“The Duke probably believes in his daughter’s ‘curse’ and thinks that since she is an authentic Priestess, it is not surprising that she has the power to curse others.”

“…You’re right. On top of that, he seemed to want to assert to me, a third party, that there is no such thing as a curse.”

It was probably because she didn’t want Reece to find out who Miria really was.

“He decided that he could cover it up if it was just the carriage accident, but then the incident with the seamstress collapsing came into play. I suppose he wanted to keep you away before you got any strange ideas.

If only that were the only reason I was rejected to help with the festival…

Rishe stepped away from the pot and took out two small vials that she had in a small bag.

She placed them on the table.

“What are these?”

“It’s a poison I collected yesterday.”

Her bland answer earned a husky laughter from Arnold.

“…I think you’ve come up with something much more interesting than stuffed animals.”

“Several traps have been set in the forest around the Grand Shrine. I wiped it off with a handkerchief, soaked the handkerchief in water, and collected the precipitated substance.”The drug in the vial on the right had settled to the bottom while the on the left was floating near the surface.

“The vial on the left is a sleeping potion. It has an immediate effect, and at this dosage, an adult male can fall asleep within a few minutes. Basically, it’s used by hunters…”

As she spoke, Arnold seemed to recall an earlier incident.

“You told me something similar when bandits attacked us on the way from your homeland to Garkhain. That time, it was a numbing agent, but is it similar in use?”

“Yes. Also because, the more violent the prey, the more the quality of the meat deteriorates. However, if the trap is so deadly that it kills the prey immediately, and it can’t be drained of its blood before it’s recovered, the meat’s quality will degrade. So, after catching the prey in the trap, they use this kind of drug to keep it alive as long as possible until it is collected.”

She picked up the small vial and shook it.

“The last time’s numbing drug and this sleeping potion both have one thing in common: the toxins are dispelled when heated… But this sleeping potion has one more special feature.”

“Tell me about it.”

Rishe placed the vial on the table and indicated the other vial with a glance.

“The vial on the right seemed to be a deadly poison.”

The poison in the vial was transparent with a slight reddish tint.

“If a lethal dose is taken into the body, it can kill you in a matter of minutes. Even if the dose is less than that, you’ll soon suffer from a high fever and severe fatigue, and immobility for a week.”

“…”“However, this poison is adverse to the sleeping potion, and they neutralize each other.”

“Neutralizes it, huh?”

Arnold raised an eyebrow, and Rishe nodded.

“The effects of the sleeping potion dissolves the effects of the poison. ―― On the contrary, the poison here suppresses the sleeping potion from working.”

The two bottles on the table together produced a clink.

“If you take these two drugs at the same time, you will not fall asleep or die for a while.”

“…Then is it possible for you to go about your normal life as if nothing had happened?”

“Yes. However, the sleeping potion will be completely absorbed and becomes ineffective in just a few hours… By then, all that remains in the body will be poison.”

“So you’re saying that a few hours after the poison enters your body, you’ll die without warning?”

As Arnold guessed.

“…The only time poisons are used in hunting is when dealing with a terribly ferocious beast, or when only armed with weapons with low killing power. There are few traces of vicious predators in this forest, so I can’t see any reason for them to go to the trouble of poisoning the traps.”

“But a hunter’s only weapon is his bow, right? Daggers, bows and other weapons are not powerful enough. It should be challenging to kill beasts with them.”

“Actually, this poison is not detoxified by heating! The only advantage is that since the prey doesn’t suffer much, the fur and other parts of the body don’t get damaged. But even if that were the case, the sleeping potion should be enough. Besides…”

To begin with, Rishe had another suspicion.

“There was a metallic smell coming from the trap that had been set…”

She noticed yesterday when she checked the scent of the drug smeared on the traps.