I Became a Time-Stopper at the Academy

69 – The Emperor and the King (1)

Joel collapses after taking just one bite of risotto.

All those present, Luisa, Elianne, Delia, Caitlin, Benedetta, and Lena, opened their eyes wide.

“Boss… ! I’m a doryeonnim… !!”

Luisa immediately began to weep.

A look of helplessness.

Eliane and Benedetta screamed at the same time.

“Mrs. Delia!” “Mrs. Delia!”

What happened to Joel?

The only person who could know that was Delia, his exclusive healer here.

Delia nodded quickly and placed her hand on his body.

Then, I checked his physical condition with diagnostic magic that could tell me his current state of illness.

A blue spell stretched out of her hand.

“It’s poison!”

“”Poison?!””

Someone poisoned Joel’s food.

The suspect is, of course, a former employee of the restaurant.

Cried Benedetta, turning her head towards Eli Anne.

“We have to catch the culprit! Miss Elianne, let’s search for it together with me!”

“Yes, I see…” !”

The two left Joel in Delia’s care and went to the kitchen to tell them all about the current situation.

The chef in charge of the Punggi Cream Risotto that Joel ate knelt in front of them and shook his head.

“I don’t know anything. I’m really sorry. Why would I poison the food for the Marquis?”

Joel wasn’t the only cadet who ordered the Punggi Cream Risotto.

Therefore, the poison would not have been injected during the material preparation process.

In the process of cooking Joel’s share of risotto, it was inevitable that the poison had entered.

“Is there anyone other than you who can poison the dish?”

Benedetta looked down at the chef with her fierce eyes.

The chef replied, shaking his body in fear.

“There is!”

He presented two people.

One was the waiter who brought the finished dish to the table.

The other is an apprentice cook who is in charge of the finishing touches of transferring the finished dish to a bowl.

The waiter who heard the chef’s words was startled and knelt down next to the chef.

“I swear to the Lord that I never touched the meal of the Marquis! It just moved from the kitchen to the table!!”

A situation where neither the chef who cooked the food nor the waiter who moved the dishes denied it.

Of course, no one would honestly admit to attempting murder.

Kiara, the waitress, and Lando, the vampire lord who helped her with her work—Amanda also hurried to Benedetta’s side.

After hearing the situation from Elianne, Lando clenched his fists and clenched his teeth.

“I can never forgive you! For trying to poison someone like Joel, you deserve to be punished!!”

Kiara had never seen Lando so angry.

She tried to calm him down, and she gently held his fist in her hand.

“At times like this, you have to stay calm. Yes, our warrior?”

Lando took a deep breath as he listened to his girlfriend.

“Right. Joel-nim said so too.”

I looked around and thought.

If he was the culprit, how would he have behaved after poisoning Joel’s food?

An instant-acting poison that collapses as soon as it is eaten.

You should have known that there would be an uproar right away.

In that case, it is better to run away than to stay here calmly after being poisoned.

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“That person is not there.”

“That person?”

Lando explained to Kiara.

An apprentice cook next to the chef in charge of Joel’s risotto.

He didn’t know her name, but he remembered her face.

In place of Kiara, the chef called out the apprentice chef’s name.

The restaurant’s entire staff began looking inside and around where the apprentice chef had gone.

“… He must have already run away.”

Ellie Anne sighed and placed her hand on her temple.

It takes a large army to find a person who has disappeared without any clue as to where he went.

It was impossible with at least five people excluding Delia.

The two approached Joel again.

Delia laid Joel on the floor and continued to cast detoxification magic.

“It’s okay! The poison is disappearing!!”

You must know the exact type of poison to proceed with the detoxification magic.

That’s why it was extremely difficult for even the best healer to survive in a situation like poisoning without knowing the exact type of poison.

But Delia has already figured out what poison was used on Joel.

Little by little his expression got better.

I shouldn’t be vigilant yet, but all the girls around me relieved myself.

Luisa asked, turning her head towards Ellie Anne.

“Do you know who did this, or who is behind it?”

Ellie Anne lowered her head, startled at her.

And she apologized honestly.

“I’m sorry. I never thought my older brother would do something like this. I will represent the family and take responsibility.”

Benedetta tilted her head.

Then Louisa explained instead about the eldest son of the Duke of Chablis.

This was the first news I heard.

The Duke of Chablis is trying to change his heir from his eldest son to Joel.

In that case, it was of no use to catch the poisoned executioner anyway.

Because the tail would have been cut off anyway.

It was obvious that all the sins would be laid on the perpetrator.

“Whoa….”

Delia removed her hand from Joel’s body, wiping away the sweat.

Soon he started breathing normally.

It was a turning point.

As expected, it was a great skill.

It wasn’t for nothing that she was a strong candidate for the saintess.

Benedetta asked, turning her head towards Lena.

“I want you to be honest. I think the situation is understandable. Given the current situation, what do you predict will happen in the future?”

“I think yo…. I think there’s a high chance that it will go over in a blur….”

Even if the Marquis of Jahe officially protests, the eldest son of the duke cannot be punished without any evidence.

If the imperial family had a big political reason, they would punish the eldest son even if they made evidence somehow.

