Sister I am the Queen in This Life [Novel] Chapter 152

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: The Work of Countess Rubina
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The fact that Countess Rubina possessed Salvarsan was a secret known to no one but herself and one of her closest maids. She had not even told her most intimate ladies-in-waiting.

“Wh-what nonsense is this…!”

But Leo III, who had his suspicions, let out a low groan.

“I-I possess no such vile thing! How dare a lowborn wench accuse me of such a grave crime without any proof!”

Ariadne did not back down an inch. She had a reason to be confident. In her past life, Countess Rubina had definitely possessed Salvarsan.

In her previous life, Ariadne had learned the truth while preparing Leo III’s body for his coffin. Leo III had syphilis. Naturally, Countess Rubina had it as well.

“Then do not object to the dog’s autopsy! If its stomach is opened and another poison is found, or if it’s confirmed the dog had a pre-existing illness, wouldn’t that be better for everyone!”

“That’s…!”

“Enough!”

Leo III’s roar filled the luncheon hall.

“Physician. Cut open that dog’s stomach.”

“Your Majesty!”

Countess Rubina’s piercing shriek shot to the ceiling. Leo III sighed and tried to soothe her.

“Now, now, my dear. If we examine the dog and it turns out not to be poison, it will be better for everyone, won’t it?”

“Rocco… Rocco won’t be able to reincarnate properly!”

Had Queen Marguerite said such a thing, Leo III would have flown into a rage at once. But he patiently placated Countess Rubina.

“Why wouldn’t he reincarnate? It’s just a small cut to his stomach. By that logic, do all the soldiers who die in war fail to reincarnate?”

“But, Your Majesty…”

“He’ll just be reborn as someone with a slight stomach problem in his next life. Now, hand over the dog.”

“But…”

“Rubina!”

His patience worn thin, Leo III’s voice boomed. Countess Rubina flinched and fell silent.

*‘It had better not be arsenic…’*

Left with no choice, she handed the dead Rocco to the head royal physician with a trembling hand. The physician carefully took the dog’s carcass and picked up a medical knife.

Glancing at Leo III, he laid the dog on the white marble floor and made an incision in its stomach. For some reason, he felt compelled to make the cut as small as possible.

After making a small opening, the physician spread it with a speculum, then closed the incision.

“The result?”

Leo III asked the physician. The head physician gently opened the incision again to show the king.

“This is…”

Peering into the narrow opening, he saw the inside of the stomach was bright crimson, filled with fresh blood.

“A massive amount of internal bleeding.”

He paused for a moment before concluding.

“It is arsenic.”

Though spoken in a small voice, the impact was enormous.

- “Arsenic? It’s really arsenic? Then this is truly an attempt on the Queen’s life?”

- “It’s undeniable now…”

- “The royal palace will be in an uproar.”

- “Is it true that Countess Rubina has arsenic?”

- “How did that young lady know?”

Despite the people’s whispers, Leo III stood frozen in place, his expression grim. After standing there for a long moment, he called to Countess Rubina in a heavy voice.

“Rubina.”

The countess looked up at the king with wide eyes.

“Was it truly… your doing?”

Her face looked as if the sky were falling, and she let out a shrill scream.

“No, Your Majesty! How can you suspect me!”

The captain of the Royal Guard, who had been standing by anxiously, quietly asked.

“Your Majesty… should we… investigate?”

“…Hmph.”

Once Leo III gave his permission, the captain of the Royal Guard gave the order, and a group of soldiers, accompanied by a physician, left the luncheon hall as swift as the wind.

The atmosphere in the hall was truly chaotic. Everyone lowered their voices as much as possible, whispering to one another.

- “What order did His Majesty just give?”

- “I believe he sent them to search Countess Rubina’s chambers. Since a physician went with them, they must be there to identify any poison they find.”

- “Oh, heavens…”

Countess Rubina kept her head down, trembling uncontrollably.

- “How humiliating… Even if they find nothing, men will be rummaging through all her private things.”

