"I'm sorry, Your Highness. If you give me one more chance, I will do my best to repay you for your faith."

"A week."

"Yes?"

"I'll give you a week. You'll have to figure out who poisoned Julietta."

When Simone bit her lips and said yes, Killian changed his angry look until then, and looked affectionately at Julietta. "Go on with what you were going to say."

Julietta tried to wriggle out of Killian's arms, embarra.s.sed by his unusual behavior, but it didn't work. "Your Highness, please loosen this arm. I'm stuffy." She was embarra.s.sed to be stuck together at a gathering place like this. She whispered as low as she could so that it could not be heard by others.

However, Killian only pulled her closer with an air of innocence. "What? You're dizzy? Yes, lean your head on my shoulder."

"The princess, it's too much to move already. You've been lying unconscious for a few days, so be careful for a while."

Julietta shook her head at Dr. Paolo's anxiety. "It's okay now. I felt dizzy just getting out of bed earlier, but now I'm perfectly fine, except I'm a little weak."

Killian pretended not to hear Julietta's complaints and ordered Vera, "From now on, do not order anyone else to prepare food or tea for the princess to eat, but do it yourself."

Dr. Paulo added at Killian's order. "The food ingredients you've brought in to the Kiellini mansion may contain poison. Don't make any food that can be poisoned. Use only vegetables and meat, as much as possible. Safe water is a basic premise."

When Vera answered that she would keep that in mind, Killian looked back at Julietta. "What were you trying to say? You'd better talk and go to bed and rest."

"I think Mrs. Grayson is right that we should take this opportunity to make sure Prince Francis's ambition is shattered. We should spread your prestige across the continent, so that they won't do this again."

Julietta looked back at people with the burning eyes full of will, as if this was an opportunity. "Set up a temporary treatment center where the sick are quarantined. Distribute the antidote that you found with Dr. Paulo. The mere fact that people get better after taking the antidote will raise your prestige, and you will be a tree that Prince Francis will never be able to climb."

"Yes, that's right. We don't need a way. It's just important that Your Highness found an antidote for the terrible epidemic and will save the people of the Empire."

Maribel smiled at Julietta as if she were brilliant.

"Send your soldiers to each of the clinics. We don't know what else Prince Francis will do when he finds out about it."

"I think it would be better for your men to take care of the clinic themselves and keep the sick until they're all well. And I want you to keep the treatment a secret."

Dr. Paulo's eyebrows frowned again at Julietta's words. "It's understandable to set up a clinic to raise the prestige of His Highness. But we should reveal the antidote. We don't know where this dangerous poison might have spread, and we can't just hide it."

"Metum is not a commonly used material. It's only used for makeup, so there's not much demand for it, so there aren't many places that grow it. As far as I know, every theater that needs makeup materials grows on its own, right?" Julietta looked at Maribel and asked.

"That's right. It takes six months from sowing the seeds to harvest, so to leave land fallow to grow this plant is not profitable. That's why the Kiellini family doesn't handle it, either. The n.o.bles use expensive, aromatic rosia petals, seash.e.l.ls, and cosmetics made of natural minerals, while commoners use lip balms or powder from chard seeds and fruits, so they do not use hard-to-grow oily or bad-smelling metum."

At Maribel's answer, Julietta continued, "It will be a big problem if Prince Francis finds out about this treatment, and tries to buy up or eliminate the metum. Even if we sow the seeds of metum from now on, it will take six months to harvest. We can't risk it when we don't know if the amount on the market is enough."

"I suppose so." Dr. Paulo killed his objections, understanding the need for secrecy now.

"Did you say you brought all the excess from the theater?"

Maribel nodded at Killian's question. "Yes, Your Highness. There'll be more in other theaters on Eloz Street, but I'm worried about what they'll think if we suddenly start looking for metum stems."

"It must be in doubt. How much does it take to quell the poison?"

"It's hard to measure. The amount the princess took was about three spoons worth, but it can vary depending on the intoxication period, severity, physical const.i.tution, concentration, and dosage, so it's hard to guess at this moment."

Killian's face darkened at Dr. Paulo's answer.

"We don't know how much we're going to need until we've used all the poison in the market."

"Why don't we release people all over the continent and find a place to grow metum?"

At Oswald's opinion, Maribel shook her head. "Austern is the only place on the continent that has theaters. Even if there were somewhere else, it would be hard to avoid the eyes of Prince Francis or Duke Dudley. It's like revealing the antidote to the enemy."