20
The servant’s eyes widened at the suggestion of sharing a drink.
“No! How could someone like me drink with a guest? I will gratefully receive your words.”
“Don’t say that. Let’s have a drink together.”
Minhyuk continued to persuade him with a big smile.
On the surface, he was smiling, but in his mind, he was diligently deducing the cause of the current situation.
‘Why is this guy trying to kill me?’
Apart from asking about the location of the blacksmith, I’ve never had a proper conversation with him.
There is no reason for him to have a personal grudge against me.
So it must be that he’s doing this at someone’s behest…
‘Who could it be?’
No faces came to mind.
I had only been in this world for two days.
I had only exchanged words with a few people.
Of those few people, there were only 3 who could have asked a servant working in Drake’s mansion to poison me.
General Drake, the princess, and Professor Raymon.
But no matter how much I thought about it, there was no one among them who could be identified as a suspect.
General Drake?
It really couldn’t be him.
Not only did I respect his character from the swordsmanship lessons I received, but it didn’t make sense for him to do something like this in his own mansion.
So, the princess?
She wouldn’t have harmed me if she met me.
Professor Lehman?
Is it because he’s jealous of me getting close to the princess lately?
‘That’s too much speculation.’
Maybe it’s someone I don’t know at all.
It was complicated that I became someone’s target just two days after arriving in this world.
Anyway, I have no choice but to open the attendant’s mouth to find out who’s behind this.
And I had to keep in mind that he might not know that the alcohol was poisoned.
He might have taken it out because he was really uncomfortable drinking with the guest.
To confirm that, I had to give him more alcohol.
“I’m bored drinking alone, so let’s have a drink together.”
“Oh, no! I’ll get scolded if the general finds out.”
The attendant refused vehemently.
In the end, Minhyuk used force.
He pulled the attendant with his hand.
With Minhyuk’s enormous strength, he was dragged over without any resistance and sat on the chair.
Gulp-
Minhyuk held the attendant’s shoulder down with one hand and poured the poisoned alcohol into a glass with the other.
And he spoke, holding the glass right up to the attendant’s lips.
“Since there’s only one glass, let’s take turns drinking. You take the first sip.”
“I understand. Since we’re drinking together, please take the first sip.”
“You seem to be much older than me. I can’t do that. Have a drink first and I’ll pour you one.”
Clatter-
The attendant’s expression hardened as he looked at the glass.
Just by looking at his expression, it seemed like he knew that the alcohol was poisoned.
But I had to see it through to the end to be sure.
If the attendant accepts and drinks the alcohol, it means he doesn’t know it’s poisoned.
At that time, I will quickly give him the green intermediate potion and save his life.
I just have to give it to him within 3 seconds.
However, if he refuses to drink the alcohol or runs away, it means he knows it’s poisoned.
At that time, I will beat him up and find out who’s behind this.
“If you insist··· I’ll drink first.”
The attendant took the glass.
And as if he was about to bring it to his lips,
“You drink it!”
He threw the alcohol at Minhyuk’s face and ran towards the door.
Minhyuk wasn’t just going to stand there and take it.
He quickly tilted his head to the side to dodge it and immediately chased after the attendant.
Minhyuk’s running speed was incomparably faster than that of an ordinary person.
Thwack-
The servant had barely taken a few steps outside the door when Minhyuk seized him.
***
The main building of Drake’s mansion.
Someone on the roof was monitoring the annex where the guests were staying with a telescope.
He was the one who had commissioned the servant to poison Minhyuk in the basement of Mangaji Plaza.
Within the telescope’s field of view, the red-haired man holding the servant by the collar came into view.
‘You idiot!’
He couldn’t hear the conversation, but it was obvious.
The poisoning had failed.
Even though he had provided a rare, colorless, and odorless poison, he had still failed.
‘How the hell did he get caught?’
In any case, his to-do list had just gotten longer.
He would kill the servant to silence him.
Moreover, he would personally take care of the red-haired man.
In fact, assassination was his profession and specialty.
‘I should have just done it myself from the beginning.’
When he had received the order to kill the red-haired man from his master, Count Loren, he had wanted to take care of him personally.
He was confident and enjoyed his work.
However, he had no choice but to follow the count’s instructions.
That was why he had hired the servant to poison Minhyuk and had been keeping an eye on him.
Clatter-
He took a tiny awl out of his pocket.
This small awl, used for sewing leather, was his assassination tool.
He would approach his target and stab the awl precisely into a vital point, and the job would be done.
And he had another assassination technique.
Swish, swish, swish-
His appearance began to change into someone else’s.
He was not actually human.
He was a member of the ‘Kuna’ race, who had the ability to transform.
The Kuna could perfectly transform into the appearance of anyone they had physical contact with, like a doppelgänger.
Using their shapeshifting ability, they could easily approach their target and stab them with the awl in a surprise attack.
That was the Kuna’s method of assassination.
His targets tonight were the red-haired man and the servant.
‘In this form, I can eliminate both of them at once.’
After completing his transformation, he climbed down from the roof and headed towards the annex.
***
Minhyuk asked the servant with a cold gaze.
“Who is it? Who wants me dead?”
“…”
He didn’t even open his mouth.
He raised the hand that was holding the nape of the servant’s neck.
The servant’s two legs flailed in the air.
However, he still didn’t seem to want to open his mouth.
