“Your tongue is blue. Don’t tell me you’ve taken poison?”
“What? Oh, n-no. Ah!”
Startled, I clapped my hand over my own mouth first.
Oh, right, I forgot…!
I’d been so focused on Jayden that I’d completely forgotten.
That my tongue wasn’t just blue—it was a full, garish blue!
I was on the verge of dying from embarrassment. To think I hadn’t even realized I was showing him something like this.
“Move your hand.”
“N-no, you can’t…!”
But Cain only pried my hand away, his eyes deadly serious.
Hup. I clamped my mouth shut instead, for whatever good that would do.
Ugh. I wanted to cry. What was I even doing, at my age.
“Open your mouth. Let me check.”
“Buguu-nuuu. (It’s nothing.)”
I answered with my lips pressed firmly together, like a child facing a dentist.
I absolutely had to defend the inside of my mouth at all costs.
“I have no idea what you’re saying.”
“Bugu-unuurugu! (I said it’s nothing!)”
You’re the Dragon Duke who can hear an ant crawling, so why can’t you understand me now of all times!
I wanted to cry, but Cain only kept asking, still perfectly serious.
“Is your tongue paralyzed?”
As if!
A big hand closed around my jaw. Cain tilted my chin up slightly, as if to get a better look.
Then he pressed his fingers against my lips, trying to pry them open.
“You can’t open your mouth.”
No. No. That’s not it!
It’s not that I can’t open it—I won’t !
I looked at Cain with welling eyes. Please, understand my look.
But it was no use whatsoever.
“Does it hurt somewhere, enough to make you cry?”
He leaned in even closer, as if to check my condition.
Close enough that it wouldn’t have been strange for our breath to touch.
His handsome face filled my vision completely.
Under ordinary circumstances, I might have thought myself lucky for the view. If only my tongue weren’t blue right now.
“I smell something sweet.”
He asked, as if he’d caught the scent of the candy’s flavoring. Every one of his senses was sharp, true to a Dragonblood. Humiliating as it was, surely he’d figured it out by now?
But his misunderstanding only leapt off in a ridiculous direction.
“Don’t tell me.”
Yes. That’s it. It’s candy…!
“Did you eat stevian grass?”
No. That’s not it!
Stevian grass ranked a solid fifth among poisons favored by assassins.
It was true… it had a similar effect, but…!
A faint sweetness, and then your blood circulation seized up and your tongue turned deathly blue. But my condition was clearly different from that.
By this point, I wondered if he was deliberately teasing me, but the look in Cain’s eyes was more serious than I’d ever seen it.
“Don’t tell me you asked me to get you the Sweet Reaper so you could eat it?”
Cain looked at me with a face that seemed unable to believe what he’d just said himself. His eyes were full of disbelief.
But the one who was truly dumbfounded was me. What did he even think of me!
At this rate, the misunderstanding would only keep deepening endlessly.
In the end, I had no choice but to part my lips and blurt it out quickly.
“C-candy!”
His hand, which had been forcing my mouth open, loosened for a moment.
This is my chance.
I quickly shoved him back and put some distance between us.
Cain still looked confused, his brows knit slightly.
Finally freed, I covered my mouth with my hand and hurriedly explained.
“It’s, it’s just candy.”
And a very, very ordinary one at that.
“Candy?”
“Ye-es.”
“Does anyone in this world sell candy made from stevian grass?”
That blasted stevian grass!
“No, no! It’s nothing like that.”
I hurriedly rummaged through my pocket. Thankfully, two pieces of candy were left.
“This is what I ate. Candy that changes the color of your tongue.”
I took out the candy and held it out to him, and Cain took it without thinking.
Seeing the two adorable little candies sitting in his big hand, I wanted to cry for no reason. To think I’d ended up in this state because of those things.
Haa. So embarrassing. In the middle of such a serious conversation, of all things.
Still, at least the misunderstanding was cleared up.
“A-anyway, I’ll be going now!”
More hurriedly than ever, I opened the study door and fled at once.
Behind me, I thought I heard the sound of Cain letting out a disbelieving laugh, but it had to have been my imagination.
Ugh, I don’t want to know.
Please, just let me get through this without running into anyone else. I could die of embarrassment.
…As if to mock that wish, I ran straight into Conrad.
“Miss Viola? Where are you off to in such a hurry?”
“Huh? Ahaha. No reason! I just left something behind.”
I laughed awkwardly and covered my mouth. Thankfully, Conrad didn’t seem to find it especially strange.
Let’s escape quickly.
“Well then, I’ll be going…”
“Oh, before that. The gamjong herb you asked about has been secured. I’ve left it in the dispensary, so please check it.”
“Already? Thank you!”
“Hm?”
I greeted him with my hand still over my mouth, and Conrad made a low sound, as if he’d caught something suspicious.
“Is something wrong, Miss Viola? Perhaps there’s an issue…”
Conrad tried to come closer with worried eyes, but I couldn’t go through that again.
“Ahaha! An issue? Surely not! There’s no such thing! I really must be going, then!”
Tossing out my goodbye, I dashed straight for the dispensary.
Phew. There’s really no one here, right?
Only after confirming no one was inside did I feel a little relieved.
Only then did I notice the poisonous herb on the table. Just as Conrad had said.
He said it would take two days. That was really fast.
Was this the might of House Asheln? I was briefly moved by the taste of power before—
My face caught my eye, reflected in the window glass.
When I stuck out my tongue a little, a plump, healthy pink appeared.
The blue stain had finally faded. All that water I’d deliberately drunk had been worth it.
Haa. But what good does it do to fade now? I’ve already shown Cain the whole embarrassing mess.
…That was really rough back there.
I never imagined he’d jump to such an absurd conclusion. Let alone that he’d try to check my condition himself.
Suddenly, I remembered the touch of Cain’s fingers on my lips.
Fingers roughened just slightly with calluses.
With that strange texture, he’d pried my lips open without a moment’s hesitation. His big hand had unmistakably been a man’s, so different from mine.
Ugh. Good thing I clamped my mouth shut then. I could’ve really died of shame.
There’s no cure for dying of shame.
Vowing never to eat that candy again, I sat down at my seat.
Whatever happened, I had my own work to do.
This is the first time I’ll be using this poisonous herb…
Handling medicine naturally meant handling poison sometimes, too.
It all depended on how it was used. Something that acted as medicine for one person might act as poison for another.
Even a highly toxic herb could become medicine depending on how it was combined.
And this Sweet Reaper was exactly that kind of case.
Poison so dangerous that an ordinary person eating it would fall into a near-death state within thirty minutes.
But for Jayden, who had Tamutar disease, it would actually serve as a treatment.
Trimming the mountain of herbs piled up and pressing out their juice, I dove straight into the work.
Stay sharp.
Work like this always demanded strict attention to safety.
There were plenty of people in this world who’d unconsciously licked their hand and ended up dead.
Mix this with the spikeleaf…
Hmm.
I’d been utterly absorbed in it for a good while, exercising the greatest possible care, when—
Knock, knock.
There was a knock at the door.
Pulling off my soiled gloves, I got to my feet.
But before I could even answer, the door was flung open.
The one standing there was Celia Dorn.
Ugh. This doesn’t feel good.
It was our first meeting since our run-in the other day.
Seeing her insufferably triumphant face, I had a feeling she hadn’t come for anything pleasant.
