Poisoned Demon Lords (2)

"Come on," I pulled Prune along, pushing her by the shoulder..

"W-Where are we going.."

"Just a little walk."

'Stay safe Noel.'

'You too Liliath.'

I wanted to drag that noble guy away from Liliath.. he's been looking at her with that eye. Fuck off man, she's mine. It's kind of irresponsible to leave Liliath to deal with him.. but I'm sure she'll be alright. I can't just let Prune be.

I didn't know exactly where I was going, but eventually we came to a quiet corner of the hall. We also pulled over a light concealment barrier.

"This is crazy.." Prune said under her breath. Her hands clenching her dress.

"It really is. It's hard to make sense of what's going on."

"How do people live like this? Why is Nine and Liliath so calm?"

"I don't think that's how they actually feel."

"Right.."

Oh well. Prune needs someone to accompany here so..

"Thank you Noel."

"Hm?"

Her wolf ears flinched for a moment as her eyes turned watery.

"What's wrong?"

"Unfair.."

"Huh?"

Prune turned away. Her shoulders shivered.

Was she implying something here? Well.. even if she was, she needs time to calm down. I'm a little curious, when exactly would the dinner start? I think I'm becoming a little cranky with my empty stomach.

Huh.. That's right. Prune is the only demi-human here. And she's actually incredibly conspicuous. I never realized that.

Even with the concealment barrier, Prune was getting a few glances.

Rather, I might be overreacting. Maybe everyone is just self-conscious.

Francis-- thank you appraisal-- was the noble talking to Liliath. Nine was slowly being swallowed up by the cute noble girls. Wow, he's more of a protagonist than I am.

Miss Margrett held a wine glass with liquid inside as she chatted away. Gabriel was fine, being dragged along by Jennifer-chan.

"Excuse me sir, may I offer you one?"

"Oh.."

A butler holding a tray of wine. It's a little different from the pale yellow ones most people were holding.

"Um.. Prune, do you want one?"

"O-Ookay.. thank you."

"Do you not want one sir?"

"I'm not good with alcohol."

"I see.. then may I introduce you to one with a lower alcohol content?"

"No, it's alright. Thank you very much..."

"Please accept this much."

The butler bowed and left.

Huh? What just happened..

I felt a jab.

"What?"

"You didn't get drunk yesterday night did you?"

"Oh.. uh.."

Right. I forgot that demon lords don't get drunk. The fuck, my memory. Anyways, the butler managed to force a glass on me.

"I didn't do anything embarrassing did I? You knocked me out the moment I lost myself," Prune spun the wine in the glass.

"You did say some rather weird things though?"

"Like?"

"Like.. don't touch me there that tickles or something?"

Prune sighed and shook her head. She brought the wine up to her nose to smell it, then took a sip.

"How is it?"

"It has a nice taste, a lot better than the one we had last night," she turned to me, eyelashes fluttered.

Well..

I brought the rim of the glass to my lips-- there was a vague sense of something being wrong.

I paused, and held the glass out.

[Frankfurt cherry-red; presence of lich-worm toxin]

[Lich-worm toxin: slow acting poison that chips away at a person's life force. Consumption of small quantities may cause the individual to fall ill. Further consumption would cause severe disease or even death.]

"Prune, stop drinking that..."

I stopped her from taking another sip.

"Hm? Why?"

"It's poisoned.." I squeezed my voice.

I appraised all the other wine glasses. Only our's were poisoned, fortunately.

We looked at each other, a little panicked.

"W-what should we do.." Prune asked.

"Um.. "

First, we poured the contents into the nearby bin, increasing the concealment barrier temporarily to the highest degree.

"Based on appraisal, taking a little would cause you to fall sick.. you didn't drink a lot right? Then it shouldn't be too big of a problem.. else we could buy elixir from the shop.."

"Then let's put that on hold from now.. It's just falling a little sick right?"

"Yeah.."

Prune only took a small sip. A really small sip. It should be alright, yes? Elixir would be a last resort if anything happens.

"That's weird though.. why were we served this glass?"

"Another flag," Prune said.

"Even flags exist during weddings.."

"But it's what makes things interesting right?"

"But it's also dangerous.. you don't feel anything weird about your body?" The appraisal said it was 'slow acting'. I have no clue how slow was 'slow acting'.

"I'm fine.. I just don't want any weird guys approaching me."

"That's good then," I sighed.

Now.. where exactly did that butler go?

I pulled up my UI and typed in the keyword search-- Anyone who holds ill intent towards us.

Wow.. there are a lot of yellow markers. But there's also a red and an orange one. I'll mark those two for now. One was named Vincent, the other was Rinalanashina--

"What in the fuc.."

Liliath skillfully dodged Francis and managed to come over to our side.

"What's wrong?" Liliath asked.

"Noel?" Prune called out.

"I'm fine.." I patted Liliath's head to calm myself down-- when something caught my eye and destroyed the peace I was expecting-- "Liliath.. where did you get that?"

"Liliath, we were almost poisoned," Prune said.

"This? I was offered it by an attendant."

"Liliath that's.."

[Frankfurt cherry-red; presence of lascivious slime abscess]

[Lascivious slime abscess: active aphrodisiac, moderately fast action]

"It should be no problem if the quantity is little."

"But there's no reason to drink it right?"

There's still half the glass left, I tried to take it away.. Liliath took a step back and poured the entire thing down her throat.

She let out a refreshed sigh.

"Hahh…" seriously.. that's not a reason to drink poison, "Liliath.. why?"

"Is there anything wrong?" She looked at me with a smile.

A loud applause enraptured the place. Music started to play.

"Oohh!"

"The Earl!"

"Beautiful."

"May the Goddess of Love bless your love in eternity!"

It was the Earl and the Baron's daughter. Earl Hugo Harriot and Baron Eryl

The Earl had a rather interesting history. His father and mother died when he was still a child. He inherited the title of Earl and successfully managed his territory under the guidance of his mentors and other servants in his house.

"It's time we return to Margrett-san's side."

"Liliath.."

She turned around and walked away.

"Noel.."

"No comments."

Damn it. I didn't expect Liliath to be this sort of girl.

Absurd..