Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Despite all expectations, the Empress was showing a very strange reaction.

‘What is with her reaction?’

But the thought did not last long.

Siervian unconsciously held her neck in her hands, as if she was running out of breath.

But soon, her hands dropped loosely, and she collapsed into her father’s arms.

“Siervy! Contact the court doctor right now! Now!”

She then lost consciousness while the Emperor embraced her.

* * *

“Allergies?”

The Emperor asked in a deep, subdued voice.

The court doctor, who was in front of him, was flustered.

“Yes, Your Majesty. Although there are some people who have allergic reactions to Harmin. It’s very rare, but of all people…the Princess has it.”

The Emperor was very restless in the Imperial Palace and sank into his chair in despair.

AD

He thought for a moment that the Empress had poisoned the Princess.

“Why on earth the duchy didn’t do such a fundamental task before drinking the tea!”

It was an important ceremony of a lifetime. If there is such a life threatening event, shouldn’t they look into it?

When his daughter suddenly collapsed, Alderuan had felt his heart drop as well.

“Although the task was meaningless at the time, it was a very rare case of an allergy.”

“…Is it that rare?”

“Yes. Regarding the Harmin tea, it’s probably not enough to make an accurate diagnosis, but it’s true that it was an allergic reaction.”

It was so rare that even the Emperor himself was unaware of the allergy, or that Siervian was born with it.

The Emperor then touched his face in stress and nervousness.

“…No wonder, that’s why she didn’t like tea, Sire.”

“From Siervian’s allergic reaction, perhaps she also might have been repulsed by the scent, and, too, must have felt itchy due to the allergies.”

“Ah…”

AD

Everyone thought it was just a child’s whining.

He thought he was once a healthy kid, but to make such a mistake.

But there was also the Empress’ unusual behavior.

“Court doctor, did you analyze what was entrusted to you earlier?”

The Empress was now confined at the Empress’ Palace due to her actions toward Siervian.

It was true that they cried out to the end that it was a misunderstanding. It wasn’t an attempt to poison, it was just an allergy.

In particular, when Siervian collapsed, the Empress seemed to be genuinely surprised.

“…I have something to report about that.”

Seeing the stiff expression of the court doctor, Alderuan shook his hands as it was.

Then the maids and servants in the Imperial Palace who were working together left the room in haste.

“You must have found something.”

The actions of the duchy’s Harmin specialist and the chief lady-in-waiting of the Empress were suspicious, and it was the same with the Empress.

AD

What was found in the Harmin tea handed to Siervian in the garden?

“Strange ingredients were found in the tea we brought earlier.”

“Is there poison in it?”

“It… was close to poison, but not exactly. Rather, it had the nature of disrupting the mana of the human body.”

The Emperor’s face crumbled at those unexpected words.

If it was not poisonous, it could still cause serious problems if it would disrupt the mana of the body.

Especially for a child like Siervian.

“What about the second tea?”

“The second tea was imbued so it could not be tested accurately.”

He even tried to squeeze the tea left in the carpet to test it, but it was already too late.

Throughout all of his report, the court doctor looked nervous.

“If you look at the state Siervian is in right now, do you think the second tea could contain some drug?”

AD

“Until that point, I do not know, sire”

As the one who made a name for himself as the first court doctor, the feeling of being in the middle of a political strike seemed to be harder.

The court doctor bowed his head as he reported the last one.

“In the future, Her Highness must stay away from dangerous drugs like this and Harmin tea as well.”

“If the drugs were mixed, would there be any side effects?”

“The Princess will be fine because of her quick response and because she drank only a small amount of the tea.”

The Emperor listed many noble households in his mind, but this soon gradually faded away.

He gathered his thoughts, but he then asked the court doctor again.

“What could have happened to Siervy if she had drunk the tea all the way?”

Whether it’s the duchy’s crime or the Empress’ order, it was suspicious that the drug had to be mixed with the Harmin tea.

It could be that the Harmin tea is an easy weapon for them to use.

Because of the regulation of the consumption of Harmin tea.

“At a young age, the Princess, if she would have drunk a lot more than she had… With the drugs inside that could disrupt the mana for a long time… The Princess would’ve lost the ability to wield magic.”

“I see.”

After replying, the court doctor tried to suppress his shaking eyelids.

These plots had happened several times in the era when mages were in power.

So, the results of drugs that had this effect like the one used on Siervian could lead to some of the small records.

“Let this fact remain unknown for the time being.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor focused on his thoughts as he watched the court doctor bow his head and draw away.

The actions of the Empress and the duchy seemed far too overboard.

“Bring in the Princess’ escort knight.”

