Mess 192

192.

“Isn’t the skin usually deathly pale?”

Pura recalled the child she had seen in the Iris territory.

That innocent child, murdered by the monstrous former Marquis of Iris.

The child, whose blood had ceased to flow and who had fallen into the cold snow, was whiter and more rigid than hardened wax.

‘Come to think of it…’

Even now, the corpse being examined had an unusually pink hue for a body in decay.

Moreover, just moments ago, the Empress had told the physician that they suspected a single cause of death.

“…What are you thinking?”

Pura asked.

“Poisoning.”

The Empress replied.

“Count Validus suspects that one of the common fatalities that occur in mines and smelting factories might have been used as a method of murder.”

“You mean poisoning? Is this perhaps like that time…?”

Understanding that Pura was referring to the death of the man Rimm, a former Iris knight, who had died after ingesting a herbicide, the Empress slowly shook her head.

“This is gas poisoning.”

“Gas?”

“To be more precise…”

The physician, having drawn blood from the corpse and applied it to a reagent to observe a reaction, nodded to the Empress.

Now certainty resonated in the Empress’s voice.

“Carbon monoxide poisoning.”

---

Carbon monoxide poisoning.

Accidents involving this are most common in confined spaces—particularly mines or factories that utilize minerals as primary materials—and can be easily prevented by adequate ventilation.

Conversely, if one is exposed to carbon monoxide in a place with poor ventilation, it could, in the worst cases, result in death.

Seraphie had not suspected carbon monoxide poisoning from the start.

The pivotal moment that led her to suspect it was the funeral hosted by Count Loria.

The bodies she saw there—his wife and children.

The letter brought by Lady Vagrosa.

The mass of phosphorus discovered in the basement of a temple on the city’s outskirts, the herbicide once used for a new type of explosive, the fireworks seen in the flames of the Mars port explosion.

A web of interrelated incidents began to point in one direction.

Amidst layer upon layer, a single intersection emerged.

Seraphie spent sleepless nights reading family research tomes thicker than her forearm, and from there, she discerned the nature of that intersection.

It was phosphate.

“Phosphate, you say…”

Duke Pellichia gently swirled the glass in his hand. The deep red wine, poured to less than half-full, shimmered and swished accordingly.

“Was it a mineral from which phosphorus is extracted?”

“That’s correct.”

Seraphie nodded lightly as she answered.

“It’s one of the most common minerals used for phosphorus extraction—but it’s also an ingredient found in both herbicides and fertilizers.”

“My, it seems herbicide is involved yet again.”

“Yes, yet again.”

After the Council of Elders convened—

Seraphie heard of Duke Pellichia’s invitation for dinner from Orkis, and accepted with pleasure.

Seraphie couldn’t help but laugh at Orkis’s exaggerated joke—how the Duke and Duchess had been restlessly hoping for a meal together.

She brought along a fine bottle of wine acquired not long ago as a gift, and Duke Pellichia was exceedingly pleased.

Her companions, Luni and Carl, brought ornamental charms for sword scabbards. The Duchess, seeing the violet tassel adorned with a small divine artifact, brought her own sword at once to affix it.

More than anything, though, what perfectly completed the evening meal was the engaging subject Seraphie introduced for conversation.

“During the process of extracting phosphorus from phosphate, highly concentrated carbon monoxide is produced.”

“Is it toxic enough to kill?” the Duchess asked.

“It’s dangerous, but people usually don’t die that easily.”

Seraphie spoke, recalling her reaction on discovering what was written in the research tomes.

It had felt as though someone had struck her on the head with a hammer; it had taken a long while to come to her senses.

“But if someone asphyxiates from carbon monoxide in an airtight space… bright red spots appear on the skin.”

“The more severe the poisoning, the larger those spots grow, until they cover the whole body.”

Orkis added to Seraphie’s explanation.

“Just as with the bodies of Countess Loria and her children…”

The Duke and Duchess pressed their eyes shut, struggling to hide their grief.

For a moment, they prayed for the Countess and her children.

“And, Your Grace,”

Luni spoke.

“The Rodo family is now handling the import of phosphate.”

“Who is the principal importing merchant?”

“Damn it, the Mars family,” Luni replied.

“Oh dear.”

The Duchess of Pellichia let out a deep sigh involuntarily. The Duke chuckled in disbelief.

“It’s fortunate that you got out quickly, then.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

With a face that verged on exasperation, Luni stabbed at her steak.

Perhaps it was to prove she was truly Carl’s beloved, gifted with the skills of an Aura Master; the way she sliced the steak was anything but ordinary.

“At this rate, I don’t think I’ll have any inheritance left.”

“In my opinion, you might as well hurry and write a formal renunciation.”

The Duchess advised sincerely.

She very well knew that, due to blood ties, Luni could easily be saddled with the Mars family’s sins.

Luni furrowed her brow.

