Chapter 196
No sooner had the order left his lips than the soldiers closed in around her.
The sound of her limping footsteps gradually faded into the distance. Varkas listened until the door slammed shut, then collapsed onto the bed.
It felt as though every muscle, every bone, every nerve in his body had been torn apart and crushed.
Lifting his face, drenched in cold sweat, he stared blankly at the ceiling as darkness slowly settled over it. After a long moment, he covered his eyes with the back of his hand.
* * *
Even after regaining consciousness, he remained bedridden for another two days. The poison had spread through his nerves, leaving him unable to stand for even ten minutes without faltering.
Only on the third day had he recovered enough strength to move without difficulty. As if nothing had happened, he appeared in the council chamber dressed with flawless precision.
"I've caused everyone concern."
Walking to the head of the long table with the same crisp, disciplined stride as always, Varkas offered a perfunctory greeting.
The retainers, who clearly had not expected him to attend, hurriedly rose to their feet, their expressions frozen with surprise.
"Your Grace, are you truly well enough to resume your duties already? Surely you should still be focusing on your recovery—"
"As you can see, I'm perfectly fine."
Varkas answered absentmindedly as he settled into his chair and gave a slight nod.
"Sit down, all of you. We have more than enough matters that need attending."
The retainers exchanged worried glances before taking their seats one by one. Varkas lowered his gaze to the map spread across the table.
Red lines had been drawn haphazardly across every region that might have served as a hideout. It seemed they had done their best to pursue the Zram raiders while he lay unconscious.
"Any progress with the search?"
"We located several caves they had been using as armories, but nothing of real value."
Edgar, a squadron commander of the Wolfram Cavalry, answered bitterly.
"It appears they'd already moved all the important equipment. All we found were piles of worn-out gambesons and chipped falxes. They didn't leave behind a single clue we could use to track them."
"The people who had been cooperating with the raiders also vanished without a trace amidst the chaos."
A middle-aged knight seated halfway down the left side of the table spoke up.
"We captured every heretic who failed to escape and interrogated them, but nothing useful came of it. It seems the lower-ranking followers didn't even know their superiors had been working with the raiders."
The man let out a heavy sigh.
"The only lead we had has been completely severed."
"Not completely."
At the calm voice, every head turned.
Modrian, the military adviser, was staring directly at Varkas with heavy, sunken eyes.
"There is still one person who could very well have collaborated with the raiders. Someone very close to us."
For an instant, the air in the chamber froze.
At the old knight's blunt accusation, the retainers swallowed nervously and all turned toward Varkas. He wore a bored expression, as though he had anticipated this attack from the very beginning.
"I wonder who it is you're referring to."
"Surely no one knows better than Your Grace."
Remaining perfectly composed, Modrian rested an elbow on the table and exhaled slowly.
"Immediately after Her Grace the Grand Duchess attempted to poison you, intruders infiltrated the castle. They knew not only the layout of Laedgo Castle but even the exact deployment of the guards. None of this can possibly be a coincidence. Her Grace must have cooperated with them—"
"It seems you've forgotten that the person you're speaking of is both my wife and an Imperial Princess."
Varkas cut him off in a flat, emotionless voice.
"Do you truly believe her position is so insignificant that you can declare her guilty of a capital crime based on nothing more than speculation?"
"How can you say there is no evidence? Her Grace personally confessed to putting poison in your wine! Strictly speaking, she was caught red-handed! What further proof could anyone possibly require?"
The cavalry captain raised his voice angrily.
Varkas fixed him with an icy stare.
"She admitted to adding medicine. She never once called it poison."
"That's just twisting words—"
"I'll repeat myself. My wife never confessed to attempting to poison me."
The sinister warning woven into his voice made the man flinch and clamp his mouth shut.
Slowly sweeping his gaze across everyone present, Varkas continued mechanically.
"She merely prepared wine mixed with a restorative tonic for her husband before his campaign. There is every possibility that someone else replaced it afterward. Therefore, the so-called confession you speak of cannot serve as conclusive evidence."
"That's absurd...!"
The officer's lips trembled in disbelief.
Watching the exchange, Modrian looked at Varkas with unconcealed suspicion.
"If Her Grace is innocent, then why did she never defend herself? Throughout the entire interrogation, she never once attempted to explain her actions."
"Would any of you have listened if she had?"
A cold smile twisted the corner of Varkas's mouth.
"My wife is not so pitiful as to beg for mercy before people who had already decided she was guilty and were prepared to drag her to the executioner's block."
None of the retainers had expected him to defend the Grand Duchess so openly. Deep bewilderment spread across their faces. A few even looked at him as though he had lost his mind.
It was understandable.
In their eyes, he must have looked like a fool so infatuated with a woman that he had lost all reason.
Perhaps they were not entirely wrong.
Even to himself, there was something grotesque about blindly shielding the woman who had driven him to death's very threshold.
"Then... would you permit us to investigate Her Grace's associates?"
After studying him in silence for a long while, Modrian finally broke the heavy stillness.
"If Her Grace is truly innocent, then surely she has no reason to refuse."
"Did you not already imprison my wife and subject her to interrogation and investigation?"
Varkas pointed out sharply.
"What more do you intend to do?"
"We intend to thoroughly investigate the people around Her Grace. In particular, those who knew that she intended to serve Your Grace a 'special wine' that night."
Modrian explained calmly.
"If, as Your Grace claims, the Grand Duchess was not aiding the enemy, then someone close to her must be the real culprit."
Rather than revealing that he had already begun such an investigation himself, Varkas merely gave a calm nod.
At the moment, he judged that directing everyone's suspicion away from her was the best course of action.
"But don't make too much of a spectacle of it. If someone within this castle truly has been working with the enemy, they may flee before the search reaches them."
Apparently finding his reasoning sound, the old knight readily agreed before moving on to the next matter.
Realizing that he had successfully weakened the accusations directed at her, Varkas finally relaxed the fist he had been clenching so tightly that the blood had nearly stopped flowing through it.
Thin tremors still coursed through various parts of his body, which had yet to fully recover.
Perhaps the damage would remain with him forever.
Agor's venom was a lethal toxin that corroded the internal organs and paralyzed the entire nervous system. Recovering this much strength in barely ten days was nothing short of miraculous.
For the first time in his life, he felt grateful for his extraordinary resilience.
Had he never awakened...
The image of her standing upon the executioner's block, surrounded by his enraged countrymen, flashed through his mind again and again, soaking his back with cold sweat.
Varkas hurriedly drove the vile vision from his thoughts and rose from his seat.
"It seems we've covered all the important matters. I'll take my leave."
With a gesture, he stopped the retainers from standing to accompany him, then strode out of the council chamber.