The Princess' Bedroom Doll

Chapter 62

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“I see.”

“Yes.”

Dull goosebumps rose under her thin, soft pajamas. But, as if fully aware of her physical reaction, Karzen ran his hand down Raha’s back and said.

“I intend to interrogate them all one by one to clarify.”

“You think one of the participants?”

“I have a feeling it’s one of the defeated ones.”

It seemed that they brought the poison to win in a sneaky way, and now they have been defeated. They would have been caught up in a grudge and put poison in the cup. And it was in Raha’s cup. It was Karzen’s judgment that there was little chance that they had targeted Raha from the beginning.

“I’ll find the culprit and be sure to bring him before you.”

“Yes.”

Raha answered obediently and added in a weak voice.

“You can’t make him to be my slave.”

Karzen chuckled.

“Of course not. I will tear his limbs and hang them on the wall.”

“Yes.”

Raha nodded a little, as if relieved. The fragile figure seemed ready to disperse at any moment. Karzen, who was always strong and rough, was strangely excited when his twin, whose face was very similar to his own, showed such a soft and weak appearance.

Karzen put her lips to Raha’s forehead. The sensation of his long lashes against her skin was so vivid that it made her shudder. Karzen slowly lifted his head.

“Wait for me, Raha.”

“Yes, Karzen.”

* * *

“How dare they poison my twin.”

Karzen walked on through gritted teeth.

“If I find the culprit, I will grind his bones and drink it.”

Captain Blake walked with him, his face pale. His eyes were shaking greatly.

‘Why did the princess drink it?’

Naturally he thought she would not drink it. It was the same this time.

Blake was suspicious of the imperial Princess and wanted to let Karzen know this. However, the situation completely changed because the imperial Princess drank the poisoned champagne glass.

It was rather dangerous for Blake’s own throat to say now that the Princess had some unknown ability and therefore should not drink the poison.

In any case, he had poisoned the Princess on his own without informing Karzen.

All those who had already participated in the competition had been detained. There were quite a few respectable nobles, so they were not put in underground prisons. One palace was vacated and they were pushed into rooms one by one and thoroughly monitored by the knights.

The nobles who attended the grand banquet hall were also unable to return home. It was only natural. A member of the immediate royal family was nearly poisoned in front of the emperor. Thanks to this, thousands of people in the spacious palace were now barely able to cope with the anxiety.

It was fortunate that Raha woke up early.

The very young nobles, and the grand nobles in particular, had gone home after first completing a light interrogation.

One of them, Duke Esther, approached with the same face he usually wore and bowed silently before the emperor.

“Your Majesty, I have something to tell you.”

“Say it, Duke Esther.”

“In private, the Knight Commander of Marquis Duke dueled with the slave of the Princess and lost.” 

“…… what?”

Blake’s face, standing behind him, cooled quickly. Karzen gritted his teeth.

“Where’s Marquis Duke?”

“My father has already left…..” (Blake)

“Call him at once!”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Bring the Knight Commander with you, now!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Karzen’s steps were rough. Blake couldn’t help but be puzzled by this sudden turn of events. Why in the world did the Princess suddenly take poison? No, was his suspicion wrong? Why didn’t she drink the poisoned tea last time …!

It was at that moment. A tremendous commotion began to emanate from outside.

“Fire!”

“Fire?”

At that moment, the chief chamberlain rushed to the scene and reported in an urgent voice.

“Your Majesty! A fire has broken out in the annex. The fire has spread in all directions and suddenly spread to the walls of the palace, forcing the detainees to be moved to other places.”

“A fire in the annex?”

Karzen gritted his teeth. ‘Are you going to start a fire and escape?’ His vision was blurred because of those insects* in front of him. (*he called people ’insects’)

“What a bunch of baseless lowlings. Take me to the annex now!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

A huge fire, more enormous than imagined, greeted Karzen as he walked to the annex. Did the participants do this? Karzen’s eyes narrowed.

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The news of the fire spread quickly to Raha’s palace. The fire was bigger than expected. It was said that the aristocrat holding a grudge against the detention seemed to have set fire to the other side. Raha thought to herself.

‘That’s true.’

The fire was much stronger than the prior communication she had received.

She thought the priests from the Holy Land set the fire only in the annex where the participants were confined and, more importantly, in the medicine room closer to it. But rumors had it that an angry aristocrat set it. Well, that was good.

Raha entered the inner palace where the cold air was blowing.

