The preparations did not take long. In a few minutes, she took off the black dress she wore to the funeral and arrived at the dining room in her afternoon attire.
How long has it been since I came to this dining room? From a dim memory, she thinks she went in to overturn the food when she was looking for Io. Fanora rolled her eyes and pondered before going inside.
“Oh.”
When she entered the dining room, she first saw the long table used by the Celsius family. Dishes were neatly placed on the table. Water glasses, plates, knives, and forks. There were for 4 people in total.
“Mother?”
However, Hanar arrived first and did not sit on a chair but stood near the table. Around here were her familiar younger brother and Hanar’s maid.
Is the cook late today?
Hanar gestured to her to sit down first. Her half-brother, who was clinging to her mother’s back, had his eyes wide open from earlier. It’s not just one or two days that he glared at her like that. Fanora thought nothing of it and sat down.
Will Father come here too?
Has it been 30 seconds since she sat still? Soon, Count Celsius also arrived at the dining room. He was still dressed in black, probably because he hadn’t changed his clothes since returning from the funeral.
“…”
However, even though all the family members gathered, Hanar didn’t sit down. At this point, Fanora felt that the atmosphere was strange.
“Fanora, what brings you here?”
“I came because Mother called me.”
By the time the count was surprised to see his daughter in the dining room, Hanar, who remained silent until now, spoke her first words.
“You’re just in time. Honey, I Have arranged a table for Fanora today because I want to ask her something.”
“Ask? About what?”
“I found this in our daughter’s room a while ago.”
As she gestured, the maid standing behind her took out an ink bottle. Fanora immediately recognized what it was.
“How well it was hidden. I almost thought it was just plain ink. But look at this. When the sun shines on it, it turns green.”
“What’s wrong with the different colors of ink…?”
“Honey.”
Hanar said sadly to the count standing at the door. This object was found in the room of the eldest daughter of Celsius.
“This is poison. A deadly poison that leads to death.”
“Poison?”
“I already tried writing using this. But, as soon as the ink gets on your hand, you feel pain. So, I asked the maid to find out what this thing was… Oh my God.”
Did she really find out the poison for such a coincidental reason?
Fanora didn’t believe what she said. If Hanar sincerely tried to get rid of her room, she would have burned everything in it. But Hanar said she kept all her items instead of throwing them away. Did she intend to do this from the beginning?
Fanora thought it was weird. She soon understood the reason why Hanar was like that. From the beginning, she had been looking for something to catch during Fanora’s absence. Otherwise, she had no reason to open and check one of the many spare inks.
“Why do you have such a dangerous item with you?”
Hanar put the ink bottle in front of Fanora and spoke. “Don’t lie to me that it’s not your thing now. There are countless people who can prove that this came from your room.”
“…”
“But… What a disappointment! Has the Count’s family ever treated you poorly? As a noblewoman, you have enjoyed everything you deserve.”
The countess was constantly pushing Fanora. The reason why the poison came out of Fanora’s room was because it sounded like this to her.
“But how can you be so ungrateful! You’re trying to use this poison to harm your family!”
“What?” Fanora listened to the story quietly and asked back as if she genuinely did not know.
Then Hanar grabbed his son standing behind him and said, “I know everything. You must have been trying to feed this poison to your younger brother.”
“P-Purson… Fanora?”
“Honey, I’ve said this many times before. This child won’t look after her younger brother as a family.”
Hanar distorted his expression as if appealing to the count.
“Without Purson, you will be the only heir to this family. How can you have such an evil heart out of greed for wealth?”
“…”
“It’s absolutely impossible to think that you’re carrying the lineage of Celsius. Don’t you think so, Honey?”
Her appeal did not stop there. Hanar told the count that Purson had suffered from stomachache from a few weeks ago and that perhaps Fanora had been poisoning him from before. Then Bael looked angry and looked back at Fanora.
“Did you really do such a thing? Fanora!”
“…”
“Don’t stay still and say something. Did you really buy this poison?!”
What if that deadly poison wasn’t the item she kept? Fanora imagined a situation in which Hanar framed her. Strangely enough, the result would be the same whatever the item is.
No matter how much I explain here, Bael won’t listen. She looked expressionlessly at her father, who was furious at her. It was clearly a serious situation that put her in a corner. Still, her expression remained unshaken. Before, just looking at that angry face made me cry, but now I don’t feel anything.
Anyway, she couldn’t keep her mouth shut because the deadly poison had been found. Fanora took the inkwell from the table. She opened the ink bottle with her left hand and spoke in a quiet voice. “Yes. It’s the poison I keep.”
