Chapter 22
Lady Boren was anxious. Her once-beautifully manicured nails were now ragged, chewed down until they were barely recognizable.
“Still no word from Tericia?”
She asked, pacing nervously around the room, her voice sharp with tension as she looked at Leah.
“Y-Yes? Oh… not yet, milady.”
“Are you saying there’s not a single update? Nothing at all about what happened to her?”
“No, milady. The knights are guarding the hallway to the third floor’s inner quarters. They won’t let anyone near.”
Lady Boren felt like her blood was running dry.
Should I have stopped her? Should I have kept her from drinking it?
But stepping in back then would’ve exposed her. She couldn’t risk it—not when her own actions might come to light.
Even so, she never imagined Tericia would actually drink the entire cup.
How did she know? No, why would she drink it in the first place?!
Not securing the antidote had been her biggest mistake. If she had it, she wouldn’t be sitting here, consumed by dread.
Leah, that useless fool. She was so confident, saying there was an antidote. And now look what’s happened, just because she couldn’t get her hands on it!
What made it worse was that no one would tell her anything about her daughter’s condition. The silence was suffocating.
Crack.
She bit her nails again. This time, she tasted blood at her fingertips.
“……”
Leah was just as anxious. She tried to stay calm, preparing tea and snacks for her mistress, but her trembling hands betrayed her. She kept dropping things, and her mouth was painfully dry.
I didn’t think it would end up like this.
It should have been Prince Hespelt who collapsed. He should’ve coughed up blood at the banquet, sending everything into chaos. Then, at least, she might have gotten away.
But everything had gone wrong.
Compared to Leah, Lady Boren still had a chance. Whether scorned or not, she was a noble. But Leah? She had nothing.
I’m not even a noble.
At most, she was just a maid—a servant tending to a noblewoman’s needs.
If Lady Boren denied everything and blamed her, Leah wouldn’t be able to defend herself. She’d take the fall, no questions asked.
Would the lady even try to protect me?
She didn’t think so. No matter how much she catered to her or cleaned up her messes, Leah was just a pawn—useful until she wasn’t.
Easily discarded. That was her place.
“But I won’t die quietly.”
Leah muttered under her breath, glancing at Lady Boren as she paced in growing panic. There was a wild, almost unhinged glint in her eyes now.
Then, with a thunderous crash, the door flew open. Armed knights stormed into the room.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
Lady Boren shrieked, but the knights ignored her completely as they poured in.
They shoved aside anything in their way—furniture toppled, the once-elegant room thrown into chaos in seconds.
The two women were quickly surrounded. More knights followed, carrying wooden planks and hammers.
They didn’t even glance at Lady Boren. Instead, they moved straight to the windows. Working in pairs, they began boarding them up.
Bang! Bang!
The hammering rang through the room. Light disappeared rapidly as the boards went up, leaving the room in deepening darkness.
“You savages! How dare you! Who ordered this?! Don’t you know who I am? You think you’ll get away with this? I’ll report you to the Duke at once and have you all thrown in prison!”
“……”
No one responded. The knights kept working in silence, blocking the windows and hemming her in, leaving her nowhere to go.
“Can’t you even say who sent you?! Get Harris! No—let me speak to the Duke myself!”
Lady Boren tried to move toward the door, but a knight stepped in front of her, blocking the way.
“……!”
She tried to slip past him, but another knight blocked her again.
“Ugh!”
She shoved the knight in frustration, but he didn’t move an inch.
“You’re with the First Order, aren’t you?! Was this Rashid’s doing?! Bring Heinz here! How dare you lay a hand on me! I won’t let this go!”
“……”
The silence remained unbroken. In the midst of the chaos, Lady Boren was the only one speaking—shouting, demanding answers. No one responded.
The knights didn’t say a single word. They silently focused on their tasks, completely undistracted.
Their silver helmets gleamed under the dim light, and the visors covered their faces entirely. It made them seem inhuman—like hollow suits of armor, not people.
Lady Boren, growing more fearful by the second, shouted even louder in an attempt to hide her fear.
“Rashid—no, bring Roben Heinz!”
Clank!
Suddenly, the knights moved in perfect formation, parting down the middle. Through the space they made, a knight in full armor walked in—without a helmet. It was the very person she had been begging for: Roben Heinz, the commander of the Hespelt Knights.
“Sir Heinz!”
Lady Boren’s face lit up in relief.
“What is the meaning of this?! Why is the knight order—”
But she didn’t get to finish her sentence.
“Ahhh!”
