CH 36

Eugène was deep in thought, with the mineralogy and medical books he had borrowed from the imperial palace’s library spread out on his desk.

People on land didn’t know how many different kinds of incidents and accidents occurred onboard ships. In a world where most people lived in the same house and bed their entire lives, sailors were those who saw and met people more than anyone else in the world. 

Eugène spent most of his life sailing, seeing, and hearing countless things. There were times when he encountered huge sea monsters and could not help but be in awe of the god’s beasts, and there were painful experiences where he had to throw a still-living colleague into the sea because of the epidemic that swept the ship in an instant. In the meantime, he saw and learned the symptoms of countless diseases and injuries, and learned how to deal with them.

The skin becomes rough, dead skin cells arise, and appetite decreases. When the symptoms worsen, convulsions, coarse fingers, dull nails, and discolored spots appear on the skin. … Yes, precisely. Just as I remember.

Still, just in case, he even borrowed a medical book intentionally and checked it again. However, his suspicions were not wrong. Eugène was able to confirm that the shape of the discolored spots, which were elaborately drawn in the medical book, was exactly the same as that on the back of Louise’s hand. He placed one hand on his forehead, which was getting terribly heavy, and clenched his jaw.

Louise was being poisoned with arsenic. 

Someone was trying to poison Louise. But the problem was, he didn’t know who the hell was trying to kill her. He didn’t know much about Louise. Although she was his wife, he had spent less than five months with her over the course of several years of marriage.

Eugène didn’t know who her friends were. Sometimes it would even slip his mind what month she was born in, so he would forget to make a reservation in advance and go on a voyage to the open sea, then come back and send her a birthday present about three or four months later.

He was never a good husband to her, and he was well aware of that fact. But if he had remained married to her, she might not have been exposed to the same dangers as now.

Who is the culprit?

Eugène decided to think slowly from the extent of his knowledge. At this moment, the important thing was not detoxification but finding the person who had poisoned her. If he couldn’t figure out who was poisoning her, she would be threatened with poisoning again even after detoxification.

He could not let a pregnant woman go through the same thing twice. It would be one thing if he didn’t know about all this, but now that he did, he couldn’t leave her alone to shudder in fear.

The first suspect Eugène could think of at this moment was her current fiancé, the Duke of Fernand, who, if not for her, wouldn’t have had to be embroiled in the rare scandal of a divorce trial.

Eugène recalled in his mind the figure of the Duke of Fernand that he had seen that day. He was the epitome of a spoiled aristocratic young man who grew up unaware of his shortcomings. 

In most cases, they followed strict etiquette, but if they get hurt in areas related to their pride, they would immediately become irrationally aggressive and fierce. Even though he didn’t seem to be aware of it himself, he was of a fairly authoritarian character and hated being looked down on by people whom he considered inferior to himself.

… However, he is not the kind of person to plan a murder as elaborate as poisoning. If he truly wanted to commit murder, he would rather commit a crime of passion for the sake of momentary emotions.

The second suspect was His Majesty the Emperor. His Majesty… Eugène had been writing up to that point on the blank parchment, pondered for a moment, then put ink on the pen and erased the name.

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It was His Majesty who had gone to great lengths for her to conceive, and if she died before she even gave birth, all the troubles he had to endure would be in vain.

If so… Eugène was able to quickly think of a third suspect on the list. It was none other than Grand Duchess Alienor.

She had great pride and attachment to her imperial lineage. Originally, her marriage was morganatic, but after the tragedy of Lan, the late Emperor, Armand IV, broke the tradition of the imperial family and acknowledged the imperial status of Grand Duchess Alienor’s child. 

After that, she never called herself the Duchess of Fernand, but rather Grand Duchess Alienor.

No one knows when she began to have ambitions for the throne. Perhaps it was from the moment when the imperial status of the child she gave birth to was recognized, or when her younger brother closed his eyes, only leaving behind a ten-year-old nephew.

While the Empress Regent was engrossed in the discipline and affairs of the young Emperor, Grand Duchess Alienor secretly cultivated her power under the surface and became the leader of the central nobility faction within a few years.

Upon learning of her sister-in-law’s ambitions, the Empress Regent made a strenuous effort to retaliate, but due to her overly late response, both the Empress Mother and Grand Duchess Alienor’s influence were nearly equal in her latter years. However, when the Empress Mother unexpectedly closed her eyes (on the outside, pneumonia was said to be the cause, but rumors spread that it was actually from overwork. Empress Éloïse was as much a workaholic as the current Emperor.) and the new Emperor ascended to the throne, a new tectonic shift began. 

