Real Education (5)
“It’s the first time I’ve heard the instructor address me with an honorific.”
Still not fully recovered from his injuries, Rosnante limped forward.
Beside him stood an elderly man with a long staff and a monocle over one eye.
“It’s because the situation calls for Your Highness’s status right now,” Zeke replied with a smile.
“How irreverent of me. Yes, you said my status was needed… Did you foresee this far, Instructor?”
When Rosnante first heard from Zeke that his status was needed, he didn’t understand what it meant, but now he does.
‘This is truly absurd… Did he even calculate that the royal physician would be called if I were to get hurt?’
He wanted to crack open Zeke’s head and see what was inside, if only he could.
Rosnante shook his head and addressed the audience.
“Everyone, listen!”
Despite his fatigued face and body trembling from the lingering paralysis, Rosnante opened his eyes wide and shouted in a booming voice.
“Second Prince, Rosnante Leonine. I swear on the name of Leonine that Zeke Clayman’s claims are true!”
A collective gasp filled the air.
The atmosphere in the noisy audience instantly froze as if doused with cold water.
The surname ‘Leonine,’ bestowed only upon the most noble bloodline in the Empire.
Swearing on that name was a rare occurrence in the history of the imperial family.
To be serious, it was a situation that could even lead to discussions about the deprivation of his princely status.
In other words, Rosnante was boldly proposing a double-or-nothing gamble to Ilios.
‘Whoa… I didn’t expect him to go that far. He’s overdoing it.’
Zeke chuckled.
‘Still, this is the first time I’ve seen him this reliable.’
The imperial family’s name.
Those who understood its weight couldn’t help but harden their expressions.
‘If he’s willing to stake his name on it, could Zeke Clayman’s claims really be true…?’
The atmosphere, which had been confused by the starkly contrasting claims of Zeke and Ilios, shifted to one side.
In the end, the important thing was the reaction of the First Prince, who had vehemently denied everything until now.
Ilios bit his lip, his face flushed crimson.
‘What!? Did they actually detect it…?
No, there’s no way they could have found that potion…
Even the royal physician couldn’t!
No, even if they did find it, that doesn’t prove I did it!
At most, they can only blame Yuri Gilbert. What confidence does Rosnante Leonine have to stake his name on this…?’
Rosnante had already staked his name, and now everyone was waiting for Ilios’s declaration.
However, Ilios couldn’t bring himself to swear on his own name.
He could only offer pathetic excuses.
“That, that noble name is not something to be uttered so lightly!!! And it’s absurd to think that the Leonine attached to my name carries the same weight as yours, you who have already fallen!”
“Hmph, you coward. You can’t do it, can you? Scared, huh?”
“Ugh! Your arrogance won’t last long! Rosnante! Evidence! If you can’t present clear evidence that I did it, I will personally tell my father to take back your Leonine name, which doesn’t suit you!!!!”
“Ooh, I’m so scared. Are you going to tell on me to Daddy?”
Rosnante sneered, mocking him.
The sight of his brother, who had always pretended to be aloof and dignified, trembling with rage was incredibly amusing.
“Evidence… Evidence… Alright, I understand. Ilios. If you want your ugly mask ripped off in front of everyone… Then so be it. Royal Physician.”
He turned to the old man standing beside him.
“You are a mage who is loyal only to the Emperor of the Empire. Do you swear on your pride to maintain strict neutrality and give truthful testimony?”
“Yes, I swear on my mana. What I show you from now on will be nothing but the truth.”
“Good. Show it to everyone.”
The old man then raised a transparent glass filled with yellow liquid.
A sneer spread across Ilios’s face.
“Ha… I thought it was something… Just water with a potion mixed in? Where is the proof that I did it?”
Ignoring him, Rosnante nodded.
“Well, this is my urine, Ilios.”
Ilios’s face crumpled in disgust.
“Don’t show me that filthy thing, Rosnante! Why did you bring that here? Ha, did you want to brag about wetting your pants?”
“Royal Physician, my dimwitted brother keeps barking. Explain.”
The old man pushed his monocle up and carefully examined the glass of yellow liquid.
“Yes… First, I confirmed the presence of a drug in Your Highness’s urine. It’s a paralyzing drug that takes effect exactly three days later , as the girl named Yuri Gilbert testified. The way to confirm this is simple.”
Two knights brought a small slime trapped in a cage from behind.
“This monster is called an Elauf Slime, a creature that only inhabits the Elauf Mountains. It’s not particularly rare due to its large population, but it has a special property. The imperial palace uses this property to check if His Majesty’s food has been poisoned.”
