Since When Were You The Villain?

“Your Majesty the Empress.”

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Mikhail approached the women gathered at the tea table by the pond.

She wasn’t even wearing a name tag, but Sophia could instantly recognize who the Empress was among the women present.

A middle-aged woman with her hair high and a strikingly colorful necklace.

A person who seemed to have all the settings made for the Empress, where even Rubisella and Lady Chanelia do not seem to be able to stand above the elegance.

It was the Empress, Beatrix Orhel.

~*~

The military and police forces have been investigating the death of Marquis Fideut for several days.

THe cause of death was poison.

Killian recalled the report.

‘The organ was damaged, causing multiple bleeding places.
The blood was also because of that.
For now, it is most similar to the symptoms of ricin poison…’

Ricin can be extracted from the seeds of an oil castor plant., which is not very difficult to obtain if wanted.

Castor, grown in the eastern provinces, was usually used as a lubricant or hair oil by extracting oil from the seeds.

‘Although, when the poison gets consumed, the poisoning progresses not that fast.’

According to the butler of the marquis, there was nothing wrong with the marquis until he entered the bedroom late at night.

It was around three in the morning when the maid found the marquis.

Within approximately four hours after he consumed the poison and developed the symptoms, he died.

The coroner said that less than an hour after the marquis had ingested the poison, he most likely suffered organ damage.

With ricin poison alone, it was difficult for the symptoms to worsen so quickly.

“Besides, the maid said that the Marquis of Fideut always boiled water, but ricin poison is usually destroyed very quickly at high temperatures.”

He may have been poisoned in the cup or after the water had cooled, but investigations suggest that this was unlikely.
Read only at pm tl.

The coroner wrote ‘ricin poison’ on the killing instrument and wrote ‘uncertain’ next to it.

A few days with no progress.

Even that morning, Killian was reviewing related documents with Nicholas.

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“The tools of the crime, the motive, and the suspect are all uncertain.”

Nicholas sighed at the unresolved incident.

Fortunately, there were a few suspects.

“McClain and Fideout have not been on good terms for a long time because of the division of property.
There’s also a gardener who was fired a few days ago.”

The military and police department investigated anyone who might have had a personal grudge against Marquis Fideut.

Because the Marquis of Fideut was a high-ranking magistrate, there was no way he could not have a grudge relationship.

However, most of them had solid alibi, and there was no evidence, so they all had to be released due to insufficient evidence.

The only clues to find the culprit are the testimony of the maid and the white mask that disappeared from the marquis’s room.

Even the maid’s testimony was unreliable.

“He was a very big, dark man…! He looked to be three meters tall.
When thunder and lightning struck, his face flashed, it was as if a black moon had risen.”

A white mask reflected in lightning with a large black silhouette.

The maid couldn’t even tell if the person was a man or a woman.
She was just saying that it must have been a man because the person was big.

“A black moon is such an abstract description… Besides, there is no one in the world who is more than three meters tall.”

“When you get scared, you see everything distorted.
Small things look big.”

Killian said slowly, turning the papers over.

Considering the circumstances at the time, it is highly probable that the maid’s sightings were distorted under the influence of fear psychology.

It’s like seeing a person with a small size and feeling intimidated, or seeing their opponent’s impression differently because of psychological fear.

Especially since it was a thundering night, he couldn’t fully trust the maid’s memory.

“It may be someone who is against Marquis Fideut’s recent policy of restricting the construction of bridges.”

“Well, killing Marquis Fideut isn’t going to solve that problem, is it?”

“But there’s nothing you can’t do if you have strong bad feelings.
If the marquis dies, the policy implementation will be hindered.”

Nicholas glanced at Killian and tried to expand the scope of the suspect.

Digging into only personal information did not come up with an answer.

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Perhaps someone with political dissatisfaction secretly hired an assassin.

“But isn’t it strange? It was a break in and he was poisoned… Isn’t it usually faster and cleaner to kill someone with a tool?”

While examining his data, Nicholas suddenly expressed his doubts.

In general, an assailant would quickly injure their opponent with a weapon from behind and leave to avoid being detected.

But this person dared to use poison that took a long time to have someone die.

Moreover, it was a strange poison, which was more difficult to obtain than a knife, was prepared in a planned manner.