“I already cut ties and changed my surname.”

“That still might not be enough.”

It’s best to make it official, the Duchess said, citing herself as an example.

“I, too, recently signed a formal waiver regarding the rights and duties of the Iris family.”

Thus, it was Seraphie who, in place of the duchess, inherited authority over Iris, bearing the duty of compensating the people of the land and Glake for their losses.

“I’m sorry, Seraphie,” Carl said.

“Why are you apologizing?”

Though Seraphie brushed it off, in her heart she swallowed her tears.

No matter how many times she thought about it, it seemed unfair, but she had to accept the burden willingly. That was the duty of one in power.

“Hmm…”

After a moment’s thought, Luni asked Seraphie,

“Sera, then, maybe—”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“You didn’t even let me finish!”

“Don’t tell me to take over Mars. I already have four territories under my control. If I take any more, I’ll be sick to my stomach.”

“Do you know how valuable Mars’s land is? Right next to Kia—you could combine the two and build a harbor that’d rival Pellichia…”

“Oh dear, I just spilled a family secret.”

The Duke burst out laughing.

Luni realized too late, but ultimately stuck out her tongue and laughed awkwardly, causing the others to stifle their own chuckles.

“In any case…”

The Duke took a sip of wine, his lips curled in a lopsided smile.

Clear mockery and sarcasm glimmered in his laughter, reflected in the deep red of the wine.

He raised his glass, and the others followed suit.

“To the success of Count Validus’s second hunt.”

It was, without question, the most pleasant of evening meals.

---

“Oh my goodness, Lara!”

The once lanky-legged puppy pricked up its ears.

“How you’ve grown in such a short time!”

After dinner, Orkis brought Lara, not seen in a long while, to show to Seraphie.

The white puppy she’d last seen the previous spring had grown into a large, sturdy hound.

“She’s still young, though.”

Though she was undergoing hunting dog training, she had been reared by human hands since infancy, and so proved almost useless as a proper hound.

At present, she was undergoing house-training to prevent indoor accidents.

“Sir Pellichia, is this the same puppy from back then?”

“She’s grown so much. She used to fit in one hand.”

Luni and Carl also fawned over Lara.

Lara tilted her head as she gazed at the three who doted on her. Both Seraphie and Luni squealed together.

“She’s adorable! Absolutely precious!”

“Sera, can we have a puppy too?”

“No, we cannot.”

Seraphie’s firm refusal left Luni’s lips drooping.

“We’re too busy to care for a dog. Work takes up all our time.”

“Mean… so stingy…”

With an air of bravado, Luni said that perhaps she’d just have a child someday, then.

Carl’s face turned bright red and he sputtered silently.

Seraphie and Orkis simply let it pass; by now, they understood the feelings of those two well enough.

The four of them strolled through the garden with Lara.

It was Lara who led the way.

Familiar with the paths she often walked with the Duke, she found every turn even in the darkness.

Yet she never forgot to look back now and then, checking to see if the humans were following.

“My, she’s just as clever as Pura.”

Seraphie smiled, watching Lara’s wagging tail.

“Come to think of it, Pura’s nickname was Lara, wasn’t it?”

Luni recalled Pura, who was absent.

“It’s a shame she couldn’t be here with us…”

Pura had returned safely to the capital early that morning.

She had flawlessly completed her mission, finally unearthing evidence of the illegal factory and counterfeit gold production.

Yet, perhaps out of concern for the rescued Glake, she had declined the Duke’s invitation to dinner.

Duke Pellichia understood well. In fact, he sent his family’s physician to assist with their recovery.

“…It seems that new explosive was being manufactured in that factory,”

Carl said, rubbing the nape of his neck.

“At last, the truth is starting to come to light.”

“All the same, it’s utterly absurd and appalling,”

Orkis followed.

When he first heard about what had happened in the Typhaeon lands, only one thought came to him:

How far could humans sink into depravity?

All of these desperate efforts to keep the crown prince from inheriting the throne exposed the ugliest facets of human nature.

Kidnapping people and using them as playthings for murderers, chaining their hands and feet, making them work until they were broken.

When they grew sick or injured, discarding and killing them.

The counterfeit gold and new explosives produced in that way existed only to line the pockets of the perpetrators.

“…What will happen to Typhaeon now?” Orkis asked Seraphie.

It was not that he didn’t know Typhaeon’s fate.

Typhaeon would now follow Vagrosa’s path and fade into history.

No—Typhaeon would meet an end even more gruesome than Vagrosa ever did.

Thus, Orkis’s question held a different meaning.

“Will it serve as proper bait to catch the other culprits?”

“We’ll have to wait and see…”

There were two things of which Seraphie was certain.

The first: as a result of this, the crown prince’s faction would be utterly weakened, never to recover.

And the second—

“…This alone won’t be enough to utterly defeat the crown prince.”