‘Serira, please let me faint right now.’

Odetta shut her eyes tightly, praying fervently to the goddess. When she opened them again, she found the tied up maid still on the ground.

The same maid who gave her the poison that she overdosed on a few days ago.

If Odetta hadn’t worked so hard on building up her immunity to poisons as she was told, she would have died. Even now, she was masking her labored breathing from the remainder of the poison still within her.

But that didn’t mean she wanted to punish the maid!

After the palace guards brought the maid to them, Casrian dismissed them and the rest of the servants in the throne room, leaving only the four royal family members and the supposed crime offenders who were now bound up together and made to kneel before them.

Casrian stepped in front of the maid. When he yanked her hair back to make her look up, Odetta noticed the way her eyes looked slightly dazed.

The maid was drugged.

Once the realization dawned on her, Odetta’s eyes darted between her brothers, wondering what they were thinking. She fumbled with her fingers in an attempt to distract herself, not knowing what to anticipate next.

“You were the one who poisoned Galene, right? Why don’t you tell me your name?”

“My name… is Hannah—” It was then that the maid, Hannah, seemed to gain back some clarity as she took in the situation she was in, “—B-but it was not my fault, Your Majesty! The poison—the poison was asked for by the princess herself! I was only fulfilling my orders—ah!” She cried out as Casrian yanked her hair again.

“I don’t remember asking you anything other than your name,” Casrian said, his voice quiet but menacing, “And you will pay for insulting my sister.”

The maid trembled non-stop as she looked up at the king. But she and everyone else in the throne room already knew what was coming for her in the end.

King Casrian wasn’t a ruler known for having mercy.

However, contrary to what the maid expected to happen right then and there, Casrian instead straightened back up and let go of her. “As usual, it’s always the women who conspire. But before her punishment is decided, I want to ask something.” He turned towards Rhylis. “Adonis, weren’t you in charge of hiring Galene’s maids? Not only that, but Danell says you sent this servant to poison him.”

Rhylis gazed at Casrian straight on. He seemed neither worried nor shocked, despite the fact that all the evidence seemed to point towards him. “It seems there was an error in my judgement. You know how nobles still doubt Odetta’s place in this family. Perhaps it was one of them. I’ll replace all of her maids as soon as possible. As for that servant…” He glanced pointedly at Danell. “He’s clearly still alive. If it was me, I wouldn’t be foolish enough to not give a lethal dose. Not that I would ever.”

Odetta tensed. The servant may be alive, but he was incapable of talking and looked like he was barely holding onto life. He wasn’t resistant to poison like her, so he would likely die anyways if no antidote was administered to him now.

Although she doubted Rhylis’ words, Casrian’s expression only turned softer. “Right, you wouldn’t do that, would you now?”

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In front of Odetta, she heard Danell scoff. She wondered if Casrian also heard that or if he was outright ignoring it.

“If that’s so, then I don’t care what happens to that servant,” Danell cut in, one side of his mouth curving up. “I’ll leave the decision up to you, Your Majesty.”

This time, it was Rhylis’ turn to roll his eyes. Odetta also wondered if he held no regard for the servant’s life, either.

“Hmm, if that’s what you want, then I won’t oppose it.” Casrian turned back towards the maid and the servant. In one swift movement, he unsheathed the Imperial sword from his hip and pointed it towards them. Odetta swallowed hard as the temperature in the throne room suddenly jumped high.

‘Is the same thing going to happen again?’ She didn’t want to be here. Not at all.

Casrian’s heart began to race as he held the sword casually with one hand. He rolled his head once in an attempt to regulate the heat that began to rush through his blood. It’s been a while since he got to indulge in his bloodthirst. He knew that Danell felt it too, as he was the only other family member he knew who awakened the power secretly passed down through generations of the Valdnrosa family.

Flickers of flame began to appear along the sword’s blade as Casrian raised it higher and higher. It was then that the maid turned towards Odetta.

“Please, Your Highness! I was only doing what I was told! Please, don’t let me die like this! Your Highness!” She screamed, streams and streams of tears running down her face as she attempted in vain to scoot away from the king. The servant next to her still knelt unmoving, never knowing in his ill state of the death that was about to come upon him. But all that only made Odetta freeze even more.

‘What do you expect me to do?!’ She yelled back in her mind. ‘Don’t you know what happened two years ago? You should know better!’ That’s right… she allowed Hannah as a maid to ignore her all this time. She had already been merciful. It was Hannah’s own fault for getting caught. ‘Wait, no. I can’t think like that. I’m sorry, Hannah, I’m so, so sorry.’ Even if her maid treated her badly, she still never wanted her to die. She clutched her trembling hands together tightly.

“C-Casrian!” Her guilt finally won out. Thankfully, Casrian paused at the sound of her voice, his sword still stuck midair. “I won’t o-object to the servant. How dare he try to poison lovely Danell! B-but Hannah… sh-she was my maid. Don’t I get a s-say on her punishment, t-too?” She couldn’t hide her stuttering as it increased by the end of the sentence.

Casrian raised a brow. “She already admitted to being the one who gave you the poison. She is no different from the servant.”

“Th-then—!” Odetta still had to do something. Anything. But her eyes only widened as familiar orange flames rose and danced along the blade of Casrian’s sword.

All she could do was stare as he brought the flaming sword down, slicing both Hannah’s and the servant’s head in one swing.

The fire erupted, burning both of the bodies to ashes right in the center of the throne room.

Odetta dropped to her knees.

Because the stench of the burning bodies started to appear, Danell was the first to leave after bowing towards Casrian. Meanwhile, Rhylis looked at Odetta in pity. Before he realized it, he reached his arm out towards her but stopped. He had no idea how to comfort her.

And so, Rhylis also left the throne room soon after.

Odetta didn’t notice any of that, though. She only continued kneeling, staring endlessly at the fire for who knows how long. Hannah’s last scream before her death echoed in her ears.

Eventually, a pair of black shoes appeared in her vision. A light weight circled around her head. It felt like the cornflower crown she’d given to Casrian. Two calloused hands gently grasped her face and tilted her head up. A pair of identical dark blue eyes stared into her bleak ones.

“Were you scared, Galene?” Casrian whispered. “But this was also a lesson for you. Even if it’s true that you tried to poison yourself, don’t you remember what I told you long ago?”

Of course she remembered. There was no way she would forget those words, which were just as chilling when he said it now as it was back then.

“Make sure you do anything to survive here. Because no one else is allowed to kill you but me. Not even yourself.”