Chapter 65
"Reiji, it's all right. Answer him."
With the Holy King and the heads of high-ranking noble houses all watching me, I was at a loss until my lady threw me a lifeline.
"Yes, Your Majesty. —First, I found the eye contact between His Majesty the Holy King and His Excellency the Margrave suspicious. It seemed that neither of you had known the other would be attending this gathering, but rather, perhaps you had advance information about this 'entertainment'? Or perhaps, given the scale of this entertainment, only the heads of each house were informed in advance? His Majesty the Holy King may have checked in advance to make sure there was no danger to His Excellency the Margrave—though I assume this 'entertainment' was planned to be sufficiently safe, of course."
"..."
Whoa, the gray bear is staring right at me.
"And there was one other thing: the candles on the chandelier going out."
"And why was that strange?"
"If I were an attacker, I'd cut the chandelier down. That would cause even more confusion. Dropping the chandelier for the sake of this 'entertainment' would cost far too much, and shards of broken glass could cause unnecessary injuries."
"Hmm..."
"Anything else?"
"There's more!?"
"Yes. The attackers' swordsmanship was unmistakably that of the Holy King Knights, and an assassin would never abandon their target and run away. Of course, those aren't things I could have noticed in advance. Also, although I didn't know this beforehand, His Majesty the Holy King and His Highness the Holy Prince were emitting light in the darkness. If I had known that in advance, I would have sniped them with a crossbow. Or at the very least, I would have thrown my sword at them before fleeing."
"Wait a minute. There's a possibility we weren't the targets, isn't there?"
"That may be true for His Majesty the Holy King, but I believe the Holy Prince was the target."
"Why? Because many attackers came toward this table?"
"No."
What I pointed at was—
the five plates of sauce that Kurvshrat-sama had been eyeing hungrily.
"There's poison mixed into only the Holy Prince's sauce."
【All Creation】 was still clearly telling me that the sauce was "extremely harmful to the human body."
The Holy King's expression vanished from his face when he heard that.
(Wait... I had assumed the poisoned dish was part of the "entertainment," too, but that doesn't make sense. Preventing a poisoning isn't entertainment at all. Kurvshrat-sama pretending to be dead so they could observe everyone's reactions might work as entertainment, but even then, there would be no need to actually add poison.)
As I was thinking that,
"Hey, guard."
"Yes, sir."
"Is it really true that there's poison here?"
"Yes. I'm certain."
That was when I was forced to realize it.
The Holy King's face was filled with rage—which meant the "poison" had been "unexpected."
Someone had genuinely tried to kill the Holy Prince.
A guard's morning starts early.
Even if an attempt had been made on the Holy Prince's life the previous day, and I had been kept up late assisting with the interrogation, then had to explain everything to the Earl who employed me, so that I only finally got to sleep late at night, a guard's morning still starts early.
The estate's servants had something like a dormitory prepared for them, but as a guard, I had been given a private room. When I got out of bed, I filled a basin with water using 【Convenient Magic】 and washed my face. The water was just cool enough to feel refreshing.
Since there was no proper mirror, I checked my hairline in a mirror made by polishing an iron plate until it shone. Not checking how much hair I have, okay? It looked like I wouldn't need hair dye for a while. No bedhead, either. A quick change, and I was ready.
"Good morning."
"Good morning."
Several maids and butlers were already up and about. Even though it was barely sunrise, the entrance hall was already bustling.
"I'll leave the rest to you."
"Have a good day."
A large number of servants bowed as they saw the Earl and the chief butler off. ...The Earl had gone to sleep after hearing my report, and now he was heading out, so he probably hadn't slept much at all. Maybe he hadn't slept a wink.
——Tomorrow is going to be a difficult day...
The report on the "New Sprout and New Moon Banquet" only briefly mentioned the "entertainment," then devoted most of its time to the "attempted poisoning." The Earl had taken notes on everything I had seen and heard. After all, the Holy King was summoning the Earl today, and it was almost certain that, as a "human lie detector," he would be ordered to ferret out the culprit.
