Chapter 179

A few days later, when I was finally able to walk around by myself thanks to Emily’s devoted care, the duke summoned me. I followed the butler into the duke’s office and found all the major players already gathered there. The duke’s two sons, Winter, and even the female protagonist were all sitting on the sofas arranged around the sitting area.

But I don’t remember anything like this happening in normal mode after the coming-of-age ceremony, I thought to myself as I walked toward them. I supposed such a scene might have come to pass, had Winter not been the one to bring Ivonne, as had happened in the original storyline. Something didn’t feel quite right, but I discarded the sensation.

What did it matter? The entire plot had no doubt been derailed since I drank the poison myself. I quietly took my seat and a maid brought a steaming tray of tea. Nobody touched their cup, nor did anything to disturb the silence.

“Penelope,” the duke finally began, sitting at the head of the table. “I’m sorry to have to put you through this so soon after waking up, but I wanted to know the details regarding the incident at your coming-of-age ceremony before they could be lost. Nothing like this can ever be allowed to happen again.”

The duke sounded exceedingly cautious, “That’s why I would like to ask you a few questions about what happened if you’re willing to answer them.”

“Yes, go ahead,” I said, nodding. This conversation was inevitable.

“First of all... Do you remember drinking the sherry on the day of the ceremony?”

“Yes. I began coughing up blood and fell right afterward,” I recounted my ordeal casually. My candor was met with a brief silence.

“We took the cup you drank from and had it examined. The rim was lined with poison.”

“I see.”

“Did you know that the cup was Ivonne’s and not yours?”

“I don’t know about that,” I muttered, tilting my head. “Maybe I knew, maybe I didn’t...”

“Penelope,” the duke sighed, brow pinched. He no doubt thought I was taking this too lightly. “This is extremely important. We need to know why this happened. Please try and remember as best as you’re able.”

“I think I might have mixed up the cups because they look so alike,” I said evenly. I turned to regard the female protagonist. “What do you remember, Ivonne?”

“H-huh?” she stuttered, jumping in her seat. She’d been staring into her cup.

“What do you remember about that day?”

“T-the shock was so great, I can’t remember much about it at all. P-penelope drank the sherry and suddenly collapsed...” Ivonne trailed off, tears suddenly filling her blue eyes. She looked at me plaintively and said in a quivering voice, “Wh-why did you do something so frightful, Penelope? Please don’t do anything like that to yourself ever again.”

“Ha!” I said, barking out a laugh. It was true that I’d taken the poison myself, but she talked as though she were certain I’d done it on purpose.

Hearing my mocking laugh, Derrick glared viciously at me from where he was sitting beside her.

The conversation had ground to a halt for a moment thanks to Ivonne’s tears, but Winter finally spoke up, “As the crown prince theorized, we can’t rule out the possibility that Lady Ivonne was planning something but her plot was interrupted by Lady Penelope.”

I stared at him in surprise. He hasn’t been brainwashed yet?

I found it rather surprising that he’d maintain his neutrality when, as far as I was aware, he’d met the female protagonist earlier than anyone else had.

“M-m-me?” Ivonne gasped out, choking. “I-I did no such thing! I promise!” The tears that had been pooling in her eyes finally streaked down her cheeks. “I-I didn’t even know I’d end up attending the ceremony. I’m sure my first brother—that is, Lord Derrick—can confirm this. I told him that I wouldn’t go.”

“That is true,” Derrick confirmed curtly.

Sure it is. You’re not even aware that she’s already taken control of your mind, you idiot. I smirked.

Derrick, seeing my expression, glared at me again.

Ivonne was still talking, obviously very offended. “And besides, I spent more time in the head maid’s company than I did Becky’s. And what’s more, Becky would often meet with Emily, who is Penelope’s personal maid. That’s how... that’s how I knew that Becky was one of Penelope’s people. I knew that someone was using Becky to keep an eye on me, but...” Ivonne trailed off and covered her face with both hands as if she were overwhelmed and could no longer speak.

I tutted, quietly so no one would hear. What a scary b*tch.

I’d been worried something like this might happen and tried my best to refrain from asking Emily too many questions. I’d only asked about Ivonne a handful of times at most, but she apparently knew that I’d been asking anyway. It gave me the creeps.

I thought she was supposed to be an angel! What a load of sh*t! As I cursed the stupid game, the duke interceded on my behalf. “You were the one who chose her to be your maid, Ivonne.”

“But Penelope is very close with the butler. And even if that weren’t the case… If, as the marquis suggests, I was really the person responsible for all this, Penelope would not have drunk the sherry. She’d have poured it out onto the ground and accused me of trying to poison her.”

Winter slowly closed his mouth. We were getting nowhere. As the awkward silence stretched on, I sat staring at the table. I knew that something like this would happen. At first, I’d done my best to formulate some sort of strategy to work around all this, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care anymore.

Shouldn’t I just be relieved that I didn’t end up poisoning Ivonne, the way it happened in the game originally? I could still remember Penelope’s death after her attempt to kill the duke’s real daughter. I glanced at the cup of tea lying in front of the female protagonist without much thought, the cooling tea almost as red as the poisoned sherry.

Why is it so dark? It must taste bitter since it’s so dark... My idle thoughts suddenly ground to a halt. Raising my wavering gaze, I looked up at Ivonne. Tears were still streaming from her eyes, deeply offended as she was.

