The servant’s expression cracked. His mouth twitched as if he wanted to say something, but the other servants were coming inside.
During that time, Roman Dmitry savored the tea, and he also ate the snacks one by one and showed no signs of being alert. However, nothing drastic happened. Then the servants quickly cleaned up after he was done and went out.
Roman Dmitry, who was drinking the remaining tea, opened the door as he felt a presence.
“What is this? You know what is in it, and yet you drank it so carelessly!”
It was the servant who had just left. The man named Greg spoke with a look of strain and anger. It was a sudden warning, and there was a possibility that Roman didn’t trust him.
However, it was natural for a normal person to be wary of something when someone warned them, whether they trusted them or not.
But Roman Dmitry drank the tea without hesitation. The servant risked everything by telling him the truth, but the empty teacup proved it all to be meaningless.
Tuk.
He placed the teacup down, and Roman Dmitry looked at Greg with a calm face.
“I knew from the start that Barbossa mainly uses poison. And that poison doesn’t work on me.”
“… What is that supposed to mean?”
The moment he drank the tea, the aura of poison spread through his body. It showed how strong the poison was, and it took over his body so silently that even an aura swordsman wouldn’t notice the existence of the poison.
The weapon that Barbossa used was definitely strong. If someone drank this poison, they wouldn’t be able to undo its effects. This colorless poison was lethal. If the symptoms appeared belatedly, then his head would be cut off by Barbossa’s sword.
However, the opponent was Roman Dmitry. Due to the rapid development of his body, quite a bit of the poison became numb, and it wasn’t strange to say that his body was in a state of being invulnerable to poisons.
It was because the flames of the Fire Demon consumed the qi within his body, which Roman Dmitry considered a foreign object. No impurities were allowed, and thanks to that, the pure qi could be contained, and the poison was soon engulfed in flames.
The heat spread inside his body, and as the heat flowed from his throat, it made Barbossa’s plan useless. It was the truth that Greg didn’t know about.
His shocked face asked why he drank the tea despite knowing the truth, but Roman Dmitry didn’t give him an answer.
“If you really want to help me, can the ingredients left in the teacup help prove that someone tried to poison me?”
“… It is possible, but the problem is time. Barbossa didn’t use poison on the night of the eve for no reason. Those who are involved know that Barbossa uses poison, but there is no way to prove that he used it the day before. If you question him about the poison and give up the fight against him, he will use that to win over the public’s opinion and drive the opponents into a corner. Refusing to fight in Valhalla is dishonorable for many reasons, and no one will listen to the evidence. However, to go on stage and prove the result will show that the sword of Barbossa isn’t that strong.”
Barbossa was smart. The day before the fight, he cornered his opponent. Whether he drank the poison or not, it was an advantage for him. And if the opponent who was wary of poison stayed up all night without having anything, that was also something he wanted.
He wanted to make the condition of his opponent worse. Barbossa was called the Twelve Swords of the Continent and was able to overwhelm his opponents with that difference completely.
It was an outcall. In a situation that would normally result in defeat, Roman Dmitry took a bold step and drank the poison. Then Roman Dmitry rose from his chair.
“Until the main stage ends tomorrow, prove that this tea cup holds poison. If you get the results I want, I will get the results you want.”
He didn’t care about his answer and stepped away.
If he openly used poison, from now on, it was Roman’s turn to use the facts and provoke the others.
Among the servants who brought the refreshments, one of them bowed his head and spoke.
“Roman Dmitry drank the poison. He also ate the snacks, so he must have been poisoned.”
“Is that so?”
The man’s identity—it was the butler who oversaw the outside guests. Contrary to his straight-looking face, he had the most sinister smile as he stroked his gray beard.
“Foolish kid. To see him this careless before the fight. Dmitry’s reputation ends with this.”
This mission. It was judged that the possibility of it ending up as a failure was high. Roman Dmitry was an unpredictable person, and he showed how resourceful he could be on the battlefield, so it wouldn’t be easy to poison him.
And his subordinate also won on the eve of the festival, right?
But this was easier than they thought, and he was so careless. When the butler took the gold coin pouch and turned around, a familiar person burst into the kitchen where the butler was.
“Are you the butler handling this place?”
“Yes, I…”
Swish.
Crack!
“Kuak!”
The face of the butler was smashed into the wall. Roman Dmitry looked at his face, which was dripping with blood, while still holding the opponent’s hair in his hand.
“The servant here just fed me poisoned tea. If you are the one who governs this place and them, you will not be able to step away from taking responsibility. What poison did you give me? And did Barbossa order you?”
“N-No! What are you even talking about? I did nothing!”
The butler’s face went pale. No, he didn’t expect that the poison would be discovered this quickly.
He had to get away now. If he emphasized that he was just a butler, then Roman would have to step back.
“No, you know something. If there were nothing, there would be no reason for the servants to receive gold coins from you.”
Chak.
