Chapter 247: MORE TO THIS THAN MEETS THE EYE
"This servant dares disrespect me. Now he’s coveting my sweets. He’s dirtied it. I want him to eat it!"
The servant’s eyes widened.
That was ridiculous. What nonsense was she saying?
He looked at the Grand Duchess with hope in his heart, hoping that she wouldn’t agree with her daughter. But that was just wishful thinking because he heard.
"Very well, then. You heard the third princess. Eat the sweets."
His expectant face turned ashen and his legs shook.
"W-what? Y-your highness..."
He swallowed his words when she glared at him, only to hear the Queen step in front of him and say.
"Eat it."
The servant trembled even more. "Y-your majesty."
He knew that begging like this would make them suspicious of him, but he couldn’t help it. If he ate it, he would die. He didn’t want to die.
The queen glanced at her right at the servants.
Two male servants stepped forward and held the servant on both sides, causing his eyes to widen with panic.
"Your majesty, no no no. Please spare me!" He yelled.
"Spare him? Isn’t it just eating sweets? Why’s he talking like he’s about to be executed?"
He heard the nobles mutter.
’Ignorant nobles!’ He yelled in his mind. ’And I don’t know which of them paid me to do this.’ He felt helplessness inside him.
He couldn’t overpower the two servants holding him. They forced him to eat all the candies before letting him go.
He felt the poison kicking in almost immediately. He couldn’t control his body. He fell to the floor under everyone’s watchful gazes.
He felt his body begin to twitch and his throat make choking sounds, scratching at his neck desperately.
His eyes landed on the third princess, and she had a look of shock on her face, but her eyes were chillingly cold.
A thought entered his mind.
’Could it be that she knows it was poisoned...?’
He coughed nonstop and his eyes rolled back before he finally fell, a trail of blood leaving his lips and trickling down his chin before dripping on the snowy ground, dying it red.
He could still fell the oppressive, mocking gazes of the nobles on him as he breathed his last, his eyes carrying a deep resentment.
’I hate... I hate you nobles.’
***
"Gasp!"
Loud gasps were heard from the crowd. The nobles were left shocked at the scene in front of them.
"Poison!" Someone muttered. "The food was poisoned."
The servant on the ground was no longer twitching. He now lay dead on the ground.
"Lauren could have eaten that..." Alistair whispered, hugging Lauren tighter.
Within herself, she knew that with Aristia’s act, she was aware that the food was poisoned.
Lauren and the others realized it too and they couldn’t help staring at Aristia.
The nobles gathered also realized that someone could have died if not for the third princess, even though it happened in a rather ridiculous way. Shivers ran down their spine.
An unbelievable thought crept into their minds. Could it be that the third princess knew that the sweet was poisoned?
But looking at Aristia’s shocked, flabbergasted and horrified face, all doubts washed away.
Some even scoffed in their minds. How could they have thought that Aristia, a mere child, would be able to detect that the food was poisoned? The thought itself was ridiculous.
The men were deeply shocked.
They had just been away for a little more than an hour, only to find out that there was a plot unwinding right there in the palace.
Maxim’s eyes snapped from his wife to his daughter who could have been the one on the floor in place of the servant. He quickly strode towards them.
Pulling the teary eyes Lauren into his arms, he carried her without caring for the crowd.
"Huu~" Lauren finally burst into tears.
Aristia’s heart ached. [This is the first time I’ve seen her cry so sadly.]
Maxim turned to her with a grateful look before addressing the crowd.
"Whose servant is this?" He asked in a deep, chilling voice.
His question drew the nobles to the fact that it was a servant involved.
"That servant belongs to house Oswalt."
When the nobles heard this, they began to murmur incessantly.
Maxim’s face turned dark. He turned to George and Charlotte who had stepped out to check the situation since Wade was also among the children, for an explanation.
George and Charlotte were not just shocked, but confused.
But when Maxim turned to them, Charlotte stepped forward.
"Your Grace, please do not misunderstand. My son asked his father to bring some sweets home with him during his trip to our Fief. He wanted to give it as a gift to his friends. So I appointed a servant to take care of it to make sure nothing happens. I never expected that the servant would be the one responsible for trying to cause harm." Charlotte finished.
"You should be more careful with the servants you choose to handle food." Maxim said coldly.
Charlotte’s heart skipped a bit, remembering how Natalia had been poisoning her tea.
Wade’s eyes widened. How would his mother know which servant had bad intentions?
Seeing that Maxim still blamed his wife, George stepped in.
"There’s more to this than meets the eyes, your Grace." He said, standing beside Charlotte.
His words caught the interest of everyone.
He continued, "This wasn’t meant to harm the Duke’s daughter." He turned to the children. "Was this handed to anyone specifically?"
Beatrix stepped forward, feeling that she had to take responsibility and explain as the oldest among them.
"No. We all picked one by ourselves."
This made it obvious that George as right. There was no specific person targeted to poison. Any one of the children could have ended up with the poisoned one and fall victim.
Maxim’s brows knitted even more.
Everyone knew it. If the Oswalts for whatever reason decided to poison one of the children from the pure noble families that were friends with their son, they wouldn’t have done it with their servant and make it so obvious. Wouldn’t that be exposing themselves?
Then that could only mean...