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I suspected you might know my plan and be suggesting this, but Leticia calmly shook her head.
"Thank you for the thought, but I'm alright. I've seen it before, so you and Miss Florence go and enjoy it."
Elise stared at Leticia for a moment.
"That's a shame, but if you insist, madam, there's nothing I can do."
She then left the greenhouse with Lwuen.
Leticia watched them leave, then turned her gaze to the seat next to her where Elise had been sitting.
Elise's handkerchief was neatly placed on the table.
Leticia's eyes narrowed as she looked at it.
'In my previous life, Elise poisoned her handkerchief.'
Of course, in her previous life, it wasn't the Empress's tea party, but a tea party at the Farnese estate hosted by Leticia.
There, Elise had poisoned her handkerchief in advance and staged a self-poisoning act by wiping her teacup with it.
It wasn't a poison that would significantly endanger her life, but it had a definite immediate effect.
'The situation has changed, but the person Elise is hasn't, so her thoughts must be similar.'
Leticia stared coldly at the handkerchief, then deliberately spilled some of her tea and, pretending to be in a hurry to wipe it up, took Elise's handkerchief by mistake.
'Even if I let Elise take the poison, I have evidence to prove it was a self-inflicted act...'
Elise's receipt can't be produced on the spot.
There's no way to explain how I knew Elise would stage a self-poisoning act here and secured the receipt in advance.
So, I had to wait until the knights found the receipt.
But everyone is sensitive to what they see immediately.
'In my previous life, people who saw Elise collapsing while vomiting blood naturally believed it was my doing.'
It would be hard to imagine that she would risk her own life to stage a self-inflicted act.
'So, I can't let Elise take the poison.'
A while later, Elise and several other noble ladies, who had gone to see the garden during the break, returned to the greenhouse.
"Then, let's continue with the story we were talking about earlier..."
Vanessa resumed the bazaar discussion that had been interrupted just before the break, and the tea party resumed.
But that story didn't reach Leticia's ears.
Leticia looked at her teacup, which she had just wiped with Elise's handkerchief, and put her teaspoon in it.
'The poison must have been on the rim of the teacup, so if I stir that part with the teaspoon, the color will change quickly.'
Then I can use that as an excuse to put pressure on Elise.
Having calculated everything, Leticia stirred the tea as if to cool it down. But...
'...Why isn't the color of the teaspoon changing?'
The teaspoon was made of silver, and the poison Elise bought was the kind that would react when it came into contact with silver.
But even though I stirred the teaspoon for quite a while, there was no reaction at all.
In Leticia's flustered mind, one thing she had forgotten suddenly struck her.
'Come to think of it... When I was in a life-threatening situation, things would sparkle or turn black.'
According to that ability, this teaspoon and the teacup should have turned black, but they were both perfectly fine. Suspiciously so.
'Has something changed from my previous life?'
Sensing an ominous feeling, Leticia turned to look at Elise.
At the same time, she saw it.
Lwuen, sitting next to Elise, was lifting a teacup that had turned black and drinking the tea.
And...
Elise was staring intently at Lwuen.
"Cough, cough... Huh...?"
Lwuen was spitting blood from her mouth.
"M-Miss Florence?!"
Everyone who saw Lwuen vomiting blood screamed in surprise, and the greenhouse quickly turned into chaos.
"Summon the knights and the court physician. Quickly!"
The maids who had been waiting in a corner of the greenhouse hurriedly surrounded Vanessa and gave orders according to her instructions.
While everyone was panicking and unable to approach Lwuen, only Elise was staring straight at her.
With a look of fear, not so much of the situation itself, but of the storm she had caused.
Then, with trembling lips, she let out a shrill scream.
"Poison... Someone must have put poison in the tea!"
The surroundings buzzed, and suspicious glances scanned each other.
Then, one by one, they began to stare at Leticia.
At the only person who hadn't gone out to the garden during the break.
Only then did Leticia realize.
'Ah, so that's what it was.'
It wasn't a mistake that Lwuen, not Elise herself, had taken the poison.
'Elise was targeting Lwuen from the beginning.'
In order to not miscarry the baby in her womb, and to frame me as the perpetrator of the poisoning incident and bring me down.
Leticia stared blankly at Lwuen, who was vomiting blood, and let out a hollow laugh.
Elise's malice towards me had ended up hurting someone else.
'Why... why would she go this far?'
I may deserve it, but why involve an innocent person?
Even though Elise had had an inappropriate relationship with Paydan, even though she had framed me for it in my previous life and left me wandering the cold streets, there was still a glimmer of faith left.
It wasn't faith in Elise Fran, but faith in a human being like me.
But that faith was trampled.
Very tragically.
Leticia clenched her fists tightly as she alternated between looking at Elise, who was staring at Lwuen with fear despite being the one who had started it, and Lwuen, who was vomiting blood.
'The Imperial Palace probably has an antidote for this poison.'
But could Lwuen hold out until the right antidote was found?
Leticia put her hand into her dress pocket. She felt the antidote she had brought just in case.
'If I use the antidote here, I might arouse suspicion.'
No, I definitely will.
Having the right antidote ready for a sudden poisoning accident?
It was hard to explain unless you were the person who planned the poisoning incident.
And if that happened...
'Even the receipt that the Imperial Knights will find might be suspected of being fake.'
Leticia fiddled with the antidote, biting her lip without making a rash decision.
The risk of taking on a moment of justice was too great.
Meanwhile, Lwuen's complexion became even paler.
"S-Save..."
Lwuen couldn't continue speaking, and looked at the people while vomiting blood.
But when she realized that no one could save her, her eyes filled with tears.
Leticia saw it.
The despair filling Lwuen's eyes.
The desperate hope that someone would help her.
"..."
Leticia, who had been staring blankly at Lwuen, finally took out the antidote from her pocket.
Then, she approached Lwuen and put the antidote in her mouth.
"Take it. Then you can live."
Her own safety and a person's life.
Leticia chose the latter.
"Trust me."
Even if the choice I make at this moment ends up strangling me, I won't abandon my justice.
Lwuen looked at Leticia with tears in her eyes, then swallowed the antidote that had been put in her mouth.
Watching that, Leticia breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at Elise.
Then, she suddenly grabbed Elise by the collar.
"Gasp...!"
Elise, as well as everyone watching, was shocked by Leticia's sudden action, but no one could stop her.
Because there was a murderous intent in Leticia's eyes as she looked at Elise.
"You're really crazy."
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