Chapter 102
Chapter 102
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 102
Chapter Title: Grow Muscles Instead of Babies!
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Moreover, when it came to pillow fights, Dietrich had the clear advantage!
After learning pillow fighting directly from Dietrich and training my upper and lower body evenly every day with strength exercises, Lavinia was no different from cold porridge to me.
Lavinia, who got hit all over from head to toe in an instant, flopped face-down onto the bed.
"Huff, huff! I surrender!"
Perhaps exhausted from the intense pillow fight, Lavinia caught her breath several times.
"Mariella, how can you hit so hard?"
"The world of competition is ruthless by nature."
"Even so, my whole body hurts like I fell off a horse."
Seeing Lavinia pout made me burst out laughing.
After a good, energetic romp, I felt full of vitality, but Lavinia stayed sprawled on the bed, rubbing her shoulders.
Her eyebrows were drooping downward.
"Does it hurt that much?"
"I bet I'll wake up covered in bruises tomorrow."
What a drama queen.
I barely held back my laughter and rummaged under the left nightstand by the bed.
Back home, they always kept first-aid supplies right there, but what about here?
The nightstand drawer in De Buyer County was impeccably neat.
The right one was the same.
I'd hoped to find some ointment good for bruises to rub on her. That might ease the pain a bit.
"What's this?"
While I was busy searching the nightstand, Lavinia, who had gotten up and was wandering around the room, stopped in front of the vanity and held up a small bottle.
It was the Marscio potion I'd been staring at earlier, pondering.
"It's shaped like a Leewishi. So cute."
"That's the Marscio potion I bought at the market earlier."
"Huh? You bought that potion?"
"...Could you show a little interest in your cousin-sister instead of just magical beasts?"
Lavinia giggled and spun the bottle in the air.
True to her love for magical beasts, she pressed her eye right up to the bottle shaped like one, peering in as if she could crawl inside.
"If you look that closely, do you see something?"
"I didn't notice before, but there seems to be some sediment?"
"Sediment?"
"Is it a medicine made by mixing powder in water? Something's settled at the bottom."
Lavinia's words, which had been flowing smoothly, cut off abruptly there.
I could see her eyebrows furrow as she pressed her eye even closer to the bottle.
"What's wrong?"
"Come here. Can you see this pitch-black thing inside?"
Following her lead, I brought my eye close to the bottle and spotted something like a tiny black speck, smaller than a grain of rice, settled at the bottom.
Was that supposed to be in there? Or was it a hygiene issue?
"Do you know what it is?"
"Dust?"
"Don't joke around."
"No, I seriously mean, isn't it just dust...?"
Lavinia looked at me like I was the world's biggest fool, let out a deep sigh, and patted my head pityingly.
"It's the second segment of a Leewishi's antenna."
"...?"
"You don't know Leewishi? I just told you. The tiny magical beast that looks like a cockroach. It produces a liquid with awakening properties from its body, so even well-trained knights can't respond properly if they enter a Leewishi's territory..."
"Wait, hold on. A Leewishi antenna? This little thing? How did you even know?"
I cut off Lavinia's explanation, which was starting to lengthen. She tilted her head.
"You can tell at a glance."
...Magical beast enthusiasts are scary. What on earth did she see?
I glanced at the bottom of the bottle again.
'No matter how I look, it just seems like a bit of floating dust to me.'
I had no idea how she spotted it as a segment of a magical beast's antenna.
"You're sure it's a Leewishi antenna?"
"Of course. Would I not recognize the antenna of a common magical beast like Leewishi? The second segment of a Leewishi antenna is shorter than the others, so you can tell just by looking..."
Before Lavinia's explanatory barrage could fully launch, I picked up the other bottle of Marscio potion I'd bought and held it out to her.
"Check this one too. See if it has the same thing."
Lavinia spun it around in front of her eyes and nodded.
Looking where she pointed, I saw a single black dot settled at the bottom.
"But why is this in here?"
"It shouldn't be?"
"Of course not! Leewishi can't be processed into a consumable form—it's even prohibited by law."
"Why? I thought I learned Leewishi bodily fluids have a pretty good awakening effect."
"That's the problem—they're too good. At first, it's just a clear-headed feeling, but once you're addicted, your aggression spikes to the extreme."
Aggression spikes?
"Remember what we learned in tactics class?"
"What?"
"The story of the De Buyer Count family's civil war 100 years ago. How the knights from the eldest daughter's faction, who were besieging from outside, ended up seizing the castle."
Lavinia, who was usually dozing off in tactics class, remembering that? Pretty impressive.
But I could be surprised later.
I quickly recalled the memory.
At the time, the faction following the second son had already taken control inside the castle.
The eldest faction had been driven out, so it looked like a clear win for the second son.
What turned it around was...
"...Leewishi addiction."
"Right. They caught wild Leewishi swarming outside the castle, bottled them up, and endlessly hurled them over the walls, making the second faction's knights shoot them."
"They defended for two months, but in the end..."
"The addicted knights ended up killing each other until they self-destructed."
Typical Lavinia—remembering any tale involving magical beasts perfectly.
A few exposures were fine, but prolonged or excessive single doses led to hyper-awakening, where they saw allies and enemies alike as foes?
Recalling that made the pretty pink Marscio potion look a bit sinister.
The idea that this could be mixed into medicine circulating freely even to civilians...
"There are two possible routes for how this got mixed in."
"Two?"
"Yeah. Either intentionally added during manufacturing, or accidentally during distribution."
But both bottles having it coincidentally? Unlikely.
"If it was intentional..."
Hearing my words, Lavinia's eyes went wide.
Our gazes met. Realizing the gravity, Lavinia's face hardened too.
"We need to go to Erich."
"Right now?"
"He won't be asleep yet. Too much work."
"I'm scared to go alone. Can I come too? I promise I won't get in the way."
Unlike moments ago when her eyes sparkled talking about Leewishi, she looked a bit cowed as she gazed at me.
"What are you talking about? Of course you're coming, Lavinia. You're the one who knows the most about Leewishi out of all of us."
Lavinia, who'd been gauging my reaction, broke into a touched expression and hugged me tightly.
"Everyone else calls it useless trivia, but my knowledge is actually helpful?"
"There's no such thing as useless trivia. You're a genius. If you hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have even known this was a magical beast's antenna."
"Mariella...!"
Save the emotions for later—let's handle this first.
Lavinia released me from her soulless embrace and started walking ahead toward the left corridor where Erich's room was.
Her steps were far more spirited than usual. ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ As expected, the light was on in Erich's room.
Piles of documents towered like mountains. It was just like Grandpa's office desk.
I hadn't expected Florian to be sitting on the sofa reading paperwork too.
"Florian, what are you doing here?"
"Too much for Erich to handle alone."
Even I, his little sister, hadn't thought of that, but Florian stepping up voluntarily to help Erich?
Gratitude welled up, and I moved to grab his hand, but Erich smoothly shifted to the sofa between us, blocking me.
'Huh? What's that about?'
Erich, who had been glaring at Florian with a humorless face, turned to me and smiled warmly as if nothing had happened.