“I’ve heard everything. This is an extremely dangerous poisonous herb, isn’t it? And you’re going to make medicine with something like this? Ha. What would have become of everyone if it weren’t for me? All fooled by a fraud like you!”
“Pardon?”
Viola looked genuinely baffled.
She really is no ordinary woman. Already caught red-handed, and still such innocent eyes.
Those round, gentle, sprout-like eyes had almost fooled even Celia herself into thinking she was blameless.
No wonder Sir Conrad, and even His Grace the Duke, have both fallen helplessly for this crafty fraud.
“Come with me!”
“Wh-why are you doing this? Please explain—”
“You’re asking as if you don’t know? Ha. Never mind. As if you’d say anything but nonsense meant to bewitch people, being the fraud you are!”
Celia forcibly grabbed Viola’s wrist and began dragging her along.
“Ow.”
Viola was pulled along helplessly. Her body was light as cotton candy, which made her easy to drag.
Playing the fragile one, are we.
A disbelieving laugh slipped out at the shameless act. She’d clearly been stirring men’s protective instincts this way to seduce them all this time.
At the sudden commotion, passing servants began to gather and murmur, but the more they gathered, the more triumphant Celia’s stride became.
She was thoroughly intoxicated with the exhilaration of having caught a fraud.
But then, Viola put strength into her arm and shook off the hand gripping her wrist.
“I don’t know what this is about, but I’ll walk there myself.”
Straightening her disheveled clothes as she said it, her manner was as dignified as a royal’s. Celia let out a disbelieving laugh.
For an impostor who made medicine out of poisonous herbs, acting so composed was laughable.
Well, I suppose you’d need that much nerve to impersonate royalty.
Unfortunately, she had no hard evidence for the royal impersonation, but it didn’t matter. She’d caught her red-handed with the poisonous herb.
And so Celia dragged Viola straight toward the Duke’s study. But unfortunately, the Duke she’d so wanted to meet wasn’t there.
Instead, the one who greeted them was none other than Conrad.
“Haa. Lady Dorn.”
Conrad pressed his fingers to his temples and let out a deep sigh. His face made it plain he was thoroughly sick of this.
“What is it this time? Haven’t I told you again and again? Stop concerning yourself so pointlessly with Miss Viola. Attend to your own duties instead…”
“Sir Conrad! That’s not what matters right now!”
Undeterred by Conrad’s reproach, Celia stood firm. If anything, her eyes were blazing with a twisted sense of mission.
She roughly pulled the gamjong herb out of her pocket and cried out:
“Look at this! This isn’t some medicinal herb—it’s poison, poison! I looked into it myself!”
“…”
“To think this fraud dared to try to feed something this dangerous to Young Master Jayden! If it weren’t for me, his personal lady’s maid, he would have been poisoned without anyone knowing!”
Celia went on at great length about what she’d witnessed in Viola’s workroom and just how suspicious this woman was.
She was certain of it. That once they heard this story, not only Conrad but even the passing servants would applaud her sharp eyes.
But something strange happened. She’d expected a shower of praise, but the reaction she got back was cold and unforgiving.
What? Why is everyone making that face?
What were those looks, as if she herself had become the strange one?
At that moment, Conrad spoke coldly.
“Lady Dorn. It seems you’ve made a very serious mistake. Not only I, but His Grace the Duke, already know about this.”
“…Pardon?”
“That is a poisonous herb I obtained personally, at Miss Viola’s request. All of it happened with His Grace’s permission.”
Celia’s mouth fell open blankly.
“B-but… if something happened after Young Master Jayden took it…!”
“Lady Dorn.”
Conrad cut her off flatly.
“Young Master Jayden is a Dragonblood, to begin with. That poisonous herb may be lethal to an ordinary person, but it cannot harm the young master. And Miss Viola requested it precisely for use in his treatment.”
“B-but it’s poison!”
Celia simply couldn’t accept it. There was no way her flawless deduction, the information her father had sent, could be wrong.
“How can poison become medicine? You could die from eating it! Everyone’s been fooled by that woman’s cunning words!”
There’s a saying that a man who’s read only one book is more dangerous than one who’s read none at all.
Celia was exactly that.
Utterly convinced by her own conviction, thoroughly intoxicated with her own logic, she didn’t even try to listen to what anyone else said.
Feeling any more conversation would be pointless, Conrad gave up on explaining and issued a warning instead.
“You were taken on as a lady’s maid out of consideration for Count Dorn’s standing, but it would be a problem for you to cause any more of a scene than this.”
Then he shook his head, his eyes weary.
At his cold tone, Celia couldn’t believe what was happening.
He shouldn’t treat me like this!
She hadn’t become a lady’s maid of the ducal house with nothing behind her.
The late Duke of Asheln and her own father had been the closest of friends.
It was entirely thanks to that connection that Celia had been able to enter this closed-off ducal house as a lady’s maid in the first place.
Lady’s maid or not, she was, in effect, a guest of the late Duke.
Wasn’t it wrong to treat someone like her this way?
What’s more, doing this over some laughable unwed mother was something she, as a noble of the empire, simply could not tolerate.
At that moment, Viola stepped forward with her characteristically calm, kind face. Her voice was gentle, as if trying to clear up the misunderstanding.
“Lady Celia. I understand the confusion, but most medicinal herbs actually carry some toxicity to begin with. Depending on how that toxicity is controlled, it can even be used as medicine instead—”
“Liar! That doesn’t make any sense!”
Celia shrieked. Poison being medicine? Poison was dangerous, and medicine was good. Weren’t they completely opposite concepts?
There’s a limit to how much I’ll be treated like an idiot.
She was a noble young lady who’d received a proper education. There was no need to believe the words of some uneducated, lowly commoner woman.
But Conrad only let out another sigh, as exasperated as before. At that gesture, as if she were looking at a fool, Celia’s reason snapped.
Beside herself with spite, she jabbed a finger at Viola.
“Then you should be able to eat it yourself!”
“Pardon?”
“You said it’s medicine! If it’s medicine, then eating it won’t kill you, will it? Prove it! Prove it isn’t poison!”
“Lady Dorn! What kind of unreasonable demand is this? That isn’t how this works at all—”
Conrad tried to stop her, dumbfounded, but nothing was getting through to Celia.
As she shrieked and shrieked, servants passing through the corridor began gathering one by one, murmuring.
“For now, let’s not do this here—please, go outside and calm down. Before His Grace the Duke arrives.”
“No! Let everyone see clearly!”
Celia didn’t back down. If anything, with more onlookers gathering, she grew even more emboldened and shouted louder. She forced the gamjong herb into Viola’s hand.
“Go on, eat it! Don’t tell me you’re planning to feed the young master something even you can’t eat? See! I told you she was a fraud!”
It was then. Viola silently gazed at Celia, who was making a scene.
Her calm eyes, unreadable, lingered on Celia for a moment—then shone with what looked like resolve, as if she’d made up her mind.
“Fine. I’ll prove it.”
“Pardon? Miss Viola? W-wait a moment!”
Startled, Conrad reached out hurriedly. But Viola was faster.
Without the slightest hesitation, she tipped the blue-tinged poisonous herb clutched in her hand straight into her mouth.
