The Prince's Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 87

Chapter 87: LOVE & POISON (11)

“Couldn’t it be that you switched my medicine, waited for me to drink it, and then pretended to save me?”

The Empress’s suspicious gaze pierced me like a blade.

“…Your Majesty, forgive me for speaking so boldly.”

I looked straight into her eyes and continued, “If I had intended to poison you, I would not have saved you.”

At those words, everyone in the room was shocked.

“Outrageous! How dare you spout such insolence!”

“Your Majesty, you must confine and interrogate her immediately!”

“That’s right! How can you spare such an audacious woman!”

Protests flew from every direction, but the Empress remained calm, even after hearing my words.

She replied in an indifferent voice, “Perhaps you changed your mind out of fear of being discovered?”

“Your Majesty!”

No, why is he suddenly stepping forward when he’d been keeping quiet all this time?

I frowned at Edwin, who had abruptly leapt to his feet.

I signaled for him to sit down quickly, but this time he seemed unwilling to obey me.

“Rachel only came with me to attend Lady Brigitte’s birthday banquet. Your Majesty even received her greeting yourself.”

“But she left her seat midway, didn’t she?”

At that moment, the knight holding me spoke up in a disapproving voice, “Your Highness remained in the rear garden the entire time, so you would not know. Who knows what this woman did while she was absent…”

“Is there anyone who saw Rachel enter this room to switch the medicine?”

Edwin cut the knight off and asked back.

But no one answered.

No one had seen me wandering inside the building, so of course no one could claim to have seen me enter the room to tamper with the medicine.

“And in that cabinet, dozens of bottles identical to the one Her Majesty drank from are displayed. How could she possibly know which one Her Majesty would drink and switch only that bottle?”

Edwin spoke in a small but clear voice, arguing point by point.

“So, if she truly intended to poison Her Majesty, she would have had to replace all the bottles in that cabinet. But as everyone knows, anyone entering the Empress’s Palace besides the imperial family or attendants undergoes a belongings inspection.”

He cast his eyes toward the cabinet and continued, “But Rachel passed the inspection without any issue. If she were the culprit, she would have had to smuggle in all that poison. How could she possibly have passed the inspection?”

Ignoring the astonished looks from those around him, Edwin turned his head toward the Empress.

“So I believe the culprit is not Rachel, who visited the Empress’s Palace for the first time, but someone who knows this place better than anyone, Your Majesty.”

A heavy silence filled the room.

The atmosphere suggested everyone agreed with Edwin’s reasoning. But no one dared to speak, too busy watching the Empress’s reaction.

“Edwin.”

Melanie finally spoke slowly, her eyes fixed on Edwin, who was defending me.

“You have changed. You were once a child who couldn’t even greet me properly.”

At her words, Edwin flinched and lowered his gaze.

“…Indeed.”

Melanie rubbed her forehead with a sigh, then gave a short command, “Everyone but the princes and the duke’s daughter, leave.”

“Your Majesty, your body is still unwell, how could you…”

“Precisely because I am unwell, I lack the strength to deal with so many. So please, leave us.”

At the Empress’s order, everyone in the room eventually withdrew like the tide.

The knights at my sides grabbed me again, trying to drag me out.

“Leave that woman as well.”

“Pardon? But Your Majesty, she…”

“Do not make me repeat myself.”

At the cold gleam in her gray eyes, the knights immediately released me, saluted, and left the room.

Only the Empress, the First Prince, Edwin, Brigitte, and I remained in the chamber.

“The Third Prince has chosen his nanny well. Or perhaps it should be said that the nanny has chosen her master wisely.”

The Empress leaned against the head of the bed with a faint smile. Her gaze was on me.

“Rachel Brown, I apologize for suspecting you. I owe you thanks.”

“…Thank you.”

“In truth…”

The Empress accepted my bow, then lifted one corner of her lips.

“I already know who the culprit is.”

So it was as I thought.

I lowered my eyes and pressed my lips together in silence.

‘Somehow, I thought she was letting go of her suspicions too easily.’

It seemed the Empress already knew who had tried to poison her.

“Pardon?”

