The Executed Saint Reincarnates as a Princess and is Loved by Her Older Brothers - Episode 61

Duke Turenne wiped the sweat from his forehead with his gloved hand.

The duke has been a loyal minister and strategist, supporting the kingdom for many years.

He is a person who has mastered the duties of a high-ranking official to the extent that it is said the current king’s governance cannot proceed without his assistance.

However, the esteemed prime minister, who was both the right-hand man of King Nathan and his father-in-law, was now crouching helplessly in a corner of the dark garden.

“W-What are you…?”

With Lionel’s sword tip pressed against his throat, Duke Turenne groaned lowly.

“This is some kind of mistake! Both His Highness the Prince and Her Highness the Princess are misunderstanding!”

Even though the ugly shouting echoed, Angela calmly responded to the question.

“Prince Turenne. What exactly did you receive from the maid just now?”

“Th-that’s…”

“Shall I take a guess? It’s one of the gifts I gave to Madame Hortense, isn’t it?”

“That’s not right…!”

“That’s right!”

The one who shouted over was the young maid.

Rubbing her neck, which had just been choked by Duke Turenne, and coughing painfully, the maid desperately pleads.

“The Duke commanded me! To go retrieve the Princess’s gift from the Queen’s quarters──”

“Shut up! Don’t talk back!”

The Duke of Turenne, with a fierce expression, shouted to drown out the maid’s words.

Thank you.

Angela thanked the maid and smiled sweetly.

“I gave four gifts to Madame Hortense. Among them, the only one the duke ordered you to retrieve was the eye drops, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

As the maid nodded, Lionel placed the candle back on the ground at his feet.

With my free hand, I grab the Duke of Turenne by the collar and search inside his clothes.

Rolling out was a small colored glass vial.

“Y-Yes, that’s it!”

The maid hurried over, took the small bottle, and handed it to Angela.

“Indeed, it is the eye drops I gave to Madame Hortense. The mark I put on the bottom of the label is the same.”

After suspecting that Duke Turenne might be the real culprit, Lionel and Angela discussed how to set a trap to expose the meticulous duke and make him reveal his true colors.

As a result, this eye drop was used as bait.

That’s why I anticipated the possibility of the eye drops being switched and marked them in advance.

Hortense knew that Angela was not the biological child of Empress Josephine. It is hard to believe that Hortense investigated this on her own. It must have been due to her father, Duke of Turenne’s, intelligence network.

The father and daughter of the Turenne family are in such close contact with each other.

I had anticipated that the princess’s flattery and the mountain of gifts she had offered to get close to Hortense would soon come to the Duke of Turenne’s attention.

If the Duke of Turenne is truly the culprit, one of the gifts—surely the eye drops—will react.

They will probably use some means to prevent Hortense from using these eye drops.

Afterwards, there was a movement where Duke Turenne came into contact with the maid accompanying Hortense, leading me to conclude that they seemed to intend to steal the actual item rather than just switch it.

And then, in the stillness of the late night, the Duke of Turenne not only met with the maid in a secluded place, but after receiving the eye drops, he attempted to kill her.

The series of actions indicated that, as Lionel and Angela had deduced, the Duke of Turenne was aware of the dangers of this eye drop.

Angela sighed deeply.

“But, Duke Turenne. Unfortunately, this eye drop is a fake.”

“Huh…?”

“I’m sorry for deceiving you, Madame Hortense, but this is just an ordinary eye drop. It has no effect on dilating the pupils.”

I told Hortense that this eye drop makes the eyes look attractive and included a detailed instruction manual with the ingredients, but the actual contents are different.

It’s an utterly ordinary, run-of-the-mill eye drop.

“Since it was a sudden plan, there wasn’t time to prepare the ‘real thing.'”

“……na……na……”

The Duke of Turenne, speechless and astonished.

Lionel tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword and looked down coldly at the duke.

“Prince Turenne. I once learned something from someone.”

When he was a child, Lionel learned various things from Juliet.

For example, potatoes can be eaten if you remove the sprouts, and the berries of belladonna look like blueberries but are highly poisonous, so be careful.

“Did the lord think that this eye drop contained belladonna juice?”

Belladonna is a perennial plant widely distributed in dry regions.

In summer, it bears bell-shaped, drooping flowers, but the juice extracted from the leaves collected during the flowering period has the effect of “mydriasis.”

Dilation—meaning to enlarge the pupil.

Human eyes with a larger proportion of sclera give a harsh and cold impression. Conversely, eyes with a larger proportion of the iris can appear round, adorable, and captivating.

However, belladonna is highly toxic. The effect of mydriasis in its juice is due to the poison it contains, which paralyzes the central nervous system and suppresses the parasympathetic nervous system.

If the parasympathetic nervous system is suppressed, the sympathetic nervous system’s activity increases. As a result, the eyes open wide, appearing as if they are sparkling adorably.

“Prince Turenne presented eye drops containing belladonna poison to Queen Diane fifteen years ago, didn’t he?”

Just by applying the drops, her eyes became captivating, and the queen must have been overjoyed.

The queen never told anyone about the items she truly liked. She kept them exclusive to prevent other women from knowing and concealed their origins, so no one knew they were gifts from Duke de Turenne.

Angela quietly stepped forward.

“The one who killed the queen is you, Duke de Turenne.”