Chapter 65
Chapter 65
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"Dielo, are you okay?"”
Startled, I approached the child. Kartiel, having quickly assessed that there was nothing suspicious nearby, walked ahead of me.
The obstacles haphazardly placed around the room were cleared away, and Pielle looked up at me, panting.
“The lady……”
Saying Krua Argenta here would be enough to make the child stop breathing.
“She’s… a friend of this man.”
I answered vaguely. I felt Kartiel turn to look at me.
Shhh.
I mouthed the word and examined the child.
“Did you eat anything from today’s Shadow Supply?”
“That……”
The child barely nodded.
“I ate it a little while ago, and it’s getting, harder and harder, to breathe.”
I could see her clutching her stomach, saying it hurt.
“Just a moment, just wait a moment.”
I took the child’s hand.
Seeing a patient again made me nervous. Can I do this?
No, I have to.
I thought about the water and blood inside the child’s body.
I need to drive out the toxins from the blood.
The poison that’s hurting the child.
—Whoong!
As I closed my eyes, my Magical Power began to flow into the child’s body.
Was it because the child was small, or was my ability more powerful than I thought?
I could see right through the child’s body, where the blood was circulating.
However, I only realized it after using my ability.
I was able to access the blood like this because I was in contact with the child and the child wasn’t resisting. Even if I had the power of a strong Alloze, it would be difficult to manipulate someone else’s blood from a distance.
“Just wait a little longer.”
I patted the back of the child’s hand and concentrated.
—Saaa…….
I tried to recall the sensation of removing poison from my body a while ago.
I focused on the energy that felt like a delicate stream, spreading strongly around the heart.
The flow, which had been resisting control, gradually began to respond to my Magical Power.
Finally, as if a blocked passage had been opened, Magical Power circulated through the child’s body in a rapid flow.
At the same time, it slowly began to drive out the poison from the child’s body.
My Magical Power became a dense sieve, filtering out impurities.
“……”
The child’s breathing seemed to ease a little.
The impurities are drawn out through the child’s fingertips.
As I slowly opened my eyes, I saw রেডিয়াস wiping the child’s fingertips with a handkerchief.
“That’s the poison.”
রেডিয়াস said quietly. It had been successfully extracted.
“……Ah. I, I don’t hurt anymore.”
The child’s eyes widened.
Perhaps because I had used my power so precisely, a little sweat had formed on my forehead.
“That’s a relief. Where are the items that came on this wagon?”
“They’re in the warehouse over there…… Why?”
“Bad people put something bad in there.”
The child’s eyes widened at my words.
“Could it be, poison?”
She looked about six years old, but she seemed more familiar with the word “poison” than I expected.
“Yes. Do you know where the warehouse is?”
At my words, the child ran to one side of the room and pulled a string.
—Chwareureuk.
Then, I heard something opening outside the room.
It was clearly connected in a similar way to how the front door of the house was opened.
This doesn’t seem like a normal house.
Tilting my head, I headed to the warehouse.
* * *
It was only after we had cleared out the warehouse and placed non-poisonous food items that we left the house.
"Radius Uncle, pretty lady!" See you again later!”
Pielle waved her hand. I waved back at the child and climbed onto my horse.
Then, we left the area, seeing off by the villagers.
“Thank you!”
“We almost had a big problem!”
Gazes filled with relief and gratitude were directed at me.
There was no point in staying there any longer, as it would only burden the people, so I quickly headed back to the mansion.
And after putting some distance between us and the village, I had the maids fix my hair ornament again.
Then, I turned to look at Lord Kartiel.
“I didn’t know you knew the villagers so well.”
I knew that he was particularly close to the servants of the mansion.
But to know even the villagers so well.
However, at my words, Kartiel shook his head as if it were a misunderstanding.
“I just know Pielle’s house well. The sisters in that house have had a hard time since their father died.”
Sisters? Did Pielle have another daughter besides Dielo?
“Still, I’m less worried now.”
“What about the other daughter?”
“She’s working at the mansion.”
Kartiel answered immediately to my question.
She was a mansion servant?
Who is it? As I was thinking, I suddenly recalled the complex devices in the house.
“Could it be that the devices in that house are all…….”
“Yes, the eldest daughter made them.”
Kartiel smiled.
I tilted my head, then suddenly recalled the open space I had seen when leaving the house.
A place connected to several devices, where footprints were firmly imprinted.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that the place where someone had stepped intensively resembled the training ground of the Knight Order.
“The open space there, then.”
“Pielle, and many of the young people in that village, are training there.”
Kartiel explained.