If he’s going to kill him with poison, why did he have to stay there and watch it at the moment he died?

There was no antidote for ricin poison anyway, so if you ingest it, you will surely die.

At Nicholas’ question, Killian’s hand, who was flipping through the documents, stopped.

He raised his red eyes and looked at Nicholas for a moment.

When Killian did not specifically sanction, Nicholas continued his reasoning alone.

“Did he have a reason to take the time to kill him? Or maybe he had a reason to poison him…”

“Well…”

Killian quietly turned the papers over and listened to Nicholas’ reasoning.

“Or maybe the culprit is a woman.
Don’t people who can’t normally overpower their opponents use poison?”

“Maybe.”

Killian tapped the corners of his papers with his fingertips.

Continuing his reasoning, Nicholas shook his head.

No matter how much he talked, he was just guessing based on his imagination.

“This is the first time something like this has happened.
A masked monster who came on the night of thunder and lightning! Doesn’t it sound like something out of a novel?”

Even if they thoroughly researched the surroundings of Marquis Fideut, no answer was found.

“Before the site was preserved, too many people came and went, and the footprints were ruined… The only convincing evidence is the mask that disappeared from the Marquis’ room.”

Nicholas sighed at the vague category.

At that moment, a member of the military and police force ran into Killian’s office.

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“I found it, sir!”

The heads of Killian and Nicholas were raised at the same time.

The joy on the face of the military and police officer who rushed in was as if they had found a treasure.

“This is the actual poison used in the murder!”

The military and police officer held out a tightly wrapped roll of paper.

Nicholas looked at Killian and took the roll of paper.

“Be careful as it can be dangerous just by inhalation through skin contact or breathing.”

With the warning from the police officer, Nicholas opened the carefully wrapped roll of paper.

Inside was a small, oddly shaped object.

A spherical object the size of a pea with black spots like pupils in bright red color.

The surface was smooth and hard as if it had been coated with something.

Because of the intense color and hard surface, it looked like an artificial marble.

Killian’s eyes trembled when he saw the seed.

Nicholas swallowed his saliva at the appearance of an unfamiliar object and looked at Killian.

“It looks like it was pulled out the devil’s eyeballs…”

Nicholas said, carefully examining it.

While investigating the case, he recognized all kinds of poisons, but this was the first time he had encountered such a bizarrely toxic substance.

“Rosary pea, a bean called rosary pea.”

“Rosary…pea?”

“It does not grow in the Empire, and it is a plant that can be obtained from Alvedi.”

A military officer explained.

Alvedi is a kingdom to the south of the Empire.
Because it is a closed country, there are not many people who interact with them.

Therefore, few scholars in the Empire knew about the plant.

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“It’s fine when it’s covered in a hard shell, but it’s said that the inside of the shell is more than 30 times stronger than ricin poison.”

It had almost the same poisoning symptoms as ricin poison, but its toxicity is much stronger.

Moreover, unlike ricin poison, which can be destroyed from boiling heat, this pea is said to be stably maintained even at high or low temperatures.

“The color is unique, so the surface of the shell does not break easily where it is also used as an accessory.”

“There are really all kinds of plants.”

Nicholas glanced at the somehow ominous seed and stuck out his tongue.

Without someone telling you, you wouldn’t even think that this pea was the seed of a plant.

“But where did you get this?”

Killian asked the police officer.

“That was under the marquis’s bed.”

The military policeman made a great discovery and smiled broadly.

Marquis Fideut’s bedroom, under the bed.

It was as small as a pea, and it was caught in the cracks in the floor, so the military and police officers crawled under the bed to find the trace.

“Under the Marquis’s bed?”

“The culprit must have killed the marquis with this poison!”

Nicholas also nodded his head at the undeniable evidence.

“Sir, with this, we may be able to catch the culprit.”

Unlike ricin, rosary pea was very rarely circulated in the Empire.

No, it has to be correct.

So, if they only find the route through which the pea was distributed, it would only be a matter of time before they catch the culprit.

“Alvedi…”

“Don’t Alvedi only trade with Count Frauss?”

Nicholas and the policeman’s eyes are on Killian.

The Frauss family monopolized trade with the South.
One of those southern countries was Alvedi.