Chapter 50: Suspect
When Serpens and Lionel suddenly appeared in my room in the middle of the night, I was already prepared for it, so I wasn’t surprised.
The windows were wide open, and the cool night air flowed into the room, causing the curtains to sway gently. Outside the window, the moonlight shimmered, spreading pale patches across the floor. The silence was broken only by the steady crackling of the candle on the table — the only source of light in the room.
When the door opened silently, I didn’t even turn around. I just tensed slightly, sensing a familiar presence.
Serpens entered first — tall, reserved as always, as if carved out of the shadows. His cold gaze swept across the room, lingering on me. Behind him, slightly behind, walked Lionel — younger, but with the same expression of anxious composure on his face.
Drops of night moisture glistened on their cloaks, and the scent of damp wind clung to their hair. Both had clearly come from outside — and were clearly in a hurry.
"Madam," Serpens said after a short pause.
His voice, usually steady and confident, now sounded a little quieter than usual, as if tinged with concern. "How are you feeling?"
He stood motionless, but I noticed his fingers clenching the sleeve of his cloak — a gesture that betrayed his inner tension.
I sighed, looking away from the window and finally turning to face them.
"I’m fine," I replied calmly, although my chest still trembled slightly from the recent conversation. "Fortunately, everything turned out okay this time."
Nevertheless, after my words, the man clenched his teeth:
"Ma’am, rest assured that we will do everything possible to punish those bastards as soon as possible!"
Well, I didn’t know what else to say, so I just nodded. However, Serpens, getting up from his knees, still pressed me for an answer:
"Ma’am, do you have a suspect we can start with?"
When Serpens asked this question, I hesitated for a moment, because I really doubted whether I could name anyone reliable.
In the end, despite the fact that I had tried to live peacefully for the last three years, no one could erase Grace Weinstein’s past, which might not have been so trustworthy.
It was possible that the real Grace did have some enemies, but I couldn’t even guess who they might be. Besides, they might not even be enemies of Grace herself, but of the Weinstein family as a whole.
Therefore, since there were so many options, I really couldn’t decide on one of them.
Who was the scoundrel who dared to try to poison me on my own birthday?
As I pondered all this, I didn’t immediately notice that Serpens was staring at me intently.
"What is it?" I frowned.
"My lady..." Serpens hesitated, "Don’t you suspect any of the people who were here today?"
"What? Suspect?"
"I mean... Haven’t you even thought about it?"
Involuntarily, his words caused me to freeze.
That’s because, until that moment, I really hadn’t thought about anything like that. After all, all the people who were present at today’s celebration were from my closest circle, people I would never have suspected.
Enoch and Angela, whom I would never have suspected because they were too good to do something like that. Roger, who was an absolutely noble man. Edison, who was devoted to me and the Weinstein family to the core. And, of course, Ruby, who was not worth mentioning.
In other words, I really didn’t suspect any of these people from the very beginning, because it seemed simply impossible to me.
The only version that came to mind was that someone from outside could have done it. But I had no idea who that person might be.
In other words, when Serpens heard my opinion on the matter, all he could do was nod and sigh.
"I understand. In that case, our organization will immediately begin an investigation to find the culprit."
I just nodded.
After Serpens reported to me and informed me of his upcoming plans, he was going to leave immediately to begin the investigation as soon as possible.
The man bowed deeply to me again before disappearing from the room.
The boy with silver hair, who was becoming more and more like his father every year, but for some reason neither of them noticed this, also bowed to me.
Lionel was not a very talkative child, and I had seen this for myself over the past three years. In fact, it was now difficult to believe that in the future, this rather withdrawn boy would be so skilled with his tongue that he could easily seduce any woman in the empire.
Oh well. I sighed as I watched them go, waiting until both of those dark silhouettes disappeared from my room. After that, I fell back onto my pillows, feeling a sudden wave of fatigue wash over me.
Yeah, who would have thought that after three years of a fairly quiet life in this world, something like this would suddenly happen to me?
Of course, that didn’t mean that my life had been stress-free all this time. Stress had been with me constantly, and sometimes in very large quantities.
And yet, I had definitely never been the target of such an open assassination attempt before!
God. What did a pathetic minor character in this game like me do to deserve this?
As I pondered this, I didn’t notice how, against my will, I had fallen into a deep sleep. Even though I had already slept for seven hours, for some reason I was still overcome by intense drowsiness. Well, I must have just been exhausted from all this.
In the end, I decided to stop fighting my sleepiness and soon fell into a deep sleep.
After Grace Weinstein fell asleep, she couldn’t know what was happening in her room after that. Meanwhile, there was a quiet click of the door in the room and someone entered.
A girl with blue eyes that sparkled unusually brightly in the darkness of the night quietly entered the room and approached her aunt’s bed.
The moon was still shining high in the sky.
***
The next morning, as Edison had said, I was visited by a doctor whom I already knew well.
It was this man who had saved the heroine a few years ago after that unfortunate accident that happened in our house. Since then, I can’t say that we saw each other very often, but I still remembered this man because he was the most accessible doctor in the immediate vicinity.
And today he came to check on my condition.
The procedure itself took no more than fifteen minutes, after which the doctor informed me that I was in perfect health. Well, I felt that way myself, since I woke up in a good mood this morning. Nevertheless, before leaving, the doctor left me with a couple of recommendations:
"Madam, in the coming days, it would be best for you to take a short vacation to regain your strength. It would be better if you did not overexert yourself in the near future."
Vacation? Ha... I suppose that, at least for the next few years, I can only dream of such a thing. Nevertheless, I nodded and thanked the doctor.
"Thank you. I will take your advice."
"Well, in that case, I will leave you now. Please rest."
"Okay."
After the medical examination was over, I sighed. Meanwhile, when Edison saw the doctor out and returned, he still remarked with concern:
"Madam, perhaps you really should take a break in the next few days?"
"Take a break? There’s no need. I feel fine."
"And yet..." The butler fell silent uncertainly.
"Don’t worry. I know my own health very well."
In the end, after my firm refusal to rest, Edison could only sigh.
"All right. But at least you should take a break for today."
"But..."
"Madam, nothing will happen if you rest for one day. Please, just allow yourself to regain your strength."
In the end, after saying this, the butler left before I could say anything else to him. All I could do was sigh again, because I felt uncomfortable at the thought of doing nothing for a whole day.
It’s not that I was a staunch opponent of rest or a particular workaholic. No, in fact, I really enjoyed relaxing. However, I could only do so on those rare occasions when I didn’t feel guilty about it.
It just so happened that in my previous life, I also had to work a lot, which left me with almost no time for myself. Well, maybe that’s why I died of a heart attack one day...
But I just couldn’t relax without being sure that all my tasks were done. Yeah, I had to live with that stress for the last few years and definitely for the next few years.
The long-awaited moment of peace that I had dreamed of so much would not come until Ruby came of age. Only then, when the main threat to my life was over and I was sure that Ruby had not gone down the path of evil, would I be able to breathe easy.
But for now... It was really hard for me to sit still. After all, there was still so much to do.
In the end, while I was thinking about all this, I didn’t immediately hear the quiet knock on my door. However, I already guessed who it was, so my mood unconsciously improved.
"Come in, Ruby."
I smiled brightly when I saw my dear niece enter the room.