Magi Craft Meister

Magi Craft Meister 637

18　King Klein’s Treatment Arc

19-24　Sams

“Aconita…?”

“Yeah, it’s a weed that grows in the mountains, but when people go picking wild plants in springtime, it’s still small, so it’s sometimes mistaken for an edible wild plant.”

Martha then explained that ingesting it by mistake can cause numbness in the limbs, vomiting, and difficulty breathing.

“That certainly sounds like our poison.”

“It does, doesn’t it? It also grows in the mountains around here. In summer, it grows big and blooms with a very notorious purple flower, so there’s no mistaking it.”

From what he heard, Jin thought that it would be a plant similar to Earth’s wolfsbane. If so, he had seen pictures of that plant.

“…But its poison isn’t strong enough to kill a person.”

“Huh?”

“At most, you could be rendered numb for a few hours. I’ve never heard of anyone dying from eating Aconita.”

It seems to be less toxic than the wolfsbane that Jin knows about.

In that case, if those poisonous leaves were really from the same Aconita Martha just described, then it made little sense to use such a weak poison.

Jin started to ponder about this, but then figured it was time to return to Elsa, so he ultimately decided not to.

“Thank you. That information was very helpful.”

“Are you going already?”

“Yeah, I’m worried about Elsa too.”

“Big Brother, please be careful. And make sure to protect Big Sis Elsa! Reiko, take care of Big Brother!”

“Yes, Hanna.”

Reiko smiled at Hanna, Jin stroked Hanna’s head, and the two turned around.

“Okay then, we’re off.”

After returning to Hourai Island, Jin confirmed that the blimp had undergone both a thorough check and the modifications he had specified.

“My Lord, road, as instructed, a small Warp Gate has been set up. The resulting increase in weight has been dealt with by reducing the blimp’s overall weight through a structural revision.”

“I see, well done.”

“Here are the Micro Golems for intelligence gathering you requested.”

Ten Golems with a height of only five centimeters were standing in a line.

“They can use simple Engineering Magic, basic offensive spells, the ‘Barrier’ spell, and a paralysis attack. Of course, they’re been equipped with the means to use ‘Invisible’ as well.”

“That’ll do just fine. Alright, leave the rest to me.”

Jin then completes them by installing the necessary Control Cores and other important parts into them.

“Okay, ‘Startup’.”

“HELLO, MASTER.”

Numbers from one to ten were written on their backs to facilitate telling them apart.

“You guys will be… the ‘Sams’.”

“YES.”

He had wanted to name them “Toms” as a reference to Tom Thumb, but since there’s already someone named Tom among the residents of Kaina Village, he chose to name each of them “Sam”, which sounds similar to “Thumb”.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Jin boarded the airship and flew over Alban via transfer machine. There he descended, landing once again in the square in front of the royal castle.

＊　　　＊　　　＊

“Welcome back, Brother Jin.”

A seemingly tense Elsa greeted Jin. She was being accompanied by both Edgar and a knight who had been appointed as her personal guard.

It was very clear that seeing Jin’s face had brought Elsa some relief.

“What’s wrong, did something happen?”

“Yeah. …For now, let’s go to the room.”

Jin and the others moved to one of the rooms in the royal castle. Once again, Steward was left in charge of guarding the blimp.

It would be troublesome if his luggage was checked, so he left the “Sams” on board. He planned to move them once there’s no one around.

“So what happened?”

After closing the door, Jin asked Elsa again.

“…One of the servants was found dead.”

“What!?”

“According to what I’ve heard, he was in charge of managing the furnishings in the rooms of the royal village. It seems one of his coworkers found him in his room this morning… He was already cold to the touch.”

Elsa then said that she believed that the servant had been silenced by the true culprit. Jin felt the same way.

“So, are you safe, Elsa?”

“Yeah. There was no poison in our lunch.”

“Laojun said, ‘They probably won’t be resorting to the same approach’.”, said Reiko.

Then she continued.

“According to Laojun, Elsa is being directly targeted. The reason for this would be that the king being cured of his illness would inconvenience our true culprit.”

“Like some kind of conspiracy…”

Since there was no time to go somewhere else to contact Laojun, Jin contacted him through Reiko instead.

“Yes. Furthermore, Laojun said, ‘I wonder who would benefit the most from the king’s death’.”

“…”

That would be someone who has the right to inherit the throne. Jin seemed vexed.

