﹡ ⊹ ⊰ Chapter 232 ⊱ ⊹ ﹡
After Maid Otua came back from the Empress Palace.
Head Maid Otua looked at the person in front of her with fearful eyes.
The young man with black hair and reddish eyes had such an outstanding appearance that anyone would be mesmerized by it.
However, for the head maid, he was the scariest and most fearful man more than anyone else she has ever encountered.
"Has the Empress given you orders?"
Overly tense at Perez"s low voice, the maid winced greatly.
"Yes, it"s the venom of the t.i.thi spider. She said to put it in His Majesty"s liquor just now..."
From her pockets, Maid Otua put the small bottle on the table with a trembling hand.
"The venom of a t.i.thi spider." Perez smiled as he reached out and rolled the small bottle in his grasp.
If the Empress didn"t move, he thought he should move first.
"I guess, I"m lucky."
Maid Otua crouched still with her head down at the words of the Second Prince, whose language were unknown.
"I didn"t expect the Empress to save me the trouble."
It was shortly after returning from the Academy that the Second Prince first visited Maid Otua"s home.
He said, "If the Empress wants to harm His Majesty, come to me and let me know first."
That"s the reason behind the amount of money coming into Otua"s secret account every year.
The salary of the Emperor"s maidservant was not small. However, the money she got from him was an astounding amount even for Otua, who spent most of her time in her family"s hometown living a difficult life.
Although she had the Empress backing her up, she wasn"t loyal to her.
She was blackmailed with her family as a hostage and she was compelled to listen to her every command.
However, the situation has become increasingly strange recently.
Each time the Second Prince moved, the Empress" power has noticeably diminished, and even the Western representative changed.
Maid Otua was terribly afraid of the Second Prince.
She can"t even meet his eyes properly right now. There was a reason for her fear.
"What should I do?" Maid Otua asked carefully.
The answer was a fixed question. The maid came to see the Second Prince with the thought of breaking the Empress" order to kill the Emperor.
"Pour it in."
"...Yes?"
"As the Empress told you, pour the poison in his bottle."
"Huh...b-but.." Maid Otua was surprised and looked at the Second Prince. The red eyes she met for the first time was cold.
"Why are you surprised?"
"Then His Majesty..."
"This won"t be the first time you"ve poisoned His Majesty"s liquor."
"That..how do you..."
Instead of answering, Perez said with a faint smile.
"So this time, you just have to poison the Emperor as the Empress told you."
The maid didn"t answer. She was just looking down at her hands grabbing tightly on the skirt of her dress.
She then asked with a trembling voice.
"What happens to my life?"
It was the same question she asked the Empress.
Empress Ravini did not guarantee her own well-being. That was the biggest reason why Otua visited Perez.
"...Let me leave the palace and live with a new ident.i.ty."
Perez stared at the maid before saying.
"Is that what you want?"
Otua nodded. Getting out of this scary palace, shaking off the shackles of her family.
That"s what she wanted.
The maid reached out again and grabbed the bottle of poison. But the hand touching the lid of the bottle was still full of hesitation.
"Don"t worry. If you give the antidote right after he collapsed, His Majesty will not die."
Not yet. It can"t be this easy. Perez was supposed to be the first to discover the collapsed Emperor.
"If so..."
At the words of Perez, the complexion of Otua remarkably brightened.
"How come you grew a conscience now when it didn"t even exist more than a decade ago, Lady Bella Otua." Perez said with a lot of sarcasm at the maid.
"I don"t think there was any hesitation when you brought me poisoned food."
"Your Highness...."
The only person alive who entered and exited the abandoned palace is Bella Otua, the black-haired maid. She opened her eyes wide.
"Did you think I didn"t know?"
Maid Otua got up from her seat and knelt in front of him.
"I"m sorry! I"m sorry, Your Highness!"
Ba-dump! Ba-dump!
Her head pounding was so fierce that she even heard it while pressing her head on the floor.
"At that time, I had no choice but to... Please forgive me!"
"Stop with the meaningless apologies." Perez coldly cut off the maid.
"Go back to the Emperor"s palace right now and poison his drink with the spider"s venom. That"s how you pay for your sins, Bella Otua."
After a while, Maid Otua, whose body was trembling, answered with her head down.
