35. Gwen (5)
35. Gwen (5)
"Just a moment."
I asked for their understanding and tasted each of the four cups of tea I had brewed. But they all tasted the same.
"They all taste the same...?"
"That cannot be. I tasted them as well, and Gwen-nim's tea was the only one that tasted strange."
I tilted my head at the firm words of Amber, who never lied to me since I became a Creature.
I tasted the tea little by little again, but they all tasted like ordinary tea.
Even if I had a dull palate, if Gwen and Amber were reacting like that, it meant there was a stark difference in taste, and there was no way I wouldn't notice it.
Since I became the Queen, it's not like I think everything that isn't human tastes bad. I've been living in this city for a month, eating various foods, and I even rank them in my head. My palate is normal.
So how could I be the only one who doesn't know?
"This is strange..."
I took a small sip of Gwen's tea again and set it down.
"For now, just in case there's a problem with how the tea was made, don't drink this. I'll brew you some tea separately."
"Ah, that's alright. It's not that the taste is strange, it's just the taste of ordinary tea, so there's no problem with the tea itself."
Gwen, who had picked up the tea I had taken a few sips from, suddenly flinched and quickly took a sip.
"No way..."
Gwen stared blankly at the tea after taking it away from her lips.
"This tea wasn't changed just now, was it?"
"No. Are you okay? Did the taste get even stranger? Don't drink it. I'll—"
"It became delicious..."
"Pardon?"
Gwen held a sip in her mouth, closed her eyes, her face relaxed, and she slowly gulped down the tea she had been holding.
Seeing Gwen act as if she were savoring the lingering taste even after swallowing, I thought, has Gwen lost her mind?
No, she's making that expression and acting like that just from drinking a cup of tea?
==
After the tea time, which had various things happen, ended, Amber and I headed to the kitchen on the second floor before going to sleep.
The reason was to find out the truth about the tea from earlier.
I started brewing tea just like I had earlier.
First, I brewed the tea in the first cup, stirred it lightly with a teaspoon, put it in my mouth to hold it, and just as I was about to brew the second cup with the teaspoon I had in my mouth...
""Ah.""
Amber and I realized it.
Why one cup tasted different even though it was brewed with the same tea. And why the one that clearly tasted different earlier had become delicious again.
The reason the taste changed was clear. It was Gwen, who said it became delicious after I had taken a few sips.
"Because of my saliva...?"
"I will check for a moment."
Amber compared the first tea I brewed and the second tea by drinking them alternately.
"The first tea certainly tasted like ordinary tea, and the second tea tasted ecstatic. I never imagined that the taste of the tea was due to Lea-nim's saliva until now."
That's obvious. It hasn't been long since I started drinking tea in the first place. Maybe a week?
Everyone says it's an ecstatic taste, but to me, it just feels like ordinary tea. Is it because it's my own saliva that I can't taste it?
Knowing the secret makes me feel somewhat empty and embarrassed.
If you get down to it, the reason it becomes delicious is because of my spit. But it's also a bit strange to spit in the tea every time I drink it.
I just thought that the saliva of this body, the Queen, just tastes good to other people.
But I realized shortly after how dangerous this saliva is.
It was because of the child named Niv.
Niv was a child Gwen had brought.
I just thought she was that kind of child, but as she washed up and stayed at the Orphanage, gaining some weight, I realized she was quite a pretty child.
On top of that, she had a kind heart, was popular with the other children, was exemplary, and was a fairly perfect child in many ways.
If she were an ordinary high school student in Korea, she would have been the student body president.
She's pretty, has some height, has a kind heart, has leadership, and genuinely worries about and takes care of the children.
If she grows up without any problems, she will be an adult that anyone would respect.
That child ended up by my side instead of Amber, who was trying to monitor Gwen.
Perhaps because I lived like I was dying in a black company back in Korea, now that I've become the Queen, I'm living more leisurely than anyone else.
I wake up leisurely, leave the Colony management to the children, and even leave the Orphanage to Amber.
Of course, it's not that I'm living leisurely without doing the work I need to do.
It's just that I'm living leisurely because I have no work I need to do.
Anyway, I brewed tea for Niv, who takes care of such a leisurely me, a few times.
But as time went on, something became strange.
Her dependence on the tea grew higher and higher. Just like someone doing drugs.
