DMHS 72

All eyes turned toward Bashim.

As Kian said, Bashim’s clothes and hair were clean. Only the two fingers that had checked Salman’s pulse were faintly stained with blood.

“The stone was extinguished only briefly. There was no time to change clothes. But looking at the wounds the chieftain suffered, there is no way the culprit avoided being spattered with blood. Should we not first search every body here?”

Kian’s tone was soft, yet the weight of his words made them no different from an order. He was a man gifted at turning the mood.

Those eager to prove their innocence began showing their clothes to the ones beside them.

The banquet hall turned noisy.

Asaad also checked clothes side by side with Pearl Asif.

Pearl Asif, after confirming that not hair, not hands, nor even the inside of the clothes was stained with blood, clicked his tongue.

“The culprit is certainly Bashim. He must have used some trick to erase the traces after harming the chieftain.”

Asaad quickly agreed. Never before had Pearl Asif felt so reliable.

“I think the same. But is there even a method to erase bloodstains? Magic cannot be used inside the hall.”

“There must be some underhanded way unknown to us. We cannot let this pass.”

“Then the work is to uncover Bashim’s trick.”

“You, you just sit comfortably like a bystander. Must feel nice to be so at ease.”

Even the usual sneering did not grate him. Asaad replied with a laugh and returned to his seat.

But the dragon’s mate did something that made Asaad’s relaxed mood vanish.

‘What is that man doing?’

Kian was going around the tables and touching the cups.

More precisely, the rims where mouths touched.

‘Did he notice?’

He had to hid that only Bashim’s cup had been smeared with the witch’s flower at all cost.

He was unable to hide his discomfort, and went toward Kian.

“What are you doing?”

Kian raised his eyes. The black in them was fathomless.

“The cups seem suspicious.”

“Are you investigating the scene now? Please do not. I worry trouble will spread to your spouse. What happens in our tribe must be handled by us.”

“But if all drank the same wine, and only one showed symptoms, then the cup most likely holds the problem.”

Asaad felt the need to divert him.

“It could be the drink itself? You may not know since you are an outsider, but the Ark wine drunk only at festivals is a peculiar brew. It overstimulates senses, so drinking more than two cups is forbidden. It might have been too much for the elderly chieftain.”

He thought that would make the mate nod and step back, but he saw Kian’s eyes gleaming.

“Then there would be no need to add much stimulant. I should check with the thought that only a small amount was smeared on the cup.”

“No, what I meant is that the problem lay in the wine, not the cups. Why must you touch them?”

“……”

Kian gave no reply, he only stared at him. His gaze weighed on him.

Just meeting his eyes made him feel like he was reading his insides. Asaad quietly averted his own. At the edge of that gaze, and he caught a glimpse of a smile on Kian’s face.

“I saw clearly earlier. You had a servant wipe Bashim’s cup.”

“……!”

It felt like he was hit on the head and a ringing filled his skull.

“I was only checking whether you had the servant wipe any other cup as well. Do you understand now?”

Kian’s pupils was dark as night. Asaad, feeling himself dragged into something viscous, forced his lips to move.

“Hearing you say that, I understand even less. Was it wrong to wipe a cup?”

“In time the truth will be known. For now I must take my leave.”

Kian bowed lightly and went to examine the glass shards that had fallen near the body.

Asaad exhaled.

“Haa….”

Even if he checked the shards, he would not find the witch’s flower dust.

The witch’s flower dust was colorless, odorless, white. The cloth had not smeared on much.

‘But if he touched it, he would feel the texture.’

No.

Asaad shook his head and tried to reassure himself. Among the countless fragments, finding the one touched with dust would not be simple.

‘But what if he does?’

He could already see the scene where someone held a shard with white powder and claimed to have seen Asaad tampering with Bashim’s cup.

The problem lay after that. Pearl Asif was busy declaring he would uncover the secret of the chieftain’s death.

