Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: The Two Poisoners
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"Please take care of it."
In response to Arsen's questioning, the merchant guild leader replied with a look of utter incomprehension.
"Wh-what are you talking about?"
"No use pretending you don't know. It's about the estate lord."
Arsen casually picked up the iron mace he had left on the first floor before entering.
Frightened by the sight, the guild leader desperately shook his head in protest.
"I really have no idea what you're talking about! After offering the relic to the estate lord initially, I haven't seen him since, I swear!"
"Among those items you brought, was there poison?"
"Absolutely not! What good would it do to have something like that? If I tried to sell it to anyone, I'd be straight to the gallows the moment suspicion fell on me."
"What about the mage you brought? Could he have had poison or passed it to someone?"
"If that... if that gentleman went out to do something like that, word would have spread immediately that our guild had a mage. My men aren't formal organization members—they'd have reported anything the mage ordered directly to me first. Besides, he doesn't even talk to anyone but me."
"Can you swear that everything you just said is the truth?"
"Of course! I swear on everything I have!"
Brushing off the meaningless oath, Arsen focused his attention on the guild leader's face and gestures.
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul.
Some dismiss it as an empty old superstition, but it doesn't literally mean reading the mind through the eyes.
What matters are the muscles around the eyes and the movement of the pupils. And the gestures.
Through his heightened senses and reflexes, Arsen meticulously observed and analyzed how the guild leader's pupils moved during the conversation, where he looked while speaking, and what actions he took.
A moment later, Arsen nodded and patted the guild leader's shoulder.
"Understood, guild leader. For now, I'll trust you."
"Really? But... the estate lord and poison...?"
"Yes. The estate lord was poisoned and collapsed."
Since the story had already spread among the soldiers and servants, Arsen admitted it straightforwardly.
If they were behind it, they'd already know—and if not, they needed to.
He hadn't thought it likely that Byulburmi would have done such a thing in the first place.
Why draw suspicion by acting exactly at the moment of contact, before or after would have been smarter?
Of course, they could have exploited it intentionally, so he'd probed by intimidating—but the guild leader showed the typical reaction of an innocent man.
And if they truly knew nothing, he needed to leverage the initiative he'd seized by browbeating him.
Plus, confirm if they were a group worth trusting.
"But I can't fully trust you yet. Help me out a bit, and then I might."
"Yes? How...?"
"I want to know who poisoned the estate lord—and if you know of any relics that could help recover him. Can you provide one if so?"
"Well, I can't make that decision on my own..."
"Then I'll get permission."
* * *
[...So, is it possible?]
"Please wait a few minutes. We'll discuss and get back to you promptly."
[Understood. We'll wait.]
Staring at the disconnected crystal orb, Lattis let out a long sigh bubbling up from the depths of his lungs.
He turned to the four elders seated to his left and right.
"Just to be sure, though unlikely—did any of you issue orders to our operatives in Belluan territory?"
"No."
"Absolutely not."
Nodding along with the head-shaking elders, Lattis nodded as if to say he'd expected as much.
They had no way to contact Belluan except through this one crystal orb, which Lattis had managed the entire time.
Meaning this incident had truly occurred within Belluan territory, independent of them.
And in the perfect situation to arouse suspicion.
"Let's think it over. First, how to find the assassin."
"Why not leave it alone? From the looks of things, it's working in our favor. If the estate lord dies, it'll sow chaos—maybe even drive out the successor."
Uman tossed out the suggestion casually, but Lattis shook his head in denial.
"That'd only hold if things keep going positively. What if the assassin isn't found, the estate lord dies, and civil war breaks out? The successor could die in the fighting. That'd be our worst tragedy. They could even get framed as the assassin and killed. And even if it resolves well, the successor will see us as incompetent."
Thanks to Ajur's diligent information gathering and reports, they had a decent grasp of Belluan's political situation.
Not in-depth, but enough to know the two sons were fiercely opposing each other, and Arsen occupied an ambiguous position.
"Better to help find the assassin, build trust, and talk things over?"
"Yes. Plus, we can prove we're capable."
Tia and Lattis's exchange drew nods of agreement from the other two elders.
"Got a method?"
"From what I hear, a 'Remembrancer' seems suitable."
The 'Remembrancer' was a one-use relic that, when used on an object, let you read its memories.
Naturally, it had conditions: limited to certain objects, and the viewable time was at most a day.
It only showed memories to the user, so it couldn't serve as evidence.
Of course, limited utility didn't make it any less valuable.
"Think that'll satisfy them?"
"It'll do. Relics for spying or eavesdropping are precious on our side too—we can't just hand those over."
"Even rushing to Belluan from here takes weeks. Won't it be useless by then?"
"They have three mages there, right? If even one proper spatial mage, they could receive it via teleportation spell. Easy for a small item."
"I'll ask if it's possible."
As Lattis nodded, Elder Arman asked.
"But how do you plan to heal the estate lord? If specialist healers can't, we don't have much either."
"I have something in mind for that."
* * *
"You said there was no poison in the wine barrel."
"Right. According to the chief physician's analysis, the spilled wine on the floor was poisoned, but what remained in the barrel was fine. No clue what the poison was, though."