The royal physician poured the urine onto the slime.
The slime absorbed the liquid and then slowly began to divide.
“If it consumes a toxic substance, it starts to divide like this.”
The slime divided into a total of three.
The first and second slimes were fine, but the third slime’s movements noticeably slowed down.
“This means that the drug’s effect lasts for as many times as it divides. However, since it divided into three and only the third slime became paralyzed, it can be interpreted that the paralysis occurs only on the third day.”
Ilios’s face slightly frowned as he observed this.
‘That’s impossible. I tested that slime myself! It didn’t react like this back then…! But I can’t show a flustered expression here!’
“Even if that’s true, does that prove I did it!? Zeke Clayman could have coerced or threatened Yuri Gilbert into fabricating this!”
At this point, Ilios’s words were incoherent.
His claim that Zeke and Yuri had conspired together was utterly pathetic, especially after he had publicly declared Yuri as his own.
“…Yes, in fact, if it were just this, I wouldn’t have been certain either. However, this drug… it has an interesting property… It’s so fascinating that I want to study it for days and nights. Anyway, after trying various methods…”
The royal physician channeled mana into his staff and infused it into the paralyzed slime.
The slime then spat out the drug it had swallowed.
Thud! Thud!
The drug was expelled, decomposed.
“If there’s a mage nearby, the drug can be extracted like this.”
A mage.
An extremely rare existence in this world, someone who could wield mana.
A drug that could not be detected without a mage.
In a way, it was almost perfect in terms of security.
Except that the royal physician present was a mage.
“What does that have to do with me!?”
“Calm down. We’ll be starting soon…”
Swoosh…
At that moment, the drug that the slime had spat out began to move on its own, as if it had a life of its own.
“Huh…!?”
The drug first headed towards Rosnante.
It lingered near him for a moment before changing direction.
Its next destination was Yuri Gilbert.
The drug circled her once.
And then…
Finally, the drug started to slowly crawl towards the audience.
“This drug has a special property. When supplied with mana, it has an instinct to return to the place where it stayed… I don’t know why… but I’ve confirmed it multiple times. It’s the truth.”
The drug, heading towards the audience, slowly began to climb the wall.
Ilios stiffened and tried to dodge, but each time he did, the drug changed its course and followed him.
“Th-this is a trap! A trap!”
His cries echoed emptily through the training grounds.
People stared at Ilios with cold expressions.
“Don’t, don’t be ridiculous!! Do you think I, I, would fall for such a ridiculous trick!!”
Ilios backed away, his neck veins bulging as he shouted incoherently.
The nobles who had followed him were also aghast at the sight of his mask, which had always covered his face, being stripped away.
“This can’t be happening! I had that drug specially commissioned…!”
He immediately shut his mouth, but it was too late to take back the words that had already escaped.
***
Zeke nodded in satisfaction.
‘This is my second nail in your coffin, Ilios.’
In truth, the drug Ilios had ordered Yuri to put in the water bottle was not exactly the same as this one.
Zeke had consumed all of the drug that the First Prince had prepared in order to analyze and identify its properties.
‘It was easy to recreate a paralyzing drug that takes effect after three days.’
Recreating a drug with similar effects using ingredients sold on the streets was easy, thanks to his memories of experiencing and surviving countless poisons in the Dave Continent.
It was a crudely made drug with only similar effects.
And just in case, he made it easy to detect.
‘I made it so that it could be detected just by infusing it with mana, in case the standards here were too low… Using a slime is interesting.’
However, for a more dramatic effect, Zeke had used hair.
During the Eustia Banquet, when Ilios tried to approach Soi, Zeke had stepped in to protect the female protagonist.
When he confronted Ilios, Zeke had leaned in close, pretending to whisper in his ear.
[You will come looking for me again after today’s banquet. We’ll talk again then. I hope your attitude will be different by then.]
Those words were just a pretext. His real intention was to obtain Ilios’s hair.
Having already made an enemy of Ilios with the Soi incident, Zeke didn’t know when this shady character might try something, so he took it as insurance.
That preparation had paid off.
Zeke had combined Ilios’s hair, Yuri’s hair, and Rosnante’s hair to create the drug.
‘I made it so that it would move to the owners of the hair in order, using mana as fuel.’
It had taken a lot of effort to orchestrate this deception, but seeing Ilios’s expression made it all worthwhile.
‘Ah, this is refreshing. Bastard. How does it feel to be taught a lesson by Rosnante’s piss?’
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