His Royal Highness's cats are very hairy.

In front of Rutvias' office, a few knights of escorts, as well as guards, samurai and female officers, stood in an orderly line.

Realizing it was Aurio talking to one of the samurai officers, Adeline approaches.

"Aurio"

Aurio turned to Adeline, shaking her shoulders uncommonly bikly. The face is strong only in the heart.

"Lady."

"... something happened to His Highness?

Aurio was stuck in the answer for a moment to Adeline's direct ball question.

"... What is it? His Royal Highness is going out to the council..."

Adeline blamed Aurio for answering like nothing.

"Stop lying badly. Then why is the knight of the escort there? Why are you here, Chief Secretary?

"... Your Highness, you're busy. I can't see you now."

There is always a calm Aurio in a hurry. Is it because Adeline is here that's not supposed to come, or is there some other cause?

"Aurio, go through there"

"No, ma'am. Welcome back..."

"Let it through!!

To Adeline's voice, I found Aurio breathing.

It's not just Aurio. Lyle and Deo in the back, as well as the servants and knights who refrain, have, as a surprise, consolidated themselves.

Adeline wondered if that was really her voice. Is this possibly what Deo was saying 'look great'?

I've given orders to people before, but there's no Adeline. Because I was afraid that giving orders would incur responsibilities that I should bear.

-... scared...

If you don't open the door ahead, you may not have to know what you don't need to know and regret not knowing.

-... but...

Beyond the door, there is Rutvias.

"... get through."

Again, Adeline said.

Aurio takes a step back.

Through its side, Adaline opened the door herself, also controlling what the samurai would try to take after her.

There...

"-... father?

When I called, the Chancellor turned around.

The Chancellor is not the only one. The official with the white front that was there... the doctor, the doctor, the lady, and then the Knights leader. The secretary of the king. They looked up and looked surprised at Adeline's entry.

Among them, Rutvias, who was lying on his bench trying to be surrounded by them, wolfed obviously when he saw Adeline, waking up half.

"... Adeline? Why..."

"Your Highness, do not be moved"

The doctor gently controls Rutvias' shoulder.

"... Your Highness?"

Adeline doesn't understand the situation.

Rutvias was undressing both his coat and his long clothes. He is relaxed under the neck of his white underwear, rolled up his sleeve and pulsed by a doctor.

After glancing at the ice in the bottles and buckets of chemicals lined up on the round table, Adeline realized that her anxiety had been centered.

"... what... happened?

"Don't come in!

From Adeline, Rutvias turned a blatant blind eye.

The surroundings bewilder Rutvias's attitude. I can't help it. Because all they know is Rutvias, who wears a cat and treats Adeline gently.

"Get out!

Rutvias was losing room to wear a cat.

I wonder why. Rutvias' cold, stinging voice of rejection sounds screaming to Adeline for some reason. Help me, I thought it sounded that way.

"- I'm not leaving!

Running over, trying to slide in, Adeline kneels next to Rutvias.

On behalf of the physician who stood up after the pulse examination, Adeline took Rutvias' hand. His hands, always warm, are cold as ice. About that, I almost cried.

"Never, because I'm not leaving!

"... ku"

"Huh?"

"... puke"

In a small voice, in a bucket offered by the doctor and woman in a sensitive reaction, Rutvias nauseated.

"Your Highness!?

"It is the action of medicines to expel poisons"

To the blue Adeline, a doctor and woman whisper.

"... poison..."?

Adeline asked the doctor back. I wanted to think it was a mistake to hear, but the doctor and lady didn't deny their own foreword.

"Don't worry. It's a precaution. Please stay with me for a while because I think you're in pain."

That's all the doctor woman says, she goes backwards with a bucket.

Because of the vomiting, Rutvias is sinking snugly into his bench. Adeline was covering her eyes with an arm opposite the hand she held, but she couldn't hide the color of her blue cheeks.

"... I don't know what poison..."

"... not the amount of death..."

Bosoli and Rutvias said.

"Your Highness..."

"... don't worry..."

"... eh"

You can't afford to worry about Adeline...

Adeline swallowed up the tears she swallowed up desperately. Definitely something to cry about.

If I hadn't been careful, I would have squeezed Rutvias' hand like a piece of art.

Even then, several times Rutvias nauseated, and each time Adeline rubbed Rutvias' back, rubbing his mouth, etc., and intervened.

"... hair..."

"Yes?"

"... dirty..."

"You don't have to worry about that!

Because of the dirty hair and dress, and Rutvias, who was shaking off Adeline's hand, eventually stopped resisting whether she had lost her roots or not. Maybe I'm simply tired of vomiting and no longer have the strength to push Adeline away. By sundown, the doctor pulsed again Rutvias, who was exhausted and fell asleep.

"... I will be calm. You'll be fine now."

"... good..."

The indoor air soothed not only because of Adeline, but also because the prime minister and the chiefs of the knights appeased.

"Lady, we have a change of clothes..."

When did you get here, Millet called me out. I don't see Lyle and Deo. Apparently, he left.

"... I want to be here a little longer."

Adeline leans softly over Rutvias' long forehead with her fingertips. My complexion improved considerably.

