I Won’t Accept Your Regrets

"I can’t tell you, Your Majesty the Empress. The Emperor's command closed my mouth. But now… if you go to the Sun Palace right now, there you will see everything for yourself."

After my father's words, I left the living room and headed to the Imperial Palace. As soon as I got off the carriage, I entered the Sun Palace, almost running.

The courtiers looked at each other in surprise at my unusual appearance, but I brushed past them without hesitation and made my way to Raymond's room.

"I greet Her Majesty the Empress."

The servants lined up in front of me in a living wall.

"…I beg your pardon, Empress, but Your Majesty is not allowed to enter there, so as not to disturb the Emperors sleep."

"Do you want to tell me that His Majesty is asleep at this hour?"

Raymond was tormented by neglected insomnia, and he didn’t sleep at night.

‘How many years have I been Empress by his side and you are telling me such a ridiculous lie?'

"When he wakes up, I will tell him that Your Majesty has come."

The butler came out to the noise and gave me a greeting:

"I greet Her Majesty…"

"Your Majesty…"

"How dare you block me?" When I spoke coldly, butler’s shoulders shuddered, but he didn't move out of the way.

It was possible to summon the knights and push these servants, but this wasn’t my palace, and the servants here were loyal to Raymond.

‘You're blocking me with Raymond's order.'

But you won't back down just because you’re afraid. He is a person who would give his life for Raymond.

I said again while looking at the butler, who was tilting his head.

"Do you really think he'll get better by hiding from me?"

“…”

The butler had nothing to answer.

"I am the one who created a scandal. You tried your best to block me, but I entered at will.”

I walked past him and the butler didn't stop me this time.

It was then that I opened the bedroom door.

"Your Majesty."

As soon as I opened the door, my legs tensed at the sight that I could appreciate.

Raymond vomits blood on the floor coughing in pain.

The sinister hunch has come true.

He raised his head and our eyes met. The black eyes widened in surprise.

"Ellie, you… Cough!… why…"

Everything seemed to have stopped for a moment. I couldn't even see the surrounding situation… Only the red blood on his mouth was clearly visible.

The moment I took a step towards him, Raymond's face distorted.

And, apparently, having spent the last of his strength, he fell. All the scenes moved slowly without a sense of reality.

"Your Majesty!"

And only when the butler burst into the room, and Raymond finally lost consciousness, I came to my senses.

"Your Majesty!"

"Come on, we have to put him on the bed."

The butler's cry rang out, and the imperial physician spoke quickly. The servants lifted Raymond up and put him on the bed.

The doctor hastily made an examination. As if to check if he was alive at all, the carotid artery had to be touched first.

Everyone held their breath at this moment.

‘Is he dead?’ I took a step that didn’t falter and I approached the bed. It was very difficult to move step by step, hard enough to want to sit down.

Finally, standing by his bed, I looked at Raymond.

The pale face, the blood on his lips, and the red blood soaked on the top of his robe, filled my sight with dizziness.

"Your… Majesty…"

I couldn't say he was okay. Because he seemed dead right now.

"Phew…"

At that moment, I heard the deep sigh of the imperial doctor. It was a miserable face and a desperate sigh.

‘Do not tell me…'

"What's wrong with him? Is his Majesty's condition very critical?"

"That’s…"

"If you don't tell the truth, you will immediately lose your head."

When I spoke in a low voice, the imperial doctor shook his shoulders and responded quickly.

"Your Majesty… His Majesty is intoxicated throughout the body and won’t be able to last more than a week. Until now, he somehow climbed, but now… It will become difficult even to simply bring him to his senses."

All the words spoken by the doctor were shocking, but the first news also caused bewilderment.

"…Is he intoxicated?"

The doctor looked at me with trembling eyes, and finally buried himself on the floor.

I turned to the butler.

“What do you mean by His Majesty's intoxication? He is not sick?"

