Lady to Queen

Chapter 30: CHAPTER 28. I AM THE CRAZY ONE

It was the worst situation. A cliff in front, and assassins behind them. And even Lucio, who she was supporting, was close to fainting. In the end, whichever option she chose, the result would be their deaths.

Patrizia looked at the assassins with a hesitant expression. It seemed to her that they had no intention of leaving their lives intact. One of them continued to hold out his sword and spoke out to her.

“What a waste. The arrow should have hit your side instead.”

“Who sent you all?”

All of them laughed at Patrizia’s question. As if they would actually provide an answer to her question. Patrizia didn’t actually expect a response back from them and smiled nonchalantly while asking another question, “Rosemond, right?”

“You are going to die soon anyway, is that really important?”

“It is important. Will you tell me?”

Then for a moment, they seemed to exchange glances with one another, as if to show their opinions, and then laughed hysterically as if they didn’t care. One of them opened his mouth.

“Rosemond Mary La Phelps. Is she the Emperor’s mistress, or Baroness now? That woman gave us a lot of money and entrusted us with this work.”

The assassin giggled after ending his statement, and Patrizia felt her face that had until now been full of fervor, sink down nonchalantly. Ah, so that was it. That was it. It was true that Rosemond had created this daring kind of scheme to kill her. Patrizia for a moment almost burst out into laughter, but soon realized that it wasn’t the time to show madness, and decided to be content with showing a smile. The assassins looked at each other after seeing her expression, like she was crazy, and murmured among themselves that she must have gone crazy from not being able to handle the truth. Their words were not false. She was crazy, and she was going to go crazy as long as there was no change. She was now officially crazy. Patrizia acted in a way she never would have before, to show that it was the case. After looking at Lucio’s unconscious face full of traces from fighting, Patrizia kissed his flat forehead with an expressionless face. Ah, it was just a shame that he could not hear their words.

“Now that you have heard of the secret, it’s time to cross the River of Styx.”

One of the assassins came towards them waving his sword, and with that, had a smile. Patrizia soon smiled uncharacteristically like someone who was facing death, and with a smile as if she had lost her mind, took Lucio and got off the horse. Patrizia asked a favor from them.

“Can you not kill the horse? It is a horse that I cherish.”

“Aww, you are so merciful. Is that horse even important when you’re about to die?”

Despite the obvious ridicule, Patrizia did not care and replied with a smile, “It is important. Will you keep your promise? Promise to God.”

“Ha, what’s so important about that. She really must have gone crazy knowing she is about to die.”

“That may be so.”

“Okay, if that is really your wish, I will make that promise. To not touch the horse, at least.”

“Good.”

Patrizia finally showed a satisfied smile, and then gave the hand holding Lucio more strength and hugged him to her more tightly. She was still in an insane state, and right now, she was the only one who could change this situation. Patrizia carefully hugged Lucio as if he was a child, and then as if all her previous expressions had been fake, made a cold expression that was nearly terrifying.

“Thank you for the information. Thanks to you, I have definitely realized one thing.”

“What is this brat saying?”

The assassins looked at her as if she was ridiculous, and turned their fingers in circles to the side of their heads to indicate she was crazy, but Patrizia continued to speak without concern.

“That I was the crazy one to have even wasted a warning on her.”

Patrizia hurled herself down the cliff without any hesitation after those words. At the sudden turn of events, the assassins were taken aback and quickly ran towards Patrizia, but the situation was already over.

Patrizia, with a look of defeat, smiled the most beautiful smile she could make towards the assassins looking down from the cliff. SPLASH! There was a splash of water and tremendous waves were created in the previously calm water. The assassins looked at each other with expressions of helplessness, and soon nodded towards each other and left their spots, one at a time.

Patrizia thought she was smart. Because she read a lot of books, enjoyed contemplation, and enjoyed discussions with intellectuals. But the moment she threw herself on the cliff, Patrizia realized it. All the knowledge she has accumulated thus far was all fiction and not a reality. All of her knowledge was like a sandcastle, nothing but a good ornament.

In the end, the final winner for this kind of situation was not an innocent daughter of a Marquis that acted noble, like herself, but a sneaky villainess like Rosemond.

“ACK! COUGH!”

Patrizia, who had barely climbed out of the water, sat swiftly down on a cold stone and hit her chest with a stream of coughs. Her stomach was full as if she drank a bunch of water, and her nose stung. Patrizia gained her senses much as possible, wiping off the water on her face. Coarse breaths managed to still come out of her mouth.

“Haa, haa!”

