CH 131

Conspiracy (4)

Roelin felt frustrated. She couldn’t really guess what they were truly up to. And at that moment, Carolina repeatedly urged her to open the box.

She opened the square box in front of her eyes without a moment of relief.

“How is it? It’s a necklace embedded with blue jewels that resemble your very eyes. I hope you like it.”

She didn’t like it at all. Rather, as soon as she saw it for the first time, she already felt a great sense of rejection.

And the moment she saw the blue jewel, Lenoff’s blue eyes, which she had just met earlier, overlapped with it.

Such cold eyes.

An inscrutable blue gaze.

So was the jewelry on the necklace. It was cold and transparent, but she couldn’t really see the inside of it.

“What do you think? Do you like it?”

“……Well, thank you anyway.”

Even if they were empty words, she didn’t say that she liked it. Then, Carolina knitted her brows as if she was dissatisfied with that yet opened her mouth with a smile again.

“If you received a gift, wouldn’t it be polite to try it on the spot? Would you like to take it for a try? Yes?”

Roelin swallowed a sigh at her mother’s constant urging. She just couldn’t understand why her mother was doing something which she didn’t even mean after all.

Roelin knew fully well that this would never restore their relationship back to that of a normal mother and daughter all of a sudden.

She was already tired of this false act. So, she decided to do what Carolina really wanted and take her leave then.

Roelin took the necklace out of the square box and hung it around her neck. She immediately felt goosebumps when the cold chain of the necklace as well as its colder pendant had brushed against her skin.

“Oh my, it has the same color as your eyes, so it suits you really well. I truly hope you will keep on wearing it. Would you, please?”

“……I will.”

She would match their wishes here, in Rakain. But Roelin still didn’t know what the hell was her mother doing this all for.

After swallowing back the words, Roelin raised her hand and swept down her neck. The necklace was not particularly heavy or tight, but she felt like she was being choked for some reason or another.

* * *

“Oh, my gosh!”

Erita stormed into the drawing room with a loud noise. Carolina was sitting face to face with Lenoff before she then frowned.

“Erita, what kind of frivolous behavior is this? Moreover, in front of your brother, the very own sword—the King of this country, himself!”

“Is it true that Mother had bestowed a gift unto that girl? I heard that she hung the necklace in such high spirits—is that really true?”

Erita couldn’t hold back her anger despite her mother’s criticism. So, she asked while gasping away.

Only then did Carolina smile when she found out why her daughter had rushed in and gave a nod. Then, Erita shivered before she started shouting loudly.

“Oh, my! How could you even do this to me? My birthday present isn’t even ready right now…….”

Erita cried out with tears in her eyes.

“Roelin—what’s the big deal about that girl? Why the hell did you call for her anyway?”

How stunned she had been when she heard that Roelin was coming over. Even when she thought about it now, Erita became utterly disappointed with her mother and Lenoff as well.

It was already unfair that her man had been taken away by that cunning girl, plus she didn’t even know why they were calling her here too.

Still and all, that was still not enough, so they gave her a necklace.

The eyes that were filled with tears began to grow poisonous in response.

At that moment, Lenoff, who was silently watching the situation, began to have tremors upon his shoulders. With a gust, Erita instantly turned her eyes and looked at her brother.

“Hahaha! Erita, you silly girl. What are you getting jealous of right now?”

“What do you mean, silly! Did I say something wrong?”

Erita raised her voice in a fit of rage at Lenoff’s glee. Then, Lenoff burst into laughter once again and gestured toward her, which meant for her to come closer. Erita huffed with a dissatisfied expression, but she couldn’t disobey Lenoff’s order and proceeded to approach him.

“There’s nothing for you to be envious of, Erita. The necklace, which I hung on the child, is no different from a messenger of death who will be taking the child away.”

“……What? Death, a messenger?”

Erita opened her blue eyes wide and responded to Lenoff’s words. Lenoff stroked her cheek with the back of his hand as if he thought of his own sister being cute before replying in a low voice while nodding his head as well.

“Yes, the messenger of Death…… but are you sure she had the tea, Mom?”

“Of course. She didn’t drink all of it, but I still saw with my own eyes that she had drunk about half of the tea.”

Carolina frankly nodded. On the other hand, Lenoff simply smiled with satisfaction before rubbing his chin.

Erita, who was listening in to the conversation between the two of them, could only tilt her head in response.

They said that the necklace itself was the messenger of Death.

And her mother even checked if Roelin had really drunk the tea.

“Was the girl’s tea actually poisoned? Then, what about the necklace? Is there poison in it as well?”

Erita guessed in her own way and asked a number of questions with great excitement. After Carolina exchanged brief glances with Lenoff, she then explained it to Erita in more detail.

“You’re only half right—and another half wrong.”

“……?”

“What she drank in the tea was not poison at all. The ingredients that got processed in the necklace were not that poisonous either. It’s just an ordinary substance that can never be called poison if you were to look at it separately.”