If You Devour Poison / Doku wo Kurawaba Sara Made

Chapter 17: Twins

“This isn’t a good development, Lutora.”
“I know.”
“To think that the evidence we wanted to use would end up being the noose around our necks.”

Morino sighed deeply. Having looked through the leather folder full of contracts passed to him by Morino and understanding what Malacia had meant by “Anderheim’s situation”, Lutora once again looked up at the ceiling.
Away from the gloomy two, in a corner of the office, two children with a similar face sat side by side, knees touching, on the long fur carpet, opening a large book taken from the bookshelf.
In the Royal Office.
Morino, who was welcoming Lutora for his regular report, had deep bags under his eyes and looked exhausted.
On top of the follow-up investigations of the revealed truth, there were also petitions from various state organizations, preparations to be made for the Dragon God Festival and the coronation ceremony five months later, as well as settling the guest list, maintenance and security for the roads, investigation of the taxes… the list of things he needed to do just kept getting longer.
Anderheim, who had been Prime Minister before him, had a thorough understanding of whom to delegate the state affairs to, as well as how to distribute them to prevent dissatisfaction. However, Anderheim had been angered by the unreasonable treatment of his beloved daughter and had resigned from his position.
All the heavy responsibilities and the baton of command fell to the new Prime Minister Morino, a barely sixteen-year-old who had none of the necessary know-how.

“While it’s not impossible, we’re far too short-staffed. The evidence you’ve recorded, rather than being a double-edged sword, is more likely to become a soldering iron. One wrong step, and we’ll be scalded past the point of recovery.”

What Lutora was doing while staying in the temple was recording conversations through the magic stone, saving it as evidence.
Of course, any identifying details of private consultations or confessions were deleted, but any of Head Priest Malacia’s conversations and accompanying actions were all sent to the office.
The audio recorded through the magic stone could be paused at will, however, the contents could not be altered. In other words, for a given length of audio recording, the recording in the middle would be reliable evidence, but the beginning and end of the audio would be judged unreliable. After all, it could be suspected that something inconvenient was recorded and cut off so that it was not saved.
Melia’s violent actions and Malacia’s countermeasures to them, additionally, Lutora’s words requesting for Suimo to be given to Melia, were all unfortunately recorded in the most inconvenient part of the recording.
Should this audio be used as evidence of Malacia’s wrongdoings, Melia’s violence, as well as Lutora’s careless words, would also have to be submitted as evidence.
In fact, the audio continues to Lutora giving Melia the Suimo, and the fact that Melia had started wallowing in the drug.
Neither of those facts would allow them to escape unscathed.

“Who heard this audio when it was transmitted to the office?”
“Fortunately, it was just me. Sigurd was at the Asbal estate guarding and keeping an eye on Lady Julieta, and Jolga had immediately left after sending me these contracts, just as Lord Anderheim had predicted, to suppress the revolt that broke out at the border. His Highness accompanied Sir Jolga. Nasha was in the middle of her lessons and wasn’t around.”
“I see… It’s great that His Highness and Nasha didn’t hear it.”
“Yes. Also... ”

Morino hung his head, and let out a long sigh.

“Regarding the Suimo that was found in the merchant goods headed to Cemtoah… Just now, I found out its intended destination.”

On the night of the banquet, they had prepared this in order to corner Head Priest Malacia should the opportunity arise.

“The destination was a wealthy water merchant family in Cemtoah. That family has a daughter who has fallen ill with [Junkusa Disease].”
The Junkusa Disease was an incurable illness with multiple outbreaks in Cemtoah. One theory was that a local Cemtoah disease evolved as it was transmitted by humans, but nothing has been confirmed. Should one contract it, their extremities would start to decay. As if they had severe frostbite, their fingers would turn black and crumble, following which it would spread to the rest of the body via blood. The most frightening part of this disease was not the grotesque rotting appearance, but that the pain of the decaying body remained till the end.