Chapter 18
“Actually… it seems Lady Quillian has become sensitive since we have a guest in the duchy. She ordered me to verify that you are diligently performing your duties. That’s why I’ve been coming here continuously.”
So Lady Quillian had given such an order.
It was true that Lady Quillian had become more on edge because of Lady Meltain.
Moreover, her gaze towards Alice had sharpened due to Lady Meltain’s increasingly friendly attitude towards her.
She was certainly in a state where she might give such an order.
“Oh, is that so?”
Alice nodded, then paused.
“But why didn’t you tell me about receiving such an order? So for the past few days, you’ve been secretly monitoring me on Lady Quillian’s orders without saying anything?”
“N-no, that’s not it at all! I absolutely did not monitor you on Lady Quillian’s orders. I simply thought this was something I could resolve with a suitable white lie on my own, so I didn’t inform you. It’s the truth.”
Helkin spoke rapidly, as if feeling wronged, his already toad-like face bulging as he widened his eyes.
It was not a pleasant sight to behold.
Alice turned her head slightly and nodded half-heartedly.
There was still some lingering unease, but Helkin couldn’t do anything foolish since she had a firm grasp on his weakness.
From what she had observed, Helkin was surprisingly timid for someone who had embezzled from the duchy.
So he wouldn’t dare betray her, if only out of fear for his life.
Not unless someone appeared holding a knife to his throat to threaten him.
“I’ll believe you. Now stop staring.”
“…Yes.”
Helkin let out an invisible sigh of relief.
Alice turned her gaze away from him and opened the lid of the crystal vial. Then she looked at Kylus.
She thought she had managed to calm her troubled heart, but seeing his face made her feel unsettled again.
“…There’s nothing I can do.”
Alice administered the medicine to Kylus with a downcast look.
After emptying the entire vial, Alice straightened up.
At that moment, a piece of paper slipped out of Alice’s dress pocket and fell to the floor, but she didn’t notice.
“Please give me the vial.”
As Helkin took the vial, Alice looked at the motionless Kylus and opened her lips.
She was about to give her usual greeting, but wondered what was the point of it all.
In the end, Alice closed her mouth without giving the greeting and turned away.
“I’m going first. See you tomorrow.”
“…Yes, my lady.”
Alice hurriedly left the bedroom, hiding her darkening expression.
* * *
After Alice left, Helkin looked at the bed with a tense face.
As if he had been waiting, Kylus slowly raised himself, opening his eyes.
“Your Grace, I didn’t make any mistakes today.”
Helkin hastily spoke, worried that Kylus might show terrifying anger over the earlier situation.
But Kylus wasn’t interested in Helkin.
His mind was preoccupied with Alice’s deeply sunken voice that kept echoing.
‘There’s nothing I can do.’
Her voice when she said those words was tinged with resignation and sadness.
What exactly was it that she couldn’t do?
Although her sentence lacked a subject, Kylus could tell it was directed at him.
Moreover, she didn’t even give her usual greeting today.
Her suddenly changed attitude, along with her words about leaving this place yesterday, strangely weighed on his mind.
“…Your Grace?”
Helkin cautiously called out to the silent Kylus.
But Kylus didn’t answer.
He wasn’t even looking at Helkin to begin with.
He seemed to be concentrating on some thought, as if Helkin were invisible.
Helkin was puzzled, but he lacked the courage to interrupt Kylus’s contemplation.
I want to give him the antidote quickly and leave.
That’s right, today was the day for Kylus to take the antidote.
Thus, Helkin was more tense than usual.
As a heavy silence settled in the bedroom, there was a click of the door.
“Your Grace, Lady Meltain has arrived.”
The people who entered the bedroom were the butler and Lady Meltain.
Although they were in the same duchy, Helkin had not yet seen Lady Meltain.
Seeing Lady Meltain for the first time, Helkin’s eyes widened at her beautiful appearance, but suddenly he felt a strong wind hit the back of his head from somewhere.
“It’s impolite to stare so intently at someone’s face.”
“…A magician?”
Helkin realized that the strong wind that had struck the back of his head was magic.
A magician, no less.
Moreover, the lady hadn’t even drawn any complex magic circles just now.
This meant that this lady was a magician of a considerably high circle.
He hadn’t heard that Lady Meltain was a magician.
Furthermore, Lady Meltain seemed to already know that the Duke was awake.
This meant she wasn’t here simply for her social debut.
Not wanting to offend Lady Meltain, Helkin quietly lowered his gaze.
“…I apologize.”
“Sienna.”
At that moment, Kylus, emerging from his thoughts, called Sienna.
