Chapter 368: Suspicion Between Them
“……”
Evelia forced herself to suppress her emotions as quickly as possible because she knew that once she exposed anything, both she and the people around her would be in danger.
“What do you mean by that?”
Evelia lifted her head, her face dark and cold.
“Nothing, it’s just what it sounds like. I’m only a messenger. If you have anything you want to say to His Highness the Second Prince, you can tell me. Or you could visit the House of Nightingales directly. Grey Dove really misses you, and His Highness hasn’t seen you for a long time, hasn’t he?”
The man didn’t give a direct answer to Evelia’s question. Instead, he used the Second Prince as an all-purpose excuse, just like how Armand often used the Crown Prince as his own shield.
“Does His Highness doubt my loyalty?”
“No, no—Lord Red Crow, like I said, I’m just passing a message. If you have any thoughts, you can go straight to the House of Nightingales. That knight commander should give you some free time for outside activities, right? You could take that chance to visit. It wouldn’t be a problem, would it?”
White Dove leaned casually against the wall, though his speech sped up slightly, as if excited.
Everything he said was a lie. The Second Prince had never sent him to ask any of this. But he dared to ask anyway and to gamble that Evelia wouldn’t go to the Second Prince to verify it.
“No need.”
—And indeed, that was the truth.
Evelia felt guilty, and White Dove could see that guilt. His gamble had paid off.
“These are just His Highness’s needless suspicions.”
Evelia spoke calmly while turning the situation over in her mind.
What she was facing now was no different from a “crime punishable by death.” Even if she could accept her own death, she would never allow the people around her to be slaughtered by the Second Prince.
She was hiding the truth because she was trying to save everyone.
Even if she had to die, she would make sure no one else was dragged down with her, including Armand. If someone had to die, she alone would be enough.
If Rachel were here, she would probably call Evelia pessimistic again. But in truth, both Armand and Evelia were deeply influenced by their childhood in the House of Nightingales. Children who grew up in that environment were destined not to be too optimistic.
Even Armand’s “positivity” was something he forced out by suppressing his real emotions.
“For His Highness to suddenly say this… could it be that someone has been whispering something to him?”
Evelia’s golden eyes locked onto White Dove, her expression growing increasingly fierce. But White Dove remained unfazed, only letting out a soft chuckle after she finished speaking.
“I’m just the messenger.”
That was his answer again—boring, yet always useful.
White Dove’s attitude irritated Evelia. His earlier laziness and now his dismissive tone were both infuriating.
But after a moment, Evelia forced herself to calm down.
She looked at the man before her. They had barely interacted before, so she couldn’t say she knew him, but she could clearly feel that this man was a cunning one.
The last time she saw him, she already felt that he had a slick, silver tongue. And now, in his seemingly casual words, there might be hidden meanings she hadn’t uncovered yet.
If the Second Prince really started to doubt her… then what was the reason?
During this period, Evelia had still been sending the Second Prince some useful intelligence, information that Armand had approved. In theory, there shouldn’t be any reason for suspicion so soon.
So, it must have been because someone said something.
Was it because of Grey Dove?
Or the other two assassins?
Someone she met in palace?
Or maybe an informant planted somewhere?
Or… could it be the man standing in front of her?
“Lord Red Crow, even if your eyes could poke a hole through my body, I can only say this is the prince’s order. Besides, I’m not a combat type, you wouldn’t bully someone weak, would you?”
White Dove laughed softly again, wearing a servile smile. He bent his body slightly, looking as fragile as if a breeze could knock him down.
Although White Dove truly wasn’t a fighter, he was only a pharmacist, he had done no less than anyone else.
In fact, it could be said that Armand’s current situation was almost entirely his doing.
Armand’s illness was triggered by the poisonous perfume White Dove had developed.
Armand’s identity had been deduced through White Dove’s investigation and direct conversations. The Second Prince’s suspicion of Evelia had also been stirred up by him.
Step by step, he had pushed Armand into his current state.
Even if the Second Prince hadn’t directly asked Evelia where her loyalty now lay, he likely already had a cloud of doubt in his heart.
The prince hadn’t told White Dove to do anything specifically. White Dove simply enjoyed playing the role of a “catalyst,” stirring up the web of relationships among these people.
Armand had never done anything to him, and Evelia hadn’t either. He was just a pharmacist working under the Second Prince.
Although he worked for him, he didn’t obey one hundred percent, and he wouldn’t necessarily follow the Second Prince in targeting the Crown Prince’s faction.
But this was exactly what he wanted.
If he had to give a reason, his goal was probably to be a scavenger crow, a carrion eater in the truest sense.
He was a pharmacist, and he was interested in all kinds of fascinating drugs.
He wanted to know what kind of poison was in Armand’s body, whether it could be cured, and what influenced his resistance to poison.
He also wanted to know how Evelia managed to changed bodies with alchemy, and what differences there were between an alchemic body and a normal human body.
If he knew Rachel was that alchemist, he would probably want to experiment on her as well.
It was only because Rachel hid herself so well. Who would imagine that a child like her was actually that genius alchemist?
And so, he would say:
Everything he did was “for science,” for the sake of humanity. His methods were simply turning “little lab mice” into living humans.
Of course, dead ones were fine too. White Dove was convenient in that way. He wasn’t picky about his “subjects.”
“If you don’t have anything else, I’ll be leaving now.”
Evelia stayed silent for a few seconds. She didn’t ask any more questions, didn’t answer, and didn’t even give White Dove a chance to speak again. She simply turned and left.
She wanted to kill him. But if the Second Prince really had sent him, killing him would only increase suspicion.
So she said nothing more and walked out of the alley.
Still, perhaps some time in the future, she would regret this single moment of mercy.