“You mean… Prince Arthur or Prince Edmund?”

Elsa frowned as well. She was unable to understand anyone’s willingness to harm their own parents for their own benefit.

“No, apparently, it’s not limited to just those two.”

Reiko, who was still passing along Laojun’s input, continued to explain.

“Laojun says that there is a possibility that someone else will benefit from either of them becoming the new king.”

“I see…”

Jin remembered a historical play he once saw which featured a turmoil similar to this one. In it, a minister of a daimyo had devised a scheme to try to take control of the daimyo’s house by having the young heir take over his father’s position.

“Getting mixed up in this kind of quarrel would be quite the hassle, huh?”

Jin spat out his thoughts.

“Yeah. But precisely because of that, we cannot forgive whoever is behind this.”

Elsa’s past saw her older brother being manipulated by a hypnotic spell as well as her father being convinced by a demon to act in a way that would be detrimental to his country.

Her resentment at having one’s family abused by someone else’s ambitions was stronger than anyone else’s.

Jin had shared a little bit of her feelings in that regard, and was determined to uncover this conspiracy.

“By the way, I found something about the poisonous plant they used in our herbal tea.”

Jin thought about sharing the information he heard from Martha in Kaina Village with Elsa.

“Let’s see… It’s a poisonous weed called Aconita. According to Martha, it’s not lethal.”

“Aconita… yeah, that’s highly possible. At that time, everything happened so suddenly that I rushed to save Derait, but looking back on it now, I feel like his condition wasn’t so desperate.”

It was understandable. After all, everyone in the room started panicking after seeing that one of them had been poisoned.

“I’ve been trying to find any leads as to how the culprit got their hands on that kind of poison, but I haven’t had any luck yet.”

After that, Jin and Elsa continued to make various conjectures and pondered about them, but didn’t make much more progress. There was too little information to work with.

“This reminds me, how’s Derait coming along?”

“I examined him a while ago, and he seems to be much better. I believe he should be able to wake up tomorrow. I guess the poison’s toxicity was weak after all.”

“That’s good to hear. Getting mixed up in this kind of quarrel would really be quite the hassle…”

＊　　　＊　　　＊

Meanwhile, Jin’s blimp…

Tightly moored and temporarily covered with a mantle, it is impervious to the slightest wind.

Steward had been placed in charge of its defense.

Therefore, there was no need to post any guards for that job, though soldiers would do their regular patrolling of the area from time to time.

Taking advantage of those moments where no soldiers were around, the “Sam” Golems scattered around the royal castle.

And just like that, the day went by without anything worthy of note happening.

And the next day, the 11th…

According to Princess Lieschen, the kingdom was currently looking for sick people among the common folk with similar symptoms to the king’s. Once anyone was found, they would be examined and treated accordingly.

“But now I have plenty of time in my hands, with Hanna not being around anymore…”

The bored Lieschen would go to the VIP room and have a chat with Jin and the others, but she seemed to be getting tired of that as well.

“Would you like to play a word game?”

Lieschen sounded confused by Jin’s proposal.

“A… A word game? W-what do you mean?”

Seeing that Lieschen was unfamiliar with such a game, Jin quickly began to explain.

“The game consists of us taking turns back and forth to say a word each, but there’s a condition. Your word has to start with the same letter the other player’s word ended in.”

Satisfied with the explanation, Lieschen nodded repeatedly.

“Ah, I see, I see, so that’s the word game you had in mind.”

“Yes. You can’t repeat words. The player who can’t come up with a new word loses.”

“Oh, I see, that sounds interesting.”

“Some other restrictions can be made to add spice to the game, but let’s keep it simple for now.”

“Okay, let’s do it. Jin, you can start.”

“Okay, then… Let’s see… I’ll start with an example… ‘Automatic’, I guess? Yeah, so the next word needs to start with a C, so I’ll say ‘Cross’. So the next word would need to start with an S. Okay Liese, you’re up.”

Princess Lieschen thought about it for a moment before answering.

“Okay, then… S… S… ‘Syrup’?.

“’Plum’.”

Princess Lieschen questioned Elsa’s answer.

“What? Plum? What is that?

“…It’s a kind of tree. We dry its fruit to make a snack.”

“A snack made with fruit? So is it sweet?”

But Elsa furrowed her brow and shook her head.

“Actually no, it’s… sour and salty”

“…”

The face Princess Lieschen made upon hearing that was difficult to describe.