“It’s a deadly poison that will kill anyone who drinks just one sip.”
This was a poison made by concentrating a substance produced from the tail of a certain southwestern fox. It was also a strange poison with different effects depending on the concentration. If you drink it in a thinly diluted form for a long time, you will get sick; if you drink it in a concentrated form, you will die immediately.
“Aren’t you ashamed of such a cruel thing before the name of Celsius!”
“Cruel?”
“Shut up! Don’t you dare to speak your mind while trying to harm your only brother!”
Until now, he had been telling Fanora to open her mouth right away, but he started yelling as soon as she started speaking. However, Fanora didn’t blink at Bael’s words and moved her hand. She soon poured the liquid from the ink bottle into her water cup. The glass was half filled with water. However, this poison wasn’t normally dangerous, so even if it was diluted with half a cup of water, it had already exceeded the lethal dose.
“What are you doing now…”
“Count, I never said I intended to use this poison on Purson. Then why are you angry with me?”
As she lowered her eyes and continued to speak, it became quiet for a moment. “If you think about it just a little bit, you’ll understand, right? Put your hand on your chest and think. If I suddenly give Purson food… would he accept that?”
“What?”
“Or what… Do you think I’m going to sneak this poison into the kitchen? How can I get into the kitchen without being seen?”
It’s locked at night, and there are servants during the day. Even if the ingredients are poisoned, they must be inspected before they are served on the nobles’ table, so what can she do?
Then Hanar looked at Bael and said, “Well, if you bribe the chef…”
“Besides, I was going to be a duchess just a while ago.”
“…Cough.”
“Aloken’s death was an accident that no one expected. There’s no way I could covet Celsius’s family’s property using this poison.”
“Then who were you planning to use that poison on?? It doesn’t change the fact that you were hiding that dangerous thing!”
Fanora held her glass of water in her hand and spun it clockwise. Then, the black liquid inside mixed with water and became translucent.
“I will tell you now who I intended to use it for.”
Fanora glanced at her family gathered in the dining room. They all opposed and despised her. There had been no one on her side in this family since long ago. At one point, she wanted to take revenge on such a Celsius family and bring them down. However… She’s just sick of the whole situation now.
Rather than making excuses in front of these people…
Fanora came up with a trick. Even when the hidden poison was discovered, she figured out a way to get away without punishment. At the same time, this method was a solution to all the frustrating situations.
“I’m the one who’s going to drink this poison.”
“!”
“I saved it for that purpose.”
Fanora calmly brought out the following words. Her family looked agitated. However, Fanora only nodded her head and continued her words with an unchanged expression.
“Why are you so surprised?”
Fanora has already tried to give up her revenge once. To make matters worse, she lost Aloken, who was her last target. In short, Fanora had all of her driving force taken away from her. She couldn’t overcome the sense of futility and held the poisoned water in her hand. It was an impulsive choice that was planned.
“I mean, don’t you hear me? Do you want me to say it again? This is something that was meant to be used for me.”
Right. Maybe she should have been like this a long time ago. She wanted to get out of this play right now. That was her thought from the moment she was betrayed by Aloken. In the meantime, she went through hardships while trying to satisfy her greed through revenge. If she hadn’t thought about being happy, she wouldn’t have been in pain!
“How can people like you panic just because they’ve seen a deadly poison?”
She stared at each family member and poured out everything she had wanted to say. Her first stare was directed towards Hanar Celsius.
“Look a little happier, Mother. You’ve wanted this ending all this time, haven’t you? Or are you sad that you can’t kill me yourself?”
“!”
“Besides, it’s good. You no longer have to return the things that were secretly taken from me. Please don’t bury them with me and burn them.”
Hanar was frozen by the verbal abuse that she heard for the first time in her life. Bael also heard this and looked at Hanar in surprise. Naturally, Purson wasn’t a great person who would just listen to the insults directed at his mother. He shouted at her in a shrill voice.
“You headless thing! Just because you got caught buying poison doesn’t mean you can insult—”
“You shut up!”
“!”
But Purson soon stopped talking. This was because Fanora cut off his words so loudly that the whole room rang.
“Anyway, you’re shameless to the end! You’re a pathetic younger brother who fills your self-esteem by labeling your only older sister as a lowly b*tch.”
She turned her head with a vein around her neck. At the end of the gaze stood Bael Celsius. “Father who stands by while his daughter is rotting and dying!”
Fanora shouted at them to her heart’s content and lifted her glass with a relieved face. It’s like making a toast.
“You all go to hell.”
She tilted her glass with a look of no regret.