Late afternoon, Arsen was in the parlor with Luden.
The traces of the daytime incident remained untouched.
No one had dared clean up, fearing it might be seen as destroying evidence.
The overturned table, wine stains stuck to the marble floor, shattered glass fragments scattered about—all vividly showed how urgent the situation had been.
Arsen pulled out the 'Remembrancer' from his pocket.
Thanks to Luden's spatial magic specialty, he'd received the relic directly from Byulburmi via teleportation spell.
"Let's begin."
"Got it."
Pressing the paper against a shard of crystal on the floor and infusing mana, Arsen felt himself sucked away somewhere—then his consciousness blacked out.
Arsen realized he had become not a person, but the crystal wine glass.
The glass was still stored in some dark place.
Focusing his mind to fast-forward time, the surroundings soon brightened.
Arsen saw someone take out the glass and apply a transparent liquid to its rim.
A bit later, a servant picked up the glass and walked.
Arriving at the parlor, the servant set out the small wooden wine barrel and glass.
Then the estate lord and Eloise sat together.
Mumbling as if exchanging words, the estate lord drank first—then vomited blood and collapsed.
With the table overturning and the sensation of his body shattering to pieces, Arsen's consciousness returned to reality.
The 'Remembrancer' in his hand had completely disintegrated.
"Hoo..."
"How was it? Find anything?"
To Luden's question, Arsen nodded.
"Let's head back to the tower first."
* * *
Back at the tower, Arsen and Luden sat facing each other with chairs placed.
Only after casting a sound-blocking spell inside did Arsen reveal what he'd seen.
"Knight Amund and Ramun Knight—the two of them poisoned the glasses. Separately. Using their own trusted retainers like Deroy's and Ridat's suggests they didn't trust handing it to a servant."
Amund was one of the knights from the previous southern expedition, deeply connected to Lord Kort—Deroy's maternal grandfather—making him practically Deroy's confidant.
This meant both Deroy and Ridat had attempted poisoning.
"Were they working together?"
"Doesn't seem so, judging by how they're snarling at each other like they want to kill. No need to poison twice if collaborating—doubles the risk of getting caught."
"Deroy Young Master... no, Deroy makes sense, but why Ridat?"
"Who knows, they must have their reasons. And their targets weren't just one person."
Arsen swept his face as if washing it.
"The table overturned and mixed everything, so no one noticed—but Eli's glass was poisoned too."
"Damnable traitors."
Using Luden's curse as background, Arsen sank into thought.
Originally, he'd planned to side with whichever successor wasn't the culprit after identifying them.
But with both revealed as bastards willing to kill their own father and sister, only one choice remained.
"We'll have to leave the territory. Staying here's dangerous. They've targeted us once—no guarantee they won't again."
Eloise could use purification spells, but magic required focus—casting while poisoned and vomiting blood was near impossible.
"Denounce the two?"
"No evidence, and it'd just sound like I'm using Eli to aim for the lordship. Suicide in this situation."
Lord Nut had checked Arsen early on not out of fear he'd actually seize the seat via Eloise.
Just wary of him stirring chaos in the succession.
Unless the estate lord himself declared Eloise successor, a mage with thin maternal connections jumping into the race was near impossible.
Especially with the two factions already set.
The neutrals had many friendly to Arsen, but they weren't sloppy enough to back him and Eloise on friendship alone without cause or proof.
"Where to? Few territories let mages live peacefully."
"Not leaving forever. Belluan's practically home for Eli and me. I'll find a way to recover the estate lord."
"How?"
To Luden's question, Arsen recalled his recent talk with Lattis.
About reviving the estate lord, who was as good as half-dead.
"I'll accept Byulburmi's proposal. They say there's a massive relic-laden ruin far southwest that might even revive the dead. Probably exaggerated, but it could still heal him. Worst case, gather relics outside to build strength against those two bastards."
Having already revealed the successors, Luden grasped the implication.
"Byulburmi... not sure they're trustworthy friends. They helped big this time, though. Maybe I should..."
As Luden trailed off, Arsen realized what he meant.
"You need to stay here, Luden Knight. Neither will allow you to go with us."
Luden was the territory's most capable mage and renowned as an erudite sage.
With only the blind, frail Groom left if he went, neither Deroy nor Ridat would permit it.
"No knights to take?"
"Can't trust Deroy or Ridat's followers, and the reliable ones need to guard the estate lord. They probably won't kill him easily anyway."
With the estate lord down, the two successors' factions were evenly matched.
And with recovery seeming impossible, killing him gained nothing.
Instead, catching proof the opponent did it would grant huge moral advantage and neutral support.
Both would be desperate to frame the other, watching closely.
An ironic situation where the two traitors' rivalry ensured the estate lord's safety.
"For now... tomorrow when Eli wakes, I'll ask her. Don't want to drag her off without agreement."
"She's no fool. She'll understand."
Luden's gruff words masked deep worry, drawing a smirk from Arsen.
"Don't blindly trust those Byulburmi folks. They're a bit suspicious."
"Naturally. Thanks for the concern."