CH 13

Translated by EunEun

Edited by Slowday

“Tuberosum?”

“There are weeds scattered in the mountains, right? There is… poison in its leaves.”

“Poison…?”

Gasp.

The contemplative people shouted hastily.

“Young Miss, you can’t just grab things recklessly! It’ll hurt your hand!”

“Dirty object! It’s a dirty object! Dirty objects must be thrown away to the ground, right?”

Among them, those who knew more about Tuberosum looked at the Young Miss’s hand and sighed in relief.

‘Thank goodness she grabbed it with a cloth, not her bare hands.’

The most poisonous part of the Tuberosum was the leaf.

Just a touch on the tip of the leaf could redden the skin.

‘If she got a red scar on her skin by mistake…’

Shivers.

They got goosebumps when they imagined the expression of the Master if he came back and witnessed the scene.

Making his way through the shivering people, Carlitos approached Beatty and opened his mouth.

“Where did you get it?”

His tone was ambiguous whether he was criticizing or encouraging the squirrel who caused the commotion.

Concealed by the tall northern people, Beatty was surprised to see her older brother suddenly show up.

As soon as she noticed the boy’s bare chest with his shirt off, Beatty turned her head.

‘Why is he undressed?!’

She was sure that a while ago in the castle, he was completely dressed up.

The boy’s upper body, which was already well-formed, had an appearance that would make girls her age flutter.

“Chuu!”

But it was just a burden to the eyes of his blood-related sibling.

Beatty was so surprised that she unintentionally let out a squirrel sound and stepped back.

“….”

Carlitos’s forehead crumpled up when he saw Beatty moving away from him.

The boy who caught up with Beatty’s erratic step with just one big stride picked up the Tuberosum that Beatty was holding and murmured.

“Ah!”

“This is that one, right? What was it…? ‘The Devil’s Seed’?”

Tuberosum.

A useless, but fertile weed that grew anywhere once you took your eyes off it.

It would not have been so coldly looked upon if it could be eaten, but tuberosum was a useless harmful herb that was poisonous. Not only its leaves but also the root fruit.

Furthermore, all the bad nicknames such as ‘The Devil’s Seed’, ‘The Toxic Excrement’, ‘The Underworld’s Poisonous Herb’, etc, were attached to the gloomy colors that seemed to have originated from hell.

“Uhm, it is also one of its names.”

Beatty opened her mouth while hiding the Tuberosum behind her back, which was famous for its grass that didn’t even attract mountain animals.

“Actually, this is not something that would be bound to that kind of bad nickname.”

“Hm?”

“Rather—”

In the past—no, let’s just say it’s the future.

At the time, the nickname that tied to it was different.

“‘A Miracle Plant’. This will solve the problem.”

Speaking confidently, Beatty’s eyes sparkled.

“Ahem!”

That time, before she knew it, Count Zealot stepped in.

“I apologize, Young Miss. But, you say that is the solution?”

With an unapologetic look, the Count pointed to Beatty’s hand.

Why an unattractive piece of grass?

It was an obvious gaze that reflected his thought.

“You have such a beautiful heart to help, but… This is not in a situation where we can play house with you. I’m sorry. If you’re bored, I’ll call a play-mate maid.”

The Count blurted the end of his words with embarrassment and soon ended his speech in a firm tone. It was a clever way of speaking.

It’s like saying “no” to a child who childishly asked for attention in an emergency.

“….”

At that moment, the boy’s cold eyes’ hideous aura seemingly intensified.

“Count.”

Beatty was one step ahead.

Beatty opened her mouth when she saw Count Zealot put on a mask of a well-mannered adult.

“Does the Count know the strengths of a Tuberosum?”

“Yes?”

In front of the Count who had a puzzled look on his face, Beatty casually pointed out her index finger.

“First. Tuberosum grew well everywhere.”

“About that… of course. It’s weed.”

“The second, is this.”

“…?”

Beatty picked up the round fruit for the Count, who replied bitterly.

“If the fruit that hung on the root here has fully grown up, it will be even bigger than a fist.”

Beatty looked down at her clenched fist and thought that it was not enough for the illustration, then looked around.

Grab.

She held her older brother’s hand, which happened to be next to her.

“Thiiis— much.”

The boy looked down at his little sister with his mouth agape then smirked, raising one of the corners of his mouth.

As Beatty put it, Carlitos’s hands were quite big.

If considering the size of his big fist with the clenched fingers….

“If it’s this size, it should be enough for a meal, right?”

“…It is big though.”

