Chapter 25
“What is it?”
Even when he was surprised by her sudden shout, he replied back with an even tone.
Looking like she was trying not to be scared of him, Inaila stared at him with her blue eyes wide open.
“I made something for us. Let’s eat!”
“You made this…?”
Karpel thought he misheard her.
But apparently, she really made it.
Certainly, the cookies on the tray she was holding were made without any decorations. But even so, they were simple, yet shaped prettily.
Inaila hesitated.
“Don’t you want to… eat some?”
As Inaila gazed up at him with puppy eyes, Karpel was speechless.
To eat, she says.
Karpel was willing to accept anything as long as those eyes looked at him in that way, even if it was poison.
“I have something to say…”
The fact that she wasn’t speaking to him formally* anymore made it feel like they were back in the old days.
{ tl/n: Inaila’s speaking informally now in Korean, as people do with close friends or family. }
Before she turned ten years old.
It was a lot like this when she was with him back then.
So he unconsciously stepped aside to let her in.
Karpel came to his senses only after the scent of cinnamon entered his nose when she turned gracefully with the tray still in her hands to enter. The skirt of her dress floated momentarily and then fluttered back down as she reached a sitting area.
And just like the skirt, Karpel’s mind had also been floating and just barely returned to its normal place.
“Karpel… I made this because you didn’t eat dinner yet, so I made something you’ll like. Try it.”
Karpel was in trouble.
Inaila was no longer six years old.
His mind was spiraling because in his room late at night was his fiancée, who, by the way, he didn’t know if she’d still be his fiancée for much longer, after finding out that she wanted to call off the engagement.
“Why are you acting this way?”
Inaila became flustered by the blunt question, but even so, it was something he couldn’t overlook.
“Why are you here?”
“Sorry, you must be tired…”
Karpel could suddenly see drooping puppy ears on Inaila.
She turned sullenly with her tray, but Karpel’s eyes followed the cookies.
“What are those?”
“These are Karpel’s favorites…”
This was the girl who was agonizing over breaking up their engagement just a few hours ago.
But here she was with Karpel’s favorite cinnamon dessert that she doesn’t like very much.
When Stein, who secretly assisted Karpel since he was young, brought him a cake with cinnamon sprinkled on top of it, Inaila would secretly scrape the icing off the top of her slice and feed it all to Karpel.
Inaila, who didn’t want to eat the cinnamon, gave it all to Karpel, but she was still very cute.
Right now, she was saying that she brought these because Karpel has always liked cinnamon desserts, but she looked terribly nervous about giving them to him.
It had been such a long time ago, so he thought that she’d forgotten all about it.
And Inaila had already decided to break up with him, but why did she come here to bring him his favorite cinnamon cookies?
“You made it?”
“I also wanted to eat it…”
“Cinnamon.”
Inaila hated cinnamon.
As if caught off guard, Inaila closed her lips. A clouded look of frustration graced her features.
“I like it too.”
The hushed voice was like a sweet confession to him.
For a moment, he thought that the confession uttered by her was directed at him.
But then Karpel came back to his senses when his gaze met with hers.
Inaila set down the tray on the table, then rubbed her wrist as if her arm had started to hurt.
‘I should’ve accepted it.’
He thought it would be fine since she was holding it well enough.
If it was heavy, then she should have ordered someone else to carry it for her, so she shouldn’t have brought it herself.
Was it because she wanted to talk to him alone?
It would be the first time he’d taste Inaila’s cooking.
She had never even peeled fruit before. An unpeeled fruit would only be a decoration for a dish anyways.
However, the cookies on the tray were all consistent in shape, size, color and thickness, as if it wasn’t her first time making something like this.
Why did she come to his room saying that she liked cinnamon even when she clearly didn’t, and to top it off, she made this? There was only one possibility.
Poison.
Who could it be?
Someone must have instructed her to do it. Who would benefit from his death? Was it his Uncle? His cousin? Or someone from Inaila’s family?
