After Eleanor walked away, she looked at the breakfast in her hand.
She skillfully took out a Magic Silver Needle for testing poison and inserted it into the bread.
As the magic spread, the needle quickly turned black, then gradually turned red.
As an assassin, Eleanor had extensive experience with poisons, and she immediately identified what poison had been used.
“Red Crown Poison.”
Eleanor smirked playfully and said.
“Looks like Anderson owes me one again.”
Red Crown Poison is an extremely terrifying potent poison. Even someone of Anderson’s strength would bleed from all seven orifices and die instantly if they accidentally ingested more than five grams.
The other party clearly came prepared and intended to set me up.
But unfortunately… they picked the wrong person.
Eleanor turned a corner, then instantly merged into the Shadow and vanished without a trace. No one knew where she went.
Shortly after, she emerged from the Shadow again, still holding a breakfast tray. However, although the breakfast looked exactly the same in style, upon closer inspection, its shape had changed slightly.
Even the needle hole on the bread had disappeared.
“Oh dear, what a shame I have to deliver breakfast, or I’d love to watch the show.”
Like a criminal who wants to return to the crime scene but can’t, Eleanor left with some regret.
***
Meanwhile, the killer disguised as a cafeteria worker had finished his morning shift.
He certainly wasn’t a staff member here. He had killed the original cafeteria worker and impersonated him to cause trouble here.
Once he confirmed Anderson’s death, he would sneak into the Shrine, break the Magic Formation, and obtain the Eye of Wite.
But for safety, he was acting alone in this operation, without any other accomplices.
“I’ll grab a breakfast and head back to the break room to wait.”
The killer looked at the breakfast on the counter. Everyone’s breakfast here was the same style, so he specially kept one for himself to avoid confusion.
He himself knew what would happen if someone ingested Red Crown Poison, so he had to be careful.
And to ensure Anderson would be killed in one go, he used ten times the normal dosage.
Taking the breakfast, he returned to the break room.
Through the window, the killer could see Anderson’s room. Although the room was covered by curtains all day, the killer only needed to hear the commotion.
“At this time, Anderson should be about to wake up and have breakfast, right?”
The killer watched Anderson’s room through binoculars, then casually grabbed a bread roll and took a bite.
While eating, he said with some confusion.
“That’s strange… why no reaction yet?”
But the killer needed patience; if he didn’t see a reaction, he would just wait.
The man finished the bread and took a sip of milk, but just then he noticed something was off.
The milk tasted different.
It tasted like Red Crown Poison.
“Cough, cough, cough!!!”
Before he could think further, he felt his insides being violently torn apart. The sensation of pain and death rushed over him.
He coughed continuously, as if trying to cough everything out of his body.
In fact, he was indeed coughing up his own lungs and heart.
Looking at the black blood and pieces of organs on the floor, he died without ever understanding what had happened.
***
“How’s the breakfast?”
While Anderson was eating, Eleanor sat across from him, smiling as she watched him as if admiring his eating manners.
“Doesn’t it all taste the same?”
Anderson didn’t think it was particularly good.
After finishing in a few bites, he continued, “Actually, Eleanor, you don’t have to wake up so early to bring me breakfast. It’s too tiring.”
Eleanor said in surprise.
“That’s so nice?”
No one wants to wake up before six o’clock, and Eleanor was no exception.
So hearing Anderson’s suggestion, she was quite pleased.
At least she could sleep in a bit longer.
After Anderson finished eating, Eleanor withdrew her gaze, and he was a bit puzzled.
“Why are you staring at my face?”
“You guess?”
Eleanor certainly wouldn’t tell him the answer.
‘I can’t watch someone die, so I can only look at Anderson’s face… How could she say that out loud?’
“I don’t want to guess.”
Anderson stood up and said to Eleanor.
“I’ll leave the room cleaning to you. I need to go to work.”
“Take care.”
As Eleanor waved, Anderson left the bedroom, leaving her alone to think.
“Hmm, just in case, I should go check if that guy is really dead.”
“I think you just have a criminal mind.”
Eleanor ignored Spark’s comment and put the broom aside.
‘If he’s not dead, I’ll finish him off to avoid future trouble.’
‘An assassin’s habit is to see the living or see the dead.’
After thinking it over, Eleanor shed her disguise, checked that no one was outside, then opened the window, climbed out to the outer wall, and carefully moved out.
The other party must have killed someone and used their identity to enter, so now they should be in the original staff’s break room.
***
Meanwhile, Anderson walked along the corridor toward the Shrine.
However, before he got far, his keen sense of smell suddenly caught a stench of decay.
It smelled like rotting flesh, nauseating.
“Why is there this smell?”
Anderson didn’t understand, but immediately became alert.
Following the smell, he soon arrived at the door of a cafeteria staff break room.
“The smell is coming from here…”
Even through the door, Anderson could smell the strong stench.
He frowned, feeling a vague sense of foreboding.
After mustering all his alertness, Anderson placed his hand on the doorknob.
“It’s locked… Is anyone inside?”
Anderson knocked, but there was no response.
With no other choice, he took a deep breath, then using an Iron Mountain Lean stance with his shoulder, he rammed the door.
“Bang!!”
The door was slammed open.
Then Anderson saw the blood-covered scene inside the room.
In the middle of it all, there was a white-haired girl crouching beside the corpse, seemingly checking for a pulse.
“Hmm, looks like he’s dead.”
“Ainola!?”
Seeing the girl, Anderson without a word drew his Knight Sword.
He took a quick step and flashed directly in front of Ainola, trying to grab her, but she was just as fast.
Ainola sidestepped, dodging Anderson’s thrust.
“Whoa~”
Seeing Anderson so agitated as to draw his sword on her, Ainola said with some surprise.
“I just helped you take care of a killer, you know. If you’re not going to praise me, at least don’t come at me with such hostility.”