Garden Of Poison-Chapter 204: The wrong call

Music Recommendation: 72 degrees and sunny - Thomas Newman

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Returning to her room, Emily glanced down at her wrist, noticing two small dots on her pale skin. She muttered,

"That damn snake!"

Emily hadn’t expected that Raylen would continue to follow her so persistently, so she upheld her side of the deal. As she noticed a trace of blood, she instinctively used her finger to wipe it away. A frown appeared on her face as she uttered, "Ouch."

The skin was tender, and Emily could still feel the sharp sting left by Raylen’s canines when they had pierced the surface of her skin. At least the deal was done, and he wouldn’t bite her again. Not unless she granted him permission, she mused to herself.

Emily drew a circle on the wooden table, placing the bowl and pouring the necessary ingredients to establish contact with her grandmother. She used her finger to mix the contents of the vessel. The princess’s thoughts were swirling, and her head was beginning to grow foggy due to the cold that had begun to creep through her body. She had made an error while inscribing the words on the circle and added her blood in the bowl.

When Emily tried to connect to her grandmother, she noticed it took longer than usual, and she wondered if her grandmother was busy at this hour.

After ten seconds had passed, the black liquid in the bowl rippled. Expecting to see her grandmother’s familiar red hair and green eyes, the princess was taken aback when she was greeted by a man with hollow cheeks and grim eyes.

"How dare you disturb my slumber?" Viktor asked Emily with a hint of irritation, and his eyes narrowed as he recalled who this woman was.

H—how did she end up summoning the Devil?! Emily asked herself. Her eyes dropped to the writing on the circle, and she realised the mistake she had made.

"Tell Ginger her dear servants are with me, and it would be in her best interest to heed what I say, or even better, to kill herself," the Devil stated nonchalantly.

Nervously, Emily smiled and replied, "I will be happy to relay your message to her. Word for word."

"Ah—choo!" She felt her eyes water once again.

Before Emily could disrupt the connection between them, she watched as the Devil leaned in closer and remarked,

"You don’t appear to be in very good health. Your soul is decaying." These words were enough to scare the princess, sending a chill down her spine. It seemed the Devil could discern the state of her soul with a mere glance. He hummed, wearing a thoughtful expression, before continuing, "You should do something because it seems your soul hasn’t been earmarked for Hell yet. I am in the process of collecting the Blackthorns, and I would be upset if one or two of you were missing."

Emily stared at the Devil. He spoke as if waiting to complete a collection of Blackthorn souls for his shelf. She replied,

"I am certain you will find a soul of higher quality than mine to add to your collection."

However, the Devil wasn’t paying attention to her, as his eyes had subtly shifted to look behind her. The architectural style appeared familiar and his eyes narrowed. He inquired, "Where are you?"

Simultaneously, her maid entered the room, asking, "Princess Emily, would you like to have some tea?" Startled, Emily turned to look behind her, her hand accidentally jostling the vessel and causing the liquid to ripple, disconnecting the ongoing communication.

"Oh, forgive me, Princess. I didn’t realise you were busy. Shall I come by later?" Julia inquired, her gaze falling on the bowl in front of Emily.

"Yes, that would be appreciated," Emily replied with a smile before adding, "I think I will pass on the tea for today."

Once the maid left, Emily swiftly discarded the contents of the bowl and prepared the ingredients anew, this time paying full attention to the task without letting her mind wander. As she tapped into the channel, her grandmother came into view, and Emily let out a sigh of relief.

"Why are you sighing as if you expected to see me dead? I still have many years to live," the Mother Queen replied, but then her expression turned into a frown. "You seem tired, Emily. Are things going well over there?"

"Is that Emily?!" Emily heard her mother’s voice.

Soon, Lady Sophia came into view, appearing noticeably anxious, as if she hadn’t been able to sleep well since her daughter had left Versailles.

"How are you doing, Emily? It doesn’t seem like you have been eating well, and you appear weak," Lady Sophia noted within the first five seconds.

Emily, who had been eager to leave the nest, now found herself missing her mother, despite her sometimes overbearing protectiveness. She smiled and replied, "I think I just miss home and all of you. How have you been doing, Mother?"

