Lydia let out a tiny chuckle and snapped her fingers. As soon as she did, Ruri found herself on the spiral staircase. This was the reverse side of the spatial dimension, a special place that only Lydia and her contract-bearers could enter. Here, there were a multitude of doors that led to other people’s pocket spaces. With another snap of Lydia’s fingers, Ruri was teleported to a glowing door. The glow meant that the owner was still alive, so she was in front of a living person’s room.
“This is the room of the fourth imperial prince?” Ruri asked.
“Yes. It’s just that simple,” Lydia explained.
The wicked thought of entering anyone’s room if she just asked Lydia crossed Ruri’s mind. She could only imagine what the fourth prince would think if he knew that someone was perusing his personal pocket space—a domain that no one should be able to investigate—right under his nose. If it were Ruri, she would point fingers and cry foul, even going as far as to call it deceitful. However, it was a necessary evil in this instance to ensure that there were no further casualties.
Ruri suppressed her guilt and opened the door. The space was so small that it couldn’t even be compared to Ruri’s. Ruri knew that this was a normal size, though, because she would sometimes help Lydia sort through the deceased’s rooms. The size of an individual’s room depended on their mana reserves, which meant that Ruri’s mana reserves were just abnormally massive. Fortunately, the fact that this room was small made Ruri’s job easier.
Orio’s space was filled with many vials containing all sorts of liquid. Though it would’ve been helpful if one of them was clearly labeled “Tachyotoxian Poison,” Ruri had no idea which vial contained the evidence. Seeing as how she was looking for blood, she focused on finding a red liquid, but there were actually several vials of red liquid, and all of them were indistinguishable from one another. She was completely stymied.
Ruri stood in front of the vials and groaned. “Hmm... Hey, Lydia. Do you know which of these has the tachyotoxian-infected blood?”
“I don’t have that direct knowledge on hand myself,” Lydia answered, which made sense considering that she couldn’t leave the world of space. Her only source of information was the spirits on the outside. “Hold on. I’ll check with Water.”
“Okay,” Ruri uttered, waiting patiently as Lydia closed her eyes and remained silent.
Lydia was likely exchanging information with Rin on the outside. While it would have been quicker if Rin or Kotaro had come with her, just as Lydia couldn’t go to the outside, outside spirits couldn’t enter the space. Ruri had no idea why this was, but the notion wasn’t very surprising. If outside spirits could enter, Lydia wouldn’t have been so lonely all this time.
Besides, Ruri had been told that it was the rule. If she complained, it would just make Lydia feel awkward, although Ruri did wonder who came up with such a restriction. If that being existed, she wanted to give them a stern talking to.
After a few moments, Lydia opened her eyes, signifying that she was done communicating.
“Did you find out, Lydia?” Ruri asked.
“Yes, more or less.” Lydia nudged her finger in the direction of the room’s interior, and a vial floated through the air and stopped in front of Ruri. “This should be what you’re looking for.”
“Thank you, Lydia!” Ruri exclaimed, taking the vial. She saw that it had a tiny bit of red liquid within. “It’s not as much as I thought. He’ll find out if I take too much, so I’ll just take a smidgen.”
Pearl had told Ruri to only take a drop, but Ruri felt that even that much would tip the fourth prince off. Carefully removing the top so as to not touch the contents, Ruri used the dropper to collect the blood and squirted it into the vial Pearl had given her. She then had Lydia return the vial of blood to its original spot.
“You seem to be in a rush. Are you leaving already?”
“Sorry, Lydia. When this matter is resolved, I’ll buy some yummy snacks and we can have a nice tea party with Seraphie-san.”
“I’ll look forward to it, then.” Lydia waved goodbye to Ruri.
Ruri waved back and exited the space. A crowd huddled around her, as if they were eagerly awaiting her return.
“How did it go, Ruri?” Jade asked. He was the first to approach her.
Showing off her spoils, Ruri replied, “This was in the fourth prince’s pocket space.” She then handed the vial to Pearl.
“Very well. Wait a second. I’ll check it out,” said Pearl before she left the room. Not long after, she came back with a grim look on her face, saying with certainty that she was holding tachyotoxian-infected blood.
“So it’s proof, then?” asked Ruri.
“Yes, it is. Corundum, do you still refute what you hear?” Jade inquired, sternly staring at Corundum.
Corundum hung his head. “This can’t be...”
“Grieve later. Fulfill your duty now. With Adularia gone, you must.”
“Yes...”
While everyone could sympathize with the disheartened Corundum, it was his job to give the final word.
“I’ll go talk to Roy first,” Corundum said. “I’m sure he will find it hard to believe at first, as I did, but...” He then walked out of the room and farther down the hall until he was out of sight.
As everyone silently stewed in their conflicted emotions, a few of the spirits who’d been trailing Orio came back to the room.
“Um, he put in somethin’ weird!”
“Yeah, weird. It went ‘drip drip’ as it fell.”
Ruri cocked her head in confusion, unable to follow because the spirits hadn’t named who they were talking about. “Who put what in where?”
“Um, that fourth prince guy~!”
“So, like, he was preparing tea in a pot.”
“And then he put some red stuff in it!”
“Do you know what it was?” asked Ruri.
“It was the blood with that bug’s venom you were talking about!”
Tension gripped the room.
“Where is the fourth prince now?”
“Um, let’s see...” the spirit trailed off, possibly corresponding with the other spirits tailing Orio. Times like this were when the spirit’s telepathic communication shone.
“He made tea and he’s on the move.”
“To where?”
“He’s telling the people around him that he’s off to ‘brother’s’ room. I wonder who this brother guy is,” the spirit said in an adorable manner, but Ruri and the others had no time to admire that now.
“Jade-sama.” Ruri turned to face Jade, who had panic written all over his face.
“The first prince can’t accept visitors due to his illness, so the only other person in the palace he could call his brother is the third prince,” Jade surmised. The second prince was away in the neighboring country.
“Don’t tell me he’s trying to poison the third prince as well?” Quartz asked, panic coming through in his voice.
“Finn, hurry and inform Corundum!” Jade ordered with a sense of urgency.
“Sire!” Finn yelped as he scrambled down the hall.
“Let’s go interrupt him!” Ruri cried. She was about to set off, but Jade grabbed her by the arm and stopped her. “Jade-sama?”
“This is actually our chance. He’s basically bringing the evidence to us. We have to leave this to Corundum.”
“I agree with Jade,” Quartz chimed in. “This is a great opportunity to catch him red-handed.”
This left Ruri without any role to play. “Awww, but I’m so curious!” she whined, hugging Kotaro’s fluffy body to calm her overwhelming worries. Pearl, on the other hand, was calm. Ruri respected and expected that from someone with the moniker of queen.
“Fear not,” Pearl said, her lips curled into a proud smile. “Even if he should drink that tea, I still have enough ingredients for the antidote. I’ll make sure to pump it down his throat till he’s cured.”
Her words were extremely reassuring, even though it meant that a certain amount of hell awaited the third prince, Samadan. Whether he was bound for a three-day mandatory tour of the netherworld’s dark depths was all dependent on Corundum making it to him in time.
Ruri, as well as others in the room, sincerely prayed for Corundum to intervene—for Samadan’s sake.