SN Chapter 19

When Rikardis lifted the teacup, both Kylo and Rosaline flinched. Their expressions said they wanted to knock the cup away immediately. Rikardis smiled and brought the cup close to his face. He intended to smell the fragrance once more to gauge the tea's identity, but to others it looked like preparation to drink. Before Kylo could cry out in alarm, Rosaline moved swiftly. Fast as wind.

Thump.

"Dame Rosaline, what rudeness is this! Your Highness, the teacup first! No, Dame Rosaline, your hand quickly!"

Rosaline's hand covered Rikardis's mouth firmly. She remembered clearly that when she'd grabbed Rikardis's wrist earlier, Kylo had called it great rudeness. If grabbing the wrist was rude, she should do something else—this virtuous thought process resulted in the situation actually worsening. Kylo was on the verge of clutching his neck in despair, and Rikardis merely rolled his eyes upward to look at her, as if dumbfounded. His mouth remained covered.

Only after Rosaline seized the teacup from his hand did she release his mouth. Rikardis rubbed his tingling lips. Gone was any trace of the anxious figure worried about stepping on her own shadow or breathing too loudly. They'd said she lost her memory—she was incomparably more radical than before the incident. A bit impudent, perhaps, but considering her earlier achievement, he'd let it pass.

"Hand it over."

"No."

"No, Your Highness!"

"Absolutely not, Your Highness!"

Rosaline, Kylo, and the chief secretary Itserion objected in turn. Itserion had frozen while Rosaline pummeled the assassin, then snapped to attention at Rikardis's action. He strode toward Rosaline.

"Hand it here, Dame Rosaline. I'll investigate."

"No, it's mine. Hand it over quickly."

"Absolutely not! You're twenty-five years old—what nonsense is this, Your Highness! They say poison is in it! Give it to me, Dame Rosaline!"

Complete chaos on both sides of Rosaline. Her good hearing made it doubly painful. As she pondered at length whom to hand it to, Rikardis grabbed her wrist sharply. His face, always cold, had turned even more frigid. His blue eyes sank low.

"Even a three-year-old deaf child knows poison doesn't work on me since I can heal with holy power. Yet they tried to feed me poison or whatever this is. What do you think that means?"

"...They must have done something."

"How can you tell me to hand over something that might blind people just by looking at it, rot their brains just by smelling it, when it's poison that works even on me? Have you gotten so little sleep lately that your head's gone stiff too, Itserion?"

"Even so, how can you use your noble body to test poison? Let's try having the temple examine it."

"Those incompetent parasites who waste taxes relying on paltry holy power?"

"Your Highness!"

While Itserion and Rikardis argued, Rosaline observed the black tea in the teacup. The small movement caused when Rikardis grabbed her wrist—in that ripple, the surface undulated. Within the tea moving as one, something separated and wavered. Though invisible to the eye, only Rosaline noticed. She knew this energy well. The nature of magic forming her own body. That thing called magical power. But it differed slightly from the magical power she possessed. If she had to compare, it resembled the violent magical power drifting through magical beasts' bodies.

Rosaline observed quietly, then blinked her stiff eyes. The amount was so minute she wouldn't sense it without concentrating.

A new substance combining poison with magical power. 'Holy power and magical power don't interfere with each other.' An attempt using that principle had first appeared in the hunting competition incident months ago. Before leaving House Redvielle, Rosaline had received much information from Kallix.

Many knights had died at the hunting competition. Despite priests being present, even those with very shallow wounds all died. They'd estimated the assassination unit 'Onyx Moon' had created a new poison.

Kallix had brought several weapons from the assassins. Rosaline noticed traces of magical power faintly clinging to those hidden weapons. Precisely, she'd sensed it from the poison coating the weapons. When Rosaline informed Kallix of this, he pondered briefly, then sighed—ah.

'I see. Since magical power and holy power can't interfere with each other... if magical power had completely assimilated with the poison, no matter how much they tried to heal with holy power, it couldn't have interfered at all. So that's... how it was. They seem to have created something very dangerous.'

And the fact that this poison couldn't be countered by holy power had been verified by the hunting competition incident. Proven by the deaths of numerous knights. Their assassination attempts running rampant might be emboldened by that fact. Rosaline cut through the voices of those still arguing.

