Chapter – 23
“You look absolutely dreadful, Head Maid.”
The Royal Physician narrowed his eyes slyly as he looked Blanche up and down.
As if he’d forgotten that he was in the same predicament, his voice was thick with mockery.
Blanche’s eyelids trembled rapidly, as though she still couldn’t believe he was standing there.
“This is impossible. How could you—!”
“You’re surprised, I suppose, to see me alive and well after you clearly thought I was dead.”
The physician sneered, clearly enjoying the situation.
Yulion watched the two of them with exasperation before finally speaking.
“Kaman Beldrick has already confessed to his crimes. He stands here today as a witness. Kaman Beldrick, testify.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Bowing his head like a loyal subject, the physician began to confess, one by one, the many deeds he had committed in collusion with Blanche.
“I became Royal Physician through the recommendation of the Count Kemer household, on the condition that I fully cooperate with Head Maid Blanche. When Her Majesty the Empress developed an eye ailment, Head Maid Blanche ordered me not to treat her. It was shameful for a physician, but I had no choice but to comply. I was being threatened. In addition…”
As his testimony continued, the mask of composure Blanche always wore began to crumble.
Though the physician showed no sign of guilt for someone who claimed he had been coerced, the key point was clear—Blanche was his accomplice.
“Blanche Kemer, that makes the first witness. Do you still refuse to confess?”
“…I am innocent. The physician is framing me!”
“Framing you? I wonder how long you intend to persist in such pitiful lies.”
Seeing that Blanche had no intention of giving up, Yulion summoned the guards.
“Bring in the second witness.”
At those words, Blanche’s head snapped around.
The man dragged forward by the guards was someone the knights—who secretly followed Yulion’s orders—had captured the previous night.
Covered in wounds as if he had been tortured, the man was forced to kneel beside the physician.
For a fleeting moment, despair flashed across Blanche’s eyes.
But she quickly shut them and turned her head away.
Unfolding a document, Yulion recited the man’s information.
“Pheliu Natan, age thirty-five. Like Kaman Beldrick, you entered the Imperial Palace as a gardener through the recommendation of the Count Kemer household. And last night, you attempted to poison the physician in prison. Do you admit this?”
Pheliu coughed up blood, then nodded as though he were on the verge of death.
“I… admit it.”
“On whose orders?”
Pheliu steadied his breathing and glanced toward Blanche.
But Blanche avoided his gaze as if she didn’t know him.
“Head Maid Blanche.”
“Were you aware of the dealings between Kaman Beldrick and Blanche Kemer?”
“Yes. I only did as I was told.”
His head dropped low.
They had said he was fiercely defiant at first.
Yet in just a few hours, Yulion had somehow reduced him to a meek lamb.
“That makes two witnesses. Blanche Kemer, will you still not confess?”
Blanche stared blankly into the air, her lips sealed tight.
Perhaps she had never imagined that Pheliu would be captured so easily—let alone confess.
And yet, she stubbornly shook her head.
“Hold… a noble trial.”
“Persistent, aren’t you? Once one more witness testifies, you will lose even the opportunity to confess. Are you certain that is what you want?”
“I am innocent. There is nothing to confess.”
At this point, it almost seemed as though she truly believed she had done nothing wrong.
Yulion frowned deeply.
“Bring in the third witness.”
Blanche’s hand, pressed against the dirt floor, clenched tight.
Scraping the soil into her palm, she slowly raised her head to see who approached.
“…How are you here?”
She started to speak but faltered, over and over.
Her eyes were filled with betrayal.
The third witness, kneeling beside Pheliu, could not bring herself to look at Blanche.
“Ratry Dale, age twenty-seven. A maid of Tishurit Palace. You two must know each other well.”
Yulion looked between Blanche and Ratry.
Blanche neither denied nor confirmed it—she only stared at Ratry with bloodshot intensity.
Ratry, on the other hand, trembled violently.
“R-Ratry Dale greets Your Highnesses.”
Even her voice shook so badly it resembled a bleating goat.
At Yulion’s command, she began to testify.
“I-I delivered things to the Royal Physician on Head Maid Blanche’s orders.”
“What things?”
