~Chapter 70~
“Diana!”
Right before Diana’s head hit the floor, Aileen barely managed to catch her.
“Mary, go get a healer. Quickly!”
“Yes!”
Aileen didn’t even have time to watch her maid run out.
Sitting on the floor with Diana in her arms, she frantically checked her condition. Diana didn’t seem to have lost consciousness yet. That was the only relief.
“Diana, what on earth…?”
“Po… poison…”
Diana suddenly grabbed Aileen’s arm and tried to speak, but thick blood kept spilling from her mouth, blocking her words.
“Don’t tell me the tea was poisoned…”
Aileen lifted her head and stared at the clean tea table.
Her own teacup was still full, steam rising quietly.
Diana’s cup, however, was noticeably emptier.
I made the tea myself. How could poison get in…?
Even the water had been from a kettle they’d been using since yesterday. There was no way poison could have been added.
“What is going on here?”
A familiar man’s voice echoed from the door. It wasn’t the healer.
Aileen jerked her head around.
Standing in the doorway—calm, watchful, almost as if guarding the entrance—was none other than Chester Lowell.
A blond man who resembled Cedric but also looked nothing like him swept his cold gaze over the room.
He looked neither tense nor surprised. If anything, he looked like someone assessing the situation.
No way…
Their eyes met. Behind his unusual blue eyes, she could see rapid calculation.
“What a disaster,” he finally said.
The dry tone didn’t contain even a fake hint of worry.
Instead, his icy gaze was filled with satisfaction—like he had confirmed something.
And the way he relaxed his posture after assessing the scene only made it clearer.
All of this happened in the span of a heartbeat.
“I’ll examine her.”
The healer rushed in next and gently took Diana from Aileen’s arms.
He arrived before the healer…
Aileen stared blankly at the blood on her hands—Diana’s blood.
There was more than she expected.
Before the healer… faster…
That thought looped in her mind.
Everything around her felt slow, as if underwater.
And her mind reached one conclusion—
Ah. They set me up.
She didn’t know how or why, but she had walked straight into a trap.
“Why is Diana like this?”
“It seems to be poison. I’ll try a general antidote first, but I’m not sure it will work…”
The healer’s answer was exactly what she expected.
The empty exchange between the healer and the baron faded from her hearing.
Aileen stared at limp, pale Diana.
Where was the poison? How?
While she was still on the floor, the baron casually approached and crouched beside her.
“Lady Aileen Casier, are you unharmed?”
“I’m fine.”
He smiled strangely and picked up a broken piece of biscuit from the floor.
Aileen’s eyes followed his hand—and then the truth hit her.
Yes. There it was.
The one thing her hands had not touched.
Something brought from outside.
“How strange. You were both in the same place, yet only one ended up like that…”
Aileen stared at the biscuit crumbs breaking into powder between his fingers.
“…and the other is completely fine.”
“I don’t know what you’re implying.”
“I’m just saying, it’s strange.”
“That was made in the kitchen. If something’s wrong with it, then the kitchen made a mistake.”
He wouldn’t seriously try to blame her with something this flimsy. It was ridiculous.
“I never said the poison was in this.”
Aileen glared at him sharply.
She was in no mood for childish word games.
“I meant you shouldn’t treat it like I’m responsible.”
“We’ll see about that. Whether it’s the tea, or something else… something was clearly wrong.”
Aileen was certain the biscuit was the culprit.
And the man standing in front of her had arranged it.
Not me—he made sure only Diana would eat it…
Aileen never ate pastries or snacks by herself. They were only brought out when Diana visited.
Which meant it wouldn’t take much investigation to discover that she never ate such things alone.
In other words, the baron had known Diana would be the only one to take it.
“If you’re not guilty, you wouldn’t look so desperate. Strange, isn’t it?”
His muttered words—like someone who’s done something wrong—echoed coldly.
Aileen forced herself not to snap.
It would only give him more to twist and use.
She needed time to think, to figure out how this had been set up.
“Diana!”
Cedric burst into the room, breathless and panicked.
His sweat-damp blond hair stuck to his forehead—clearly he’d been in the middle of sword training again.
“Why is she like this? Diana, can you hear me? How bad is it?”
“It seems to be poison. I’ve administered a general antidote, but we can’t be sure it will work.”
No matter what else was happening, Aileen was genuinely worried for Diana.
Diana was an innocent victim caught between Aileen and Cedric.
“We need to move her to a bed. She can’t stay on the floor.”
“We’ll monitor her condition in shifts.”
Cedric quickly picked Diana up in his arms.
He still hadn’t given Aileen a single real glance.
When Aileen quietly stood and stepped closer—
“Don’t touch her.”
It was a cold voice Aileen had never heard from him before.
She looked up, stunned.
“Cedric.”
But Cedric didn’t respond.
He only adjusted Diana more comfortably in his arms.
He was someone who understood priorities.
There was no way he was mixing their earlier argument into this situation.
Just because we argued… he wouldn’t…
He wasn’t that irrational.
His fiercely glowing blue eyes finally swept the room.
“Leave this room untouched. And Aileen, you’ll stay in another room for now.”
“Cedric!”
“Don’t come out until I say so.”
Meaning: He was going to confine her.
Without even talking to her properly.
“Cedric. I didn’t hurt Diana.”
Aileen had no choice but to stop him by grabbing his arm.
Cedric finally looked her straight in the eyes.
“I know.”
“You know? Really?”
His silence in response told her everything.
Aileen saw every flicker in his expression.
A faint frown.
Then his face smoothing back into blankness.
And she realized it immediately—
Cedric didn’t fully trust her.
“No. You’re doubting me. Even a little.”
You, of all people, should trust me.
She could handle traps, schemes, attempts to frame her.
She could find holes, gather clues, and escape.
She had the will and the ability.
She just needed him to believe her.
“I’m not doubting you,” Cedric said calmly.
But his next words hurt far more.
“You wouldn’t use such an obvious trick.”
“…What is that supposed to mean?”
“I mean I believe you didn’t do this.”
This one, he said.
Meaning—
If something were less obvious, he might believe she was capable of it.
Aileen had no idea what he meant anymore.
But Cedric clearly had no intention of explaining.
“So step back for now, Aileen.”
“Cedric!”
“Aileen. Don’t make me force you.”
His eyes flicked toward the knights behind him, and of course she noticed.
“You…”
But because she understood he meant it, she couldn’t bring herself to grab him again.
She could only stare helplessly at his retreating back.
