I Became the Villain Alpha's Omega (BL)

Chapter 325: A Dead Girl’s Note

"Ah, Prince Gillian, Duke Zarius. There you are."

Zarius walked half a step behind Gillian, his posture intentionally projecting a subtle, rigid stiffness. He allowed his shoulders to square just a fraction less than usual, his movements carrying a carefully manufactured fatigue. He looked every bit the weary Duke from the North, burdened by a delegation plagued by sudden illness and unexpected chaos.

His thoughts, however, were as sharp as ever, lingering on the quiet words Cherion had whispered before he stepped out of Iryna’s room.

Keep up the act. Let them think you’re weak, sick, and too tired to look beyond our own door.

Zarius intended to do exactly that. The more they viewed him as a fragile, recovering mess, the less they would look at him. And right now, looking elsewhere was exactly what they needed.

The study was already crowded. King Alderon sat behind his desk, looking every bit the Auzelian ruler under immense pressure, his jaw set, his eyes dark with a lack of sleep. Standing like an iron pillar to his right was Yerel. Just behind Yerel stood Karson, a silent, watchful presence with his hands clasped behind his back.

The representatives from the Solaric delegation were clustered near the center of the room, their low, anxious murmurs bouncing off the stone walls like trapped hornets.

"Now that everyone is actually in the room," King Alderon cut in, his voice silencing the murmurs. He didn’t bother with a formal greeting. He leaned forward, resting his arms on the desk. "I’ll give it to you straight. A body was discovered in the forest a little while ago. It’s one of our kitchen maids."

The announcement fell like a lead weight, followed by an immediate wave of annoyed, confused grunts from the foreign representatives.

"A maid?" one of the older delegates asked. "Your Majesty, with all due respect, what does a dead maid have to do with any of us?"

Before the King could answer, another delegate leaned forward, his voice dripping with immediate suspicion. "Unless her death isn’t an isolated incident. Is this connected to Princess Iryna’s poisoning? Did the girl know something?"

"She knew enough to swallow a handful of hemlock," King Alderon said flatly.

A small, crumpled piece of parchment already lay flat against the dark wood near the edge of the desk. King Alderon gestured toward it coldly. "The physician found the empty vial right next to her fingers. That note was hidden inside her apron."

Karson stepped forward, picked up the scrap of paper, and began passing it through the cluster of delegates.

Zarius stood perfectly still, watching the lords handle the parchment like it was infected with the plague. When it finally reached Gillian, the Solaric prince snatched it with a trembling, furious grip. Zarius leaned in just enough to let his eyes track the messy, frantic ink scrawled across the page.

The handwriting was a disaster, shaky, rushed, the work of a terrified girl who realized too late that she had accidentally stepped onto a stage built for monsters.

"She is the one who poisoned the Princess?" one of the delegates blurted out, his face flushing with a mix of shock and sudden fury. "A common maid? How dare she stretch her filthy hands toward royal blood!"

"And to take her own life right after," another representative hissed, slamming a fist lightly against his palm. "What a coward. A cheap, easy way out to escape the executioner’s block. Death by hemlock is far too merciful for her."

A senior Solaric noble stepped forward, glaring bitterly at the parchment in Gillian’s hands. "If she were still breathing, I would demand we bring her back to Solaric. Let our own torturers break her. Death is an absolute luxury compared to what she deserved for threatening the peace of two empires."

Gillian didn’t reply to his men. His grip on the paper only tightened, the edges crinkling under the sheer force of his restraint. He looked directly at the Auzelian King, his voice cracking with a raw, ugly anger that he didn’t even try to hide.

"This is a joke," Gillian spat. "What could a kitchen maid possibly have against Iryna? My sister hasn’t been in this empire for very long! The girl is a scapegoat. Someone probably shoved that poison down her throat, wrote this, and left her out there to take the fall!"

"A fair assumption, Prince Gillian," King Alderon replied, his voice firm, shutting down the rising panic before it could derail the treaty entirely. "Which is why imperial guards are tearing the servants’ quarters apart as we speak. They are looking for hidden coin, letters, or anything that proves whether she was acting out of some personal grudge or taking orders from someone."

Yerel turned his gaze to Gillian, his eyes steady and completely composed.

"Your suspicion is entirely valid, Prince Gillian," Yerel said. "We certainly cannot exclude the possibility that she was coerced or used as a shield by someone else. In fact, if there is a mastermind, a tragic suicide note is exactly what they would leave behind. However, the maid is still our only physical link to the poison. Whether she acted out of a personal grievance or was used as a shield, her quarters and her life are the only starting point we have to uncover the truth. The timeline matches your sister’s illness precisely, so we follow her trail first, either it leads to a dead end, or it leads to the person who set her up."

The room instantly dissolved back into frantic whispering, the delegates trading worried glances, clearly trying to decide if this convenient little suicide was enough to guarantee their own safety.

Zarius didn’t move a muscle, showing no reaction at all. He could feel Yerel’s sharp gaze drifting toward him, testing him, waiting to see if the Northern Duke was going to start snapping teeth. Remembering Cherion’s warning, Zarius let out a heavy, rattling sigh, shifting his weight to one side as if his lower back were aching from a lingering sickness.

"The note wraps things up beautifully," Zarius said aloud, his deep, rumbling voice cutting through the noise. He kept his tone flat, completely stripping it of his usual military bite, playing the part of a tired man who just wanted to go back to bed. "But the Solaric prince isn’t entirely wrong to doubt it. Whether she acted alone or was merely someone’s pawn, a dead girl can’t point us toward the real culprit."

He paused, letting his dull gaze sweep across the crowded room before letting it land heavily on King Alderon.

"In the North, when a loose thread gets cut this cleanly, it usually means the hand holding the shears is still standing right next to you," Zarius muttered. "If the search turns up empty, we’re just locking a case while the real killer walks the halls. For all our sakes, I hope the guard finds something real in those quarters."

Alderon’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits at the phrasing, but after a tense second, he gave a slow nod. "The search will be absolute, Duke Zarius. I’ll make sure of it."