Ch.271271. What kind of deranged assassin enters through the main gate in broad daylight?

“W-what kind of disrespect is this toward Butler Hayden right now?”

Who is the person with the easiest access to the head of the family after Isabel Montero?

Who is trusted enough that they wouldn’t be considered a suspect even if they poisoned someone?

The answer was too simple.

“Because Butler Hayden poisoned the head of the family.”

“What nonsense is this…”

The knights waiting outside the room began to stir.

Butler Hayden, who was initially flustered, took a deep breath and spoke calmly.

“I don’t know what misunderstanding Lord Levan has, but why would I have any reason to poison the head of the family?”

“I don’t know your reasons.”

“Then are you making an innocent person into a criminal without evidence? This… seems too much, even for a guest of the young lady.”

I shrugged my shoulders and continued speaking.

“Well, I don’t know why you poisoned the head of the family, but finding the answer is simple.”

“And what would that be?”

“The head of the family, once detoxified, will tell us himself.”

Butler Hayden looked back and forth between the head of the family still lying in bed and me, then twisted the corner of his mouth.

“Miss, looking at him now, this person seems to be a fraud. He’s clearly just showing off some half-baked knowledge to impress you.”

Isabel Montero looked at me with disappointment in her eyes.

“Lord Levan doesn’t seem like that kind of person…”

At that, Butler Hayden raised his shoulders, took a step forward, and raised his voice.

“It wouldn’t be the first time a man has approached you with ulterior motives because of your appearance, would it? I thought this one might be different since you brought him yourself, but…”

Hah…

Listening quietly, he’s playing politics?

He doesn’t even know that’s my specialty.

I also took a step forward and curled up the corner of my mouth.

“Butler, you strangely don’t seem to be thinking about the head of the family.”

“W-what did you say!?”

“Normally, shouldn’t you be asking how to detoxify the head of the family?”

“T-that’s…”

“Or is there a special reason why the head of the family shouldn’t be detoxified?”

Butler Hayden clenched his fists, trembling, and raised his voice again.

“How exactly do you claim to be able to detoxify the poison spreading through our head of the family’s body?”

Just then, Edmund entered the room.

He was carrying a silver tray in his hands.

“You’re here?”

“Yes, I’ve brought it.”

I picked up the plate from the tray and spoke.

“Edmund, make sure Butler Hayden doesn’t escape.”

Edmund, who hadn’t grasped the situation after going out and coming back, tilted his head several times before reluctantly nodding.

I held the plate in my hand and headed toward the bed.

And then.

With one hand holding the plate and the other slightly raising the head of the family’s body.

Gulp-! Gulp-!

Seeing that the head of the family had his eyes open, he was conscious but unable to speak due to the poisoning.

Yet he didn’t spit out the detoxifying medicine made from Cheoneoncho but drank it laboriously.

“Cough!”

After laying the head of the family back down on the bed, a moment later he half-raised his body, vomited something onto the floor, and lay back down.

Seeing this, Isabel covered her mouth and trembled.

“F-father moved his body.”

Unlike my composure, Hayden’s eyebrows twitched with an anxious expression.

“Edmund, what did you just bring?”

“Cheoneoncho, sir.”

“Ch-Cheoneoncho? That’s a poisonous herb?”

At the mention of a poisonous herb, the knights outside the room stirred again.

Butler Hayden, who had shown anxiety, quickly regained his composure and raised his voice again to Isabel Montero.

“Miss, that man just fed a poisonous herb to the head of the family!”

“…But my father just moved his body…”

“Cheoneoncho is known for its strong poison. The head of the family reacted reflexively because such a strong poison entered his body!”

Judging by the way he’s talking, he doesn’t seem to know that Cheoneoncho is an antidote.

Well, if he knew, he’d probably be busy running away right now.

And then.

Hayden looked at the knights and strained his neck.

“Kill him immediately! He’s an assassin who came to kill our head of the family!”

“Assassin? What kind of deranged assassin would enter through the front gate in broad daylight?”

“Y-you… how dare you… Quickly, drag him out!”

If I left, Butler Hayden might do something to the head of the Montero family.

He probably intended to slowly poison him to death, but now that he was cornered, he might kill him immediately.

And of course, he would pin the blame on me.

