The tents at the hunting grounds had already been erected by the time that Larisa's carriage arrived. Larisa went to her tent that was equipped with everything she will need, there was even a screen divider with a bath tub behind it, her body was tired from the somewhat long journey, she took off her clothes and got into the tub that Lifar had already filled with hot water.
Steam wafted from her body in waves as she dried her waist long hair with a towel after the bath, she massaged her neck a bit while she was at it, those head ornaments are really heavy and unbearable.
A call came from the tent door, "Princess, may I come in?"
Larisa recognized Lifar's voice, "Come in,"
Lifar entered and bowed as she greeted her and placed the basket in her hands on the bedside table before she proceeded to take out a bowl containing a dark blue liquid and placed it in-front of Larisa, the steam from the bowl permeated Larisa's nostrils making her uncomfortable with the stench.
Larisa lightly pushed the bowl away as she asked, "I only need to drink this every three months, i just drank it last month, so why?" Larisa left the question hang in the air.
"I don't know why either, but auntie Fay gave it to me herself and said that you will have to drink it every month from now on."
Larisa didn't ask anymore and asked something else, "Have you done what I asked?"
"Yes princess, nothing will be delivered to Marquis Wormwood's tent without your permission, I also left a maid to serve Miss Wormwood and she will act as our eyes and report directly to me"
She took hold of the spoon in the bowl and started sterling it, "That's good."
"Princess, are you trying to find the culprit to the previous misses' death? Do you think it will work?"
Larisa abruptly paused in her sterling, "Who did you hear about them from, didn't i bring you to the palace only two years ago?"
Lifar scartched her neck in embarrassment "I heard some rumors from the older maids so i asked auntie Fay and she told me that your study partners were mudered so i figured you must be trying to find the culprit," she explained.
"You sure are closer to Fay than me aren't you?" Larisa mumbled under her breath.
"Did princess speak," Lifar asked.
"I said, I am not trying to find the culprit, I will just protect her to the best of my ability, I cannot have any more blood be shed because of me."
Lifar pushed the bowl closer to Larisa, "It will all be fine Princess, please drink it while it's hot,"
Larisa reluctantly removed the spoon in the bowl, she breathed in and out three times before drinking the poison without pause until there was not even a drop left, she heavily put down the bowl and accepted the cup of water Lifar gave her and used it to wash out the burning sensation from her tongue.
The concoction that she just drunk was not medicine but a brew made from countless types of poisons that she has to drink once every three months for a reason she doesn't fully know.
When she was nine years old, she once disposed of it under a big tree in her backyard garden instead of drinking it. After all, why would she continue to take medicine that she wasn't even being told why she needs it?
The next day she woke up early as usual, took her red ribbon and went to the garden to practice. The sight in-front of her weakened her knees and she fell back in horror. The tree she threw the brew under had withered and died overnight, in the endless spring green that enveloped the garden around her, the big withered tree stood tall and lifeless looking even more out of place, most of the leaves had fallen off while those that remained had turned grey, the entire tree itself had turned a sickening grey, clear signs of poison.
The medicine she had been made to drink every three months for as long as she could remember had poison in it, or maybe it was only the bowl from last night? If yes then who wanted to poison her.
A cluster of unanswered questions clouded her mind, Fay asked about the tree upon her arrival, and she answered that she didn't know what happened to turn it like that.
Should she ask? She wondered. Fay was the only who even knew about the medicine and she always prepared it herself, it never passes through anyone else's hands before it is given to her.
No! Won't it sound like she is suspecting Fay for trying to poison her? She trusted Fay would never do that to her. Fay noticed her distracted state and told her to skip that days training, Larisa was left alone after Fay left still looking at the dead tree.
Servants came in that afternoon to uproot the tree, most of them said it's a bad omen but they were quickly silenced from spreading false rumours.
A few days later, her body started to get very weak and she soon fell sick. Her entire body was in severe pain day and night as if something was surging awfully fast within her leaving her breathless and wreathing in pain.
The doctors were soon called to attend to her, but none could find the cause, finding no answer no matter how they examined her, the doctors were at a loss. They could only give some pain killing medicine to alleviate her pain.
Big mistake, just a few minutes after she took the medicine, an agonizing scream broke from her throat, echoing throughout her courtyard, she broke out in a cold sweat as she screamed and cried bitterly from the pain while scratching the bed sheets for dear life. Was this how she was going to die?
She soon passed out from the pain, when she awoke again, Maynard, Dario and her then first study partner Christina were sitting on either sides of the bed. Christina was kneeling on the bed as she wiped the sweat on her forehead with Dario periodically giving her a new towel here and there, and Maynard sat leaning on the headboard as he held her hand tightly in his.
The pain was still there, but it was alright to die with the presence of her friends and family. Fay who had left the palace on the day that Larisa fell sick returned that evening after being away for two weeks. She came in holding a bowl of that familiar dark blue liquid and gave it to her, she drank most of it but kept a small potion in her mouth. Fay then left without saying anything, but from then on she always made sure to monitor her when she deinks it until when Lifar showed up and the monitoring task was left to her.
After she left, Larisa spat the small potion in her mouth in the small flower pot. The flower withered immediately.
The next day, Christina visited her and they ate sweets together before she left, the next day Christina died from poisoning, investigation showed that the poison was in some of the sweets they ate.
From then on, everytime she had a study partner, she would fall sick again and as she recovered, her partners would untimely die making rumors that she killed her partners in some demonic act to spread and everyone feared her even more.
That act of rebellion when she was nine taught her that her body couldn't handle any medicine and she was immune to poison.
Her getting sick just before her partners died must have been someone putting medicine in her food to get her sick and make people suspect her.
"What do you think Princess,"
Larisa snapped out of her thoughts and looked dumbly at Lifar, she didn't hear a think Lifar said just now.
"What do I think about what?" Larisa said confusedly.
"I was asking about which riding suit you would like to wear tomorrow afternoon, the red and black or the blue and yellow,"
"The red one,"
Lifar sighed but did not voice her objections, the princess always wore red because she thought it made her red eyes unnoticeable unless someone looked more carefully, but it really didn't help that much when everyone already knew that she had red eye, Lifar wanted to tell her but chose not to, whatever made the princess happy.