Chapter 19

“We must find the evidence.”

Rian’s room was plunged in complete darkness except for a single candle. Before him lay a detailed map of the capital, diagrams of the Imperial palace, and countless reports collected by Argos strewn in disorder.

The problem was clear: the ‘Fairy Spring’ located in the heart of the imperial palace. It was the Crown Prince’s fountain of water and, now, the source of the poison. The Fontaine family, connected to the Reinhardt family, managed it so thoroughly that approaching the place was nearly impossible.

“I can’t go myself. Sending my brother is even more out of the question.”

The moment Kaion showed interest in the spring, the enemies would immediately go on alert. What was needed was a ghost—someone invisible to everyone’s eyes.

Rian immediately summoned Old Fox.

“Find among the servants or gardeners who tend the area around the Fairy Spring someone we can use.”

Rian’s conditions were exacting.

“Someone with an ill family member or crushing debts—desperate for money. At the same time, they must have no ties to the Fontaine or Reinhardt family. Honest, but timid and unnoticed by others is even better.”

Old Fox mobilized Argos’s entire information network. Two days later, he found a perfect candidate.

“A young gardener named Leo. He’s been working at the imperial palace for two years. His younger sister suffers from a rare lung disease, and the medicine costs are enormous. He’s quiet by nature and seems to be treated as if he’s invisible among his peers.”

A faint smile crossed Rian’s lips. The perfect bait.

Rian did not step forward himself. He had an unrecognized operative newly recruited by Argos approach Leo. The operative convinced Leo with a lie that a frail noblewoman had heard a rumor that the Fairy Spring’s water was good for beauty and desperately wanted it. He then handed over a large sum in advance—enough to cover a year’s worth of medicine for Leo’s sister.

Faced with money and his sister’s life, Leo’s timid heart crumbled. He ultimately accepted the dangerous proposal.

A few days later, Leo hovered around the Fairy Spring under the pretense of pruning the garden trees. His heart pounded as if it would burst, but he steadied himself by thinking of his sick sister’s face. He timed the guards’ shift changes precisely. In the brief gap of surveillance lasting only minutes, Leo quickly filled a small glass vial he had hidden in his robes with the spring water.

That night, Rian finally obtained the water containing the poison.

From then on it was his fight alone. He locked his door and, drawing on his past life’s chemistry knowledge, set up an improvised laboratory. The mortar used to grind herbs became a beaker, and Magic tools for controlling flame stood in for an alcohol lamp.

He dropped various reagents into the spring water to observe the reactions—changes in color, formation of precipitates. After hours of struggle, he finally identified the poison.

‘Silent Belladonna…’

It was a plant-derived neurotoxin undetectable by Magic. With prolonged ingestion it slowly paralyzes the nervous system, eventually causing cardiac arrest—the kind of poison used by assassins.

Rian held the small vial containing the extracted toxin up to the candlelight. It was clear and beautiful, but inside it held damning evidence that could shake the foundations of the Empire.

But he could not simply present this to the Emperor. The Reinhardt family would surely pin all the blame on the Fontaine family and cut their losses.

‘Evidence alone is not enough. I must make them step into the trap themselves.’

Rian’s gaze shone colder than ever. He thought of Marquis Reinhardt’s arrogance. That arrogance would be the very entrance to the trap he would lay.

The shadow was no longer merely pointing a blade at the serpent’s heart; it was preparing to loop a rope around its neck.