(My condolences. Good luck.)
I sympathized with him inwardly as I watched the Earl leave the estate in a carriage through a window. The eastern sky was lightly overcast, and it didn't look like we'd get much sunshine today.
While I checked my lady's schedule for the day and ate breakfast, word arrived that she had woken up.
"Good morning, my lady."
"Good morning, Reiji."
At the breakfast table, my lady and I went over her schedule for the day. She ate by herself, while I stood across the table from her.
With her beautiful appearance and graceful manners as exquisite as ever, she looked like a painting just sitting there and eating. I found myself thinking that beautiful people really had it easy.
"That concludes your schedule for today."
"Reiji, how was yesterday? I went home first, remember?"
"The interrogation kept me up quite late. It seems the Earl waited for me to return..."
"Hmph, it's not fair that Father gets to do whatever he wants. Everyone told me to go to bed early."
"I don't think he waited out of kindness, though. More importantly, did you have any strange dreams after being frightened like that?"
"Don't treat me like a child, okay? And I wasn't scared at all. I felt safe because you were there, Reiji."
"...That is a very generous thing to say."
My lady trusts me too much. I had been trembling at the thought of what might happen if that gray bear right there suddenly went berserk. A person wearing a fur pelt like that can't be normal.
"So who was the culprit?"
"They haven't found them yet."
"What? Even with Reiji there?"
"...I'm your guard, my lady, and nothing more than the person who discovered the poison."
"That's true, but yesterday, everyone was thoroughly impressed when you subdued the attackers and then spoke to His Majesty the Holy King and the Holy Prince!"
My lady said this with her eyes sparkling.
"My lady Eva. This is the first I have heard of this."
Oh, no. The chief butler was leaning in, adjusting his glasses, and taking the bait.
(My lady, stop! Stop! Shh!)
The chief butler had been present when I reported to the Earl, but I had left out anything that might make it sound like I was bragging about my own achievements... And if he found out that I had spoken with the Holy King, the chief butler—the Holy King's most fervent fan—would obviously blaze with jealousy.
"What is it, Reiji? Surely you didn't leave that out of your report?"
"I did! I reported everything he needed to know! Oh, right—I'm being taken off your guard duty today, my lady, so one of the knights will accompany you."
"—What?"
My lady's expression clouded instantly.
"I'd mentioned this before, but I've been permitted to attend the interrogation of the 'slave traders' you and I crushed... I mean, liberated. Apparently, it's happening today."
"I see..."
I wasn't sure what was wrong. I had been prepared for her to say something like, "Then take me with you!"—and I had intended to enlist the chief butler's help and refuse as firmly as I could—but this reaction...
——My lady is feeling anxious.
Eek, Head Maid!? Don't whisper in my ear out of nowhere!
The head maid slid backward on her hind legs without making a sound, then took her usual position near the entrance. Could she secretly be a stealth specialist...? I tried training after watching the head maid move, but I never acquired a Talent that seemed anything like it...
(Anxious, huh.)
Of course. My lady was a twelve-year-old girl.
The fact that she wasn't afraid because I was there meant that, conversely, she might have been afraid if I hadn't been.
"My lady, I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Really...?"
Don't make that face, my lady, like a girl who's been scolded.
If the Earl—the doting father—saw you like this, I had no idea what would happen to me. Especially since the chief butler and the head maid were already glaring at me as if to say, "What the hell did you do to make her cry?"
"I really mean it."
"Can you promise?"
"I promise."
I held out my right hand with the palm facing down and pressed my index and middle fingers together. It meant "I won't go back on my word"—something like a pinky promise, and in a way, it resembled an oath.
"All right... Today, I will write a letter to Mira-sama."
"Yes, please do."
My lady's small hand tightly clasped my two fingers.
It was a warm, soft hand.