Chapter 328 (1/2)

Maybe. These days there was nothing that I liked. I didn’t like the nobles who found fault with everything I did, and I didn’t like Jiun who still didn’t know the ropes when she had been the empress for several years. days. I was just sick and tired of everybody around me.

Would it have been different if there had been Lady Monique and her supporters around me?

Suddenly, something flashed through my mind.

No way. What would have been different with that woman and the late emperor’s close aides? Even their remnant forces are rubbing me the wrong way all the time. If they had been with me until now, they would have harassed me much more.

I shook my head violently to dispel such thought. I felt I was overly stressed out these days, given that I found myself recalling them after a long time.

What the heck?

Stunned by his unexpected remarks, I stared quietly at the man with honey-colored hair. The young marquis, who came up to the capital and expanded his activities gradually, spoke with a very serious expression.

My head was throbbing. I let him in because he asked to see me, so little did I think he mentioned something shocking to me, the ruler of the empire.

Obviously, he was not cracking a joke about such a grave matter. He decided to mention it to me because he had some hard evidence about my poisoning. When I asked him to tell me in detail, Marquis Mirwa began to explain the situation in detail.

According to him, the Lisa kingdom produced the type of poison that would make anyone feel jammed up inside, feel dizzy, and nauseated. Besides, he said the Lisa kingdom produced one of such poisons. Once poisoned, a person would often feel irritated and angry even at trifling things.

Was it because I was poisoned that I often felt a surge of anger coming up deep down for the past several years, but could not control my feelings?

The young marquis emphasized it repeatedly. He revealed that Duke Jenna was behind all this, and that the duke had been slowly carrying out the plot. Then he handed a small bottle, saying it was an antidote that he obtained very hard, along with a thick ledger.

I turned over the pages of the ledger all night, where there were all the details including Duke Jena’s close relations with the Lisa kingdom and how he obtained the poison by using all kinds of means.

After reading through the last page, I closed the ledger and got lost in thought. According to the ledger, it was certain that Duke Jenna was the mastermind, but I could not conclude, based on the marquis’s testimony alone. Who knows if he, not the duke, was the culprit? So, I thought it would be better to order someone I could trust to investigate the incident covertly.

Then, who should I assign this task to?

I recalled the nobles who were active in politics one by one, but could not find one. Besides, even those I felt I could trust had connections with Duke Jena in one way or another.

Suddenly, my heart sank.

I could not believe that I didn’t find any single man among them that I could trust. It’s already been four years since the late emperor passed away. What did I do until now? I thought I ran my own empire, but it looked like it was run by Duke Jena.

I could hardly have a sip of water. One day when I was spending sleepless nights in endless vigilance and suspicion, a document that the chief attendant gave me irritated me all the more. Customarily the internal affairs of the palace department were related to women, so I could immediately find out that there was a problem with the way Jiun handled the matter.

Stupid woman. How could she not properly handle a matter like this when she became the empress four years ago?