The butler closed his eyes and babbled with such a face as if he was disappointed in the whole world.

"…His Majesty was intoxicated with poison, Your Majesty.”

"When did she take poison? Who dares to poison His Majesty …?"

As he spoke, I stopped at the thought that crossed my mind.

‘I've already seen such intense vomiting of blood…It's the same as when Carlisle took poison.'

"It can't be like that, no. Just like Carlisle… no. His Majesty didn’t eat dessert that day. I saw everything with my own eyes. But how did he get poisoned?"

Until I could understand what had happened, the butler hesitated and didn’t dare to speak.

"Say it all from the very beginning.”

“…When His Highness the Crown Prince was poisoned and unconscious, we couldn’t know how to give him medicine. If we leave it as it is, then his life would be in danger… And then His Majesty came to inject the medicine under pressure through the mouth."

"What…?”

"In the process, the poison that remained in His Highness's mouth passed to His Majesty."

‘The reason Raymond contaminated himself with poison was to save Carlisle…?’

"When did you find out that the Emperor was intoxicated?"

"I knew immediately. But the Emperor decided that he would take the antidote and be healed, so there was no need to disturb the Empress once again. But there was only one dose of the antidote… And now His Majesty is like this…"

‘You poisoned yourself trying to save Carlisle. You gave up the antidote to save Carlisle.’

At that moment I knew nothing. After all, I was only worried about Carlisle.

My chest seemed to be getting tighter.

I don't have enough air.

A feeling of unknown emotion arose in the midst that addressed him.

"Why didn’t you tell me? You should have told me before you got to that point!" I yelled at the servant.

I knew that this wasn’t his fault, but rational arguments somehow didn’t appear in my head.

The butler fell to his knees trembling.

"Your Majesty… The Emperor didn’t want you to feel guilty."

The butler fell to the ground with a painful voice.

“I did everything possible to get the antidote… I apologize. It's all my fault for not being able to help His Majesty well. Please assign a punishment."

The doctors also knelt down and cried out their crime.

The Emperor will die soon.

They said he couldn't regain consciousness until he died, so he was almost dead.

A bitter silence reigned in the bedroom.

‘Raymond will die like this.’

It shouldn’t be.

It was as if all the blood had dripped from my fingertips, my head was spinning, my whole body trembled and staggered.

And Helen hastily grabbed my hand.

"Your Majesty.”

Helen's voice echoed in my ears, and gradually my mind returned, as well as warmth in my hands.

You need to come to your senses and think.

You can't let yourself be incapacitated.

No, his condition was critical, so I needed to be stronger.

And when it becomes known about Raymond's condition, all the wild dogs will attack the Emperor.

"Herrington,” I called the name of the imperial palace doctor.

"Yes, Your Majesty.”

He answered without looking up.

“I have to know for sure. Can't His Majesty live?"

"He can't wake up without taking the antidote."

The poison that Carlisle received wasn’t a single poison, but a mixture of several substances.

They said the ingredients of the poison was difficult to find out.

"Haven't you figured out the ingredients of this poison…"

You can’t make an antidote unless you find out what it contains.

"I found it out.”

He muttered grimly, knowing he was about to crush my last hopes.

"Did you find out? But why didn't you make an antidote yet?

“To make an antidote, we need Agiodita, the flower of the Holy Land. However, it was said that now there are no blooming Agioditas in the temple."

The doctor still didn’t dare to raise his head, but a ray of light shot into my heart in the midst of despair.

“Agiodita…”

Certainly, the flower was not a flower that could be easily found.

It was a sacred flower that bloomed once every 10 years in the freezing winter and died three days later. Also, even if the temperature warmed up a bit, it would dry out.

It was difficult to find the blossoming flowers.

But if there is something left of it, be it dried flowers or buds that have not yet blossomed…

I quickly told the doctor:

"Is there any chance that the temple is holding Agiodita, which hasn’t bloomed yet or has already withered?"