Vol. 14 Ch. 13: Soup to Demonstrate Loyalty

One of the Seven Sages, 〈Gemstone Mage〉 Emmanuel Darwin, was doing his best to maintain a calm demeanor as he faced the person seated across from him—Darius Nightley, Duke Clockford.

Several days had already passed since Felix ordered him to poison Duke Clockford.

Just as he was agonizing over when and how to do it, with no answer in sight, he was invited to a dinner at the Duke Clockford estate.

Though it was called a dinner, it was essentially a meeting to exchange updates, with only Duke Clockford and Emmanuel in attendance.

This was his chance. But when should he administer the poison? He had to choose a moment when there was absolutely no chance of anyone realizing it was him. If he were found out, everything would be over. He would be ruined.

After thinking it over again and again, Emmanuel decided to put the poison in both his own dish and the duke's. He would eat just one small bite himself, pretend to notice something strange, and spit it out.

If only the duke were poisoned, Emmanuel might come under suspicion, but if both of them were poisoned at the same time, suspicion would be less likely to fall on him.

That was why Emmanuel had sneaked into the kitchen beforehand and already poisoned both servings of meat.

All that remained was to bring the meat to his mouth at the same time as the duke, chew it without swallowing, and, when the duke reacted to the poison, pretend that it had affected him as well and spit out the meat. It was a perfect plan.

Emmanuel put on an ingratiating smile and raised the soup to his lips...