Leah screamed. Roben Heinz had suddenly grabbed her and handed her over to the knights standing behind him.
Leah stumbled as if she might fall, but the knights didn’t care. They dragged her out of the room roughly, without hesitation.
The other knights, who had just finished boarding up the windows, followed them out. Leah’s screams echoed through the hallway and then faded.
Lady Boren, stunned by how fast and merciless it had all happened, instinctively covered her mouth. She swallowed her own scream.
“Sir Heinz! What in the world is going on?!”
As Heinz turned to leave, she reached out to stop him. In her panic, she grabbed at his arm—but he threw her off. Hard.
The impact knocked her to the floor. Her body ached, but more than that, she couldn’t make sense of what was happening. No one was explaining anything to her.
From the floor, Lady Boren looked up at Heinz. His face was expressionless—cold and unreadable.
Gone was the friendly, composed knight she thought she knew. There wasn’t even a flicker of emotion in his eyes.
His dark, lifeless gaze looked down at her, and it wasn’t the look one gives to a living person. It was as if he were staring at something already dead.
“……!”
Lady Boren felt all strength leave her hand. She had seen that same terrifying look before—from Rashid, near the Duke’s office.
Roben Heinz no longer served the Duke.
His loyalty now belonged to Rashid Hespelt.
And now, acting on Rashid’s orders, Roben was showing her exactly what his master’s wrath looked like.
“…Ah.”
The killing aura of a battle-hardened knight overwhelmed Lady Boren. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed where she stood. Her entire body trembled. She couldn’t even breathe.
The proud woman who had been screaming moments ago had completely vanished.
Roben Heinz turned his back on her and walked out of the room without another word.
Bang! The door slammed shut behind him.
Leah’s screams faded into the distance. Then came the sound of more hammering from outside.
All light disappeared. All sound faded.
What was left for Lady Boren was nothing but darkness and silence.
She had been imprisoned.
On the third floor, the air was thick with urgency. Following the Duke’s physician’s instructions, bowls of hot water and medicine were being rushed in and out of Tericia’s room nonstop.
Each bowl of clean water went in—and each one came out stained with dark, blood-red liquid. Then another bowl would go in again.
Rashid stood just outside the room, as still as stone. No one could remember the last time he had moved. He had been standing there for hours.
Unable to bear it any longer, the steward, Harris, stepped up and spoke gently.
“Young Master, please… You’ll fall ill. Even just a short rest—”
“My health?”
Rashid’s lips twisted bitterly.
“You think I’m worse off than she is?”
The moment he found Tericia, he had carried her straight to her room and summoned the physician immediately.
He ordered the hallway sealed off and began treatment right away—but the poison had already spread throughout her body.
Because no one could identify the poison, all the physician could do was flush her stomach with medicine and make her vomit the blood out.
At first, Tericia hadn’t moved at all—she looked lifeless. It wasn’t until half a day later, after she’d taken the medicine, that she finally began to vomit blood.
That was when Rashid had returned from the banquet.
Her body was drenched in blood, and seeing her like that nearly drove Rashid into a frenzy. Roben Heinz had barely managed to stop him from destroying everything.
Once he’d heard everything, Rashid’s rage became uncontrollable.
“Lock her up.”
Heinz immediately understood who he meant.
“And bring her to me.”
“Yes, sir.”
The knight commander had set things in motion without delay.
Since then, Rashid hadn’t moved from his place. His arms were crossed tightly across his chest—holding himself back, as though any moment he might lose control.
Another bowl of blood-tinged water was carried out.
As the door opened briefly, glimpses of the busy physicians and maids could be seen. Tericia remained out of sight. Only the sharp, metallic scent of her blood leaked through the cracks.
Rashid didn’t even blink. He stood there, unmoving, watching everything with a terrifying stillness.
No one dared to speak to him again. The aura of cold fury surrounding him was too overwhelming.
Anyone who tried might not walk away alive.
“Young Master.”
After a long time, Roben Heinz returned—still in full armor—and leaned in to whisper something to Rashid.
“She’s here.”
For the first time, Rashid’s gaze left the door. His eyes shifted toward Heinz, and the knight almost flinched from the pressure of that glance.
Rashid’s eyes, clouded with rage, no longer seemed human.
“She said she didn’t do it?”
“Yes, she claims it wasn’t her.”
“…Tch.”
With a bitter scoff, Rashid uncrossed his arms. As he turned, Roben stepped aside to let him pass.
“I’ll ask her myself.”
Rashid made his way to the underground prison—where Leah was now locked away.
