All I Wanted Was the Alimony - Chapter 24

“!”

Lucienne’s body flinched and stiffened.

“Eeeek! Your Grace! Why would you put that to your mouth!”

The doctor panicked and hurriedly opened the antidote bottle and held it out.

Paello took the antidote and drank it, catching his breath for a moment. Then he spoke to the stunned Lucienne, “Phew. Thankfully, I only touched a trace amount, but it was an assassination attempt. It’s an extremely potent poison.”

“N-no way. Still, even so…”

Lucienne, finally coming to her senses, grabbed Paello’s coat collar with both hands.

“What kind of lunatic tests poison on themselves!”

Tears welled up and streamed down her cheeks.

No matter how tough she acted, she was just someone who had possessed this body.

She had only ever planned to stir up a scandal and get divorced, not to be caught in a situation where someone’s life was on the line.

“I’m fine. I’ve built resistance to most poisons.”

Paello finished wiping the blood at the corner of his lips with a handkerchief.

“Either way, I wasn’t going to let an innocent person suffer.”

He let out a deep sigh and gave a gentle smile.

“That must mean you’re immune to poison, madam. What a relief.”

“N-no, no.”

Lucienne’s head spun. She had imagined every outrageous thing a villainess might do to get divorced, but poison was never on that list, leaving her utterly confused.

Just then, two knights dragged a man in and forced him to his knees.

“We’ve apprehended the boat manager, Max.”

It was the shaggy-haired man she had seen when boarding earlier. Max trembled and pressed his forehead to the ground.

“S-spare me, Your Grace! I didn’t know it would turn out like this!”

He started speaking rapidly without being asked.

He claimed that during the final inspection, he had accidentally made a hole in the boat.

“I plugged it with adhesive and planned to fix it after the boat ride.”

It made no sense and sounded completely absurd. Unsurprisingly, another boat manager grew angry.

“What are you saying, you idiot! If a boat has an issue, you’re supposed to report it immediately and replace it!”

“I-I-I know that, but I don’t know why I… I just… I don’t know why I did it.”

Max trembled from head to toe. His eyes darted around in a panic, clearly unstable.

Watching this, Lucienne threw out a question, “It wasn’t on the princess’s orders?”

Max flinched.

“To give the arrogant half-blood demon, the Grand Duchess of Ronatere, a taste of lake water?”

H-how did she…?

Max muttered instinctively in shock. His voice was barely audible, but Lucienne heard it clearly.

“So the poison in the wine was the princess’s doing too?”

“Huh?”

“I heard the wine had a deadly poison in it. Did she tell you to serve that to me as well, along with the lake water?”

“Whaaaat?” Max’s eyes bulged.

Another boat manager spoke gravely, “If the Grand Duchess’s claim is true, this is extremely serious. Tell us everything.”

Paello’s expression also turned cold. “If you’re the culprit, you’ll pay for it with your life.”

“N-no! I could never do something so evil! I don’t even have access to poison!”

Max, horrified, bowed and rubbed his hands together.

“P-please, spare me! I’ll tell you everything!”

Finally realizing that his life was at stake, he confessed hurriedly.

Just as he was finishing the boat prep, a maid from Verdi came with a note.

“It instructed me to make the hole in the boat look like an accident. That was all. Ah, here’s the note!”

Max frantically pulled a crumpled note from his pocket and handed it to Paello. Just as he claimed, the instructions were written there.

“I couldn’t disobey Her Highness’s orders, so I made the hole. I thought even if I were blamed, Her Highness would eventually cover for me.”

But he grew anxious about a possible fatal accident. To prevent that, Max applied adhesive to the bottom of the picnic basket to patch the hole. He figured that even if the boat leaked, it would sink slowly, avoiding disaster.

“I didn’t know who was going to ride the boat. I just thought someone who’d fallen out of Her Highness’s favor would be put through some trouble and decided to prepare a rescue team just in case.”

When he realized the passengers were Paello and Lucienne, Max was horrified.

When Paello shouted to call a doctor, Max panicked and ran away, only to be caught soon after.

“I-I really don’t know anything about poison!”

Just then, a middle-aged woman’s voice came from behind.

“What on earth is all this commotion about?”

Turning around, they saw the Empress Dowager slowly fanning herself. She folded her fan, held it in both hands, and looked around haughtily.

“The Grand Duke’s boat sinking startled Her Majesty the Empress Dowager…”

The Empress looked displeased.

“She was curious about what happened, so I came to check personally.”

Soon, the knight reported everything that had happened.

“The Princess did such a thing?”

The Empress’s face twisted viciously as she questioned Max.

“Are you out of your mind? Poison, and a wicked prank with the boat? There’s no way the Princess would ever do such a thing. Someone must have impersonated her.”

“Your Majesty, the identity of the poisoner is still unknown, but even my wife saw Her Highness pass a note to a maid.”

“Grand Duke Ronatere, do you have proof?”

“If there is any, it would be that note.”

Paello immediately showed the note to the Empress.

“A handwriting comparison should prove the truth.”

Upon seeing the note, the Empress hastily opened her fan and covered her mouth. “Let me have that note. I’ll show it to Her Highness and confirm the facts.”

Paello replied politely, “There are too many eyes here. It would be better to arrange a separate meeting.”

A tactful refusal.

“And I’ll take custody of the boat manager who caused the accident. A thorough investigation is necessary.”

“What? He’s part of the imperial staff!”

“I trust you’ll allow it?”

“…Hmm. That’s…”

As the Empress didn’t bother hiding her displeasure, Paello said again, “Or perhaps you could summon Her Highness here to confirm immediately and settle the matter.”

“What?”

The Empress looked around and began fanning herself quickly, trying to cool her flushed face.

“Even if I wanted to check right away, the Princess left earlier. We’ll talk again later.”

The Empress glared fiercely at Max.

“Hand him over. To dare drag the Princess’s name through the mud, how outrageous. Do as you please with him, Grand Duke. In any case, I’ll tell the Empress Dowager not to worry, it’s nothing serious.”

At the same time, she glanced at Paello and added, “The Empress Dowager is elderly. If this scandal were reported as is, she might collapse from the shock. I hope you understand my handling of this.”

“Of course. May Her Majesty remain at peace.”

***

“Hmph. Why did Grand Duke Ronatere suddenly show up after staying quiet all this time?”

The irritation that built up during the boat ride still hadn’t cooled, even as the Empress lay in bed beside her husband, Sidell.

Chewing on the tender flesh inside her mouth, the Empress muttered to Sidell like a complaint.

“Your Majesty, can you believe it? They say Grand Duchess Ronatere drank every last drop in that wine bottle. Then she should’ve died, shouldn’t she?”

Even as she recounted the day’s events to Sidell, the Empress looked dumbfounded.

She had seen Verdi write on a note instructing someone to make a hole in the boat when Lucienne appeared.

Until Paello arrived, she hadn’t thought much of it. But the Empress Dowager’s reaction upon seeing him made the Empress decide.

Her husband despised Paello.

Though invitations were sent out for imperial events out of formality, every time there was news of a demon invasion, he waited for word of Paello’s death.

The previous Grand Duke and Duchess Ronatere had both died in fierce battles. He hoped the same fate awaited Paello.

The political marriage between Paello and Lucienne had also merely been propaganda by the late emperor to gain greater public support.

The so-called peace treaty it represented was never intended to be fulfilled.