Arc 13 Stronghold Enhancement
Edgar caught Elsa when she was about to fall.
Thinking something like that could happen, Jin had Reiko bring the Persica juice specially-made in Horai Island, for Elsa to drink.
The high content of Ether made it possible for magical power recovery.
Elsa, who somehow managed to drink it, regained her energy.
“… Elsa, you did it.”
“You’re amazing!”
Jin and Reinhardt praised her.
“Yes, thank you.”
“So, how was it?”
What was the result?
“Wait a minute. … ‘Diagnose’.”
Elsa’s expression brightened after re-examining her father’s condition.
“The blood clot … is gone.”
“Really? Then it’s as expected.”
Jin thought that internal bleeding in the brain should be healed with external medical treatment magic instead of internal. And it worked.
Basically, internal medical treatment activated the recovery power of tissues. External medical treatment, however, did not only activate the recovery power but also had additional effects such as wound closure in the case of a laceration, and repositioning the bone in the case of a fracture.
As a result, the blood clot was broken down and absorbed by the body. Think of it as the disappearance of internal bleeding. Since blood clots were not substances foreign to the body, they were quickly broken down and absorbed.
“At this rate, I think we can heal the damaged cells in his brain as much as possible.”
“Yeah, got it. … ‘Genesis’.”
Elsa’s magical power had almost completely recovered with the Persica juice, so she could use advanced magic again without any problems.
“… I think this should be good.”
Somehow, the Viscount’s breathing had stabilized.
Wait-and-see would be the only thing they could do now, since they had done everything in their power to help him.
Jin and everyone moved back to the living room.
Moritz bombarded Elsa with a bunch of questions.
“Elsa, when did you become able to use such advance healing magic?”
“What was the juice you just drank?”
“Your treatment earlier, could you explain everything?”
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Jin and Elsa answered the questions one by one. Of course, they were keeping the information regarding Horai Island and Jin obscure.
“… I see, I didn’t know you have such a talent. Despite that, we couldn’t support to develop your talent. I’m sorry.”
After hearing Elsa’s story, Moritz apologized on behalf of his father for not seeing Elsa’s talent and for having disciplined her unreasonably strict.
“… What’s done is done. … Now, please tell us about Marcus.”
It was Moritz’s turn to share the information regarding Marcus.
“Yeah. I didn’t really like him, so I didn’t know him that well.”
On that note, Moritz began to talk about what he knew about Marcus.
“He first came to our house … about 12 years ago. Elsa was still a little kid. Do you remember?”
Twelve years ago, Elsa would have been five years old. That was a subtle line.
“How shall I put it? He was good with conspiracies that barely fall into the crime category. I just couldn’t like him. Dad seemed to like him, though.”
“Where did he come from?”
“Um, I never asked. Dad didn’t seem to care either.”
“When I met him at the Technology Expo, I thought he was like a different person.”
“Yeah, you would probably think so. He drastically changed during the past year.”
“Drastic change?”
Moritz said that his attitude had changed significantly since Elsa embarked on a journey with Reinhardt.
It was subtle at first, but it surfaced later on. Moreover, his skill as a Magi Engineer seemed to improve as well.
“Well, it’s also possible that his attitude so far had been false. Anyway, that’s just my deduction.”
“Then why would he do something like that?”
Jin asked the question this time.
“I wonder. I don’t know either. I could guess, but …”
“Information gathering.”
“Huh?”
“Marcus said he was gathering information.”
“Information gathering …? If that’s true, he could have been a spy of some country or organization.”
Jin agreed but did not say a word.
“If that’s the case. His change in attitude would only mean that he had gathered all the information he needed here, and probably it was time for him to ascertain the response.”
Jin thought that deduction was probably correct. Nothing could compare to Moritz’s shrewdness and wisdom. Elsa and Reinhardt praised him because he could make a fairly accurate deduction from very limited information.
However, Jin and his companions were interested in finding the facts and evidences.
“I’d like to check Marcus’ room.”
Moritz nodded in approval to Elsa’s request.
“I guess, he wouldn’t mind. Come. … Everyone, right this way.”
Moritz reached out to Elsa and showed everyone the way.
They all proceeded to Marcus’ room. It was unlocked.
“This is Marcus’ room. Feel free to check it out.”
Moritz said to Jin and Reinhardt, while he stood by the door to observe.
Jin immediately began to investigate inside the room. Reiko assisted as well.
“Father, why is there such a thing in here?”
Reiko presented a container made of gold. It contained gray powder.
“‘Analyze’.”
Jin analyzed the powder at once and was shocked after finding out what it was.
“… It’s arsenic.”
“What?!”
Being the only one who knew the danger of arsenic, Elsa spontaneously reacted. Others did not understand.
“Jin, what is ‘arsenic’?”
Jin answered Reinhardt’s question with a serious look.
“In a nutshell, it’s poison. It’s considerably dangerous, too.”
“What?!”
Moritz was astonished upon learning it was poison. However, the discovery of poison did not necessarily mean that it was immediately linked to a crime. Jin and his companions continued to investigate the room.
“What about this liquor?”
On the shelf were three finely processed crystal bottles containing liquor.
“Oh, those are Marquess Theodoric’s favorite brands. They are very expensive liquor from the south. We’ve sent them to him several times in the past.”
The stoppers made of cork were unsealed and easily removable.
Most likely, the Marquess would be the only one drinking them if they were expensive.
While making such an assumption, Jin utilized Analyze in the presence of everyone to find out the contents of the liquor.
“’Analyze’. This is …!”
“Jin, don’t tell me …”
“… Yeah, a very small amount of arsenic is detected. If the Marquess was drinking this, it could be the cause of his cirrhosis.”
It was a shocking fact.
Moritz also turned pale. If it became public that a person in his household had poisoned the Marquess, there was no doubt that his whole family would be destroyed.
Even if that was not the case, Moritz was already deeply concerned about the commotion his father caused, which measure was still under consideration by the authorities of the Empire.
However, Jin was more worried about something else.
“… I wonder if Marcus knew about the existence of arsenic …”
When Jin was researching in the basement of the laboratory in the past, he managed to separate arsenic and nickel. The result concluded that nickel was classified as an unidentified metal. This being the case, his predecessor already knew about the existence of arsenic.
However, the knowledge of the existence of arsenic seemed to be lost in this era.
There was no doubt that the knowledge was lost after the Magi War.
However, Marcus, who could have been a demon, knew about the existence of arsenic. It would only mean that the discontinuity of knowledge due to the Magi War did not affect the demons.
Of course, it would be dangerous to judge based on that one piece of evidence alone. Nevertheless, it was a possibility.
With that, Jin concluded that the demons might have more advanced technology and culture than humans today.
“… I’m sorry, I feel a little sick. I’ll take my leave and rest in my room. … Elsa, I’ll leave the rest to you.”
With a pale face, Moritz staggered away while imagining the possibility of the Randol house would fall into ruins.
“I understand how brother feels. But most importantly, we have to find out the truth.”
Elsa patiently said so, and then continued to search the room.