章 12: A possible culprit
Duke Brohm Lombardi reviewed several documents concerning the administration of his territory in his office, accompanied by his wife, Mirelia Lombardi. This was not a strange thing, as all the economic and political affairs of his territory were on his shoulders.
From granting territories to noble families who obtained some achievement or granting building permits, to maintaining a reasonable amount for taxes to be paid quarterly to the lord of the territory, The Duke spent most of his time in his office settling all these matters.
Fortunately, his wife, Mirelia Lombardi, was a particularly skilled person when it came to managing large amounts of budget, so, as his right-hand man, she spent most of her time helping her husband to ensure the stability of the territory.
—"I don't know what I would do without your help, Mirelia." Espresso, while taking a short break to stretch his body which, after several hours of work was numb.
—Mirelia stopped the movement of her pen slightly surprised by her husband's sudden comment. "That's not like you, is something wrong?"
—"It's not that, I just feel grateful for meeting you." Mirelia couldn't help but suspect that her husband wanted something, but at the same time she didn't want to spoil the moment.
—"I am also grateful to have met you, honey."
—"Now that I think about it, what should we do to solve the problem of succession?"
—"What do you mean?"
—"Well, initially the lack of heirs made me adopt several children who were left homeless because of the war. However, I should have denied them the right to succession until I found a suitable successor."
—"Do you say that for Priscilla?" The Duke nodded in answer to his wife's question. "She is certainly a good girl and I must admit that personally, I also prefer that she be the next heiress of the Lombardi house."
—"That would be an ideal situation, but now that everyone has the right to inherit the Lombardi house, I can't just take that right away from them, right?"
—-"Certainly, that would cause a conflict between the noble factions that support our house, as many of them have chosen to support our children. In other words, if they were to learn that those investments they made for the sake of their future were suddenly lost, it would cause great discontent, even to speak of rebellion would not be strange."
—"You're right and that's what worries me. Our daughter Priscilla is the one with the least amount of support and that makes her more likely to be in dangerous situations."
—"Let's hope nothing happens until she can finish her studies and mature a little. I'm sure with a little more experience, she'll be an heiress like no other."
As the couple conversed on an extremely troubling and complex subject, the doors of the Duke's office echoed with the sound of the door.
—"Go ahead." The Duke gave his consent for the people on the other side of the door to enter his office.
Two people entered, which slightly surprised the Duke, who did not believe it possible for his two daughters to get along, due to the constant complaints he received from his daughter Miska. The people who walked through the door were none other than his two daughters, Miska and Priscilla.
—"It is a joy to see you together, daughters." He said with genuine happiness.
—"Yes father, but it only ended that way." Priscilla responded immediately with some discomfort.
—"It's strange to see you in a bad mood Priscilla, did something happen to you?"
—"Before that, listen to what I have to say, Father." Miska tried to interrupt Priscilla's explanations, but her mother the Mirelia silenced her with a threatening gesture.
—"I am sorry, Miska. However, it is rude to interrupt a person who has already begun to speak." Mirelia said quietly.
—"I'm sorry, Mother." Miska had to swallow her words until her younger sister finished speaking.
—"Huh!" The Duke cleared his throat "Now, it's strange to see you in my office, Priscilla. Tell me, did something happen?"
—"Yes father, I would like to ask something of Duke Lombardi." Priscilla bowed respectfully to her father.
—"To request?" The Duke was intrigued, not only was it the first time he saw his daughter acting like this, but this was probably her first request. "I hear you, Priscilla."
—"I want to request an escort for a little trip and I want to report on an incident that just happened."
—"All right, let's leave the matter of the trip for later. Now, tell me about that incident you mention."
—"Yes, Father." Priscilla took a breath to calm her nerves before she started. "As you know, I've been go to interrogate the prisoner regularly." The Duke raised his eyebrow with some discomfort, because he really had no knowledge of such a thing. After all, he didn't like his youngest daughter going down there.
—"Continue."
—"In one of these interrogations, someone came down to give me a tray with my food and the prisoner, seeing the food, claimed that it was poisoned, which leads me to think that someone has been poisoning my food."
Hearing what Priscilla had said, the Duke struck his desk with great force without worrying in the least about hurting his hand. A great fury was reflected in his eyes, as he raised his voice unreservedly.
—"Damn!" He got out of his chair with great annoyance. "Albert!" He called his personal butler without losing a single second.
—"Father, calm down. We have not yet confirmed the veracity of the prisoner's words." Miska tried to calm her father's moods as she approached him.
—"Don't worry, I'll do it right away. I don't want to give anyone who has done such a shameless act in my house the chance to clean up their mess!"
—"P-But, Father. That prisoner only manipulated Priscilla to escape the death penalty."
—"If that's the case, he'll be executed tomorrow morning. On the other hand, if that is not the case, he will be spared and after serving a one-month sentence in our home, he will be released."
—"You can't be serious, Father."
—"Silence, Miska!" Duke Brohm's anger was such that he would not accept any reply to his words.
After a few minutes, the Duke's personal butler entered the room and after making a small bow, he heard what the master of the house had to say.
