CHAPTER 248: IF YOU CRY, I’LL CRY TOO

Primrose felt her chest tighten. His sorrowful gaze hit her like a punch to the gut.

She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t even think. All she could see was the man she loved, drowning in guilt over something he hadn’t even done.

"No!" she cried, reaching up to cup his face. "You’re still my good husband! You’re the best husband in the world!"

Without thinking, she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a tight hug.

"Husband ... please don’t look at me with such a sad expression." Before she could stop herself, her tears slipped down her cheeks, and her voice cracked into sobs. "If you cry, I’ll cry too!"

Edmund was flabbergasted when Primrose suddenly burst into loud sobs, crying even harder than he was.

[Why is my wife crying louder than me?!] he thought, stunned. [Shouldn’t I be the one crying right now?]

[How could I be crying softer than my sick wife? I should be crying louder!]

Was this turning into some sort of crying contest? Whatever it was, one thing was clear, Primrose didn’t want to see her husband cry like that!

"Why are you crying?" she choked out through her sobs, wiping the tears off his face with her fingers.

Even though Edmund tried to cry louder to keep up, there was no way he could win. If there were a contest for the loudest crying in the whole continent, Primrose would easily take the crown.

"Didn’t you hear what Dr. Silas said?" Primrose sniffled, finally trying to stop her tears. "I’ll only be sick for a few days, and after that, I’ll be able to walk normally again."

"But what if he’s wrong?" Edmund said. "That doctor is an idiot. He couldn’t even diagnose your condition properly. I’ll call in better human doctors. Maybe they’ll know how to help you properly."

"Actually ... I do have one request," Primrose whispered, holding onto his clothes tightly. "Can you please ask Sir Vesper and Lady Raven to come here as soon as possible? I want them in the palace before morning."

Edmund took her hand, asking in confusion, "I can do that. But why? What can they do for you?"

[Does she need emotional support from her friends?] he wondered. [But ... didn’t she say I’m her friend too?]

Suddenly, his face turned a little pale. [No way ... does she not see me as a friend anymore?!]

Primrose took a deep breath, genuinely wondering why her husband’s overthinking was getting worse instead of better.

"Sir Vesper actually knows a lot about medicine. According to Lady Solene, he’s helped many soldiers who were sick during their time at the military camp," Primrose said as she lowered her head. "And ... he also knows a lot about poisons."

Edmund didn’t say anything after that, so Primrose raised her head to see his expression, and just as she expected, her husband looked utterly shocked.

His skin was paler than before, and maybe she was just imagining it, but it looked like his complexion had turned one shade lighter.

"W-what do you mean, poisons?" Edmund asked, suddenly panicked. "Did you ... accidentally eat something poisonous?"

[But I always taste her food first,] Edmund thought frantically. [Even the pastries ... I tried the dough before they baked it and I even had my most trusted people check everything to make sure it was safe.]

[Damn it! Could it be ... my trusted people aren’t that trustworthy after all?!]

Before Edmund could start accusing the wrong person, Primrose finally said, "I have a suspicion about something, but I need Sir Vesper to confirm it first."

"What is it? Can you at least tell me?" Edmund looked straight into her eyes. "If someone really did poison you, I’ll behead them myself."

He said "behead him" so casually, as if he were just telling Primrose that the sky looked a little cloudy this morning.

"Well, that would be a problem if you kill my suspect that fast," Primrose replied gently. "I need him alive ... at least for a while."

[Him?] Edmund’s mind raced. [Does that mean my wife already knows who tried to poison her? If that’s true, then she’s not paralyzed because of some nonsense hereditary disease?]

He groaned inwardly, sounding like someone who was ready to skin a man alive on the spot. [What kind of bastard had the guts to poison MY WIFE?!]

"Why are you trying to protect him?" All the tears in Edmund’s eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a burning rage, not toward her, of course, but toward the unknown threat. "You don’t need to be so kind to someone who messed with your life."

Kind? How did her husband come to that conclusion when she had literally just killed Thevan?

"No, I’m not trying to protect him," Primrose said, shaking her head. "I just don’t want you to kill him yet because—"

Before she could finish, Edmund accidentally brushed against her foot, and the sharp pain made her hiss through her teeth and clutch his hand tightly.

The pain was still as sharp and unbearable as before, enough to bring tears to her eyes again, but she held it in, trying not to make Edmund feel worse than he already did.

Still, that small reaction was enough to crush Edmund’s heart.

"I’M SORRY! I’m so sorry, MY WIFE!" To her shock, Edmund immediately blurted out something that sounded dangerously like a suicidal thought. "I deserve to die for hurting you like this!"

"No!" Primrose responded instinctively. "You don’t deserve to die just because of this! Don’t worry, I’m okay."

Before Edmund could argue with her, she brought the conversation back to where it left off. "I don’t want you to kill him yet because he has a slave, and if he dies, that slave will die with him."

Edmund’s eyes widened a little. "Because of the slave seal?"

Primrose blinked, slightly surprised that he knew about it.

But then she remembered the kind of life he had lived as a child, so of course he had seen so many things, both the good and the very worst the world had to offer.

"Yes," Primrose said with a slow nod. "That’s why I need Lady Raven. She has a lot of knowledge about slave seals, and I believe she also has the ability to break them."