The preparations did not take long. In a few minutes, she took off the black dress she wore to the funeral and arrived at the dining room in her afternoon attire.
How long has it been since I came to this dining room? From a dim memory, she thinks she went in to overturn the food when she was looking for Io. Fanora rolled her eyes and pondered before going inside.
“Oh.”
When she entered the dining room, she first saw the long table used by the Celsius family. Dishes were neatly placed on the table. Water glasses, plates, knives, and forks. There were for 4 people in total.
“Mother?”
However, Hanar arrived first and did not sit on a chair but stood near the table. Around here were her familiar younger brother and Hanar’s maid.
Is the cook late today?
Hanar gestured to her to sit down first. Her half-brother, who was clinging to her mother’s back, had his eyes wide open from earlier. It’s not just one or two days that he glared at her like that. Fanora thought nothing of it and sat down.
Will Father come here too?
Has it been 30 seconds since she sat still? Soon, Count Celsius also arrived at the dining room. He was still dressed in black, probably because he hadn’t changed his clothes since returning from the funeral.
“…”
However, even though all the family members gathered, Hanar didn’t sit down. At this point, Fanora felt that the atmosphere was strange.
“Fanora, what brings you here?”
“I came because Mother called me.”
By the time the count was surprised to see his daughter in the dining room, Hanar, who remained silent until now, spoke her first words.
“You’re just in time. Honey, I Have arranged a table for Fanora today because I want to ask her something.”
“Ask? About what?”
“I found this in our daughter’s room a while ago.”
As she gestured, the maid standing behind her took out an ink bottle. Fanora immediately recognized what it was.
“How well it was hidden. I almost thought it was just plain ink. But look at this. When the sun shines on it, it turns green.”
“What’s wrong with the different colors of ink…?”
“Honey.”
Hanar said sadly to the count standing at the door. This object was found in the room of the eldest daughter of Celsius.
“This is poison. A deadly poison that leads to death.”
“Poison?”
“I already tried writing using this. But, as soon as the ink gets on your hand, you feel pain. So, I asked the maid to find out what this thing was… Oh my God.”
Did she really find out the poison for such a coincidental reason?
Fanora didn’t believe what she said. If Hanar sincerely tried to get rid of her room, she would have burned everything in it. But Hanar said she kept all her items instead of throwing them away. Did she intend to do this from the beginning?
Fanora thought it was weird. She soon understood the reason why Hanar was like that. From the beginning, she had been looking for something to catch during Fanora’s absence. Otherwise, she had no reason to open and check one of the many spare inks.
“Why do you have such a dangerous item with you?”
Hanar put the ink bottle in front of Fanora and spoke. “Don’t lie to me that it’s not your thing now. There are countless people who can prove that this came from your room.”
“…”
“But… What a disappointment! Has the Count’s family ever treated you poorly? As a noblewoman, you have enjoyed everything you deserve.”
The countess was constantly pushing Fanora. The reason why the poison came out of Fanora’s room was because it sounded like this to her.
“But how can you be so ungrateful! You’re trying to use this poison to harm your family!”
“What?” Fanora listened to the story quietly and asked back as if she genuinely did not know.
Then Hanar grabbed his son standing behind him and said, “I know everything. You must have been trying to feed this poison to your younger brother.”
“P-Purson… Fanora?”
“Honey, I’ve said this many times before. This child won’t look after her younger brother as a family.”
Hanar distorted his expression as if appealing to the count.
“Without Purson, you will be the only heir to this family. How can you have such an evil heart out of greed for wealth?”
“…”
“It’s absolutely impossible to think that you’re carrying the lineage of Celsius. Don’t you think so, Honey?”
Her appeal did not stop there. Hanar told the count that Purson had suffered from stomachache from a few weeks ago and that perhaps Fanora had been poisoning him from before. Then Bael looked angry and looked back at Fanora.
“Did you really do such a thing? Fanora!”
“…”
“Don’t stay still and say something. Did you really buy this poison?!”
What if that deadly poison wasn’t the item she kept? Fanora imagined a situation in which Hanar framed her. Strangely enough, the result would be the same whatever the item is.
No matter how much I explain here, Bael won’t listen. She looked expressionlessly at her father, who was furious at her. It was clearly a serious situation that put her in a corner. Still, her expression remained unshaken. Before, just looking at that angry face made me cry, but now I don’t feel anything.
Anyway, she couldn’t keep her mouth shut because the deadly poison had been found. Fanora took the inkwell from the table. She opened the ink bottle with her left hand and spoke in a quiet voice. “Yes. It’s the poison I keep.”
