Chapter 137: Shadow Over The Palace

The night at the Imperial Palace dissolved in peace. Everyone thought so. Around midnight, however, something had happened and cast a shadow over the entire Palace.

The tragic episode started at the Palace of the Empress. In the bedroom where Adrian was asleep.

“Sir Philip! Suddenly, why suddenly…”

Evelyn’s panicked voice sounded like a throbbing cry. It seemed like a minor problem at first, but by the time Sir Philip arrived, things had gone so bad that the child had almost suffocated.

Sir Philip started treatment immediately, but he felt a fiery high fever as soon as he touched the child’s body.

“Princess, calm down. Please tell me in detail what happened today, while Sir Philip will examine him.”

Although Hans, Philip’s assistant, tried to appease her, Evelyn could hardly calm her mind.

Which parent’s heart wasn’t broken when they saw their child lying sick. Evelyn couldn’t get at ease when her son, who was so lively and played with his grandmother this morning, unexpectedly caught a high fever.

“Princess, you must regain your composure at times like this.”

Luckily, there was Rebecca beside her. Evelyn tried to swallow the pain in her throat. It was hard to breathe. The air that pierced her nose was stung like a sword. Still, she had to keep her mind sane for Adrian’s sake.

“Nora, please tell Hans about everything Adrian did today.”

“Yes, Princess.”

“Lily, go see His Majesty now and let him know about this.”

“Yes Yes! I will go now.”

Everyone hastened to carry out Evelyn’s orders.

Rebecca monitored Sir Philip’s medication, and Evelyn pressed her chest once more to ease her fears. Fortunately or sadly, Adrian stopped crying. But Evelyn didn’t look happy at all.

“Princess, Sir Hans now is looking for the cause.”

Evelyn bit her lip nervously, and her eyes turned back to Adrian. The child fell asleep quietly, just as he had tired himself from playing. But it was just what looked like.

“I have no choice but to use sedatives. If the condition gets even worse it’s very dangerous… so there’s no other way.” Sir Phillip said honestly as if he was apologizing for having to give him the drug.

Within her mind, Evelyn understood what Sir Philip meant, but her heart was still very sore when she had to watch her son, who was put to sleep with sedatives.

“I will prescribe a fever reliever medicine. His fever has to come down first. That’s the most urgent priority.”

As a doctor, Philip’s made the right decision, as high fever was a dangerous illness that could endanger a child’s life.

“30 minutes … No, if the fever doesn’t go down in 10 minutes …….”

Evelyn went utterly insane when Sir Philip obscured his words. Rebecca took Evelyn’s hand quickly and squeezed it. She was trying to calm her down, saying that at this moment she shouldn’t lose control.

Evelyn then rushed over to Adrian’s bedside and touched his neck. It felt boiling like it was burning with fire.

“Excuse me.”

As Evelyn was forced to step back, Philip and Hans took off Adrian’s clothes and put a cold, wet towel on his whole body. But this kind of treatment wasn’t enough.

“We have to help cool down the fever a little until the medicine works!”

Everyone in the Empress Palace was busy bringing cold water and wetting the towels. Evelyn’s heart was as burn as Adrian’s fever because she could do nothing but watch.

In the meantime, Rebecca suddenly left the room. Everyone didn’t even notice she was gone even when she returned because they were focused on treating Adrian.

“Everyone get out of my way!” Rebecca shouted without hesitation, as she pushed her way between Sir Philip and Hans, holding something in her arms.

“Rebecca?”

“This is a block ice from underground wine cellar.”

Evelyn didn’t even know that something like that existed in her Palace. But she wasn’t surprised since Rebecca knew exactly every liquor in this Palace and where it was stored.

The wine cellar was specially made as an ice storage in every season except in summer. It was minimal in quantity and treated as a rare commodity, but now it was a matter of urgency.

“Bring more handkerchiefs! Everyone, wrap the ice and place them on the Prince’s body. Hurry up!”

Rebecca demonstrated how to compress Adrian’s skin with a handkerchief wrapped in ice. The maids afterwards also followed Rebecca’s actions in perfect order.

“Fever …… The fever has reduced a little!”

Whether it was because the ice pack or the medicine had worked, Evelyn patted her chest, and Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief.

But Philip’s expression wasn’t very bright. When the ice touched Adrian’s skin, the skin turned red, and the demon’s bite marks began to appear one by one on his body. Evelyn trembled at the sight of the terrible scar that she never wanted to see again.

“I’m sure …… The bite wound …… should have gotten better ….”

The bite marks of the Devil Eye that covered Adrian’s small body had gradually disappeared over time. The only thing left to do was to detoxify the poison. So Adrian’s sudden fever and bite marks appeared, taking Sir Philip by surprise.

“Sir Philip, shouldn’t the bite wounds already healed!”

“Well, that’s …….”

Philip stared Adrian’s body once again, but it wasn’t a hallucination, “I’ve never seen anything like this before. This is not a wound…I don’t know, but It looks like a bruise that remains under the skin…I apologize…”

There was no sign of any cuts on Adrian’s skin, but the scars were too noticeable, and it was much more disturbing than before.

“Probably, the poison that was left in the Prince’s body has started to recur again.”

“Hasn’t he been detoxified with blood treatment?”

“It was a detoxification treatment, but…… I’ve never done this before, so I can’t tell you anything… .”

Philip was also confused. He had never handled a child with a condition like Adrian, so he couldn’t provide an explanation.

Evelyn stood still with clenched lips that trembled every minute and second. Fortunately, after 5 minutes of being compressed, the fever decreased significantly enough to remove the ice packs on his body.

“First of all, we do emergency treatment.”