After listening to the explanation, the Count spoke in a weird tone.

“You know that there is also poison in the fruit, right?”

The Count spoke softly, covering his irritated eyes by folding the end of his eyes.

“Of course, if you don’t have anything to eat, you can eat it.”

“That’s—”

“But we need to lie down because we’ll have a stomachache after having it.”

Holding the sneer that was about to slip out in the middle, the Count’s mouth was strangely twisted.

“The Imperial Army will love it. All they have to do is to comfortably cut off the neck of our soldiers who are lying down.”

“….”

“Oh my gosh. My mistake, my words went overboard.”

The Count bowed politely according to the very standard etiquette.

It was a dubious apology, rather, it was safe to say that it was offensive.

“It’s not.”

Beatty calmly looked at the sly count.

Sarcasm. Contempt. Irritation.

Those were basically how adults treated her before regression.

So Beatty wasn’t at all intimidated by the Count’s tone.

She spoke in a steady voice.

“The Count’s words are right.”

“Yes. It’s not embarrassing to admit your fault—”

“Though, only about the poisonous part.”

“Pardon?”

“The others are wrong.”

Beatty’s voice was clear, replying specifically to the count.

“….”

Blood sprang up to the Count’s temples.

Turning around so she didn’t need to see the Count’s response, Beatty briefly looked down at her hand that was holding the Tuberosum.

Unlike the purple leafy stems, the blackish root fruit looked relatively edible.

“I don’t know which part of my words were wrong.”

After regaining his composure, the Count looked down at her and opened his mouth.

“The fruit you are holding is a poison that makes you suffer from stomachache.”

“That’s… right.”

“Last time, my nephew, who is a hunter, picked it up and consumed it. He could have been in big trouble.”

The Count added, smiling proudly upon the reaction of the people around.

“In severe cases, you could lose your life.”

Such a cold look seemed to warn her that she could suffer from the same thing.

A snake with its mouth open sounded like it was scaring its prey.

“….”

She looked at the people surrounding the Count and those who still had a fully worried face. Beatty opened her mouth.

“Then, it’ll be okay as long as someone doesn’t get a stomachache, right?”

“?”

Her next move was something that no one could even expect.

No one can stop her.

Hup!

Beatty put the Tuberosum she held in her hand into her mouth.

“!”

“Y-Young Miss…!”

Looking at the people’s surprised faces, Beatty thought confidently.

‘Great. Because I swallowed it in front of everyone, I can show everyone that it’s not dangerous at all!’

But at the very next moment.

Beatty coughed furiously, turning blue.

“Co-cough!”

It wasn’t… because of the poison.

“Spit it out immediately!”

It was because of the boy who came running right away, yanked Beatty’s head, and hit her hard on the back.

“Cough!”

“Spit it out! I said spit it out…!”

“Blaargh—”

Eventually, Beatty was forced to vomit what she swallowed because of the hands of her brother who shook her body with great force.

“Cough! Cough! … What is it?!”

Beatty tried to express her resentment with eyes full of tears from her body’s natural response.

“Are you okay? You’ve really spewed it all out, right?”

But when she saw her older brother’s face, she quietly shut her mouth.

“Open your mouth.”

He tried to check the inside of her mouth with his fingers, even though she desperately closed her mouth tightly and shoved him off to block it.

***

A while later after the commotion.

After repeated tests by the family doctor who was called out in a hurry, Beatty was diagnosed as fine. She puffed up her cheeks and said.

“See. My words are right, right?”

“Hm….”

Was the fruit really okay?

The family doctor confirmed it once again, appealing for his innocence to the Young Master who shot him a suspicious look.

“The Young Miss didn’t show any symptoms of addiction.”

“Not at all?”

“Yes. It also wasn’t because she spat up the poison before it was released.”

“Are you sure?”

“Usually, if someone swallows a poisonous herb, they will still have symptoms of tongue poisoning, even with the slightest amount. But… there’s no sign of it at all from the Young Miss.”

The family doctor concluded while lifting up his drooping glasses.

“It’s like she never swallowed poison in the first place.”

“She didn’t swallow the ‘poisonous herb’….”

The boy murmured as he lost in thought.

“Now you know, right?”

Beatty said, gushing out a confident blow from her nose.

“Tuberosum is a food supply that can be eaten!”

The boy tilted his head and asked.

“It was definitely a poisonous herb that would get you sick if eaten. But it didn’t happen to you.”

“That’s right!”

“Hm. If it’s like that….”

The boy thought for a moment and told his guess.