The negative energy surrounding Adelia scattered around and disappeared instantly.

As her pale complexion slowly returned, the Saintess exhaled in relief.

‘I really thought she died!’

It wasn’t the Saintess’s power. Adelia had purified the poison with her own power. Warm breath flowed from Adelia’s mouth. Her slowly beating heart regained its proper rhythm, and her cold body temperature returned to warmth.

“It’s done.”

When Adelia’s condition recovered, the Saintess withdrew her power and removed her hands. People marveled at it as the Saintess’s miracle. Only the Saintess and Adelia knew the truth about the healing.

At the Saintess’s words, Lucian moved quickly. He gathered her hair that was matted with blood to one side and wiped the blood from her mouth with his relatively clean sleeve.

Lucian carefully lifted Adelia’s blood-stained body. It was a careful and gentle movement, as if he was touching very delicate flower petals.

He quickly left the banquet hall without giving his attention to anywhere else.

‘Is he angry?’

The Saintess tilted her head after catching a glimpse of Lucian’s face looking at Adelia before he left.

The emotion etched on his face was clearly anger.

Unlike the destructive anger seen in the original work, it felt like he was barely suppressing anger boiling up from deep inside.

‘No way?’

The Saintess shook her head repeatedly. It was an impossible imagination even to herself.

There’s no way he was angry because Adelia took poison without caring for her body.

* * *

While walking down the corridor carrying Adelia, Lucian never opened his mouth.

Though he was naturally reticent, he felt like he would snap at Adelia if he opened his mouth now.

Why she used such a method, why she didn’t tell him in advance, why she pushed her body so hard.

Though he had many questions, he couldn’t ask someone who had collapsed unconsciously.

The palace servants of the Crown Princess’s palace were shocked to see the blood-covered Lucian and hurriedly opened the bedroom door.

“The Saintess healed her so no one is needed. Everyone leave.”

At the Prince’s order to leave, the maids glanced repeatedly at the blood-soaked Adelia.

Seeing her state that clearly needed immediate washing, they had already heated water for the bath.

The dedicated maids all looked around searching for a sacrifice. A sacrifice brave enough to object to the Prince’s words.

Finally Gina, who had served Adelia the longest, stepped forward.

“But…… Her Highness needs to be washed……”

“Can you not hear my words?”

“Ah, no Your Highness.”

Thinking that just one objection to the Prince’s order was enough to prove herself a true maid who cared for her master, all the maids left the room.

“Shouldn’t we wash Her Highness?”

“She was completely covered in blood.”

“What can we do? When His Highness the Prince says leave, we have to leave.”

“Then surely…… His Highness the Prince will……”

“Shh! Be quiet. You’ll get fired talking like that.”

The maids left imagining various things. They blushed at thoughts they couldn’t voice for fear of being arrested for disrespecting the imperial family.

The bedroom door closed, leaving just the two of them in the room.

“You can get up now.”

Faint anger mixed in Lucian’s voice. He had many things he wanted to ask Adelia right away.

At his voice, Adelia narrowly opened one eye. When blue eyes showed through the small gap, the anger that had filled his face melted away like snow.

When Adelia blinked, her long eyelashes moved elegantly. It was a quiet, deliberate movement, as if waiting for an answer.

“No one is here.”

“Phew…… Did we get out well?”

In an instant, Lucian’s voice softened. Still suffering from the poison’s aftereffects, Adelia didn’t notice the change.

Lucian walked to a table placed in one corner of the bedroom. He sat Adelia in a hard metal chair without cushions. When Adelia swayed as if strength still hadn’t returned to her body, Lucian held her shoulders.

Opening her blue eyes properly, Adelia finally looked around at herself and Lucian.

Though she knew she had spilled a lot of blood in the banquet hall, they were covered in more blood than she expected.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know I would spill so much blood.”

Adelia apologized with lowered eyebrows.

What she had wanted was blood dripping from her mouth onto the floor. Not this violent vomiting of blood.

“Oh no…… It got on you so much.”

Adelia touched Lucian’s chest where her blood was heavily stained. The blood stains that had flowed down centered on his chest had completely soiled his clothes.

Lucian’s face changed moment by moment with each movement of Adelia’s touch. Finally, Lucian grabbed Adelia’s wrist.

“…… It’s fine.”

