"Well how exactly do you know it is Dimenthyl mercury?" Nada asked me while sitting straighter. She knew there was a some sort of a suspicious motive in my face, which even I didn't know about. Probably because I didn't want her to get entangled along with me into finding the cure to this apocalypse.
"It isn't actually me who found out." I answered back while smiling at her. "You know who else is interested into medical and chemical at the same time. He in particular told me that it is possible that the duchess had been given a small lethal dose of dimenthyl mercury."
"Wait... So you really did meet Helio!"
"Well yes. Wait, you don't know until now?" I asked back in confusion.
For some reasons, Nada snickered at me and I just stared at her blankly. "No it's not that. Did he tell you something besides that?"
"Like what?" I folded my arms in irritation at her. But instead, she silently went on laughing without even batting an eye at my direction.
"Nah, I will tell you later."
I didn't feel like any more words would be able to stop her, so I decided to continue with the apocalypse instead.
"The fact is, only the empire of Smod has been under the influence of this apocalypse. Dimenthyl mercury in truth is enough to kill someone almost instantly or very slowly with the amount of it used on someone. A single drop can end a human's life within seven or eight months, while a last dosage can end it within the next day. As long as it takes for the mercury to interact with the human cells or bodily chemicals. So given how the durations line up, the Mides family probably thought it right to end it within a long time, while also a very short time. However long it would take for people to identify it as a 'zombie apocalypse' to hide their actions.
"Simply put, it think the reason as to why the borders only were contaminated at first, then it spread to the inner ring, I am definitely sure that the Mides Kingdom is either plotting a revenge or is just greedy. Since the outsides were firstly contaminated, it could be seen that the Mides family has calculated a mistake. Otherwise, how does infection from the borders spread to the most secure place of the entire territory?"
"Why? If it is contagious than it can move faster through swift interactions right? What if a guard or a servant went to visit an infected member on the borders, and had indirect contact with the duchess?" Nada asked while looking at me with a half raised brow.
"It's not contagious. Since it's a chemical, it can only be injected. However, if you put it that way, it could be possible that someone contacted the item with the dimenthyl mercury on it, and then made contact with the duchess. But to think that the duchess was very fast to getting to that state, it wasn't just a contact. It was a direct injection." I answered her, already aware she wanted to make the situation awkward for me and the rest of us. However, I had no wish to embarrass her since it would do me no good either.
"So what could be the reason behind the need to inject someone that politically powerful?" She asked again, regardless. Luckily, I didn't need to do anything since the two others were already giving her a set of side-eyes. So I just sat back and relaxed, when I saw the Nada had been properly silenced.
"I know for short that the Mides family has been onto the Imperial family for quite sometime. And I know that the grudge is solely against the duchess, not more than that." I continued without any further pauses.
"How do you know that?" Elanor asked with curiosity.
"When your father was asked to attack, wasn't he wary of my presence already?"
"Yes. But how are you sure that he didn't quite one to attack you at some point too?"
"Because if he did, he wouldn't have waited long to place an attack on me. When he sent assassins to kill Lewis, the bullet trajectory wasn't actually for his head, rather, it was towards the outer corner of his ear. Now although the light on his brooch must have deflected the sun ray, the trajectory, even during a stimulation, wouldn't move left or right, not would it move up. It would move down. That was exactly how a fatal shot was 'missed'.
"Secondly, the dose on the wisteria powder was actually mixed with sugar when I had chosen to drink it. It was so that even if it would eventually kill you at some point, it wouldn't be in time to actually register an antidote into the system. When I had injested the poison, while in an extremely weakened body state, I had managed to stay stood for up to twenty minutes or more.
"Now the third factor is, Stephany was always suspicious of my identity since I was almost always along with Lewis and Henry. It could be either because she was already informed, or that she found out later. But whatever it is that made her find out, she was also asked to silently execute me like the other cousins of the family on the day that the Viscount had caused a wreakage in the palace.
"More then that, there is a much bigger fact that has been overlooked for a long time since I wasn't quite sure. But the reason why the merchants were asked to change routes and later robbed, was because the other way was currently occupied with the Mides family's mages. Who could cause 'accidental' disasters and lock the entire Empire out of rational supplies that came in from that route. Since it was very famous, the Mides family made it an effort to not give much mind to that side matter. The king was planning to clear up the route when he took over the entire empire for himself.
"Until that part, we can safely say that if he could successfully remove the duchess and her legitimate children from the throne, he would have been able to seize the empire under his hands entirely."
"But then why did you plan a way to execute the Count if he weren't really guilty?" Nada asked me with a face speaking of a little hatred. Sure, that even after knowing all this, I hadn't even thought about sparing him. Therefore, I was the villain in this story. I couldn't quite find my words until Elanor spoke up.
"It may seem as if he wasn't guilty. However, he was guilty enough to be dead." She sternly added while leaning forward. "Because he had been in hands with the Viscount when he forced Stephany to kill the young cousins of the family. So I suppose for handing a knife onto the kid's hand, he deserved to die. Could you believe that he as a father told an eleven year old to go out and go wild with dead bodies? After that, she never changed and continued killing her victims as if she had lost her mind. So both of them deserved to die."