—"You request my presence, my lord?"
—"Albert, I want all service personnel and my children taken to the common room immediately."
—"Should I give to them any particular reason, my lord?"
—"No, just report that I have an important announcement."
—"As your command, my lord."
—"Wait, I also want you to ask Christóbal to bring the prisoner to my office."
—"Understood." The butler bowed and left the room.
—"What are you doing father?" Miska tried again to calm her father.
—"Something I should have done from the beginning."
It took about half an hour, until the butler finally returned to the Duke's office accompanied by the guard's leader Cristóbal and the prisoner. Everyone bowed to the Duke and then waited for the person sitting at the desk with their fingers interlaced to start speaking.
—"What is your name prisoner?" I ask with a thicker voice than normal, to clearly establish your authority.
—"I apologize, but I don't have a name. However, people who appreciate me often call me, prisoner, vagrant or sometimes scum." The hooded man responded respectfully, although the content of his speech sounded more like a mockery than anything else.
To the response of the hooded man, Priscilla gave him a curious look, since she knew his name. The boy's answer led her to wonder: why he was hiding his name? However, she decided to ignore that fact and let the conversation flow naturally.
Actually, Krom hadn't lied. Technically, neither the body, nor the consciousness in that body had a name, so even if a lie detector orb had been used, the magic sphere would not have ignited with the answer it had given.
—"Dare you mock me?"
—"No, my lord. I am aware that it sounds like a mockery, but I am not lying."
—"I understand. In that case, I'll call you prisoner if you don't mind."
—"You may call me as you prefer, my lord."
—"All right, now I want you to explain to me the matter of poison."
—"It will be a pleasure. However, I have a request before that."
—"Do you want to overturn your sentence?"
—"No, it's simpler than that.
—"Tell me your request."
—"I want what we talk about to be heard only by you, your daughter, your wife and the chief of your guard. Other people are left over in this room."
—"What did you say?!" Miska complained annoyingly. "Don't push your luck, you bastard."
—"That's my condition, if you don't like it, take me to the gallow or do whatever you prefer."
—"I understand, everyone back off and let us talk alone."
—"It is dangerous, Father." Miska replied.
—"I said stand down, Miska!" The Duke raised his voice.
Duke's order all except the persons who had been mentioned by the prisoner left the Duke's office.
—"Now he speaks."
—"Yes, I have detected poison in the food of Miss Priscilla on more than one occasion. However, the poisons were different on both occasions. Which leads me to believe that whoever's trying to kill her is running out of time for some reason." The hooded man paused and after seeing a gesture from the Duke continued. "The first was a tea mixed with Higaria, which is a slow-acting poison that wreaks terrible havoc on the human body and the second was common aconite, a dangerous fast-acting poison that is commonly used on arrows or similar objects."
—"How do you know all this?"
—"Well, although it may not seem like it, I dedicated myself to curing people using wild plant's in exchange for compensation, that's the way I make my living."
—"Are you a healer or something?"
—"Nothing so elegant, but I have confidence in my knowledge of natural medicine."
—"I get it."
—"That said, the probability that whoever is performing these despicable acts lives in this house is high and I couldn't help but notice that Miss Priscilla's relationship with her brothers is not the best."
—"Continue."
—"I don't know what kind of circumstances your family goes through. However, if I may give you some advice. I would gather everyone in one place without saying anything and inspect the rooms of the young Masters first, then inspect a staff of the kitchen and finally the servants. If you find any of the plants mentioned above in those places the culprit will appear naturally and last but not least." The hooded man thought carefully of his words. "I would ask them casually and individually about those plants. Anyone who has that knowledge or is anxious to mention those plants would consider him a potential suspect."
—"And how would you discover that anxiety?"
—"That's a simple thing, an anxious person usually sweats more than normal, avoids looking directly at the face of the questioner and most importantly, will play with his hands constantly to clear anxiety, so he probably has his hands in his pockets for a long time."
—"I see; you are certainly interesting." In response, Krom simply shrugged.
—"Do you have anything else to say?"
—"No, my lord. Unfortunately, the information I possess is too limited."
—"I understand. You can take him."
—"One last suggestion, that no one outside this room should know what we have talked about, and I would suggest that Mr.Cristóbal be the one to do the interrogations, because the fear or nervousness that the master of the house can instill in his servants can cause similar symptoms."
—"I will bear your words in mind."
Krom was taken out of the room and when he passed by Priscilla, taking advantage of the opportunity he whispered carefully in her ear taking care that no one noticed, using one of the abilities provided by his body of spectrum.
—"Here ends my work. From this point on is your battle, my lady."
Thus began the search for the person who was trying to poison Priscilla and she not only had to find the assailant, but also gain her father's trust to allow him to travel and prevent Krom from being perceived as a threat.
He was certainly no more than a vagabond, but no one could deny that this hooded man was extremely dangerous in his own particular way. Somewhere in his mind, he couldn't help but think that everything was going exactly as a hooded man had planned that literally did nothing but sleep in his cell.
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