The True Nature Of The Suspicious Soup

“Raios, there is something I want to ask of you.”

What Varnir said next was this.

“Find the man gathering high-quality medicinal herbs—and kill him.”

That was the order Raios received from Varnir.

Raios was not shaken. He had built his name on dirty work like this from the very beginning. Raios understood exactly where his value lay.

Using the false name Glantz, Raios made contact with the Adventurers’ Guild.

The man was easy to find.

The one who appeared was—

“I’m Ilvis. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

He was a young punk around twenty years old. Raios was taken aback. The man standing in a realm beyond even the master Varnir’s reach was a carefree young man like this?

(…Was there some kind of mistake…?)

That was the conclusion Raios came to.

But nothing about Raios’s “assassination” mission changed. He had been told to kill him, so he would kill him. That was all.

What Raios chose was poisoning.

He would make soup with poisonous grass as the base, make him drink it, and kill him. Then he would simply report to the Adventurers’ Guild that Ilvis had drunk soup he made himself and died on his own.

“Good, I’ll make soup for dinner. I’m going to gather some wild herbs for the ingredients.”

Using the poisonous grass he had gathered, Raios made the soup.

“Thank you very much. It looks delicious!”

Thinking nothing of it being poisoned soup, Ilvis smiled and put the dish to his lips.

Raios watched him with cold detachment.

(…Too bad, brat. Looks like the higher-ups made a mistake, but you stood out too much. Society is a scary place, you know?)

Before long, Ilvis would cough up blood and collapse—

That was what Raios thought, but that was not what happened.

“It’s really delicious!”

He praised it like that.

…Huh?

Raios hurriedly swallowed the gasp that almost slipped out. Had the amount of poison not been enough, or was the poison weak?

“Shouldn’t you eat too, Glantz-san? It’ll get cold, you know?”

“…Eh, no… I, well…”

Being urged like that was a problem. There was no way he could drink it when he knew it was poisoned!

More importantly, why was this man not dying!?

As a countermeasure, Raios tried giving Ilvis another helping, but—

“Pwah, delicious!”

He drank it with a completely unfazed look.

This made no sense!

He was definitely drinking poisoned soup, and yet!?

But the situation was getting even worse than Raios had imagined.

“It really tastes wonderful, with absolutely no problem at all. Please eat yours soon, Glantz-san. Then you’ll understand.”

—!

There was no way he could drink it. It was a bowl of deadly poison. But if he did not drink it, he would be suspected.

“Come on, bottoms up. Drink it all in one go!”

After saying that cheerfully, Ilvis tilted his head.

“What’s wrong? It’ll get cold, you know?”

Ilvis, sitting right in front of him, urged him on with the soup and a bright smile.

There was no way he could get out of drinking it!

(…What is going on!? He’s drinking poisoned soup, so why isn’t he dying!?)

He did not know. Raios did not understand at all.

The only thing he did understand was that there was not much time left before he had to decide.

His two subordinates were looking at Raios with worried eyes.

(Damn iiiiiit! You idiots! Don’t look at me with worried expressions! If he catches on that it’s poison, I’ll beat the hell out of you! You morons!)

After venting his irritation inwardly, Raios faced reality once more.

The dish in his own hands—and the amber-colored soup shining within it.

(C-c-c-c-cuoooooooh!)

His hands trembled.

For an instant, he considered attacking Ilvis here together with his subordinates, but quickly reconsidered. Their positions were bad, and the two subordinates were not ready either. If they failed to finish him in one blow, there was a chance he would escape.

The only choice was to drink this and wait for the next opportunity.

It was fine—there had to be some reason the poison had disappeared. That was why the man could drink it safely. Yes, that had to be it.

(I’ll drink it! I’ll drink it and prove that nothing’s wrong!)

Raios steeled himself and brought the dish toward his mouth.

Just as his lips were about to touch the rim—

“Oh, right. I forgot to mention this, but that wild herb you gathered by mistake was Galeon Grass, the poisonous kind, wasn’t it? So I cast magic on the pot to neutralize the poison in Galeon Grass.”

Ilvis said it with a cheerful smile.

—!

Because he wanted to organize the camp? Wait, no. Because he wanted to sort out the luggage, there had been a brief moment when Raios left Ilvis in charge of watching the fire. It had probably happened then.

“Sorry, I meant to report it, but I forgot.”

“…Ah, no, it’s fine. Just be more careful next time.”

“Yes!”

After answering energetically, Ilvis suddenly asked, looking unconvinced,

“By the way—why did you use Galeon Grass, a poisonous herb?”

Those words squeezed Raios’s heart.

Exactly. Normally, no one would put poisonous food into a meal—unless they had some kind of intention.

“Ah, no, well…”

As Raios desperately searched for an excuse—

“I understand.”

Ilvis’s eyes stared fixedly at Raios. They were calm, clear eyes, as though they could see through everything.

(…He knows…!)

Raios felt a chill run down his back.

“What do you mean, you understand…?”

“You were actually trying to gather Ganecchi Grass, not poisonous Galeon Grass, weren’t you?”

“Huh?”

He did not understand at all.

Ignoring Raios, Ilvis continued speaking.

“Ganecchi Grass is a plant that’s also used for food. The problem is that it looks similar to Galeon Grass, which is poisonous. Adventurers get poisoned by mistaking the two every now and then. You accidentally mixed them up, right?”

“Yes, yes, that! That’s it!”

Raios decided to latch onto that explanation with all his might. If he could smooth this over, that was enough.

“My goodness, as someone who handles plants, I’m ashamed of myself. Ilvis, you saved me.”

“So that was it after all. Of course! I mean, there’s no way Glantz-san—Glantz-san, whom I only just met today—would poison me, right!”

“O-of course not…”

“What a relief! Anyone can make mistakes! Please don’t worry about it!”

After responding with a smile, Ilvis nodded and returned to his meal.

Letting out a quiet sigh of relief inwardly, Raios reassessed Ilvis.

Ganecchi Grass and Galeon Grass certainly did look alike. But this man had noticed it from just a brief glance at a distance. The sharpness of that discerning eye was enough to make him a threat. Raios could not do something like that himself.

(…So the reputation that he can move the medicinal herb market with his little finger is not just for show… I’d better stop underestimating him. Next time, I’ll have to make sure I kill him!)

Raios raised his level of caution by another stage.