Perhaps the restorative Cotton had made was highly effective, because the Dove opened its eyes a few days later.
At that moment, Lloyd was eating tasteless Energy Bars for lunch instead of dishes that might have been poisoned.
The moment it opened its eyes, the Dove looked at Lloyd…… no, more precisely, at the Energy Bars Lloyd was eating, and cried.
“KRAAAWK…….”
Lloyd still could not understand an animal’s words, but at that moment, he understood what the Dove was trying to say.
“Are you hungry?”
“KRAAWK.”
Lloyd took a large number of Energy Bars from his Inventory and placed them before the Dove.
Excited by the pile of Energy Bars in front of it, the Dove flapped its wings and cried.
“KRAAWK, KRAAAWK!”
Perhaps it had not eaten properly for several days.
The Dove began greedily devouring the Energy Bars without a moment’s rest.
Despite having only just awakened, its fearsome appetite was unchanged.
After eating every Energy Bar in an instant, the Dove flopped down with its swollen belly exposed and immediately fell asleep.
“Oh-ho, it looks healthy, fortunately.”
“You are here?”
The one who had come to see Lloyd was Cotton.
Cotton looked at the Dove sleeping on its back and asked,
“This Dove is one you are keeping, correct, Young Master Lloyd? What is its name?”
“A Dove is a Dove. Does it need a separate name?”
“Good heavens…….”
At Lloyd’s words, Cotton let out an involuntary sigh.
This was no different from calling a puppy “Puppy” or a cat “Cat.”
“E-Even so, if it is a bird you are keeping, should it not at least have a name?”
“I will think of one.”
“By the way, I had heard that Doves repaid favors, but I did not know one would even eat poison in your place.”
Cotton, who liked animals, stared at the sleeping Dove with sparkling eyes.
He looked like a child who had found a new toy.
“More importantly, did you discover anything about the poison?”
At Lloyd’s question, Cotton finally took his eyes off the Dove and replied with a proud expression and voice.
“Who do you think I am? I am one of the ten best Magic Scholars in the Seid Ducal House.”
Cotton began explaining the poison the Dove had consumed.
The poison in Lloyd’s food was called Makellaide.
It was made from a component extracted from the petals of the Makella Flower, and its effect was to cause the loss of Mana.
“A Makella Flower?”
“It is an herb used as medicine for Mana Overload, but depending on how it is prepared, it can become a poisonous herb like this.”
Cotton explained that consuming a small amount would only result in the loss of Mana, but consuming the poison in large amounts or continuously would put one’s life in danger.
“However, judging from the amount of poison in the food, I do not think they intended to kill you.”
“I wonder…… Can you still think that after seeing this?”
As he said that, Lloyd pointed to a flowerpot by the window.
At the end of Lloyd’s finger was a yellow flower that had been beautifully blooming until the previous day. It had now turned black and withered.
“T-That cannot be…….”
Cotton saw it and trailed off in shock.
Makellaide, a poison that destroyed Mana, could not make a flower wither in such a short time.
“Today, a wine with an unusually strong aroma was served, so I poured some into the flowerpot. It turned out like that.”
After arranging his thoughts for a moment, Cotton spoke with a grave expression.
“It seems they have switched to a poison with high lethality. I will investigate this poison as well.”
As he said that, Cotton carefully plucked a petal from the flower and placed it in a glass vial, just as he had done before.
“To be safe, I will make an antidote as well.”
“You have worked hard, Sir. If this matter is resolved well, I will reward you generously.”
At those words, Cotton’s face visibly brightened.
“Yes! I will hurry as quickly as possible!”
Cotton answered more loudly than Lloyd had ever heard before and left the room with quicker steps than usual.
Lloyd took his gaze from Cotton and turned it toward the flowerpot.
Using a poison with greater lethality meant they had now decided to kill him.
‘Has it finally begun?’
Even after switching to a highly lethal poison, he was still perfectly fine. They would ultimately come to find him in person.
That would be the moment of their final confrontation.
‘Whoever you are, come find me quickly. Then I will kill you.’
Lloyd waited for that day to come.
And that day arrived sooner than he expected.
***
The assassin had changed the poison several times, yet Lloyd was still perfectly fine. This made him suspicious.
‘Why is he still alive and well? Does the target perhaps possess a high-grade Detoxification Artifact or an antidote potion?’
But the assassin soon shook his head.
Recently, he had even used an extremely potent poison that could kill massive monsters instantly.
‘If it was that poison, there would not have been time to detoxify it with an Artifact or a potion.’
That meant the target, Lloyd, had noticed the poisoned food and was not eating it.
He did not know how Lloyd had noticed, but one thing was certain.
The poisoning plan had failed completely.
‘In that case, I have no choice but to use the final method.’
The final method was to find the target himself and eliminate him directly.
For an assassin, that was the surest means.
The assassin put his plan into action that night.
Infiltrating Lloyd’s room was not difficult.
He had already identified an infiltration route in preparation for a situation like this.
With careful steps, he approached Lloyd, who lay sleeping in bed.
All he had to do was drive his dagger into the target’s chest.
‘It would have been easier if I had used this method from the start.’
Thinking that, he took out his dagger and raised it high.