The reason why the imperial Princess, who had just woken up from being poisoned, could walk around at will like this was because the fire also spread to the Imperial Palace’s medicine room.

Although its presence usually did not appear much, the medicine room, where all the precious medicines from every continent were located, was a very important place in the Imperial Palace. Of course, it was managed separately in various locations. However, the medicinal materials, which could not be bought by paying a thousand gold, were burned up in the fire.

It was hectic. Seeing that even Oliver, who was taking care of the imperial Princess, was suddenly summoned.

Sending away the maids in the bedroom was as easy as breathing. No one looked at her strangely when she said she was walking to the inner palace. It was the same as walking from the bedroom to the study, come to think of it.

That was the image of Raha’s inner palace, at least in recent years, for the maids.

Walking slowly into the inner palace, Raha looked up at the sky as snow began to fall. Snowflakes would cover the roof of the inner palace and the window panes.

Raha went to the bedroom where the boy was sleeping. The boy could hardly open his eyes. His engraving was weakened, but he was very weak because of all the hardships he had gone through.

Sitting on the bed, Raha stabbed the back of her white hand and drew blood. Then she opened the boy’s mouth and poured her blood in it.

“You must swallow it.”

“Ha…”

The slave, who opened his eyes vaguely, barely swallowed the blood and fainted. Raha wrinkled his forehead a little. When she fed Shed her blood, she was desperate and afraid, so she didn’t have any other impressions, but now she has a slightly different impression.

“I didn’t know who was doing the experiment.”

At that time she felt Shed was the experimental subject.

In any case, the reason she had the boy drink her blood earlier was simple. Because the more specimens the better for a successful experiment. The priests will take care of getting rid of the branding on the boy’s body.The boy was probably the luckiest of all the slaves who entered the palace.

The unluckiest was…….

Raha erased her thoughts.

Even in such a situation, the back of her hand did not stop bleeding. She felt like she had touched the wrong blood vessel because she was poking it without much thought. She looked at the boy and whispered.

“Don’t come here again.

‘Make sure to devote yourself to the experiment and take revenge on the royal family of Delo empire.’

Just as Raha patted the boy on the head with her other hand, she heard a human presence.

Without any notice, a hand that looked rather miserable with bloodstains was grabbed and raised. Raha turned her chin to the side. A large man whom she could only look up with her neck bent. 

It was Shed. 

Raha got up from the bed without saying a word. She reached out her other hand and touched his firm left chest. She touched the branding hidden under his clothes.

No matter how weak it was, it was a clear limitation anyway. Because of that, Shed couldn’t even strangle Raha properly.

Besides, he could not leave the imperial palace because of the branding.

It was fortunate that Raha had the value of constantly producing the blood of the successor.

Raha filled Shed’s skin with blood that was constantly dripping. She opened the gap as she touched Shed’s lips. Shed didn’t blink even once, even though she passed the fishy, possibly disgusting blood through his mouth.

The strange kiss didn’t take long.

“…….”

Wiping her mouth with the sleeve of her clothes, Raha stared at Shed. Suddenly the urge came over her and she carefully wiped Shed’s mouth as well.

Then she was somehow speechless.

It was that faraway gaze. She didn’t even know whose eyes were glued to whose eyes. She felt like she wanted to see those blue-green eyes once, which people said they saw. Not the blue-gray eyes that tell her every moment that he had the eye color of the heir.

Those turquoise eyes that were fake but a little easier on the mind.

How she wished to see this slave as others see him. What if they had been an ordinary princess and a poor slave?

An assumption that will never come true.

“Shed.”

She didn’t blink once because she didn’t want to drown in the loss.

“Be sure to come back and destroy Delharsa.”

“…….”

“You’ve worked so hard for that.”

Shed looked at Raha with cold eyes. If you can call that kind of thing a gaze. That’s when she had the illusion that she could hear a quiet popping sound as the cold eyes became a little more distorted.

Shed answered.

“Yes, Your Imperial Highness.”

“…….”

“I must surely do so.”

Raha felt her neck tighten at the sound of his voice. She gave a thin smile.

“Yes, Shed.”

Some words were lost and disappeared as soon as they were uttered, and some words would stick in their hearts and not disappear for life. Most of what Shed said was like that. It’s not even funny. How much time did they spend together?

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*If you haven’t figured it out, the fire was a distraction for Shed’s escape. And this is the part where Raha and Shed were saying goodbye to each other. Although it didn’t feel like it. Because their relationship was strange anyway.