Karen stepped in front of Ophelia to check on her condition, but right then, faint movement sounded outside. It was very subtle, but with Ophelia poisoned, Karen was on high alert and caught it immediately.
Four men dressed as attendants rushed in. Taking in the scene inside, two drew short daggers from their sleeves, while the other two produced small crossbows.
Seeing this, Karen scooped up splashes of water from the hot spring with both hands. The water-attribute power of Progenitor Allen erupted within him, condensing the airborne spray into blades that plunged straight into the chests of two attendants, knocking them flat on their backs.
The two attendants behind squeezed their triggers, sending two crossbow bolts whistling toward Karen and Ophelia.
Karen opened his palm and unleashed Dark Moon Blade. Responding to the resonance, the greatsword beside Ophelia unsheathed itself and flew before him, whirling into a flurry of sword flowers that shredded both bolts to splinters.
In the next instant, Karen's figure appeared right in front of them, running one attendant through with a single thrust.
"Order — Cage."
Just as Karen prepared to bind the last attendant, a trickle of blood spilled from the man's mouth. He had crushed a poison capsule in his molar, taking his own life.
Not a single captive remained alive, yet Karen felt neither disappointed nor anxious.
Did they really think silencing someone before an Order priest was that simple?
Especially... killing oneself in front of him?
Still, now was not the time for an interrogation. Karen hurried back to Ophelia. By now, her lips had turned bruised and purplish, her expression twisted in immense agony.
Karen raised his hand, preparing to cast Order Purification on her, but Ophelia immediately stopped him, gasping out with great difficulty:
"No... I just used Dark Moon Ward on myself. Instead of clearing the poison, it only provoked it to flare even more violently. This isn't ordinary poison—it's corruptive."
Her chest heaved after uttering those words, blue veins bulging across the backs of her hands and her neck.
The virulence of this toxin was horrifying.
"I'll take you to a physician."
Karen was about to hoist Ophelia onto his back, but she let out a cry of agony as a gray film gradually crept over her eyes.
This poison was terrifying.
Karen was momentarily at a loss. He knew that carrying Ophelia to find a physician was already too late; the poison was spreading and sinking in far too quickly.
Once the corruption spread further and invaded her soul, even if Ophelia managed to survive, she would endure dreadful, incurable torment for the rest of her life.
Just like Dora and Doreen...
No,
this poison was countless times more severe than what Dora and Doreen suffered!
Karen lowered Ophelia back down. He wanted to try purifying her with the power of Light, which was universally acknowledged as the most effective counter to corruption.
Yet he hesitated. His hesitation wasn't out of fear of exposing himself in front of Ophelia, but because she had just said purifying power would backfire and provoke the toxin to spread further. Karen worried that applying the power of Light would only accelerate that process with even greater violence.
Dammit.
Did this toxin possess conscious activity? It could actually resist!
Lying in Karen's embrace, Ophelia clutched his arms unconsciously. She was in pain—excruciating pain. For someone who had trained in swordsmanship since childhood and was deemed a capable fighter by the Captain at her age, her pain tolerance was formidable. For her to be reduced to this, the agony had clearly broken past her limits.
At this moment, the gray in Ophelia's eyes was deepening, a sign that the toxin was on the verge of invading her soul.
Karen gritted his teeth. Right now, he wished he had been the one to drink that iced water. He never had to worry about corruptive toxins; most forms of corruption in this world had zero effect on him.
Wait!
A possibility suddenly struck Karen. Though Kevin had never mentioned such a thing to him, Karen felt it was worth a shot. After all, he had no other medicine on hand.
Karen plunged the greatsword into the ground, drew his left palm across the blade's edge to slice open a deep gash, and pressed the bleeding cut directly against Ophelia's lips.
"Drink it. Drink it down! This might work. Quick, drink it, Ophelia!"
Ophelia's vision was already blurred, and she couldn't see anything clearly before her, but she could hear Karen's voice. Out of trust, she instinctively obeyed.
