How to Live as the Enemy Prince

Because Calian was of Royal blood,even if Silica was the Queen, she should not have lowered her words and talked to Calian without the appropriate respect. Calian was talking about that.

“You have grown much.” (Informal)

Silica was still not showing respect.

Calian, having drunk his coffee in a leisurely manner, smiled and spoke.

“They weren’t very difficult words to understand, were they?”

Then he added in a deep voice.

“Silica.” (Informal)

Silica’s beautiful face showed anger. It was surprising that behind the face she hid in her fan, she could hide such an expression.

“Rude to say the least, as expected of a lowly bloodline-” (Informal)

“Even though I just told you that you were being impolite?” (Formal)

Calian, after cutting Silica’s words, spoke again.

“If you start talking about bloodlines then what does that make the Marquis of Brissen?” (Formal)

Silica’s eyes turned thin and sharp. She was clenching her jaw, trying to hold back her anger and reminding herself that she could not knock Calian away from his spot right this instant. 

“Anyways, there’s something I want to talk about, Silica.” (Formal but he calls her by her name, instead of her title, which is rude)

“Shall we do that next time? I no longer wish to see your face,” Silica said, as she made to get up – well tried to. 

– Thud!

Calian put down his coffee cup loudly.

“…that tea.”

Calian’s eyes darkened. He was looking into Silica’s worst.

“I would like to tell you to stop. The scent of the tea is too strong to drink.”

Just like the scent of Ranieri.

Silica slowly slid back into her seat.

To what she heard, Calian had been drinking the tea up until this morning. That’s why she didn’t think Calian knew about the poison. But it seemed Calian knew that she even made the dosage of poison higher.

`He drank it despite knowing it was poison.’

It would seem clear why Calian had drunk the poison.

If it had been let out that Calian’s tea had contained poison, Silica would have killed Calian’s maids and servants for trying to kill him. That was because just handing him the tea would be considered a crime.

‘So he was worrying about that, despite not knowing he will due,’

Silica smiled and spoke.

“You seem to say the strangest things,”

Calian smiled and spoke.

“So it’s something you’re not aware of?” 

“Yes, I don’t know about it.”

Calian tapped his coffee cup. Then he took out what he had come up with. On the table lay some sugar cubes that looked exactly the same as the substance he came with.

Calian spoke slowly.

“I thought about a lot of things. Whether to use the evidence I got out of Lennon. Or to just capture Lennon and torture him. Or to go into the safety of Alan. Or to tell this to the King. Or whether I should just poison my dear brother?”

Silica’s eyebrows twitched. Calian ignored that and spoke again.

“Using poison wasn’t a very striking option, and as for everything else, you’d probably be able to squirm your way out of it. So I decided that I would just forcefully take the card you played so that you can’t use that hand again. So that you can’t resort to mere poisoning ever again,” 

Calin showed Silica the cube he held in his hand. 

“Then I would have to use something as a bet, but the only thing I have right now is a strong heart. So I decided to place my bet on that.” 

Silica, naturally, looked to see what it was.

“Poison. It doesn’t react to silver, and it’s not one that kills so it won’t be found by magical reagents. Well… maybe I should phrase it as medicine since it can save lives in an interpretation.”

Silica’s hands, which were on her lap, slightly grabbed onto her dress because she couldn't figure out Calian’s intentions. Calian spoke again.

“After you eat this, your heart will stop. It makes people seem as if they are dead, though they are still alive.”

It was the poison that Secretia’s spies used to save themselves from danger. Of course it was not used only in Secretia, so even if Silica figured out what the poison was, she couldn’t draw links between Calian and Secretia.

Calian, looking at the substance as if he was viewing something with awe, spoke again.

“Of course, it won’t work for me. Even if I eat it, the Power of Blessing will prevent my heart from stopping.”

"Why did you bring a medicine that is useless even if you eat it?” Calian responded to Silica’s curious eyes.

“It will stop the detoxification process.”

Like how a mere cut on his hand wouldn’t heal. The Power of Blessing would ignore a weak poison like this because it was so overstretched just keeping him alive. 

Calian couldn’t have been more calm and peaceful as he explained his plan. 

“Then in the time the Power of Blessing gets rid of this poison, the weaker poison I drank every day through my morning tea will disperse throughout my body.”

The poison he took in the previous days wouldn’t kill him.

“I won’t die, but I will suffer a bit.”

He would make sure that his heart wouldn’t stop then he would start the detoxification process.

“However, things would get a bit more bothersome for you Silica.”

A plop sound came from inside Calian’s coffee cup.

“So, the thing is, if you agree to not send tea from tomorrow, I won’t drink this. I’m a bit tired of being sick.”

Silica figured out what Calian’s intentions were.

Even if he didn’t die, there would be signs of being poisoned. If he fell down and coughed up blood, then everyone would suspect it to be because of poison. 

Also, people wouldn’t be able to figure out how much poison he took in, so they would think it was an amount that couldn’t be cured with the Power of Blessing.

Furthermore, Silica was the only person in the ballroom with Calian.

“You’re trying to put blame on me by saying that I gave you poison.” Silica jeered. 

“I wouldn’t say it would be putting blame on you. Also, why are you saying I’m trying to frame you? You’re the one who wants to do away with me the most.”

A relaxed smile fell on Silica’s lips again.

It was like stomping down her foot on a sand castle that a small child had spent the entire day building. Silica, who had removed her mask in that good mood, said in a soft voice,

“Do you have your evidence ready?”

At those words, Calian’s eyes widened like that of a small child, and spoke in an exaggerated voice that seemed to be making fun of her. 

Calian stirred the contents of his coffee cup slowly with a spoon. Then he responded to Silica.

“I’m not trying to get rid of you right now. Of course, Alan is here, but what will I do if the full force of Brissen’s army comes?”

“You know well.”

Silica laughed and responded, and Calian laughed too.

“I’m just trying to stop you from playing with poison, so I don’t need any proof. This time, I’m just going to go to the extent where people will always have an eye on you and try to spy on you on my behalf – after all, there are some prisons that are more suffocating because they cannot be seen,” 

Assumptions couldn’t bring someone to court. Silica was one of the people who knew that too well.

“You can’t hold me down with a prison like that – an invisible prison? I’ve never been worried about something like that, don’t you know that very well? It’s always been like this.” 

Silica had committed countless crimes and was sitting here, drinking her coffee peacefully.

She then smiled brightly like a pure child.

"Who in the world doesn't know that I was the one who killed your mother?”

Silica whispered like a bird tweeting away in the early morning.