🍖🍖🍖
SOON after that, Count Randolf sent me an excellent copy of Lord Mars’s ring. It was the spitting image of the real one, from its size to the gemstone embedded in it. Hiding the fake in my pocket, I was able to successfully swap it out with the actual ring while the prince was in the bath. Immediately afterward, I brought the real ring to Count Randolf.
“Oho, so this is the ring that neutralizes poison,” the count said. He took the ring and held it in his hand, looking exceedingly pleased with himself. “From what I hear, one of these can fetch a considerable price. What do you think? It’s a bit too good to just hand over to Prime Minister Gamarath…”
As he spoke, he slid the ring onto his finger, like he was testing to see if it looked good on him.
“Ungh, aaiieeeee—!”
The second he put it on, the count started shrieking like a monstrous bird. With his other hand, he desperately tried to take the ring off, then flopped onto the floor.
He was deathly pale, and blood poured from his eyes, mouth, and nose. The count was completely and utterly dead.
I put a hand over my mouth to suppress a scream. Then, to dispose of the evidence, I took the ring from his finger myself and ran away.
The next day, Count Randolf’s body was discovered in the spot where we had held our secret meetings, and an uproar swept through the castle. To all appearances, the count and I had hardly even been acquainted with each other, so I was never suspected. And there was no reason I should be—after all, I wasn’t the one who had killed him…
After some time passed and the scandal faded, I swapped the real ring back in for the fake while Prince Mars was in the bath again. Needless to say, I was way too scared to have ever tried to put the ring on my own hand. I watched Prince Mars as he finished his bath, wondering what would happen. He put on the ring without any hesitation.
Then he frowned quizzically, mumbled, “I must be feeling a bit off today,” and walked off to his room.
…Wait, should I be afraid of Prince Mars?
✦ ✦ ✦
🍖🍖🍖
COUNT Randolf was dead. And apparently, he had been poisoned.
I had been the one to suggest to him that he poison Prince Mars, though of course, I had never said anything explicitly, so there was nothing connecting him to me—the prime minister. I had made sure of that to prevent any trouble for myself, just in case Count Randolf failed.
In the end, though, the count was the one who had been poisoned. It had to be a warning: anyone who messes with Prince Mars will get what’s coming to him.
The culprit was a terrifying foe who had left absolutely no evidence behind. But the prince had hardly any allies in the castle, and there were none on that short list who could have carried out this type of clandestine deed. I was in league with the guilds of the underworld, and our interests were aligned, so it was out of the question that they had betrayed me.
So, who had the prince brought over to his side? I didn’t know. That was what was so frightening.
To be blunt, I had judged Prince Mars to pose no threat to me. I had assumed he wouldn’t be a problem, even if I didn’t manage to kill him. The poisonings were just supposed to be a minor threat.
Now, all my assumptions seemed to have been based on a mistaken estimation of him. I resolved to do whatever it takes and kill Prince Mars by any means necessary. I had to install my grandson on the throne.
IV: Training Partners
✦ ✦ ✦
THREE years had passed since I first met my master, Cassandra. Every seven days, we got together, ate some awful monster meat, and then had a simple practice bout. If I ever failed to eat monster meat during the six days we didn’t see each other, she made me eat extra when we met again, so I made sure to eat monsters every day (the meat she brought was always especially vile).
Speaking of which, she was always able to guess the number of days I hadn’t eaten monster meat. Apparently, she could tell based on how much I’d grown since the previous time we’d seen each other. I had no idea how she did it, but the thought that she was monitoring my body that closely gave me the creeps.
Whenever I skipped a day of training, she would give me a vicious beating in our bout. This, too, was apparently because she could tell from how much my techniques had developed. Her beatings were severe, and left me covered in cuts and bruises, which were always hard to explain when I returned to the castle. Because of this, I decided to train every day, without ever slacking off.
In the end, because I had to eat monster meat and train every day, I ended up fighting monsters daily. But even if I did that, my master counted any battles with weak monsters as slacking off, so I had to fight—and then eat—monsters I could barely beat.
When I first started wearing the Gravity armlet, my movements had been sluggish, and many in the castle thought someone must have been poisoning me again. I got used to it after three months. Humans really can adapt to anything.
Also during this time, I had a brush with an assassin, a servant who attacked me. In a rush, I tried to grab and pin him down, and when we both fell over together, I ended up crushing him. Gravity magic sure is scary.