Villain, Let Me Touch You! - Chapter 116
“Your Highness, marriage?”
“You just agreed, Rienna.”
“I did? To marriage? When?!”
“You said you wanted to do it with me again. That.”
Helios winked with one eye. Of course, he had to look stupidly handsome while saying the most infuriating things.
“That and marriage are not the same.”
“Why not, Rienna? It’s really important to me. I’m a very moral person, you know. I only sleep with someone Iām married to.”
What kind of ridiculous logic was that? It didnāt even fit with the world we lived in.
It denied everything we had talked about and everything we had done.
How could a person be this inconsistent?
I clicked my tongue in disbelief.
“One time can be chalked up to a mistake, but not the second. So Riena, weāre getting married. Letās get married and do treatments often too.”
Often… treatmentsā¦
The words were plain, but the feeling they gave was anything but innocent.
At this rate, Iād wake up tomorrow in a wedding hall.
I had to calm Helios down before he bulldozed us straight into matrimony.
“Letās catch the culprit first! We canāt live the rest of our lives in a dangerous palace.”
“Thatās true.”
Thankfully, it wasnāt hard to stop his reckless sprint.
His easy agreement was so anticlimactic, I felt all the energy drain from me.
It wasnāt disappointment ā more like relief.
Truly.
***
āI was asleep for three days?ā
I downed the antidote Jamie brought in one gulp. It came in a tiny vial, no bigger than a finger, and held just a single mouthful.
To make sure I didnāt waste a drop, I tilted it upside down and tapped it furiously.
āNothing left,ā Jamie said, taking the empty vial from me.
I watched it disappear into the trash with longing eyes.
That stuff cost a fortune.
At that price, youād believe it wasnāt just an antidote but the elixir of immortality.
The effects were instant. The numbness lingering in my mouth vanished completely.
Money really does work wonders.
If Vincenzo ā who’d scoured every corner of the empire trying to get his hands on it ā heard that thought, heād probably be heartbroken.
I looked over at Jamie.
āJamie, about what I asked you?ā
Right before I collapsed, Iād given her one request.
I’d been half out of my mind at the time, so I wasnāt sure if sheād heard me properly.
But of course, Iād underestimated her.
āOf course I looked into it.ā
Jamie was brimming with confidence.
After firmly closing the door, she placed several portraits on my desk.
āThereās someone suspicious in the palaceā¦ Find them.ā
That had been my desperate request to Jamie, made right before I lost consciousness from the snakebite.
Catching the culprit was a race against time.
From the moment the incident happened, the perpetrator would have started erasing evidence. We needed to begin the investigation immediately.
If Iād known Helios would come running the moment he heard, I wouldnāt have asked Jamie.
Helios would’ve handled everything himself.
But at the time, he hadnāt been there. And I had no way of knowing heād return earlier than planned, so Iād turned to Jamie.
A wise decision, as it turned out.
Helios had focused entirely on my treatment, which delayed the investigation. If not for Jamieās head start, there wouldāve been a serious gap in our case.
āThe first suspect is a kitchen maid,ā Jamie said.
āIāve never seen this kid before.ā
āThatās right. Sheās mostly in charge of inspecting deliveries. She checks the quantity of items. All the food that comes into the palace has to go through her.ā
āSo, you’re saying the snake could have come in through her?ā
I tapped the portrait lightly, deep in thought.