To stab Lloyd’s heart in one strike.
Then, at that very moment.
Lloyd, whom he had thought was deeply asleep, suddenly sat upright!
“!”
Startled, the assassin hurriedly stepped back to prepare himself.
Lloyd stared at the assassin coldly and asked,
“I do not expect you to answer, but I will ask anyway. Who ordered you to do this?”
“…….”
Just as expected.
The assassin gave no answer.
“As expected. Then I will force you to open your mouth.”
As he said that, Lloyd leisurely curled a finger toward the assassin.
It was a gesture telling him to attack first.
“I will not fall for such provocation.”
The assassin widened the distance between them and used Stealth to hide himself in the darkness.
The plan had gone slightly wrong, but even then, the assassin thought it would be easy.
His opponent had only just reached the Beginner Sword Expert realm.
Lloyd might be outstanding for his age, but in the assassin’s eyes, he was only an inexperienced brat who had never seen real combat.
‘He will not be able to find me while I am using Stealth. I will hide and wait for an opening.’
That was the typical combat style of an assassin.
This method had never failed him before.
Not only was his skill with Stealth exceptional, but inexperienced knights and nobles like this did not know how to find someone in Stealth.
‘Go on. Panic quickly.’
The more Lloyd panicked, the more openings he would reveal.
But even as time passed, Lloyd showed no sign of panic.
Far from panicking, he was smiling with the corner of his mouth raised.
The moment the assassin thought that smile felt ominous for some reason, something unbelievable happened.
Lloyd vanished in an instant!
Lloyd had used [Mimicry], a skill he had acquired after defeating the Giant Chameleon, the boss of the first floor of the dungeon.
But the assassin, who had no way of knowing that, could not help being shocked.
“T-This is Stealth!?”
Stealth was a technique unique to assassins.
How could a young illegitimate child of a count’s house use such a technique?
Perhaps because he was momentarily shaken, his Stealth came undone.
“Finally, I found you.”
At Lloyd’s voice from directly behind him, the assassin immediately spun around and swung the dagger he was holding.
Even from an unstable position, an assassin did not miss his target.
A sharp dagger aimed at Lloyd’s neck.
The moment the dagger’s blade reached Lloyd’s neck, the assassin sensed success.
But only for a moment.
The dagger that should have cut Lloyd’s neck suddenly stopped.
No, it was not just the dagger that could not move.
A powerful force was binding the assassin’s body as well.
“W-What in the world is this…….”
The assassin desperately tried to move his body, but he could not move an inch.
Then he saw Lloyd with an arm outstretched toward him.
“Do not tell me you are the one binding me?”
“Did you only realize that now?”
“You have learned Stealth, which only assassins can learn, and you even possess this strange technique…… What in the world are you?”
The assassin asked in a trembling voice, unable to hide his panic, but the response he received was only cold.
“Who knows? Is there any reason for me to tell you that?”
As he said that, Lloyd slowly curled the fingers of his outstretched hand toward the assassin.
CRACK.
With the sound of bones breaking, a scream full of pain burst from the assassin’s mouth.
“AAAAAAGH!!”
Lloyd frowned at the assassin’s scream and shut his mouth with Telekinesis.
“MMMPH—! MMMPH—!”
“Now it is a little quieter.”
While Lloyd smiled in satisfaction, fear slowly appeared on the masked assassin’s face.
‘T-The target has an ability like this? I was never told.’
At first, this had been an extremely easy request: poison a child whose swordsmanship was only slightly better than average.
So he had accepted the request without much thought.
If he had known that Lloyd possessed such an unknown ability, he would have refused.
But it was already too late.
For now, escaping from here was his first priority.
‘Damn it, I need to get out of here quickly!’
As the assassin searched for a means of escape, Lloyd noticed his thoughts and pressed down on him once again with powerful Telekinesis.
“You should not already be thinking about escaping. We have not even started yet.”
As he said that, Lloyd took out the Dungeon Key from his Inventory and opened a Dungeon Gate.
A red gate appeared in the empty space, accompanied by a faint trembling vibration.
At the sudden appearance of the gate, the assassin’s eyes widened.
What in the world was that?
He did not know what it was, but a powerful sense of dread unlike anything he had ever felt washed over him.
***
That sense of dread proved accurate.
The assassin rolled his trembling eyes and looked around.
A gigantic tower that felt like ancient ruins, with a complex structure like a maze.
Could he be dreaming?
No matter how many times he blinked, the unbelievable sight before him did not change.
‘I-It is impossible. A moment ago, I was clearly in the target’s room…….’
People naturally feared things whose nature they could not understand.
Perhaps because of that, the assassin grew more and more afraid of Lloyd.
‘……Escaping has become difficult now.’
The assassin had been thoroughly trained from childhood.
Deciding that escape was no longer possible, he chose to swallow the poison he had hidden in the space where one of his teeth had been removed.
‘But how am I supposed to swallow the poison? I cannot move my mouth because of this strange force.’
Then, at that moment.
Lloyd, who had watched the assassin silently for some time as though observing him, finally furrowed his brow and spoke.
“It seems you are planning to kill yourself.”
The moment he heard those words, the assassin’s eyes shook once again.