Patrizia took a long time afterward to calm down and steady her breathing. It was safe to say that it was luck that came every 1000 years that brought her back to life. She was glad she knew how to swim, if that wasn’t the case, she would have had no choice but to become a water ghost.

She ripped off her clothes that were soaked back into the water to float on. Soon, her hunting suit would follow the currents to places that people could easily find. If that happened, Rosemond would no longer try to pursue the confirmation of her death.

Patrizia was barely wearing anything besides her underwear and stared at Lucio by her side, who was still. She first identified the area where he had been hit by the arrow. The blood was relentlessly not stopping, and the color of the blood was strange as if he had been hit with a poisoned arrow.

“Sh*t!”

Patrizia murmured harsh curses. If she kept it like this, he would steadily die. In that case, even if she was alive and managed to return, there was a high possibility that she would be framed for murdering the Emperor. Maybe that was what Rosemond wanted the most.

She would rather die here, together, as she wouldn’t let that happen. Once Patrizia pulled him out of the water, she laid him down on a warm stone, heated under the sun. If he kept wearing his wet clothes, he was more likely to die due to a drop in body temperature, so she took off his clothes without hesitation. She didn’t even think about how he was the opposite sex, Emperor of an empire, and her husband. Right now she had absolutely no interest in him, and the only thought in her mind was how to survive and return safely to the kingdom.

Once Patrizia had taken off Lucio’s clothes, she once again looked closely at his wounds. It was possible that the poison had already spread because of all the running, but it was necessary to extract the poison as much as possible to prevent further injury. Without hesitation, she put her face to his chest and sucked out the poison from the wound. Being careful not to swallow the poison, she spits out the poison all in one area. After 10 minutes of sucking the poison, Patrizia felt a slight dizziness. Even if the poison hadn’t been swallowed, it seemed due to holding it in her mouth for long periods of time, it had been absorbed into the body to a certain extent

.

Patrizia staggered, touching her forehead, and opened her eyes willfully as if trying to wake up her mind again. If she even collapsed here, it was over for this man, and even herself. No one could protect her here. She was the only one that could guard and protect herself.

The important thing was time. Either way, Patrizia had to return with Lucio to the Imperial Palace within 24 hours, or at most 48 hours.

The best option was to return to the Imperial Palace tonight. If it were past that time, the nobles would be eager to raise a new Emperor, worrying about the vacancy of state affairs. A situation such as this had to be prevented. Not only for him but also for her.

Since the Emperor and Empress disappeared at the same time, it was clear that the newer nobles would stomp their feet and dispatch people to find them. It wasn’t ideal, but they had to be discovered by them at least. In order to do that, the first thing she had to do was to save this man. Patrizia looked at Lucio with a determined expression, who was still in a fainted state. First, maintaining body temperature was the priority. She led her weak body to the unconscious Lucio and hugged him towards her. Then something stopped her. Patrizia’s expression was colored with surprise when she confirmed the identity.

“You… how did you…”

Sally walked towards Patrizia who maintained a dazed look. Patrizia had never been as happy to see Sally at this moment. My goodness, what a smart horse she was! She gently stroked Sally’s mane and asked the horse, “You did not die! What a relief. How did you find me here anyways?”

As if trying to answer, Sally made a motion with her face towards Patrizia’s head, as if trying to smell her hair. During that short time, she had smelled Patrizia’s scent and found her. At first, she was a horse that couldn’t be trained and even bit her hand, but she had grown better so much in a short time. Patrizia praised and hugged her with a touched expression.

“Thank you, Sally. I am really glad you are here.”

Patrizia kissed the horse’s forehead, and then lifted the collapsed Lucio onto Sally’s back. Considering that Sally might be tired, she decided not to also ride on top of her. She had to think about the horse’s stamina first.

After walking for some time, she saw a cave located in a secluded place. Patrizia first went in there, put Lucio on a flat rock, and looked more closely at his condition. Fortunately, there was no fever, but his body was very cold. Patrizia looked for something to keep warm, and soon found a bale of straw in the corner of the cave, and brought over a pile. Before long, Patrizia laid a lot of straw on the floor to prevent the cold seeping up from below, laid Lucio on top of that, and then again scattered the straw on top of him. At least, this was the most basic first aid, and after a while, she would try to look for more herbs and things like that. Anyways, the urgent fire was out, so she had time to look around.

Patrizia took Sally out of the cave to take care of her, knowing she must have been exhausted in her search for her. Before taking the last step out of the cave, Patrizia turned back and gave one last glance towards Lucio who was asleep, and carried on. Thoughts were for later. Right now was reality.