Volume 3 - CH 13

Act 3-13: Poisoned Dish(Side: Rosemary)

Mining city, the mansion of the Akinashi territory’s lord!

「I understand Your Highness’s feeling. Just once, I’ll set a meeting for Your Highness to persuade that personage.」

I made guts pose in my mind at the words of the blonde, handsome gentleman before me.

This is only natural since this blonde, handsome gentleman is none other than Knight Oliver Akinashi himself. Up to this point, he was persistently denying that he knows the one called Duchess Felis. Now I have gotten a chance to persuade Felis-neesama.

「Thank you very much!」

I said while bowing.

「Please stop, Your Highness! The one who should do that is me. Anyhow, we really are about to reach the limits of our activity after all. That’s why the matter of Your Highness wanting to help that personage is truly a godsend.」

Oliver replied with a tired expression.

「I’m looking forward to our cooperation. I’ll make sure to prioritize the reward for Lord Oliver for choosing to trust me.」

「Yes, I’m looking forward to our future cooperation too. I’ll personally guide you to negotiate with the Duchess tomorrow. Since things are going to get hectic from tomorrow, please enjoy your rest in my mansion tonight!」

「Yes!」

Thus, I returned to the room allocated to us with bouncy steps. I was desperately suppressing the smile that was about to bloom on my face.

「YAAY! Now I finally have the chance to recruit the people of Wind Cat as citizens!」

I sat on the sofa as soon as we entered the room and spoke with a rather excited voice.

Naturally, I was glad that things had gone according to plan. But the main reason for my uplifting feelings was simply that I had finally gotten the chance to meet Felis-oneesama again.

Yes. One of the surprises I heard from Kai before departing to the Akinashi territory was that Felis-neesama, who had vanished a long time ago, was in fact the leader of Wind Cat.

（Kai’s secretiveness is something I want. But…）

Felis-neesama is one of the few royalties who I can trust. Thus, knowing she was alive was enough to make me ecstatic. In contrast to my joyous mood…

「Uhm, yeah.」

Zack didn’t seem to agree with me.

「How naive!」

Asta brutally said without even trying to hide it.

「WHY!? My aim is someone whose appearance resembles Felis-neesama. Once I meet her, I’m sure that ―」

「Nah, that ain’t the problem. Rather, you did a really great job during the negotiation, Lil’ Princess.」

Zack’s remark was akin to pouring cold water onto my joyous mood. And he did so while pouring wine into his wooden mug.

「What’s the problem then!?」

「The one who drafted this plan is Shifu.」

「Indeed, the pillar supporting this plan is Kai. But, I’m the one in charge of the main part of his plan, namely, persuading Lord Oliver. And that’s why Kai put me in charge of this part!」

「I know that. I was there when he passed this duty to you. The problem is, where do you think Shifu is right now?」

「Hah? 【Demonic Forest】 of East End, isn’t it?」

Yes, Kai was currently in 【Demonic Forest】 to deal with an emergency Count Ketzer might cause.

「Yes. And that’s the main reason Shifu isn’t with us. Our part is for you to persuade that uncle Oliver. If the plan were that simple, Shifu would be the one staying here while we would’ve gone away to protect Wind Cat.」

After Zack drank the wine, his remark made me recall the uncomfortable feeling that I had felt at the beginning of this plan.

「That was also my concern at first, but did I just overestimate it?」

Zack trusted Kai wholeheartedly. And by wholeheartedly, I mean EVERYTHING, not just in the matters of martial arts. But then, I guess that’s the same for me. I mean, I’ve ended up overestimating every single one of his deeds and remarks.

Kai’s female butler, Asta, who was reading the book up until now finally looked at me.

「Rose, in a sense, you misunderstood our master. That personage is simply abnormal. Even calling him “abnormal” is an understatement. He’s strong, but his train of thought has already deviated from what you’re referring to as “normal.” Even this current development, I’m sure that all of these will eventually develop into something beyond our imagination.」

She declared so with a bold voice despite the gloomy look on her face.

Kai’s train of thought has already quit being normal, huh! Well, I guess I had also realized that. I mean, there was no way he could boldly come up with a plan such as recruiting people called chivalrous thieves as citizens in the Amelia kingdom unless his head had a few screws loose.

