Chapter 38: The Rose Will Soon Bloom
The knight told Calian.
“The meeting has been extended and the royals aren’t yet at the ballroom.”
It seemed like Rumein had helped Calian. Calian gave a subtle nod.
He then smelled the Ranieri as he opened the door, and smiled.
The only people who did not attend the royal meeting and at the same time was invited to the feast was Silike and Calian. Since this was a feast that started right after the royal meeting ended, it would start late if the meeting ended late.
That was how Calian got some time to speak with Silike – all by himself.
A servant approached and put down a cup of coffee. Calian said.
“Please give us some s.p.a.ce before the others come.”
The servant nodded and everyone else left.
Silike stared at the sight of everyone leaving since she did not know what was happening and fanned herself as usual.
Calian, seeing that, shook his head.
“Let’s not deceive each other.”
At those words, Silike froze for a second. Then, she nodded and put down her fan on the table.
“Sure thing.”
Both Calian and Silike were staring at each other. Although they both seemed calm, they actually weren’t. An impounding silence blasted throughout the room. The second hand of the clock ticking away inside the ballroom sounded like thunder.
Silike spoke first.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Calian frowned slightly and held a coffee cup in his hands.
“I told you to not deceive me.”
Calian’s red eyes moved away from Silike and now looked at the coffe.
“But it didn’t mean we should do away with our respect.”
Suddenly, Silike’s facial expression changed.
Because Calian was of Royal blood, Silike should not have done away with her respect. Calian was talking about that.
“You have grown much.”
Silike was still not showing respect.
Calian, having drunk his coffee in a leisurely manner, smiled and spoke.
“That’s not hard to do… is it?”
Then he added with a deep voice.
“Silike.”
Silike’s beautiful face showed anger. Calian was shocked to see that, and Silike bit her lips.
“Bad lineages are so disrespectful…”
“I think I just told you that you are not showing respect.”
Calian, after cutting Silike’s words, spoke again.
“If you talk about lineage, what about Viscount Brissen?”
Silike’s eyes turned thin and sharp. She was doing that because she knew that she couldn’t get rid of Calian there and then.
“Anyways, there’s something I want to talk about, Silike.”
Silike, being called by her name again, didn’t feel like talking with Calian. That was why she stood up.
– Thud!
Calian put down his coffee cup loudly.
“Tea.”
Calian’s eyes darkened.
He was looking into Silike’s worst.
“I would like to tell you to stop. The scent of the tea is too strong to drink.”
Like Ranieri.
Silike slowly slid back into her seat.
To what she heard, Calian had been drinking the tea up to this morning. That’s why she didn’t think Calian knew about the poison. But it seemed Calian knew that she even made the dosage of poison higher.
‘He knew it.’
It would seem clear why Calian had drunk the poison.
If it had been let out that Calian’s tea had contained poison, Silike would have killed Calian’s maids and servants for trying to kill him. That was because just even handing him the tea would be considered a crime.
Calian was worrying about that.
Silike smiled and spoke.
“You say such weird things.”
Calian smiled and spoke.
“You don’t know about it.”
“Yes, I don’t know about it.”
Calian tapped his coffee cup. Then he took out what he had come with. On the table lay some sugar that looked exactly the same as the substance he came with.
Calian spoke slowly.
“I thought about a lot of things. Whether to use the evidence I got out of Lennon. Or to just capture Lennon and torture him. Or to go into the safety of Alan. Or to tell this to the king. Or whether I should just poison my brothers.”
Silike’s eyebrows twitched. Calian ignored that and spoke again.
“Using poison wasn’t very striking to me, and for the other ones, you would just squirm out of the situation. That’s why I decided that I would bring your card to my side, so that you can’t do this again.”
So that Silike couldn’t use poison ever again.
“Then I would have to use something as a bet, but the only thing I have right now is a strong heart. So I decided to put that on bet.”
Calian showed Silike what he held. Silike, naturally, looked to see what it was.
“Poison. It doesn’t react to silver, and it’s not one that kills so it won’t be found. Well… maybe I should phrase it as medicine since it can save lives in an interpretation.”
Silike’s hands, which were on her lap, slightly grabbed onto her dress because she coudlnt’ figure out Calian’s intentions. Calian spoke again.
“After you eat this, your heart will stop. It makes people seem as if they are dead, although they are still alive.”
It was the poison that Secretia’s spies used to save themselves from danger. Of course it was not used only in Secretia, so even if Silike figured out what the poison was, she couldn’t draw links between Calian and Secretia.
Calian, looking at the substance as if he was viewing something with awe, spoke again.
“Of course, it won’t work on me. Even if I eat it, the Power of Blessing will prevent my heart from stopping.”
Something that won’t have any use.
Calian responded to Silike’s curious eyes.
“However, it will stop the detoxification process.”
Like how a mere cut on his hand wouldn’t heal.
The Power of Blessing ignores weaker poison.
Calian couldn’t have been in a more peaceful disposition.
“Then in the time the Power of Blessing gets rid of this poison, the weaker poison I drank every day through my morning tea will disperse throughout my body.”
The poison he took in in the previous days wouldn’t kill him.
“I won’t die, but I will suffer a bit.”
He would make sure that his heart wouldn’t stop then he would start the detoxification process.
“However, things would get a bit more bothersome for Silike.”
A plop sound came from inside Calian’s coffee cup.
“So, the thing is, if you agree to not send tea from tomorrow, I won’t drink this. I’m a bit tired of being sick.”
Silike figured out what Calian’s intentions were.
Even if he didn’t die, there would be signs of being intoxicated. If he fell down and coughed up blood, then everyone would suspect it to be because of poison. Also, people wouldn’t be able to figure out how much poison he took in, so they would think it was an amount that couldn’t be cured with the Power of Blessing.
Furthermore, Silike was the only person in the ballroom with Silike.
“You’re trying to put blame on me by saying that I gave you poison.”
“I wouldn’t say it would be putting blame on you. Also, why are you saying this to me? You’re the one who wants to do away with me the most.”
Silike’s slightly grinned.
It was like if she had put a foot into a kid’s sand castle. At that happy feeling, Silike spoke in a relaxed voice.
“Do you have your evidence ready?”
At those words, Calian’s eyes widened.
Calian stirred the contents of his coffee cup slowly with a spoon. Then he responded to Silike.
“I’m not trying to get rid of you right now. Of course, Alan is here, but what will I do if the full of Brissen’s army comes?”
“You know well.”
Silike laughed and responded, and Calian laughed too.
“I’m just trying to stop you from playing with poison, so I don’t need any proof. This time, I’m just going to go the extent where people will always have an eye on you. Fetters are sometimes stronger when they cannot be seen.”
**just a side note to the editor: the word fetters in here does not have a literal meaning (as in cuffs or legcuffs) but rather some kind of a figurative meaning, in that the fetters is a thing that holds and restricts Silike**
a.s.sumptions couldn’t bring someone to court. Silike was one of the people who knew that too well.
“You can’t hold me in with fetters like those.”
Fetters that can’t be seen.
Silike had never experienced that kind of thing.
“You know it was constantly done.”
Silike committed countless crimes and was sitting here, drinking her coffee peacefully.
She then smiled like a pure child.
“I wonder who knows that the person who killed your mother was me…!”
Silike whispered like a bird tweeting away in the early morning.