A beautiful young lady unexpectedly initiated the Emperor’s first counterattack. The Emperor naturally took over political power after the death of the Empress Mother shortly after becoming an adult and did not stand out much until the age of twenty. It is hard to believe, but it was said that until then, the Emperor had a reputation for being a gentleman with a beautiful appearance and gentle words and actions.

He met and fell in love with the young seventeen-year-old daughter of the Marquis of Carbo, who had just debuted that year at the ‘Soirée of the Sky’, a debutante ball hosted by the imperial family, and sparked a great deal of talk at the time.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandrine, who later became Marquise Merlin, was a dazzling beauty with ebony black hair and sparkling dark eyes, and her father was the Marquis of Carbo, the second most powerful person in the central nobility faction.

The Emperor was instantly bewitched by this beautiful maiden, and they began a fiery romantic relationship. Since there was no Empress back then, as was presently the case, the Emperor’s first love, the esteemed daughter of the Marquis of Carbo, became known as a candidate for the Empress. As a matter of fact, she came from a high-status family, was of an appropriate age, and her character and culture were impeccable, which made her the perfect candidate for the Empress. 

However, her appointment as the Empress was thwarted by the opposition of Grand Duchess Alienor. Grand Duchess Alienor, ambitious for the throne, would never allow the Empress to emerge from the central nobility that she had founded. Up until then, she held an enormous amount of power and influence, and she had taken it for granted that she would soon make Merrick ascend the throne.

However, the Marquis of Carbo, having the chance to become a maternal relative of the imperial family, was greatly angered by the decision of the Grand Duchess, which then caused the division between Grand Duchess Alienor and the Marquis of Carbo. Since then, the central nobility has changed from the empire’s largest aristocratic faction to an oligarchy with two leaders.

In between that gap, the Emperor expanded his power. The Emperor welcomed Alexandrine, who had failed to become the Empress, as his concubine, and began to involve himself in political affairs step by step for the next two years with the help of the Marquis of Carbo, who was no different than his father-in-law.

As expected, blood is thicker than water. The son of Empress Mother Éloïse, who had been a pillar of the empire for nearly a decade with the body of a slender woman, soon displayed his competence in his work. 

Meanwhile, the esteemed daughter of the Marquis of Despan appeared like a comet. Her father was the territorial lord of Despan, which became the empire’s largest grain producer after the eastern Landrienne Plains fell into Shaak’s hands. She was a gentle, intelligent, typical southern beauty, and of a virtuous and quiet nature compared to the lively and bubbly Alexandrine.

At that time, the Emperor and Alexandrine were both young and were famous for loving each other with sparks and fighting each other as if it were war, and so, the gentle daughter of the Marquis of Despan, later Marquise Lamott, succeeded in winning the Emperor’s heart as he grew tired of Alexandrine’s zealous personality.

The Emperor accepted her as a concubine and secured the position of the Marquis of Despan, a regional nobleman, within the court. Thanks to this, the aristocrats in the southern provinces, who had little influence in the court, broke away from the central nobility faction and established the southern nobility faction centered on the Marquis of Despan.

The Marquis of Despan became the head of the southern nobility faction with that power and formed another axis of the empire, at a time when the political alliance between the Emperor and the Marquis of Despan was the strongest. They replaced the premier of the empire with only their influence alone. 

Following Empress Mother Éloïse’s death, the late Duke of Fernand, who ascended to the premiership by the power of Grand Duchess Alienor, lost his own power and influence due to this event, retired as it was, and disappeared from the stage of court politics.

If one were to think of it now, all of that happened under the Emperor’s meticulous plan from the beginning. At the time, however, no one knew about it. Until then, the Emperor had hidden his claws, and all events seemed to have happened by chance or as a result of unexpected occurrences.

However, when the Emperor gradually began to stretch, his true nature was revealed to the whole world. Perhaps the one who was most shocked by his astounding true self was Grand Duchess Alienor. In the years that the Emperor lived without revealing himself, she lost her best right-hand man and husband, as well as suffered the humiliation of the foundation of power she had dedicated her life to being torn apart.

It was the Emperor’s character to be quiet when holding his breath but to rage like a storm when he moves. When Grand Duchess Alienor realized the severity of the situation, her and the Emperor’s situation had been reversed. 

