The Poisoned Banquet
The official banquet hall held no more than fifty guests that day.
Those granted the privilege of dining with the king and queen were the empire’s most influential great nobles. Even then, the invitation list had been ruthlessly narrowed to title-holders only, excluding their children. Because they frequented the royal palace, their faces were familiar.
Yet their attention was not on the meal.
“The more I look at him, the more striking it is—his face hardly matches those barbaric, cruel epithets.”
“After rolling through battlefields, his looks remain untouched. He must still be young; he’s grown even more handsome than before.”
It was only natural that every gaze converged on the man seated beneath a mask of utter boredom.
Admiration for a beautiful and powerful man knew no gender. Though his origins were humble, the achievements he had carved out more than compensated. Having seized wealth, fame, and the people’s support, he now stood beyond the reach of even the haughtiest central nobles.
Thanks to the young war hero monopolizing the attention that would otherwise have been spent viciously dissecting the lowborn queen, Lerusha was able to remain in her seat with relative ease.
The walls of the banquet hall were lined with works by renowned artists, yet no one could tear their eyes from the man whose face outshone even the masterpieces. Only Lerusha kept her gaze fixed on the empty seat beside her.
Her husband, who had failed to appear no matter how long she waited, finally strolled into the hall after several more dozen minutes had passed. Despite his tardiness, his expression held not a trace of apology—only brazen indifference. No one present dared to rebuke the young conqueror to his face.
He even swept his eyes across the lavishly decorated hall and delivered a cold verdict: “Still as extravagant as ever.” He made no effort to lower his voice.
She did not bother pointing out that today’s banquet had used only seventy percent of the usual budget. Doing so would only invite the retort that a woman raised without means had no idea how to spend money even when she had it.
“Let us eat.”
At Joslyn’s curt command, the meal began. The banquet proceeded smoothly—or it nearly did. The unexpected incident struck without warning.
“Kuhk.”
Joslyn clutched his throat and collapsed, vomiting a mouthful of blood. Only then did Lerusha realize something had gone terribly wrong.
“Your Majesty!”
The banquet hall descended into chaos. Joslyn was carried to his chambers with his personal physician, and fully armed knights stormed in to seal the entrance.
The only person who remained composed was Mathias, calmly wiping his hands with a handkerchief. Whether he had anticipated this or simply did not care what became of Joslyn, he showed no sign of agitation. He even reached out to steady the swaying Lerusha.
“……”
Lerusha stared blankly at the knight’s aloof face as he firmly supported her arm, then rubbed her dry cheeks.
Every detail of the banquet—from preparation to execution—had been under her direct supervision. Until thirty minutes before it began, she had personally overseen the inspection of every dish and utensil. The fact that Joslyn had suddenly vomited blood and collapsed was incomprehensible. All the tableware had been tested for poison. The food had been as well.
‘……Surely not.’
Everyone gathered here had been handpicked by her with the utmost care. More than half were royalty, and the few nobles present were loyalists who had played decisive roles in placing Joslyn on the throne. The likelihood that anyone would attempt to poison the king at a royal banquet only two years into his reign was vanishingly small.
That was what made it strange. An assassination attempt in a royal banquet where neither hostile parties nor any route for smuggling poison existed.
“We have caught the culprit!”
Unexpectedly, the perpetrator was apprehended at once.
The person dragged in, bound by the royal guard, was a fresh-faced maid who looked barely of age.
Her face had gone deathly pale with terror, and she trembled violently. No matter how one looked at her, she did not appear capable of mustering the courage to assassinate the king.
“Are you certain it is this child?”
At Lerusha’s question, the guards who had bound the girl nodded.
“Several maids testified that they saw her sprinkling something on the tableware, and above all, she herself has confessed that she is responsible.”
“……She confessed?”
No one could possibly believe this young maid had acted alone. Judging by her age, she was among the youngest in the servant quarters—little more than an apprentice maid at best.