She began to suckle the blood welling steadily from the wound in Karen's palm. Supporting her with his right arm, Karen channeled his internal spirituality through his left to force more blood from the cut.
After swallowing a large amount of blood, Ophelia suddenly shoved Karen away. She tumbled onto her side in sheer agony, the lower half of her face smeared with his blood, hands clenched tight as she let out a low, gut-wrenching wail.
Karen stared blankly at the sight. This was his first time attempting to use his own blood to cleanse someone else of corruption, and Ophelia's violent reaction made it hard to tell whether it was working—
or rather,
whether the effect was good or bad.
"It hurts..."
Ophelia cried out, perspiration drenching her body and soaking her long hair.
All of a sudden,
a wisp of black light flew out of Ophelia's mouth. It was a tiny orb of light encasing a black insect that resembled a ladybug.
Karen reached out and caught the ladybug, examining it closely.
No wonder purifying powers had been useless on Ophelia; the source of the poison was this tiny bug. Upon sensing purification, it would only drive the corruptive aura within itself to disperse even more aggressively.
The ladybug lay dormant in Karen's palm, seemingly on its last legs. But in the next heartbeat, it sprang into the air and burrowed straight into the open wound on his hand.
Karen didn't panic in the least; he remained entirely calm.
A corruptive bug forced out by his own blood actually dared try to invade his body?
Sure enough, before long, the black insect flew back out of Karen's wound, dropped to the ground, convulsed violently, and then—
Pop!
Its body burst apart.
Karen applied a purification and a simple healing spell to the wound on his palm, temporarily stanching the bleeding, then walked over and gathered Ophelia into his arms.
Ophelia was panting. She opened her eyes and looked at Karen.
Seeing that her eyes had returned to normal, Karen finally felt a wave of relief wash over him.
Ophelia turned and wrapped her arms around Karen, resting her cheek against his chest.
She wasn't afraid of battle, nor was she afraid of formidable foes. Even when facing the Captain before, she could fight him to the bitter end. But what she had just experienced went beyond any terror combat could bring.
To a warrior, dying in battle was an honor; but dying so ignominiously, or becoming tainted by corruption, was a living torture one would have to bear for the rest of their days.
"All right, all right. It's over now. You're fine. Good girl."
This time, Karen didn't wait for Ophelia to remind him where to place his hands. He patted her back naturally.
Footsteps sounded outside once more, accompanied by the voice of the warrior Panmir: "Her Highness would never give an order forbidding disturbance! Your Highness! Your Highness!"
Lying in Karen's arms, Ophelia opened her eyes at once and whispered urgently,
"Water... wipe the blood off my face, quick."
Ophelia knew Karen had used his own blood to drive out the source of corruption. That naturally meant his blood was extraordinary, which undoubtedly tied into some deep secret of his. She wanted the blood wiped from her face to help conceal it for him.
Karen immediately grabbed a towel nearby, wet it, and wiped her face clean, then folded a bath towel and draped it over his wounded arm.
Just then, the warrior Panmir and the others rushed in. Catching sight of the corpses on the ground, shock washed over their faces, and they drew their swords in unison. But when they saw their princess nestled in Karen's arms, the guards were momentarily baffled by the situation.
With Karen supporting her, Ophelia stood up and commanded, "Seal off this place, but do not disturb anyone in the public pools. Send someone immediately to inform my father, and dispatch another to notify my uncle, General Tafman."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Ophelia pointed at the four corpses on the ground. "Dispose of the bodies."
Karen spoke up. "Leave the corpses here for now. They're still of use."
Panmir looked toward her princess.
Ophelia whispered to Karen, "I know the Church of Order excels at Awakening arts, but this isn't the right place for an interrogation. We need to minimize the fallout of this incident as much as possible so it doesn't disrupt the negotiations between the two major churches."
