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"What in the world is going on here...!"
Elise, belatedly regaining her senses, grabbed Leticia's hand.
However, Leticia slapped her hand away, tightening her grip on Elise's collar.
"Now you're even poisoning innocent people?"
"Keuk..."
"How low are you planning to sink?"
"......"
"How much more! Do I have to hate you?"
"Let go of me!"
Overwhelmed by Leticia's force, Elise belatedly snapped out of it and slapped away Leticia's hand.
Then, as if she hadn't faltered at all, she retorted sharply.
"Are you suggesting that I poisoned Miss Lewen's tea?"
"Yes. You've always wanted to bring me down."
"Ha! Madam, your delusions seem to be getting out of hand."
"Delusions..."
"Me, trying to harm Miss Lewen? What reason would I have to do that!"
"......"
"You've always been like this."
Elise said, her eyes welling up with tears.
"You've always looked at me with disapproval... In the end, the distance between the Duke and you was due to your obsession and delusions, not because of me."
Then, the young ladies who had been watching the two with a mixture of curiosity and concern began to murmur.
"So, is it not true that Miss Elise and Duke Farnese are having an affair?"
"Well, I don't know about that... But at least it doesn't seem like Miss Elise was the one who tried to harm Miss Lewen. Leticia has the antidote..."
Everyone was questioning the antidote Leticia had used.
Noticing the atmosphere, Elise seized the opportunity and pressed Leticia.
"Speaking of which, how did you know this would happen and have the antidote with you?"
Elise's eyes shone brightly as she asked.
It was the look of someone who had gained the upper hand.
Leticia bit her inner cheek.
As expected, the fact that she possessed the antidote was working against her.
'But I can't talk about my past life or regression.'
However, she had no intention of backing down quietly.
Leticia calmed her agitated emotions and replied calmly.
"I suspected that Miss Elise might be planning something like this. I didn't expect you to use a friend as a scapegoat, though."
"Isn't that just your delusion, too?"
"Miss Elise told me, you told Peyton you were pregnant, but that was a lie."
At that, Elise's eyes flickered for a moment.
She hadn't expected Leticia to bring up the pregnancy story.
"A non-existent child can't be born, so you had to get rid of it. Even if it meant using poison."
"......"
"So, I had the antidote with me just in case. Miss Elise, I got information that you bought poison."
However, Elise soon composed herself and burst into a loud, hollow laugh. As if to be heard by everyone.
"I've always felt this, but you really are delusional."
"......"
"I've never been pregnant. It's all a figment of your imagination!"
The only people who knew she was pregnant were Peyton and the Duke's butler.
But since neither of them were here, she could say she had never been pregnant.
'I can just make up an excuse to Peyton.'
The noble ladies and aristocratic young ladies who heard the pregnancy story began to murmur.
Vanessa, who would have mediated between the two in a normal situation, only ordered the court physician to check on Lewen's condition, narrowing her brows and quietly watching the two.
The situation was turning against Leticia.
Noticing this, Elise gave a triumphant smile.
'It seems she dug into my past quite keenly, but she should have been more careful.'
To act in a way that would obviously put her at a disadvantage, swayed by a moment of righteousness.
Elise, looking at Leticia, who was silently staring at her with a cold gaze, confidently drove in the final wedge.
"Do you have anything more to say?"
"......"
"If not, we can just wait for the Imperial Knight Order to investigate—"
Before Elise could finish speaking, the doors of the greenhouse burst open without warning, and the Imperial Knight Order rushed in.
Seeing the men who had come to catch the culprit of this incident, Elise's face lit up.
'Has the Empress already called the knights?'
But that expectation was only momentary.
The face that appeared among the knights was none other than Idris.
'Why is the Grand Duke here...?'
A strange sense of foreboding crept in.
Passing through the knights, Idris entered the greenhouse leisurely, approached Vanessa, and knelt on one knee to pay his respects.
"I am very sorry to suddenly intrude on the ladies' gathering, Empress."
"What brings you here, Grand Duke?"
"I happened to catch a human trafficking ring, and a criminal involved in it is here."
"...Human trafficking, you say?"
"I am concerned that I may spoil your tea party, but I cannot condone a heinous criminal disrupting the ladies' atmosphere."
"......"
"I have been ordered by His Majesty the Emperor to immediately take them into custody."
Hearing Idris' words, the women began to murmur loudly once more.
"Goodness... Human trafficking? I thought that kind of thing had disappeared in this day and age, not like we're still in a slave society?"
"That's why it's a crime."
"By the way, who is involved in such an absurd thing?"
They looked at each other sideways, wary, and speculated about who the culprit was, then turned their gazes to Idris, who had begun to move with the Empress' permission.
The culprit of this heinous crime would be where his footsteps stopped.
And Elise's eyes trembled violently as she saw Idris approaching her.
'How... how did he know?'
At that moment.
"Miss Elise. I still have something left to ask."
Leticia, who had been silent despite Elise's questioning, opened her mouth.
"If you really never said you were pregnant..."
"......"
"Why did you buy a newborn baby from the human trafficking ring?"
Elise finally realized as she looked at Leticia, who was pressing her with a cold smile.
That this situation was a stage set by Leticia.
And that the situation she thought was turning in her favor had now been completely reversed.
In fact, the reason Leticia came to suspect that Elise was involved in human trafficking was surprisingly simple.
The day Leticia, with Idris' help, raided the illegal shop selling poison.
Leticia asked Idris to confirm just one more thing for her.
"Idris, I'm sorry, but can I ask you for one more favor?"
"Anything, if my partner wants it."
Idris, nodding without hesitation, asked.
"But what else do you want to ask?"
"Looking at this receipt, there's one strange thing."
"Strange thing?"
"She bought poison, but she didn't buy the antidote. Doesn't that seem strange to you?"
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