Chapter 3

The fifth time came at a royal banquet.

Rosalie and I accidentally ate pastries laced with poison.

The royal physician quickly prepared one dose of antidote and said the second would take another half hour.

The poison would take effect within minutes.

Adrian took the pill and walked toward me.

For a moment, I felt a flicker of hope I had no right to hold on to.

He looked at the blood at the corner of my mouth, and his fingers twitched.

Rosalie collapsed behind him.

He walked straight past me and placed the pill in her mouth.

“Clara, wait a little longer.”

Adrian supported her, his voice tense with urgency.

“Your heart is stronger than hers. The royal physician will be able to save you.”

The poison twisted through my stomach like a blunt knife.

I curled up on the floor, the pain so fierce that one of my fingernails cracked.

When the system stripped away another ten percent of the pain, I could finally breathe again.

[Life countdown: five.]

The royal physician’s second antidote arrived in time.

I didn’t die.

Adrian took that as proof that he had made the right choice.

On the way home, he sat across from me and explained, “Rosalie has a heart condition. The poison would have taken effect faster in her.”

I stared out the carriage window without saying a word.

“Clara, I know I’ve wronged you. Once she recovers, I’ll make it up to you.”

I turned my gaze from the window back to him.

“How?”

He had no answer.

Because his idea of making it up to me amounted to sending me another box of jewelry and sharing one meal with me.

The next time Rosalie cried, he would still leave.

The sixth time came when Rosalie shattered a jeweled goblet presented by the crown at the Queen Mother’s birthday banquet.

Her face went deathly pale with fear.

But Adrian pulled me aside.

“You’re the lady of Hale Manor. Just say it was an accident. At worst, the Queen Mother will make you apologize and confine you to your chambers for a few days.”

“Rosalie isn’t married yet. If word gets out that she disgraced herself before the Queen Mother, her reputation will be ruined.”

I asked, “What about my reputation?”

His expression darkened.

“You’re already the lady of Hale Manor. Why make an issue of something like this with her?”

Rosalie stood a short distance away, tears slipping down her cheeks.

“This is all my fault. Don’t make things difficult for Clara, my lord. I’ll confess.”

She started to leave, but her feet remained firmly planted.

Adrian grabbed my wrist.

“I’m asking you.”

It was the first time he had ever asked me for anything.

However, it was for another woman.

I took the blame for Rosalie, apologized before the Queen Mother, and was confined to my chambers for three days as punishment.

While I was confined to my chambers, Adrian stayed by Rosalie’s side.

When the system announced the new number, I could no longer feel my knees.

[Life countdown: four.]

The seventh time, a wooden frame hung with oil lamps came crashing down.

Adrian pulled Rosalie into his arms, leaving me to tumble down the stone steps.

The eighth time, an unseasonable freeze struck as we traveled back to the capital.

Only one carriage was still roadworthy, and it could hold only two people.

Adrian took Rosalie, whose heart condition had flared, and left me and the guards behind at an abandoned chapel.

He promised to return before dawn.

But heavy snow blocked the road.

I spent the night in the roofless chapel.

When I woke the next morning, frost covered my eyebrows and eyelashes.

The system told me I had only two marks of life left.

I lowered my head and counted the pearls on my bracelet.

Only two remained uncracked.

After we returned to Hale Manor, Adrian had someone send me a fox-fur cloak.

I refused to accept it.

He came to ask me himself, “Are you still angry?”

“No.”

“Then why won’t you take it?”

“I don’t need it anymore.”

He stared at me, unease appearing in his eyes for the first time.

“Clara, you haven’t been yourself lately.”

I smiled.

“Wasn’t this what you always wanted? For me to be more understanding? You wanted me to be sensible, didn’t you? Now that I am, you’re unhappy?”

Adrian opened his mouth, but no words came out.

In the end, he only said, “Don’t say things you don’t mean just because you’re angry.”

After he left, a wave of nausea suddenly came over me.

The house physician checked my pulse.

“Congratulations, my lady. You’re nearly two months pregnant.”

I stared at the last two uncracked pearls on my bracelet and remained silent for a long time.

That night, the system asked me:

[Once the life countdown reaches zero, the host may sacrifice all remaining affection and pain sensitivity to create a replacement body and escape.]

[Pregnancy detected. Should the unborn child be transferred with you?]