webnovel Chapter 206: The Sweetest Poison
Chapter 206: The Sweetest Poison
Clutching his slackened body close to her chest, a primal, suffocating terror took root in the deepest depths of her soul. The agonizing dread of losing yet another person she had just begun to hold onto tore through her icy exterior, shattering her restraint.
"Kyle! Kyle!" she screamed, her voice cracking under the weight of an unyielding panic.
The heavy chamber doors burst open, and Kyle rushed inside. He skidded to a halt, the breath catching in his throat at the sight before him: Olivia, trembling and broken, desperately cradling his father in her arms, looking up at him with eyes entirely drowned in tears.
Without a word, Kyle scrambled to the bed. He gently but quickly pulled the Emperor from her grip, laying him flat against the pillows. With a practiced, frantic tension, he pressed two fingers against Lucius’s pale wrist while leaning down to check his nose.
The pulse was faint, and the breath was slow, shallow, and incredibly heavy—but it was there. He was still breathing.
Kyle let out a ragged breath of his own and turned to look at Olivia. She sat completely frozen before him, her posture stiffened into a terrifying, statuesque stillness.
Unable to bear the sight of her breaking, Kyle reached forward and pulled her into a tight, fierce embrace.
"He is alright. He didn’t die, Olivia. He is alright," Kyle whispered desperately into her hair, his own heart hammering against his ribs. "Please... do not look at me with those hollow, empty eyes again. It terrifies me."
He held her tighter, because he knew that look. It was the exact same lifeless, fractured stare she had carried on the day Mathias died.
Kyle kept his arms locked around her, offering his warmth as an anchor, but Olivia’s mind was already slipping away from the grief. Moving with a stiff, mechanical precision, she gently extended her hand from his embrace, her fingertips brushing just beneath the Emperor’s nostrils. She felt the weak, struggling puff of air against her skin.
A long, slow breath escaped her lips. The trembling stopped. The hysterical panic that had seized her just moments ago vanished, ruthlessly forced down by the return of her cold, lethal logic. Her defensive walls locked right back into place.
Leaning closer to Kyle’s ear, her voice dropped to a sharp, chilling whisper that made the air in the grand chamber turn to ice.
"He is not sick, Kyle," she murmured, her tone completely flat and absolute. "He is being poisoned."
Kyle pulled back slightly, forcing her to face him, his eyes wide with a mixture of disbelief and growing dread. "What...? What do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what I said. He is being poisoned," Olivia replied, her voice now dangerously calm as she looked directly at him. "And I know this specific poison all too well."
"How?" Kyle pressed, his hands tightening on her shoulders. "How could you possibly know?"
"Because this particular toxin was once exclusive to the Duchy of Tharon," she explained, her eyes narrowing as the puzzle pieces snapped into place. "And as far as I know, everything that enters this palace is heavily monitored and inspected. Except, of course, for a very select few. So..."
"Is there a cure?" Kyle interrupted, his voice dropping as the reality of her words began to sink in. "Is there any way to reverse it?"
"Yes," Olivia said, her posture shifting from a victim to a strategist. "If I can get my hands on the raw poison itself, I can synthesize an antidote to counter its effects."
Kyle shook his head, his mind reeling in confusion. "I don’t understand... Where on earth are we supposed to find the poison?"
Olivia stood up, breaking away from his grip. She stood tall in the dim light of the chamber, looking down at him with a chilling, absolute certainty. "There is only one person in this entire empire who maintains an active, untraceable connection to the Duchy of Tharon, Kyle. And you know exactly who that is."
Kyle’s breath hitched, his face turning entirely pale as the implication struck him like a physical blow. "You mean... No. I don’t believe it. She would never go as far as to murder him... He is her husband."
Olivia locked her gaze onto him, her eyes completely unblinking, devoid of any pity.
"Kyle, stop closing your eyes to the truth," she commanded, her voice cutting through his denial like a blade. "Go and search her chambers. You will find it there. Go now, and I will stay here to watch over him. I am entirely certain that once you look, you will see exactly how far she is willing to go in her insatiable hunger for power."
He swallowed hard, the suffocating weight of the truth forcing him to nod. "Alright... as you wish. I will see what I can do."
Despite his words, his posture remained heavily weighed down by a deep, aching reluctance. He turned and quietly stepped out of the grand chamber, leaving Olivia entirely alone with their father—a man she had only just truly met, yet was already on the verge of losing forever.
