20.

“Edgick! Edgick Otwell!”

The door burst open with such force it seemed like it might tear off its hinges, slamming into the wall with a loud crash. A group of men rushed in through the open doorway.

It was Leo’s knights, who seemed alarmingly urgent as they carried their commander in a half-lift, half-supported manner.

“Ahh!”

Edgick, who had been lying comfortably on the sofa, jumped up, visibly startled.

“What’s going on? What is it?”

“It seems the commander has been poisoned.”

Jinpetsu’s voice was grave, his face ashen. For once, Edgick’s usually calm gaze sharpened with surprise.

Even with his unusually resilient constitution, Leo’s body was currently more vulnerable to external threats. In fact, his unique constitution was now part of the problem.

“Let me take a look.”

Edgick adjusted his glasses with a slight push, his voice tense.

Leo was seated on the sofa with a resigned expression; it would be more accurate to say he hadn’t resisted as the knights helped him down.

“What are your symptoms?”

“…”

Leo’s unusual silence made Edgick’s expression shift to one of mild seriousness.

“Commander, you need to tell the chief officer your symptoms. This isn’t the time for modesty.”

“Yes, please, tell us what’s happening.”

What? Modesty?

Edgick tapped his ear as if to clear it.

Reluctantly, Leo pressed his lips together and finally spoke.

“…My tongue is tingling.”

Edgick blinked, as if doubting his own hearing.

“Must be my hearing these days. Say that again?”

“My tongue is tingling.”

Perhaps feeling embarrassed, Leo avoided eye contact, his face turning slightly pink around the ears.

“And my stomach feels queasy.”

The scene was almost too much. But sympathy was not something the chief officer was inclined to feel, especially toward the muscular man who seemed flustered in front of him.

“…”

The faintly serious expression on Edgick’s face vanished. He shoved his glasses back up in a vaguely irritated motion, folding his arms.

“Is everyone here making a joke?”

“Does this look like a joke?” Jinpetsu’s voice turned a bit harsh.

“I feel like it should be…”

Edgick trailed off, shaking his head incredulously.

“If by ‘poisoned’ you mean food poisoning, that’s possible. But calling it ‘poisoned’ makes it easy to misunderstand, so perhaps you could be a bit more careful with your wording, Vice Commander.”

“It’s not food poisoning. He drank tea right before this happened.”

“It could be a reaction to a specific ingredient…”

“It was tea given by that woman.”

Jinpetsu’s words were somewhat misleading. Though Ateira had encouraged him to drink it, she hadn’t actually prepared the tea herself. It was a heavily edited and overly simplified version of the truth.

However, it was enough to pique Edgick’s interest.

“The assassin princess? Impressive. How did she manage to get him to drink it?”

“…”

“…”

No one, including Leo, responded. Admitting that he had willingly drunk the tea seemed like it would damage the commander’s dignity too much.

“…Did you drink it voluntarily? Oh, never mind. Don’t answer that.”

It sounded like he muttered ‘unbelievable,’ but even Jinpetsu couldn’t bring himself to say anything this time.

“It’s… not poison.”

Leo rubbed his neck awkwardly, catching the concerned glances of the knights around him.

“It’s strange, but the symptoms aren’t getting worse. If anything, they’re fading. Besides, the princess isn’t a trained assassin, and she wouldn’t have had the chance to tamper with the teapot.”

He pressed his hand over his chest, trying to ease the dull, uncomfortable sensation.

“And it’d be hard to get poison on such short notice here.”

“It’s a strange symptom for poison,” Edgick said thoughtfully. “It doesn’t feel like an attack; it’s too subtle. Unless… did she bring it with her?”

At this, Jinpetsu’s gaze turned sharp, remembering how he’d repeatedly questioned Leo with the same suspicion on their way back to the room.

Leo glanced up at the ceiling, wondering if these worrywarts would seize this as another reason to fuss.

“It’s nothing serious. Even if it were poison, I’m fine.”

“You shouldn’t dismiss it so easily,” Jinpetsu replied sternly. “Some poisons show only mild effects at first, but if consumed repeatedly, the effects worsen.”

Edgick nodded thoughtfully, then began rummaging through his belongings. Without knowing the exact poison, he couldn’t create a precise antidote, but he had a general antidote that neutralized a broad range of toxins in low doses.

