At the Witch's House, the noisy courtyard had once again settled into relative quiet.
Beneath the pavilion, Morgan lifted her steaming tea and took a small sip. She looked up at Samael as he returned from the gate and asked calmly,
"He left?"
"Mm. You scared him off. He said he'll reconsider once he sees the finished product."
Samael glanced at the steadily darkening sky, folded his arms, and leaned against a wooden pillar, his reply carrying a trace of amusement.
Kay was a responsible older brother.
As far as he was concerned, who held the throne might not matter much. But if Artoria's safety was involved, then he had no choice but to consider things carefully.
So their deal could only be regarded as half settled.
Although Britannia's head of finance had not directly agreed to help Morgan scheme against his own sister, he had tacitly allowed the blatantly suspicious activities taking place here.
Simply put, Kay still remained wary of Morgan and Samael's true intentions, but he was willing to try a new approach that might slow Artoria's transformation into a Divine Spirit.
After all, decades of attempts had left him with no other options.
"I think you're the one who frightened him. You secretly summoned all those fairies from the Nameless Forest to Camelot so you could work together to poison Artoria..."
Morgan glanced at the amused Samael beside her and raised an eyebrow with a faint snort.
"I was telling the truth. It's not as though your Druids never studied herbs and potions. Medicine can be poison, and poison can be medicine. Whether something heals or harms depends entirely on the healer."
"As the saying goes, serious illnesses require powerful medicine. Artoria is a critical patient, so naturally she needs a potent treatment. Fight poison with poison."
"And if we want to weaken the Lion King's Divinity, poisoning her honestly seems like the most reliable option. With the correct substance and dosage, the poison itself becomes her medicine."
Samael spread his hands innocently in his own defense, while taking the opportunity to poke fun at the family member who had been frightened away.
"If ordinary methods hadn't already failed, and if Kay didn't treat his sister like the most precious thing in the world, would he ever have come here and taken this kind of risk?"
"Medicine can be poison, and poison can be medicine... Whether it heals or harms depends entirely on the healer. That makes sense."
Morgan looked thoughtful, then gave her husband an approving glance. Somehow, he always seemed capable of offering unusual insights into almost anything.
She casually pulled a roll of parchment and a quill from a Magecraft circle and began recording the inspiration with great concentration.
"Repeat what you just said. I want to write it down."
Here we go again.
Another lecture...
Samael sighed helplessly and had no choice but to dig out what little medical theory remained in his head and feed it all to Morgan.
At the same time, he cast a meaningful glance toward the Magical Workshop, where faint noises could occasionally be heard.
The reason he and Morgan could afford to relax out here was that Samael had already thrown all the newly arrived fairies into the Magical Workshop and left Mari to deal with that collection of troublemakers.
Considering the impressive achievements of fairies in one uncertain future, including poisoning the Horned God and the leader of the human resistance, their talent for potions was certainly worth developing.
The collision of their different ideas would probably provide Morgan with plenty of inspiration.
That was right.
The professional team led by Aurora and Muryan had indeed been summoned by Samael, and their credentials were exceptional.
Among the Six Great Clans, the Wind, Rain, Mirror, and Wing Clans possessed the greatest expertise in potion making. This group included the elite specialists from all four clans, personally led by their respective Chieftains.
As for why all six Chieftains had not come together, there were two reasons.
For one thing, the Fang Clan followed their bestial instincts and tended toward brute strength and combat, while the Earth Clan specialized in craftsmanship and technology. They were veteran recluses who preferred hiding away and tinkering with things.
Neither clan had much expertise in potions.
More importantly, after receiving Samael's summons, Aurora, who had already been thoroughly "educated" and now feared a certain someone down to her bones, threw herself into the task with extraordinary diligence.
She vaguely remembered that the last time he had mobilized everyone on this scale had been during the War of the Holy Covenant.
Naturally, Aurora treated the matter with extreme caution.
To assemble a proper professional team while also eliminating any possible trouble before entering Camelot, she simply joined forces with Muryan, the Rain Clan, and the Mirror Clan to crush both the Earth Clan and the Fang Clan.