“I thought the northwestern village was where the families of Argenta who had lost their lives or were seriously injured on the battlefield gathered.”
“Yes. And they are also those who want us to use them as soldiers in case of emergency.”
I know that too.
“Do even young children think that way?”
I thought that those who had lost their families to monsters might take up swords in the name of Argenta.
But it was unexpected that even children who were somewhat distant from the pain of that loss would want to become Argenta.
“Yes. They know how important the power to protect themselves is.”
Kartiel and I met eyes.
“Then…….”
I looked back at the village. Maybe the child, too, will start training again at that training ground once she recovers.
“That place will need Shadow Supply.”
“Fresh Shadow Supply has already arrived. It’s a small amount, but it will last for a while.”
Kartiel said reassuringly.
But I shook my head.
“Not just food. The supplies that the people there need.”
Shadow Supply. For those who have dedicated themselves to Argenta.
I was very impressed with Argenta’s Shadow Supply.
Because I know how difficult it is to treat people with trust and respect in this world where status exists.
But Argenta has never neglected Shadow Supply, no matter how difficult the times.
Then those who received the Shadow Supply pledged their loyalty to Argenta again.
It shouldn’t end there.
I thought that we should also repay the loyalty they had pledged again.
So I read the Shadow Supply documents from time to time.
I wanted to let them know that we, Dielo and I, fully recognized them, the people to whom they pledged their loyalty.
I wanted to let them know that their loyalty was coming to us not just as numbers, but as people to people.
In order to do that.
“I’d like you to create a small training ground in that village. It would also be good to have knights who need a vacation take charge of educating the people there.”
Kartiel’s eyes widened at my words.
I said to him.
“Giving people what they really need. I think that’s the real meaning of Shadow Supply, what do you think?”
Kartiel opened his mouth slightly at my words.
Then he slowly lowered his head.
“You are right.”
After a moment of silence, he continued.
“The Lady is wise, and strong, but above all.”
Huh? Is it suddenly compliment time?
In front of me, who was flustered and blushing, Kartiel said with an impressed face.
“You are a warm person. No matter what anyone says, you are definitely an Argenta.”
Actually, I was just doing what was obvious.
I am not one of them, and I had to show my worth while staying here.
But why does this recognition feel so warm?
I thought that his gaze had become even softer than before.
Just like when he looks at the villagers. Just like when he looks at Dielo.
Kartiel bowed even more loyally.
“I will tell them to prepare accordingly.”
* * *
“Everyone would have suffered if this had been Shadow Supply like this.”
This incident was, in a word, a heinous prank. I narrowed my eyes.
The Argenta burning the food in front of me had a relieved expression.
“There must have been a reason why they bothered to leave the Shadow Supply items behind.”
It was probably a plan to distract the troops by making the families of the front-line Argenta slightly ill.
The Argenta who was handling the items looked at me with a newfound respect.
“Smoke is rising. You should keep a little more distance.”
“Either way, this poison isn’t toxic if you burn it without water.”
The Argenta who was treating me became even more respectful, saying that I should still step back.
“So it wasn’t banditry after all.”
I had investigated just in case, but other merchants who had bought the same groceries from the same store did not have this poison.
It only came out of our wagon. So the guys stuffed it in and ran away.
And the intelligence department found a clue while tracking the route of the poison.
I heard the news that evening.
It was when I was handling work instead of Dielo, who had not yet returned because he was busy.
Pielle was the one who organized the informant’s report and handed it to me.
“This is…….”
“The route of the poison always included rivers or waterfronts. It seems they quickly handed it over to the bandits.”
Waterfront. Then there was only one answer.
The criminals are people who can move quickly in the water.
Kartiel could also make the wind blow to move the boat quickly, but not as much as Alloze.
Above all, Kartiel didn’t have the leeway to cause trouble right now.
“It’s Alloze.”
At my words, Pielle quietly examined me.
I looked up at her.
“Yes. But…….”
She hesitated for a moment, then asked.
“I heard that you went to the northwestern village today.”
I blinked at those words.
“That’s right. A child named Pielle was poisoned.”
Pielle was silent for a moment. Then she asked carefully.
“……Is the child alright?”
I looked up at Pielle at those words.
Her eyes, which were always cold, were the same now.
But Pielle wouldn’t normally ask her master such a question.
Is she worried about the child?
Or.
I suddenly thought of the child named Pielle.
The child’s pretty smile. The eyes that turned up like a cat’s whenever she smiled…….
“……Ah.”
I looked up at Pielle.
Pielle, she looks like her?
