabelle’s eyes.  

“Surely… you didn’t…”  

Isabelle’s eyes shook more violently than when she had been poisoned.  

“Yes. That imagination is correct.”

Adelina winked with one eye.

+++

‘Adelina… You can just kill them both.’  

Lexion, hiding on Isabelle’s terrace, quietly observed Adelina’s actions.  

He frowned slightly when Adelina mentioned Leophris’s name.  

• How dare you desire my woman!

• No!

The person who had stopped Lexion from killing Leophris was none other than Adelina.  

• If you kill him… Ernst will face immediate retaliation…  

Adelina, looking pitiful with her disheveled hair and scratches from branches, had held his hand.  

• Adelina…

Are you an angel? How can you be so generous to someone who tried to harm you?  

• But. I must keep my promise.  

One corner of Adelina’s lips lifted slightly.  

Her smile, as dark as the gathered mists of the forest, was so beautiful.  

• Cut it off.  

Her voice was as seductive as a devil’s temptation.  

The enchanting whisper that wetted his ears was so sweet.  

He was almost dazed by Adelina’s lips brushing his earlobe.  

‘Angel, my foot.’  

Recalling the events of that night, Lexion rubbed his ear.