「You can say that. However―」

I was about to refute Asta’s statement, but the room’s door opened at that moment along with a knock. Then, a red-haired maid entered the room. The maid respectfully bowed.

「I brought your meals.」

She brought in a trolley with her into the room and set plates for us on the table.

After that, she introduced herself as Jane, a newly recruited maid. She looked like a gentle girl.

Lord Oliver often such acts. He would give a proper, albeit temporary job in his mansion to anyone suffering from poverty and who had no relatives to depend on. Thus, a few women with similar circumstances as Jane were working in this mansion.

「Thank you very much for your everyday effort.」

「No, I’m just doing my job.」

I felt like the gentle smile she showed was healing my weary mind.

「Well then, it’s time to eat, Princess.」

Zack urged me to start eating with a fork in his hand.

「I shall excuse myself.」

Jane left the room after bowing to me as if she was in a hurry.

Yeah, it was the courtesy in the Amelia kingdom for the server to take their leave immediately after serving the meal in the guest’s room. Well, being able to enter the guest’s room was already a feat.

As soon as I dismissed this matter and sat in the chair, I saw Zack staring daggers at the room’s entrance, from which the maid had just come, with an extremely rugged expression.

The next moment, he stood from his chair, grabbed his plate, and threw it out of the window in our room.

「Zack, what are you doing?」

「Be quiet, and take a look for now.」

A while later, the small birds perching on the trees’ branches stopped moving. They lay flat on the ground after pecking a few mouthfuls of the dish on Zack’s plate.

「Eh?」

""

I let out a bewildered voice.

「These dishes have been spiked with a powerful sleeping drug that will knock you, a human, will be knocked out until tomorrow. It doesn’t work on us though.」

Asta’s sarcasm felt so far away.

I felt a chill running down my spine. I finally realized that I was the only one who had let my guard down after arriving in this mansion.

The betrayal of the lord of this mansion felt like a thousand swords stabbing into my heart.

「Do you think that Lord Oliver is the one who ordered this?」

After feeling disappointed enough to drop my mood to the depths of hell, I braved myself to ask my two companions, who accompanied me on this journey.

「Nah, that Uncle Oliver is different from Shifu. He’s a good person, through and through. He won’t be able to do something like this. By doing that, he’d be risking the lives of the citizens in this city. Honestly, there’s no merit for him to do this.」

My heart warmed a bit upon hearing Zack’s reassurance about Lord Oliver’s character. Now, I could finally analyze the situation after calming down a bit.

It was as Zack had stated. Lord Oliver would gain nothing from doing this. Even if he was forced to do this, he wouldn’t do that in his city.

「So that means, Kai predicted this development too, right?」

「To be exact, Shifu said that something would happen, but he didn’t know when. Thus, he appointed Big Sis Asta, who has Appraisal, to also accompany you, just to be sure.」

""

Now, I started to feel that Kai not coming with me had become more and more unnatural. At this point, I was almost convinced that my job wasn’t as simple as trying to convince Lord Oliver.

「KUKUKU! IT’S TOO LATE! There’s no going back once Master executes his plan! Just be prepared. Just make sure that you’re prepared for a grand finale that’s far worse than this situation. AND this is not a joke!」

Asta spoke triumphantly, raising her hands to the sky with an eerie smile on her face.

I looked at Zack. By the expression on his face, I judged that he seemed to have the same opinion as Asta.

「The dishes have already been spiked by the maid! And you say that an even more haphazard development is waiting for us!?」

At that moment, Zack placed his index finger on his lips, telling me to be quiet.

He said to me, who had shut her mouth.

「What are you going to do now? Shall we pretend to be fast asleep? Doing that might bait the one who devised this stupid farce to appear before us, you know?」

He whispered.

「No, our dishes might not be the only ones spiked by the culprit. Things will turn into a disaster if other people’s dishes have also been spiked with poison. We should inform the people in this mansion immediately.」

The tips of Zack’s lips rose upward.

「I knew you were going to say that, Princess.」

He muttered that remark in a lively and innocent voice.