The dowager empress was most likely preparing her move against the emperor, and there was a very good chance I could be her next target.
I was the weakest link and harming me would damage the emperor a great deal. In addition, the last attack on her was in my name as I was supposedly poisoned by her people. It was likely she would get back at me for being a major part of that plot.
This meant it would be useful for me to have a clear target the dowager empress would want to use against me.
The best option was to have my own spy planted in her group, but it was impossible. My influence in this castle was weak at best, and I couldn’t think of anyone who would risk their lives for me. Besides, the dowager empress was a formidable enemy. It wouldn’t be easy to plant someone without having her become suspicious.
That meant that there was only one option.
To have someone beside me who is very likely to be bought and used by the dowager empress.
Lisbeth could be that person. I felt confident she would be an easy person to control.
I didn’t have to explain anything to Lucretius. He understood my plan quickly.
“So you mean to test them.”
“Possibly…”
I gave him a vague answer.
What he said was accurate, but I didn’t want to admit out loud that I was doing exactly what Lucretius did and continue to do to me.
Unfortunately, I learned a lot from this guy.
He grinned at me and commented, “So I was right about you. You are not a nice person.”
I wanted to throw something at his handsome face.
He continued, “You are hoping they will destroy themselves so you don’t have to dirty your hands. You know very well the dowager empress won’t change, which means it’s her turn to attack us. You will just have to be careful your little plan doesn’t look too obvious.”
“…”
I couldn’t deny it. He was right about everything.
He looked at my pouting face and smiled in satisfaction.
“I think I like that about you.”
“…”
Whatever.
Like I cared what he thought about me.
I continued to stay quiet while he looked at me. He called for a servant to take away the empty wine glasses and bring in the tea set.
Hot tea was brewed freshly and poured into our cups.
Lucretius asked, “So give me the specifics of your plan.”
“I will have Lisbeth as my new maid.”
His face became rigid.
“And I will get Orlean back so she can be Lisbeth’s servant. This will make both of them happy.”
The emperor asked me quietly, “You… you realize that is a very dangerous move, right?”
“I know, but I need to take risks if I want to win. I will be very careful. Lisbeth will be surrounded by Samantha, Agnes, Elza, and Luis. I doubt Lisbeth will be able to do something crazy to me while being monitored so closely by everyone. She isn’t that smart.”
Lucretius looked unconvinced.
I continued to explain, “The news of my ill-treatment of Lisbeth will spread like wildfire. The dowager empress will become interested in her quickly.”
“I guess…”
Lucretius didn’t elaborate.
After a few minutes of silence, I asked, “Why do you look so unhappy about this?”
“… Aren’t you afraid? If it doesn’t work according to your plan, your life may become endangered. The dowager empress isn’t an easy opponent. She is especially dangerous now as she must be furious over what happened to Marchioness Toruka.”
“I am well aware of the danger. I was there. It was me who almost died, remember?” I grinned.
He didn’t say anything. I suppose he was embarrassed.
“I am doing this because I want to live, but life doesn’t mean much if you live in constant fear and restrictions. I want to have control over my life. To accomplish that, I need to take some risks.”
I planned to survive, and I would go back home.
For that, I needed to take control of this situation.
Lucretius looked at me with an expression I had never seen before. He looked like he was slapped in the face.
I didn’t know at the time, but soon, I realized what that expression meant.
<A day after Bina’s poisoning: From Lucretius’s point of view>
“Why isn’t my wife awake yet?” The emperor asked sharply.
The physician cowered and replied, “It appears that her highness… doesn’t have any tolerance to this poison.”
The emperor started to scream but realized she was lying on the bed in front of him. He lowered his voice.
“I already know…! I was sure you administered a dose with that fact in mind.” He gritted his teeth.
The physician bowed even deeper and answered, “I’m afraid that’s because I haven’t been her highness’ physician, I didn’t know of her body condition very well. The dose must have been miscalculated, but do not worry. Her life isn’t in danger, your highness.”
Before the emperor could scream again, Samantha added carefully.
“Your highness, Lowson is the best physician in the kingdom. Losing him would be a great loss to all of us.”
Samantha knew what the emperor would say, and that was why she interrupted him. The emperor tried to calm down and think logically. After a few minutes, he finally decided.
“If something happens to her, you will be executed, but if you can heal her and she wakes up within two days, you will receive a much lighter punishment.”
“Thank you, your highness.”
The physician thanked the emperor and left the room to check on the medication. The emperor sat on the bed and asked Samantha, “What is happening with Marchioness Toruka?”
“She is keeping her silence.”
“How annoying. Well, I suppose admitting to something you didn’t do would be hard.”
“But we were able to get some confessions out of a few of her maids after extensive torture.”
The emperor started to nod but shook his head immediately.
“It’s not enough. We need to get as much out of this plan as possible.”
“What else would you like us to do?”
“We need to get the dowager empress, or at the very least the Marquis. If we don’t, I would consider it our defeat.”
After a brief silence, Samantha replied quietly, “Sleep torture and starvation won’t be enough to make Marchioness Toruka give in… And… Because she is the principle maid in waiting to the dowager empress, it would be unseemly to torture her physically.”
The emperor answered without hesitation, “Do whatever is necessary.”
“Yes, your highness.”
Samantha bowed deeply and left the room.
One way to accomplish this was to torture her where the scars wouldn’t be visible unless she was naked.
***
The girl was on the bed as if she was dead. It has already been two nights and it was the afternoon of the third day. She still hadn’t opened her black eyes.
Lucretius was a wreck. He didn’t know what to do or where to go. He felt like he was burning from the inside. He was not used to this kind of emotion.
The last time he felt something similar was when he attended his own mother’s execution.
After that day, Lucretius led a difficult life. His father despised him and was abusive towards him. That woman, Katleyanira, had full control over his father and tried her best to get any girl pregnant with the emperor’s son so she could take away Lucretius’s position as the only heir.
His own wife, who ended up being Katleyanira’s spy, tried to kill him with a poisoned dagger.
All these horrible things happened throughout his life, but he had never felt any strong emotions towards these events. His previous wife once told him his heart was frozen like a block of ice, and that was why he felt nothing.
He agreed. He knew it wasn’t normal, but he was the way he was. That was that.
He kept thinking about his previous wife who he killed to defend himself. He remembered her anger at him. Was it because a similar thing was happening now? The result and the intention were completely different, but there were some uncomfortable similarities between the two events.
Both times, he measured his dose carefully and he placed the poison in the water himself. He handed the cups to both women, but one girl was buried in the crypt while the other girl was in front of him lying on the bed.
Was it the lighting or did the bed look like a white marble coffin?
Ingrit. That was his dead wife’s name. The woman he killed.
He made her the way she was.
Her family was on the dowager empress’s side, but at first, Ingrit was different. If he was a better man and treated her with kindness, perhaps she wouldn’t have become such an angry vengeful woman.
She was a naïve kind woman who loved him, but he didn’t accept her love, and she became livid. The dowager empress was no doubt involved in morphing Ingrit into a resentful killer, but it was definitely him who turned her into a scorned wife.
