CH 26

At Eden’s question, Cardien remained motionless. 

Livia’s head naturally turned towards him, and suddenly she noticed something was wrong.

‘Doesn’t he seem unhappy?’

To the casual observer, he looked as expressionless as ever, but Livia detected a subtle crack in his expression.

Was it another headache?

Knowing how serious his headaches can be, her amber eyes gazed at him with concern.

At any other time, it would be fatal for him to appear in pain in front of Eden.

Both personally and symbolically.

Cardien meant Mercedes itself. If he appeared to be struggling, it signaled the faltering of the House of Mercedes. 

He’d be easy prey for the hyenas, who would be ready to pounce at any moment. In addition, Eden was almost like the face of the temple. 

To appear disheveled in front of such a man would be a stain on the Mercedes reputation.

On top of all that. 

‘Cardien’s own pride would not allow it,’ Livia thought. Based on what she knew,  Cardien despises the temple with the utmost contempt. 

It’s a temple that not even the imperial family would dare to touch, and Cardien refers to it as “the bastards of the gods”. 

Of course, this is only possible because he is the Duke of Mercedes. 

‘But why does Cardien hate the temple so much?’

Of course, the Temple despises Mercedes for not worshiping its gods, but it’s a love-hate relationship that’s inevitably sparked by Cardien’s lack of respect for the Temple.

Which meant it started with Cardien’s hatred of the temple. 

The original story didn’t go into detail about it, so Livia could only speculate. Puzzled, she found herself staring at Cardien.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, they locked eyes. 

He was puffing on his pipe with a contorted expression but stopped when their eyes met. His piercing violet eyes looked directly into hers. 

Livia couldn’t breathe for a moment, as if there was some kind of spell trapping the air in her lungs; her heart clenched in her chest as she was caught in his eyes. 

His lips parted as he looked at her.

“Do it.”

That was the answer to Eden’s question about whether or not he could get involved in the case. Despite getting the answer he wanted, Eden looked back and forth between Cardien and the tutor he employed for a moment.

Eden was not the only one. 

Chelsea and Winston, and even Anna, had noticed the strange air between Livia and Cardien, and who was giving her strange looks.

It was Eden who broke the tension. When he opened his pocket, Livia’s gaze naturally shifted to him. 

But her mind was racing. 

Why was Cardien looking at her like that? Sure, they’d had several encounters…

…Was he holding a grudge against her for trying to touch him in the library?

But if he was holding a grudge, he wouldn’t have caught her when she almost fell last night.

The Cardien she knew would never do that. 

Then what could it be? 

There was no explanation, which only made her more anxious.

Firstly……. 

More than anything, she needed to focus on the here and now. 

After trying to distract herself from Cardien, Livia glared intently at the pouch in Eden’s hand. 

Under the intense gaze, Eden opened the pouch and examined the contents. Not only did he see it, but he smelled it, and he looked at her through narrowed eyebrows. 

“Looks like ordinary tea leaves to me, too. I don’t smell anything.”

Eden’s eyes seemed to say, ‘Why would anyone want me to check this out?’

“See, even if it was mine, there’s nothing wrong with it!” Anna exclaimed, laughing out loud.

Livia didn’t even glance at her, only at Eden. But Anna didn’t seem to notice.

‘Hmm, maybe I should drop a hint,’ Livia mused.

She looked back in Winston’s direction.

“Butler.”

“Ah, yes.” Winston, caught off guard, replied a beat late.

Livia gave him a reassuring smile, then spoke.

“Is it normal for tea leaves to ‘not smell like anything’?”

“……..?”

Winston gave her a confused look at the out-of-the-blue question, but quickly pursed his lips when he met Cardien’s gaze that seemed to command him to answer.

“It may not be strong, but all tea has its own fragrance. There is no tea leaf that doesn’t have any scent at all.”

“And surely, there aren’t ordinary tea leaves that don’t have any flavor at all, right?” Livia continued, looking towards Eden. 

Finally, his puzzled eyes widened.

Then he urgently asked Chelsea to prepare some hot water. Chelsea glanced at Winston for a moment, but when he granted her permission, she quickly filled a teapot with hot water.