I looked down at her cup again, then at the other cups arranged around the table.

It’s not there... A chill ran down my spine. There was nothing reflected in Ivonne’s tea. Her reflection, which should have been visible in the water, was nowhere in sight.

“Why did you drink it, knowing that it was poisoned?” someone asked.

I shuddered, returning my attention to the conversation and raising my head.

Derrick was watching me closely and our eyes met. “Why are you staring like that?” he asked, seemingly finding my reaction to the teacup strange. He glanced at the table, where I’d been looking.

“No... It’s nothing,” I said with a quick shake of my head. “What did you say?”

His handsome face contorted into a scowl at my question. “The necklace you were wearing,” he said, instead of repeating his earlier question. “It changes color when poison is detected nearby, correct? Marquis Verdandi told us that you couldn’t have failed to see it.”

“Ah,” I said, giving Winter a sidelong glance.

He’d been studying me carefully, almost as closely as Derrick. He wavered, navy eyes avoiding mine when I glanced at him.

I didn’t know he’d told them that. It was surprising since he’d acted like he wanted nothing to do with me when I’d seen him at the coming-of-age ceremony. I supposed it couldn’t have been easy to explain what the necklace did without the shrewd crown prince noticing something amiss. However, I wasn’t feeling all that grateful to him.

“You must have heard that Becky, the maid, accused you of being responsible,” Derrick said, starting an unprompted interrogation while I stared at Winter, lost in thought. “The antidote to the poison you took was found in her room.”

“Derrick, that’s enough,” the duke said gravely. “We aren’t here to interrogate anyone. And I told you to never speak of that again!”

“Why did you drink from the cup, knowing it was poisoned?” Derrick usually obeyed his father’s commands to the letter, but he was now completely ignoring the duke. “Answer me. Tell me why you did it. What did you want so badly that you’d resort to such a—”

“But you’re not really asking me, are you?” I said.

“What?”

“You want to hear that I masterminded all of it. Fine.” I nodded simply. “You’re correct.” Since he wanted to hear me say it so much, I decided I’d give him the satisfaction of being right. “I told Becky to do it.”

“Penelope!”

“Hey!” Reynold shot to his feet in shock.

The mood in the office changed rapidly. I turned to look at Ivonne, who apparently hadn’t predicted that this would happen. Her large blue eyes were filled with confusion. Staring right into her eyes, I said, “I only gave her the order to bring the poison, nothing more. That stupid maid must have thought I planned to use it on Ivonne.”

“Wh-what is that supposed to mean?” The duke slammed his fists against the armrests of his chair, appalled. “You... you really did this? It was all a trick?”

“Ha! But why would she do such a thing using Becky’s aid, when she had her own personal maid?” Winter pointed out calmly. He seemed to be the only one keeping his cool in this situation.

I gave the first excuse that came to mind. “I couldn’t trust Emily enough and I had blackmail on Becky. I knew that she wouldn’t be quick to talk as long as I knew her weakness.”

“Her weakness?”

“I learned that the letter of guarantee she used to secure her position here wasn’t legitimate. I threatened her and said that I’d tell everyone the truth.”

“You!” the duke shouted, eyes bloodshot as I rambled without any hesitation.

“But why? Why the hell would you do something like this?” Reynold shouted at me, looking as if he’d lunge at me at any moment.

“I wanted back all the attention that was being given to Ivonne,” I said in a monotone, glancing around the room. I sounded like I couldn’t care less, even to my own ears. “I didn’t want anyone else taking my place.”

“Penelope! You...” the duke cried.

“Is that the entire reason?” Derrick asked. “That’s the reason? So you could take back some of the attention from a commoner whose identity hadn’t even been confirmed yet? That’s why you put your life in danger?”

He’d been the one who’d continuously accused me of plotting everything ever since I woke up. Now that I was giving him the answers he wanted to hear, however, he was acting as though everything I was saying was a total shock to him. He stared at me with hollow, unfocused eyes. It was strange, the way his face was drained of all color, but his feelings were none of my concern.

“If anything, I’d have preferred to die,” I rambled.

“What?” Derrick stammered. “B-but why?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why poison? You could have used some other means to attract attention...”

“You don’t need a convoluted reason to drink poison,” I tilted my head sarcastically, finally coming clean. “I drank it. I wanted to see if I’d die.”

“This makes no sense,” someone said, preventing me from saying anything more.

Winter was scowling as he scrambled to defend me. “If she was telling the truth, then why did the dead maid add the poison to Lady Ivonnes’ cup?”

“Hmm. I can’t know for sure.” I made an exaggerated gesture, indicating that I was thinking. Then I clapped my hands together. “That’s it. She forgot that it was supposed to be applied to my cup, then remembered at the last minute. I guess she was afraid I might be stupid enough to confuse the cups later.”

“What nonsense is this?” the duke hollered, banging his fists on the armrest again.

What I was saying obviously made no sense, but that didn’t matter to me right now. The only thing I cared about was that I was still stuck inside this damned game.

“In any case, I’m sorry for causing such a commotion. I know there isn’t anything I can do to make things right, and I feel deeply ashamed, Father, Lord Derrick.” Turning to the rest of the group, who were all in turmoil after my bold confession, I made my choice. “It’s no use quibbling over the details of what happened. I believe there’s only one solution to this matter.

“And what might that be?” the duke demanded to know.

“Disown me.”

I just want to get out of here.