Chapter 10
Come to think of it… I haven’t checked yet.
Alice turned to Helkin after stopping administering medicine to Kylus.
Just as Helkin opened his eyes in confusion, Alice held out the remaining bottle of medicine to him.
“Helkin, try drinking what’s left.”
“Pardon? What do you mean all of a sudden?”
Helkin’s face showed bewilderment.
“I couldn’t check yesterday because Maris was here. I have no way of knowing if this is really a nutritional supplement or poison. You could have made poison while claiming it’s a supplement, right?”
Today, Maris was waiting outside the room.
So Alice needed to verify if Helkin was truly not up to any tricks.
Helkin, who had been looking at Alice with a perplexed expression, soon took the crystal bottle and downed the remaining medicine in one gulp.
Then, with an aggrieved look, he said:
“…How could I possibly betray you when you hold my weakness?”
“Good. I’m glad you understand. I hope you won’t do anything foolish in the future.”
“…I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Well then, I’ll be going now. Have a good night, Your Grace.”
Alice bid farewell to Kylus, not forgetting to greet him, then flashed a smile at the sour-faced Helkin before leaving the room.
* * *
“She’s truly a strange woman.”
After Alice left, Helkin shook his head and shuddered.
To speak to a man lying there like a corpse.
He had thought she wasn’t normal since she first threatened him, but she really was an odd woman.
Was she really a noble lady?
Thinking she was an unpredictable woman he didn’t want to get involved with, Helkin was about to leave the room as well.
If only the door hadn’t suddenly opened.
Helkin flinched, wondering if Alice had returned, but he let out a sigh of relief when he saw the butler’s face.
“Ah, it’s you, Butler.”
“I’ve been looking for the doctor.”
The butler smoothly raised the corners of his mouth as he watched Helkin clutching his startled chest.
He had been searching the mansion for a while, thinking the doctor might have already left for the day since he wasn’t in his office.
But lo and behold, a servant informed him that the doctor had gone to the Duke’s bedroom.
To think he went to the Duke of his own accord.
Things had become truly convenient.
“You were looking for me? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”
Helkin asked, tilting his head.
“No. I wasn’t looking for you for my own business.”
“Then why…”
Instead of answering, the butler turned and locked the bedroom door. Then he spoke, facing the bed rather than Helkin.
“Your Grace, the Young Madam has completely left.”
“What are you…”
Just as Helkin was looking at the butler as if he had gone mad for speaking to the seemingly lifeless Duke, there was a stirring from the bed.
Rustle.
Why was there a sound…
Feeling goosebumps rise, Helkin slowly turned his head at the noise behind him.
Then he saw the Duke, who had been lying as if dead, rising from the bed.
Seeing Kylus move, Helkin’s jaw dropped in utter shock.
“This can’t be…!”
It was a sleeping poison that should have been absolutely impossible to wake from.
He shouldn’t have been able to open his eyes, let alone move like that.
Helkin blinked, wondering if the sight before him was an illusion, but the Duke was indeed moving.
And he was walking towards him.
“Aah! Stay back! Stay away!”
Helkin, who had been staring stupidly with wide eyes, cried out as Kylus approached, stumbling backwards.
His face was as pale as if he’d seen a ghost.
But Helkin couldn’t even retreat a few steps before his feet got tangled and he plopped down on the floor.
“…How, how is this possible…!”
Helkin trembled as he stared at the Duke’s feet, which had stopped in front of him.
“I haven’t done anything yet, and you’re already this terrified… Should I just kill you right away since there’s no point in listening to a madman?”
A chilling, low voice echoed above Helkin’s head.
“Your Grace’s sword.”
As if he had been waiting, the butler held out a longsword to Kylus, seemingly produced from nowhere.
The moment Kylus grasped the sword, Helkin felt the cold metal against his neck.
The sharp blade of the sword was pressed against Helkin’s throat.
With killing intent, as if ready to sever his head at any moment.
Only then did Helkin snap back to his senses.
Gulping down saliva, he slowly raised his head.
The moment his gaze met Kylus’s dark eyes, Helkin instinctively drew in a sharp breath, hup, overcome by fear.
Kylus curled his lips, looking at Helkin’s eyes which seemed to have regained some reason.
It was a charming smile, but to Helkin it felt like the Grim Reaper himself was grinning.
“P-please spare my life, Your Grace…”
“Spare you? You made poison to kill me and now you’re begging for your life?”
“Th-that was…”
“Don’t even think about denying it. I heard with my own ears you declaring that I would never wake up.”
The conversation he had with Alice flashed through Helkin’s mind.
Somehow the Duke had regained consciousness and heard everything.
Helkin spoke with a trembling voice:
“It was the Grand Madam’s order. She only commanded me to make the poison. At first, I didn’t even know who it was for. Your Grace, how could I dare try to kill you?”
“If you had known, you wouldn’t have made the poison?”
“O-of course not.”
As the sword moved away slightly, Helkin nodded vigorously.
