I Became the Grand Duke of the North

⊱ 1 ⊰

Working late at the lab was quite common, especially in the field of Biomedics. The male stayed behind in order to finish the research on this plant from the Himalayas. The plant was studied and sent by another Biomedics scientist in China. He covers his face with protective gear and wore thick gloves while handling this plant. Its intricate wine-red petals looked intoxicating and dangerous.

The plant definitely held some sort of poisonous properties, simply based on the thorns that covered the plants stem and the sharp ended leaves.

He moved his thumb adjacent to one of the plant's leaves, sliding it across the vein of the leaf, rubbing his white latex glove against it to get a feel of texture. He hummed a bit as he looked over to one of the detached leaves and put it under a magnifying glass. After coming to a conclusion, he stores the plant in a storage system.

He looked over to a small picture frame he had on his desk, a picture of his family, the fluorescent light hit the glass of the portrait on him and his sister. He's been working a lot to support her more, he felt like he wasn't doing as much as he could. She was annoying, yes. But after their parents left this world early, he knew he had to step up.

His sister is very bright and vibrant, always talking passionately about things she's interested in as He watched on with small interest. The day before was no different. She was excitedly talking about the ending of this novel she was interested in, "By His Highnesses' Side," a romance drama novel set in a historical setting.

Previously, his sister was trying to get him to read the novel too. At first, he simply read it to humor her, but eventually understood her enthusiasm surrounding the romance novel. It had an interesting and surprisingly action-pact storyline, with romance being in the mix of it.

The main male lead was your typical strong headed prince but had a lot of depth to his character. The main female lead was no different, she has good character and gives off a strong-women persona. There's of course, a romance novel always has two other male leads that chase after the heroine's love.

But the character that felt really flesh out was the novel's main villain, the duke of the north. Despite being such a typical character, the author managed to curate him into a somewhat deep and emotional character, exploring his actions as the four protagonists attempt to defend themselves and the empire against his evil wrongdoings.

He pauses as he stared at the stainless white wall Infront of him, he seemed to blank out for a bit. He felt some tension in his head but deducted to possibly the lack of food and sleep.

He exits the room and disinfects his protective gear, before disposing the latex gloves. He hangs the white coat he wore underneath the gear on a nearby hanger on the glossy white tile walls. The disposal bin where the gloves were thrown at notably had a small slit around the index finger.

The male headed home with a bag of to-go food from a restaurant his sister loved, as he began unlocking the door, he found the headache a bit more painful. After opening the door, he placed down the bag on the table. "...! Come over here, I brought some of that food that you like from the corner!"

His sister rushed to the dining table, smiling. As soon as he saw her face, the headache began to become worse and worse, it felt like his head was going to split open. He tried to act like everything was okay, but his face was visibly sweaty. He held on to the wooden chair for balance but stumbled and fell on the floor. He tried to stand up, but only managed to stumble on his knees.

She rushed over and tried to help him up, but He began coughing exasperatedly, covering his mouth as he did so. But what was left in the palm of his hand was his own blood, that dripped down his chin. He put two and two together, the plant's poison must've seeped through somewhere through his gear.