It was the escort knight of the Princess, but somehow the Captain of the Imperial Guard came along.

“Your Majesty, I dare ask your permission to speak.”

AD

“What is it, Captain?”

The Captain of the guard quickly bowed down to the floor and closed his eyes tightly in gloom.

When he heard that there was a sudden disturbance, he hurriedly visited Sir Roid and listened to the situation after the disaster.

After that, he had to rebuke the knight, who knew nothing but honesty.

“Please forgive Sir Roid. He is a knight armed with honesty and loyalty. But it is a definite sin that he failed to protect Her Highness the Princess…”

The Captain’s speech was long, but he summed it up clearly one by one.

He was called by the Empress and had no clue about what would happen, so he couldn’t save her!

In the eyes of the Captain of the Guard, who was well versed in the life of the Imperial members, the incident was a conflict between the Imperial family.

To be victimized by something like that, it would be a waste of Sir Roid’s skills.

“What do you wish to say, Captain?”

“Please, he is a knight who has a bright future… Please, Your Majesty.”

Contrary to the Captain’s worries on what would happen to Sir Roid, the Emperor just looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

AD

“Sir Roid.”

“I have your orders, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor was only suspicious for the first time that the escort knight was a worker for the Empress’ Palace.

But Roid’s innocence became clear when he stated that the Empress was headed for the Princess’s Palace.

“I will grant you immunity.”

“Pardon?”

Sir Roid actually heard the order, but he made a blunt expression only because the Captain of the guard surprised him by being on his side.

“Even if I contact you, I give you the authority to stay on your knightly duty as the Princess’s escort.”

“……!”

It was simply an extraordinary power, because it meant to prioritize his duty over the Emperor’s orders.

But it seemed that the only thing that surprised him was the Captain of the Guard, who couldn’t make a sound and just opened his eyes wide.

“I’ll take your name.”

Helped by the Captain of the Guard, Roid calmly made a humble reply with firm determination.

As if doing his knightly duty was as natural as he breathed.

* * *

Siervian’s recovery took days. This was because her fever was quite high and it didn’t drop readily.

As she went in and out of consciousness, the person next to Siervian kept changing. It was her Father, then it was Ellie, and her brother.

But when she opened her eyes, there was someone always there for her.

“……”

As she woke up in the dark night, she did not find it strange that Ellie was dozing next to her.

‘It doesn’t hurt anymore.’

Obviously, her previous days were really painful.

She had had less tea when compared to her previous life, so why did her symptoms seem to have gotten worse?

Maybe because she was so young she couldn’t remember it clearly, but this time she had to experience it vividly.

‘I want to take a bath.’

Ellie and Jane took turns taking good care of Siervian, but she was clearly uncomfortable now when thinking of taking a bath.

But Siervian decided not to wait. She tried to get up without waking Ellie, who was dozing off on her side while holding her hand tightly.

‘I don’t feel so good.’

Somehow, she was strangely gloomy following her sickness.

It was because she tried to avoid the situation, but ended up drinking the Harmin tea.

In particular, whenever she thought that it was too early for the Empress to come, she got terrified.

‘Is it impossible to change the big events in my life?’

Siervian then closed her eyes tightly and quickly wanted to bathe and relieve the gloom and sadness.

Now, whenever she was sick, there were people who wouldn’t leave her side even for a moment. It was only natural for Siervian to wake up after being sick for a long time.

She had already changed in a lot of ways.

‘The Empress is a really, really terrible person.’

She didn’t know what to do in this situation other than just dislike her.

The power of the duchy originally derives from its integrity and good faith. Would they just abuse the Harmin tea like this?

Naturally, she remembered the emotions of the Empress right before she lost consciousness.

‘It’s such a surprise that I’m allergic to it, but really, why am I even allergic to it?’

In her previous life, the Empress had found a way to prevent the allergies. She was even surprised they found a secret method for removing it.

She couldn’t remember the Empress’ reaction in her previous life, because she was only six years old at the time.

‘I would’ve died without that secret knowledge.’

Although she was executed the day before she became an adult, at least it wasn’t mana sparsity that killed her.

Even in her poor condition in the underground prison, She couldn’t drink Harmin tea, but there were no symptoms of mana sparsity.

Because the medicine she took steadily as a child maintained its effectiveness.

‘How did they know of the secret passage? Was the thief also sent by the duchy? Was that it?’

There were only a couple of questions, but she couldn’t even share the questions with anyone, she just groaned inwardly.

The four meritorious families who founded the Empire helped the first Emperor build the Imperial Palace. So was it a secret passage that even the Imperial family didn’t know?

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