It could be anyone.
Karpel’s presence alone posed a threat to Krenberia.
It had gotten worse when he got engaged to Inaila.
Duke Krenberia was controlling information so that Inaila wouldn’t know, but someone might have said something about the dire situation and asked her to poison him.
Even with that in mind, Karpel offered Inaila a seat.
“Sit there.”
Inaila sat opposite him on the sofa, leaving the door open and fearing his reaction to her sudden ambush.
Inaila filled the glasses gracefully. It was a drink that had a unique scent, smelling exactly like medicinal liquor.
‘Is there poison in this drink?’
Inaila handed him a glass.
Karpel felt strange as she looked expectantly at him.
Whenever he increased his influence or if there happened to be good results at the guild, he would sometimes accept the drinks given to him during the drinking parties of the rebel group.
But here, Karpel didn’t accept the glass Inaila offered to him, so she put it back down on the table.
Karpel looked at the glass for a moment, then picked up a cookie.
Maybe it’s because he skipped dinner, but he’d been trying to control his craving for the cookies ever since the delicious scent wafted through the air earlier.
He picked one up and realized that it was warm and a bit sticky.
Karpel couldn’t resist the temptation and put it in his mouth.
It was a cookie that he had never seen before, but since flour was its main ingredient, no matter how strong the scent of cinnamon or lemon was, he would be able to detect what kind of poison was in it.
He chewed carefully.
“What I wanted to say was…”
He was about to ask why she did this.
If Inaila intended to feed him these cookies and kill him, since he had already put it in his mouth, he thought he’d at least ask about her intentions.
But Karpel couldn’t say anything more.
The chewy texture and the hint of ginger and cinnamon spreading in his mouth was very harmonious, and as he tasted the elegant mix of sweet and savory, it was like art exploding on his tongue.
The more he chewed, the more savory it became.
It was a taste you could call ‘happiness.’
But what about the poison?
Maybe it was a kind of drug that he’d never encountered before.
Karpel ate more. He didn’t even realize that he had almost finished them all.
He just thought that it would be okay to die—if he felt this happy.
But Inaila stopped him and held his hand.
“Karpel, eat slowly!”
She scolded him with her brows raised, but Karpel just stared at her pretty blue eyes that were filled with worry.
If it was poisoned food, the end result would be the same whether he ate them quickly or slowly.
“You’ll have a stomach ache.”
What Inaila said was confusing.
What would be the difference between eating and dying from indigestion, or just dying outright?
Karpel looked at his hand that was still being held in her grasp. Her small hand held his very tightly.
Following his gaze, Inaila retracted her hand right away.
‘I’m in trouble.’
Obediently, Karpel ate slowly just as she ordered.
Then, Inaila looked at him with proud eyes.
‘Perhaps… you really made these?’
Inaila was good at everything.
Still, he didn’t know she could make cookies. Besides, this was a dessert that he’d never seen before.
“It’s delicious.”
Karpel gave an honest compliment. To her surprise, Inaila blushed.
“I’ll make you some more next time…”
The way she smiled made him realize how foolish he was for thinking that she’d poison him.
But still, he fell into a state of confusion.
He didn’t know what she was thinking at all. She was cold to him for a few days, but now she was here with something she made herself. And she was talking to him in a friendly manner just like when they were young.
‘Ina started using honorifics because she wanted to be engaged with him. Because she wanted to look mature in front of me.’
To put it simply, she must have given up. It seemed like this was the case.
So these cookies must be a token of apology.
‘I’m sorry. Let’s break up.’
That kind of meaning.
Karpel previously thought that he’d try to hear out whatever she wanted to say today.
If she asked him to die, he wouldn’t die from this, but he’d disappear from her sight forever. Karpel was already resistant to most poisons, so it would be difficult for him to die through that method.
But if she was going to ask him to break up with her, then it didn’t have to be today.
“I’m in a good mood today, so I won’t listen to what you’re going to say.”