Chapter 31, The Roses Will Bloom Soon (4)

Translator: Hedge

Editor: Lizzz

 

Kalian’s head lifted slightly.

 

And without erasing the smile that had settled on his face, he opened his mouth while facing Sillike’s smiling expression.

 

“It sounds like you’re suggesting I should try to change my unwilling heart?”

 

It was a thin, clear, and beautiful voice of a boy who had not yet gone through puberty. Yet, there was a chill in that voice.

 

“Don’t so carelessly provoke me. Our Brotherly affection isn’t that deep.”

 

The smile that had spread across Sillike’s face slowly disappeared. At the Stepson’s words threatening her over her own Son’s safety, wrinkles appeared even on her picture-perfect beautiful face.

 

Kalian picked up a spoon and tapped the edge of the coffee cup. Along with the crystal-clear sound, Kalian’s face returned to its original serenity.

 

“So. What shall we do about the tea?”

 

Sillike did not answer. She merely stared at Kalian with narrowed eyes. Kalian silently waited for Sillike’s decision.

 

“Do what you must.”

 

Kalian smiled.

 

“I’ll take that as a rejection, then.”

 

Kalian lifted his cup.

 

Without breaking his gaze from Sillike, he poured all the remaining coffee into his mouth and swallowed.

 

With that, the banquet hall doors opened and nobles began to enter.

 

…

 

Ian, who had been fidgeting anxiously next to the coachman, urgently stopped the carriage. This was because he had spotted a boy and a girl walking along the Royal Palace road.

 

Had they been just any boy and girl, he would have naturally passed them by, as it was already a busy road.

 

However, he had noticed that the boy’s hair was aqua-colored and the girl’s was silver, but even that alone would not have made him pay attention and he would have continued on his way.

 

“…So you were trying to enter the Royal Palace with a sword?”

 

How could he not stop the carriage when they were carrying an obviously gleaming longsword!

 

First, Ian got the siblings into the carriage and then entered himself. Thus, the carriage was now carrying three people and heading toward Allan’s house, after making a brief stop at the Arcane Enclave.

 

Kyrie answered Ian’s question with an expressionless face and in a blunt manner.

 

“Yes. It’s the sword His Highness bestowed upon me.”

 

[Oh, Your Highness, this is driving me crazy!!]

 

“Today, you’ll enter with just yourself. Leave the sword at the Mage’s house we’re going to. Anyway, it’s absolutely not possible to bring it in today.”

 

Having already smuggled a knife out of the Prince’s possession, he could not allow them to enter with a longsword. Then Hina, the silver-haired girl sitting quietly before Ian, moved her hands toward Kyrie.

 

‘Puppy. This must be him. The Prince said he was cute. I thought he was a woman.’

 

Kyrie opened his mouth to respond to those words. However, the response came from Ian’s side.

 

“It’s Ian, I’m not a puppy. As you can see, I’m a perfectly normal man.”

 

Hina’s shoulders flinched when he understood the sign language. Realizing his tone had been unusually stiff, Ian spoke again.

 

“I can understand most of it. So, if you have something to say to me, say it to me. Anyway, things are a bit chaotic right now. This isn’t how I meant to welcome you. I apologize for that.”

 

And as he turned his head toward Kyrie to say something else, the carriage stopped. Allan’s mansion was visible through the window, and Ian told the siblings to wait first before he dashed into Allan’s house.

 

Meanwhile, Allan had just woken up, having returned home when morning was just breaking.

 

“Seems like I have guests.”

 

Roughly tying back his disheveled hair and in the middle of brewing a cup of coffee, Allan quietly walked to the kitchen and took out three more coffee cups.

 

A little later, he put two empty cups back. This was because he sensed that only one person was coming out from the carriage.

 

While briefly expanding his Mana to survey the area around the house, Allan sensed the two in the carriage and let out a murmur of admiration to himself.

 

“A Half-Elf, no less. Our Prince certainly has wide connections.”

 

When two cups of coffee were placed on the table, Ian, who had crossed the vast garden, arrived. Allan snapped his fingers to open wide the door that had been blocking Ian.

