Chapter 488
An Ancient Poison: A Chance Encounter
While everyone was focused watching the king fall, Citrina got to work. She had been following Echard around the whole time because Mia told her to in order to prevent this situation, but King Abram had caught her by surprise.
Who would have thought he’d do that?
It was definitely the fact that his behavior was so out of the blue that took her longer to respond, not the fact that she was thinking about Bel’s worryingly long trip to the bathroom. Being honest. She wouldn’t have been able to react in time to the king’s move even if she had been fully alert. Sudden, but not unreasonable. His younger son had offered his older son a drink, but the older son couldn’t drink it right now, so he took it. His son tried to kill his brother, how could he have known? That the poison was in the glass he was holding?
His behaviors were completely logical, which means they were expected. She ought to have been ready.
“Don’t worry. He could still be saved…” Citrina whispered.
She had made a mistake, but it wasn’t fatal. She still had time to fix this. She had to, after all. Mia had been getting ready for just this kind of thing. That’s why she brought Citrina with her.
I might as well never be helpful if I can’t be here. It’s time for me to do my part. Her lips got tighter. Okay, think. What do I need to do…?
A young boy stood alone in the hall, out of sight of everyone else. He was shocked in silence. She walked up to him quietly.
“Prince Echard, we need to get to the point quickly. How much did you put in the drink?”
“Huh?” Echard shook his shoulders. Almost all of the color in his face had gone away.
Citrina spoke in a low but firm voice, “Tell me if you don’t want patricide to be added to your list of accomplishments. What amount?”
She put quiet pressure on the boy, and he broke. His voice was shaking as he replied, “O-One pinch.”
As she walked toward the king, Citrina thought about what he had said. She waded through the crowd of people who were watching, most of whom had now noticed what was going on, and knelt down next to the lying king with Tiona by her side.
She told them in a strong voice, “Don’t move him!” to stop them from doing anything that would make things worse.
After that, she looked at the king’s face. Half of it had turned a horrible black color, like death was beginning to seep through the skin.
That’s proof enough. Without a doubt, this is the sign of Shadowbane. It’s moving along quickly. Things are already going badly with ecliptic toxicosis.
When someone ate shadowbane, they got a condition called ecliptic toxicosis. The name comes from the way the skin on their face would darken from side to side, looking like the moon going dark. To put it simply, it was poisonous and caused a loss of stamina, heart weakness, and poor circulation, which in turn broke down many important body functions. People used to be afraid of Shadowbane because it was so good at making the faces of many masters in history look black. However, it was an old drug that no one remembered and had been forgotten. The reason was simple: it was easy to treat by giving the right amount of lightbane, which is the opposite of poison.
Lightbane caused prominence toxicosis, which got its name from the fact that it was stimulating and poisonous. It would greatly stimulate the heart, making it beat twice or three times faster after being eaten. Along with this, there would be a rush of energy that made people hyperactive. The intense pressure would soon break blood vessels, and the victim would die struggling as blood leaked out of every hole and pore. The dramatic end looked like the bright spots on the sun that you see during solar eclipses, which is how the name came about.
Treatment, on the other hand, was also easy. One only had to give the right amount of shadowbane, which is its counter. Because they cancelled each other out, they weren’t useful against prepared people, so they weren’t good for murders. They were forgotten over time. Only a small group of people now knew what the two banes really were.
I’ve heard that even the Equestris, who used to hunt with shadowbane all the time, don’t touch it anymore.
It was the first time Citrina had ever seen a shadowbane. The Yellowmoon stock did not have any. Lightbane was the same way—she only knew it by name. It would not have been possible for her to fix the poison if they hadn’t found those mushrooms on their way to Sunkland.
The only thing that can stop these two diseases is each other… We were lucky to meet that trader on the way here. If not… she thought as she took out a small bottle that had lightbane in it.
Echard said that he had put in one pich. That matched how much of the skin was black.
In this case, the antidote amount would need to be…
“What in the sun’s name?”
As she was about to give the lightbane, the Sunkland nobles who had started to crowd around her turned away in fear when they saw the dark spot on the king’s face.
“Hold on, is that Shadowbane?”
Some nervous whispers got through to Citrina. It looks like some of the nobles knew about the poison. It made sense; people whose jobs put them at risk of being killed would have probably learned about these kinds of things.
“The physician! Please send someone to get the physician!”
Citrina looked at Tiona instead of listening to the yelling that started.
“Miss Tiona, please keep your hands on His Majesty and hold him steady,” Citrina said as she poured lightbane into a wine glass to get the exact amount needed to cancel one pinch of shadowbane.
“You! Are you crazy? What are you doing?”
“Stupid girl! Take your hands off right away! That’s an insult to His Majesty!”
She didn’t care about them. Their lack of knowledge was clear from the pointlessness of their anger. Her worries were for the people who knew better and knew that their king had just been poisoned. She was only a little girl, and she was from another country. They would not want someone like her near their ailing ruler right now.
But she had to be here because she was sure no one else could save Abram’s life. She looked all the way across the hall for someone who could keep the nobles away. Someone whose understanding of what was going on was better than everyone else’s…
—
As someone who could use powerful gazes herself, Mia was sensitive to them. That might be why she felt it right away and turned to meet it even though she knew she shouldn’t have.
Even though she was just as shocked as everyone else at first, she felt a little better after seeing Tiona and Liora pull the king back over the wall. Then she let out a sigh of relief when she saw Citrina, the local poison expert, rush over. She thought everything was safe.
Which made it even more disturbing when their eyes met.
No way. Seriously? Are you going to throw this at me? Now?
The fear that was going away changed its course.
Moons! Okay, think about it… How can I get out of this? I need to be careful with what I say…She didn’t want to get her brain back to work, but just as she did, she felt someone looking at her. That one was much closer. It actually came from next to her.
“Mia…”
At first look, she couldn’t say anything. Sion Sol Sunkland, the royal ideal of perfection, was looking at her with eyes so full of doubt and fear that he almost begged her to help him. As soon as she sensed his fear, she naturally nodded.
“Don’t be scared, Sion. It’s okay,” she heard herself say, then she turned to the crowd and said, “This girl is my vassal,” with such confidence that she was shocked herself.
“She is one of the best experts in the kingdom, so please leave this in her capable hands.”
People, including Sion, did a double take at her when she spoke, but what she said made him take a deep breath and calm down. Then he spoke to the crowd as well.
“All right, everyone. You heard the princess. Leave the girl to do her job.” He told the people watching, “And go get a physician right away,” and his authority made everyone but Mia think he was fine and really in control.
She was the only one who saw the tiny tremors in his tightly clenched hands.
Translator’s Note:
I had a hard time translating this chapter. But basically:
Shadowbane = makes your heart and body functions slow down; symptom is that your face will slowly blacken.
Lightbane = makes your heart and body functions overwork; symptom is that blood will come pouring out of your body.
They cancel each other out.
MF
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