Chapter 26: Solving the Mystery and Securing the Criminal

「You’re Majesty! There’s nothing wrong with you at all!?」

「Ou, Earl Balsa. As you can I’m perfectly fine. It seems I’ve worried you」

The toad said as he jumped into the large dining hall. The King answered with a “Look at me” kind of attitude.

「I…see. Hahaha, well well. There’s nothing better……」

While sweat was pouring from his face, he presented a cramped smile and rubbed his hands together. The king looked upon him coolly. Ah— even the king realized it. That this was the criminal. (Rubbing hands together means “unexpected guest”)

“Just when I thought it was all over, Touya-dono over here erased all the poison at once. Well, I was really lucky. It was a dangerous spot.”

Upon hearing the king’s explanation the Earl glares intently at me full of hatred. Hey hey, that’s way too obvious! There’s no way someone would think that this isn’t the culprit.

“So, Touya-dono. What did you intend when you brought all of us here?”

The woman with the jade green hair and golden wand, the court magician, Charlotte, asked.

The parties collected in the dining hall were, His Majesty the King, Princess Yumina, Queen Yuella, Duke Ortrointe, General Leon, Charlotte, Dr Raul, Ogla, and Earl Balsa.

While having everyone stand, I began to address them all.

「As you all know, His Majesty the King was poisoned. The scene is this dining hall. Everything is just as it was when it happened, although the food’s gotten cold. The criminal of this attempted assassination of the king is…」

Opening my mouth while silence reigned.

「someone that is in our midst.」

I’ve always wanted to say that!

Instantly the mood changed, Olga’s complexion changed, the fox ears stood straight up, “it’s not me” was the look from her eyes. I already know that.

When Earl Balsa who was next to Olga looked at her pale face, he let out a frown.

Wow, what a “so far so good” face. While he was looking towards Olga he didn’t realize that everyone else was looking at the toad with an “It’s that guy isn’t?” kind of expression. Everyone other than Olga realized that he was the criminal…

「First, bring me the poisoned wine.」

The general brought in the wine bottle and I took it in my hand.

「This is the wine that Olga presented, correct?」

「Certainly that is what I presented but, I didn’t poison…!」

「Silence! You mere demi-human! Still feigning ignorance after all this, how shameless can you……What!?」(tln: Autocorrect want to change it to deli-human)

While the disgusting toad was verbally abusing Olga, he took a sideways glance, I who had the wine in my hand, drank a glass of it in one gulp.

I may be a minor but it’s a different world anyway.

“Yep, it’s great!”

Don! I set the bottle on the table. Honestly I didn’t know if it was any good or not. I’m a minor after all!.

Looking around, everyone had their mouth wide open and was staring at me.

「To, Touya-dono!? Are you alright!?」

「I’m just fine, General. Or rather there was never any poison in this wine to begin with.」

What do you mean by this? Was the question that everyone other than the Earl, who had sweat streaming down his face but otherwise looked normal, floated on their faces. He’s starting to panic.

「Well then, what I’m taking out is a special premium rare wine. Made far to the east, this is the highest class of wine that I know of.」(yes it actually was written like that)

The wine prepared read “Boujorenbo“ in hiragana on the label which meant “Cheap wine” I poured into a wine glass on the expensive table that no one was seated at.

「This wine will find the criminal.」

The wine glass, sitting under the chandelier, glittered and danced brilliantly. I parted it from the table, walking straight toward the people that were standing apart from it, and presented it to the General.

「Could you drink this please?」

The General held a doubtful glance but drank it just like that and drained the glass.

「How does it taste?」

「Mu! This is wonderful. I’ve never tasted anything like it! It’s great! Would you like to try some Earl?」

Wow, that was so monotone. The general exclaimed “exactly as I directed” to the Earl.

「Ha? Haa, well then……」

I placed before the Earl who had nodded his consent, the glass that was from the seat of honor “the place where the king sits” and began to pour wine into the glass. His complexion changed.

「I, by all means, want the impression of how this tastes from the Earl.」

「No, I……!」

「Come come」

The Earl who had tried to draw back was caught and forcibly given the wine glass.

「Now, drink it in one gulp」

The Earl maintained a smile on his face, but he was sweating bullets, and wouldn’t bring the glass to his lips.

「What’s wrong, Earl. Aren’t you going to drink it?」

「Ha, no, um……!」

At the King’s words, the Earl looked around restlessly, the hand that held the glass began to tremble. Oops we can’t have the glass fall.

「……Are you able to drink? Well it may be presumptuous of me but allow me to help you」

「Ha!? Mugu! Ukue!?」

I forcibly placed the glass up to the Earl’s mouth and poured the wine into it. While choking on the wine, regardless of how much he struggled he drank it, which was a fact that was terrifying.

「U! Ua! Uaa! Sa- save me please! The poison! The poison is flowing! I’ll die! I’ll diiiiiiiiiie!」

Holding his through the toad writhed and twisted on the floor. With a tortured expression flapped his arms around shaking and rolled around on the floor struggling.

What is it? If a person just believes strongly enough, this kind of thing will happen?

「Guuuu! Ku, it hurts! The poison! The poison!!! Sa- save me……!」

「Ah– cut it out already. The glass I just used, that, was a brand new glass.」

「I’m dying…… what!?」

The Earl’s expression turned blank and he stopped thrashing around. Then got up and rubbed his neck.

「……Nothing happened」

「Well yeah of course not. It was only cheap wine. I apologize for forcing you to drink it. However」

I quietly brought attention to the heart of the matter.

「Why did you think that there was any poison in it?」

The Earl’s face froze. That’s right. This man was the exactly the kind of person who betrayed himself. Frightened of poison that wasn’t there, then writhing from poison that he hadn’t drunk. Someone that didn’t know anything wouldn’t have acted like that. With just that he fell so easily.

「……What do you mean by that?」

The Duke asked me.

「The poison wasn’t in the wine that Olga presented, but rather it was smeared on the King’s glass.」

「On the glass…? Then it’s no wonder that the wine didn’t respond when we tested it for poison.」

「Because I practice a magic that can detect poison, I understood that immediately. The direct perpetrator was either the cook or the waiter in charge, or somewhere around there. After that there was only to find the wire-puller and the true culprit of the event, figuring out how to corner them but…… what a disappointment.」

Well, no matter how you looked at it, the perpetrator was this guy. Unable to make an excuse for himself, is what I thought, but for it to be solved this quickly is what I felt.

It was a common trick (although it’s not really one at all). Even if it wasn’t me someone would have figured it out immediately.

Well, I had always wanted to play the part of the detective, at least once.

The toad ran at full speed toward the door. What a sore loser. In the end, this man didn’t have the ability to look ahead or behind. The so called “I am great!” fool that turns out to be a small fry villain. However, this idiot tried to kill the King, that crime is severe.

「Slip」

「No!」

Sute-n! The Earl fell with a crash and hit the back of his head on the floor.

Right to where was Olga standing, who was still holding a grudge, and exploded a well-placed kick in the stomach, with that he fell unconscious. Oou, that looked like it hurt.

I hope you enjoyed this little show. The next chapter will be exciting too, in a different way.

Yes, I will go back and re-edit the previous chapters later.