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chapter 26
Assassin Ren Mascell was extremely flustered.
“Impossible.”
Duke Chartreux had collapsed after being poisoned. But, based on the deaths of his own family and friends at the hands of the previous duke, there was no way this was something he had done!
“The Amus I chose accumulates heavy metals in the body…!”
Amus. Commonly known as the bloodless poison.
Even though it’s used medically, consuming too much of it produces symptoms of poisoning. When the body becomes too weak from prolonged absorption, the throat swells, leading to the death of a bloodless-poison victim.
Yes. Hemoptysis isn’t a symptom of Amus in the first place…!
“Then who did this?”
Ren quickly shifted his eyes. At that moment, a gaze, filled with deadly intent and exhilaration, pricked his skin.
“…!”
Turning his head, Ren’s expression stiffened.
A competitor. She was looking directly at him, her lips stretched into a long, cruel smile. With a faint murmur, barely audible to anyone else, Ren ground his teeth.
“Leah…!”
Leah Mascell.
Outwardly, she was his older sister, but in reality, not a drop of shared blood connected them—they were unrelated, and she was his fellow trainee in the assassin corps.
The executor who delivered Peregrin’s notices to the knights. The maid who cleaned the duke’s office.
…And the damn person who had Duke Peregrin’s trust even more than he did!
It was only after his jaw clenched audibly that Ren could finally relax the tension around his mouth. He quickly started thinking.
“I can’t report Leah Mascell. Being bound by the ‘older sister’ relationship, I’d be suspected too, and she wouldn’t just sit idle either.”
Even if he didn’t report her, giving the duke the antidote to thwart Leah’s scheme was impossible. That would invoke Peregrin’s cold wrath.
…But!
“Why am I always one step behind? Why am I treated like a worm?!”
He was the one who carried revenge against the North. Not some lunatic who took pleasure in murder and abuse!
He was the one who desired it more desperately, yet Leah Mascell always took the credit. It was unbearable for Ren.
If Leah succeeded in poisoning the duke here, he would be dismissed as useless.
Ren discreetly crossed the chaotic dining hall. With the duke collapsed in the center, everyone was panicking, unable to move. Taking advantage of the chaos, he slowly approached the duke.
When he had drawn fairly close to the duke…
“Wait, that scent…”
Ren’s eyebrows twitched. He noticed the bloodstains on Duke Chartreux’s chest and glanced at the steak and water glass secured by Commander Liam.
“…Is this because I told you, ‘I’ll save you anytime’?”
A clear, mournful voice quietly rang out.
Ren’s gaze shifted—not to Duke Chartreux, but to the Grand Duke Bascalia, who was embracing her.
The Grand Duke tilted his glossy ears far back and placed a hand on the duke’s chest.
Cold sweat formed at the nape of Ren’s neck. Diamond-like tears flowed steadily from his glacier-blue eyes.
“This is too much.”
Droplets fell onto the back of his taut, vein-covered hand.
“Consider the position of the one you have to save…”
The divine power emanating from his right arm poured into the duke’s body. As the fallen duke remained unconscious, he adjusted her body in his embrace, biting his lips tightly. His canines tore a bit of skin. The blood mixed with tears, forming rivulets of bleeding eyes.
“H-Huh? Chérylott, please…”
The fine hairs at the nape of Ren’s neck bristled.
—Could they be lovers?
…Peregrin might have been right. At least Grand Duke Bascalia clearly loved her. If not, there was no way he’d react so violently as if his heart were being ripped apart.
At that moment of revelation…
Wham!
Ice-sharp eyes pierced Ren’s gaze.
Startled by suddenly meeting the Grand Duke’s eyes, Ren hurriedly lowered his head in a servantly manner. But things did not go as he expected.
The Grand Duke, holding the duke in one arm, raised his other arm.
Click. As fingers met, the dining hall doors slammed shut like a clamshell.
“Wh-What…!”
“Father Eonian?”
Liam and the duke’s retainers were flustered as well. But the tears wiped away by Eonian Bascalia’s calm gaze were now as sharp as blades.
“Liam.”
“Yes.”
“Secure the entire dining hall.”
With another gesture, the curtains slid down.
His enchanted object was exerting telekinesis. Ren stole a glance at Leah, cornered and unable to escape.
