Chapter 25

Duke Belcline is desperately trying to vomit the wine from his stomach right in front of us.

Jill is looking at him with a puzzled expression.

It seems she doesn’t understand what I said, but it’s fine since she understood Duke Belcline.

“Ughhh! H-help me! Jill! The antidote! The antidote spell, quickly!”

Of course, you taught Jill the antidote spell as well, didn’t you?

If she can use it, it can be useful in negotiations...

She immediately made a slip of the tongue. I’m grateful.

“Master Jade, the Antipoison spell? But, I spiked Lady Lea’s wine, you know?”

“Idiot! Read the room! Stupid girl! I told you to switch it with my glass! Ughhh!”

“Oh, I see. But, Master Jade, calling me a stupid girl is so mean. Sniff...”

“Aaaaaah! This is so troublesome! Ughhh! Hurry! The Antipoison!”

One confession after another...!

Duke Belcline, having lost his composure from the poison, and Jill, who remains calm even in such a situation, are a terrible match.

Duke Belcline’s mistake was trying to turn someone like Jill into an assassin.

“Duke Belcline, I heard a conversation that I cannot ignore, about you poisoning Lea. What is the meaning of this?”

“Huh—!? Eric... you...! You set me up! Jill! The Antipoison! Hurry!”

“Sniff...! Loud voices scare me...!”

“Here is Jill. However, I have a universal elixir here. If you admit that you tried to assassinate me through Jill and that you have been sending assassins to Lord Eric all along, I will give it to you.”

When Jill is shouted at, she starts crying and becomes too timid to move, but Duke Belcline doesn’t seem to know this.

Father knows this, so he stopped scolding her out of annoyance...

So, I decided to help Duke Belcline.

I showed him a vial of liquid, claiming it was a universal elixir, and asked him to admit his crimes.

“An elixir!? I, I admit! I admit! Just give it to me quickly!”

“See! One after another, attempts to assassinate me, and today, Jade Belcline tried to assassinate the Holy Maiden Lea! I want everyone gathered here today to be witnesses to this man’s confession!”

Duke Belcline, who had sent numerous assassins to Eric, also tried to turn his venomous fangs on me, his guard, by deceiving my sister—.

He admitted all his crimes in front of the many nobles gathered at the party.

“I, I admit! I admit...! Quickly, give me the elixir...!”

“Please, drink it.”

“Gulp, gulp, gulp... Phew. ...Huff, huff, huff. I, I... What have I done—”

I handed the vial to Duke Belcline.

He drank it with a fierce expression and was gasping for breath.

It seems he has finally regained his composure...

“Jade Belcline, you should give up. I have suspected you ever since the incident with those officials, and you have finally shown your true colors.”

“Shut up, hypocrite! You killed them, didn’t you!? They only took the money to expedite the legal reforms! Thanks to that, many people were saved! It was your selfish justice that destroyed it! That’s why I decided to crush you for my own justice!”

Duke Belcline angrily spoke about how he had bribed the officials to expedite the legal reforms to help the suffering citizens, and how Eric had accused him of it.

It seems that this incident was the trigger for him to start targeting Eric’s life.

“So what? You didn’t protect those officials; you killed them. I reviewed the details of that incident again, and the source of the poison used in the suicides was unknown. Didn’t you have them use the same poison spell that you had Jill Westria use for your experiments?”

I deduced that the two officials who committed suicide on the same day used the same forbidden, powerful poison spell that Jill used.

Indeed, the officials seemed to have some knowledge of magic, so while it might have been difficult for them to activate it instantly like Jill, it wouldn’t have been too hard for them to use it.

“They were happy to die for my ideals! They entrusted the future of this country to me! They were proud to serve me until the end! Damn it! If you weren’t the crown prince of this country...! Damn it!”

Duke Belcline, with a distorted face of regret, vented his resentment at Eric.

While he had his own beliefs, that doesn’t justify killing those who stood in his way.

Thus, the engagement party for Philip, one of the Four Great Nobles, Duke Belcline, ended with the unprecedented event of him being arrested as a criminal.

And my sister Jill was also sent to prison—

My Westria family, both victims and perpetrators.

This incident became a major turning point in my life—

—

This concludes Chapter One.

Next time, we will have a follow-up episode (an episode related to Jill) before moving on to a new development.

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