Methods To Save The Villain Who Was Abandoned By The Heroine Chapter 4

'That's the poisoned wine……'

Even as I was listening to their conversation, all my attention was focused on the gla.s.s of wine in the Grand Duke's hand.

His hand, which was smooth and fair unlike that which has trained swordplay, held a goblet made of gold.

The Grand Duke seemed as if he would sip his wine any second.

However, as he was a well-mannered man, he was sipping lightly on champagne instead of his wine lest he make any mistakes in front of Lienna.

"I suppose you don't like the wine that I have prepared. I barely managed to procure it by asking his Majesty……"

But Lienna was no ordinary woman!

When she saw that the Grand Duke was hesitant to drink the wine, she expressed disappointment and encouraged him to drink. As soon as Lienna mentioned the Emperor, the Grand Duke narrowed his fine eyebrows.

Grand Duke Perse and Karlan did not have a good relations.h.i.+p.

The Emperor did not have any children; consequently, the Grand Duke was next in line for the throne.

The Emperor's advisors warned that although the Grand Duke was devoting his energy to exterminating evil monsters, he would eventually rebel against the Emperor.

As Perse was also aware of that situation, his relations.h.i.+p with the Emperor continued to be aggravated.

Perse snickered as he asked Lienna.

"His Majesty……?"

"Ah, yes. It was a gift from His Majesty."

Lienna replied as she glanced cautiously at Perse.

She rarely mentioned the Emperor out of fear that he might become jealous or something like that, but today's situation demanded extra caution.

Perse elegantly raised his gla.s.s and smiled subtly:

"I hope you extend my grat.i.tude to His Majesty."

It was unexpected that the Emperor would send wine as a gift; perhaps poison, but wine was a surprise.

It would seem that the Emperor who was always keeping a vigilant eye on him sent him such an abnormal gift.

I would have thought that the Grand Duke wouldn't drink the wine, as he was the type of person who would not deviate from the set of rules set forth by himself but that was just my a.s.sumption.

There was no reason for him to decline the wine that his fiancee personally prepared for him.

I waited anxiously as I watched the Grand Duke, who had no idea that the wine that Lienna had prepared for him was poisoned.

A servant with white gloves poured the poisoned wine into the Grand Duke's Goblet.

'Don't drink that!'

I mumbled in my mind with a worrisome face.

You can't even flaunt your wealth anymore if you drink that!

Blissfully unaware of my desperate thoughts, the Grand Duke seemed thirsty.

Perhaps it was because the Grand Duke, who normally did not drink too much wine when he was with Lienna, drank more than usual.

He rotated the goblet of wine lightly and brought it to his mouth.

Uncertain whether he would drink or not, I was becoming more and more panicked.

That's poison, poison I'm telling you. Liena is not the kind lady you think she is!

Before I could shout out anything, Grand Duke Perse opened his mouth.

"Let us drink, Saintess."

After a moment of hesitation, I charged toward the Grand Duke.

The gla.s.s of poisoned wine was effortlessly knocked out of his hand onto the floor.

Lienna grimaced staring at the wine that spilled onto the red carpet.

"What……!"

Perse opened his eyes wide, alarmed by the sudden movement.

Thinking it was an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, the Grand Duke immediately seized my hand.

"Protect the Saintess."

Knights came running into the room at once.

In the blink of an eye, they formed a circle around Lienna. It seemed that Lienna was also surrounded with no way out by the Grand Duke's knights.

Turning to confirm that Lienna was safe, he looked straight into my eyes.

The Grand Duke's narrowed eyes emanated hostility.

"How dare you betray your master."

His already low-pitched voice rang deeper than usual.

His gaze which was directed at me was ice-cold.

He seemed to think that I was an a.s.sa.s.sin sent by the Emperor because there were similar incidents in the past.

Presently, his mouth softly rolled up into a mocking smile.

"Is the Emperor trying to entertain me?"

"If you let go of this hand, I will show you something more interesting."

I meant what I said. I didn't want to die because I met the wrong master.

Besides, if the master was a rogue who didn't properly compensate his servants, I would have been glad to run away clapping like a seal, but……

I couldn't let him die here when I had to become the head maid of a powerful family and live a long life enjoying simple luxuries.

The Grand Duke narrowed his eyes further at my bold remark and decided to let my hand go.

Thirsty, he called a servant and asked for the wine.

'That, that stubborn fool……!'

He took a sip of the wine before I even had a chance to stop him.

The moment the wine touched his red lips, I looked at him with eyes full of despair.

