Chapter 82: The Poisoned Drink

Jingle—

“Good morning.”

I entered the herb shop and greeted Bernard.

“Come on in, Mr. Fabir.”

Bernard smiled. 

His face looked particularly bright today.

“You seem in an especially good mood today?”

“Did it show?”

Bernard sheepishly rubbed his face.

“Actually, I settled all my debts a few days ago.”

“Really? That’s great!”

So that’s why he seemed busy with personal matters lately.

I’d been worried ever since the first day I visited the herb shop, when Bernard was suffering from loan troubles, but now that it’s finally resolved, I felt at ease.

“It feels refreshing, like pulling out a sore tooth. I’ll never look that way again.”

Bernard grinned broadly.

Jingle—

“Hello, Mr. Bernard.”

It was Cayton.

“Mr. Fabir is here too?”

“You’re training early today as well?”

“That’s me, always.”

Bernard handed Cayton a bottle of Vitality Drink as if it were routine.

“Thanks.”

Cayton opened the bottle and brought it straight to his mouth.

Gulp gulp—

He downed it in one cool go.

“As expected, you need a Vitality Drink in the morning to get energized.”

Cayton showed a satisfied smile.

“Well, I’ll head off to train hard today.”

And as he turned to leave.

Stagger—

“…Huh? Why suddenly?”

Cayton’s face crumpled.

“What’s wrong?”

“Suddenly my body feels weird—”

Thud.

Cayton suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed to the floor.

“Mr. Cayton?!”

I rushed over to Cayton.

“Mr. Cayton! Mr. Cayton!”

No matter how much I shook him and called, he didn’t come to.

“Please call Miss Ellis!”

“Ah, got it!”

Bernard hurried off to fetch Ellis.

“Mr. Cayton! Snap out of it!”

Panting.

“Mr. Fabir!”

Ellis came running after hearing the news.

“Let me take a look.”

Ellis examined Cayton’s condition.

She lifted his eyelid, and the whites were yellow. His lips and skin were pale, lacking color.

“This is poisoning symptoms.”

“Poisoning?”

Poisoning? 

He was fine just moments ago, and now suddenly poisoning symptoms. 

The only thing he consumed was the Vitality Drink.

“We should give him Witch Antidote Juice first.”

Ellis poured the Witch Antidote Juice into Cayton’s mouth. Then, color seemed to return slightly to his pale face.

“This should get us past the immediate danger.”

Ellis stroked her startled chest and asked.

“But what on earth did he eat to cause this?”

“He collapsed right after drinking the Vitality Drink. Could the Vitality Drink have gone bad?”

“Vitality Drink?”

Ellis’s eyes widened in confusion.

I was equally bewildered.

The Vitality Drink is made from vegetable juice. The only things that could cause poisoning symptoms are acute allergic reactions or food poisoning.

But Cayton had never shown allergies before, and food poisoning in a season that’s not summer.

“We need to check the Vitality Drink.”

Ellis opened a Vitality Drink and sniffed it.

“Doesn’t seem spoiled….”

Then she dropped a bit on the back of her hand, tasted it lightly with her tongue, and spat it out immediately.

“This is….”

“Did you find something?”

“I need to test it more accurately. Hold on.”

Ellis hurried to the storage and returned with a silver rod. She dipped it into the bottle and stirred.

“Look.”

When she pulled out the silver rod, it was blackened.

“It’s poison. No doubt, poison was mixed in here.”

“P-poison?”

Poison in the Vitality Drink?

All Vitality Drinks are self-produced on the Floating Island. There’s no way poison could have gotten in.

Then, what about the other potions?

“We need to check the other potions right away.”

She stirred the silver rod in a nearby Vitality Drink, and it blackened the same way.

“H-how did this happen? It was fine until yesterday.”

Bernard was just as flustered.

I immediately asked Bernard.

“Were there any customers before Mr. Cayton today?”

“No.”

“That’s a relief. We should tell the branch to close right away.”

“I’ll do that.”

Bernard rushed to the branch.

It was good we could stop it before things got worse.

But how did the poison get in? If someone intentionally put it in?

“Could it be….”

I shifted my gaze. And I was certain. Someone had broken in from outside.

Jingle—

Bernard returned.

“The branch closed immediately too. Luckily, no customers had come by.”

“Mr. Bernard, did you clean the shelves yesterday?”

“No, why suddenly?”

“It seems someone broke into the herb shop last night.”

“What? Broke in?”

