Chapter 3: The Poison Was a Trap… And I Fell Right Into It!

I stared at the small bottle, not hiding the doubt in my eyes.

“If you take this medicine, your heart will stop and your breathing will cease, just like death.”

“Then it’s not ‘like’ death. It’s just death.”

“Shall I kill you, then?”

I had asked seriously, but Cecil answered with a mocking joke. Ah, what is she even trying to do?

“After an hour, the effects wear off.”

“An hour…”

“When the royal guard comes down to take you to the Emperor, take the medicine then.”

“…”

“From that moment, you have one hour. You’ll have to put on a convincing act before the Emperor.”

But I can’t act…

“I’ve bought a palace worker who handles the dead. All you have to do is lie there pretending to be dead and leave in the carriage.”

The corners of her finely drawn lips curved. Cecil gave me a small nod, as if she had said everything she needed to, and turned away.

I watched her back as she walked the way she had come.

Could I trust her?

The hand holding the bottle shook helplessly.

Not long after Cecil left the underground prison, the royal guard poured down. As they came down the stairs with heavy thudding steps, I moved my hesitant hand and swallowed the medicine.

I threw the empty bottle somewhere in the corner and smashed it, then stood holding the iron bars as if I had done nothing.

A sweet and bitter taste lingered in my mouth. It even seemed to carry the floral scent that came from Cecil. It really wasn’t poison, was it? I had swallowed it because there was no other way, but still. Just as Rivain said, I felt like I was becoming the foolish Gabriel.

I heard a clanking sound and the rattle of chains being unwound. Then the rusty door opened with an unpleasant screech. The guard tied me with rope and dragged me out, just as they had when they brought me here.

I stumbled because I could barely see the pitch-black floor below. My clothes and shoes were all black too, so I couldn’t tell which was my foot and which was the floor.

“Ah, wait… slowly…”

Damn it. My vision swam, maybe because the medicine was already taking effect. At this rate, I wouldn’t even need to act before the Emperor. My stomach churned and my sight blurred.

My feet kept missing the steps as I climbed, my body sinking and jolting upward.

A man who looked like the captain of the guard grabbed me and shot me an annoyed look. I want to walk properly too. What am I supposed to do when my legs won’t hold me?

“Hah… hah… I can’t breathe… hoo…”

My chest felt tight. As soon as I was out of the underground prison, I sat down on the road, gasping. I rubbed my dry, rough lips with the back of my bound hand.

“His Majesty ordered you brought without delay.”

“Hah, hah… ugh… wait, cough, cough… keh…!”

Before I could finish speaking, a clump of blood surged up from inside my throat.

Damn it… Cecil…! I cursed inwardly as I looked at the blood soaking my palm. I was insane. What kind of woman was Cecil?

I tried to recall through my fading mind. She was a woman skilled in scheming, striking in appearance… but she hadn’t particularly treated me as a thorn in her side.

My head spun.

“Cough, keh… urgh…!”

My whole body trembled. My strengthless body, which had been sitting slumped, toppled over. Cecil’s hair, which had seemed to burn, and the curve of her finely drawn lips rose vividly in my mind.

She had said she was helping because she didn’t want to make a man her enemy. It seemed she had only pretended to help while trying to kill me.

And I had been stupidly fooled and even drank the medicine without thinking.

“…Ha. Ce… cil…”

I had planned to run away and never appear before the Emperor, even if Cecil did nothing. I had wanted to live a long, quiet life and die of old age…

My vision began to spread black. Slowly, like ink bleeding into water. Then in one moment it turned completely dark.

I thought dying by the Emperor’s hand might have been better. At least there wouldn’t be this pain.

She had said I would have to act before the Emperor. Now I was about to meet death on the road without even seeing the tips of Rivain’s feet.

* * *

“…What, Ce… the medicine… foolish Gabi… do…”

Rivain’s voice buzzed in my head. It sounded like an echo from far away. Even through that echo, Rivain called me “foolish Gabi.”

You bastard. I clawed at my burning throat to let him know I was awake.

“Haa… ugh…”

“Gabriel?”

“Hn…”

“Gabi, are you awake?”