“Chests of gold… jewels. A-and many letters…”
“Letters? Like these?”
Yulion gestured toward the evidence laid out before him.
“Y-Yes! I delivered ones that looked just like those regularly.”
Blanche let out a strained breath.
Perhaps she had thought that Pheliu’s capture was unfortunate but possible. But Ratry’s arrest and confession must have been beyond her imagination.
After all, they had started by convincing Blanche that the physician was dead.
Having seen his “death” herself, she must have believed there were no fatal witnesses left.
And complacency breeds carelessness.
Thanks to that carelessness, I was able to seize her.
“Anything else?”
“She secretly ordered me to procure incense.”
“When?”
“After the physician’s crimes were revealed.”
“What was that incense made of? State the names of the ingredients.”
Under pressure, Ratry struggled to recall.
“T-Tarteno fruit, Karingos peel, B-Bulittan, and…”
I already knew the ingredients from when we captured her.
But hearing them again made my anger flare.
That incense should never have been in Tishurit Palace.
“Rohiriel, what effect would those ingredients produce when combined?”
Yulion, though he already knew, asked for the record.
“They prevent medicinal effects from taking hold. They’re typically used as emergency treatment immediately after ingesting poison, or burned by merchants who must pass through toxic regions. Whether poison or medicine, it prevents absorption into the body.”
“In other words, if that incense is burning, no medicine taken will have any effect.”
That was why even the strongest painkillers I prescribed to the Empress had failed to ease her suffering.
Blanche’s scheme—to make me lose credibility in my treatment.
I had given the same painkiller to the physician, and without the incense interfering, his pain was now mild enough for him to testify outdoors.
The Empress, too, would have suffered far less if not for Blanche’s incense.
Yulion had been furious when he learned the truth.
“Her Majesty suffered in such agony…!”
Crack.
The armrest in Yulion’s grip shattered.
Ratry flinched violently, bowing her head.
“I-I deserve death!”
There was more.
Blanche had used Ratry to falsify the Tishurit Palace ledgers, and when Ratry overheard her conversations with the physician, she had even taken Ratry’s family hostage to silence her.
“This is slander, Your Highness! Slander, I tell you! Please, grant a noble trial!”
Blanche cried desperately, but no one believed her now.
Yulion stopped writing and curved his lips in a cold smile.
“You have exhausted your opportunity to speak, Blanche Kemer. With evidence and three witnesses presented, I judge it appropriate under Imperial Law to sentence you to lifelong imprisonment in the western quarry. You will be transferred in one month.”
“Your Highness!”
“The Count Kemer household will not escape responsibility either. It was Kemer who brought Kaman Beldrick and Pheliu Natan into the palace.”
At the mention of her family, Blanche’s face turned pale.
Until now, she had shouted only of injustice.
Now she stood frozen, unable to argue further.
Perhaps she had given up.
Or perhaps something else was brewing.
At least the matter had been resolved without a noble trial.
I hadn’t slept, and sitting through the interrogation had left my body stiff and numb.
What was my schedule this afternoon again?
As the tension drained away, irrelevant thoughts bubbled up.
Yulion was concluding.
“This concludes the interrogation… The remaining criminals will be… transferred and…”
Something felt wrong.
His voice came in fragments.
His lips were moving, yet the sound kept cutting out.
I slapped my ears lightly.
Why can’t I hear…?
Nothing.
Not at all.
Panicked, I tried saying “Ah,” but everything felt muffled.
Jenid beside me seemed to ask what was wrong.
Not wanting to worry her, I forced a small smile.
This is bad. I must have overdone it.
Nothing hurt.
Of course not.
It was the kind of illness where pain wasn’t felt.
They had warned that sensation would fade—but I never expected it to take my hearing this time.
I hadn’t taken Aperium, stayed up all night, and hadn’t even eaten breakfast.
I had taken a stimulant, but perhaps Blanche’s incense in Tishurit Palace had nullified its effects.
It seemed Yulion had finished speaking.
I rose, intending to go quickly to Geumjeong, where the Aperium was kept.
And at that moment—
My body collapsed to the ground.
My vision went black.
My final thought was simple.
What absolutely terrible timing.
