Revenge of the Duchess

Chapter 30

A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!

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Annabeth lay asleep on the bed. Color was beginning to return back to her face, a sure sign that most of the danger had passed. Percy sat beside her, one of her hands firmly clasped in his. The doctor had just left, leaving words of relief that Annabeth would wake up soon with little to no side effects.

A knock on the bedroom door, and Grover entered.

"I'm here to report on the results of the investigation."

Percy nodded tiredly for him to continue.

"As expected, the flowers were the cause of poisoning. The Cuora palace gardeners couldn't identify the type of flower, but they state that the flower is not something found in the Cuora nation."

Percy's brows furrowed. "Not from Cuora? Then where?"

"From the Inferis nation," Grover answered. Then came the words of even more surprise. "Princess Hazel of Inferis was the one who identified it."

Percy mulled over the words. A deadly flower from the Inferis country? To his knowledge, Inferis and Cuora were currently in talks for an economic alliance where the bridal candidacy was merely a ruse. It seemed highly unlikely that Inferis would deliberately cause the harm of another princess on another country's soil.

"What did Princess Hazel say about the flower?"

"Princess Hazel knew about the flower because the production of the flower is highly restricted in Inferis. The flower is called the Nightwalker, an even deadlier cousin to nightshade. The Inferis nation use it as an ingredient for a type of insomnia medicine, but only after it's been thoroughly processed. However, if one breathes in the flower's raw spores for a few days, symptoms such as psychosis, dizziness, and infertility will eventually occur. But in the case of Lady Chase's case, crushing the flowers in such close proximity caused the spores to be released quickly, resulting Lady Chase to faint. As a result, the Inferis nation bans their citizens from growing the Nightwalker and highly regulates their growth."

Percy's stomach churned. He looked back at Annabeth, who was still peacefully sleeping off the effects of the poisoned flower. It was lucky that she had only breathed in the spores for a while.

"So it seems someone was smuggling in these Nightwalkers."

"Princess Hazel is cooperating to the best of her abilities to see if the Inferis nation has had a break-in or smuggling attempt of their Nightwalkers."

On the outside, Percy's face was calm. On the inside, he was boiling in a sea of fury.

Hearing the facts, there was no doubt that Princess Piper of the Cythera kingdom was the target of a malicious assassination attempt. But Annabeth had been hurt as a consequence.

Percy sat up, reluctantly letting of Annabeth's hand. He brushed off some wayward curls on her face so they would not disturb her rest. In all honesty, he had not expected to feel such turbulent emotions at seeing Annabeth harmed once again. He had failed to protect the person he cared for once again, and the stinging in his heart was all too obvious.

It was time to go to the palace and find out more about who was behind all this.

He would not let off a single perpetrator.

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"Marquis Ares."

Percy addressed his relative with a nod of acknowledgement, hiding his annoyance. He was on the way to meet Jason when he encountered the Marquis.