“Reveal your backer at once! Who ordered you to poison His Majesty the King?”
When the soldier shouted, the trembling girl lifted her head and met Lerusha’s eyes. In that instant, an indescribable dread bloomed within her, and a chill swept through her body.
The girl hesitated for a long while, lips moving soundlessly, before squeezing her eyes shut. Then she raised a trembling finger and pointed.
“……It was the queen. Her Majesty commanded me.”
Only then did Lerusha understand with absolute certainty.
She had fallen into a trap.
* * *
Confined within the sealed queen’s palace, Lerusha reflected. There had been clear signs that things would come to this. Joslyn appearing openly with another woman at an official event had been the first.
She had felt his affection cooling after the coronation, yet he had always maintained a strict separation between public and private matters. At the very least, he had done his utmost to present a united front so that no discord between king and queen would be visible to outsiders.
He was the sort of man who, even while carrying the scent of another woman, took care to ensure no rumors of infidelity ever surfaced, indulging his private affairs in secret. So why had she failed to realize it even after seeing him arrive at the victory square with another woman at his side?
Far from hiding his affair, he had publicly displayed his mistress before the crowd. What else could that mean?
‘I suppose I shall soon be deposed.’
She had known. She had fully expected it. Yet even though there was no reason to be shocked, her words caught in her throat.
Deposition was the natural outcome. The position she had held solely through the king’s affection had already lost that affection shortly after his accession; she had long since been treated as a discarded lover. To have lasted two years in such circumstances was already far longer than she had any right to expect.
It was time to let go. There was nothing surprising about it. Only the method left her bewildered.
‘Poison was detected on His Majesty’s tableware, and that young maid…… continues to insist until the very end that Your Majesty ordered her to do it.’
‘They say she was brought in as a scullery maid. She had only been working for a single month.’
‘So she was hired after banquet preparations had already begun.’
‘Someone must have put her up to this in order to frame Your Majesty. If we can only uncover the mastermind, we can prove your innocence……’
The mastermind was either Joslyn himself or Orldette von Grusewald, who was no different from his mistress. There was nothing left to investigate. The investigation would almost certainly never proceed.
‘A wife spurned by her husband, driven by resentment to plot his poisoning…… A motive anyone would find perfectly plausible.’
She intended to accept the outcome with grace. She did not know where she would be exiled if deposed, but the thought that it might be for the best crossed her mind. Rather than living in misery, begging for affection from the man she loved, she would prefer a quiet remaining life.
After waiting quietly for a week, word arrived that Joslyn had awakened and the poisoning incident had been concluded.
As expected, no investigation had taken place. During her confinement she had not been questioned even once.
While she remained locked away, the outside world had already branded the queen a traitor who had attempted to murder the king. The atmosphere was so grave that she feared deposition alone might not be the end of it.
Even while falsely accused, she could do nothing. There was no one to help her, no ally in the palace to whom she could turn. She was alone. The end of a life devoted to a single man felt unbearably desolate.
Just as the realization that she had lived her life wrongly began to sink in, an uninvited guest arrived in the dead of night when everyone else was asleep.
“My, did I disturb your sweet dreams?”
The one who entered with that nonchalant question was not Joslyn alone. Behind him came Orldette von Grusewald in plain attire, followed by Mathias in his military uniform.
“I apologize for calling at such a late hour. There is an urgent matter we must discuss.”
“……”
“You have always been quick to grasp things, so I suppose there is no need to explain why I have come.”
Lerusha clasped her hands neatly in front of her and straightened her back. Meeting Joslyn’s gaze directly, she spoke.
“Do you wish for me to relinquish this position?”
“Is that all you think I want? Stripping you of your title would be far too simple and easy.”
Joslyn seated himself without invitation. Orldette von Grusewald naturally took the seat beside him. Only Mathias remained standing rigidly by the door.
Joslyn looked down at Lerusha and gave his command.
“Commit suicide here, my wife.”