His cheek was slapped. The butler, whose eyes were losing consciousness, stumbled as if he would fall, but the violent pair of hands didn’t let go of his body.
Even if the gold coins had no meaning, it wasn’t unrelated to the fact that the servants and their actions were checked by the butler and that it was the butler who accepted the servants working in this place.
There was no reason for him to be flustered. The rewards and obligations received as a person of responsibility weren’t areas that could be excused by calling oneself innocent.
“If you are really innocent, then call someone who will take responsibility for this situation.”
“… T-That.”
His hesitating eyes—he was certain of the violence. That was the meaning of his momentary hesitation, but because he panicked, he realized he had made a mistake.
From then on, he didn’t add any more words.
Slap.
Again.
Listening to the commotion, someone would have to move. As he waited for the tail to alleviate the situation, Roman Dmitry didn’t mess around.
Just as the opponent openly used poison, he brutally exposed the opponent’s mistake by using violence.
And it was as he had expected. In order to not let things get worse, in the end, the tail that was hiding had to show its face.
“Stop this now! What is happening here?”
It was Viscount Jonathan. His face, which had clear traces of abuse, looked flustered as he noticed the situation here.
And at that moment, Roman smiled. If Viscount Jonathan was the tail, it meant that Marquis Belfir and Barbossa were behind this.
Tak.
He let go of him, and Roman wiped the blood off his hands, leaving the butler gasping for air.
“The servants here just poisoned me. And the butler gave a pouch of gold coins to praise the servant. Viscount Jonathan. What do you think about this? I am sure they were poisoning me on the orders of someone to disrupt the stage.”
“That cannot be! Do not insult Valhalla!”
Viscount Jonathan shouted. At Roman Dmitry’s words, his heart sank.
Barbossa’s poison—one couldn’t find out about it in a normal manner. It was colorless and odorless, and it would slowly break away the mana in the body, so the effect shouldn’t appear right away.
Then how? How did this man find out? Contrary to his heart, which was pounding insanely, he looked confident.
“The festival of Valhalla is a sacred stage! If that happens, we will actively step forward to find out the truth and punish the people involved severely. But Roman Dmitry. To say that the butler used poison is too broad a speculation. Before serving food to our guests, we use magic relics to detect poison. But why are you so sure that the tea was poisoned?”
He was driving the situation away to escape taking responsibility, and at the same time, he criticized the opponent.
“If there is no poison in the tea, will Roman Dmitry be able to take on the responsibility? It isn’t a simple job. It is a disgrace to Valhalla, and it is a problem that we wouldn’t ignore, even with guests. If you have doubts, leave the festival. I will directly report it to His Majesty and put another warrior on the stage on behalf of Roman Dmitry.”
It was the next best thing. If Roman avoided the fight, they would proceed with their first plan to call him a coward.
The truth? It didn’t matter. Valhalla managed all the people who would investigate and bring the evidence, so how on earth could they prove the existence of the poison?
Roman Dmitry wouldn’t be able to reveal the truth to the citizens of Valhalla. And the reason Barbossa had always been able to win was because of this.
But Roman showed a different reaction than expected.
“The stage will proceed as scheduled. But I have no intention of letting this matter go. Viscount Jonathan. If I can prove the existence of the poison, you will have to take responsibility for what you just said to me.”
Through that, the problem of the poison was left open.
At the sight of Roman Dmitry stepping back, Viscount Jonathan felt a strange, ominous emotion rise.
The series of events was reported to Marquis Belfir and even Barbossa.
“Roman Dmitry found out about the poison. Will it be alright?”
It was a question from Marquis Belfir, and the light revealed Barbossa’s face, which looked like a snake smiling.
“Marquis Belfir. Do you know why I prefer that specific poison? It is different from normal poison. At first, the people who are poisoned with it go insane, not knowing what is wrong with them, but the effect of the mana that scatters is like burning them in flames. Roman Dmitry is going through the same thing. I don’t know how he figured out about the poison, but I am pretty sure that he is now convinced that he is not affected by it.”
It was an Internal Body Poison, and it was a well-known poison in Murim. However, on the Salamander Continent, it was Barbossa who created the new concept of Internal Body Poison.
Wheik.
Tak.
He put a dagger on the table. Revealing a cool sight, he spoke.
“Even if he wasn’t poisoned. What is there to worry about? Even if he defeated Morales, that doesn’t mean that we are on an equal level. And I will prove that in front of the people—what the difference between the 12th and 6th place rankings in Valhalla means. It doesn’t simply mean stepping six levels ahead. It means an overwhelming difference that one cannot dare to look at normally. So trust me.”
“As I thought, you are so reliable.”
Marquis Belfir laughed.
Barbossa was a faithful dog to them, so he was the perfect one to highlight the finale of this plan.
It would be a lively time on the eve of the festival. And that was how the day ended.
But on the next day, the festival that everyone was looking forward to had been heating up since the morning due to a rumor.
