Afterwards, a poisonous substance was recovered from Dexter’s pocket as he was taken into custody by the knights.

Dexter had poisoned the very tea he was brewing for himself.

The poison was lethal, yet slow-acting.

Although the symptoms varied from person to person, within a few hours of consumption, they would start experiencing numbness and tremors in their limbs. Within a week, the pain would spread throughout their entire body. After around two weeks, they would be paralyzed. After around three weeks, their organs would fail. After a month, they would succumb to it.

Not only did the antidote require rare medicinal herbs, it was also difficult to prepare within a month.

Dexter deduced that Frederick would choose to keep him around even after the recent crop failure. Thus, he chose poison as a way to ensure a death that brought as much suffering as possible.

The antidote aside, even the poison itself needed to be extracted from several types of plants that weren’t easy to obtain. Since the materials were hard to come by and required a high level of mixing ability, few of such a poison existed in the world.

Therefore, he must’ve obtained it from abroad. Even if the circulation of such a dangerous poison was small, it was still extremely troubling.

Apparently, Dexter didn’t purchase it from the illegal sales organization he had accused.

“Good luck finding it.”

As he left those words, it must’ve been part of his revenge as well.

And a challenge.

To those who will lead the future Kingdom of Lymore.

In order to come up with a solution, an investigation needed to be conducted as soon as possible.

Dexter was placed under house arrest in the mansion under the pretext of recovering from his illness. Thomas, under supervision, would be staying with him until the latter died. Afterwards, Thomas would be released. No one suspected that Count Starkey and his wife had been set up.

Dexter’s son, Spencer, would succeed the marquis family. Even with the crimes of his father and friend not being disclosed to the public, as the new Marquis of Allport, Spencer vowed to make amends by serving his people and the kingdom.

Spencer seemed to regret the fact that he hadn’t noticed and put a stop to their plan from the bottom of his heart. Despite none of it being his fault, he had a strong sense of responsibility. He probably respected and loved his father that much.

Since Dexter changed, Spencer was able to change before he was too far gone, so he might have also felt grateful.

The day after the house arrest of Dexter and Thomas began, Charlotte appeared at Dexter’s interrogation before returning to the royal capital. She never spoke directly to him. Instead, she wordlessly listened to what he had to say.

When the interrogation had ended and Charlotte reached the stairs in the center of the mansion, she heard a commotion from a distance.

Someone seems to be screaming…

“What happened?”

“That’s…”

Charlotte asked a knight who had come to report that the carriage had arrived. Apparently, Thomas began throwing a fuss after the interrogation, demanding to see her.

Thomas had accidentally heard about Dexter’s poisoning, either from the interrogator or the knight on guard duty.

She would have to issue a gag order later. Her workload had increased.

“All right, I shall go see him. Lead the way.”

“But—”

“—That’s an order. Do you have any objections?”

“No! Understood!”

Tensing up all at once, the knight straightened his back. Then, he led the way.

“This way.”

Dexter was locked in the innermost room on the second floor of the East Wing, whereas Thomas was in the innermost room on the third floor of the West Wing.

As she ascended the stairs leading to the third floor, she could hear Thomas’ voice.

On the surface, the Royal Knights had been dispatched to communicate with the knights of the marquis family. In truth, they were there for surveillance purposes. One of them stood in front of Thomas’ room.

There was a loud pounding on the door as Thomas seemed to be screaming, ‘Let me out!’ and ‘Let me talk to the Princess!’

When the guarding knight saw Charlotte advancing down the hallway, he bowed.

“Open the door.”

“But—”

“—And prepare to catch him.”

The guard knight hesitated but followed Charlotte’s orders. After he unlocked the door, it opened with a bang.

Thomas leaped out, and when he found Charlotte staring at him from behind the knight, he rushed forward to try and grab a hold of her. The knight, however, easily caught Thomas and pinned him down.

With all his might, Thomas looked up, glaring at Charlotte from below.

“Why—!? …You, you saw Lord Dexter drink the poison, so why didn’t you stop him—!?”

Thomas must’ve derived his conclusion from the final conversation between Charlotte and Dexter.

That was indeed the truth. Charlotte knew that he had slipped something into his tea—poison, most likely. Yet, despite being aware of that, she did nothing to prevent it.

“I didn’t dislike him all that much.”

“Then why—!?”

Even if someone criticized her at the top of their lungs, she wouldn’t feel regretful, let alone remorseful.

Despite how much of a horrid person he was in the past, the Dexter that Charlotte knew was always gentle and kind. Although fundamentally, his perception of her was the same as those around her, the way he treated her was different. He would never scold her one-sidedly like Frederick or Quentin. Regardless of whether or not she agreed with his words of advice, she didn’t necessarily dislike his admonishing tone.

Moreover, as far as she could remember, he was the only person who had ever patted her on the head.

Gently, as a father would to a child.

That was over ten years ago.

“So, I merely respected his wishes.”

Dexter had shown her kindness.

She couldn’t hate him.

Nevertheless, it was also true that she was constantly on edge because she knew of his past.

I guess I’m just incompatible with people like that…

She just couldn’t get along with him no matter what.

It is what it is.

Something told her that she also wouldn’t be able to see eye to eye with someone like Thomas.

“What about you? You also didn’t stop him, so I don’t think you have any right to blame me.”

“What?”

“Instead of putting a stop to his plan, you became an accomplice, and this is the result. Already devastated by the death of his daughter as he was, he had to ensure the plan worked flawlessly as even the slightest mistake could have led to a food shortage. Do you think someone as kind as him could live with that? Who else are you going to blame?”

“…”

“If you hadn’t been so obsessed with revenge, if you hadn’t gone along with his mistakes—if you had given him something that made him want to live, he might have lived longer.”

After everything that had happened, those were mere what-if’s that no longer held any bearing, yet it still tore Thomas’ heart to pieces. Covering his face with his hands, Thomas wailed and collapsed on the spot.

---

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***T/N: NGL, If I’m a princess carrying 2/3 of my kingdom while having to maintain my grades on the side as a student, and this grandpa issued me a national issue-equivalent of a f*ck you (aka increasing my workload) for shit and giggles, I’d sooner sink my whole ass kingdom into a deficit to obtain an antidote the next day just so I could kill him again.

E/N: It’d be funny if they kept a few bottles in the palace just in case they needed one.

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