Chapter 223 223. Crisis, Part III

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

As she walked inside the closed entrance, the doctors who saw Julietta sprang up. They were those who had seen her at debut banquets or meetings. Julietta quickly reached the corner of her mouth and signaled them not to reveal her identity.

"Hello, I’m here to help you."

"The prin..., no, a lady, you came in person? We’re not shorthanded here for this work."

"No, I’m sure as a person who’s been through the disease myself, there’s something I can do to help. I’ll be in charge of delivering antidotes to people who can’t move very well."

"Thanks for your help, because we are shorthanded, in fact. Maybe it’s because it’s an infectious disease, so no one is willing to help," a young trainee doctor said.

He was a trusted member of Killian’s Asta palace, who belonged to the group of the royal doctors from Bertino who had been hiding Killian’s real identity. In addition, in Bertino, Adam was sent to be in charge, and in other treatment centers, Killian’s minions were out there with local doctors.

Julietta showed the antidote she had brought to the doctor. It was checked to see if it was the right amount, and the antidote she had brought in was listed in the ledger.

Soon after, Julietta attended to the sick and gave them the antidote. She looked back on Phoebe who had come with her, who was waiting on the sick with no trace of difficulty despite her uncomfortable leg. "Is it hard?"

Phoebe smiled brightly to her, as Julietta worried that it would be difficult to sit down and get up.

"Not at all. It’s okay, so don’t worry."

Phoebe hesitated for a moment and then went on. "I’m so happy to be able to help others when I think back to when I was begging for painkillers at the end of the continent, at the darkest place. So, it’s not hard at all."

Julietta was heartbroken to see her like that. Phoebe was so pure and kind that she thought an angel had come down to earth.

She felt that her self-interest and greed were more highlighted when she saw Phoebe, who seemed to have neither greed nor hatred, to the point that she wondered how she could be like that. However, Phoebe was so respectable that she decided on what she had been thinking.

"Phoebe, if there’s anything I’m planning on doing for you, can you believe it and follow me?"

Phoebe was putting antidote in the mouth of a patient there, and looked back at Julietta, who was taking care of another patient. She answered naturally, "Yes, I can do anything for you, even if I die."

"What do you mean? Try to value yourself more. I can’t have Phoebe do that."

When Julietta got angry, Phoebe smiled sweetly. "Of course. I know you can’t do that to me. I wanted to tell you that because I believe that much."

She spoke soothingly, but her heart was sincere. If something happened to this lovely lady, Phoebe would have died instead. She was so surprised when the princess collapsed this time. She came to know what it was like to have her heart ache when she thought Julietta might die without waking up again.

She was always quick to give up, never greedy for anything, because she knew that if she had such a thing, her life would be more miserable. But now she wanted to be greedy. She didn’t want any unhappiness to come to the lady who had become the most precious family to her.

It was shocking to her that someone had tried to kill the lady with poison. ’Who? Why?’

From then on, Phoebe said she would take care of all the food and tea for the lady. She always tried it herself to see if it was safe by eating it before she got to the princess. The lady would be furious if she knew...

"Phoebe, you believe so in me, so I’ll go ahead with my work without any further consideration. It’s hard to say now, but I’ll let you know later because I need the permission of His Highness."

At Julietta’s words, Phoebe smiled understanding, and continued with what she was doing.

------------------

Killian returned from a morning-long meeting with the Emperor and was briefed on the clinic that had safely begun.

"Is Julietta out at the clinic?"

"Yes, Your Highness, she left a message, ’I’m working while concealing my identity, so don’t come to me.’"

Killian’s eyebrows rose when Valerian delivered the report he had received from his subordinates.

"Marquis Oswald, how’s your mission going?" When Count Valerian stepped out after the report, he looked at Oswald.

"..."

"The Marquis, why did you just look at me and not answer?"

"You would normally get up right now, but I was speechless for a moment, because it was quite weird that you didn’t."

Killian smiled at Oswald, who was looking at him with his eyes squinted, as if Killian were really strange.

"She even made a bluff not to come, and I don’t want to hear some resentment after going there. I’m sure she’ll be angry and tell me not to even set foot in the Kiellini mansion for a while, and I can’t do things that way."

"Your Highness..."

"Don’t cry." Killian sighed as if he had given up, when Oswald took out a crimson handkerchief stuck in his jacket, waved it, and wiped away his tears. "I think she has a plan, so I shouldn’t interrupt. She’s not someone who moves without thinking."

The Prince’s self-indulgence and arrogance had done somewhere. As the Prince endured the impatience that seemed only Julietta could stir, Oswald exclaimed with excitement, "Yes, she is not! Oh, and I’ll answer what you asked earlier. Day and night, I have been in meetings and parties."

"How did the people react?"

"They have no choice but to show interest upon hearing that the Duke of Kiellini’s servant fled with important documents and valuables. They asked me if that’s why the Duke of Kiellini was gravely ill."

"Well done. The rumors about the treatment center must have entered Francis’s ears. I wonder how he’s going to react."

"Will he interrupt us?"

"He’s going to try to figure out what the antidote is. They’re going to pretend to be sick, act as patients, and try to get some painkillers."

They had been ordered the painkillers not to be taken out in preparation for such an incident. Any patient who was able to move had to take antidote in front of the doctor’s eyes, and for those who couldn’t move, his men visited and fed them in person.

He was as careful as he could be. He didn’t want to mar the name of the Kiellini family in the war that was about to begin.

He wanted Julietta to enter the Imperial Castle, receiving the praise of everyone as the daughter of a great noble. It was his consolation for Julietta and revenge on those who had made her live in hiding herself in the basement of the theater with no light and the label of an illegitimate child.

He had refused to admit that he loved her. He thought she was a lovely girl who he just wanted to give a seat next to him, and who he liked more than anyone else. That was all he thought.

But this time, when Julietta had the infectious disease, and when he heard there was no cure for it, he felt the darkness of his life, as if the light had been extinguished. He didn’t want to live life without Julietta. No, he wasn’t confident of living.

He realized then how much he loved Julietta. That love killed his mother, the Empress, and even though he grew up watching the life of his aunt, the second Queen, be mortgaged, he fell in love with a woman named Julietta. It meant that she was the greatest weakness in his life.

He would never let Julietta be taken away by anyone. No one would take Julietta away from him. To do so, he had to kill the people in turn who had put Julietta’s life at risk.

The first of them was the Duke of Kiellini. He had given him one chance and warned him that there would be no second opportunity. He ignored it lightly, and now had to pay for it.

"What shall I do?"

Even though Killian’s words had no subject, Marquis Oswald immediately noticed. "Are you thinking of killing the Duke of Kiellini?"

"Yes."

"There’s no hurry. The death of a great nobleman will be investigated in detail. I’m afraid that things will go wrong."

"We have to be careful, and not be caught."