“Now then, let’s have our meal.”
I’d been so focused on His Highness that I hadn’t noticed the attendants busily setting out the food. It belatedly occurred to me that they must have seen us kissing.
‘Well, they all know what happened yesterday anyway, so it’d be ridiculous to be embarrassed about something like this.’
I lamented that my skin wasn’t thick enough to casually display such behavior. The others didn’t seem awkward at all—they simply went about their duties naturally, as if they’d seen nothing.
‘Of course, the people attending His Highness would be those who aren’t shaken by what they see, or at least those who don’t show it.’
From the moment I stepped out this door, such tranquil comfort would be a luxury, so I decided to enjoy the current peace. It would be easier on my mind to assume that rumors about His Highness and me had now spread not just throughout the imperial palace, but throughout the entire capital.
“Sir Aila, you mustn’t think of other things when there’s food in front of you.”
“Ah, yes. I’ll eat.”
However, without even needing to move my utensils, the plate before me was already full of food His Highness had placed there.
“Oysters marinated in lemon juice. They’re quite palatable, so try them.”
Among them, the one on top was an oyster. When I put it in my mouth, after the soft texture came the scent of tangy lemon juice and the sea. I quickly swallowed the food and answered, “It’s delicious.” His Highness looked satisfied and cut the steak into small pieces before putting it in his mouth. Then he nodded slightly and pushed that plate toward me as well.
“Lamb steak with truffle mushroom sauce, apparently. Eat plenty.”
I easily realized that His Highness was checking whether the food was poisoned again. He’d done this the day after I fell ill before, but somehow it felt more blatant than back then. A conviction-like premonition came over me that perhaps he’d been seeing me as overlapping with Tiel even back then, which was why he’d done it.
‘But why is he explaining each menu item one by one?’
I didn’t understand why His Highness was taking it upon himself to do something a cook would do. Since the speed at which I ate couldn’t keep up with the speed at which food piled up, a small mountain soon formed on my plate.
“I may appear inexperienced, but I am properly a trained knight. I can manage a meal on my own.”
I wanted to ask if His Highness shouldn’t be eating as well, but out of habit, my words came out stiffly. When I slowly retraced what I’d said, it seemed not only cold but also lacking in manners. I felt like breaking into a cold sweat.
“Do you remember the promise you made yesterday?”
“Of course.”
Though I didn’t know why this topic was coming up, I answered quickly. The nuance might be slightly different, but it was a request to take Tienas’s place during the mourning period for him.
“Good.”
His previously warm voice slowed to a deliberately noticeable degree.
“I want to do for you the things I wanted to do for Tiel but couldn’t.”
His Highness’s attitude felt strangely cunning, but I quickly shook off that impious thought. Instead, a feeling welled up that was too hot to call gratitude and somehow awkward to call emotion.
“Is feeding me food one of those things?”
“That’s a somewhat unpoetic way of putting it, but yes, it’s one of them. Normally guard knights can’t share meals together. I did want to see you eat well and sleep well.”
Since he went this far in his explanation, I couldn’t refuse His Highness’s actions just because I felt uncomfortable.
“So you must eat well and sleep well. Though there’s nothing more difficult than that in the imperial palace.”
Having finished his explanation, His Highness repeated the act of taking small portions of food and tasting them.
“Wait a moment, Your Highness.”
Among them was a grilled fish with spices that His Highness absolutely never touched. It was the one food that His Highness, who didn’t openly show likes and dislikes, uniquely wouldn’t eat.
‘Wasn’t it a dish that was at the meal the Empress had last?’
It was something that never appeared on the table when His Highness dined alone. It was strange that it was on today’s table.
“I’ll eat only that one.”
I didn’t want to make him eat food he disliked just to check if it was poisoned. If he refused even this, I planned to just ask them to remove that food since he wouldn’t eat it anyway.
“Worried I’ll steal it from you?”
He teased, knowing that couldn’t be the case. In the end, before I could stop him, the grilled fish entered His Highness’s mouth. As His Highness chewed the food a few times, his brow furrowed slightly. I wondered if a rejection reaction was occurring because it was food he disliked after all.