"It seems to be the poison used at the hunting competition."

Rikardis and Itserion's gazes reached her. Rikardis looked at her with a suspicious frown.

"How do you know that?"

Rosaline lifted her gaze from the teacup to meet his blue eyes. Kallix had thought the imperial side would soon learn the poison's identity too. Judging from the imperial family's attitude of keeping silent, he'd guessed they were researching a cure for the poison, but... the imperial family had exceeded his expectations and hadn't found even a small clue yet.

However, Kallix wouldn't have known either without Rosaline's hint. Only those who possessed magical power could sense it. Even setting aside his sister, who was an aggregate of magical power, people possessing magical power were truly few.

Moreover, magical power was said to be a product of Kreyan Tithanion, so those possessing that power were persecuted as ominous. In villages with strong faith in Idelabheim, there were even customs of burning magical people at the stake. Magical beasts carrying magical power in their bodies had always been humanity's natural enemy. Even if the vessel of that ominous power pointing claws at humans changed from animal to human, they thought it no different. Therefore, magical people were killed, took their own lives, or hid. They gradually disappeared until now they were as hard to find as people with strong holy power.

This was one reason for failing to recognize Balta's newly created poison. With no one possessing magical power, naturally they couldn't recognize it. So Kallix had also considered the possibility that the imperial family hadn't yet identified the poison.

'Remember, Sister. If you happen to see that poison again in the imperial palace, or if you need to tell someone, just say one thing.'

Past Kallix's voice and Rosaline's voice overlapped.

"Because magical power and holy power don't interfere with each other."

He'd said this alone would be enough. Itserion's eyes widened greatly. Rikardis twitched one eyebrow. The imperial family had also investigated the poison used at the hunting competition, but without notable results. Colorless, tasteless, odorless. Nothing was revealed except that it was strong poison guaranteeing an atrocious survival rate. There'd been talk that holy power didn't work well on it, but they'd thought it was because the priests' holy power was weak.

Magical power and holy power don't interfere with each other. They hadn't thought of common knowledge even children knew. Exactly the proverb about darkness under the lamp. Itserion spoke loudly without even realizing it.

"I-I see. It's not that they died because it had progressed too far before holy power could reach them, but because holy power couldn't touch it from the start—that makes far more sense. Why didn't we think of that! Remarkable, Dame Rosaline! We'll need to verify it, but that's probably correct."

Rikardis made a tsk sound with his tongue. He too had realized it the moment he heard Rosaline's words. Onyx Moon's newly created poison was definitely related to magical power. No—it was related.

In other words—the Second Prince, who possessed holy power that could save even dying people as long as they didn't die instantly. Setting aside that Onyx Moon was meticulous in intelligence gathering, his holy power's fame already spread across the continent. If this was poison they'd determined would work on the Second Prince, the only path remaining would be using the principle that magical power and holy power don't interfere. Moreover, they'd always sought to drag down the power bearing the name of holy power... Holy power that couldn't heal poison? Obvious. Idelabheim's authority would crash to the ground. And that was what Onyx Moon had desired most.

"Yes, remarkable. To think they've created even this. A realm of poison that holy power can't heal, that holy power can't interfere with."

It felt absolutely shit. When poison investigation was in full swing, Rikardis had also tried pouring holy power into it. But it had simply separated gently like water and oil.

He'd wondered. Could this poison possibly be related to magical power? But was it possible to mix invisible power with the substance called poison? If it really was... wouldn't that be a realm even he, even Idelabheim couldn't touch? The Rikardis of that time had merely buried his suspicions.

Neutralizing holy power. Idelabheim's fall. Core elements Onyx Moon sought to achieve. As much as it was what Onyx Moon desired most, it was also what Illavénia, their enemy, least desired. Perhaps that's why he'd deliberately turned away. Though not perfectly verified, as of today it was confirmed in Rikardis's mind. Onyx Moon had created a new poison. Perhaps a great card that could sway this continent. Impressive. He wanted to applaud even an enemy.

Rikardis closed his eyes, pressing his throbbing head. He'd thought he'd never lived comfortably, always walked dirt roads full of gravel. But the real mire was just beginning.