Chapter 114

Chapter 114

After tasting his special tea for two days in a row, I was beyond certain of one thing. The subtle taste lingering on the tip of my tongue was likely a poison meant to temporarily inhibit my senses.

It was indeed a dreadful poison that could impair a person’s hearing and vision in moments, then leave its victim completely helpless. Of course, it had no effect on someone like me who had such a high tolerance for various poisons. So I acted as if I didn’t detect anything. “Did you prepare all this yourself?”

“Indeed. I wanted to since it’s for you, Roxana.” Nix seemed shocked to see that I was still fine after drinking the tea, but he quickly covered it up with a grin.

Then I answered his with one of my own. In that moment all I could think was that I would never have imagined Achille’s face could look deceitful.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask... May I?” For a puppet was acting surprisingly cautious.

I didn’t answer though.

“Why did Achille die?”

My hand suddenly jerked of its own accord as I held my teacup.

“All I could find out was that the stab to his heart was likely what killed him, but I also heard he was marked to be ‘disposed of,’ which doesn’t really explain why.”

I suppose my continued silence offered him room to add on carelessly.

“I mean, honestly, was I really so useless that I was just killed off?”

It felt as if he was testing me by referring to himself as if he and Achille were the same being. Of course, since he was Achille’s reanimated body, I was forced to see my brother in him despite myself.

“Achille...” I spoke quietly. “...wasn’t useless.”

His slightly mismatched eyes peered at me without uttering another blunt remark.

“My brother wasn’t useless.” The words came out as a whisper as if I was directing them at someone who wasn’t actually there.

Thinking back now, I may have been speaking to myself. The Achille I was looking at at that moment was still only fifteen. While he was stuck in his youth, I had already grown into an adult. He would remain that way forever. And because I knew that, I had no problem moving past it.

I set my cup down, then stood up.

“Today’s tea was quite terrible as well.” A stray, white flower petal landed inside my empty cup. Nix eyed me with intrigue in his gaze. I, on the other hand, simply stared down at him. “Tomorrow is the last day I’ll be seeing you. Please do not disappoint me with anything like this again.”

That would also be the day I gave them my final decision.

* * *

“Dante, Would you like to try this?”

The gray-haired steward’s face creased all over at the blond puppet’s offer. “Even you couldn’t get away with poisoning me. Master Noel would never stand for it.”

Nix continued to hold the cup of poisoned tea out toward him. Dante was quick to push the doll’s hand away in obvious annoyance. It hadn’t just been the tea. All the pastries he had served to Roxana that day contained trace amounts of the debilitating poison as well.

“What a shame. I was hoping you’d help me verify if there’s a problem with the poison. After all, you’re the only human here whose death would be permissible.”

“What did you just say?” Dante said. “My death would be ‘permissible’? Was that your attempt at insulting me?”

“But there are only two real humans in the manor, and you know I can’t very well give it to Noel.”

“So that makes it okay to poison me?”

“Ugh! It’s not like there’s a fatal amount in it. Good grief...”

The steward could feel another headache coming on the longer he argued with the doll. “Why don’t you just try something else.”

Nix had prepared the poison himself, thus ensuring that it would be highly effective even if his target only consumed a small dose of it. For this reason, it was that much more perplexing to him that Roxana had walked away perfectly fine not once, but twice. It was both a curious and vexing dilemma for him.

“She’s with Noel now, correct?”

“Yes, I saw them walking toward the garden together,” Dante said.

For the time being, the Vertiums didn’t pose an overt threat to the lovely Agrece due to Noel’s childlike faith that she could be persuaded to stay there with him of her own volition. And due to his fear of scaring her off, the Gold Master had even gone as far as to pretend that he knew nothing about her being a demon tamer. In other words, he had taken zero precautions against falling prey to her demon monsters.

At least not yet.

It seemed Roxana was also playing it safe. Most likely because she was trying to keep her winged beasts from being discovered. Dante hadn’t seen any reason to worry about her creatures since she was unlikely to use them against Noel right at that moment. Of course, he had no idea that they were actually quite remarkable butterflies that could do things the likes of which not a single Vertium clan member would dare imagine.

“How very strange. I actually doubled yesterday’s dosage, but she didn’t seem affected at all.”

As he gazed at the teacups and pastries, he continued to look beyond perplexed. Yet again, he was reminded of the regret he felt over killing the Agrece fellow he had captured before getting more information about Roxana while searching for her.

He huffed at his own shortsightedness as he picked up one of the cookies before standing to leave.

“I’m going to take a walk in the rear garden.”

“Huh? What for?” Dante frowned as he tried to work out what the puppet was up to. Unfortunately for him, Nix had already gone beyond earshot. “Nix, wait!”

Ignoring the urgency in the steward’s voice, the blond skipped away until he had disappeared from view. Unable to shake the foreboding feeling swelling up inside him, the gray-haired man chased after him. Even so, he was no match for the fleet-footed doll.

When he did finally spot Nix again, he immediately had to stop and gulp for air in a panicked frenzy to avoid collapsing. It wasn’t until he had sufficiently retreated that he could behold the scene before him in its entirety. The sight caused him to furrow his brow in utter disbelief.

“Eugh! Blegh!”

“Hmm... Still no reaction. Should I wait a bit longer? Or perhaps give him another one?” Nix’s overly chipper voice was akin to the brightness of the sun overhead.

All the while, he was holding an unknown man by the collar and forcing the cookie he had taken from the table moments ago into his mouth. Despite the man’s better efforts to resist the assault, he was no match for Nix’s sheer power. In a matter of moments, the unfortunate man’s eyes began to lose focus and his attempt to resist began to weaken.

Meanwhile, the puppet’s eyes flashed with delight. “Just as I thought. These were super effective!”

However, the side effects on the unknown man were incredibly severe. He didn’t just slump over—no, he began to foam at the mouth.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

A witness to his heinous deed yelled from behind him. Nix turned in the direction of the voice, then immediately released the man’s collar. His victim promptly fell to the ground with a thud.

“Hey! What did you just force him to eat?!”

At the end of the garden was a rather cozy-looking building that was hidden from view due to all the flowering trees surrounding it. The people who were now pouring out of it began to gather around while murmuring to one another about the cause of the commotion. They all appeared openly flabbergasted upon realizing who the puppet had just dropped to the ground.

“I was just checking something.” As Nix spoke there wasn’t a hint of remorse in his voice.

The crowd almost immediately began to voice their outrage, but Nix seemed quite happy and satisfied to have verified the lethality of the poison after seeing it work the way it was intended to. That may have also been the reason he was able to respond in a kind manner to the crowd’s derision.

“Don’t worry. The poison I gave him may have caused permanent brain damage, but it wasn’t a high enough dosage to kill him.”

He beamed at them as he thought himself quite kind for offering such reassurance.