Plan vs Trap (4)

Kali was placed in the guest room. Everyone kept their distance from Vico as he carried the unconscious lady in his arms. He laid her down on the bed and covered her with sheets.

"The young lady collapsed in our residence, at least let me check on her pulse. '' Viscount sounded half agitated and half scared.

". . ."

"Sir Knight!!"

". . ."

"If something happens to the Young Lady. We will hold you responsible. " The Viscount had enough of the knight's disrespectful attitude. He walked out and proceeded to his office where Count Delacorte was waiting anxiously.

"WHAT HAPPENED?" His voice is contained but accusingly strong.

"If only that knight isn't around, I would be able to check her code." Viscount massaged his head as he let himself fall to his seat.

"What if they discover the drug?"

"They won't. They won't find anything." If the viscount is confident about one thing, it is his medicines.

****

Kali opened her eyes when the last of the servants left the room. Only Vico's straight face is there with her.

She pulls herself up and scowls at her hand with nail marks and little blood marks.

Kali built her poison immunity for the past months. She endured every poison effect to build immunity and because of that she has a total average of 40% of poison tolerance and she is immune to poison effect to almost every resource she can find in the monster territory.

"What hell was that?" She said in a very low voice.

A toxin but not harmful but it managed to knock her down for a few seconds. Kali's consciousness returned while Vico was carrying her.

Kali runs her hand in her hair, the simple blue ribbon she was wearing earlier is gone.

"Return Lady Kaleena's code first then you can die." Vico staring daggers at her said in a cold voice.

'Who is going to die?' Kali stared back.

"Return it first then do whatever you want."

"Yes yes. Guard the door. Do not let anyone beside my family." Kali is not even hurt at his words.

Vico turns his heels away but glares at her up to the last second.

"Wait. . . Did the code disappear?"

"No." Vico firmly answered and went away fast, like he doesn't want to talk to her anymore.

'The code didn't disappear. it really wasn't harmful. Whatever that is, it just put me to temporary sleep. Ah wait. . .' Kali narrowed her eyes.

Kali remembers eating a resource from the monster forest that will put her to sleep for hours but the system still recognizes it as a harmful toxin even after she attains immunity.

If it is a new kind of resource, Tolerance will be activated but whatever she had taken it was not harmful at least not according to the system.

'I was too confident in the system's power. I fell into their trap.'

While Kali was engrossed in her thinking, Konrad entered the room and silently took a seat across from her.

"What did you do now, child?"

". . ."

"Is this all your secret snacks amount to?" Konrad asked but his tone is not a question.

'Of course he knows.'

"It was different from the poison I am taking."

Kali had instructed Vico to inform the family she is staying in this residence for the night then look at her spiked drink. She gambled that Vico would understand and with Konrad sitting crossed legs across her is proof her message was relayed successfully.

"I thought you were smart."

The sharp words that came out of Konrad's mouth pricked Kali from the inside.

"Is your poison tolerance the only thing you trust? Is that so mighty?"

". . ." Somehow the Count's words today cut Kali deeper than she realized.

"If something happened to you, the Viscounty will be held responsible. It's their residence you are in and it is their food you ate. Did you actually think they would try to poison you?"

Kali remained silent.

"and if the main goal is to check your code and they put your life in any danger the code will disappear until it stabilizes your condition. It defeats the purpose. . . that's why the only way to safely check your code without arousing suspicion is to make you fall asleep."

Now that Kali heard the Konrad's explaination, Kali felt stupid. She missed such a simple method.

'No, I didn't miss it.' Kali finally admitted it honestly to herself. She had that same thought for sometime but she was blinded by the system's power, the strength and skills it provided. It clouded her judgement.

She wanted this to happen. She expected to be poisoned and wanted the system to neutralize it. That's why even though she can still use Francis Delacorte to temporary stop the noble to use 'other' methods on getting to her, she still choose to attend the tea party and expose herself, and because she left everything to her skills and trusted it too much she pushed away the idea of simple trap they laid for her, that how she got caught.

"I am sorry." Kali manages to utter the words stuck to her throat for a while now.

Konrad didn't answer and let Kali ponder for a while in silence.

"What are you planning to do next, child?"

". . ." Kali looked at him with confused eyes but after meeting the resolute eyes of Konrad. His eyes conveyed what he wanted.

'Clean your own mess.'

****

"Impossible!" Viscount Holwaldy exclaimed as he moved away from the medical equipment.

'S,she is supposed to wake up after a few minutes. H, How did she g,get poisoned? Is this possible or how will the Count take this?'

Kali's blood tested positive to various poisons. The Viscount, don't know what to think first.

'That child. . .' He glanced at sleeping Kali with buckets of sweat.

"What is it?" Konrad asked in a relaxed demeanor but the room is starting to get colder and hints of mana sparks begin to appear around the count.

"Co-count, it's not what you think. I--"

"Did you poison my daughter?"

"NO! I, I will never do that, to-to the young lady." The Viscount desperately answered.

In the Viscount's head, he is playing a scenario where his only daughter, Penelope, lying on the carpet bleeding and unmoving and standing above her body is Konrad Alexanders with his soaked dipped blood sword.

'A daughter for a daughter.'

"NO! NO! Count! I swear I didn't poison your daughter. I , I ,I don't know wha-what happened b,but. . ." The Viscount dropped to his knees. His thoughts were too terrible for his knees to endure.

Konrad picked up Kali into his arms and passed by the kneeling and shivering Viscount.

". . ."

"If I find out you did something, I'll make sure to pay you back, in the same way." Cold sensation washed over Viscount as if the terrible scenario in his head was starting to come true.

"Your Grace, please let the viscount test my blood."

"What are you planning?"

"He will discover several poisons in my body and Kaleena Alexanders is in a state of comatose because of that. "

"I see."

Konrad smiled as Vico opened the door.

*Shik*

After the one swift slashing sound all the viscount's equipment on the table broke in half like a sharp sword cut past them. Konrad can't leave Kali's blood sample to a doctor, especially a skilled one.

"I will get to the bottom of this." Konrad's parting word made the viscount flinch.

". . .with today's event, the Alexanders have the Holwaldy's neck." Kali's last words before she and Konrad start their own act.

It's only two days since the rumors spread all throughout the capital about the daughter of Count Alexanders that had recently returned, fallen ill after the visit to Holwaldy's Residence.

In Alexanders Residence, nobody was allowed to enter Kali's room except her family, some servants and the doctors that went in and out to examine her blood.

"Master, why are you not going out anymore?" Luna asked as he jumped to her laps.

"I am supposed to be in a dead bed."

"Are you sick?!" Luna gasped

The fox's ear perked up. It opened one of his eyes and glanced at Kali.

"I am supposed to be sick."

"Master is sick?"

Kali rests her hand in Luna's head instead of answering his question.

"There are people keeping an eye on me. It's hard to move around."

"Where are you going?"

"I have a job to do."

[QUEST :  Find out the Countess Alexander's Past]

Luna tilted his side to one side.

"By the way, Luna, how did you end up at the auction house?" Kali opened the forbidden topic once again.

"...?!" Luna hurriedly stood up from her laps and tried to run away but Kali's hand was faster. She holds down the wolf in one hand and places him on her lap again.

"You can't avoid this forever."

Luna shuts his eyes and tries to struggle away but his small body is nothing against Kali.

"I'll hunt them down. Every single one of them and make them go through what you went through." Luna who tightly closed his eyes slowly opened it up.

" *hik* Master. . . . ." Luna sobbed and ran to Kali's embrace.

Kali turned her head to the fox who was silently watching. His cyan eyes are stern and staring straight at her.

"How about you? "