Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Poisoning (2)
“Be careful of the food,” huh.
I split firewood while turning the note over in my mind.
-Thud!
Though I had already burned the secretly delivered note to ashes, I could still picture it vividly, as though it remained resting in my hand.
After receiving it, I searched for the maid who delivered it.
But like a mirage, she disappeared completely.
I never saw her again.
Honestly, I didn’t know.
Maybe the person who delivered the note wasn’t even truly a maid.
Maybe it was someone only pretending to be one.
“...Haa.”
My thoughts were tangled.
That short warning planted endless conflict inside me.
And the more conflicted I became, the harder I swung the axe.
-Thud!
First of all, who would even warn me like that?
There was no one in this land willing to stand on my side.
People here might kill me, but they certainly wouldn’t try to save me.
Or perhaps they feared Father would crush this land if I died?
...But Father would never destroy an entire land for my sake alone.
He might be able to crush Rondor, but not the Kingdom of Dellum standing behind it.
If House Allen and Rondor went to war again, it would only end in mutual destruction.
Father would never make such a choice.
Of course, that was something only I knew because I understood Father’s personality. Rondor certainly didn’t.
Or maybe it was a spy from House Allen trying to help me?
No, that made no sense either.
If Father had arranged something like this, he would have warned me before sending me away.
Next, the words “be careful of the food” themselves were vague.
Did it simply mean spoiled food might be served?
Or did it truly mean someone was preparing poison?
The first possibility sounded absurd, but with so little information, I couldn’t determine anything.
And if it really hinted at poison, did it even make sense for such information to reach me?
Something like that would surely be prepared in extreme secrecy.
To make matters worse, I belonged to the Punishment Corps.
Meals were served by scooping slop from a giant communal pot into wooden bowls one ladle at a time.
There wasn’t even much I could realistically do to be careful.
Unless someone planned to poison the entire Punishment Corps, they couldn’t poison only me.
And even if they tried, the others would start collapsing first long before I ever ate anything.
“Haa.”
I considered the possibility that the note was simply a prank.
Maybe someone just wanted to make my daily life uncomfortable.
“...”
...But even so, dismissing it completely as a joke still left an unpleasant feeling.
Especially because this was Rondor territory.
.
.
.
I carried the chopped firewood to the blacksmith’s forge.
The master blacksmith there, Gulk, nodded at me.
“Allen. You’re here. Leave the wood over there.”
-Rattle!
I dumped the lumber from the cart into the forge.
The blacksmith shop was already bustling with activity.
The interior remained dark except for the blazing furnace that dyed the surroundings red.
Warm heat spilled outside, pushing against the cold air.
At the center stood an enormous bellows.
One apprentice blacksmith wiped sweat from his forehead while continuously pumping air for the senior smiths.
The smell of iron and charcoal smoke mixed together thickly in the air.
The things made here were what supported Rondor itself.
Farming tools, weapons, and all sorts of equipment.
Apparently Gulk had a moment free, because he approached me and asked,
“Hot in here, isn’t it?”
He was one of the few people who hadn’t witnessed my executions.
He was easygoing enough that he rarely cared about rumors.
Because of that, he was one of the few people who didn’t show much hostility toward me.
“Yeah.”
And I treated people like him politely in return.
I didn’t want to push away even the few who didn’t openly hate me.
Dealing with everyone else was already exhausting enough.
I said,
“You seem pretty busy.”
“That’s because of the procession. We need everything prepared beforehand.”
“Procession?”
“You haven’t heard?”
Gulk looked surprised.
Well, I had spent most of the past month wasting time by the river.
He explained,
“Lady Vivian turned fourteen, so they decided to march through the territory. They’re planning to hand out farming tools and various supplies to the people for free. The farming tools we’re making right now.”
A procession.
Probably meant to reinforce her authority and responsibility as ruler.
House Allen occasionally held similar events too.
Especially whenever my younger siblings were born.
More importantly, though, such events helped manage dissatisfaction among the territory’s people.
From that perspective, distributing farming tools was actually a good idea.
“Was giving away farming tools Vivian’s idea?”
“How would I know whose idea it was? But Lady Vivian came down personally to give the orders. She’s truly kindhearted. It’s just a shame she ended up alone.”
“...Where’d you get all the iron?”
“We reduced unnecessary furniture inside the castle. Iron candle holders, tongs, things like that. Ah, and the knight orders even melted down a few sets of armor too.”
I looked toward the heat spilling from the forge.