Of course, Samael himself bore some responsibility for that outcome.
He had casually killed the Chieftain of the Earth Clan earlier. The man's Mana and innate abilities had all gone into Barghest's stomach, and by now she had probably digested every last trace.
The Earth Clan had lost its leader, and its reclusive craftsmen rarely coordinated with one another in the first place.
They were hardly a threat.
As for the Fang Clan, their overly aggressive behavior had long earned them the hostility of all five other clans.
Before Samael and Morgan's Savior Squad arrived, the remaining five clans might have resented them, but the Fang Clan possessed both overwhelming combat strength and a large population.
So everyone else had been forced to endure them in silence.
After the expedition to the Nameless Forest, however, Muryan and Aurora had taken Samael's advice.
Treat humans well.
Create a better environment for them.
Attract more humans to flee into fairy territory, turn them into dependents, and use the emotions they provided as a stable source of spiritual nourishment.
As more humans arrived, the Wind Clan and Wing Clan, both of which drew strength from human emotion, became increasingly powerful.
And through an incredible stroke of "coincidence," the Chieftain of the Fang Clan happened to eat poisoned food while traveling and dropped dead by the roadside.
The Fang Clan immediately descended into internal chaos.
The other five clans seized the opportunity to unite and brutally thin out the overly numerous Fang Clan.
As a result, the Nameless Forest was now effectively controlled by the Wind Clan and Wing Clan.
Aurora and Muryan had become the principal representatives of the fairies. Since their respective goals differed, the two had formed a tentative alliance.
Samael hardly knew whether to laugh or cry at the thought that a single casual remark of his had inadvertently reshaped the entire political landscape of the Nameless Forest.
As those thoughts drifted through his mind, the Ancient Serpent glanced toward a refined steel cage being unloaded from one of the fairy carriages and carried into the courtyard.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
His vertical serpent pupils opened almost unconsciously.
Inside the cage, a young canine fairy of the Fang Clan with a tuft of white hair on his head immediately bristled. Huddled in the corner, he bared his teeth and growled softly.
When Aurora and Muryan crushed the Fang Clan, they had captured this unusual fairy, who appeared to be displaying an atavistic A-Ray phenomenon.
If Samael remembered correctly, this canine fairy should be called...
Woodwose?
He was a gift Aurora and Muryan had brought along.
They could feed him to Barghest and allow her to reproduce Woodwose's abilities, granting her the qualifications necessary to rule the Fang Clan.
Or they could raise him and use him as a planted agent within the Nameless Forest, allowing him to restrain the other fairy clans.
Either option would be useful.
Even among the Fang Clan, the loyalty of canine creatures was generally dependable.
The fact that Aurora and Muryan were obedient enough to personally hand Samael a potential weapon that could later be used against them was more than enough proof of how well behaved they had become.
In a sense, the forces of the Nameless Forest were now effectively operating under Samael's name.
Given how cooperative Aurora and Muryan had been, the Ancient Serpent naturally chose to turn a blind eye to their methods.
His only requirement was simple.
As long as they were useful, that was enough.
He had no interest in how the fairies of the Nameless Forest fought among themselves behind closed doors.
As for the little fairy currently locked inside the cage...
Sorry.
There were already more than enough mouths to feed in this household.
Samael was perfectly satisfied with Barghest and had absolutely no interest in raising another oversized canine of the same sort.
The Ancient Serpent glanced toward the kitchen, where a well nourished canine creature was currently tasting the broth.
He nodded happily.
Besides, it wasn't as though he lacked devoted bootlickers.
Samael suddenly remembered a certain figure at the Great Cathedral who had crawled beneath the table and done everything she could to please him.
His mouth immediately went dry, and he hurriedly took a drink of water to calm himself.
Degenerate.
Far too degenerate.
How could he allow himself to be defeated by such sugar coated temptation?
Which was precisely why tonight's work report needed to be handled with the utmost seriousness.