“The potion bottles on the shelf are messed up.”

“Huh? No one touches there but me.”

It was the potion bottles on the shelf inside the counter. 

A space customers could never reach.

The bottles that were always neatly arranged were slightly askew today. 

Clearly, someone had hastily tampered with them.

“Who would do such a horrible thing.”

To toy with people’s lives like this.

But what does the culprit want to gain by going this far?

Bernard’s expression darkened.

“…Um, I do have someone in mind.”

“What? Who?”

“Well… I think it’s the loan shark Austin’s doing.”

“Why him?”

Bernard told me about what happened at Austin’s office.

“I see.”

We can’t rule out other possibilities, but it’s true that Austin is the most suspicious.

He has plenty of motive and goal to do something like this.

But it’s just suspicion, so we can’t judge rashly.

Moreover, this seems like a professional’s work for Austin to have done alone. 

Did he get help from someone? 

Then who would join in such a dangerous act?

My worries only deepened.

“Miss Ellis, please take care of the antidote for Mr. Cayton.”

“Leave it to me. This is my specialty.”

If we find out the type of poison, it might be a clue to identify the culprit.

***

Adventurers loitered in front of the closed herb shop. 

The herb shop had closed without notice since yesterday.

“Damn, closed again today. I need to drink a Vitality Drink before going to the dungeon.”

“Why is the herb shop closed?”

“Has anyone heard from Mr. Bernard?”

With the herb shop closing without warning, great confusion spread among the adventurers.

“I don’t even know how we lived without the herb shop before.”

“Exactly.”

It was a moment that painfully reminded them how important the herb shop was.

“Did you hear that rumor?”

Then, a strange rumor started spreading. Adventurers, sensitive to rumors, wouldn’t miss it.

“What?”

“They say one adventurer collapsed after drinking the Vitality Drink?”

“The Vitality Drink? That doesn’t make sense. It’s supposed to make you energetic, not collapse.”

“But they say the collapsed adventurer showed poisoning symptoms.”

“What? Poisoning? Is there really a problem with the Vitality Drink?”

“Maybe that’s why the herb shop closed.”

Whisper whisper.

The baseless rumor spread endlessly, but the herb shop didn’t take any particular action.

***

I slipped past the adventurers’ eyes and entered the storage where Ellis and Cayton were.

“Mr. Cayton, how’s your condition?”

“Thanks to Miss Ellis making the antidote, I’m much better.”

“That’s a relief.”

It was good it ended like this. Without Ellis, Cayton’s life could have been in danger—it was a close call.

“More importantly, did you hear the rumor?”

Cayton seemed to have heard the murmurs outside.

“No one else visited the herb shop yesterday besides me. No one outside the herb shop staff should know about this incident.”

Since Cayton had been in this storage recovering since collapsing yesterday, he had no chance to spread the rumor.

If someone intentionally spread the rumor, they’re likely connected to the culprit who broke in and put the poison.

“Don’t worry too much. It was bound to come out eventually.”

I replied as calmly as I could.

“More than that, there’s something everyone should know.”

Ellis picked up a glass bottle from the desk.

“This is the poison that affected Mr. Cayton.”

“Did you figure out the type of poison?”

When I asked, Ellis nodded.

“Yes. It’s a poison called ‘Death God’s Kiss.'”

“D-Death God?”

The name alone was terrifying. To put such a poison in the Vitality Drink.

If things had gone wrong, there could have been mass casualties—I felt my blood boiling inside.

“To put such a dangerous poison in my drink. This is absolutely unforgivable. We have to find the culprit.”

“We might be able to identify the culprit.”

“Really?”

“This poison is mainly used in the underworld.”

“Ah, the underworld?”

The underworld.

A place where lawless people form their own groups and operate.

Even if you crack down on them, more lawless people gather, so it’s treated as a crime-prone area.

“But there are hundreds of people active in the underworld. It won’t be easy to find the culprit there.”

As I racked my brain, Cayton shared his opinion.

“If we find and interrogate the one spreading the rumor, we can narrow it down.”

Cayton stood up from his seat.

I hurriedly stopped him.

“You just recovered not long ago—aren’t you overdoing it?”

“I’m fine with this much. If I find something, I’ll let you know.”

But Cayton’s determination was too strong to keep stopping him.

Well, he probably wants to teach a lesson to the person who put him in danger.

“…Don’t push yourself too hard.”

Cayton nodded and left the storage, his eyes quite serious.