“What do you mean, Aunt?”

At the Empress’s words, Edwin and Brigitte looked at her with shocked eyes.

Unlike the two of them, the First Prince Adrian only looked briefly surprised before returning to his usual indifferent expression. Perhaps he already guessed who it was from his mother’s words, for a quiet anger burned in his eyes.

Brigitte asked back in an agitated voice, “Who is it? Who dared to harm you, Aunt…!”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Melanie gave a bitter smile.

“Think about who is absent from this place.”

“No way…”

Edwin couldn’t bring himself to finish his words and only blinked his eyes.

I asked in his place, “Are you suspecting the Second Prince?”

It was a reasonable suspicion. The Second Prince Lloyd hadn’t appeared even though the Empress had collapsed from poison.

From the words exchanged by the knights earlier, it seemed that as soon as the Empress left the rear garden, he had returned to the Second Consort’s Palace.

“Of course, he wouldn’t have done it himself. But the Second Consort must have given him a word of warning. To leave the place as soon as a disturbance arose, perhaps.”

Unlike the shocked Edwin and Brigitte, the Empress continued speaking with a calm face.

“This is not the first or second time. No matter how many times I change my maids, it’s always the same.”

She picked up the water glass on the bedside table and raised one eyebrow.

“Today, I let my guard down. Since it was an unscheduled banquet, they must have taken advantage of the gap.”

Hearing those words, Brigitte tried to act calm, but her hands clutching her skirt trembled.

“It’s my fault. If I hadn’t said I wanted to have my birthday banquet in the palace…”

Edwin looked worried at the sight.

“Oh dear, Bri.”

The Empress too must have noticed her niece’s distress, for she called her gently.

“It’s not your fault, so don’t blame yourself.”

“But…”

Brigitte’s eyes filled with tears as she spoke in a trembling voice.

“Because of me, Aunt…”

“That’s not it. Come here.”

The Empress drew Brigitte into her arms.

“Don’t cry. Today is your birthday. If such a lovely face is stained with tears, wouldn’t it break this aunt’s heart?”

Brigitte bit her lips to hold back her sobs and nodded.

The Empress stroked her niece’s hair gently.

“…I didn’t know.”

At that moment, Edwin spoke in a dazed voice.

“I never imagined that Your Majesty the Empress was being threatened.”

“Threatened.”

At his words, the Empress let out a small laugh. As though the word itself was ridiculous.

“A pitiful woman, deluded into thinking she could gain the Emperor’s love if she placed her son on the throne.”

She lowered her eyes as if recalling the Second Consort.

“That woman is foolish. She knows better than anyone that His Majesty does not truly love any woman.”

I lowered my head at Melanie’s words.

Her words were half true, but also half false.

‘Cavelius III had one woman he truly loved.’

It was a story once so famous that the entire Empire had talked about it.

The cold-blooded Emperor who massacred even his own blood relatives and seized the throne, gave his heart to one woman, who was not only of common birth but also became the First Empress.

‘Yes, the one the Second Consort instigated back then…’

I thought of Helena, the Second Consort, who had once come to the organization.

Much younger and more beautiful than now, she had commissioned an assassination at that time.

Though I was not the one who took the job, I knew about it. Because it was Ian who carried out the mission.

‘The assassination of the First Empress of the Empire.’

It had been a rather successful job.

As Helena wished, the First Empress lost her life, and the unborn child in her womb was also easily dealt with.

“You must all be shaken, so return and rest.”

Melanie pulled the bell cord hanging by the bed.

The maids waiting outside entered immediately. They tidied the surroundings and prepared fresh clothes and gruel to soothe her stomach.

“Brigitte, I’m sorry you had to experience such an unpleasant incident on your birthday.”

“There’s nothing for you to apologize for, Aunt.”

Brigitte bowed her head deeply in a formal greeting. She still seemed to feel guilty, as if the Empress had almost died because of her.

Melanie looked at her niece with pity, then turned her gaze to me.

“Lady Rachel Brown.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I wish to repay you for saving my life.”

At her words, I slowly lifted my head.

“Tell me if there’s anything you desire. I will grant it.”