The office showed no trace of midday lethargy.
A deep voice echoed from the man who dominated the space.
"Who did what?"
In response to his question, the butler, Jason, spoke again.
"Madam suddenly barged into the kitchen unannounced and inspected the food and ingredients one by one."
It wasn't unheard of for the lady of the house to inspect the kitchen.
Occasionally, she would visit the kitchen before an important banquet to encourage the staff or give instructions.
However, it was customary to notify the butler or maids before such visits.
Moreover, what kind of person was the duchess?
She was a mistress who was overly considerate of the servants to the point of frustration.
Such a person not only suddenly visited the kitchen but also inspected the ingredients and even criticized the chef's food as spoiled.
Furthermore, the head chef, Max, fainted after the duchess left.
Of course, a chef fainting wasn't something that needed to be reported to the duke, but the duchess's strange behavior couldn't be ignored.
Furthermore.
"Well, it seems that Chef Max, who fainted, was poisoned."
"Poison?"
Clayton, who had been listening absentmindedly, suddenly had a change in his expression.
He stopped his busy hands and stared at Jason, who stood before his desk.
"Yes. According to testimonies from those in the kitchen, the duchess ordered Chef Max to eat some food from the kitchen. Max ate it, and after the duchess left, he collapsed. The food in question was a stew that was to be served at her dinner tonight."
Clayton, who had been silently listening, opened a drawer and took out a letter.
It was a report written a few days ago, mentioning suspicious activity.
As Clayton carefully reviewed the letter, he asked,
"What is the name of the poison that affected the chef?"
"It's called Jamyeongcho."
"Jamyeongcho, huh..."
Tok, tok-.
Lost in thought, Clayton tapped his fingers on the desk.
It was the same poisonous plant that the woman had secretly brought into the mansion.
Moreover, the report also mentioned that she had recently met the chef under the pretext of discussing food.
There was no need to investigate further.
The answer was already clear.
"It seems my mother doesn't like the new addition to the family."
Despite the weight of his words, a faint smile played on the man's lips.
"And my wife, having figured this out, is also amusing."
As if finding the situation entertaining, he twirled his fingers and moved toward the window.
Looking outside at the glow of the sunset, he spotted Dalia strolling in the garden.
Dalia.
A woman as delicate as her name, like a single bloom.
Of all the flowers that had come into his grasp, she was the most beautiful and fragile, as if she might break with a touch.
I thought she was only entertaining at night, but she seems to amuse me even during the day.
Clayton murmured, his gaze growing even more intense.
"I suppose I should have lunch with my wife tomorrow."
His eyes followed her persistently.
"It seems I've been neglecting my wife lately."
It was a late afternoon, and the sun was setting.
* * *
It was a pleasant day.
The omelet served in the morning was savory, and the mushroom soup had just the right saltiness to whet the appetite.
It was a proper meal for the first time in a long while.
So, after finishing the meal, I thought I'd enjoy a leisurely bath and lounge on the bed...
"Does the food not suit your taste?"
At the man's subtle question, Dalia's hand, which had been poking at the perfectly grilled sea bream, froze mid-motion.
"Oh, no?"
Regardless of taste, this was enough to cause indigestion!
That's right. She was having lunch with the male lead.
To show she was eating well, Dalia placed a perfectly deboned piece of fish in her mouth.
The salty sensation on her tongue reminded her it was grilled fish, but she couldn't savor the taste properly.
Chewing slowly, she glanced at the man sitting across from her.
Come to think of it, this was the first time she had seen him face-to-face since the night she had possessed this body.
He was entirely different from his disheveled appearance that night.
His neatly combed-back hair and tightly fastened tie suggested he wouldn't show even a hint of disarray, even at home.
That wasn't all.
Unlike before, when it was too dark to see clearly, his face in broad daylight was...
'Wow, he's handsome.'
Anyone who wouldn't feel nervous eating with someone that good-looking must be blind.
Let's be honest, who could focus on their food while dining with someone on Cha Eunwoo's level of looks?
So, this pounding heart must simply be a human instinct reacting to visual stimulation.
As Dalia was trying to calm her pounding heart...
Clayton, having finished his meal and drinking a glass of water, asked.
"I heard there was a commotion in the kitchen?"
"Yes... sorry, what?"
Dalia, absentmindedly picking at her food, was startled and asked back.
Commotion? What commotion happened in the kitchen?
As she tilted her head, not understanding his meaning, he continued.
"They say the chef collapsed after you visited."
"...The chef collapsed?"
This was news to her.
Actually, now that she thought about it, he didn't look well after eating.
Surely, the food must have been spoiled.
And yet he kept insisting it was fine.
Serves him right.
While Dalia was inwardly berating Max, who had lied to her repeatedly and annoyed her...
Clayton continued speaking in an indifferent tone, and his words were enough to make Dalia look directly at him.
"They say there was a poisonous herb in the stew. Was it intentional?"
"...Poisonous herb?"
What on earth is he talking about?
What poisonous herb? And why would I intentionally feed it to someone?
Just as her bewilderment turned into full-blown confusion, a detail from the original story flashed through her mind.
The female protagonist's attempted poisoning incident.
It was a plot orchestrated by the male lead's stepmother, the current Duchess Dowager of the Seyer family, to ensure the infertility of the female lead, who was rumored to be barren.
Fortunately, before the female lead could eat the poisoned stew, a maid accidentally spilled it in front of the butler, thwarting the plan.
Dalia recognized the distinct scent of Jamyeongcho in the spilled stew and, consumed by fear that the household was trying to kill her, stayed locked in her room for a long time.
Now that I think about it, where exactly am I in the original story's timeline?
Only then did she realize that she had been so caught up in the comfort of her new life that she hadn't pinpointed where she had entered the story.
She had simply assumed that she would become pregnant from that night's events and naively thought she just needed to avoid running away.
Dalia's eyes darted around busily.
The poisoning incident definitely…
Retracing the original story's events, Dalia suddenly froze as if realizing something.
"Ah."
She remembered. She finally realized where she was in the timeline.
The beginning of the story. The male lead noticed his stepmother's attempt to poison the female lead but didn't bother to stop it.
The reason was that he knew the barren female lead would only feel minor discomfort from the poison and wouldn't die from it.
And what that meant was...
The male lead doesn't love me.
Clayton didn't love Dalia yet.
The despairing realization made her drop the fork she was holding.
A man who hated and loathed his own bloodline due to the family's curse.
The only reason such a man agreed to a contract marriage with her, the female lead, was because of her supposed inability to conceive.
But if a woman he didn't love ended up bearing his child?
What would happen then?
Wouldn't he actually kill me?
In the original story, the male lead already loved the female lead by the time she ran away.
He just hadn't admitted it to himself yet.
That's why, even when he found out about the pregnancy, he couldn't bring himself to kill her.
Because he already loved the female lead.
But look at the situation now.
That cold-blooded face showed no concern, even though his wife almost consumed poison!
If I were to get pregnant in this situation, there's no way he'd just let it slide.
So if I want to live comfortably in this house moving forward…
I either need to avoid getting pregnant or work hard to win the male lead over.
Ah, I'm doomed.