In the next second, the pest came back to life as if nothing had happened.
Elodie was so excited she grabbed hold of the Duchess. Only then did she realize she had been far too carried away. After all, her relationship with the Duchess was nowhere near close enough for that.
The Duchess also found it strange. The child who had always been cautious and afraid in front of her had suddenly changed so much.
Elodie could only give an awkward smile. The Duchess told her to drop the act and asked her directly, "What do you want to get from me in exchange for this antidote?"
"I want to sell the antidote under your name," Elodie said, "and then receive a percentage of the sales profits."
The Duchess did not understand. Why not use your own name?
"No one would believe I made it, and I don't want to draw attention," Elodie said, "so I hope you can keep the secret for me."
The Duchess agreed, but before that she wanted to know how Elodie had actually created this antidote. Elodie told her that her authority had awakened a few days ago. It was like an authority that could destroy the toxicity of poisons.
In reality, it was simply purification.
The Duchess was happy that her authority had awakened, but if this was something worth celebrating, why hide it?
Elodie only said, "I don't want to attract unnecessary trouble." She further emphasized her awkward status in the family, reassuring the Duchess that it would absolutely never drag her into anything. The Duchess then understood what she meant.
Not long after, the first prince personally came to see her. He wanted to know why she had suddenly proposed breaking off the engagement, but Elodie said that she was in love with someone.
The first prince was instantly overwhelmed with jealousy on the spot. Elodie only found it strange. According to the original novel, the first prince should not have reacted like this.
In fact, the first prince simply could not understand. Hadn't she always coveted the position of crown princess? How could she suddenly say she liked someone else? She's clearly supposed to have feelings for me, yet she's acting as if she really doesn't care at all.
But Elodie did not have the old Elodie's past memories, so she did not know many of the details either.
The first prince coldly threw down a line. "If you're trying to get my attention this way, you'd better give it up. However, if you truly want to break off the engagement, it's not as if I can't agree."
At this moment, Elodie only felt her whole body going weak. As soon as the words left his mouth, she collapsed to the ground.
Only after checking repeatedly did the first prince confirm that she really had fainted. He called out for quite a while, yet no one responded at all. He knew she was an illegitimate daughter, but not to the extent that she would not even have a single attendant on standby. With no other choice, he had to pick her up and head for the guest rooms first.
At last he ran into Martha, the exclusive maid who always accompanied the Duke's daughter. With Martha's help, the two of them settled her in a nearby room.
But Martha said calmly, without changing her expression, "Fainted again."
Huh? The first prince could not understand how, with her mistress fainted, the maid could remain this composed.
He saw the scars on Elodie's wrist, and suddenly realized that when he had seen her hand shaking earlier, he had thought she was just nervous. He had never imagined she was actually feeling unwell.
In the first prince's heart, an unexpected twinge of guilt arose. He had always only found her annoying. Yet today he suddenly felt a kind of unfamiliarity toward her.
When Elodie woke up, her first thought was, I fainted again.
It turned out that in order to verify the effectiveness of the antidote, she could only take poison herself. After being poisoned, she then used her purification authority on ordinary water to create the antidote. If time was too short, she could even use the blood in her own body as an antidote. So she had only meant to give herself a casual prick, but had accidentally cut herself and made a real wound.
After the first prince left, he had the maid Martha deliver a letter to her. Written in the letter was an invitation to His Majesty the emperor's birthday banquet. It also required her to arrive at the estate thirty minutes before the banquet began, as he wanted to see her again.
Elodie had thought he was coming to discuss breaking off the engagement. Instead, he suddenly threw a banquet at her, for which she was completely unprepared. However, her reliable maid had already prepared everything in advance.
Elodie praised her in a chilling tone. "That's just wonderful, Martha."
In the few days before the emperor's birthday banquet, she encountered a character from the novel who would rewrite the course of events. That was the Duke of Pedia's aide, Hector Arod. He was as loyal to the Duke as a dog, yet he would stab him in the back. He was the traitor of the future.
In the original story, Elodie had once attempted to poison the heroine Estelle, but ultimately failed because the poison had been switched. Although she drank the poison, Elodie, who possessed the purification authority, did not die. Instead, it led to her being exposed. She was not the Duke of Pedia's illegitimate daughter at all.
And the one who had swapped the poison was this very man standing before her. His reason for switching the poison was simple: to sever the relationship between the first prince and the House of Pedia.
But what Elodie was more curious about was when exactly he had started acting as the second prince's spy.
She decided to dig a pit for him.
With a worried face, she told Mr. Hector that she had a concern and wanted his advice. She feigned helplessness. "Father seems very angry. Probably because I brought up breaking off the engagement." Then she twisted the knife further. "The reason Father is angry is because I like the second prince."
Hector was clearly stunned. He should indeed have been stunned, because this statement was equivalent to saying that she had fallen in love with her father's political enemy.
If Hector had already been privately colluding with the second prince, he would definitely pass this matter on to him in full detail. Even though Elodie was an illegitimate daughter, her identity as the Duke of Pedia's daughter was still a tempting prize for hunters.
But hunters often appear disguised as prey. Very soon, at the emperor's birthday banquet, she would confirm whether Arod had betrayed the Duke.
Elodie attended the banquet together with the first prince. Just as the first prince went off to talk business, she seized the opportunity to walk to a place a little farther from the main hall, preferably somewhere inconspicuous and unlikely to draw attention.
Sure enough, the second prince sought her out, which indirectly proved that Hector had already betrayed the Duke three years ago.
At this moment, the first prince noticed that Elodie was actually staying with that guy, Bertrand. And what was even more outrageous, she was smiling so happily. The first prince immediately concluded that the personality she liked was that brat.
The second prince Bertrand was notorious as a ladies' man, and there was even a rumor that not a single daughter of the up-and-coming families had escaped his clutches. Not only that, he often frequented pleasure districts, getting dead drunk as he stumbled around with no class or decency whatsoever, and reports against him never ceased. In a single sentence, Bertrand was human scum.
This made the first prince extremely displeased. He originally intended to step in and stop them, but then he noticed someone else.
Bertrand simply got straight to the point and invited Elodie to accompany him to the opera. In Elodie's mind, only two words remained: utterly speechless.
Having heard that Elodie had broken off the engagement with his brother because she liked him, Bertrand's lips practically curved up to the heavens. Seeing the look on Elodie's face, he mistook it for shyness and moved closer step by step, even wanting to invite her to dance.
"Elodie."
At that moment, a deep, powerful voice called her name from behind. "Are you two finished talking? I have something to discuss with my daughter, so I'll be taking her away. Come here, Elodie."
She had never expected her father to come in person.
Her father warned her. "The second prince is very dangerous. It's best for you to stay away from him."