She dropped a few leaves into it, and they quickly poured them into their teacups. Despite the leaves floating in the teapot, the water was still crystal clear.

The ‘tea’ was colorless and odorless.

Eden stared at the teacup for a moment, then began to gulp down the liquid in his cup.

Anna’s eyes widened at the sight. 

And then.

Clink. 

Eden dropped the teacup he was holding and shook his head. His neck and face began to gradually turn black.

“Ugh……”

Eden groaned in pain, and a panicked Winston immediately ordered Chelsea to summon the doctor.

“W-what is this?!”

But Eden held up a hand to stop him.

“I’m …….fine.”

Eden took a deep breath. A blue aura began to pulsate around his body.

Livia instinctively recognized it as Eden Aquilium’s divine power.

A moment later. 

When Eden looked up, his skin had returned to its original color, as if it had always been that way.

“What the…… What in the world just happened?” 

Winston stared at Eden, confused.

Cardien looked surprised, too, though he didn’t show it as obviously.

Eden looked down at the remaining tea leaves in the pouch and answered, “It’s Akavan, a poisonous herb.”

“Akavan. You mean the devil’s grass, the one that can’t be distinguished by silver and with no way to detoxify if poisoned.”

Eden’s head turned to Cardien. Cardien was smiling coldly.

‘Come to think of it, the sedative plant that Cardien carries is a poisonous plant similar to Akavan.’

He had burned and smoked the poisonous herbs himself to quell his madness. No wonder he knew so much about Akavan. 

Eden gave a small nod.

“Yes, but I recently discovered the only way to detoxify it.”

“An antidote?”

“Divine power.” 

He clutched the pouch tightly and glanced back at Anna.

Anna’s face was ashen as if she’d seen the grim reaper.

Livia looked on indifferently. Anna clearly didn’t realize the poisonous herb she was smuggling in was Akavan.

So maybe she just felt confident. 

Whatever.

Eden glared coldly at Anna.

“Are you still going to deny that you knew nothing about the contents of your belongings, Miss Anna Lever, Count Lever’s daughter, who was found to have smuggled the Akavan?”

“Oh, no, I-I didn’t know! I didn’t know!”

“Then you admit that this pouch is yours.”

“……!!!” 

Anna’s eyes widened. She shook her head in denial, but Eden had already stopped listening.

“Since you tried to use the Akavan, you won’t escape punishment either.”

“He-help me! Li-Livia, help me!” 

Anna began to cling to her most hated rival, like a person who had seen her future come crashing down. But Anna was soon dragged away by the holy knights who burst through the door. 

“No, no way! Kyaaaaa-!”

Bang–!  

Anna’s desperate cries were cut off as the door slammed shut. 

Winston, shocked that his hired tutor had tried to poison her fellow tutor, also left the room with Chelsea, offering to help clean up.

Soon it was just Livia, Eden, and Cardien in the room.

‘What the hell is this combination?’ Livia cursed in her mind. 

If you had to name the most uncomfortable combination in the world, this would be it.

Just as she was about to slip away.

“Well, I guess I’ll be going too—…..”

“Wait!”

Livia whirled around at the urgent call that came as she was fumbling with the doorknob.

Eden had been extending his hand towards her urgently. But his hand was halted in midair, unable to reach her.

Eden’s expression hardened when he saw the black-gloved hand on his arm.

Despite Eden’s gentle appearance, he was the leader of the First Order of Holy Knights of the Temple. In terms of the imperial family, it was the same as being the commander of the emperor’s personal guard.

No matter how unexpected it was, stopping his movements with one hand would be beyond the strength of an ordinary person.

‘Well…….’ 

Livia looked at Cardien, who had indeed halted the commander of the Holy Knights with one hand, in disbelief.

Though he suffered from insomnia and headaches, the side effects of a mana surge, Cardien had never neglected his training.

In fact, he used the lack of sleep to train his body even more. 

It was just that he’s not in the spotlight because he’s not on the battlefield or slaughtering people.

He was in no way inferior to Eden when it came to force alone. 

In other words, they were both very strong. But why were those two very strong people–

‘They’re having a power struggle in front of me?!’ Livia lamented.

She knew that the two of them were rivals. 

‘But can you leave me out of it?’