“I’ll purify it right away.”

Adelia hurriedly drew out white magic. Golden energy wrapped around Lucian and Adelia’s bodies.

A warm sensation enveloped their whole bodies. The heat rising hotly where they touched must be from the white magic.

Their clothes became clean as if not even a speck of dust had touched them.

Seeing the blood stains disappear without a trace made what had just happened feel like a dream.

— Lucian……

At that moment, Adelia’s voice calling him so sorrowfully brushed past his ear. That memory made Lucian’s memories clear.

He frowned and tightened his grip on Adelia’s hand.

“Why did you do it?”

“What? Do what?”

Adelia tilted her head at the suddenly hostile atmosphere. She couldn’t understand why Lucian was angry.

Though she appeared to lose consciousness in the banquet hall, she had actually heard everything. What Adelia had drunk was a poison that caused one to cough up blood and paralyze the body.

Her body’s strength was temporarily gone, but her consciousness remained clear. Though she couldn’t open her eyes to see the situation, her ears were open.

With other senses blocked, sounds became even clearer. Just hearing the surrounding sounds, things had gone as Adelia wanted.

‘Though there was an unexpected variable.’

Not considering her weak body, she drank a full dose of poison so the effect was too strong. And having used too much power making the white magic crystal, she couldn’t purify the poison quickly. Thanks to that, her insides melted and she vomited blood clots.

If she hadn’t been able to absorb the Saintess’s power, recovering would have taken longer and she might still be writhing in pain.

Even now, her condition wasn’t very good. Though she had purified all the poison, her melted insides burned and cold sweat dripped.

“Ha……”

Lucian let out a deep sigh. He ruffled his hair with his hand.

Seeing Adelia sitting there blankly not knowing what was wrong made his chest feel tight and irritation surge. He was at a loss for where to begin pointing out her mistakes.

“Never mind. Just rest for now.”

Lucian’s choice was avoidance. At that moment when he was about to turn around after tidying his disheveled clothes—

“Lucian wait!”

Adelia caught his wrist. Though it wasn’t a very strong grip, Lucian helplessly turned his body led by her hand. Adelia stood up from her seat and faced Lucian.

Lucian saw himself falling into her pure clear blue eyes.

Thump thump. An unknown sound rang in his ears.

“There’s blood on your face.”

She noticed stains she hadn’t seen before.

Adelia reached out and touched his reddish eyes. When her gentle touch met his delicate eyes, his red pupils trembled.

Lucian bent down toward Adelia who had her arm stretched out and grabbed both armrests of the chair she was sitting in. It was a consideration so she could move more comfortably.

Her slender fingers wiped away the blood stains. The darkened stains that had slightly hardened didn’t wipe away easily. She gently wiped the stains so as not to scrape his skin.

Seeing his clean face, Adelia’s eyes curved prettily as she smiled brightly.

“That’s enough. It’s clean……”

Adelia inhaled sharply with a gasp while speaking with a smile.

The distance between them belatedly registered. Thanks to Lucian bending down to accommodate seated Adelia, they weren’t far apart.

The hand-span distance was close enough to hear each other’s breathing. His subtle western wood fragrance brushed her nose.

Two people alone in the quiet room. The close distance and subtle atmosphere.

Heart-pounding sounds echoed. Their heartbeats thundered at such similar rhythms it was impossible to tell whose beat faster.

What caught Adelia’s eye were his bright red lips.

At that moment…

Bang bang bang—

Someone knocked on the door so forcefully it seemed it might break.

Two presences were felt from outside. How many people could there be who would knock on the Crown Princess’s bedroom door?

Adelia and Lucian easily guessed their identities.

“Father and Lawrence?”

“Father and His Highness the Prince?”

Their gazes naturally shifted from lips to each other’s eyes.

Their staring eyes simultaneously pointed to the door.

Lucian slowly straightened his tilted body.

While his gaze was directed elsewhere, Adelia let out a sigh of relief.

“Brother! Sister! What’s wrong?”

“Open the door while I’m asking nicely.”

Whether it was threat or worry, though the banquet couldn’t have ended yet, their voices coming all the way here seemed somewhat agitated.

Their trembling voices were full of anger and urgent breathing.

Lucian opened the door. As the firmly closed door slowly opened, the father and son appeared.

Adelia smiled gently with curved eyes.