For a long time after that, Grand Duchess Alienor lived as if dead, without revealing her ambitions. Thanks to the power still in hand, a certain amount of authority was still there, but it was not enough to shake the empire as it used to, and yet the Emperor always watched the Grand Duchess like a predator seeking prey.

That does not mean the Grand Duchess has completely given up on her ambitions. That persistent obsession with power must be the nature that flows through the blood of the imperial family. It was all because of His Majesty’s tireless efforts to deprive Prince Merrick of his right to succeed to the throne… Clearly, Grand Duchess Alienor has a strong motive. For now, she is the prime suspect.

Motive, personality, and way of doing things seemed to be the perfect match. By all means, this reasoning was based entirely on the political dynamics as understood by Eugène, and the real motives of the perpetrators could have been quite different.

However, considering that the method of poisoning itself was too insidious and that Louise was of humble origin or character, it was difficult to imagine the possibility that it was caused by personal resentment. Though she unintentionally got involved in a court battle after meeting the wrong man, to begin with, Louise was of simple and quiet nature and was not the type to make enemies on her own. 

However, this is all just a matter of doubt or speculation. Making such an accusation without any evidence would only be called slander. The most necessary thing in this situation is physical evidence. Direct and indisputable evidence of the one who is trying to kill Louise.

If Eugène’s conjecture was correct, there was even more of a desperate need for evidence. This is because the opponent was not just a single powerful person, but Grand Duchess Alienor, who was a member of the imperial family and its only remaining grown-up senior. She was an opponent that even the Emperor could not directly touch because of such existential value and symbolism. In order to prosecute a crime committed by such a being, clear evidence was needed.

If possible, Eugène wanted to solve the problem by jumping in directly without the help of others. However, there was a limit to what he could do on his own. He was like a countryside noble who had just arrived in the city and had no special connections in the court. Not only that, he didn’t know the route to get proper information, and he had no subordinates who could be useful.

The only places to search were the mansion of the Duke of Fernand and Grand Duchess Alienor, and the Azure Pearl Palace, the residence of Countess Patrí, where it was difficult for Eugène to be invited, let alone enter personally. 

Eugène confirmed all these conditions and had no choice but to admit that it would be difficult to get to the bottom of the affair on his own. He was not the type to ask for help easily, but he definitely needed someone’s help for this case.

***

That night, Eugène sneaked into the Azure Pearl Palace where the Emperor’s concubine resided.

He knew how reckless this act of his was. It was a matter that could be misunderstood, and if caught, he could be punished for his irreverence toward the Emperor. 

But no matter how much he thought about it, there was no way anyone could secretly meet Louise except this way. He and Louise both lived in the court, and life at the court was like living in a wall made of people.

The Azure Pearl Palace, located to the east of the Imbert Palace, where Countess Patrí resided, was a historic detached palace that the Emperor used to bestow on his beloved concubine from generation to generation. A total of twenty-one concubines passed through this palace for 150 years, starting with Marquise Saint-Enon, who later became Empress, five of them became Empresses, and two of them were said to have been loved by the Emperor until their death.

According to Eugène’s inquiry, Louise’s room was on the western end of the second floor. Unbeknownst to him, the fact that Louise was living in that room was unexpectedly quite well-known. This was because there was some sort of trouble with Countess Patrí’s existing companions over a problem with the use of the room.

Unlike Eugène, who did not care where he slept as long as he did not have to lay his back on the floor, the location of the room was an extremely sensitive issue for courtiers. This was because, in the court, the symbolic status depends on the location of the room one uses, and that was the reason for Louise’s room-related troubles. 

According to the attendant who told him the rumor, the previous occupant of the room was Viscountess Wemmel. She was the Countess’ oldest companion and also her older biological sister.

However, with the arrival of Louise as her new companion, she was moved from the best guest room to the second-best room, and Viscountess Wemmel was said to be awfully angry about it. In court terms, it was a terribly insulting treatment. It doesn’t seem real but at the time, it seemed to be a fairly problematic issue, as even the attendant who spread the rumors sneakily added that it was a frivolous act.

Could this be the addition of a fourth suspect? Viscountess Wemmel…

If one were to think about it with common sense, it was impossible to try to kill a person for just a room. However, considering the fact that the other party was a courtier notorious for her sensitive temperament and bizarrely high pride, the assumption didn’t seem impossible at all. Eugène added Viscountess Wemmel’s name to the list of suspects in his mind and leapt over the balcony.