Chapter 335: A harmless banquet

Luciliano covered an entire wall with sheets listing the names of various medicines and medicinal herbs as well as how to mix them, then began his explanation.

“I must wonder what is wrong with me? Analyzing the medicine that you gave me took much longer than I expected,” he lamented. “This medicine’s components have been well-thought-out and skillfully mixed to achieve the intended effects, but the incredible thing about it is that its potency has been suppressed. Because of that, the patient who takes it continues to perceive it as medicine rather than poison. No matter how much of this medicine the patient takes, they will never acquire the ‘Poison Resistance’ Skill, and the medicine will never lose its effectiveness.”

Broadly speaking, medicines and poisons were the same thing. The only difference was that compounds that had beneficial effects on the body were called medicines, and compounds that had harmful effects were called poisons.

Although the ‘Poison Resistance’ Skill existed in this world, there was no ‘Medicine Resistance’ Skill. Potions – in other words, medicines that healed the body – still affected those who had the ‘Poison Resistance’ Skill.

Given the above, it could be concluded that it was possible to prevent poisons from taking effect in this world, but preventing medicines from taking effect would be more difficult.

“Of course, there are exceptions. If one possesses the ‘Poison Resistance’ Skill, it is more difficult for them to become drunk by consuming alcohol… Depending on the Level of the Skill, alcohol might not have any effect on them at all. Sleeping pills and laxatives become less effective, too. But their effects are not suppressed to the extent that poisons are,” said Luciliano. “This medicine has been prepared using advanced techniques by someone who understands that.”

He placed a pill on one of the plates lining the table in front of him.

“And because it is a medicine, there is no antidote. At the very least, no medicine exists that could immediately restore a patient’s weakened brain functions, restore their lost memories, or return their personality to the way it was before; nor is it possible to create such a medicine,” Luciliano concluded. “Isn’t that right, Director?”

He was speaking to the hospital’s director, who had been made to sit on one of the chairs around the long table that had an extravagant tablecloth draped over it.

“W-what is the meaning of this?! Who are you?!” the director demanded.

But he wasn’t alone. The other doctors, the clerics, and the hospital workers who served both as nurses and janitors – almost every single employee of the hospital was bound to a chair at this table.

“Let us go! Do you really think you can get away with this?!” one of the doctors demanded.

“Help me! Please, I don’t want to die!” one of the hospital workers screamed.

They had suddenly fainted while working, then found themselves in this room. The walls, ceiling, and table were all a single shade of white, and they were made of a material that wasn’t stone or ceramic. Upon realizing what it was, the director and his employees began trembling.

This building’s furniture was all made of bone. It wasn’t belts that were strapping the director and his employees to their chairs, either – skeletal hands were holding them in place.

“What the hell is this plaaace?! SAVE UUUUS!” the director screamed.

“I realize that this may be a little difficult, but could you please calm yourselves? I have gone through the effort of presenting this information properly like a researcher should, so I would like you to allow me to finish,” said Luciliano. “Well, I’m sure you would like to talk freely during your last moments, so I won’t force you to be silent.”

“‘L-last moments?!’” the director repeated. “You’re going to kill us?! W-wait! The nobles of the kingdom won’t stand for this!”

A boy wearing a chef’s hat appeared, pushing a cart… The hospital’s director and his employees all knew his face. It was Vandalieu Zakkart.

“Are you saying that if we kill you people, who know various things that the nobles would rather keep secret, the nobles will assume that we forced these secrets out of you and try to kill us to silence us?” Vandalieu asked.

“You bastard…! I see! So, you instigated all of this?!” shouted the director.

“Yes, I did. Everything was done under my orders,” Vandalieu admitted. “By the way, I’m going to continue setting the table.”

He drew closer with the cart, and behind him were Skeletons that were pushing similar carts.

“Incidentally, do you intend to answer our questions?” Vandalieu asked.

“I refuse!” the director spat. “Release us immediately! If you do, we’re willing to forget that this ever happened!”

“Oh dear. That is quite the problem, Master,” said Luciliano. “It seems that they do not intend to tell you whether they would prefer rice or bread, or whether they would prefer red or white wine.”

“It can’t be helped. Let’s serve them both,” said Vandalieu.

The carts that he and the Skeletons had brought were laden with several dishes. They began serving bowls and plates with steaming hot soup, salads made with fresh seasonal vegetables, fish pies, and large, juicy-looking meatballs.