“Yes, perhaps that could be true. But what’s done is done. I drank the poison you made, and you became Lady Quillian’s subordinate. That’s an undeniable fact.”
The sword that had briefly moved away dug into Helkin’s neck again. Red blood trickled down the blade as it cut into Helkin’s skin.
“Ugh, please, please spare me. Your Grace, if you just spare my life, I’ll pledge my loyalty to you.”
“I don’t need the loyalty of someone like you.”
“I can be useful! Though I’m a lowly person, I’m skilled with poisons and knowledgeable about all kinds of medicinal herbs! And won’t you need me later when you reveal that Lady Quillian poisoned you?”
“Hmm…”
Kylus exhaled languidly as he looked down at Helkin.
It felt like Kylus’s dark eyes were thoroughly scrutinizing Helkin’s innermost thoughts.
Kylus Dearrut.
The youngest duke and a knight who had brilliantly dominated the battlefield.
Though Helkin had lived in the underworld, he had often heard tales of Kylus’s extraordinary abilities.
Hadn’t they said his way of striking down enemies was like that of a fierce beast?
Helkin now understood that description a hundred times over.
At this moment, he felt like prey standing before a predator.
Even Lady Quillian and Alice who had threatened him hadn’t been this frightening.
Faced with the chilling nearness of death, Helkin couldn’t even think about the threats from others who had told him to keep his mouth shut.
“Your Grace, I’ll do anything you command if you just spare my life.”
Helkin pleaded earnestly, clasping his hands together.
Kylus, who had been staring at Helkin with an expressionless face, withdrew the sword from Helkin’s neck.
“I’ll let you live for now.”
Kylus handed the sword back to the butler.
In truth, he had never intended to kill Helkin from the start.
There were too many of Lady Quillian’s people in the ducal residence to kill him right away.
He had to be careful not to arouse suspicion.
Of course, that didn’t mean he was going to let Helkin live completely.
Kylus had merely postponed taking Helkin’s life. He planned to behead all those involved when he finally dealt with Lady Quillian.
But being knowledgeable about poisons and medicinal herbs…
Thinking that Helkin might have other uses, a glint appeared in Kylus’s dark eyes.
Of course, that was if he truly was as well-versed in poisons and herbs as he claimed.
He could figure out whether it was true or not as time went on.
Kylus organized his thoughts about Helkin as he sat down on the large sofa.
Leaning back on the plush sofa, he looked down with sharp eyes at Helkin, who was sighing in relief at having survived.
“I’ll be watching to see whether you really have any use or not.”
“Y-yes, Your Grace.”
Helkin nodded vigorously as he stemmed the blood flowing from his neck. Then he cautiously raised his gaze to observe Kylus.
It should have been impossible for Kylus to regain consciousness.
Yet Kylus was moving right before Helkin’s eyes.
With his eyes wide open.
How on earth did he wake up?
Helkin wondered if perhaps Kylus hadn’t taken the poison from the start, but when he first examined Kylus upon entering the ducal residence, the Duke’s body had clearly been in a poisoned state.
All his organs had been gradually hardening.
That memory was vivid.
It was the day he had been shocked to learn that the person who had ingested the poison he made was Kylus Dearrut.
And for six months, every time he examined Kylus, the Duke’s condition had been slowly but surely deteriorating.
This was an impossible miracle, short of a god descending to save him. Even holy power hadn’t worked.
As Helkin was racking his brains over this incomprehensible situation, Kylus’s voice rang out.
“I woke up last night. And last night, the Duchess… my wife fed me that medicine you made.”
Kylus gestured with his chin towards the crystal bottle lying next to Helkin as he continued speaking.
“You said earlier that medicine was a nutritional supplement. Is it really just a supplement?”
During the time he was unconscious, all he had heard about that medicine was that it was a nutritional supplement.
But since the timing of taking that medicine and his awakening overlapped, he couldn’t shake off the suspicion that there might be something special about it.
However, disappointingly, Helkin nodded.
“Yes, this is indeed just a nutritional supplement. There are no… special ingredients or anything. The Young Madam warned me she wouldn’t let me off if I tried anything foolish…”
“Young Madam…”
Kylus murmured softly.
Come to think of it, what Alice had said was strange.
‘I have no way of knowing if this is really a nutritional supplement or poison. You could have made poison while claiming it’s a supplement, right?’
Her words sounded exactly like someone trying hard not to poison him.
Going so far as to verify with Helkin.
Lady Quillian would have surely ordered poison to be administered.
And the one who made that poison would be Helkin.
“Did the Duchess order you to change the poison Lady Quillian had ordered into a nutritional supplement?”
Helkin, who had been mumbling, paused before answering.
“…Yes. The Young Madam caught onto my weakness and ordered me to change the poison I was supposed to give to Your Grace into something else.”
To think she disobeyed Lady Quillian’s orders. Kylus couldn’t understand.
“Did the Duchess order anything else besides that?”
“No, nothing else. She only told me not to make the poison, and not to say anything unnecessary to the Grand Madam… That was all.”
Alice…
What exactly are you plotting?
