Transmigrated as the Crown Prince's Mate
Chapter 136: Where To Start?...

Chapter 136: Where To Start?...

Damian exhaled slowly, his silver eyes flickering with something unreadable. He turned to Evelina, lingering for a moment longer than necessary.

"I have to go."

Evelina had already known this was coming. She wasn’t happy about it, but she understood.

Still, that didn’t mean she had to make it easy for him.

She forced a smirk. "What, you don’t want to stick around and go poisoner hunting with me?"

Damian’s lips twitched, but his tone remained serious. "You know I would, but I need to see what they’re up to this time." His gaze flickered toward the palace entrance, where Selene and her father had just disappeared with the King.

Evelina hummed. "Yes, wouldn’t want to keep your dear fiancée waiting."

Relia scoffed in her head. "Ugh. Don’t remind me."

Damian’s expression darkened slightly. "She’s not my fiancée."

"Right," Evelina drawled. "And this whole grand display of expensive gifts is just... generosity?"

Relia snorted. "More like bribery wrapped in silk and gold."

Damian let out a slow breath. "I’ll be back as soon as I can."

Evelina nodded, tilting her head. "Go handle your royal business, Your Highness. I’ll be fine."

For a second, Damian hesitated. Like he wanted to say something else.

Relia clicked her tongue. "Oh, for gods’ sake, just kiss her already and leave."

Evelina ignored her wolf and waved Damian off. "Go," she repeated, more firmly this time. I already have my schedule cut out for me, remember? I’ll be busy trying to find out who framed me for attempted murder and treason. Just another day in paradise."

Damian’s lips twitched, but there was a brief hesitation. "I’ll be back as soon as I can," he promised.

Evelina nodded, waving him off. "Go handle your royal business, Your Highness. I’ll be fine."

Damian lingered for another second before finally turning and striding toward the palace entrance.

The moment he was out of sight, Evelina exhaled and muttered under her breath, "Well, that was annoying."

Relia huffed. "Tell me about it. I nearly bit him just to make a point."

"You don’t have teeth."

"Oh, but if I did—"

"Milady?" Jasper’s voice interrupted her mental conversation. "Are we going to stand here and sulk, or are we actually going to find this poisoner?"

Evelina shook herself out of her thoughts and turned to him.

"So, Jasper," she said, forcing herself into work mode. "Where do we start?"

Jasper shrugged. "I don’t know, milady. You tell me."

Evelina folded her arms, running through the facts in her head.

"We know someone poisoned the wine meant for Damian," she murmured. "We also know that I was supposed to be framed for it."

Jasper nodded. "Correct. And because of that, someone made sure the bottle went missing before we could analyze it."

Evelina exhaled, thinking. "There are only so many places a wine bottle can go. If it was simply hidden, we would have found it by now. But if it was disposed of..."

Jasper’s eyes gleamed. "Ah. Now we’re getting somewhere."

Relia suddenly perked up. "Oh, wait— it could be in the trash."

Evelina blinked. "Jasper," she said slowly, "where do the palace’s discarded wine bottles go?"

Jasper scratched his chin. "Well, bottles meant for recycling are collected every twenty-seven days. They get taken to a disposal site outside the palace walls before being sold to glassmakers."

Evelina’s stomach dropped. "And when is the next collection?"

Jasper smirked. "Tomorrow."

Evelina’s eyes widened. If the poisoned bottle was among them, they were running out of time.

"Take me there," she said immediately.

Relia practically howled. "YES. ACTION. FINALLY."

Jasper gave a flourishing bow. "With pleasure."

And just like that—they had a lead.

**********

Evelina came to a dead stop the moment she stepped into the storage chamber where the palace’s empty wine bottles were kept before being sent off for recycling.

Her jaw nearly dropped.

"Holy crap."

The room was huge, with tall wooden shelves reaching from the floor to the ceiling. These shelves were filled with empty wine bottles. Crates were stacked carelessly on top of each other, with some spilling over with glass bottles in different shades of red, green, and clear.

The smell of stale wine filled the air, combined with the slight dampness of aged wood.

Evelina turned in a slow circle, scanning the chaos. There had to be hundreds—if not thousands—of bottles in here.

"Where do we even start?" she muttered, rubbing her temples.

Jasper, ever the picture of amusement, leaned casually against a crate. "Welcome to the palace’s best-kept secret—our royal stockpile of regret and bad decisions."

Evelina shot him a look. "How do we even know which is which?" She gestured to the sheer number of bottles. "There’s too many!"

Jasper nodded, looking far too entertained. "Well, yeah. That’s because, believe it or not, the royal house—or should I say the palace as a whole—drinks a lot."

Evelina blinked. "This much wine in twenty-five days?"

Jasper chuckled, tapping a random bottle with his boot. "You’d be surprised."

Relia snorted in Evelina’s head. "I suddenly have a newfound respect for the palace occupants."

Evelina groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "This is ridiculous."

Jasper grinned. "Ridiculous or not, we have work to do."

Evelina exhaled, scanning the shelves again. "Okay. Think. If someone wanted to get rid of the poisoned bottle without being obvious, they wouldn’t just toss it in a random pile. They’d put it somewhere it wouldn’t stand out."

Jasper hummed. "So... mixed in with the others?"

"Exactly."

Relia huffed. "That narrows it down to only a thousand or so bottles. Should be easy."

Evelina ignored her wolf’s sarcasm and walked over to the nearest stack. "Do they separate by brand? Year? Type?"

Jasper tilted his head. "Kind of. The bottles are grouped by the sections they were taken from—kitchens, royal dining, staff quarters, etc." He pointed toward the far end of the room. "The ones that come from the royal family’s table are stored there."

Evelina’s eyes sharpened. "Then that’s where we start."

Jasper sighed. "I was afraid you’d say that."

Evelina smirked. "Oh? Didn’t peg you for the type to be scared of a few wine bottles."

Jasper gave her an unimpressed look. "I’m not scared. I’m just lazy."

Relia laughed. "Points for honesty."

Evelina rolled her eyes and started toward the royal section. Jasper followed, grumbling under his breath about ’manual labour not being in his job description.’

They had a long search ahead of them.

And the clock was ticking.