“Tingling and stomach irritation… it could be a paralytic… Wait, did you say it was tea?”

Edgick stopped digging through his bag and looked up at the knights, frowning.

“Was it by any chance Hogen tea?”

“Yes,” Jinpetsu replied, and Edgick dropped his hand, seeming momentarily speechless.

“Hogen tea…”

With a sigh, he tossed the antidote back into his bag and, with a hint of reproach, asked, “None of you are familiar with that tea? None of you have tried it before?”

The knights looked back at him with confused expressions. They were used to Edgick’s quick temper, so they merely watched him with blank faces, as if to say,’What’s the big deal?’

“…That’s how the tea is supposed to be.”

The knights exchanged puzzled looks, still not understanding.

“It’s a rite of passage, that’s all. Hogen tea is potent; it causes tingling and stomach discomfort in those who haven’t had it before.”

“Are you sure?” Jinpetsu asked.

“If you don’t believe me, go have a cup yourself, Vice Commander. I’m sure you’ll feel the exact same symptoms. Feed some to poor Poven here too.”

“Uh, no thanks.”

Edgick grinned smugly as he answered, making Poven cringe and pull back slightly.

“Well, that’s disappointing. I was hoping the commander’s reaction would give us some useful information if it had been poison.”

“Did you really just say that…”

Leo let out a chuckle as he watched Jinpetsu glare daggers at the grumbling chief officer. The frequent clashes between these two amused him.

“Good to know it wasn’t some powerful poison.”

Jinpetsu sighed, visibly relieved, his shoulders relaxing a little. Leo noticed and offered a faint, wry smile.

“…Commander.”

“I know, Pets.”

Leo nodded. He had been careless. Ever since he’d developed a stronger constitution than most, he’d grown somewhat indifferent to physical threats.

During the war, assassins had come after him countless times, sometimes nearly every day. Jinpetsu and the others knew this well, treating it almost like a routine.

‘Why not host a competition, Commander? A bounty for the knight who catches the most assassins.’

‘What’s the point? I’d win that myself.’

‘Ah, fair point.’

It had become so common that the knights joked about it. Leo’s exceptional physical abilities and beast-like instincts, which let him detect assassins as though by magic, left them in awe.

One night, as Leo’s attendant helped him remove his armor and left his tent, an assassin’s needle shot through the air just as the light was extinguished. Leo silently rose from his bed, shoving his attendant aside. The thin, sharp needle grazed the attendant’s hair, embedding itself in the floor.

Leo held a finger to his lips, then deflected another needle with a pillow and stared in the direction from which it came. Just then, the opposite side of the tent was sliced open.

A silent assassin sprang forward, aiming for the back of Leo’s neck.

“Commander…”

His attendant, sprawled on the ground, whispered in alarm. Without turning, Leo simply extended his arm, grabbed the assassin’s knife-wielding hand, and flipped him over his shoulder, slamming him to the ground with a powerful thud.

The assassin was instantly knocked out.

Hearing the commotion, a guard rushed in, eyes widening at the black figure sprawled on the floor.

“Well, good timing. Take this mess away, will you?”

The guard’s jaw dropped as he looked at the unconscious intruder.

“Are you all right, Commander?”

Leo’s attendant nodded hastily. With a calm expression, Leo handed over the assassin, settled back into bed, and likely fell asleep before the guards even dragged the intruder out.

Tales of his exploits were so common they barely stood out. His men’s respect for him deepened to a near-religious devotion, but with that reverence came a tendency to downplay danger. They’d all begun to think, ‘Nothing can touch Leofric.’

In truth, the number of assassination attempts was even higher than they realized.

Leo himself had grown the most indifferent, often brushing off minor attempts without even mentioning them.

His senses were so finely tuned that he could detect and neutralize small traces of poison. He’d become so careless that he sometimes tasted suspicious food just to check for poison. Today’s misstep was, in a way, the result of that bad habit.

Normally, nothing would get past him, but today’s tea had thrown him off precisely because it wasn’t a poison he recognized.

There was no way he could have known it was just the tea’s natural effect.

“I’ll be more cautious.”

Leo flashed a reassuring smile, trying to put his loyal, overly worried knights at ease.