 

Simultaneously, a flower-shaped marble statue placed beside the door undulated and sang in an excited voice.

 

“Welcome to Archmage Allan Manasil’s house!”

 

“Ah… This is really driving me crazy.”

 

[Whether it’s those who use swords or those who use magic, why are they all so crazy?] Keeping these words pressed down inside his throat, Ian hurriedly entered.

 

Allan’s expression, which had been smiling while anticipating Ian’s reaction to the statue, completely changed. This was because, unlike usual, Ian’s face showed a trace of urgency.

 

“Something’s happened?”

 

Instead of answering, Ian took out what he had brought and handed them to Allan.

 

There was a knife, a medicine pouch, a report, and one letter. There was no need to wonder whose seal was on the letter.

 

“He won’t say what he’s thinking. He only asked to hide these things, saying someone might soon search His Highness’s room.”

 

Allan practically snatched the letter from Ian’s hand and opened it. Allan’s eyes trembled as he read down the text.

 

“… This damn brat.”

 

[You said you found a way, and yet this is what you come up with!?]

 

“You really called this ‘handling it!?’”

 

Allan returned the letter to Ian. Then he quickly removed his robe and changed clothes. Meanwhile, Ian unfolded Kalian’s letter.

 

His hand trembled at one sentence that caught his eye.

 

‘If I don’t wake up right away.’

 

Ian bit his lip hard.

 

One had tried to enter the palace while wearing a sword.

 

One had made statues sing.

 

One had given up being a Young Master to become a servant.

 

One had drunk poison because he did not want poisoned tea

 

Who gathered them all?

 

Ian knew he should not have trusted the Prince.

 

…

 

Near the end of Rmain’s banquet speech marking the start of the evening feast.

 

*Thump!*

 

Kalian’s heart jolted once. It began beating at an irregular pace that could be felt even without placing a hand over it.

 

Kalian quietly closed and opened his eyes.

 

Wine was poured into everyone’s glasses.

 

The empty coffee cup that had been placed before Kalian was removed and replaced with a beverage glass in lieu of wine. Kalian looked at that beverage glass.

 

Of course, it was a normal drink. However, Kalian intended to make it appear as though the drink had been poisoned. After all, he could not claim to have been poisoned without consuming anything.

 

[They say it takes about half a day for the magic reagent poison detection test results to come out. After that, it doesn’t matter if the drink is found to have been normal.]

 

By then, news of Kalian’s condition, while the shocking news of the numerous mysterious deaths that the Enclave’s Mages had collected, would spread throughout the streets. At that fever pitch, no one would care about the test results.

 

Kalian picked up the beverage glass and slowly drank.

 

Whatever thoughts she had, Sillike turned her head to look at Kalian. They faced each other with expressionless faces before turning their heads in different directions as if by agreement.

 

*Cough.*

 

At the sound of coughing, Randel looked at Kalian.

 

Kalian’s eyes met Randel’s for a very brief moment. Instantly, Randel’s brow furrowed.

 

He had looked into it. Into Kalian’s depths.

 

What state his Brother was in. Why he had approached him with those words? What role he had assigned to him today?

 

The words ‘I’m fine’ came to mind

 

Why had he answered that way, with a face that was not fine at all, when his health was being worried about.

 

*Thump!*

 

The heartbeat was heard again. The drug had fully permeated.

 

Kalian’s heart stopped detoxifying.

 

The Tacrimosa’s poison, which had been gradually subsiding, spread like drops of blood in water.

 

Kalian tightly clenched his trembling hand into a fist. The coughing sounds grew gradually louder, then more frequent. The nobles looked at Kalian. He could feel Sillike making an uncomfortable face and Rmain checking his condition.

 

A strong smell of blood rose sharply.

 

*Hack!*

 

Dark red blood suddenly spewed from Kalian’s mouth. The nobles rose from their seats with exclamations of shock.

 

*Thump!*

 

The pain of his twisting heart intensified.

 

Just because it would not kill him did not mean the pain would lessen.