Thud-
Thud thud-
In the end, he used his fist.
He controlled his strength, fearing that the servant would die if he hit him too hard.
“Talk!”
Groan-
Hearing the commotion, people gathered around.
Most of them were the general’s servants, and there were also soldiers.
“Why is that guy getting beaten?”
“Did he say something wrong to the guest?”
After a while, General Drake also appeared on the scene.
He asked Minhyuk.
“What’s going on?”
“This man tried to poison me! But…”
As Minhyuk turned his head to look at the general, a message appeared before his eyes.
<Kuna have been detected.>
<You can earn a reward of 10 seconds of return time by killing the Kuna.>
Kuna? It was a word he had never heard before.
He had never seen such a message while facing the general until now.
Minhyuk was briefly unable to grasp the situation.
However, he was able to figure out the situation right away after seeing the next message that appeared.
<Kuna possess the ability to transform.>
The Drake general before his eyes was a fake.
The fake general raged at the servant.
“How dare you try to harm my precious guest! Even if I kill you a hundred times, it won’t be enough!”
Then he approached Minhyuk and said.
From Noble mtl dot com
“Hand that guy over to me. There must be someone who ordered him to do this. I will interrogate him myself!”
The Kuna man had an awl hidden in the palm of his hand.
He planned to get close and stab Minhyuk first, and then the servant.
However,
Thud-
Minhyuk’s fist hit his face first.
It was a tremendous punch that would have made even a direwolf stagger.
The Kuna man fainted after being hit once.
The servants who were nearby exclaimed in surprise.
“General!”
“Are you out of your mind? What are you doing to the General!”
Clang-
The soldiers drew their swords and pointed at Minhyuk.
Minhyuk pointed at the fallen man and said to them.
“Take a good look. Is that man really General Drake?”
Rustle-
The man’s transformation was being undone.
<The Kunada’s transformation is undone when they die or faint.>
Once his transformation was completely undone, he was stark naked.
And his skin was blue all over.
Someone shouted.
“Ku, Kunada! He’s a Kunada!”
At that moment, the real General Drake showed up.
“What’s all the commotion?”
.
.
.
Minhyuk went down to the basement of the mansion with General Drake.
There, a Kunada man was tied up.
He had already woken up.
The General’s men had gagged him so that he couldn’t do anything reckless.
The General pointed at him and said to Minhyuk.
“I know this man. He’s a man of Count Loren.”
As the name of his master came out of the General’s mouth, the man’s pupils shook slightly.
Minhyuk asked the General.
“Count Loren? Who is that? Why is that man trying to kill me? I’ve never even met him before.”
“Follow me.”
The General and Minhyuk moved to a new location.
It was a sealed room where no one could eavesdrop on their conversation.
The General answered Minhyuk’s question from earlier.
“He didn’t do it because he has a grudge against you. It’s a plot to cut off the Princess’s arms and legs.”
General Drake had noticed long ago that Count Loren was a dangerous man who would not hesitate to use any means necessary to achieve his goals.
So, he had been secretly gathering information about him.
And then he found out something very important.
Count Loren was very reluctant to see the territory of Kaho expand.
“There’s no certain evidence, but that man may have been the one who sabotaged the Princess’s expedition last time.”
“He’s a strange man. Why does he hate to see the territory of Kaho expand? Wouldn’t it be good for everyone if the safe land expanded?”
To Minhyuk’s question, the General replied with a bitter expression.
“There are those who prioritize satisfying their own greed right now over everyone’s lives and futures.”
Minhyuk thought of the corrupt politicians in his own world.
Whether the country falls or not, whether the people suffer or not, whether future generations starve or not, there are those who only care about living in luxury themselves.
“The princess, undaunted by failure and determined to reorganize the expedition, must be a thorn in his side.”
“If Minhyuk is poisoned at the general’s house, it would eliminate a key member of the expedition and simultaneously strain the relationship between the princess and the general.”
Count Loren must have aimed for two birds with one stone.
The general gazed intently at Minhyuk and asked,
“What do you plan to do?”
He was inquiring about Minhyuk’s intentions on how to conclude the day’s events.
“How is it usually handled?”
“In a normal case, we’d secure solid evidence and put the scoundrel on the gallows… but we’re short on time right now.”
Just capturing one of the count’s underlings isn’t enough to corner him.
He could simply deny knowledge and that would be the end of it.
The point is, there’s no need to complicate matters with the expedition looming, when we should be securing irrefutable evidence.
Minhyuk shared the same sentiment.
For him, entrusting Count Loren, who committed assassinations as casually as one eats a meal, to the judgment of the law would be a colossal waste of time.
Especially since Minhyuk had plenty to do already.
Earning gold coins, learning swordsmanship, studying alchemy, hunting, and gathering herbs.
“I’ll take care of it.”
At Minhyuk’s words, the general nodded.
“It’s your affair as well, so I won’t stop you. But it must be handled discreetly.”
After a moment of thought, the general spoke.
“How about this? Make it look like a robbery, eliminate him, and then take money from the safe.”
Count Loren was one of the wealthiest in Asdel.
Naturally, his safe would be filled with golden coins worth 10,000 kroner each.
It was a suggestion to stage a robbery murder by taking those coins.
“What about the money taken?”
“That’s up to you.”
Minhyuk grinned inwardly.
This job seemed like it would pay handsomely.
—
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