"No, it has to be right here. As you said, the target of the assassination was me, so the interrogation must take place here."
"What's going on?"
"Yeah, what happened? Why are there so many people?"
Fanny and Peige had returned from their stroll. Seeing so many guards with drawn blades inside the private pool area, they immediately sensed something was amiss. When they stepped inside and saw the bodies, their expressions turned grim.
"Fanny, notify the Captain. Tell him someone tried to poison me."
"Understood."
Ophelia glanced at Karen with a helpless expression, but she could only acquiesce.
Even though she was the one poisoned, her instinct was still to consider the bigger picture. Karen, however, shared no such allegiance.
In truth, Karen was furious. This was the first time someone had tried to poison him. Even though it hadn't landed on him, he had still indirectly "enjoyed" the experience. Whoever wanted him dead, he was going to drag them into the open.
He had no intention of hushing things up with Ophelia. Armed with his status as a member of the Church of Order, and situated squarely in Order's hot spring quarters, he was going to blow this wide open.
While the four corpses remained sprawled on the ground, Karen walked over to the cabinet, opened the ice bucket, took out another ice cube, and inspected it before his eyes. He found nothing amiss inside.
That was impossible. Could Ophelia really have been that unlucky to pick the exact one?
Karen picked up the cup and examined it.
Ophelia walked over and said, "There's nothing wrong with the water. Whenever I drink anything outside, I always inspect it."
As she spoke, Ophelia tapped her wrist. A gold-inlaid section on her bracer unraveled into threads that lifted into the air. It was likely some sacred relic designed for testing substances, used to check for poison beforehand whenever she ate or drank away from home.
Even without armor, when wearing ordinary clothes, this cluster of gold could attach to her cuffs as a gold-trimmed pattern.
Because Ophelia had tested it when pouring the water, she had assumed the poison was in the ice.
"The other ice cubes are normal," Karen said.
"What?" Ophelia realized it too—there was no way her luck was so miraculously awful that she picked the only poisoned one.
Karen picked up the untouched cup Ophelia had poured for him. Looking at it from below, he discovered the vessel was specially crafted: at the bottom of the interior was a tiny recess, sealed with a fine, thin membrane.
Pouring out the iced water, Karen reached in with a finger and gently punctured the membrane. Inside lay a tiny insect egg.
The insect possessed a degree of intelligence. It seemed to know when to emerge; just as someone was about to drink, it would hatch from the egg, breach the membrane, and slip into the drinker's mouth. Right now, it clearly knew its time had not yet come.
The poison hadn't been in the water or the ice—it had been in the cups. Because whether someone drank water or wine, they had to use a cup.
The first to arrive at the scene was the Captain.
The Captain arrived with a grim countenance. On the way over, he had already heard the story from Fanny. Afterward, he inspected the cup himself.
To be honest, Karen had genuinely wondered at first whether the Captain had slipped the poison.
But thinking it through, the Captain lacked the means to pull this off. It wasn't as if those four attendants were subordinates the Captain had recruited over the past couple of days.
Furthermore, the Captain knew Karen wasn't afraid of corruption, but Fanny and Peige had accompanied him to the hot spring; the Captain had no reason to put them in harm's way. Most importantly, the Captain had no idea Ophelia would show up here.
If the Captain truly possessed such godlike reach, give him three more months and he'd probably have usurped the Dark Moon clan's patriarch altogether.
Judging strictly by the outcome, Karen saving Ophelia from a corruptive bug was the sort of amusement the Captain loved to see. But that was only in hindsight; the process couldn't withstand any such scrutiny.
Thus, Karen didn't bother asking the Captain if it was his doing. If he actually asked that, the Captain would probably think he was an idiot.
The Captain walked up to the corpses, pointed at one, and chanted:
"Order... Awakening!"
One attendant's corpse was awakened. He sat up blankly; in his memory, he had already died, yet here he was, returned to life.
"Who was your target for assassination?" the Captain asked.