Shing-!

Following Hayden’s orders, the knights drew their swords and began entering the head of the family’s room with vigilant expressions.

I too was about to draw my sword, resolving to avoid taking lives as much as possible.

Grab-!

Someone grabbed my arm.

When I turned my head, it was the head of the family, half-raised from the bed, with blood still on his lips.

The knights also gaped in astonishment.

-H-head of the family!!

-Are you alright, head of the family!?

-My goodness! The head of the family really raised his body!?

Despite the commotion of the knights, the head of the family casually wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand, pointed his finger at Butler Hayden, and twitched his eyebrows.

“Restrain Butler Hayden immediately so he cannot escape.”

*

“I don’t know how to express my gratitude to you.”

Three days later, in a private meeting with Daniel Montero, the head of the family, who had risen from his sickbed.

Unexpectedly, quite a bit of time had been consumed.

“It’s nothing. I’m satisfied that you’re safe.”

Daniel Montero struggled to lift his teacup, still not completely recovered.

Nevertheless, he maintained a calm expression, trying not to appear weak in front of me.

“It was truly terrible. When he realized I could no longer move my body, Butler Hayden whispered in my ear. He said he had poisoned me himself.”

After several days of torture, Butler Hayden reportedly confessed that he had poisoned Daniel Montero directly to take control of the Montero family.

However, not all of my suspicions were resolved.

“…Is that all there is to it?”

“Do you have other suspicions?”

“Miss Isabel Montero was almost kidnapped before, wasn’t she?”

At my words, Daniel Montero’s eyebrows trembled slightly.

“Y-yes, that’s right.”

“Did you uncover who was behind it?”

“We couldn’t. They all died before we could identify the mastermind.”

“How?”

“We put them in the underground prison, but suddenly they were poisoned…”

Daniel Montero, trailing off, suddenly had a flash of realization in his eyes.

“I see! Butler Hayden must have been in contact with those behind Isabel’s kidnapping!”

“If you interrogate him as if you already know something, he’ll likely confess before long.”

I smiled gently, causing Daniel Montero to hesitate and tilt his head.

“A-are you a fortune teller?”

“…Pardon?”

“If not, how could you predict something you haven’t experienced?”

“Ah…”

“Come to think of it, it’s strange. I can understand how you realized I was poisoned by a person rather than a magical beast, but you specifically pointed to Hayden as the culprit?”

That’s because as soon as I entered the room, I first checked Daniel Montero’s condition with my Eye Opening skill.

His emotions were anger and betrayal.

Those weren’t normal emotions for someone simply poisoned.

And then.

Butler Hayden, who came running barefoot as soon as we arrived at the mansion.

When I checked him with Eye Opening, his emotion was simply happiness.

No matter how safely Isabel Montero had arrived home, how could he be happy when the head of the family was fighting for his life?

‘That’s why I initially asked Isabel Montero with suspicion who that person was.’

And.

The kidnapping incident of Isabel Montero had seemed odd from when I first heard about it at the tavern.

The knights I saw at the banquet weren’t just ordinary elites, but three superior ones guarding her—how could she almost be kidnapped?

Again, the answer was simple.

A traitor who knew exactly the routes and brief absences of the guard knights.

That traitor was ultimately Butler Hayden.

The more I used it, the more the “Eye Opening” skill seemed overpowered.

Of course, I was the one piecing together the scattered puzzle pieces and making deductions.

I took a humble posture and spoke.

“I just had a good intuition.”

“How did you know it could be detoxified with Cheoneoncho?”

“An acquaintance of mine once showed the same symptoms as you. I saw them being detoxified with Cheoneoncho then.”

Daniel Montero leaned back in his chair and laughed helplessly.

“Isabel meeting you at that gathering was truly a stroke of divine providence for me.”

“If meeting me was divine providence, could you also forgive one of my mistakes?”

“Haha! What mistake have you made against me? If there is one, I’ll forgive it.”

Now that Daniel Montero had somewhat regained his health, it was my turn to be honest.

I put down my teacup on the table and removed my transformation leather.

Then I stood up and bowed as respectfully as possible.

“Let me formally introduce myself again. Selden Alphonse, at your service, Lord Daniel Montero, head of the Montero family.”