Chapter 029: Hope
Arthur was immediately taken to his room in the Marigold palace. He was lying on his bed. Esther continued to hold Arthur's hand until the royal doctor arrived. Esther's body shook with sobs. It turned out that the dream just now was a bad premonition. She shouldn't have gone to the party with Arthur.
Esther stood away from Arthur's bed so the royal doctor could examine her beloved child freely. When the doctor examined Arthur, Lucius entered the room.
"Is Arthur awake?" asked Lucius without any worry on his face.
Esther, who was tired and sad to see Arthur's condition, immediately approached Lucius. She slapped the man hard.
"IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF YOU. THOUGH I REFUSED THAT SWORD FIGHT. I ALREADY FEEL THAT IT WAS JUST THE BOTTOM'S BREAKING WITNESS TO HURT ARTHUR!" cried Esther, who was crying.
"Do you have proof that it was all Averia's plan?" asked Lucius casually.
Esther took a deep breath. If she hadn't tried to contain her anger, she was 100% sure that her anger would have exploded right now because of this stupid man. "I'm telling you, Lucius. The person who was stabbed by the sword will surely come to his senses once the wound is treated. But when I stopped Arthur's bleeding, he was still unconscious. Then, you know what that means?"
"My apologies to His Majesty the King and His Highness Consort Beatrice. I have finished examining the Crown Prince," said the Royal Doctor politely.
"So how is Arthur?" Esther asked.
"I found a very strong poison in the Prince's blood. It seems like it would be too late to save the Prince's life because the poison must have also spread to all parts of the Prince's body," said the royal doctor giving the diagnosis.
"By the way, did the prince eat something earlier? I'm worried that the food the Prince eats contains the same poison as the one in his body," the doctor asked again.
Esther shook her head and took out the sword that Arnold had used just now. Luckily, he was able to take the sword. "He didn't eat anything, but Arthur fainted from being stabbed by this sword. Can you check if this sword contains the same poison as you diagnosed it?"
The Royal Doctor took the sword from Esther. He tried to smell the scent of the sword which was half covered in blood. A few minutes later, Esther could see the Royal Doctor's face turning pale.
"This sword has been smeared with extremely dangerous poison and is the same as the one on the Crown Prince's body."
Hearing that, Esther immediately left Arthur's room. She wanted to get rid of that bastard Averia and her son immediately. She continued to walk in the corridors of her palace. For some reason, the corridors of her palace were full of some servants she didn't know at all.
Suddenly, someone grabbed her right hand. Esther looked back and found that her hand was being held by Lucius. Esther glared at Lucius sharply.
"Where do you want to go? And what are you going to do, Esther?"
"Kill your wife and child as evil as that demon," Esther replied.
"Are you crazy? What if your power is discovered? You will definitely be separated from Arthur," said Lucius, trying to persuade Esther.
Esther suddenly burst out laughing. The surrounding maids who were actually spies sent by Averia immediately looked at her and thought Esther had gone mad in their hearts.
"Then I'm going to do this straight away for those who don't want to keep their mouths shut."
Esther brought out her strength so that all the maids in the corridor were lifted up in a suffocated state for quite a while.
They all died on the spot from suffocation. Esther immediately threw them all to the ground. Lucius shuddered at the sight of Esther. Actually, he was very afraid to face this one woman, but in order to protect his beloved wife and children, he had to be able to persuade Esther to undo it.
"Wouldn't it be better if you put Arthur's health first before killing Averia?" persuaded Lucius.
Esther was silent for a moment and began to think. "You're right too."
Esther immediately turned around and headed back to Arthur's room. Lucius breathed a sigh of relief at having managed to persuade the ferocious lioness.
~•~
It's been almost a week now and Arthur is still unconscious. Many Doctors in the Nightingale Kingdom tried to treat Arthur, but still failed. They always said the same thing, that Arthur was beyond saving. During this one week, Esther remained faithful to be beside Arthur.
Even Esther sometimes almost forgot the lunch or breakfast if she was not reminded by Anne because she was worried about Arthur.
"Do you think Arthur will wake up?" Esther asked with that blank stare.
"I think you should be able to let Prince Arthur go. After all, it's not your fault. You've done your duty very well," said Anne.
Esther started crying again. It felt like during the past week, crying had become Esther's new habit. Esther suddenly remembered something. Esther's sobs stoped for a moment.
"What if I use my power to save him?"
"Are you crazy, Nya Princess? I can't put your life in danger like that," said Anne, who was surprised by Esther's words.
Esther immediately prostrated in front of Anne. "Please Anne allow me to do it. I love Arthur very much. My life would be ruined if I let his life just go away. Please..."
Anne quickly lifted Esther to her feet. She could not allow an imperial crown princess to prostrate before him.
"Okay," replied Anne, who had resigned herself to knowing that if it was forbidden, Esther would be even more desperate.
Esther smiled happily at Anne's answer. As a descendant of Maurice she has great power in medicine, only by drinking her blood only people who have been seriously ill from birth can immediately recover. However, as a consequence her long life will be reduced bit by bit according to the blood she uses to heal people. In this case, Esther couldn't use her blood directly to heal Arthur.
That's because the poison in Arthur's body is very dangerous. Therefore, she needed The Heart of Eternity diamond as an intermediary. This rare diamond was only in the domain of Count Sionels, Raymond's father-in-law. It is said that the stone can only be mined once every hundred years.
For now there is only one fruit left in the world and it is kept as an heirloom of the Sionels family. At any rate Esther must be able to get the diamond. Esther was now using her teleportation magic to go to Raymond's residence. The magic immediately took him to Raymond's study and Raymond happened to be there.
"What's the matter, Esther?" asked Raymond who had been focusing on finishing his piled up documents.