After what felt like an eternity, Kyle finally arrived at the Western Palace, where his mother’s quarters lay. He stood before the heavy, ornate doors for a long, agonizing long moment, his hand hovering over the latch. His mind was a chaotic battlefield. It was true that she was ruthless—she had even tried to take his daughter’s life before—but she was still the Emperor’s wife. She had spent an entire lifetime by Lucius’s side. How could she?
Steeling his heart, he pushed the doors open and walked inside.
He found her resting on a velvet chaise, adjusting her silk robes as she prepared for bed.
"Oh, Kyle?" she spoke up, her voice instantly laced with a smooth, practiced affection. "Have you finally decided to visit your mother? Come in, my—"
She paused, her words dying in her throat as her sharp eyes snapped to the stern, stone-faced maidservants marching into the room behind him.
Kyle didn’t offer her a single greeting. He kept his cold gaze fixed ahead, his voice dropping into a solemn, unyielding command. "Search the entire room. Look for any medicine, any hidden vials, or anything suspicious."
"Kyle! What on earth do you think you are doing?!" she shrieked, instantly abandoning her calm facade as she bolted upright. "Why are you searching my private chambers? All of you, freeze! Stop this instant!"
The maidservants hesitated, glancing nervously between the two royals, but Kyle didn’t let his resolve waver for a single second.
"Continue the search," he ordered flatly.
"Kyle! I am speaking to you!" she demanded, her voice rising in a pitch of frantic indignation.
He didn’t even grant her a glance, completely ignoring her outburst. Minutes ticked by in a suffocating silence until one of the maidservants carefully pulled a small, glass vial from deep within the dirt of a large decorative vase. It had been hidden with meticulous, desperate care.
Approaching Kyle with a bowed head, the maidservant placed the glass container into his outstretched palm. "Your Highness... this is all we managed to find."
Kyle wrapped his fingers tightly around the cold glass, lifting it to his nose to carefully catch the scent. His jaw clenched. Turning back to the servants, he gestured toward the exit. "Leave us. Dismissed."
The maidservants bowed hastily and scrambled out of the room, shutting the heavy doors behind them and leaving the mother and son in a dead, frozen quiet.
"So, Your Majesty..." Kyle began, holding the vial between his fingers as he stepped closer to her. "What exactly do you call this?"
The Empress stood tall, smoothing her silk gown as she forced her posture back into a rigid, unshakable confidence. "It is merely a tonic to strengthen the bones, Kyle. What on earth has gotten into you, my sweet boy?"
"Merely a tonic?"
A hollow, dangerous smile touched Kyle’s lips. He reached up, slowly uncorking the glass vial right before her eyes.
"In that case..." he whispered, his eyes locking onto her panicked face as he raised the liquid to his own lips. "I shall drink a bit of it myself."
"NO!" she screamed.
He slowly recorked the glass vial, his gaze remaining completely steady, unblinking. "Do not worry, Mother. I will not drink it. I already know exactly what is inside."
"You... you know?" she stammered, her voice catching.
"Yes, but that does not matter now," Kyle replied, his tone chillingly detached as he stepped closer. "What matters is that the Emperor is not well, Mother."
Her eyes widened, not with grief, but with a sharp, sudden spark of anticipation. "Is Lucius... is he alright?"
Kyle lowered his voice, letting it drop into a heavy, dark whisper. "I believe he will die very soon."
A sharp, twisted smile flashed across Alisha’s face—a burst of pure satisfaction that she was entirely unable to hide. "What? Really? Are you absolutely certain, Kyle?"
"Yes, I am certain," Kyle lied smoothly, his face a mask of false devotion. "That is why I came here. I came to bring you back to where you belong, to ensure you become the reigning Empress, Mother. No one deserves that throne more than you. Honestly... if he hadn’t succumbed to this illness, I might have been forced to rid us of him myself. I simply could not imagine this palace without you, Mama."
Alisha completely melted under his words. The sweet poison of his flattery blinded her judgment entirely, and a wave of euphoric happiness washed over her, as if he had just brought her tidings of a great victory rather than the impending death of her husband.
She stepped closer to him, her eyes gleaming with a manic joy as she leaned in to whisper, "Do not worry, my sweet boy... I have already taken care of everything, specifically for you. Soon, the court will be entirely ours. There will be no one left to stand in our way."
Kyle stood frozen, looking down at her. The artificial warmth drained from his face, leaving his eyes completely hollow, heavy with a crushing, suffocating disappointment.
"So..." Kyle whispered, his voice trembling not with fear, but with utter disgust. "In the end, your depravity truly knows no bounds. You actually poisoned the only man who handed you the world on a golden platter."