Chapter 114
“What… did you come for?”
“We beastmen no longer wish to shed blood. I hope this standoff ends here.”
Asil spoke, sticking out her belly to look as dignified as a real envoy.
Then she held out a pouch taken from subspace, containing leaves of a very unusual shape.
“With this, you’ll be able to wake the empress.”
A few days ago, Asil had overheard that her mother knew a way to wake the empress.
The item needed to wake the empress could be easily obtained in the forest, and she had been carrying it just in case.
“This is…?”
“It only grows in the beastmen’s forest. If you brew it into tea and drink it, it makes you vomit what you ate, so if you give it to the empress, she’ll be completely cured.”
She explained brightly, but Edenber only bit his lips tightly and could not say anything.
He was worried that if he opened his mouth, the emotions he had been suppressing would burst out.
Instead, the imperial officials behind him whispered among themselves.
“It makes you vomit what you ate?”
“Her Majesty the Empress is unconscious and can barely take medicine, so how could something like that wake her?”
“Then it really is a trap from the beastmen?”
“…No, this is not a trap.”
Edenber, finally parting his lips, cut off the officials’ words.
“Why would they send an envoy just to harm Her Majesty?”
Asil added a word to his statement.
“That’s right. This isn’t a trap or anything. We’re trying to treat the empress! If she takes this, she’ll definitely get up.”
Because her mother’s words had never once been wrong.
In truth, Asil didn’t know exactly how a human who was so sick could get up after eating this.
These leaves had no effect other than making one vomit what was eaten.
However, according to what she overheard, the empress hadn’t truly fallen ill from eating grass from the beastmen’s forest; she was pretending to be sick.
But since it wasn’t certain, she didn’t mention it to avoid causing confusion.
Edenber, kneeling on one knee, carefully took Asil’s pouch.
And with a trembling voice, he said.
“Thank… you. I will deliver it to Her Majesty as you said.”
“Okay, I’m counting on you.”
Asil, nodding vigorously, gazed blankly at the sky turning sunset-colored.
Now it was truly time to go back.
‘I want to talk more.’
It was sad, but there was no choice.
If her mother or the adult beastmen found out, the conflict might really not end.
Asil planned to pester her mother to let her go to the human world as soon as this conflict ended.
‘Meeting so briefly only made me miss him more.’
Asil looked up at Edenber with round eyes, then, without the imperial officials behind noticing, lightly grabbed and released the hem of his pants.
Just as she was about to dash into the forest.
“…Wait a moment!”
Edenber, who had been hesitating, hurriedly called Asil.
And, avoiding watching eyes, he lowered his voice as much as possible and mouthed.
“After the conflict ends, we can meet, right?”
“Yes!”
Of course. I’ll somehow pester mom to come out, so don’t worry!
Asil secretly gave a thumbs-up away from the palace officials, waved her front paw again saying goodbye.
Then she dashed into the forest bathed in sunset light.
Edenber gazed for a long time until that small back figure disappeared into a dot.
This unexpected meeting was far too regrettable.
He wanted to see Asil more.
* * *
Some time later, the imperial palace of the empire.
Everyone around the empress, lying ill, wore gloomy faces.
“What do we do. No improvement is seen even after trying every medicine.”
“Why on earth did those beastmen fail to manage such dangerous poisonous plants and cause this disaster?!”
“They expressed regret over this incident and said they would send herbs that can detoxify Her Majesty.”
“Ha, do you believe that? What if using it carelessly makes Her Majesty worse!”
In reality, Briana had tried to deliver the herbs to the empire early on, but was blocked by opposition from various nobles.
The palace physician, watching the whispering nobles with a troubled expression, cautiously spoke.
“We are doing our best, so she should wake up soon.”
“I hope so, but…”
Public opinion about the empress’s illness was currently very negative.
Because since the day she collapsed, she had not regained consciousness even once.
But they couldn’t voice bad omens.