“It’s a deadly poison that will kill anyone who drinks just one sip.”
This was a poison made by concentrating a substance produced from the tail of a certain southwestern fox. It was also a strange poison with different effects depending on the concentration. If you drink it in a thinly diluted form for a long time, you will get sick; if you drink it in a concentrated form, you will die immediately.
“Aren’t you ashamed of such a cruel thing before the name of Celsius!”
“Cruel?”
“Shut up! Don’t you dare to speak your mind while trying to harm your only brother!”
Until now, he had been telling Fanora to open her mouth right away, but he started yelling as soon as she started speaking. However, Fanora didn’t blink at Bael’s words and moved her hand. She soon poured the liquid from the ink bottle into her water cup. The glass was half filled with water. However, this poison wasn’t normally dangerous, so even if it was diluted with half a cup of water, it had already exceeded the lethal dose.
“What are you doing now…”
“Count, I never said I intended to use this poison on Purson. Then why are you angry with me?”
As she lowered her eyes and continued to speak, it became quiet for a moment. “If you think about it just a little bit, you’ll understand, right? Put your hand on your chest and think. If I suddenly give Purson food… would he accept that?”
“What?”
“Or what… Do you think I’m going to sneak this poison into the kitchen? How can I get into the kitchen without being seen?”
It’s locked at night, and there are servants during the day. Even if the ingredients are poisoned, they must be inspected before they are served on the nobles’ table, so what can she do?
Then Hanar looked at Bael and said, “Well, if you bribe the chef…”
“Besides, I was going to be a duchess just a while ago.”
“…Cough.”
“Aloken’s death was an accident that no one expected. There’s no way I could covet Celsius’s family’s property using this poison.”
“Then who were you planning to use that poison on?? It doesn’t change the fact that you were hiding that dangerous thing!”
Fanora held her glass of water in her hand and spun it clockwise. Then, the black liquid inside mixed with water and became translucent.
“I will tell you now who I intended to use it for.”
Fanora glanced at her family gathered in the dining room. They all opposed and despised her. There had been no one on her side in this family since long ago. At one point, she wanted to take revenge on such a Celsius family and bring them down. However… She’s just sick of the whole situation now.
Rather than making excuses in front of these people…
Fanora came up with a trick. Even when the hidden poison was discovered, she figured out a way to get away without punishment. At the same time, this method was a solution to all the frustrating situations.
“I’m the one who’s going to drink this poison.”
“!”
“I saved it for that purpose.”
Fanora calmly brought out the following words. Her family looked agitated. However, Fanora only nodded her head and continued her words with an unchanged expression.
“Why are you so surprised?”
Fanora has already tried to give up her revenge once. To make matters worse, she lost Aloken, who was her last target. In short, Fanora had all of her driving force taken away from her. She couldn’t overcome the sense of futility and held the poisoned water in her hand. It was an impulsive choice that was planned.
“I mean, don’t you hear me? Do you want me to say it again? This is something that was meant to be used for me.”
Right. Maybe she should have been like this a long time ago. She wanted to get out of this play right now. That was her thought from the moment she was betrayed by Aloken. In the meantime, she went through hardships while trying to satisfy her greed through revenge. If she hadn’t thought about being happy, she wouldn’t have been in pain!
“How can people like you panic just because they’ve seen a deadly poison?”
She stared at each family member and poured out everything she had wanted to say. Her first stare was directed towards Hanar Celsius.
“Look a little happier, Mother. You’ve wanted this ending all this time, haven’t you? Or are you sad that you can’t kill me yourself?”
“!”
“Besides, it’s good. You no longer have to return the things that were secretly taken from me. Please don’t bury them with me and burn them.”
Hanar was frozen by the verbal abuse that she heard for the first time in her life. Bael also heard this and looked at Hanar in surprise. Naturally, Purson wasn’t a great person who would just listen to the insults directed at his mother. He shouted at her in a shrill voice.
“You headless thing! Just because you got caught buying poison doesn’t mean you can insult—”
“You shut up!”
“!”
But Purson soon stopped talking. This was because Fanora cut off his words so loudly that the whole room rang.
“Anyway, you’re shameless to the end! You’re a pathetic younger brother who fills your self-esteem by labeling your only older sister as a lowly b*tch.”
She turned her head with a vein around her neck. At the end of the gaze stood Bael Celsius. “Father who stands by while his daughter is rotting and dying!”
Fanora shouted at them to her heart’s content and lifted her glass with a relieved face. It’s like making a toast.
“You all go to hell.”
She tilted her glass with a look of no regret.