"... father. Was the poison in your diet?

Without looking from Rutvias' sleeping face, Adeline asked the father behind her.

"... no. In the water."

"In the water? Is it your room?

"That's right. Your Highness is... familiar with poison. I've been in a meal several times before, but never swallowed it. But there must have been an alarm about the water in your room. I noticed immediately and was spit out… but I think they drank a small amount."

Adeline felt like she was covered in cold water. This is not the first time.

"... who the hell..."

It was Aurio who answered Adeline's question.

"Whenever poison is served, we tie the killer up… but we can't even stick to the mastermind at the heart. Those who have been held captive so far have no identity, no gender... not even the type of poison, not even the way it was obtained, not finding common ground in pieces..."

Aurio whimpers his eyebrows and spills them abominably small.

Second, Adeline noticed.

"What's the poison? What happened to the toxin cook?

Regardless of the water in the water, there should always be a poisonous cook on the diet. Adeline looks up to her father and cousin.

Both Aurio and the Chancellor were face-to-face to push the answer, but Aurio eventually opened his mouth.

"His Royal Highness will not be left with a poisoning clerk. From the time I came to the Empire, I was forbidden to serve those around me who tasted poisonous."

"... no... because what are the rules...?

The rule is that royal meals taste toxic in three or more humans. The prime minister distorts his face so badly.

"I know most of the poison by smell and taste, so I need to do something to swallow it... then my highness told me that I don't need a poisonous cook or anything like that. Because if it's a little, it's immune to poison."

"Did they pepper you with that? What about you and your father?

"Your Highness..."

Aurio supplemented from the side so as to shelter the Chancellor.

"His Royal Highness strongly told me not to eat a poisonous meal... so I had to..."

"But... oh no..."

I've never even heard of rejecting a poisonous cook. I don't know why you don't like being so poisoned that you refuse to eat the meal itself, but clearly, that's Rutvias' self. And the perimeter that went through it is also a problem. Because we know that, both the Chancellor and Aurio look sinister.

Adeline sighed as she shrugged as she glanced back at Sleeping Rutvias.

-... because I know how much poison...

How impotent...

And all of a sudden, Adaline had a hunch. It's like a goddess announcement.

"Begin today, be sure to call me when you eat or drink tea"

A cross-border night, unintelligible order.

"It's worse not to make something I can eat"

An unnatural way to eat one bite at a time for each large plate.

Just one bite in the mouth, and the dish that makes you lower it because you don't like it.

Rutvias did not even allow Adeline to drink a cup of tea alone.

To the sincerity of its Rutvias, Adeline can only be stunned.

-... that's... no way...

That wasn't like or dislike.

"... on the way home from the border... His Highness was eating with me... because of my meal... the poison, wasn't it?

I found out the Chancellor and Aurio took a breath.

Well, Adeline did hear her own bloody noise.

"... the poisonous taste, was it? Your Highness, my meal, all the time."

……

……

Neither the Chancellor, nor Aurio, said anything. That silence is the affirmation.

"... me... me... eh"

My hands trembled.

What a luxurious thing to say I don't taste like grape bread, etc. Sometimes I hated eating with Rutvias. I have preached greatly that you should not like or dislike it.

Rutvias said he was pale checking to see if the food in front of him was safe so that Adeline could eat safely.

-... all the time... I was protected by His Highness...

That's life at stake.

"Lady..."

"Am I... being targeted?

I didn't think you were scared. Because I didn't feel it.

Though I don't think I deserve to be assassinated, there will be plenty of people who want Adaline's position as' Fiancé of the Next King '. To be targeted for your life, that's enough reason.

But if you've got Rutvias involved in it, it's a different story. Is it not because of Adeline that Rutvias is suffering now?

When Aurio knelt on the floor, he had gazed at the agitated Adeline.

"Please calm down. The poison... did go to the lady's meal. But I have never been poisoned by a lady before His Highness returned home. On the contrary, Your Highness seems to have been poisoned with meals from time to time when he was in the Empire. Based on them, it is normal to assume that it was His Highness who was targeted. Make it water today, it's hard to imagine you're after a lady."

Shivering hands, Adeline squeezed. I can't be very relieved when people tell me that I'm not the one who was targeted.

"... now and again, did you say?

To Adeline's inquiry, Aurio nodded for a moment.

"... Yes. Occasionally."

-... this one really... has only eaten and lived 'what he can eat'...

You should be fine with the contents of the cage that fell in the hallway. I guarantee you that the food on the plate is safe, because if you try it on him, it's nowhere.

"... I don't know why the killer decided to poison your daughter's meal. Did you think your Highness would be more alarmed... for any other reason..."

"What other reason?

"... Anyway, I don't know anything about it right now."

"I don't know, but... eh"

"Adeline!"

The Chancellor stopped Adeline eating down on Aurio with a harsh voice.

"Stop messing around with the next queen."

"... father..."

Praised by his father, Adeline has no choice but to back off. To the dwarfed Adeline, the Chancellor told him with a voice that remained harsh.

"If it becomes public that there was poison in the meal I would have taken with you in that room, my suspicious eyes would have swept away."