Then suddenly, I remembered Vivian’s words.
She said she’d probably torment me again soon.
She didn’t know how, but she said she would.
...Maybe it was because of the procession.
Well, it wasn’t like they could avoid using me during it.
More than handing out farming tools, the best way to satisfy the territory’s people would probably be humiliating me publicly.
All I had to do was remember the day I first arrived here.
“Master Gulk! Stop slacking off and get over here!”
One of the blacksmiths shouted hoarsely from inside.
Most blacksmiths sounded like they had phlegm stuck in their throats from constantly wrestling with smoke.
“Yeah, alright!”
Gulk turned back to me and said,
“You should head back now. Good work, Lord Allen.”
I nodded and turned to leave, but the lingering discomfort caught at my ankle and stopped me.
“...Gulk?”
“What?”
Be careful of the food.
The warning wouldn’t stop echoing in my mind.
“Could you spare me a piece of charcoal?”
I entered the Punishment Corps dining hall for dinner.
The place was already packed with people loudly eating.
I stood at the back of the line waiting for food.
The boy ahead of me noticed me and subtly widened the distance between us.
A familiar kind of distance.
-Thud!
“Hey.”
Someone smacked my back.
There were only three people in the Punishment Corps who ever approached me now.
Balon, Willas, and Martin.
Recently, after all the brutal training, even Balon had started slimming down slightly.
He asked,
“We’ve been waiting. Where were you?”
At this point, even I could only let out a hollow laugh when looking at them.
“Had something to do.”
Honestly, it was strange dedication for them to keep waiting just to eat together when I never even asked.
As a noble, I never really had many friends my age.
And even when I did, invisible hierarchies always existed, so I never truly felt comfortable around them.
Maybe because of that, I never fully understood the concept of friendship.
But these three idiots seemed to be teaching me what it felt like little by little.
Willas shook his curly orange hair and pointed toward my back pocket.
“Kylo, what’s that?”
Lately they had started calling me by my name.
I didn’t really care.
I looked at what he pointed at and answered,
“Charcoal.”
“Why charcoal?”
“Might need it.”
“What, gonna draw something?”
“You think I would?”
“Heard all nobles know how.”
“That’s mostly noble girls.”
“Then Lady Vivian probably knows how too?”
I scratched lightly at my neck.
If she’d grown up as an ordinary noble lady, probably.
But now that she was head of the family and constantly busy, I wasn’t sure whether she had time for things like that.
Unable to answer properly, I simply shrugged.
As the line shortened, we prepared to receive food.
I carefully watched today’s servers.
I paid close attention in case they did something strange when my turn came.
-Thud.
First they handed me a wooden bowl.
“...”
I carefully inspected the inside.
If there was liquid, I checked whether it felt sticky or whether it was really just water.
Martin watched me and said,
“...You’ve been doing that since yesterday.”
“Mind your own business.”
The same thing happened when I received the spoon.
I turned it over repeatedly, checking for anything suspicious that looked like poison.
Then came the food itself.
When the server scooped out the slop I usually called dog food, I carefully watched whether my portion was identical to the person before me’s.
Whether they added anything extra.
Whether they looked nervous while serving me.
“...”
I found absolutely nothing suspicious.
I carried my tray and sat at an empty section of the long table.
Willas, Balon, and Martin followed.
“You’ve been acting weird since yesterday,” Balon muttered suspiciously.
“Not since yesterday. Since the executions,” Willas corrected.
“That’s not what I mean. He’s definitely been weirder since yesterday. Smiling to himself, fiddling with bowls and spoons...”
“...”
The smiling was probably because Vivian kept popping into my head.
And touching the bowls was obviously because of the poison warning.
I shook my head to brush off their questions.
“Forget it. Just eat.”
But even after starting the meal, I couldn’t lift my spoon easily.
The tiniest possibility kept making me hesitate.
I never imagined being unable to eat comfortably would feel this stressful.
It even ruined my appetite.
Balon carefully watched me and said,
“...If you’re not gonna eat, give it to me.”
“I’m eating.”
I scooped up food and shoved it into my mouth.
Only after several more spoonfuls did I finally let go of my suspicion that it might be poisoned.
While eating, Martin elbowed my arm.
“Hey, Kylo. You hear about it?”
“...?”
“In around ten days, they’re marching through the territory. The Punishment Corps is included too.”
Willas smacked Martin verbally.
“You think Kylo wouldn’t know? He’s gonna get cursed at more than anyone during that march.”
I ignored Willas and sided with Martin instead.
