The Prince's Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 86

Chapter 86: LOVE & POISON (10)

“Mother!”

“Aunt!”

Once the situation had calmed somewhat, the first to rush into the Empress’s bedchamber were the First Prince Adrian and Brigitte.

Adrian, who always wore an indifferent face, looked more shaken than anyone.

Brigitte too seemed startled, her large eyes brimming with tears.

“What is going on?”

At Adrian’s question, a servant bowed politely. “Forgive us, Your Highness. It seems Her Majesty the Empress ingested poison.”

Adrian’s pupils shook violently. “What? Poison? Are you saying my mother was nearly assassinated?”

“That is what we suspect. Once Her Majesty wakes up, we will investigate the circumstances…”

Just then, someone else burst noisily into the chamber.

It was Edwin.

“Rachel!”

Seeing me standing with both arms restrained by knights, Edwin turned pale. He tried to run straight to me but was blocked by the attendants.

“W-why Rachel…”

“Her Majesty the Empress was nearly poisoned. This woman was the first to discover her.”

“What? P-poisoned?”

Though shocked at the word poisoned, Edwin soon wore a look of utter confusion.

“Then why Rachel…”

“In the current situation, she is the most suspicious. Once Her Majesty wakes up, she will interrogate her personally, so please wait for now, Your Highness.”

Edwin looked helpless at the servant’s words, then turned his head toward me.

I quietly shook my head at the boy, who looked on the verge of tears.

‘There is nothing you can do right now.’

I was the first witness to the Empress’s collapse and the one who had saved her life.

‘But in the eyes of those who don’t know the truth, I am only the prime suspect.’

And this is the Empress’s Palace. I should be grateful I wasn’t beaten on the spot for barging into the Empress’s bedchamber.

“…Alright.”

Seeing my gesture, Edwin quietly lowered his head and obediently sat in the chair the servant offered him.

Brigitte sat beside him, but unlike in the garden, she didn’t spare Edwin even a glance.

‘Anyway.’

I glanced sideways at the Empress’s physician busily treating her.

‘Thank goodness that punk Sass isn’t here. Does the Empress know he’s aligned with the Second Consort’s side?’

Thinking that, I looked around the people gathered in the bedchamber.

All of them seemed united in waiting for the Empress to come to her senses.

How much time had passed with the physician and the maids tending to her?

“Ugh…”

At last, a groan escaped the Empress’s tightly closed lips. The physician called out to her in an excited voice.

“Your Majesty, can you hear me!”

As soon as she regained consciousness, the Empress furrowed her brow.

To wake and find herself surrounded by so many faces was certainly startling.

“Your Majesty, you collapsed after ingesting poison. Do you recall what happened?”

At the physician’s words, the Empress pressed her forehead with a frown. She seemed to think for a while before slowly shaking her head.

“I only took the medicine I usually take.”

At the Empress’s words, the physician’s face turned ashen. He was the one who had prescribed her medicine.

“It wasn’t me! I know nothing of this! Truly!”

As all eyes filled with suspicion turned on him, the physician shook his head desperately.

He fell flat to the ground, nearly in tears. “Your Majesty, I have served you for over twenty years! How could I dare commit such an unspeakable act…”

“If not the physician, then who else could have tampered with Her Majesty’s medicine!”

“I said it wasn’t me…”

The servants accused, while the physician cried out in grievance. Amidst the uproar that threatened to fill the Empress’s bedchamber with noise—

The Empress, Melanie, quietly raised her hand. “Silence, all of you.”

Holding her forehead, she said calmly, “The physician is not the culprit.”

“How can Your Majesty be so certain?”

At the servant’s question, the Empress answered in an even voice, “He prescribed that medicine a week ago. I have been taking the same medicine for three days since then. If it were poisoned, why would I only collapse today?”

“If the medicine was swapped afterward…”

Just then, Adrian rose from his seat. His voice was calm but sharp as he said, “Isn’t it true that only that physician knows what medicine you take, Mother?”

“Your Highness Adrian! I swear I know nothing of this!”

Though the physician cried out in anguish, Adrian did not even glance at him.

Meanwhile, Melanie let out a small sigh at her son’s words and shook her head. “I know that man well. He doesn’t have the courage for such a thing.”