The bed sank. Then a cool hand rubbed my face however it pleased. Soft fingers forced my eyelids open.

“Gabi. Are you lucid?”

Rivain’s face slowly came into focus in my blurry vision. You bastard…

“Bastard? Gabi. Are you talking to me?”

“…”

I thought I had kept the curse toward Rivain inside, but it seemed to have slipped out on its own.

“That’s why I asked why you tried to run. Gabi.”

Rivain spoke as if he genuinely found it a shame. He rubbed my pale, sickly cheek tenderly.

“If you use the same honey trap and you’re dumber than Cecil, this is how you get taken down in an instant.”

“…F*… ck…”

“What does that mean, Gabi. Is that your last will?”

I wanted to curse as I listened to Rivain’s voice, thick with amusement, but no sound came out. I only slowly blinked my heavy eyelids. After that, it was black again.

* * *

When I woke, my head hurt worse than I had expected. It felt like someone was splitting my head in half.

“Hn… my head.”

“Gabriel?”

When I slowly lifted my eyelids and looked around, Rivain stood leaning by the window, bathed in midday sunlight and tinged with gold.

“Why… am I…”

“On the way back to me from the underground prison, you collapsed after taking the medicine Cecil gave you. I don’t know what you talked about with Cecil or why you accepted and drank it.”

“…”

“If I hadn’t had the antidote, you would have really died, not just pretended. Gabi.”

“Cecil…”

My voice was completely ruined. Every time I forced out a word, a metallic sound scraped out of my throat.

“Are pretty things usually this stupid?”

“…”

“But Cecil is clever. Sharp.”

“…”

“I thought you had gotten fairly smart, Gabriel.”

Rivain tilted his head as if he sincerely wondered why I had done something so foolish.

“…I.”

“Gabi, the reason you could wake up in the Emperor’s bedroom is that I showed you great leniency. It’s also because I knew what poison Cecil used. So you had better answer my questions properly. Don’t make me think saving you was a waste.”

I braced my upper body with an arm that had no strength left.

“The Gabriel I knew was a stupid man who was only dizzyingly pretty.”

Rivain, who had been leaning by the window, walked toward me slowly. I thought his steps were unhurried, but he was already close. He sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to lift my chin as I blinked stupidly.

“You thought that if I left you alone, you would die by my hand. I did, and probably Cecil did too. So we watched and waited. Gauging when I would swing the sword. But from some point on, you started acting clever. You learned how to protect your own life.”

“…”

“Was that why? Cecil felt the danger and decided she had to deal with you.”

Rivain seemed to briefly recall the exile of his close aides who had once been in the same camp as Gabriel.

“You only get one chance.”

“…I…”

“Gabi.”

“…”

“Who exactly are you?”

The golden eyes held a dangerous gleam. For a moment, I considered it. Should I hold out my hand and say, Hello, I’m Kim Cheolsu from Seoul (not Kim Cheolsu)?

But Rivain’s eyes were too frightening for that. They were so dangerous that the moment I let out even the “Kim” of Kim Cheolsu, he looked ready to shove the long sword at his waist against my neck. So I decided to play dumb for now.

“I… I don’t know what you mean.”

The part about only getting one chance did bother me a little… I lifted my heavy eyelids and blinked as innocently as I could. Very slowly. It was time for Gabriel, who was said to be dizzyingly pretty, to live up to his face.

“I am… Gabriel. Your Majesty.”

When I had been locked in the underground prison, I had screamed that I was not Gabriel. Now that I actually said it, the golden eyes staring through me made me feel an inexplicable sense of unease.

As if saying that the moment I denied being Gabriel, I would die. My intuition was worth dog shit, but right now I had to trust it.

“…Gabriel.”

“…Rivain.”

I kept my eyes innocently open and gazed steadily into the golden eyes. The gold eyes, like the sun, were full of confusion.

“Yes. That’s right.”

“…”

“There’s no way you’re not Gabriel. You got a little clever for a moment, so I wondered if maybe you weren’t. But that can’t be.”

I barely managed to stretch my lips into a smile, and my dry lips split. When I lightly licked the blood beading on my lips, a strange light settled in Rivain’s eyes.

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