 

The ice spear from Arsene Hertz had driven in him was less painful than this.

 

The sensation of his airways burning and lungs being torn to pieces came vividly through.

 

Kalian unconsciously clutched his chest and groaned.

 

Finally,

 

*Thud!*

 

He lost strength and collapsed to the floor.

 

“Your Highness!”

 

The hall was thrown into chaos, and the Kaela Knights surrounded the banquet hall.

 

Soon, Rmain approached Kalian.

 

“Kalian.”

 

Rmain knelt on the floor and lifted Kalian’s body. As the skinny body was lifted up, a sigh escaped Rmain’s lips.

 

Kalian endured. While enduring, he stared at Rmain. To make him remember someone else who had suffered the same fate, from the same person, and bring out his buried guilt. This was to ensure he would lose just a little of his reason.

 

Finally seeing Rmain’s eyes distort, Kalian at last lost consciousness. At the sight of Kalian going limp, Rmain’s hands trembled.

 

Rmain turned his head to look at someone. The nobles’ gazes moved with his.

 

[‘It should have been his Father he sought for survival! Not a Mage he had never met before!’]

 

“You finally…” Rmain opened his mouth as if reciting. Soon, it became pure rage.

 

“You finally try to harm my Son as well!”

 

[If I continue to only stand by and watch, I will really lose him!]

 

Rmain’s eyes, his anger, reached someone. His voice, filled with rage, echoed through the banquet hall.

 

“Sillike!”

 

All the nobles in the hall were shocked at seeing this unprecedented appearance of the King and hearing the name that burst from his lips.

 

Plants cursed under his lowered head.

 

*Thump!*

 

The power of the Boon of Syspanian manifested again. It gathered at the spreading poison and removed the dead tissues.

 

With very slow but definite movement, it began to heal.

 

Rmain did not see Kalian’s breathing gradually becoming more regular. Sillike, who alone saw this, clutched the hem of her dress.

 

…

 

The nobles’ gazes did not leave Sillike and Kalian. Sillike secretly bit her lip. She had not thought Rmain would call out her name there, or that he would act so rashly.

 

The healer who had been examining the symptoms that appeared on Kalian’s body opened their mouth.

 

“It is indeed poisoning.”

 

The nobles let out sounds close to screams. The Prince had really been poisoned. Rmain ordered the healer to take quick measures.

 

The healer held their necklace and began gathering Serenty’s Divine Power. Since they could not use their Divine Power like the legendary Priests, it would take time for the power needed for detoxification to manifest.

 

“It is not poisoning.”

 

At that moment, Sillike spoke up, stopping the healer’s actions.

 

Now that the nobles had all heard Rmain call out her name, she could no longer withdraw from this situation.

 

“It is not poison but illness. I heard he has a chronic condition.”

 

“Sillike. Stop it. I will not tolerate any more nonsense.”

 

This time Rmain, who clearly had no intention of backing down, cut off Sillike’s words.

 

Yes. They had said Freya died of illness too. They had said that after showing up with the entire Knight Order.

 

The healer quickly sat back down and gripped their necklace. Sillike spoke with a face feigning composure and a smile.

 

“Your Majesty seems unaware. First, dismiss the others. I am greatly concerned that my child’s condition may worsen amid this commotion.”

 

At this brazenness, Rmain finally could not hold back anymore and tried to speak to the Commander of the Kaela Kights. However, someone’s voice cut off Rmain’s words.

 

“Kalian was fine before this. I don’t know why you’re saying he has an illness he doesn’t have. I saw him every morning, and never thought anything was wrong. And those words ‘my child.’ Shouldn’t you refrain from saying that to Kalian of all people?”

 

Sillike’s eyes shook greatly.

 

Sillike turned her gaze following the voice that contradicted her words.

 

“I told you not to ’stop, don’t bother yourself’, didn’t I? Even after saying that…”

 

The one who had overturned Sillike’s words in an instant slowly concluded while turning their head toward her.

 

“… Mother.”

 

Green eyes looking at her.

 

They were not Randel’s.