Episode 12
As soon as they entered the drawing room, the children, all wearing distressed expressions, turned toward Max.
“Manager!”
“This isn’t fair! We shouldn’t be judged like this!”
“Exactly! Someone must’ve done something shady!”
All of them began to speak at once, and the drawing room quickly descended into chaos.
Max and the attendants raised their hands to calm them down.
“Now, young masters and ladies. You must remain calm if we’re to understand the situation. Let’s listen carefully first.”
Despite his composed words, Max’s heart was racing unpleasantly.
Because his worst suspicion was proving true.
Among the six children who claimed their mana had vanished, Kalmia was not among them.
“We were reviewing magic for the demonstration since there’s not much time left. But the dark cores aren’t responding anymore.”
The oldest girl stepped forward to speak on behalf of the group.
Noticing something strange, she had checked whether it was just her. But she quickly found that the other five children gathered here had the same issue.
That’s why they had urgently called for the manager.
“See? It’s still not working.”
They tried again to draw mana into their dark cores, but nothing happened.
“…I understand. This is certainly unprecedented and needs to be looked into.”
“It’s weird that it’s not just one of us!”
“Right! It must be something external, not a problem with our bodies!”
Max swallowed hard.
The cause of this sudden problem… it had to be the Gellekcho.
‘No way the head of the Faydell family would recklessly release more of that poison. Which means… it must’ve been the Behemoth’s Grapes that girl took yesterday.’
As absurd as it sounded, it was likely that Kalmia had either shared the precious drink she got from the Head with these children…
‘Or had it been stolen from her?’
Max clenched his teeth.
It was such a foolish move—no one had ever willingly shared the Behemoth’s Grapes before. He hadn’t considered such a gap in the plan.
Feigning thoughtful concern, he slowly responded.
“In that case… Did you notice anything strange in your rooms? Or feel any ominous signs? You may have been cursed.”
Since Gellekcho was a rare and little-known poison, and a loss of mana typically indicated a curse, he chose to suggest a more “reasonable” explanation—carefully avoiding any mention of poison.
“I don’t think I saw anything strange…”
“Me neither…”
“I see. Still, just to be safe, I’ll order a thorough inspection of your rooms. Also… were the others—aside from you—still able to use magic? Anyone else experiencing similar symptoms?”
“We asked everyone we saw this morning! Did anyone not show up?”
“Hmm, I think most were there except a few.”
“……”
It was unclear whether Kalmia was among those few who hadn’t been seen.
‘Damn it… At this point, I’ll just have to push the blame on that girl.’
He steadied his mind.
He would claim that Kalmia did all this out of desperation, not wanting to be expelled from the family.
There was no proof either way.
And since her father, Sylvan, was a renowned sorcerer, it wouldn’t be difficult to suggest that he used a curse or some other technique. There would be no way for her to prove her innocence.
As long as the suspicion didn’t fall on him, that was enough.
“We’ll need to question those who haven’t been confirmed yet. Then—”
Just then, the door to the drawing room swung open.
“What’s going on?”
A girl with platinum hair and bright pink eyes entered, blinking in curiosity.
Kalmia Hamrlohren.
Max fought the urge to click his tongue and forced a polite smile.
“Good day, young lady. We were just about to ask for you. How fortunate that you arrived.”
“You wanted to ask me something?”
“Yes. Have you noticed any issues using magic lately? Like difficulty gathering mana into your core…”
“……”
Kalmia stared at him with her delicate, glass-like eyes and answered briefly.
“Seems fine to me.”
“……!”
Impossible.
He had clearly seen her drink the Behemoth’s Grapes with his own eyes.
It was a mana poison. There was no way a rookie dark mage like her had any resistance.
Max gritted his teeth, struggling to keep his expression calm.
“Just to be sure, would you mind casting a spell? The others here haven’t been able to.”
“Hmph.”
With a nonchalant hum, Kalmia raised her hand.
“Shattered Marionette.”
As soon as she cast the spell, a chill spread through the air. Pale white bones clattered into form midair.
“See? I’m fine.”
“……!”
“If I’m fine… doesn’t that mean it’s not me?”
“N-No… of course not.”
Could the Gellekcho be ineffective? Or… is their loss of magic not caused by the Behemoth’s Grapes after all? What the hell is going on…?
While Max was frozen in confusion watching her flawless spell, Kalmia looked at the group of children.
“You’re all unable to gather mana?”
“It has to be a trap!”
“Right! This happened overnight…”
“Someone must’ve cursed us!”
As the kids began to panic again, Kalmia tilted her head and murmured.
“But don’t you all… have something in common?”
“……?”
“You all drank the Behemoth’s Grapes.”
—
The moment I said that, Manager Max’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
Seriously. Could he be any more obvious?
“W-What?! You—you gave that to us on purpose?”
“Yeah! I knew it was weird when you just left that Behemoth’s Grape bottle there for us!”
“You’re the ones who asked for it.”
I shrugged.
Yesterday, on my way back with the Behemoth’s Grapes, I passed through the common hall and saw them chatting.
As usual, they picked a fight.
“Oh, so you think you’re hot stuff now? Knocking someone out with a sneak attack?”
“Don’t fool yourself into thinking you earned that drink on your own.”
“If you’ve got a conscience, you’d share it instead of hogging it.”
I didn’t bother responding and simply placed the bottle on the hall’s table.
The rest was predictable.
It was a tonic that amplified dark mana—of course they’d jump at it.
They all helped themselves greedily.
“You did something to it, didn’t you?! You wanted to stop us from using magic!”
“Yeah! Is this some kind of revenge or what?!”
“How could I have done anything? I brought it straight from my grandfather.”
“You might’ve slipped something in on the way! Like poison!”
“No way. Didn’t you see my grandfather’s living armor escorting me the whole time? If I had tampered with it, the alarm would’ve noticed.”
“Ugh…”
Behind me, Max hastily added,
“Then it must be a coincidence. Since Lady Kalmia, who also drank the Behemoth’s Grapes, is perfectly fine.”
“You don’t know that.”
I answered coldly and turned my back to them.
The way they squirmed like anxious puppies was almost amusing.
It was definitely the manager who tampered with the Behemoth’s Grapes.
I remembered the unpleasant glare he gave me yesterday.
He must’ve let his guard down, thinking I was just a child—his expression gave him away.
Besides, it was exactly like in the original story.
The trick lay in the assumption: since the grapes were shared with the head of the house, no one suspected poison.
That was the weak spot they never saw coming.
They must be feeling pretty cornered now.
How ridiculous. Did you really think I wouldn’t catch your little trick?
TO BE CONTINUED….