I spoke with emphasis in my normally quiet voice.

"Please, give me just one sip……!"

I knew what everyone was thinking.

But even as I knew what they would think, I had no choice but to beg for a sip of the wine.

The poison might have been deadly for the Grand Duke if he consumed an amount exceeding the lethal dose, but it wasn't for me.

Someone like the Grand Duke who has strong magical and physical capacity could have some degree of immunity to poison, but a mere maid like me didn't have any immunity to poison.

Then why would I try to ingest the poison in place of the Grand Duke?

The answer was that the ident.i.ty of the poison in the wine was the multi-purpose poisonous plant Robet.

If someone with a great magical capacity ingested the poison, it would cause a cardiac arrest; however, if a normal person like me took the poison, I would be naturally cured after a few days of catching a cold or suffering.

Of course, there were other side effects, too.

Some side effects I knew about were the 0.01% chance of becoming an old lady or shrinking like a fairy ……

Wouldn't you think that I'd have a higher chance of winning the lottery in this world?

I'm pretty sure the person who came up with this poison just gave it a haphazard name and wrote down some random side effects because he was too lazy.

In any case, this was my plan.

I'll get sick for a few days, save Perse and become the head maid by getting the attention of the Grand Duke!

"You're going to die anyway. There is no reason to struggle so hard."

"Since that's the case, I will just drink one sip."

If you take two sips, you'll be dead. Just listen to me.

The Grand Duke was absorbed in thought for a moment, then asked one of the knights to get a gla.s.s.

The tingling sensation at my wrist disappeared, as the tight grasp around it was released.

Then, the knights moved around busily to chain my hands and kneel me down on the floor.

The Grand Duke glanced down at me with icy air.

The glare was still full of doubt and vigilance.

His purple eyes were infused with contempt as if looking at an insignificant microbe.

'G.o.d, I'm so scared!'

It looked as if he was going to murder me with just one glance.

He stopped his footsteps right in front of me and bent forward.

His strong fingers glided toward my chin and grasped it.

"You may raise your head."

Perse made me raise my head which was restrained by his knights.

He then poured down the red wine into my half-open mouth as though a wealthy man was giving alms to a beggar.

"I, I will see you next time……!"

Lienna was the one who was more taken aback.

Whether it was because of the strangely dangerous atmosphere, or because she thought that her intentions were discovered, she tried to leave the premises without approval.

The Grand Duke stared at the Saintess for a while with cold eyes, then permitted her to leave.

He did not seem to care that his fiancee Liena had left in such a hurry, and seemed to only consider interrogating me.

"His Majesty doesn't seem to know what fear is."

The Grand Duke personally bent down and looked down at me in a deep, piercing gaze.

It felt as if glaciers would form from his gaze.

"Swallow it."

I was going to drink it anyway.

I drank the wine being poured down to my mouth as if I had found an oasis in the middle of a desert.

Once I had swallowed the wine, he seemed like he was going to make me drink more.

As I licked the red liquid running down his fingertip in order to stop him, Perse's handsome face twisted into a frown.

"No…… If I drink too much……"

Perse's quick decision cut me off mid-sentence.

"I think it would be much better to decapitate you."

He gave some inaudible orders to the knights and was about to leave the hall.

With a loud 'puff' a white fog propagated throughout the hall.

The knights who were restraining me were swinging their arms through the air.

"Grand Duke, your Highness! The, the a.s.sa.s.sin……!"

I wasn't the only one surprised by the sudden noise.

The knights were looking at me and at a loss as to what to do.

I turned my gaze from them and looked at my hands.

Something was off.

My fingers, which weren't particularly big but still used to be thin and long, had turned small and stubby.

'What, what is this?!'

These weren't the hands of a seventeen year old maid, no matter how I looked at it.

Five or six year old, at most……

'How am I supposed to work as a maid if I'm this small!'

I forced myself to examine my palm which had turned plump.

I'm not sure whether to call this fortunate, but my hands were not the only part of my body that had shrunk. My crouched up knees had also turned tiny.

'What is happening?'

I stared in disbelief at what had clearly happened.

All I could do was strain my eyes staring at my hands and knees, and wiggling my fingers around.

Out of intensifying anxiety, I slowly raised my head.

The house of the Grand Duke was famous for tall knights, but the knights and the Grand Duke seemed taller than they were.

Wha, what is this?

I was going to say something, but I felt like my tongue was tied. My vision was also much lower than I was used to.

The pursed lips that didn't feel like mine slowly opened.

A childlike voice slipped through my lips.

"Hab I become a wittle child?”

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