Chapter 196
## Chapter 196
As soon as she dictated her orders, the soldiers surrounded her from all sides.
The sounds of her limping footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
Varkas remained listening to that sound until the echo of the closing door resonated, and at that exact moment, his body collapsed onto the bed.
He felt as if every muscle pack, bone, and nerve in his body had been completely torn apart and shredded.
He raised his face, which was soaked in cold sweat, to stare blankly at the ceiling upon which darkness was beginning to fall, and soon covered his eyes with the back of his hand.
Even after regaining consciousness, he could not leave his bed for two days; due to the effects of the poison that had infiltrated even his nerves, he was unable to stand properly for more than ten minutes.
On the third day, he recovered his strength to the point of allowing him to move without difficulty, so he presented himself in the meeting room with a majestic and neat appearance, as if nothing had happened.
“I am sorry for causing you concern.”
Varkas greeted them formally as he walked toward the head of the long table with disciplined movements, as usual.
The courtiers stood up from their seats in a hurry, with astonishment reflected on their tense faces; since they did not expect his presence at all.
“Lord Duke, is it truly alright for you to resume your official duties from now on? Aren’t you supposed to focus on recovering after…?”
“As you can see, I am fine,” Varkas replied coldly as he sat in his chair, and then nodded his head. “Everyone, please be seated. Surely there is a huge amount of work waiting to be done.”
The attendees sat down one after another while observing him with looks that mixed concern and suspicion. Varkas lowered his gaze toward the map unfolded on the table.
Red lines were randomly drawn over various areas that could serve as hiding places; it seemed they had done everything possible to track the ‘Zaram’ groups during the period he was unconscious.
“Has there been any progress in the search operation?”
“We have found some caves that were used as weapon warehouses, but we have not made major progress,” replied Edgar, the commander of a ‘Wolfram’ cavalry unit, with a bitter tone. “It seems they already moved all the main equipment. We only found a large number of worn ‘gambeson’ jackets and dented ‘falx’ swords. They left behind no traces that would allow us to track the enemy.”
“As for those who cooperated with them, they also disappeared completely taking advantage of the chaos.” A middle-aged knight sitting in the central part of the left side of the meeting table suddenly spoke: “We captured the pagans who could not escape and interrogated them all, but we did not obtain any useful information. It seems the followers of the lowest strata did not even know that their leaders colluded with the looters.” The man sighed deeply and continued: “The only thread we were holding onto with difficulty has been cut.”
“It has not been cut completely.”
Everyone’s gazes concentrated toward the source of the calm voice that resonated in the room.
Modrian, who held the position of military advisor, stared intently at Varkas with eyes submerged in seriousness:
“Is there not a person remaining who is suspected of having colluded with the looters? And it is a person who is very close as well.”
In an instant, the air froze in the meeting room.
The attendees swallowed hard as they all turned toward Varkas following this direct statement from the old knight.
As for him, his face looked expressionless, as if he had been expecting such an attack.
“I am truly curious to know whom you refer to with those words.”
“Is it not the person whom you know better than anyone, Lord Duke?” Modrian replied coldly as he placed his elbows on the table and exhaled a long sigh. “Immediately after the Duchess’s attempt to poison you, the strangers infiltrated the castle. Furthermore, they knew precisely the internal structure of ‘Raidgo’ castle and the distribution of the guards. It cannot be that all of this is a pure coincidence. For certain, Her Grace the Duchess provided them with her help…”
“It seems you forget that the one you are speaking of is my wife, and a princess of this Empire.” Varkas interrupted the old knight’s words with a dry tone. “Does her status seem so insignificant to you that you would assert she committed a major crime based on mere conjectures without clear material evidence?”
“And how do you say there is no evidence? Her Grace the Duchess herself confessed to having put the poison in your cup. Strictly speaking, she is a criminal caught red-handed! What more evidence do you need?” the commander of the cavalry company exclaimed in an agitated tone.
Varkas directed a sharp and cold look at him:
“She said she put a medicine, and she never mentioned it was poison.”
“That kind of wordplay…”
“I will repeat my words: my wife never confessed to attempting to poison me.”
The man tensed and fell silent immediately after reading the bleak warning latent in his voice. Varkas scanned his gaze slowly among the attendees and added with a mechanical tone:
“The only thing that occurred is that she prepared for her husband, who was about to go out on campaign, a wine containing a restorative medicine. And there is a high probability that someone else swapped it. Therefore, what you call a confession has no force as decisive evidence.”
“This is absurd…!”
The man opened and closed his mouth in astonishment. Meanwhile, Modrian, who was observing the dispute between the two, looked at him with eyes full of suspicion:
“If Her Grace the Duchess is innocent, why did she not actively defend herself? During the entire period of interrogation, Her Grace did not attempt to justify herself even once.”
“And would they have listened to her if she had?” Varkas twisted the corner of his lips ironically. “My wife is not a woman who begs with long excuses before people who have already decided in advance to condemn her and take her to the guillotine.”
A deep stupor took hold of the faces of the attendees; they did not expect him to defend the Duchess in such a flagrant manner. Some even looked at him as if he were someone who had lost his mind.
And they had the right to it; in their eyes, he seemed an foolish man who had lost the ability to discern due to his fascination with a woman.
And perhaps it was not very different; for even he considered his desperate defense of a woman who had brought him to the brink of death to be something strange and highly baffling.
“Then, will you allow us to investigate the surroundings of Her Grace the Duchess?” Modrian broke the heavy silence after remaining there observing him with looks submerged in reflection for a long time. “If Her Grace the Duchess is innocent, there will be no reason to reject this request.”
“Has my wife not already been confined and subjected to investigations and interrogations?” Varkas pointed that out with a sharp tone. “What is it that you intend to do beyond that?”
“I intend to thoroughly investigate the people who surround Her Grace. Especially those who knew that Her Grace planned to offer a ‘special wine’ to Your Lordship that night,” Modrian explained calmly. “If Her Grace the Duchess was not the one who cooperated with the enemies as you say, that means the culprit is someone else from her surroundings.”
Instead of saying that he had already begun the investigation, Varkas confined himself to nodding his head with a serene face.
For he considered that the best option currently was to direct their suspicions toward somewhere other than her.
“However, do not cause a great uproar while doing so. If there is someone in this castle cooperating with the enemies, they might flee to escape the inspection.”
The old knight agreed with this logic and began to propose the next topic of discussion.
When Varkas realized that he had managed to soften the severity of the accusation directed toward her, he relaxed his fist, which he had been pressing so hard that his blood circulation had been cut off.
There were still slight spasms running through various parts of his body, which had not recovered completely.
He was assailed by the presentiment that he might suffer permanent aftereffects; the lethal ‘Agor’ poison is a deadly substance that corrodes organs and completely paralyzes the body’s nerves.
And the simple fact of having recovered his strength to that extent within a timeframe of only ten days was something bordering on a miracle.
He felt gratitude for the first time in his life for his extraordinary recovery capacity.
And what would have happened if he had never opened his eyes again…? The image of Talia being led to her quarters with her pale appearance spread in his imagination like a burn mark.
And images followed of her mounting the scaffold at the hands of her furious compatriots, causing his back to become soaked in cold sweat.
Varkas shook off those troublesome fantasies quickly and rose from his seat.
“It seems we have discussed all important matters. I will retire now.”
He made a sign with his hand to the courtiers who were preparing to stand up with him to remain in their places, and then left the meeting room with heavy steps.