“Your Grace, are you feeling better?”
“I’m fine. I heard you went out today. Did you find the inn I mentioned?”
Sienna, about to answer, hesitated and looked at Helkin.
She thought it was too important a matter to discuss in Helkin’s presence.
Noticing this, Kylus said,
“You needn’t mind him. He doesn’t have enough lives to carelessly spread rumors.”
It was a threat that he would kill Helkin if he leaked any information.
Understanding this, Helkin bowed his head deeply, as if he couldn’t hear anything.
Sienna turned to Kylus.
“Yes. I went to the inn you mentioned and met James. When I showed him the token you gave me, no further words were necessary. I’m scheduled to meet Tessiri there tomorrow.”
“You weren’t caught sneaking out of the temple, were you?”
“No. I used illusion magic to create my image in the prayer room and quietly warped out, so no one noticed.”
Illusion magic and warping, no less.
Kylus felt satisfied with Sienna’s magical abilities, which were higher than he had expected.
Nodding, he slowly opened his lips to Sienna.
“…Did you notice anything unusual about the Duchess who accompanied you to the temple?”
“Pardon?”
Startled by the unexpected question, Sienna recalled the events of the day and shook her head.
“I didn’t notice anything particularly unusual about the Duchess. Since we used separate prayer rooms… we weren’t together.”
“…I see.”
Kylus’s face darkened slightly.
“…Should I keep an eye on the Duchess?”
“No, it’s fine. You focus solely on regathering the knights.”
“Yes. I understand, brother.”
“You must be tired today. Go and rest now.”
“I’ll report back after meeting Tessiri.”
Sienna bowed and left the bedroom.
As soon as Sienna left, Kylus spoke to Helkin.
“Bring the antidote.”
Kylus said to Helkin, who was keeping his head bowed.
Before Alice arrived, he had heard from Helkin that the antidote was ready.
Having heard Sienna’s report as well, it was time to take the antidote.
Approaching the bed, Helkin carefully took out the antidote from his jacket’s inner pocket.
The purple liquid inside the small vial emitted a dangerously glowing light.
Kylus reached out for the vial.
But Helkin pulled his hand back.
“What are you doing?”
As Kylus narrowed his brows, Helkin swallowed hard and said,
“Your Grace, as I mentioned before, this antidote is extremely potent and will cause considerable pain. I added a painkiller to the tonic you took earlier, but it probably won’t have much effect. I’ll come back early tomorrow morning with more painkillers, so please endure until dawn…”
“I understand, now hand over the antidote.”
Helkin was scared, imagining the pain even as he spoke, but Kylus snatched the antidote with an impassive face.
His expression showed no concern or care for the pain.
Rather, it was the butler, who had been standing quietly, who was already looking at the Duke with a pained expression.
Kylus downed the antidote in one go.
He felt a sharp taste that could numb his tongue.
After draining the last drop, he handed the empty vial to Helkin.
“Your Grace, are you alright?”
When the butler asked worriedly, Helkin answered.
“It will take about an hour for the medicine to take effect.”
“Then I’ll stay by your side all night.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Kylus immediately said to the butler.
“You know, don’t you? Having someone by my side will only be more bothersome.”
“But…”
“Don’t make me repeat myself, Adolf.”
Faced with Kylus’s firmness, even the butler couldn’t insist further.
“Everyone, withdraw. I need to rest.”
Kylus dismissed the two men standing there with worried looks.
After Helkin and the butler, who had been watching carefully, finally left the bedroom, Kylus lay down on the bed.
He wasn’t afraid of the pain that would soon engulf him.
What he feared was being trapped again in the darkness that felt like a deep quagmire.
If he could completely detoxify the poison, he would be willing to give up one of his limbs.
Kylus slowly closed his eyes, hoping that the night wouldn’t be too long.
* * *
Around the same time.
Alice, who had washed and changed clothes, was brushing her hair before going to bed.
Since Maris naturally didn’t attend to such trivial tasks for her, she had to brush her long hair alone with a blunt wooden comb.
If only the comb had been a bit better, it wouldn’t have been this difficult.
The wooden comb was so powerful that if used incorrectly, it could cause hair loss on the spot.
After gently brushing out all of her long pink hair, Alice rose from the dressing table with a sagging body.
Then, instead of heading to the bed, she went to the table.
There hung the dress she had worn today, which Maris hadn’t cleared away.
Today was truly a useful day to have a lazy maid like Maris.
Thanks to her, the priestess registration form in her dress pocket hadn’t been discovered.
Alice reached into the pocket.
“Huh…?”
