Episode 58. Poisoned
Suppressing an ominous feeling, he sprinted down the corridor.
He ran past maids he encountered in the corridor, who fell back startled.
Essen Palace was vast. Extraordinarily so.
‘A light wind dwells in my feet!’
Binaeril chanted the acceleration magic in his mind.
He arrived in front of the Regent’s chamber around the time he was running out of breath.
The sound had come from this direction.
The guards who should have been posted in front of the room were nowhere to be seen either.
Had the Regent dismissed them? In any case, that wasn’t what mattered right now.
Knock, knock, knock!
Binaeril swallowed and knocked urgently.
…….
No response.
“Your Excellency the Regent! Are you inside?”
She remained silent.
He grabbed a passing servant and asked; apparently, the grand council had ended not long ago.
If so, she couldn’t have fallen asleep already.
He pressed his ear tightly against the door and listened for signs of life inside.
A foul stench of unknown origin permeated through the thick door.
Instinct was faster than thought.
Sensing the danger intuitively, Binaeril shouted to those around him.
“Step back!”
After pushing back the servants who had gathered at the commotion, he slowly chanted a spell.
He needed two spells.
“Blowing Wind.”
A 1st-tier wind magic, and—
“Blaze contained, shoot forth.”
He prepared by imbuing his magic bullets with flames.
Covering his nose and mouth with his forearm, he broke down the door and entered.
He directed the wind he had chanted in advance to blow outward from the room.
As the pungent smoke escaped, his vision finally cleared.
What to check first? The source of the sound—the window.
The window was broken. Whether the Regent had thrown herself out upon noticing the incident, or whether it was Rike’s doing, he could not tell.
Silvia appeared a step late.
Binaeril gestured to her while covering his airways.
Silvia, catching Binaeril’s intent, also covered her mouth and nose and chanted a wind spell.
After some time, the pungent smoke had mostly cleared, and they could converse properly.
“Silvia, check below this window. I think someone jumped down.”
“The Princess? Got it!”
It would be better for her, who was familiar with the palace’s structure, to check below.
Binaeril looked around the room and confirmed that traces of mana had come down through the chimney.
Having realized there was an attacker, Binaeril—though he didn’t know who—couldn’t afford to give them time to escape.
Binaeril rolled up his sleeves and decided to climb the chimney.
Goblin had also heard the sound of the window breaking.
He should have blocked not just the door but the window as well.
That little sister bitch was a mage, and it seemed she was quite perceptive.
“They must have drunk it.”
It was a lethal poison that could suffocate a demon with a single breath. There was no way a mage could withstand it.
But right now, he didn’t have the leisure to check whether the two princesses were dead or alive.
People would soon flock here after noticing the incident.
Goblin packed his things and prepared to leave.
Just then, a soot-covered figure burst out from the chimney he had finished working on.
Surprised, Goblin took a step back.
The human who burst out wiped the soot from his face with rainwater and glared at Goblin.
‘He doesn’t look like a knight based on his build, but how did he climb a chimney filled with poisonous clouds?”
“Was it you?”
“…Who are you?”
“Are you the one who released the poison cloud?”
It was the voice of a boyish young man.
He couldn’t tell from the soot-covered appearance, but his voice was quite young.
In a corner of Goblin’s memory, a person matching the boy before him came to mind.
“The young mage who was said to be the Princess’s escort?”
“It seems so.”
They were each only saying what they wanted, but the two confirmed each other’s identities.
“So you’re the one who ground down that arrogant knight’s face!”
“Dominic? You know both Dominic Siller and me.”
“I’d heard about a mage who ground down that unlucky bastard’s face, and I wanted to see him at least once. He’s younger than I thought?”
“And yet you attacked Rike. You have a purpose.”
A person who knew both the Platinum Knight and himself, while also targeting the Princess.
Binaeril inferred the common denominator of the three sets.
“Are you acting on Count Victor Siller’s orders?”
“Hehe, how would I know! I’m no fool, would I speak my employer’s name carelessly!”
“…So I was right.”
If he had found the mastermind, further questioning was useless.
He could capture the bastard and make him talk for the details.
Binaeril’s shoulders were soaked by the rain.
He raised his arm and aimed at the tattooed pig before him.
His anger flared hot, but his head was cold.
Unlike when he had faced Dominic in the Thornwinter Wetlands,
from the start, maximum output.
From his aimed finger—
Binaeril chanting his magic bullet and Goblin pulling a reagent from his pocket happened almost simultaneously.
Goblin knew his opponent’s attack method. He had heard how Dominic had been beaten.
The magic bullet fired like a flash shattered his defensive magic and surged toward his face.
Goblin had little talent for orthodox magic.
He didn’t think a single flimsy barrier would block the attack.
The barrier had been for buying time from the start. He roughly jerked his head to dodge the first attack.
When he raised his head again, five or six more magic bullets were already aimed at him.
Goblin felt a chill run down his spine.
He quickly took out a reagent bottle, bit it open, and gulped down the contents.
Binaeril’s magic bullets fired simultaneously.
Binaeril’s magic bullets embedded themselves haphazardly all over Goblin’s body.
Papapapapapang!
“Krrgh….”
Goblin covered his face with his forearm and endured the magic with his bare body.
Binaeril expressed surprise with wide eyes.
Maximum output magic bullets, and several at that, yet he had endured them with his bare body?
When he lowered his arm and their eyes met, Goblin was a horrifying sight.
“It stings, you arrogant bastard….”