- “And it’s not nobles or knights searching her chambers. Just common soldiers. Goodness.”

- “Even if nothing is found, this is a fatal blow to her honor.”

- “But what happens if they really do find arsenic?”

- “What do you think? She’ll become a political prisoner and be sent straight to the dungeon. No matter how much he adores his mistress or how bad his relationship with the Queen is, how could he possibly overlook something like this?”

- “To be honest, Countess Rubina isn’t what she used to be. It feels like they’re just going through the motions.”

- “Her influence has waned significantly.”

In the midst of all this, Queen Marguerite stood tall and silent, not uttering a single word.

The king and queen did not exchange a word. Leo III, his face a mask of complex emotions, spoke only with the captain of the Royal Guard, while Queen Marguerite stood with Ariadne and Lady Carla on either side, the two factions facing off from opposite ends of the room.

But this silence did not last long.

“Your Majesty!”

The royal guards returned and saluted in unison. The one in charge of the investigation stepped forward to report.

“From Countess Rubina’s chambers… arsenic was discovered.”

- “Gasp!”

The onlookers couldn’t believe their ears. Even Countess Rubina herself, her face deathly pale, lowered her head and trembled violently. Leo III, however, did not seem particularly surprised.

The guard took two ceramic bottles from his tunic and presented them to the king. One was a blue bottle adorned with jade, the other a white bottle with a large lid.

“According to the physician’s tests, although there are differences in concentration and composition, both are said to be arsenic.”

Now, everyone’s eyes darted between Leo III and Countess Rubina. At last, Leo III’s tightly sealed lips parted.

“…Rubina. Do you admit your guilt?”

The words were like a death sentence. But Countess Rubina had no intention of meekly accepting the verdict.

“I do not, Your Majesty!”

She threw herself before Leo III, falling to her knees.

“That arsenic… you know that arsenic is not for such a purpose! I am innocent! I would never harm Her Majesty the Queen!”

She looked up at the king, pleading desperately.

“You, of all people, must believe me, Your Majesty. Truly, I did not do this!”

Just then, an angry voice cut in. It was Countess Marquez.

“Arsenic was found in Countess Rubina’s chambers. And arsenic was found in Her Majesty’s drink! Do not try to appeal to some shallow sense of pity!”

Countess Marquez turned her head and implored Leo III, barely suppressing her urge to direct her anger at him as well.

“Your Majesty, Queen Marguerite is virtuous and prudent, a woman with no enemies inside or outside the palace! In all of Palazzo Carlo, who else but Countess Rubina would dare attempt to harm Her Majesty?”

The point was extremely valid. With Countess Marquez having opened the floodgates, the other ladies in the luncheon hall nodded in agreement.

- “It’s true, the Queen has no feuds with anyone, does she?”

- “She’s fair and generous. Honestly, the only people on bad terms with the Queen are His Majesty and Countess Rubina.”

- “Why would someone in the palace keep something like arsenic in their chambers? Isn’t arsenic truly for assassination?”

With the mood shifting this way, Leo III was left with no choice.

“Rubina, my dear. I do believe you. But this incident requires an investigation.”

“!”

“My hands are tied. Captain of the Royal Guard!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

“Confine Rubina to the West Tower!”

The West Tower was where royalty and high-ranking nobles were imprisoned when they committed a crime—the very place where Ariadne had been locked away on the last day of her previous life. Though its facilities were far better than the dungeon’s, it was a prison all the same.

“No!”

Countess Rubina’s heart-rending scream pierced the luncheon hall.

“The substance found in my chambers isn’t arsenic, it’s Salvarsan!”

Some people understood immediately, but about half the noblewomen did not grasp what she meant right away.

Salvarsan was an arsenic compound created by heating and vaporizing arsenic at a specific temperature, used for treating syphilis. Syphilis was a wretched venereal disease. After an initial full-body rash, it could invade the eyes or brain—in as little as three years for the unlucky, or as long as thirty for the fortunate—causing blindness and madness.