But he could not truly be mourning the chieftain. He only sought to crush whoever was tied to this and to make himself the heir.

Pearl Asif had accused Bashim with mere suspicion. If the story of a servant wiping Bashim’s cup came from Kian’s mouth, Pearl Asif would immediately turn and name Asaad the culprit.

The truth was, without the backing of the chieftain Bashim could not become successor, so only Pearl Asif and Asaad would remain contenders.

‘The evidence must be destroyed.’

His mouth went dry from nervousness. His pounding heartbeat hurt his ears.

‘Only the cloth I used earlier, and the one who blocked the magic stone’s energy, need to be dealt with.’

Asaad kept outside involvement to a minimum so the work could proceed in utmost secrecy. Because of that there were only two pieces of evidence.

The cloth he had just used lay in his inner pocket. The servant he had asked to block the mana supply and extinguish the hall lights would have to be lured away and silenced.

‘If I move quickly no one will know.’

Meanwhile the banquet hall was caught in the riddle of the chieftain’s death. If someone had killed him there should have been blood spatter, yet none among those gathered bore any stain.

The general mood shifted toward first handling the body.

As attendants were summoned to move the corpse and word spread noisily, Asaad slipped out of the hall.

At the entrance he borrowed a dagger from a Jemar man standing guard.

During the festival a barrier suppressed magic, so he needed a weapon to deal with the servant he had hired.

‘There is no turning back now.’

The darkened corridor met him.

Cold sweat drenched his back, but though hot air blew, his body suddenly shivered.

Tack. Tack. Tack.

Shoes hit the stone floor with loud echoes.

The servant had finished his task, and would be back in his quarters. They had arranged for him to be paid the rest of his fee there.

Tack. Tack. Tack.

Asaad quickened his pace. The hallway today felt long and dim. He could not tell if it was his jaw or his hands that trembled.

‘Once I round that corner it is the quarters.’

At that moment he heard a voice behind him.

“Why in such a hurry, sir?”

Asaad froze. Turning slowly, he saw a man about five paces away.

The silhouette and voice felt familiar.

As the man stepped ahead, faint moonlight from a window revealed his face. Asaad bit his lip as he saw him.

“I could ask the same. What brings your lordship here? The hall lies in the other direction.”

Asaad walked toward Kian at a measured pace. Kian answered with the same look.

“Is that so? You rushed this way, so I thought you went to the privy and followed.”

Now they stood less than an arm’s length apart. Asaad leaned close and whispered in his ear.

“I told you before.”

He hesitated no longer.

Asaad drew the dagger from his pocket and thrust it into Kian’s abdomen.

Thunk.

The vivid feeling of blade piercing flesh coursed through his hand.

He whispered into Kian’s ear.

“When you meddle in others’ affairs, sparks will fly.”

Something hot and sticky flowed from the wound. It had to be the mate’s blood.

Asaad twisted the hilt to stir his entrails, then pulled the dagger free. Scraps of viscera came with the gush of blood. He kicked the wound, and Kian’s body collapsed to the floor.

Thud.

Looking down at the mate lying in the corridor, Asaad muttered.

“You could have just looked away. Why come all the way here….”

He watched the light fade from Kian’s black pupils.

Now he had more to clean up, but he could not leave a man who suspected him alive. He had come this far, there was no choice.

‘Yes. I will lay the blame on the servant.’

Asaad’s mind raced.

‘Plenty had base curiosity when hearing the dragon’s mate was coming. The consort, straying into a deserted hall, met a servant and was nearly assaulted… then, in a chase, the servant killed him to silence him and then took his own life.’

It sounded convincing even to himself.

He looked down and saw Kian dead with eyes still open. The chest did not rise or fall at all.

‘Then I should loosen the clothes.”

He bent and placed a hand on the buttons. He undid the top and tore the bottom by hand.

‘Next the hair, tangle it a bit.’

He lifted his eyes.

At that instant Kian’s pupils glowed blood-red. The air turned cold.