There was a time I forgot and didn't give her tea. Because I had to go to the Colony for a moment.
Gwen is important, but Narim is also important, so I had to check if Narim was doing well.
Narim wasn't used to Creatures yet, so I had no choice but to go myself.
Niv, who hadn't been able to drink tea for a day like that, started showing strange behavior.
Niv, who had never once been annoyed since coming to the Orphanage, started getting angry and annoyed at the children.
She didn't get angry loudly or show annoyance in front of everyone.
But I noticed that all of Niv's anger and annoyance came from anxiety.
Because all those negative emotions Niv was harboring disappeared after she drank my tea.
And having confirmed Niv's state, I remembered something.
It was Gwen.
Gwen also clearly acted excessively while drinking the tea.
She clearly showed displeasure with her expression when drinking tea without my saliva.
I don't know exactly what effect this saliva has.
But I realized this saliva is a way to bring Gwen down. I had thought of various ways to bring Gwen down from her position as Knight Commander, but all those annoying and inconvenient methods became unnecessary.
Because a simple method had appeared.
==
Gwen was making a serious face after rubbing the blood that was so sticky it was stuck to the floor and smelling it.
'5 people died here at least a week ago.'
As a Knight Commander who had no choice but to see countless corpses, Gwen knew at once that a person had died at the scene she was in.
She figured out when the person died by the amount of dried blood on the walls and floor, the smell of rotting corpses wafting from all sides, and the maggots visible in the surroundings.
'What on earth is happening here?'
She had discovered dozens of places like this in just a week.
She had thought that since Lea built the Orphanage, crime had decreased. But that wasn't it.
It just looked like crime had decreased because the vagrants committing crimes were being victimized by crimes.
'On top of that, the Mana is getting thicker.'
The difference between the Mana traces found at Narim's house and the Mana traces at the scene that seemed to have happened most recently was stark.
Mana traces that were darker, creepier, stickier, and could even be described as a swamp of death.
It was an ominous Mana that even Gwen didn't want to touch. The problem was that the Mana was getting stronger.
The difference between the Mana traces in front of Gwen right now and the Mana traces found at Narim's house was the difference between a child and an adult.
'This Monster is getting stronger the more it eats people.'
She got goosebumps all over her body thinking it must be several times stronger than it was back then, but Gwen was in that state right now as well.
Gwen also knows why that tea is delicious, reduces physical fatigue, and makes her stronger.
There's no way she couldn't know.
She saw with her own two eyes that the tea becomes delicious in situations where Lea's saliva is bound to get in it.
And Gwen knows the history of the Saintess from the neighboring Holy Kingdom.
It was said that everything that touches the Saintess's body becomes holy, and the Holy Water made by the Saintess's prayer can cure diseases that no potion can cure.
Thinking about that history, it's not strange that the tea Lea brewed for her has made her this strong.
Of course, there's a difference in that it's saliva, not prayer, and that she's a Saintess called by people, not a real Saintess, but it means it's not an impossible thing.
'Still, I'm getting closer little by little.'
Gwen took out the Mana Location Tracking Tool developed by the Magic Research Department and collected the Mana traces with it.
The Mana Location Tracking Tool, which looks like a large syringe, is a tool that allows you to analyze the Mana and pinpoint the location to some extent once you collect a certain level of Mana.
Since the recent Mana traces are getting stronger, the levels required by the Mana Location Tracking Tool were filling up quickly.
At this rate, if she collects it just one more time, she will be able to pinpoint where that Monster is.
The problem is that she has found all the incidents that happened here.
For Mana traces to remain, it ultimately means that a person must die again for those traces to form. And those traces naturally disperse and disappear after a certain amount of time.
This place is the most recent incident among all the places she has seen so far.
Both the Mana traces and the state of the scene.
The way to have the fewest casualties is for a person to die one more time, collect the Mana traces, pinpoint the exact location, and then subjugate it with her knights.
The best thing would be to discover that situation, stop it, and subjugate the Monster, but the problem is that if she just encounters it, there could be greater casualties while trying to subjugate the Monster.
'For now, I'll go back, drink the tea Lea-nim makes for me, and go back to the Knights tomorrow.'
Gwen put away the Mana Location Tracking Tool and headed toward the Orphanage.