“I’ll handle this.”
The Grand Duke’s tone had shifted instantly.
Once a polite cleric who spoke formally to even the servants, he now exuded the chilling air of a judge. He checked the duke’s breathing and spoke to Liam.
“Monitor only to ensure I don’t kill anyone. I don’t intend to commit murder in front of the duke either.”
“…Yes.”
Swallowing dryly, Liam lined the maids and servants against the wall. Ren watched Leah’s face as she displayed fear and confusion like any ordinary person, and he too stood against the wall.
“Y-Your Highness, are you alright?”
“…I’m alive.”
“Even like this—”
“Even like this is fine. I have… I have divine power.”
The Grand Duke’s neck muscles tensed slightly at the steward’s concern. After a deep breath, he carefully surveyed everyone’s faces.
Ren’s mind filled with doubt. Was he really going to interrogate all these people?
Though the dungeon was spacious, prolonged interrogations would dampen the castle’s morale and reduce efficiency. Servants might refuse, retract, or even distort statements for other reasons.
Or perhaps it would be a swift resolution—through torture? Ren frowned, realizing the Chartreux family wasn’t unnecessarily cruel.
“Perfect timing.”
The Grand Duke drew a silver dagger from his robes.
…No, it wasn’t a dagger. Strictly speaking, it was a cross.
“I will use a relic.”
The Quisa Cross.
Only Liam and Clément, who understood its significance, widened their eyes. The other servants, unfamiliar with divine power, were terrified.
The Grand Duke stabbed the relic into his own abdomen.
“Ahhh…!”
A scream came from a maid working as a kitchen assistant. Trembling, she collapsed, and others panicked at seeing the relic embedded in the duke’s stomach.
The Grand Duke remained silent for a long moment. His body trembled, then…
“…Hmm.”
Finally, he rose with a refreshed expression.
The panicked crowd blinked at his unusually calm demeanor. He drew the relic from his abdomen, touched the blade, and raised his voice.
“Did everyone see that?”
A servant beside Ren nodded frantically.
“It shocks at first, but to an ordinary, benevolent human, it has little effect.”
He spoke gently, clenching his fist. The soft aftertone abruptly shifted.
“However, this cross is also called ‘The Judge.’”
He adjusted his grip on the dagger.
“It was used to punish the former knights and traitors of the North.”
He turned the weapon toward himself and dropped it diagonally.
“Especially…”
At that moment, the Grand Duke’s eyes locked onto Ren.
“It is far more effective against assassins or those skilled in dark magic…”
“….”
“It blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked. Consider it a cleansing; you might receive it at least once.”
Ren’s pupils shook under the direct gaze of a predatory mammal.
…Could he have figured it out?
He repeated that it was impossible—but it didn’t matter.
He—or rather, they—would inevitably be caught. The Grand Duke intended to stab everyone in the abdomen.
“If only I could run now…!”
When the last servant was stabbed, Ren’s eyes darted around. He spotted a small servant-only side door leading out of the dining hall.
Hah, what the—! Crazy! Shouts and murmurs filled his ears. Good. It wasn’t silent at all. This was enough to slip through—
Thunk.
“…Huh?”
A silver tip pierced Ren’s abdomen. His face turned pale.
Ren collapsed, writhing in excruciating pain. The assault was so sudden that all his training proved useless, leaving him no time to break the poison in his mouth.
He fell to the floor, twisting his fingers, foaming at the mouth.
The Grand Duke walked toward him, looking down. He pointed at him and commanded the knight:
“Seize him…”
The backlighting made him appear even more intimidating. Ren, enduring the pain, closed his eyes weakly.
The near-poisoning of the duke was kept strictly secret, and all suspects were confined to the underground prison.
Interrogation was handled by Eonian Bascalia. Liam and Clément had offered to help, but the Grand Duke rejected them outright.
Gern later recalled what Eonian ordered them to do in the office:
“It felt as if winter had returned to the North.”
The Lavre Castle was extremely brutal. Even veteran maids, reputed for competence, were imprisoned, causing workers to view their colleagues with suspicion. Seeds of doubt had grown into full-blown vines.
Amid the chaos, Duke Chartreux reopened her eyes three days after collapsing.
