Looking for a Husband to Confine Me - Chapter 9
Chapter 9
I glanced at Damian’s expression, and he was still staring at me. The only difference was that the bewildered look on his face had vanished, replaced by eyes that seemed to be observing my actions.
“D-Damian, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can go with you. I’m not ready yet.”
I averted my gaze slightly, delivering a refusal that would sound to Damian like a rejection of his request to speak with Hector.
“What kind of family are you from, to act like this in front of a prince? This is an insult not only to the prince but also to our Kishan Kingdom!”
The attendant shouted, his voice strained with anger.
“Stop it.”
“Yes, Bashar is fine except for his slightly wet clothes. It’s a good day, so don’t get too excited, Pazl.”
Haroon Kisha, following Bashar, tried to calm the excited attendant. The attendant looked embarrassed.
“Y-Your Highness, he suddenly fell over here, he must have done it on purpose. How else could he have…!”
“That’s enough. He can change his clothes, and we can have more wine.”
“But Your Highness, c-cough!”
Bashar’s mention of more wine calmed the attendant’s excitement. This time, I tried to stop the attendant’s movements, but Damian, still sitting, spoke.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t drink, Bashar.”
Everyone’s eyes turned to him. Damian raised his index finger, dipped it into the wine that had stained the banquet hall floor, and tasted it.
“What are you doing? It’s disgusting!”
The attendant recoiled in disgust.
“Hmm, disgusting, you say.”
Damian smiled, his lips curving into a smirk, and stood up. He then approached the attendant, called Pazl. The attendant shrank back, slowly retreating.
Damian’s movement was faster than the attendant’s, however. He snatched the wine bottle away.
“What kind of rudeness is this!”
“This wine shouldn’t be drunk.”
The attendant’s cry was followed by a languid voice. Damian’s subsequent actions made me doubt my eyes.
Damian brought the bottle to his lips and began to drink.
‘H-He’s crazy, why is he drinking that?’
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. Once, twice, three times… Red wine dripped down his lips.
Then, his lips detached from the bottle with a soft click. His lips, stained with crimson, were undeniably alluring. His voice came a moment later.
“It’s poisoned.”
“Poisoned? What do you mean?”
Bashar asked Damian, but before he could get an answer…
Cough!
Damian’s body shook violently, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood. The thick blood flowed down his lips, staining his clothes and the floor.
“What the…!”
“Aaack!”
The sight of Damian coughing up blood caused chaos in the banquet hall.
“Damian!”
I was startled and rushed to his side.
‘He’s really crazy! Why did he drink that?’
I was caught off guard by his unexpected actions.
“Call a doctor!”
“Close the banquet hall!”
I could hear the prince and others calling for servants and knights. I helped Damian, who was stumbling, to his feet. His heavy body leaned against me.
Judging from his warning about the wine, Damian must have known it was poisoned. But who would drink poison just to demonstrate it?
“Cough.”
He coughed lightly, and a splash of crimson stained my dress.
“Sorry. I got you dirty.”
“Now is not the time for….”
“But Amelia, you can just call me Damian, you know.”
I gritted my teeth, watching his eyes crinkle at the corners. Was he even thinking about making jokes in this situation?
“This is not the time for jokes!” I wanted to grab Damian by the neck and shake him.
The poison in the novel was the same one that killed Bashar Kisha before he could even finish a single glass of wine. If I left him as he was, he might die. What did his name even matter in this situation?
“Don’t worry so much, Amelia.”
“Please just shut up!”
I spoke harshly without thinking.
Now was not the time to be thinking about anything else. The priority was to get Damian an antidote. Even if a doctor came and tried to give him an antidote, they would need to know what kind of poison it was.
Everyone’s attention was focused on the fact that the prince could have been poisoned.
‘I have no choice.’
I bit my wrist hard. The sound of my flesh tearing and the sensation were unmistakable.
For now, I just had to keep him alive.
I was about to let the blood drip into Damian’s mouth when…
“I’m fine.”
Damian’s body, which had been leaning against me, began to regain its strength. The arm he had draped around my shoulder tightened, pulling me into a hug.
“W-What?”
“Whew.”