“That’s why I told you not to… Will you spit it out?”
I hastily brought my hand to His Highness’s mouth. I meant for him to spit it into my hand rather than swallow it, but in that moment, His Highness’s Adam’s apple moved. And then shocking words fell.
“The food is poisoned.”
“What?”
He spoke so matter-of-factly that I momentarily couldn’t comprehend the words. But as if to inform my dazed self of reality, blood began seeping from His Highness’s mouth.
“Your Highness!”
“Seal all the doors!”
The bedroom became chaotic in an instant.
“What… is this…?”
The hand I’d extended trembled violently.
“Are, are you alright?”
I clenched my pathetically shaking hand and asked. My vision turned completely red, as if dyed by the blood that appeared on the handkerchief.
“You knew it was poisoned before swallowing, didn’t you? Why… didn’t you spit it out?”
His Highness had clearly grimaced before his Adam’s apple moved. That meant he could have spit it out if he wanted to.
“I couldn’t dirty your hand.”
I was shocked that he’d eaten poison for such a trivial reason. In the blink of an eye, the door was sealed and the attendant who had been testing the food was bound while kneeling. Meanwhile, having received a handkerchief, His Highness casually wiped the blood from his mouth and drank water.
“Your… Your Highness.”
“It’s a strong poison, so I reacted briefly. You know I recover immediately from something like this, don’t you?”
His Highness, who had actually been poisoned, seemed perfectly fine. In reality, no more blood came from His Highness’s mouth, nor did he appear to be in pain, but I felt suffocated. Though he’d been subjected to many direct attacks, there were few attempts to poison him like this.
‘Because it doesn’t work on him anyway.’
So the target of this incident probably wasn’t His Highness either. The reason they put poison only in food His Highness didn’t eat must have been to make the target clear.
‘They were trying to kill me.’
This was on a completely different level from petty assassins breaking into the Caesius family. The fact that poison made it onto the table when His Highness was right there meant they were determined to kill their target.
‘Because of me…’
Rationally, I knew that even if it wasn’t me but anyone else in this position, this would have happened, but I couldn’t suppress the guilt rising within me.
“You have nothing to worry about.”
His Highness, who had perfectly recovered in no time, patted my shoulder lightly and stood up. Receiving his sword from Sir Ken as naturally as flowing water, His Highness approached the attendant who had been testing the food first, clearly an accomplice.
“Your Highness? You should rest.”
His ability would perfectly detoxify the poison, but if His Highness had suffered internal injuries even briefly, it would be better to rest. However, none of the guard knights except me dared to block His Highness’s steps.
“Guard Sir Aila.”
“Yes.”
The moment the order was given, Sir Ken stood before me. I suddenly thought that in moments like this, couldn’t I, who wasn’t even holding a sword, no longer be called a knight?
‘Though I’ll be leaving once this matter is over anyway…’
It felt strange to have become the protected target when I was supposed to be the protector. Regardless of such complicated feelings, His Highness drew his sword and lightly tapped the neck of the bound person. Because the well-sharpened blade was wrapped in sword energy, blood dripped each time it lightly touched the neck.
“Whose orders were you following?”
“I, I did it alone. I could no longer stand by and watch that vile omega trying to manipulate Your Highness, so I moved before something terrible could happen!”
Even to me, who was ignorant of how the imperial palace operated, it was an absurd excuse. The one spouting this nonsense probably didn’t say it thinking His Highness would believe it either.
“I see. So you’re admitting your crime.”
Whatever the scheme was, I thought that perhaps after being dragged to prison and interrogated, he might open his mouth, even if with lies.
“How could killing a lowly person be a crime…!”
The bound person couldn’t finish their words. With an expression that couldn’t imagine what would happen to them, only their head was rolling on the floor.
“Hup.”
The body, separated from the head, slowly collapsed to the floor. It was such a sudden execution that even the attendants accustomed to such things gasped in surprise.
His Highness swung his sword through the air, shaking the blood onto the floor.
“Clean it up.”
He gave the order chillingly calmly as he returned the sword to its sheath.