Hans carefully poured a blood medicine pill through Adrian’s lips under Philip’s guidance.

“But I don’t know the cause. I don’t know why those terrible bite-marks reappeared…….” Evelyn abruptly stopped talking.

“No, I think I know who it is…..”

There was anger in her blue eyes. She thought that once Fabian caught David, it would all be over. But she didn’t think that he could do something like this without touching him. And Evelyn was mad at herself, too.

“What did he do? Rebecca! Search all the items in the Empress Palace. It might be a poison. Especially those related to the Vatican …. No, you have to search them all.” Evelyn clasped Rebecca’s hand tightly.

“Princess, trust me. I’ll never miss it.”

Evelyn nodded in trust. Rebecca quickly led several ladies-in-waiting out of the room. The rest stayed behind to watch Adrian’s condition and wait for Fabian.

Not long after expected, Fabian arrived in the Empress Palace in quick steps.

“I’ve heard what happened.”

Fabian waved to everyone who gave an example and walked towards Adrian. His black eyes soon hardened as cold as ice. The relief he felt when he heard Adrian’s breath, changed in a second after he saw the bite marks on his son’s body.

“…who…dare….”

The two words contained immeasurable rage.

“Philip, tell me his condition right now.”

Fabian’s gaze was void. The kneeling Philip then looked at the Emperor in front of him.

“I used sedactives and antibiotics to control the Prince’s high fever. Fortunately, the fever had subsided a little, but … the bite marks aren’t wounds, but unknown marks. Maybe … the remains of the poison in the Prince’s body are spreading again.”

“Didn’t you already detoxify the poison?”

“I did, but…… I’m sorry, but the symptoms are the same as when he was first bit by the demons.”

“What about blood medicine?”

“I’ve already given him that medicine, but only as a slight cure……all I can tell you is that this is a symptom of addiction.”

The words that Evelyn had been afraid of all this time finally slipped out of Sir Philip’s mouth.

“That can’t be… Your Majesty, I’ve never fed Adrian anything strange. Even now, Rebecca is looking for suspicious items in this Palace, but…… I can’t think of anything.”

Fabian exhaled a deep, calm breath. It wasn’t easy for him to say a word while dealing with the storm-like emotions inside him. “Philip, say it right. Are you sure it’s a symptom of poison addiction? Tell the truth, with your neck at stake.”

“Yes, I’m sure. This is a symptom of addiction caused by Demon’s poison, and it’s more dangerous than the first time he was bitten.”

“But hasn’t the poison been detoxified? The proof, the child was getting healthier!”

“Probably due to an external factor … which caused the poison in his body to reactivate. Looking at the blood medicine that doesn’t work anymore, that is most likely what happened.”

“Why?”

Philip sighed, “Your Majesty, do you remember when I first saw his symptoms and warned you.”

Fabian frowned. He was also sensitive to a poison addiction, as he also grew up as an Imperial successor and became an Emperor.

If he was poisoned by someone, he could survive as long as he avoided fatal injuries. But even with blood medicine, it would be impossible to treat if there were more than one type of poison in his body.

“In the Book of Medicine, this is called as the root of poison.”

One poison could be traced and neutralized, but the poison that had entered would combine with the blood and spread through the body like a root of evil.

If there were more than two poisons, they would mix, and the toxins would continually bind to one another and mutated throughout the body.

“How come? ….What have you all done?!” Fabian asked everyone in the room in a cold voice, including to Evelyn.

“He’s past the critical moment now.” Philip said calmly. “This is the hard-to-handle symptom of the poison’s roots. However, if we can find the cause and identity of the new poison……he can be cured.”

Fabian’s jaw got tight. His gnashed molars showed precisely how he felt right now, “I’ll looking for it. I’m going to find the culprit, tear them apart, and make them beg to be killed.”

That voice awakened the blood of madness flowing in him. Even Evelyn felt Fabian was like another person she didn’t know. But she had no time to pay more attention to him because it was for Adrian.

“What’s the best that can be done for now?”

“For now …… Antibiotics and …… I will use blood medicine. We should at least prevent his condition from getting worse.”

“Damn it!” Fabian gave out a low curse and clenched his fist.

“I will do everything I can to treat him. But before he gets worse ….. I need to know the cause of his addiction now to do basic treatment.”

“Time…. How much time do we have?”

Everyone focused on Philip, so he had trouble opening his mouth.

“To the limit of the Prince’s physical strength …… So, I can’t measure the timing precisely.”

No one could be sure how longer Adrian’s small body could survive. His body had been exposed to the Demon’s poison before. But now the poison had taken root and had begun to bind his entire body.

Evelyn forgot how to breathe at that moment. That horror was never swallowed and couldn’t be spat out again.

“Evelyn!”

Fabian’s strong arms caught Evelyn’s body beside him, which was about to fall from losing her balance. Her face was as pale as a blank sheet of paper, and her breath was chocking because she couldn’t breathe properly.

“Calm down. Breathe!”

Fabian patted Evelyn on the back. Only then did Evelyn breathe out, vomiting her cough. She was hyperventilating as she was under tremendous mental pressure at once.

“Evelyn.” Fabian gripped Evelyn’s trembling shoulder firmly and matched their eyes.

Only

“Evelyn, look at me.”

Evelyn’s blue eyes eventually returned to focus.

“I’ve promised to protect you and our child.”

Evelyn nodded her head in tears.

“I will keep my promise.”

Fabian repeated his words, swearing to himself to fill that promise. Evelyn used to protect herself and their child alone, but now she had him beside her.

Now, he was determined to do everything in his power, to redeem for his failure to protect them from the beginning.