"... for that matter?

Are you saying that Rutvias' life was in danger just to politically eliminate the Chancellor and Adeline?

"You don't know that unless you ask the killer. That's all I just told you about the possibility. Either way, we can't let the outside world know His Highness is poisoned. I don't know who my enemies are. Now they can't shrink my feet if I don't handle anything in secret. No need to say anything else about this. Okay?"

"... Yes..."

The Chancellor loosened his expression and placed his hand on Adeline's shoulder.

"Unlike Marcelio's house, the Royal Palace is heavily replaced with many people in and out. Sometimes it will be out of our sight. That is an important body that will eventually become part of the royal family in awe. Be very careful with food and everything else in the royal palace."

"... Yes"

Wanting to respond with a smile to her father's kindness, Adeline tried to force her strong cheeks to laugh, but it didn't work.

"Would you please... remove your seat"

When Adeline turned her gaze back on the plundered voice, Rutvias had her eyes open thinly.

"Your Highness..."

"It's just a little. Let's have a little time with Adeline."

The Chancellor nodded and gave instructions with his eyes to those who were there.

The door will be closed and there will be only two Rutvias and Adeline in the office.

Rutvias lay down. Once in a while, he looked up at Adeline and told her.

"... there was poison in my soup that night"

I didn't have to ask you when you were talking about the night, Adeline figured it out.

On the day we crossed the border, it was the first night we got to the same dinner table.

"So... you came worried that you might be in mine, too, huh?

When the waves of emotion come to Adaline's chest, they come again.

I don't know what that emotion is called, Adeline.

That day, Rutvias' relationship with Adeline sucked.

Still, he moved to protect Adeline from life-threatening situations.

A wave of emotions perhaps containing joy, gratitude, but conflicting anger and sadness for the matter.

Adeline was desperately indulging in the urge to hit Rutvias with it.

"... if you take one wrong step... Your Highness was dead in my place..."

To Adeline, who bites her lips, Rutvias does not move her expression.

"The poison was served against me. Even if I die, I'm not your replacement. You don't have to care."

"Your Highness!"

"I'll tell you when."

Rutvias' eyes held Adaline straight. From a strangely clear color, Adeline can't turn away.

"Don't say anything when I'm not here in the royal palace."

His voice had no hegemony.

It was that way of talking, like I was managing to put a sound on my breath.

-... "Ahead"...

Rutvias is going to keep poisoning Adeline so she doesn't talk about poisoned meals.

Adeline glanced at Rutvias. If I hadn't, I would have cried.

"… is that how I feel safe drinking the tea you have poisoned me?

"That's right. If you can't, don't come to the royal palace."

Even the words of rejection have no thorns. Not so much, Rutvias wasn't mad. That's what I regret, and Adeline bites her lips off.

"... I don't like it"

"... adeline"

"No!"

Poison is malicious.

I wonder what thoughts he had, spitting it out, that were served in his diet every day.

He is also scolded as a traitor suspected of being an enemy to the Father King and, on the other hand, domesticated by the Empire. Hasn't he been held hostage for his country? Gratitude is what makes him so isolated.

"... eh"

Soon after, tears fall to the floor.

"... don't cry"

"I'm sorry..."

…

Rutvias reached out to Adeline.

That looked somewhere like a hand stretched out unintentionally trying to pick up a falling fruit.

Adeline silently obeys Rutvias' arm as she holds Adeline's head in her arms.

The flower hat rolled on the floor, but I don't even care about that. Forgetting the shame and reluctance, Adaline also cling to Rutvias.

-... I had decided not to cry...

I thought I figured out why Rutvias would wear a cat.

A friend who once spoke to Adeline intimately. I thought we were friends. I believed it. But they left. Mocking Adeline.

Maybe Rutvias knows the same pain that Adaline's heart ached at that time.

There will be many people around him who smile and approach his identity and position. Someone in there poisoned Rutvias.

As Adeline had believed her friends to be 'friends', Rutvias surely cannot tell the difference between those who can be trusted and those who do not.

That's why he wears a cat.

Watch yourself and your surroundings calmly, objectively, with an elegant smile and gentle words, at a constant distance from people. I guess the cat Rutvias wears is armor for him.

A smiling armor, to protect your heart.

-... I know...

To Adeline, who was armored to lean, I can tell it hurts.

I don't believe in people, I don't believe in them, how lonely that is.

"... keep me... away"

"..."

In the hand of Rutvias, who held Adeline tight, was strength.

-... I want you to... know...

A vegetable gardener who was holding his granddaughter and blowing his face. A folk pushed to see Rutvias at first sight. Knights who encourage training or female officers who sew costumes.

There are many others who truly, truly, think of Rutvias as a country.

I also want Rutvias to see the view that Adeline can see because he stopped leaning down and looked up.

-... I'll make you a believable, believable concubine.

'Get out,' a hand that refused, but was asking for help.

He didn't seem to know who to turn to for help.

-... I won't leave you alone. Definitely.

I wanted to protect Rutvias.

Even if you don't wear a cat or anything, make sure Rutvias laughs with those leaky eyes.