MPO

CHAPTER XXlX-30

At that question, Sarah froze.

Sensing her stepmother’s agitation from the vibrations in the air, Leila recalled her biological mother’s death and continued.

“It’s the name of a venomous spider with fur as soft as velvet.”

“…How would I know such a disgusting thing? That’s not important, Leila.”

Sarah, anxious, tried to change the subject, but she hadn’t realized that this was not the usually silent and resigned Leila.

“No, you probably know about it very well.”

She recalled all the symptoms her mother had shown just before her death.

Severe hallucinations accompanied by a burning fever. Being an omega, the early assumption was that it could be mistaken for a heat cycle, targeting this for the use of the poison.

Even the most severe omega heat doesn’t cause hallucinations, and at that time, no pheromones indicative of heat emanated from her mother.

Since the pheromones of alphas and omegas are detectable even by sensitive betas, young Leila could faintly sense her mother’s pheromones, especially as stronger pheromones were more distinctly perceivable.

As a child, she couldn’t distinguish this difference and didn’t consider it could be poison.

However, after she accidentally learned about the venom of the velvet shadow spider, she realized the symptoms were familiar.

And of all the servants present during her mother’s life, only Anna and the current head maid remained. The current head maid was not the head maid then—she was just a maid.

How could she have been promoted to head maid after the stepmother arrived?

Though she hadn’t found concrete evidence, the circumstances were too aligned not to be suspicious. So, she had thrown out the theory.

If Leila’s assumptions were correct, Sarah could not help but react.

With confidence in her response, Leila coldly told the still-frozen Sarah,

“God knows everything. May you surely receive divine punishment.”

As if sentencing her to death, she firmly delivered her words and stepped back.

“My muse, now that mother has given her permission, I can finally be with you. Please, hold my hand…”

Her voice, filled with a faint thrill and self-loathing, resonated with those who heard it.

Could this be the ambiance of an opera performer on stage? Excluding her blindness, it would not be strange for Leila to be praised as a perfect lady.

Her pale hands gradually revealed red calluses under the sunlight. Lucas remembered how she played the violin powerfully with those small hands and firmly grasped them.

The two standing together surprisingly seemed to match very well. One was like the fresh and dazzling light of morning, and the other suited the deep night, like crimson dusk.

Even as they rode away in the carriage, Sarah was still unable to gather her thoughts, feeling as if she had been utterly betrayed by Leila, whom she had thought was a naive fool.

But Sarah wasn’t worried. No matter if he was a duke, without the parents’ consent, he couldn’t just take Leila, a count’s daughter, nor marry her so easily.

“Hmm, you weren’t half-bad.”

It was almost a relief that she had shown her true colors when she did, preventing him from letting his guard down.