The nobles clung to the palace physician, earnestly pleading with hearts hoping Her Majesty would wake somehow.
“We trust only you, sir Deacon.”
“Please take good care of Her Majesty.”
“Do not worry. Hm, it’s already time… It’s time to prepare Her Majesty’s medicine.”
“Oh, hurry and go.”
“We’ve held a busy person too long.”
The only medicine that had shown any improvement in the empress’s condition so far was the one made by this palace physician, Deacon.
The nobles quickly released him.
Receiving expectant gazes from all sides, Deacon returned to his assigned place.
And after preparing the medicine, he carefully held it and headed to the empress’s room.
Then the head maid nursing the empress greeted and went outside.
Because there was a crown prince’s order that everyone wait outside when Deacon examined the empress.
Lifting the veil draped over the bed revealed the empress lying as if dead.
Instead of putting the prepared medicine into the empress’s mouth, Deacon waited for a moment.
How long had he waited like that.
“Ugh.”
The empress, said to have never regained consciousness since collapsing, opened her eyes wide with a groan.
Frowning as if her head rang, she seemed to raise her upper body, then spoke in a clear, strong voice unbefitting someone said to be gravely ill.
“How long do I have to keep up this act, really.”
“Did you cough. This is today’s medicine for you.”
Deacon, kneeling, respectfully offered the medicine.
The empress glared at the medicine with a disgusted expression.
“If the crown prince hadn’t asked… How unpleasant it feels to have all energy drained from the body and lie limp like a dead person.”
That was right.
The medicine Deacon prepared was not to treat the empress.
Rather, it slowed the metabolism of a perfectly healthy person to make them appear ill.
“No matter how much pretext is needed for war, really…”
The empress’s grumbling voice suddenly lowered. Because of commotion outside.
“You must not do this, Your Highness the Princess!”
“You must not enter!”
“Get out of the way. What kind of miraculous medicine is it that they can’t even show the treatment?”
It was Eokaste, the worst shame she had borne.
The empress unknowingly frowned.
She despised Eokaste with dark hair, even though she was her daughter.
But to maintain the image of a loving mother, she did not show it outwardly, so people mistook their bad relationship as due to Eokaste’s temper.
“Give it here. I need to drink it quickly.”
That the empress was currently pretending to be mortally ill was a secret known only to the crown prince, the empress, and Deacon—three people.
To keep the secret, the empress quickly drank the medicine and lay down.
Just as her face was about to turn pale again from the medicine’s effect, Eokaste, who had been causing a commotion, burst in.
Eokaste was not alone.
Not only sturdy attendants to push away the empress’s maids, but also another palace physician holding a medicine bowl and sweating coldly.
The empress’s head maid cried out in horror.
“What rudeness is this, Your Highness the Princess!”
“Since Her Majesty is unwell, as her daughter, I cannot just sit still. I inquired everywhere and brought medicine said to be good for Her Majesty’s symptoms.”
Eokaste, speaking brazenly, nodded toward the palace physician she brought.
“It was procured from the beastmen’s forest by the Monlepe ducal house. The effect has already been confirmed, so no need to worry.”
“The beastmen’s forest!”
The head maid was appalled.
“Absolutely not! You mean to give the same thing again to the one who collapsed because of the beastmen!?”
“You.”
Eokaste, mood soured by continued interference, raised one corner of her mouth.
Regrettably, her eyes were not smiling at all.
“No matter how much you receive Her Majesty’s favor, our positions are fundamentally different, so since when has a mere maid dared to talk back to me?”
“…!”
The empress’s head maid, receiving full trust from the empress, was by no means a person to be taken lightly.
The head maid froze in shock at Eokaste’s outright outrageous words and actions.
Regardless, Eokaste passed her and approached the empress.
‘Did you think I wouldn’t know that you conspired with the crown prince to start a war.’
With a sneer, she signaled to the palace physician she brought.
“Put it in Her Majesty’s mouth.”
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