After the first rash appeared, people lived each day in fear, as if under a death sentence. Among the common folk, it was considered God’s punishment for lust, and the moral stigma against syphilis patients was horrifically severe.

Whenever syphilis raged, each kingdom would periodically expel patients from the cities and burn down brothels. To be known to have syphilis was social suicide.

Although the disease was not transmitted through casual contact, no one would dine or even have tea with a syphilis patient.

The one thing that alleviated this situation, if only slightly, was Salvarsan.

An extremely rare achievement of Central Continent alchemy, if Salvarsan was consistently applied to the lesions after the first full-body rash appeared, it would delay the onset of the secondary stage and significantly suppress transmission to third parties.

But it did nothing to neutralize the revulsion ingrained in people’s hearts.

- “Why would Countess Rubina have Salvarsan…?”

- “What is Salvarsan, Marchioness?”

- “Why, it’s the cure for the ‘Montpellier disease.’”

- “Heavens!”

In Etruscan, syphilis was called the ‘Montpellier disease’; in the Kingdom of Gallico, it was the ‘San Carlo disease.’

- “If Countess Rubina needs Salvarsan, then perhaps…”

- “And where would she have contracted it from?”

- “His Majesty the King, too…?”

Leo III was not one to miss such an implication. His face turned shades of red and purple, the veins in his neck bulging as he shouted.

“Captain of the Royal Guard!”

“Yes!”

“Throw that wench into the dungeon this instant!”

“As you command!”

Countess Rubina’s frantic resistance filled the luncheon hall.

“Your Majesty! You can’t do this! You know better than anyone that I did not possess this substance for the purpose of poisoning the Queen!”

Things were proceeding exactly as they had in her past life. Back then, Countess Rubina had been far more direct, leaving behind the memorable quote, “It is you, Your Majesty, who is the syphilitic!” and was executed the very next week.

This time, her exit was at least more dignified. It was unclear, however, if Leo III saw it that way. Though she had spoken indirectly, the fact that he immediately changed her place of confinement from the West Tower to the dungeon made it clear he was just as furious as he had been in the past.

*‘Good. At this rate, Countess Rubina will be out of the picture, and the Queen will be safe.’*

But nothing in life ever went smoothly. Unable to contain his sense of justice, a junior assistant physician raised his hand and dropped a bombshell before the head physician could stop him.

“Your wise Majesty, what Countess Rubina says is not entirely incorrect.”

“What did you say?”

Despite the king’s roar, the assistant physician staunchly offered his expert opinion.

“Salvarsan is not pure arsenic but a secondary compound, which makes it far less toxic. While it is true that one could poison a person slowly and naturally by administering small doses of Salvarsan over time, it is impossible for it to cause instant death, as was the case with the pet dog today!”

Leo III trembled, his face contorted with rage. He had wanted to throw his pretty little mistress into the dungeon that very instant, but now evidence had appeared suggesting she might not be the assassin.

Just then, a royal guard whispered something to the captain outside the hall. After hearing the report, the captain quietly relayed it to Leo III.

“Your Majesty, Countess Rubina’s maid says she has something to report.”

“If it’s a plea for her mistress’s life, tell her to forget it!”

“It is not that… She says she has testimony to give.”

Leo III immediately granted the maid entry. Seething with rage, he was willing to listen to anything that would allow him to justifiably throw Rubina into the dungeon.

Following the guard, the maid entered timidly. She had served Rubina for the last two or three years, still considered something of a newcomer. She knelt on the floor and paid her respects.

“Speak.”

At Leo III’s curt command, the maid, despite trembling like a leaf in the wind, spoke each word clearly.

“To His Majesty Leo III, the Sun of Etruscan. I feel great guilt for only now telling you this. It is something I should have reported long ago for the sake of the kingdom and the country.”

“Speak plainly!”

“For a very long time, Countess Rubina has wanted to poison Her Majesty, Queen Marguerite!”