“No, I only heard today too.”
But Martin apparently hadn’t thought about the part where I’d be publicly insulted, because he suddenly looked flustered.
Since it wasn’t really his fault, I just continued asking,
“So what about it?”
“...Nothing. I was just saying it sounds fun, getting to tour the territory. But thinking about it now, it probably won’t be fun for you.”
Balon sighed too.
“Wonder if I’ll get to see my younger siblings. Would be nice if I could at least talk to them a little.”
Willas clearly didn’t want to talk about family, because he quickly changed the topic.
“Anyway, why even hold a procession?”
I answered lazily,
“If anything, they’re already late doing it now.”
“Why?”
“...The head of the family changed, yet the territory’s people haven’t seen her even once. That’s probably why she’s still being looked down on so pathetically.”
Willas glanced around nervously.
“...The part about her being pathetic is just your opinion, alright? Don’t drag us into it.”
I didn’t answer.
“So basically this procession is meant to make the people of Roktana recognize who the head of House Rondor is?”
“That too, but...”
Hm?
“...”
Something suddenly caught in my mind.
It was such an obvious statement, yet something about it bothered me.
What was it?
The thought slipped away too quickly to grasp.
“...Kylo?”
“Ah. Nothing. Anyway, yeah, that’s the point.”
I tried my best, but I still left some food behind.
Even after convincing myself there was no poison, the possibility alone made my stomach uneasy.
It also didn’t help that the human slop tasted especially terrible today.
Unable to shake the lingering discomfort, I entered Rondor Castle.
I wanted to find the maid who gave me the note.
Whether she was really there or not, I didn’t know.
And even if I found her, I doubted she’d answer any questions.
Still, simply doing something made me feel a little better.
While wandering the castle, I ran into several of Rondor’s retainers.
“...So then, to Count Corrod—”
“L-Lord Brinden.”
Brinden, who had been speaking with a maid, cleared his throat and immediately stopped when he saw me.
Then he lightly patted the maid’s shoulder.
“Anyway, just pass along the message.”
Afterward, the treasurer scattered away like a cockroach fleeing light.
Intelligence Officer Nestor reacted similarly when he saw me.
“...Report, perhaps— ah, Kylo Allen. Do you enjoy eavesdropping?”
“...Were you discussing something you didn’t want overheard?”
“I simply don’t wish any information reaching House Allen.”
Then the knights, guards, maids...
Everyone immediately shut their mouths whenever they saw me.
Part of it was certainly because I was an outsider and an Allen, just as Nestor said.
But beyond that, there was a strangely chaotic atmosphere hanging in the castle.
Just as Vivian once said, all the retainers seemed to be hiding something meaningful.
“Kylo Allen.”
Then a familiar voice called out.
It was Vivian.
She raised an eyebrow as though surprised to see me wandering the castle.
“...Why are you here?”
Seeing her after encountering all those retainers only made her seem even more isolated.
Feeling uncomfortable with how much pity I kept developing for her, I almost made some excuse and left.
But since things had already turned out this way, I told her honestly.
“I’m looking for a maid. Can you help?”
“...A maid?”
Vivian looked at me as though dumbfounded.
“You keep misunderstanding something... Don’t you realize there’s nobody here you can order around?”
“That’s not it. I just wanted to ask something... forget it.”
The expression on her face told me explaining further would be pointless.
When I walked past her without hesitation, Vivian shook her head and started walking too.
“Ha.”
But once again, the note’s contents snagged at me.
“...Hey.”
At the way I addressed her, Vivian frowned slightly and turned around.
Should I ask?
The more I thought about it, the more it felt like I was overthinking everything.
“...You...”
As I hesitated, unable to finish the sentence, Vivian urged me,
“Spit it out.”
Eventually, I asked almost as though confessing something.
“Your meals... they’re handled properly, right?”
“What?”
Vivian stared at me like I was some kind of insect.
Her expression shifted strangely.
She clearly misunderstood something.
“...Allen, are you perhaps misunderstanding the relationship between us—”
“Forget it, forget it. I said something stupid.”
The atmosphere suddenly became unbearable, so I waved my hand dismissively and left.
Behind me, Vivian muttered in disbelief,
“What was that...?”
Well.
The note had been meant for me, so why was I suddenly worrying about her food?
Unlike me, she ate under the careful supervision of countless maids.
Someone was obviously already checking her food for poison.
I shook my head and pushed the strange thought away.
It was better to focus on surviving my own problems first.