In any case, the moment she saw Jellard relax rather than be afraid upon realizing that she would be using that ability of hers, Camilla excluded him from the suspect list.
“But today, this little one is going to find the culprit.”
“Pardon?”
Camilla took King, who was sitting quietly in her pocket, out and set him down on the floor.
[Grrrr...]
At the appearance of the Guardian, everyone there widened their eyes.
Even though his body was only about the size of an adult’s palm and no different from a kitten, everyone flinched a little at King’s low growl.
“Why on earth...?”
Their faces all said they couldn’t understand why she was putting forward a Guardian when she could just use her eyes that pierced a person’s essence to find the culprit.
“If the culprit refuses to accept my ability and just insists they’re not the culprit, then that’s the end of it, isn’t it.”
But this was a Guardian.
Even if he looked this small, they wouldn’t be able to go so far as to doubt a Guardian’s ability.
With that, Camilla laid the groundwork and pushed King closer toward the people.
“As you all know, poison was found in the food Father ate.”
Jellard’s expression darkened again.
“What matters right now is that King figured out what kind of poison it was. And on top of that, he’s identified the smell of that poison.”
Camilla swept her gaze over the kitchen staff.
“If someone handled that poison, King will find them immediately.”
“E-Excuse me?”
One person reacted much more strongly to Camilla’s words than the others. It was Baron, the sous-chef.
Thirty this year, he had been learning the work under Jellard one step at a time since he was nineteen. You could say he was the disciple Jellard cherished most.
“I-I heard even the healers couldn’t identify the poison...”
As people’s gazes turned on him, Baron hurriedly continued with an awkward expression.
“That’s right. The poison has no distinguishing traits. No scent, no taste. Well, most poisons are like that, but they say this one is especially so.”
“Then how...?”
“It’s a Guardian.”
“Th-That...!”
“Because he’s a Guardian.”
Do you know Guardians? If a Guardian says so, what exactly do you think you’re going to do about it.
“Seems Guardians can pick up scents humans can’t.”
[Grrrr.]
King let out another low growl and began to walk slowly.
Some people looked fascinated by the Guardian, and some looked a little tense.
Sniff.
King went up to each person one by one and sniffed them.
He first went to Jellard, gave him a light sniff, and then simply passed him by.
Camilla closely watched King and each of their expressions. She didn’t miss even the slightest change in their faces.
At some point, her gaze fixed on one person.
There was someone whose body was visibly shaking more and more the closer King got.
“Ugh...”
It was the sous-chef, Baron.
King glanced back at him. Seeing that Camilla’s gaze was locked on Baron, King dashed straight at him.
[ROAR!]
“Aaagh!”
As Baron screamed and collapsed on the spot, everyone around him stared with their mouths hanging open.
“Brother, you’d better interrogate that man.”
“Right.”
At Camilla’s words, Ludville strode up to Baron.
Seeing that, Baron’s face went even paler; as if he’d made up his mind about something, he clenched his jaw.
“Kh... kuh...!”
Moments later, he clutched his throat in pain. He had burst the poison hidden deep inside his mouth.
“Kyahhh!”
“Ugh!”
As he soon vomited up a gush of blood, screams erupted here and there.
“Gyaaaah!”
A wretched scream tore out of Baron’s mouth.
THUD.
“Don’t look.”
Camilla’s view, staring blankly at the scene, was blocked. Ludville had wrapped her in his arms.
“AAAAAAH!”
Until the screams died down, Camilla couldn’t move a muscle in Ludville’s embrace.
****
“He’s just ordinary.”
Butler Rube—or rather, Rube, head of BLACK SHADOW—handed over the investigative report as he spoke.
“Before entering the Sorpel house he worked at a temple. He’s from an orphanage and has no family.”
“Hm.”
He was talking about Baron. Once he learned that Baron was the culprit in this attempted poisoning, Rube had immediately mobilized all information sources to dig into his background.
But there was nothing special at all. He was simply an ordinary man who had shown talent in cooking and become Jellard’s disciple.
“That’s strange.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Why would someone like that target the Duke of Sorpel?
They’d wondered if maybe he had debts and had been put up to it by someone, but that line was clean as well.
“You’re saying Camilla caught him this time too?”
“Yes. She and the Guardian together flushed out the culprit.”
“That peculiar ability of hers worked again, did it.”
“Well...”
A faint smile appeared at the corner of Butler Rube’s mouth.
“She says it was acting.”
“Acting?”
“She pretended as if she already knew everything about the culprit, as if the Guardian was going to sniff him out.”
From the start, neither Camilla nor the Guardian had any information.