Damian took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. I could see a smile beginning to form on his lips.
“Are you okay?”
Bashar Kisha approached Damian with the doctor who had arrived in a hurry. I stood awkwardly, clinging to him.
“Where is the patient? Hurry and administer the antidote…”
“It’s not necessary,” Damian answered the anxious doctor nonchalantly. I could see the doctor’s bewildered face. I must have been looking up at Damian with the same expression.
“I’m immune to most poisons.”
“Ah, but still, if you’re vomiting blood…”
“I won’t die, so don’t worry.”
“Are you sure? Shouldn’t you be examined?”
“I said I’m fine. It’s bothersome, bothersome.”
He waved his hands dismissively, assuring both the doctor and Bashar. I could only stare at him in disbelief.
‘So, he just, he just drank the wine…?’
He meant that he was confident enough to drink the wine because he was immune to most poisons? Poisoned wine? Even if he was immune, what if it was a poison he wasn’t immune to?
If it had been an antidote-resistant poison, he could have died. Yet, he refused even to be examined by a doctor.
‘This, this, this guy really…’
Our eyes met. Damian’s black eyes.
“I told you.”
He smiled, a sweet, charming smile. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his other hand.
“Don’t worry.”
This guy, is he crazy?
***
I don’t know if it’s because of my ability to handle snakes and talk to them, but my blood contained poison. It was capable of both poisoning and detoxifying.
Whether my blood was poisonous was up to me. If I intended to use it as a poison, it naturally became poisonous. But when used for detoxification, it was only possible if the other person had already drunk my blood and was poisoned.
In any case, it was quite strong when used as a poison. Strong enough to neutralize the effects of other poisons.
If Damian had been in a truly dangerous situation, I had planned to make him drink my blood to prevent him from being poisoned, but he was fine.
The blood vomiting was only for a short while, and unbelievably, he was perfectly fine! So perfectly fine that his bright smile was haunting my dreams.
“…I’m tired.”
I rose from the table where I had been lying down for a while, taking a nap.
My body felt stiff, as if I had had a nightmare. In a way, it had been a nightmare. What happened at the banquet yesterday had actually happened.
After Damian drank the poison and vomited blood, the knights guarding the area blocked off the banquet hall. They found a man unconscious in the place where the wine was stored, and confirmed that the number of wine bottles hadn’t changed.
The servant claimed he was framed, but no one believed him. Not even his master, Haroon Kisha.
I was only able to leave the banquet and return home after the situation was somewhat resolved.
“Come to think of it, I think Bashar said something about thanking me later.”
I wasn’t in my right mind when I came back, so I don’t remember clearly. I couldn’t rest comfortably at home, so I woke up early in the morning. Eventually, I sat at the table and fell asleep.
[You’re awake now?]
Something felt like it was slithering up. I heard Slinky’s voice. When I turned my head, its adorable eyes were looking at me.
“Slinky, weren’t you supposed to go back to the garden?”
I was too tired yesterday to take Slinky to the garden. But usually, Slinky went by itself. It was unusual for it to be in the mansion this late.
[I wanted to be with you!]
Slinky pressed its snout against my cheek as if it was kissing me. I smiled naturally. Slinky, who had been rubbing its face against my cheek, raised its head as if it had just remembered something.
[Hector was at the banquet yesterday!]
“You saw him?”
[Did he come with the woman next to him?]
“Ah, haha…”
I just laughed awkwardly without answering.
It seemed that Slinky had seen Hector and Vivian together.
“Well, yeah.”
[Your engagement was not officially annuled yet! What is he doing?]
“I know.”
I could take it more calmly because Slinky was angry. I wasn’t particularly bothered or angry, not really.
Maybe it was because, deep down, I had thought that Hector would meet her.
[I told you! You should’ve kept a close eye on Hector from the beginning!]
Slinky had been telling me that I should keep an eye on Hector, in case he was meeting someone else or plotting something.
Of course, I hadn’t not thought about it, but still…
“That’s an invasion of privacy.”
[But….]
Slinky flicked its forked tongue out, dissatisfied.
I lightly tapped Slinky’s head and stood up. There’s no point in blaming the past.
