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The next day, Deon visited the Imperial Palace.
Quite some time had passed since the birthday banquet, so Azef's condition must have worsened.
However, the Imperial Family was thoroughly preventing news from leaking out, so he came to check in person.
But...
"It seems I've worried my dear younger brothers quite a bit. To come visit me like this."
Deon's gaze scrutinized Azef with confusion.
Azef's condition, greeting him, seemed even better than at the banquet.
'The attendant clearly said he was keeping the candles lit.'
There was no way the medicine prescribed by the court physician could have improved Azef's condition.
The gaseous poison melted in the candle could not be detoxified or its symptoms treated with ordinary medicine.
'How on earth...'
Meanwhile, when Deon couldn't answer, gritting his teeth, Azef asked cautiously.
"What's wrong, Deon? You seem to look worse than me these past few days."
Lost in thought, Deon came to his senses only after hearing Azef's voice and replied.
"...It's nothing. I've been losing sleep lately, with a lot on my mind."
Hearing that, Azef placed something that had been on one side of the table in front of Deon.
"Then this scented candle Idris gave me might be helpful to you."
Deon's eyes, looking at the candle placed before him, trembled violently.
"You said... Idris gave you this scented candle?"
"Yes, it's a precious item brought from the Eastern Continent."
Azef replied, lighting the scented candle.
The scented candle, which had been emitting a subtle fragrance even before being lit, began to emit a richer scent as it melted with the flame.
"The scent is very nice. At first, I wondered what effect such a fragrance would have... But strangely enough, I feel like it eases my tension."
Azef pushed the scented candle closer to Deon.
"Here, you try it too."
The scent soon penetrated Deon.
Along with the poison he had introduced into Azef's bedroom.
Deon reflexively coughed and stepped back.
"Oh my, why do you look like that?"
"Ah..."
"Just like someone who's eaten poison."
Deon paused at Azef's question, which sounded subtly meaningful.
'...Could it be, he noticed?'
He couldn't sense any such sign in Azef's eyes facing him.
But, an unnameable anxiety crept up from his toes, making it hard to dismiss it as a mere feeling.
He instinctively held his breath at the gradually intensifying scent, but he couldn't hold his breath forever.
'If he didn't notice, this scented candle will be poisoned, but if he did...'
He would have replaced the scented candle with something else.
Then, in this situation, should he hope that Azef hadn't noticed, or should he...
Hope that he had noticed and replaced the scented candle?
In the suffocating tension, Deon couldn't bring himself to speak when.
The head attendant entered with a knock, put down the tea, and left.
In that gap, Deon organized his thoughts.
Either way, the only reaction he could show in this place was one.
He forced a smile, pulling up the corners of his lips, and parted them.
"...It's a nice scent. Just as you said, brother."
The smoke rising from the scented candle seemed to be strangling his breath.
Click—
Having finished his conversation with Azef, Deon left the bedroom and coughed as if vomiting.
"Cough, hack...! Damn it..."
But the poison accumulated inside would not disappear with just a few coughs.
Still, one thing was fortunate.
'My brother didn't seem to know about the poison in the scented candle.'
However, that meant that the scented candle was the same poisoned candle.
And that he had been breathing in that poison all along while meeting Azef.
'I won't die from inhaling it for just an hour or two, but...'
The poison accumulated and hardened in the respiratory system, gradually preventing it from functioning properly.
Unlike ordinary poisons, it wasn't something that could be cured by taking an antidote, but rather required taking medication to induce excretion before it hardened in the body.
If he missed the golden time and didn't take the medicine, he would live with impaired respiratory function.
Whether it was his imagination or not, he felt like it was more difficult to breathe than before.
'...I feel like I want to wash my lungs if I could. I need to take the medicine quickly.'
However, Deon didn't have the medicine on hand.
In the event that things went wrong and he was accused of poisoning Azef.
Having the medicine would be detrimental, so he hadn't kept it separately.
"Go to the Cannon family estate."
Deon, coughing repeatedly, got into the carriage and told the coachman his destination.
"As quickly as possible."
Of course, with urging.
Count Cannon was responsible for this matter, bribing the servants of the Imperial Palace and preparing the poison.
He would have the medicine.
"We have arrived, Your Highness."
The carriage drove quickly and arrived at the Cannon family estate.
Deon entered the mansion naturally, barely acknowledging the butler's greetings.
"The Count is home, right?"
"Ah, yes..."
"I'll wait in the drawing room―"
Deon, who was hurrying to the drawing room while giving urgent orders, returned and corrected the order.
"No, guide me to where the Count is right away. It's very urgent."
"That is..."
The butler cautiously opened his mouth as if he had something to say, but Deon frowned nervously and approached him.
"Butler."
He lightly patted the shoulder of the deeply nervous butler and whispered softly.
"I don't know if the Count has given you any hints, but I don't have much patience."
Deon, who would normally pretend to be a generous royal, especially to those of other families, didn't have that luxury now.
The butler, overwhelmed by the force, ended up leading Deon to the Count's office without saying anything.
"Thank you."
Deon's composure returned only when he was about to get the antidote.
Soaked in relief, Deon failed to see it.
Behind him, gripping the doorknob, the butler's lips were moving with a pale face.
"Count Cannon. I'll go in."
"Your Highness―"
Deon flung open the office door before the butler could say anything.
And faced.
A frightened Count Cannon.
"I didn't expect you to come this quickly."
Idris, sitting leisurely on the desk, waiting.
Deon's eyes trembled violently as he faced him.
"How did you get here...?"
Idris looked at such Deon, and clapped his hands as if he had remembered something.
"Ah, you came to get this after all?"
In Idris's hand, muttering to himself, was a small bottle containing a green liquid.
Deon didn't know what it was, but instinctively sensed it.
That the thing in that bottle was the medicine he was desperately looking for, and at the same time...
Was bait.
"But it seems like you don't need it anymore. Don't you think?"
Idris threw the medicine bottle he was holding at Deon's feet.
Crack—
The small bottle shattered and the green liquid inside flowed out, touching Deon's toes.
Deon stared at the liquid for a while, then lifted his gaze to look at Idris.
His brother's eyes, disgustingly similar to his own, were no longer smiling.
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