NOVEL NEXT Chapter 99
The wine laced with poison slowly flowed into Frinel’s mouth. Patricia’s eyes narrowed as she watched this unfold.
Just as he was about to completely swallow the wine, their eyes locked in a momentary gaze. Frinel smirked, lifting one corner of his mouth. At that moment, sensing an ominous premonition, Patricia’s gaze wavered slightly.
“
Puff.
” Frinel spat out all the wine in his mouth. It was an act without any culture.
The eyes of the emperor, Duke Gracie, and all the nobles were fully focused on him. But the most shocked of all was the empress.
“What insolence…!”
She had thought this was her moment to kill him. Yet, he was slipping away from her grasp like an eel once again.
Patricia cleared her throat and, with a face feigning hurt and eyes brimming with tears, she retorted. “So you find the wine I offer so distasteful that you won’t even swallow it?”
The atmosphere on the dais turned frosty as if winter had come. Everyone was just looking around, hesitant to speak out.
“Have this wine tested.”
The person who broke the heavy silence was none other than Frinel.
“Have the glass tested…?”
Patricia’s eyes shook greatly at his words. Her surprised look turns to him.
“What’s this about, Frinel? Testing the wine?”
The emperor and Duke Gracie were just as confused, tilting their heads in question.
She tried to hide her panic and added to their inquiries. “Indeed, how peculiar—”
“This wine given by the Empress… it’s likely to contain poison.”
Her heart sank.
How could he have known? She was the one who procured the poison, and she was the one who added it to the wine. Her plan to kill Frinel today was only known to Duke Bonitare, herself, and Lawrence. There couldn’t be a traitor among her own.
Right, it was nothing but an unfounded suspicion.
“What are you saying! Poison, you say! Didn’t you see me drink it too…!”
Patricia initially denied everything. However, Frinel mocked her attempt and responded firmly.
“Enough with the poor act, why not take the antidote? I won’t be surprised if you start vomiting blood.”
He knew too precisely, even that she had ingested the poison voluntarily and that she had the antidote.
She couldn’t fall apart now. Patricia snatched the glass from Frinel’s hand and threw it to the ground.
“Empress!”
Startled by her sudden action, the emperor raised his voice. But she spoke even louder, feigning indignation.
“Do you wish to put me through such dishonor! Truly, I am offended, First Prince! How dare you slander your mother like this…”
“It’s not slander, is it?”
A familiar voice made her stop her act. Patricia raised her head with trembling eyes.
“…Lawrence…?”
Approaching with a calm demeanor was her son, Lawrence. A glimmer of hope flashed in her trembling eyes.
“Lawrence, Second Prince! You’ve come to help your mother. The First Prince dares to fra—”
“Mother.”
But the moment she heard his cold voice,
“Let’s end this.”
It extinguished that flicker of hope.
“I’m a witness. Father.”
Then, he placed the jar of poison on the table.
“Mother gave me this poison.”
“Poison…!” The emperor slammed his fist on the table, outraged.
“She told me to coat my sword with it for the duel with my brother. And in case I failed, she also prepared poisoned wine.”
“Lawrence! What are you saying…!”
“Father.”
Tears welled up in his eyes.
““I can no longer overlook my mother’s sins as her son.”
His voice broke as he continued, fighting back tears.
“Please, depose my mother…”
His bombshell declaration sent shockwaves through the arena.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
It was the day of the tea party hosted by the empress. Lawrence stormed out of the empress’s palace, the jar of poison rattling in his jacket pocket. He involuntarily bit his lip, trembling with the urge to smash the jar right there.
Yes, he had to admit it. He never really liked Frinel. From childhood to the present, Frinel had never been kind to him. Despite Lawrence’s desire for a close relationship with his brother, Frinel is always cold to him. It seemed like he was always being rejected. Reflecting on the past, he pressed his lips together tightly.
“Damn it…”
So, he also stopped approaching him. He didn’t want to be hurt by rejection again, and he didn’t want to lose to his harsh brother who had rejected him. Because of this, the distance between Frinel and me grew wider over time.
As time passed, he was just about to celebrate his coming-of-age ceremony, having barely outgrown his teenage years.
“I can’t believe he didn’t die.”
“Did the former empress do something before she died? Wasn’t she close with that woman from the Shinsu clan?”
“But when I poisoned young Frinel, that woman was no longer in the imperial palace. How could she have possibly helped him…?”
He accidentally overheard a conversation between his mother and Duke Bonitare. Shocked by the unbelievable story, Lawrence covered his mouth. But there was more shocking content to come.
“Well, considering he survived all those assassination attempts, he must be quite lucky.”
“Exactly, Father. I think he’d give up and distance himself after being harassed to such an extent.”
“Since you have been abusing him since he was young, his spirit must have already been broken. Just look at him, always attending parties every day.”
He was unable to think of anything. Feeling like I was going to throw up, he fled the scene. The fact that his mother had been attempting to assassinate his brother all this time was an enormous shock.
It’s impossible…!
Only then did Lawrence realize why Frinel had been rejecting him. His mother had abused him from a young age and even tried to kill him. How could Frinel possibly see the son of such a woman as a brother?
“Ha…”
Sighing deeply, he realized that he could no longer act the same way around the empress. In fact, he felt repulsed by her. Thinking about how that face smiling at him, that hand gently stroking his back, had brought pain to Frinel, and made his head spin.
“Mother.”
He slowly turned his head to look at the empress’s palace. The massive palace seemed to be smiling at him as if to say he didn’t need to do anything. But Larence just swallowed hard and firmly spoke.
“…I will be different from you. I must be different.”
He immediately headed to the First Prince’s palace. He had never visited it except when he was very young.
Feeling both unfamiliar and familiar, Lawrence nervously walked inside. As he passed through the garden and the building came into view, he saw a woman leaving the palace. Although he wasn’t sure, if Frinel had been close to any woman recently, it had to be her.
The mysterious woman Duke Gracie had adopted. Given the secrecy surrounding her, neither he nor the emperor knew the details, nor did the high nobles.
One of his eyebrows raised in intrigue. However, the woman soon boarded a carriage and disappeared. Putting his questions about her aside for a moment, he entered the palace.
The First Prince’s palace felt eerily quiet, with fewer people around than expected. He walked through the corridors to Frinel’s office.
“…Older Brother.”
“…Lawrence?”
Frinel looked slightly puzzled to see him. His younger brother always acted cunningly like a fox. But today, the atmosphere surrounding me was peculiarly subdued.
“I’ve come to talk to you.”
“I can’t believe my lovely younger brother visited my palace. What an honor…”
“Older Brother.”
Ignoring Frinel’s sarcastic comments, Lawrence placed the jar of poison he had been rolling in his hand on the desk. Without any hesitation, he spoke with a face as emotionless as a doll’s in a quiet and low voice.
“Mother told me… to coat my sword with this poison.”
Revealing the truth about what his mother had done.
At those words, Frinel, who was staring at Lawrence, slowly opened his mouth in astonishment.