She had simply put on a perfect performance so that the culprit would panic and expose himself. And Baron had fallen for it.
“Ha...”
The Duke of Sorpel let out a short laugh. Just who did she take after to have such nerves of steel?
“Where’s Camilla?”
“Lord Arsian came and left with her.”
“Arsian?”
The Duke of Sorpel’s brow twitched. He suddenly realized something.
That lately he had often seen Arsian by Camilla’s side.
“I’m told they’re in the same club.”
“A club? Huh... That brat’s doing club activities—wait! The same club?”
The club Camilla had joined was Service...
“That brat is in the Service Club?”
It was an even bigger shock than when he’d first heard Camilla had joined the Service Club.
He had watched Arsian for a long time and knew his personality better than anyone. That rough brat, doing service work?
A disbelieving laugh escaped the Duke of Sorpel’s mouth.
“I also heard Lord Petro is in the same club.”
At Rube’s next words, he was left speechless again.
“What is this?”
Was there something about that club?
****
“You’re definitely strong in healing magic.”
“Really?”
“There’s nothing more I can teach you about this.”
“Wow!”
Rania clapped her hands, her joy written plainly on her face.
“Ask Father to find you a private tutor. They’ll teach you much better than I can.”
“That’s...”
“Why?”
“I like it better when Lord Ravi teaches me.”
“I’m telling you, there’s nothing more I can teach you about healing magic.”
“Then you can teach me something else.”
Ravi looked quietly at Rania.
After he’d felt it would be awkward to just ignore it when he’d received that precious magic treatise from her last time and had given her a few days of magic lessons, Rania had been coming to him every day.
“This.”
When Ravi didn’t immediately spit out a refusal, Rania’s smile deepened.
Confirming once again that the easiest person to target in this house really was him, she picked something up from the side and brought it to him.
“This is...”
“It’s a present!”
“A present?”
It was a magic treatise. And a very rare one at that, with only a few copies left on the continent.
“Where did you get this...!”
“I told you before. It’s something someone I knew well left to me.”
“Just who is this person, to have this many books no one else can even get a single copy of?”
And how was it possible for her to so casually give such precious things away to other people?
“She’s someone who cherished me like a daughter. These are books she gave me when she went far away.”
Ravi kept looking back and forth between the book in his hands and her.
Ssssk.
“Huh?”
Rania’s eyes went round for a moment. It was because Ravi was handing the book she’d given him back.
“Why...”
“It’s too much.”
“Pardon?”
“It feels wrong for me to just take such a rare book.”
“No! I want to give it to you!”
Rania shook her head quickly.
“There’s no need to feel burdened.”
“Why?”
“Huh?”
“Why do you want to give this to me?”
A lovely smile appeared on Rania’s lips, just like always.
“Because I want to get close to you, Lord Ravi.”
Her eyes grew moist in an instant as she pressed her hands together. Her appearance, as if tears might spill down at any moment, seemed more than enough to move someone’s heart.
“You’re the person I’ve been relying on the most since I came here, Lord Ravi.”
Her head dipped down slowly, forlornly.
“Father and Brother Ludville are both too intimidating and scary...but you were different. You reached out your hand to me.”
“That’s...”
“Please become my family.”
Rania pressed her hands together as if in prayer and sent Ravi a pleading gaze.
“Can I call you brother?”
Her eyes were brimming with tears and her clasped hands trembled ever so slightly. She was no different from a puppy desperately trying not to be abandoned.
“I really can’t take it.”
“...What?”
“Take this book back.”
“......!”
Ravi stood up on the spot as if he had nothing more to say.
“Lord Ravi!”
Rania hurriedly grabbed him.
“Why...”
Rania couldn’t believe it.
He was refusing this outright? Turning his back even with such a precious treatise right in front of him?
Watching her fluster, Ravi spoke calmly.
“She only has me as family.”
‘Why are you asking something so obvious.’
‘You’re my brother.’
‘You’re my family.’
‘I don’t want to be an orphan again...’
‘You know I’ll really be an orphan if you die, right?’
‘So don’t die.’
In front of the dining hall, at the Hunting Tournament, there ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) had only ever been one thing she shouted at him.
That he was her only family.
“So I have to be the same.”
That his only family was her as well.
“Get some rest then.”
Ravi turned and left the room.
“...That’s impossible.”
Watching him walk away that firmly, Rania couldn’t bring herself to grab him again.
Her face went deathly pale. The trembling at the corners of her lips made it obvious to anyone that she was terrified.
“What do I do...”
Thinking that she would not be able to avoid being held to account for her failure, Rania bit down hard on her lip.