Even from the point of view of the Duke of Chablis, if he recklessly punished his son, he would instead give him an excuse to forcibly usurp the Duke’s position.

There is not much that Joel’s father, the Marquis of Jahe, can do.

Because starting a war with a ducal family higher than oneself is the last resort.

“I see. I see.”

For Benedetta, securing Joel’s safety was more urgent than anything else.

If the eldest son is not properly punished and he does the same thing today….

Just imagining it was terrifying.

For this world, Joel is an indispensable talent.

The more he was with him, the stronger that thought became.

So he doesn’t mind sacrificing himself a little bit.

“Mrs. Delia.”

“Yes?”

“It will be difficult, but please take good care of me one more time.”

“Yes??”

Benedetta spooned the poisoned risotto on the table.

And put it in her mouth.

She chewed hard and slid it down her throat.

“”Miss Benedetta?!””

It happened in the blink of an eye.

Benedetta collapsed unconscious as her poison rendered her unable to breathe.

None of the girls in the room could understand that she was reading aloud on her own.

But soon Lena and Elianne realized.

“Miss Benedetta did this for Joel… !!”

“It is no longer a power struggle within the imperial aristocracy, but a matter of diplomacy between countries.”

Benedetta changed her case outline.

It was not an incident in which the eldest son of the Duke of Chablis tried to kill the son of the margrave of Jahe, but an incident in which an imperial noble tried to assassinate the second princess of the kingdom, a potential candidate for succession to the throne.

Delia immediately deployed detoxification magic on Benedetta as well.

“Miss Luisa, some magic potions!”

“Yes, here it is.”

I knew that Benedetta sacrificed herself to be of Joel’s help.

Still, Delia was a bit scared.

I know she won’t die, but she doesn’t mind taking poison.

She was Delia who thought that if she recklessly turned Benedetta into her enemy, she wouldn’t know what would happen to her.

***

The capital of Barga Kingdom—Caprilia.

The three-story palace in the shape of a wide circle was a royal palace style unique to the kingdom.

The prime minister approached the chief chamberlain who was waiting at the desk in front of the king’s office door.

He told me to open the door because he had an urgent matter.

The chief chamberlain stood up and knocked on the door of the office.

Let’s say in a small way that the chancellor has come,

“Let it in.”

The king’s voice was heard.

Kik-.

The chief chamberlain lowered his head and opened the door of the office.

The chancellor also stepped into the office while maintaining a low posture.

“What is it?”

The king asked the chancellor in a low voice.

The chancellor carefully put the matter into his mouth.

“His Highness Benedetta almost got poisoned.”

“What?!”

The king jumped up from his chair with his eyes wide open.

Benedetta was his favorite daughter of her children.

Of course, she didn’t express it openly because she knew she was competing for the throne with her first daughter, but people around her generally noticed.

The Prime Minister explained the circumstances of the incident.

The eldest son, known as the heir to the Duke of Chablis, hired an assassin to poison Benedetta’s lunch.

“So, how is Benedetta now?”

“It is said that a quick action was possible because there was a good healer nearby at the right time. It has been reported that Her Highness is not alive and has no aftereffects.”

The king let out a sigh of relief.

The word “Thank you” Came to mind.

But on the other hand, I couldn’t understand it at all.

Why did the heir of the Imperial family of Chablis try to kill Benedetta?

Since the eldest son, the heir, had committed this, there was no choice but to read it as the will of the Duke of Chablis.

“Could it be because of that speech?”

“Yes, I think so too.”

Two years ago.

There was an accident where a village located on the border of the kingdom and the empire was annihilated by monsters.

Benedetta went to the scene and calmed public sentiment.

The monster that attacked the village was the one that had flowed into the territory of the empire.

Even though the empire identified the monster in advance, it did not share it with the kingdom, an ally, so the damage was even greater.

She openly criticized the empire for not sharing information while leading the alliance against the Demon Kingdom.

“You still haven’t changed that much, Imperial bastards.”

Tsk, the king clicked his tongue.

I later explained that it was only Princess Benedetta’s personal opinion and not a claim from the state or royal family, but it would be a thorn in the eye from the Empire’s point of view.

What’s more, he’s even being mentioned as a potential successor to the throne.

The Chablis ducal family has had a close relationship with the imperial family since ancient times.

The current head of the family’s wife is also a princess.

It was difficult to see it as the arbitrary decision of the Duke of Chablis, which did not reflect the will of the imperial family at all.

“Recruit the troops and conduct military exercises near the borders of the Empire.”

The chancellor was startled by the king’s order.

Because it was a means of deliberately provoking the Empire.

It was a kind of threat that military action could be taken.

“Your Majesty, I understand your feelings, but please be more careful….”

The king frowned and replied.

“There was nothing wrong with what Benedetta said then. Conscious of that speech, the Empire also started to share information assets, albeit very little, after that.”

“Yes, I think the small person was also a brave decision by Her Highness Benedetta.”

“Besides that time, Benedetta never spoke ill of the Empire. But still keep the words in your heart and try to kill them? To recklessly try to kill an ally’s princess, even if it looks funny, it looks ridiculous.”

“But—.”

The king cut off the chancellor’s words and gave instructions.

“Deliver it to the emperor. If there is no sufficient explanation for this incident, our country will use all means to punish it.”