The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 36: To test her luck

"Drink." The man’s deep voice shattered the tranquility in the room. His hand came into Joanna’s sight.

Startled, Joanna looked up at the man who was now standing beside her bed. She did not even notice when he got up from the chair and walked towards her.

Shifting her gaze toward the thing that was held by the man, Joanna saw a small glass that was filled with purplish liquid. Tilting her head as if she did not understand why he suddenly ordered her to drink that unknown liquid, she moved her gaze back to the man who was still standing beside her bed, waiting for her to take the glass from his hand.

As if knowing the meaning of her questioning eyes and her puzzled expression, Canillas said, "This is an antidote that was made by Fabio and it will remove the poison from your body. So, drink it," Canillas ordered Joanna again with an expressionless face, moving the glass closer to her reach.

Upon hearing the General’s words, Joanna was stiffened. He had indeed found out.

Despite the ferocious heart beating inside her chest, Joanna tried to regain her composure. He had surely found out that she was not sick because of the weather in Archess, but because of something she had consumed that poisoned her body. Otherwise, he would not have ordered her to take an antidote that he held in his hand.

However, Joanna did not bother to pretend to not understand what he meant or continue voicing the lie that she had created, saying that she was not under poison. free𝑤ebnovel.com

She was aware that it would be useless to keep on lying to a great general like Canillas von Rodega, who had defeated so many enemies on the battlefield. Without being a sharp-witted person, it would have been impossible for him to be in the position of a general at such a young age.

Aside from that, she had no more strength to continue playing her role or uttering another lie. She had enough. If she forced herself to be defensive, under current circumstances, she would only end up humiliating herself more.

But why was he still here with that calm demeanor after knowing what she had done to her own body? Why didn’t he pour out his anger and resentment at her after knowing that she lied to him? Didn’t he think that she was an insane woman? Instead, he offered her an antidote to remove the poison from her body.

Or... Could it be a poison, not an antidote as he said? Joanna felt a shiver trail down her spine at that thought.

Fixing her position to sit upright on the bed, Joanna gingerly raised her hand and took the glass from Canillas’ hand.

When the glass was already in her hand, Joanna carefully observed its appearance before bringing it close to her nose, as if wanting to detect what kind of potion it was from its smell. She also wanted to know whether it was poison that was made to kill her after what she had done to him.

Looking at her action, Canillas sighed and said, "I asked permission from Duke de Lara to take some herbal plants from Alenna Garden. I told him that those were needed by Fabio to make an antidote for the allergy that you are suffering. It should be safe. So, drink it." He ordered once again in a flat tone.

On the other hand, Joanna did not do as he said. Instead, after detecting what kind of herbal plants were used to make the potion that was now in her hand, she lowered the glass, holding it on her lap.

Watching his wife sit on the bed with her head lowered with the glass on her lap, Canillas let out another sigh for the umpteenth time since he met her and took a seat on the edge of the bed, next to her.

"Drink it, Joanna. Don’t be childish. Fabio said that it would be dangerous to let the poison stay inside your body any longer. It has to be removed soon," Canillas demanded, no harshness filling his voice.

As Joanna did not respond to him, he continued to say, "It is indeed not wise to hurt yourself like this, Joanna. If you still want to show your tantrum, I advise you to do something that doesn’t harm yourself. We can have a seat and think about it together later. Who knows I can give you a better idea, far better than taking a poison that only causes pain and suffering."

Canillas remarked with sarcasm to the stubborn lady, and the volume of his voice was slightly higher than before. No smile could be found on his exhausted face.

Upon the words stated by the General, Joanna could feel that he tried hard to control his emotion, holding the last strand of his patience. Raising her head, she met the General’s piercing eyes, which were filled with annoyance.

She then responded, "I apologize that I can’t drink this potion." Noticing the General gritted his teeth and opened his mouth as if wanting to snap at her, Joanna spoke hurriedly,

"It is not because I am acting childish or stubborn but because there is a constitution in one herbal plant that was used for this potion that will interact with the potion that I took. It will only make my condition worse than it is now if I drink it."

Finding the man’s forehead crease, as if knowing what was passing inside his mind, she quickly added, "It is not that Sir Fabio wanted to put harm to me, but it might be hard for him to know the exact herbal plants that I took just by examining the rashes on my body."

Joanna did not want the General to misunderstand the meaning of her words, which would cause unnecessary suspicion towards Fabio. It was indeed wrong to put an innocent under accusation and Joanna did not want to create that problem for the General’s family doctor. Besides, it was her matter with him and she did not want to involve another party to be a victim in this matter.

It was not easy to find the exact composition of the herbal extracts that she had consumed if one was not familiar with herbal plants. Even someone who was an herbalist, would not know the right antidote to give if they did not ask in detail what she had consumed or examine the residue of the potion in the glass or bottle where the potion was contained.

A mixed potion of four herbal extracts was more difficult to neutralize than a mixed potion of below the amount she had made. There would be constitutions of one or more plants that would be harmful if they interacted with certain constitutions of other plants.

And regarding Fabio’s decision to give her the antidote that was now in her hands, he chose the regular antidote that had been commonly used to neutralize the poison in the body, regardless of the sources of the poison itself. But she could not blame him as, from the outside, the look of the rashes on her body was similar to the look of a common allergy that he might have ever encountered.

Therefore, in the current case, she was the right person who could heal herself as she was the one who created the poison for herself to drink.

And what was said by Fabio to the General was indeed true that the poison should be removed from her body as soon as possible, before passing twenty-four hours since the potion was taken. Otherwise, it would be difficult to remove and would leave residue on her body that would give unwanted side effects, such as weakening her immune system or damaging her internal organs.

"I will take Fabio here so that he can do another examination on you or you can explain to him what potion you took," said Canillas soon after he heard her explanation, getting up from the bed where he sat. But before making a step forward, Joanna stopped him.

"No, you don’t need to do that, Sir Canillas," Joanna said in a feeble voice, and Canillas turned to look back at her.

"I have already prepared the antidote beforehand," Joanna admitted.

It was all revealed anyway so there was no need to hide it from him and make the situation more complicated, thought Joanna in her mind. Besides, she indeed had to take the antidote she had prepared as soon as possible as she felt that her body was getting more tortured with painful feelings.

All her previous efforts to create such a potion, even hurting herself in order to make her husband despise her as a sickly and scarred wife, were totally in vain. Joanna felt grief in her heart.

Hearing the words uttered by his wife, Canillas hurriedly went back to sit on the bed and said, "Then, take it, Joanna. Where is it? I will get it for you." His voice sounded more alive now, with a hint of relief, as if the heavy burden had been removed from his shoulders.

"So, will you agree to annul our marriage, Sir Canillas?" Instead of answering his inquiry, Joanna asked another thing that seemed to be more important to her.

She had not given up yet, attempting to test her luck.

And what she received as part of the response made her eyes grow wide.