She steadied her breath, then looked around at those gathered in the chamber and asked, “But how am I still alive? When I lost consciousness after drinking the poison, there was no one at my side.”

This time, all eyes turned toward me.

Melanie wore a puzzled expression before slowly shifting her gaze. She looked at me and furrowed her brow.

“You are…”

“She is the nanny of the Third Prince, Rachel Brown.”

The answer came instead from one of the knights holding me.

“They say she was the one who discovered Your Majesty collapsed.”

“Discovered me?”

Melanie frowned as she looked at me.

“How?”

Her expression showed she could not at all understand how the nanny of the Third Prince could have found the Empress collapsed in her bedchamber.

“That’s…”

“I couldn’t find the restroom, Your Majesty.”

I quickly answered before the knight could cut in.

As expected, the Empress’s expression grew even more incredulous at my words.

“The restroom?”

“Yes, it was so urgent I could not even ask Prince Edwin’s permission and slipped out of the rear garden. I asked passing attendants for directions, but in the end, I lost my way.”

I deliberately lowered my eyes and held my breath at intervals. As the blood rushed to my face, my cheeks flushed red.

To those who didn’t know, it would seem as though I was embarrassed to speak of such a shameful thing and blushing.

“It was truly urgent, so despite knowing it was discourteous, I entered the main building. I intended to ask the attendants inside to guide me to the restroom. But no one was around.”

It was a blatant lie.

But if I claimed I had simply been fortunate not to run into anyone, who could call it false?

In truth, none of those in the main building had witnessed me, so there was no risk of being exposed.

“Then I saw Your Majesty enter this room. Only then did I realize I was an uninvited guest who had dared enter without Your Majesty’s permission, and I was about to leave at once.”

The Empress quietly looked at me as if telling me to continue.

It was not a bad sign.

“Then I heard a loud noise from inside. It sounded like something falling to the floor, and I became worried. So I called out to Your Majesty several times from outside, but there was no reply.”

Everyone, including the Empress, focused intently on my words.

I paused for a moment, then shook off the knights’ hold and dropped to my knees on the floor.

“Forgive me, Your Majesty! Not only did I intrude upon Your Majesty’s bedchamber without permission, but I even laid hands on Your Majesty’s sacred body. I know this is an unpardonable crime! But I could not simply stand by while someone foamed at the mouth and died before my eyes!”

Common sense dictated that if someone collapsed foaming at the mouth before your eyes, who would simply watch?

And if that person were the Empress of the Empire, anyone would have tried anything to save her.

As I pleaded in a desperate voice, sighs of sympathy arose from here and there.

“But how did you know Her Majesty had drunk poison? To judge it was poison at first sight could also be proof that you are the poisoner yourself, could it not?”

At that moment, someone in the room raised suspicion.

“There was a glass bottle rolling by Her Majesty’s side. I wondered if she had drunk poison, so I forced her to vomit by putting my finger down her throat. I know that, too, is an unforgivable crime, but I had no other choice.”

I lifted my head slightly and deliberately met the Empress’s eyes.

“Because I wanted to save you, Your Majesty.”

I emphasized quietly that it was I who had saved her life.

Melanie frowned. “…And how am I to believe that?”

Then, the physician, who had been quietly observing the situation, cautiously stepped forward. “Your Majesty, what she says is not false. When I entered the bedchamber, I clearly saw saliva and vomit on her fingers.”

At the physician’s words, the Empress swept her eyes over me with a blank expression.

“…If the physician’s words are true, then it is highly likely you are the benefactor who saved my life.”

I deliberately lowered my eyes and let my shoulders tremble as if in fear.

At once, I felt sympathetic gazes directed at me from several people.

Even Edwin, seated in his chair, seemed restless as he glanced between me and the Empress.

“Rise.”

At the Empress’s command, I staggered to my feet.

“Did you say you are the nanny of the Third Prince?”

At her question, I bowed deeply once more.

“I, too, wish to believe in your goodwill. But to claim you lost your way and happened to find me is hard to accept. The fact that no one encountered you here also means there is no witness to prove your innocence.”

The Empress leaned back against the head of the bed and stared at me steadily.

“Then how will you prove that you were not trying to poison me?”