I couldn't help but frown knowing that there were more fathers like him in the world then just mine alone, who handed me a gun at the age of eight. Although I didn't kill just yet, but I had brutally injured quite a lot at that age.
"And your elder sister?"
As soon as my impulsive cousin spoke up again, I could feel the blood in my veins surging and threatening to rip them apart.
Dear cousin... Please keep your mouth shut to save yourself some horrendous amount of embarrassment and for the others a huge amount of dissapointment.
That was the only thing in my mind around that time.
"My older sister was also being controlled by the Mides family. So it was only that I didn't want our legacy to end. I really wanted to protect our County from being framed in the future if it happened to go against a particular someone's rule." Elanor looked at me while answering, then she flashed a smirk.
All eyes then flew towards me. And I broke into a cold sweat.
"Stop trying to blame me for it! I didn't even want the throne! And now I am not even in that family. So if you want to be in a good term relationship with the Imperial family... Go to Lewis." I spoke while becoming more andore irritated that I couldn't explain much of what I wanted to say.
"Alright alright!" She smiled normally while blinking the previous expression away. "But then, I have one more question. Why does it happen to be so that Stephany was told about you? And who could have told her about it?"
"Elanor... You know that your sister was engaged to the eldest son of the Mides family. Do you not?" I asked while becoming more expressionless. "And that Stephany and your elder sister often went over during holidays. The daughter and Stephany had a good, friendly relationship. Between your elder sister, Stephany, the eldest son and the daughter, there were many letters exchanged. And I had intercepted them multiple times before sending it back to the respective family."
"At the time before the Count's execution, Stephany had been informed about my presence. And that was because a few hired spies from the Mides family has been disguised as servants who were patrolling the palace. So after the Count got taken away, one of the spies went forward and sent the informations about me. That is why no wonder that I had gotten so much hate from those servants."
"Because of my contract-adoption, I was eventually a puppet the duchess disguised, who she could use to keep the family safe. And since I had stopped more then two attempts at causing the family's downfall, the Mides family wanted me gone. In one of the letters, I was described as the shield. That was why I had sent away Cedric, because the duchess was being brainwashed by those servants to have me dead."
"That was the around the time that I had fought with Lewis, so the servants had gotten an opening and triggered her rage. The plan was to have me crippled or dead. But they succeeded in none, so the silence rose. About the same time, because I was sick in the mind and physically, George moved me away from the palace for a short while. Given that I was away, your elder sister was sent behind me to kill me.
"However, she was intercepted by someone else, who just so happened to be my enemy and helper. So when I came back to the palace, the second wave of silence happened again. They waited until I took my life, and then one month after my death, I came to know that the Mides family striked again. Does all those timing and explanation make sense to you now?"
At last, I got the opportunity to breathe for at least a second. Like just how dumb can people be to not be able to calculate at least this much? At least the engagement part should have been obvious right?
"That does make sense. But then, do you still have the prove?"
"Do you need it now?"
"Yes?"
"Sure!"
I bitterly smiled at her while snapping my finger in the air, then I watched as two files fell onto Elanor's head and landed on her lap the next second. It was my little revenge on her. Beside her, I looked at Cedric, who was giving me a look as if to explain more. I could tell the concern since he wanted to return to the Mides family and I happened to ask him if he needed help to return while in this state of condition for his family.
"I will explain it later." I mouthed to him, but not really saying it so that no one knew about my intentions to put him on the throne. At last, I didn't need to say more since he moved his eyes towards the file that was on Elanor's hand. As she flipped through the papers, she found more and more printed pictures of the letters that were exchanged between the four people I had mentioned earlier.
"These... Were written by my sisters?" Elanor muttered while biting on her bottom lip, while furrowing her brows. "So they were practically ready to ruin the family name, huh? Well that is frustrating! So how did you get printed copies of these?"
"I used my illusion skill, and those are actually my permanent illusions. At least some are. Since more of them were actually taken to another state to get them printed. There isn't much technology in the capital." I answered without hesitation. "If you wanted to ask how I moved... I had my teleporation skills and the night time to do it."
At last, while those three people were busy investigating my truth and lies, I stood up with my weak legs and walked towards the sofa. As I managed to get away from the small circle, I slumped down and shut my eyes to get some rest.
I really needed it after having sacrificed so much while trying to reinvestigate this matter during the time that I was away in the Smod Island. Although, I was going to be honest about getting severe help from my spirit friends. It really was an advantage to have the powers of the Guardian of Death like this. Not only that, but I had interrogated two more proxies in the past three days to have gotten this much information.
Finally, the three others stood up and walked towards my place again. And I straightened up, already frustrated that I may not be getting any proper sleep anymore.
"But then, Aefia, I thought you were mostly busy trying to solve other cases. So when did you start working this thouroughly on this case about the Mides family?" Cedric asked while sitting on the opposite sofa to me.
I smiled at his words.
"I should say that I am actually happy that I chose to die in such a beautiful timing. Because the last month, I had enough time to provide to this matter then when I was as pawn. Besides surviving, I was desperate to secure myself a safe place to stay."