A faint red light was seeping from the tattoos covering his face and neck.
And even the whites of his eyes glowed bright red like blood.
He looked exactly like a demon.
“Kaha! Look at that stupid expression! It’s all thanks to Lord Goblin’s special reagent!”
Binaeril didn’t miss the man’s slip of the tongue.
“Oops! My mistake. Pretend you didn’t hear that.”
Beyond the castle wall where they stood facing each other, the sounds of military boots and people’s voices were gradually approaching.
It was evidence that the palace guards and knights were rushing over.
Goblin spat out bloody phlegm with a ptoo and spoke to Binaeril.
“That hurt more than I thought. I’ve achieved my goal, so I’ll retreat here for today.”
“Where do you think you’re escaping!”
Binaeril chanted a magic bullet once more and took aim.
But this time, Goblin’s movements were faster.
His arm stretched like rubber and struck Binaeril’s abdomen.
By the time Binaeril, having blocked the attack, located Goblin, he was already standing atop a distant rampart after a couple of leaps.
Goblin glanced back at Binaeril once, then turned around and jumped off the castle wall.
“……Goblin.”
He had let the culprit escape, but he had gained something.
The man named Goblin was clearly connected to Count Siller.
Binaeril left to check on Rike’s safety.
Hans Brante.
The Court Count who served as both the court physician of Essen Palace and the aide to the Regent.
The former emperor’s personal physician shook his head.
“The treatment is difficult.”
“Why!”
“It is not an ordinary poisoning. It appears to be a lethal poison specially concocted using magic stones.
That Her Highness the Princess is still holding onto her life is a miracle. If it weren’t for Friederike’s resistance to poison, she would already be…….”
Everyone present could guess the rest without him saying it.
Second Princess Friederike had fallen into a comatose state.
The Poison-Eating Princess.
The resistance to magic poison she had built up since childhood was barely keeping her alive.
Charlotte pounded the floor in anger at the verdict that as an elder sister, she could do nothing.
Silvia was also holding back her emotions, but her expression was wretched.
Rike had inhaled a minute amount of the lethal poison while chanting magic to save her sister.
“Lord Binaeril, what happened to the culprit?”
“I lost him. I apologize.”
The two escorts had nothing to say even if they had ten mouths each.
Neither of them had imagined that someone would attempt to assassinate two princesses at the same time, and inside the palace no less.
It was a bold method.
“No. It was my order to send the guards away due to the grand council schedule. It is not your fault.”
The Regent’s tone as she spoke contained an unmistakable sorrow.
“Your Excellency the Regent. I am deeply sorry to inform you, but it is time to attend to state affairs.”
Court Count Brante spoke, watching the Regent’s cues as she fell into despair.
“Lord Binaeril, Silvia.”
Her shoulders heaving, she spoke in a composed, subdued voice.
“Speak.”
“Stay… by my sister’s side. This is a request as her older sister.”
Regent Charlotte exited together with the Court Count.
An atmosphere heavy with silence.
Binaeril felt as if he would suffocate from guilt.
Rike’s face had turned dark; no matter who looked, she appeared critical.
The perilously ragged sound of her breathing.
‘Isn’t there some way? A way…….’
-Do you think a solution will come from merely brooding?
Veritas broke the mood with a clear voice and chided him.
-That’s your problem. When your thinking becomes rigid, your field of vision narrows. Shouldn’t you ask for answers you can’t find on your own when necessary?
‘Ask? Who?’
-To me, the Book of Truth, of course.
‘…….’
Binaeril was not in the mood for jokes.
‘Are you saying you know the antidote?’
-Of course. That old man said it was a specially concocted lethal poison, but I know the combination formula and ratios down to the last detail.
‘Why are you only telling me this now!’
It felt like a ray of hope was shining through.
-Let’s see, it’s made by mixing Pigtail tails, poison parsley roots, polar bear liver, and potato sprouts.
The poison ingredients came flowing out of Veritas’s mouth one after another.
Goosebumps rose on Binaeril’s forearms.
Good heavens, to think Veritas could be this actively helpful!
‘If we only have those ingredients, we can make the antidote?’
-Hmm, yes. If you ‘have’ them, that is.
‘What do you mean?’
-You can’t get them. They’re rare ingredients from the start; unless you’re a professional manufacturer, there’s no way you’d have them.
Veritas cut the string of hope he had finally grabbed onto like scissors snipping it clean.
‘Are you mocking me right now?’
-No. Would you stupidly go gathering them one by one? I can’t believe you haven’t caught on after I gave you this much of a hint. I said there’s no way to have them “unless you’re a professional manufacturer.”
Binaeril let out a cry of realization.
Silvia looked at Binaeril with puzzled eyes.
‘Goblin!’
If he was the one who made the poison, of course the antidote would be with him too.
‘That guy called Goblin, do you know where he is right now?’
-Binaeril. I’m not a kind teacher who tells you all the right answers. I’ve provided you with as much information as you need. The rest is up to you.
Binaeril’s mind raced.
He already knew who Goblin was connected to.
“Count Victor Siller.”
“I have to go meet Count Siller.”
“What kind of nonsense is that all of a sudden?”
Binaeril looked at the sleeping Rike’s face.
If he had caught Goblin on the palace roof from the start, he could have obtained the antidote too.
“Silvia, stay by Rike’s side.”
“Wait, where are you going!”
“I’ll go get the antidote.”
Binaeril decided to go find Count Siller.