25 1.24 An accident

"My lord! My lord, come quick!" a maid shouted as she knocked on the door to the duke's study.

Annoyed, the duke opened the door, revealing his messy green hair as dark eyebags hung under his eyes. His yellow eyes burned a hole through the maid as he recognised the maid to be Flora's nanny and told her to state her business.

"My lord, Lady Flora has fallen unconscious!" The nanny exclaimed, gripping onto her dress tightly and looking up to the duke without any fear in her eyes. Her face showed a look of concern, however, her eyes held obvious expectancy, that even clueless children could catch onto.

The duke pushed the nanny to the side and rushed toward Flora's room. His heart was pounding in his chest, almost deafening in his ears even. He knew this feeling. He has felt it before when Blake fell ill when Blake unlocked his 7th stage magic circle. He was worried, indefinitely.

As he arrived at Flora's door with her nanny following the duke behind, he slowly pushed the door open and saw Flora sleeping on the bed, cold sweat drenching her body as she shivered uncontrollably. She was always a bright child, but after seeing her this way, the duke realised that even the brightest could have their darkest days. The duke crouched next to Flora and slowly caressed her head, pushing her green hair out of her face as he examined her.

"Call for the physician," The duke said to the nanny.

"Yes, my lord," The nanny nodded and turned to walk to the door.

"Call for the duchess and Blake as well," he said. His eyes never left Flora's pale face as the nanny only gritted her teeth and turned towards the door and left to call for the physician, Blake and the Duchess.

***

As the door to Flora's room opened, he found upon setting his eyes on the people who just walked in. There, Blake was, sleeping soundly in sir Evan's arms. An unsettling feeling arose in the duke's heart as he saw Blake snuggling comfortably in the teen's arms. Before the duke could say anything to Evan, Blake stirred awake and rubbed his eyes.

"Father...? What's wrong?" Blake mumbled as he rubbed his eyes.

"Don't rub your eyes, darling," the Duchess sighed, holding Blake's hand gently as soon as she walked in the room with the physician following behind her. The physician was an aged man, adorned with elegant wrinkles upon his face as he looked to be someone very caring.

The duchess's eyes wandered to Flora and immediately saw how pale the young child was. She turned to the physician and said, "go check on her,"

"Yes, my lady," the physician bowed before ushering to Flora. He placed his bag on Flora's nightstand before crouching down and holding Flora's wrist to feel her pulse. Afterwards, the physician checked on her breathing, the inside of her mouth and took a sample of her blood.

After the test, the physician had concluded on one thing as he looked at the Acker family with a grim expression. Nothing good will come of the news, however, it was best if he told them of his findings.

"The young miss... has been poisoned,"

...

"What...?" Blake's worried voice broke the silence as he pushed himself out of Evan's embrace and ran towards the weak Flora.

"Unfortunately, the young miss had been poisoned by a rare poison... it may take a few days before I can find the exact type of poison used. However, if with the help of miss Robenhouse, young master Blake's mother, we just might find it quicker," the physician said, his head lowered.

"...call for miss Robenhouse, now!" the duke shouted.

"Yes, my lord!" the knights outside the door exclaimed.