The attendant didn't answer.
"Heh."
The Captain seemed to have anticipated this outcome. Spreading his palm, a plume of black flames rose and engulfed the attendant.
Though he was already dead, once awakened, he could still taste the agony of torture.
"Him!"
The attendant hastily thrust out a finger, pointing straight at Karen.
Karen realized the man didn't even know his name.
"Who ordered you to do this?" the Captain pressed on.
The attendant gritted his teeth, refusing to speak despite enduring the torture.
The Captain grinned viciously. "You'd better be an orphan. In a moment, I'll have someone investigate your family. If you have kin, your actions and your current defiance will make them taste every torment the Whip of Order can muster. I will make them beg for death."
"It's... His Highness..."
"Which Highness?" the Captain asked.
On Dark Moon Island, the only ones addressed as "Highness" were Ophelia and her three elder brothers.
"Prince Dante."
The mastermind was actually Ophelia's second elder brother—the second son of Patriarch Viner of the Dark Moon clan.
Ophelia looked at Karen, her eyes pleading.
Karen spoke up. "Captain, let's leave the rest to the Dark Moon clan to give me an explanation."
The Captain understood. There were certain secrets he knew, but wasn't in a position to acknowledge openly. He gave a crisp nod. "Very well. As the victim, you stay behind. I'll return and wait for the results. If this matter isn't resolved to my satisfaction, I'll report it to the Church."
Neo turned and walked away.
Just after the Captain left, a squad of warriors in red armor filed in and began clearing the scene.
An elderly man who looked like a butler walked over. He bowed first to Karen, then to Ophelia. "Mr. Karen, the Patriarch and General Tafman have arrived. They request your presence."
The private hot springs here were ranked by tier, the highest being the most secluded bath, complete with its own courtyard.
The entrance was heavily guarded, clearly manned by two interlocking forces—presumably the Patriarch's guard and the General's guard.
This made Karen suspect that the brotherly bond rumored in the outside world wasn't quite as pure as it seemed.
Upon entering, Karen saw General Tafman and Patriarch Viner seated in chairs on either side. Kneeling on the floor between them was the Second Prince, Dante.
"Karen, I am truly sorry that our first formal meeting had to happen under such circumstances." Patriarch Viner had a warm countenance, resembling a benevolent elder as he rose and stepped toward Karen.
Karen took a step back, dodging his embrace.
"I was framed! I was framed!" Dante began shouting right then. "My captain of the guard betrayed me! He betrayed me! I never gave him that order! Never! While I love Ophelia, and while I cursed Karen at home, I never thought of killing him like this! I didn't! I was planning to challenge him to a duel!"
"Shut up!"
Slap!
Incensed, Viner whipped around and slapped Dante hard across the face. Far worse than the attempted poisoning was the shameful family scandal his son had just blurted out.
His second son had harbored feelings for his half-sister all this time!
Karen said nothing, watching it all with cold detachment.
Disgust showed on Ophelia's face toward her brother.
Patriarch Viner turned to Karen and said with solemn gravity, "Karen, you too are a child of Dark Moon Island. The blood running through your veins is just as pure as that of our main lineage. Please believe me, I will see him thoroughly punished!"
"Indeed, please trust our Patriarch."
General Tafman stood up, drawing a sword from the scabbard of an adjacent guard as he spoke.
Schhk!
Dante—his nephew, the Patriarch's son, the Second Prince of Dark Moon Island—had his head sheared right off, blood spraying out and staining the carpet crimson.
The sudden turn of events stunned everyone present into speechless silence.
General Tafman bent down and lifted his nephew's severed head by the hair.
"As his uncle, I apologize to you on his behalf, Karen. Please accept his sincerest apologies."
With that,
Tafman opened his hand,
the head dropped,
and Tafman raised a boot and kicked it. The head flew through the air, rolling to a stop right in front of Karen.
Like a leather ball.
Chapter 266