"The order of His Highness the Crown Prince...I will follow."
***
Back to the present.
"Tell me what you did, Maid Otua." Emperor Jovanes asked, breathing hard.
"I...." Maid Otua said, closing her eyes tightly.
"I have poisoned your Majesty"s drink."
"Who told you to do it?"
The maid raised her trembling finger to point at the Empress.
"The Empress..."
"No!"
"No! This is slander, Your Majesty! The maid and the Second Prince conspire to frame me!"
Instead of giving up and being devastated, the Empress seemed to choose to struggle to the end.
"Here is the bottle of poison the Empress gave me." Maid Otua said, taking a small gla.s.s of bottle with just one finger from her sleeve.
"It can"t be used as proof!" The Empress strikingly and threateningly approached the maid with eyes as if they wanted to rip that mouth off right away. Then she looked down at the maid with her gleaming eyes and said.
"Do you know what you"re doing?!"
It was obviously a threat.
The maid took a frightening step back but continued to bow her head down.
"She gave me the poison and told me to pour it all in His Majesty"s bottle."
"Your Majesty, this is unfair!" This time, the Empress approached the Emperor"s bed and begged.
"Do you believe that maid"s words over mine? It"s just a vicious slander, Your Majesty!" Then she grabbed the Emperor"s sleeves tightly, like in the conference hall.
"Please, believe me, Your Majesty."
How pathetic she seemed. It was a performance that anyone could fall for.
Then, Perez said, pulling something out of his arms.
"There is evidence."
"What?" The Empress spun her head quickly toward Perez.
"Here"s a letter from the Empress asking her henchmen to acquire the venom of the t.i.thi spider."
It"s a purple letter envelope.
That was exactly what Serral gave me in return for saving Bellesac.
"No way..." The Empress said in-between breaths, looking at the letter handed over to the Emperor"s hand with doubt in her eyes. "That...How did you...."
The Emperor briefly checked the contents of the letter. His lips, which became paralyzed because he couldn"t breathe properly, rose crookedly toward Empress Ravini.
And he said with a shallow breath.
"How dare you do this to me."
The Emperor hastily retrieved his arm from the Empress" grip before ordering the Knights.
"Take the Empress to the dungeon."
Two knights waiting at the door immediately walked to the Empress and dragged her by the arms.
"Let go of me! Let go of me! Let go!"
Empress Ravini struggled with all her might as she screamed.
It was in an instant that her beautiful face turned ugly and distorted. And her perfectly dressed hair was messed up.
"Ah! Let go of me! Do you know who I am?! Let go!"
At one point, Empress Ravini resisted so strongly that even the knights were unsettled. Soon, she glared at the Emperor lying on the bed and began shouting.
"I resent you! I regretted that the poison didn"t end up killing you, Jovanes!"
There was madness in the blue eyes of the Empress.
"You"re even more useless than a pig!"
Those ferocious eyes this time turned to Perez.
"Perez! You lowly thing from a filthy maid! I should have killed you with your mother!"
And she screams again.
"Why isn"t heaven on my side!? Why do you keep intercepting me!? Why!?"
Her wailing face continued to shed tears. She was resentful and furious, releasing everything from her mouth.
At that moment, the eyes of the Empress, with a glint of evil, met mine.
The Empress"s face, which had been crumpled and twisted like a devil, slowly unfolded and opened her mouth.
Her shaking blue eyes stared at me.
"It"s you."
The Empress mumbled somewhere in a weak voice.
"Everything, it was all because of you."
I didn"t answer. But I didn"t avoid the Empress"s eyes.
"Ha....!" The Empress laughed with trembling lips. And it quickly spread into a big laugh.
"Hahaha! Hahahahaha!"
The Empress smiled madly as she bent her back.
"...It"s ugly. I don"t want to see it anymore. Take her out." Emperor Jovanes frowned and ordered the Knights.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Despite the rough handling of the Knights, the Empress did not rebel as she did a while ago.
"I was deceived! Hahahaha! I"m a fool!" She was just reeling and laughing out loud like a madman.
Tears began to flow again in the face of the Empress.
"Ha! Hahaha!"
The sound of the Empress" laughter as she was being dragged echoed from afar.