"Oh, you know, just the same as usual," Lady Sophia replied before wondering, "I am thinking that maybe I should come to the Storm Kingdom to offer you company."

"I don’t believe it’s the best time for you to board a ship right now, Mother." Emily smiled, realising that even though she missed her mother, at the same time, she didn’t want her to come here to chaperone her. Trying not to offend her mother, she added, "King Raylen mentioned that the storms have already begun forming in the sea, and the risk of a shipwreck is quite high."

Everyone was aware that Lady Sophia had an intense fear of sailing, and she hadn’t ventured onto a ship for a long time. She wore a conflicted expression, as if not going now would somehow prove her to be a bad mother.

Observing her mother’s distress, Emily reassured her, saying, "Do not worry, Mother. I am being well taken care of, and there’s truly nothing to be concerned about. Everything is going great."

"You are such a worrywart, Sophia. You should trust her words and judgement. Emily is staying in the king’s castle, and we raised her to be responsible and capable of looking after herself. Not to mention, she’s a grown woman now, ready to start a family of her own," the Mother Queen remarked, winking at her granddaughter while Sophia’s eyes widened, and she cautioned with concern,

"Don’t allow men to touch you frivolously, Emily. You cannot trust anyone, and who knows if they will turn out as useless as that Nathaniel!"

Emily heard shuffling noises from the other end and wondered what was happening. Not a moment later, Anastasia appeared on the surface of the black liquid.

"Emily!" Anastasia looked excited upon seeing her sister-in-law, a radiant smile gracing her lips. "I was just asking Grandmother about you last evening. We all miss you here."

"I miss all of you all as well," Emily responded, her heart yearning to return home. At least she could still communicate with them rather than be left to wonder what was happening with her family. If it were only her and Anastasia, she would have shared the details of what had transpired, but with her mother in the room, she didn’t dare to breathe a word about it.

Five more minutes passed before Anastasia’s eyebrows furrowed in the middle of their conversation, and she said, "Forgive me, Emily, but I don’t feel that—"

Suddenly, Anastasia moved away and disappeared from view, and Emily could hear the sound of retching followed by some commotion. The next moment, her grandmother returned with eyes sparkling like stars in the sky and announced,

"It looks like the time for babies has finally arrived, Emily!! I shall talk to you soon!"

The connection faded, and the room fell into a hushed silence, except for the distant rumble of clouds that had begun to gather in the sky. Emily couldn’t help but think with a wide smile, she was going to be an aunt!

As Emily changed her attire in the room, she noticed that the root-like marks on her chest appeared to have shrunk compared to what they had been like that morning. She wondered if it was Raylen’s doing... as he had sucked her blood earlier that day. She hadn’t expected it to be this effective.

As the time for dinner approached, Lauren went to the princess’s room to inform her, as she had done for the last five days since the beginning of her stay at Storm Castle. However, upon arriving, she found the room to be empty. Slightly taken aback, she began to wonder where the princess could be. Where was the princess? Surely not outside, especially considering it was raining, thought the head servant.

Lauren went in search of the princess, and, along the way, she crossed paths with Raylen.

"Master, the princess isn’t in her room," Lauren informed him, letting him know that she was currently searching for the young lady.

"She’s probably decided to hide in some corner of the castle," Raylen remarked, "because digging up the ground would be quite challenging, and I think it would be a waste for her to do so." His servant furrowed her brow slightly, struggling to understand his words. He said, "Have you checked the library and the parlour?"

Lauren nodded and replied, "Already checked them, Master."

"Tricky," Raylen remarked, as he doubted that she had left the castle.

His ears sharpened against the distant echoes of thunder from the stormy clouds above, before he finally detected faint heartbeats coming from the unlit section of the castle’s back staircase. He walked towards it, with Lauren following closely behind. As they finally reached the stairs, they discovered the princess, who had fallen unconscious while seated on one of the steps, her form occasionally illuminated by flashes of light from the building storm outside.

Lauren, carrying a lantern in her hand, hurried over to Emily, whose body was leaning against the cold wall. She gently placed her hand on the woman’s forehead and then turned to Raylen to inform him,

"She’s burning up."