These dishes were accompanied by bread that looked soft but seemed to have been baked with something mixed into the dough, as well as rice that hadn’t been steamed but rather stir-fried with something. Each person was also served three glasses filled with red, white, and bluish-purple wine.

“This is… What is the meaning of this?” the director muttered in disbelief.

The color of the last glass of wine bothered him, but other than that, this meal looked very delicious. If someone told him that this was a full-course meal at a top-class restaurant, he would believe them.

The director and his employees were bewildered, unable to understand why Vandalieu had kidnapped and restrained them, only to serve them with an extravagant meal.

“Hmm, the sight of all this food has made me feel a little hungry,” said Luciliano. “Master, would you mind giving me a plate as well? It seems that there is one empty seat, too.”

“Luciliano, I gave you Amelia’s meal, didn’t I?” said Vandalieu.

“… I mean, I am almost certain that it hasn’t been tampered with, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to eat it when it’s possible that it has been tampered with.”

 “Then why would you want to eat this meal, which has been tampered with as much as physically possible?”

“I possess the ‘Status Effect Resistance’ Skill, not ‘Poison Resistance.’ I thought that I would be fine eating just a little, that’s all.”

The director froze as he heard this conversation between Vandalieu and Luciliano.

“Ah, I haven’t explained the menu yet,” said Vandalieu. “The appetizer is a seasonal vegetable salad, with a dressing of olive oil mixed with crushed pills and herbs. The soup is a root vegetable potage mixed with pills in their non-solid form. The fish dish is a pie containing white fish and pill components. The meat dish is meatballs made with a mixed mince of Minotaur and Orc meat, combined with minced onions and pills, with a wine-based sauce that has had powdered pills added to it.

“Your beverages are red and white wine with pills added to them, as well as a blue wine that has been made using grapes that have been mixed with pills and fermented. Please give each a try, regardless of your preferences.

“Ah, I think you may have guessed, but the ‘pills’ I have mentioned are the medicine that you have been giving Amelia Sauron,” Vandalieu added, pointing at the pills on one of the plates.

The blood drained from the faces of the director and his employees. The director had mixed the pills himself, so he was the most knowledgeable about their contents, but the doctors, clerics, and even the lowly hospital workers were all aware that the medicine that their hospital gave its patients was nothing that could be considered beneficial.

“N-no! If what you’re saying is true, then we will die if we eat this meal!” said the director, the man responsible for the creation of the pills.

He was trembling in fear of a death by ‘overdose.’ Although the mixing process weakened the effects, the pills were made from toxins that degraded brain functions.

There was no need to elaborate on what would happen if one were to consume a large quantity of the pills in a single sitting.

“P-please! Don’t kill me!” the director pleaded. “I-I was just doing as Earl Reamsand requested! Given my position, I couldn’t disobey him!”

“You mustn’t lie, Director. As punishment, I’ll add some butter mixed with powdered pills to your bread,” said Vandalieu, placing a piece of bread on the director’s plate and spreading some butter on it.

“I-I am not lying!” the director screamed.

“That is a lie,” said Amelia Sauron, appearing in front of the director without warning.

“Amelia Sauron?!” the director exclaimed.

Amelia’s eyes were filled with emptiness, and she remained completely expressionless as she continued to condemn the director and his employees. “You lied to Earl Reamsand and the other nobles, telling them that procuring the medicine’s components was incurring exorbitant costs, and demanded them to increase their donations, didn’t you? You also had them give recommendations for your family members and the family members of your subordinates so that they could be employed in good positions. You also ignored the rapes perpetrated on female patients by your hospital’s doctors and staff, making no attempts to investigate them. You have crossed far too many lines you shouldn’t; you can’t claim that you were innocent–”

Gurgling, wobbling noises came out mid-sentence, and Kühl, who had disguised himself as Amelia Sauron, appeared.

But to the director and his employees, this looked as if she had simply melted and collapsed, and they screamed in terror.

“Wait! I have contributed – we have contributed to society! We are necessary to this country!” the director shouted.

It seemed that his brain was still working sufficiently to change tactics – going in the direction of self-justification this time.

“In your eyes, we might appear to be nothing more than an evil group! But the patients are no pitiful, guiltless lambs, either! Some of them have killed innocent people. Some have embezzled tax money to fund their own pleasures. Some of them are relatives of nobles who were brought to us because they committed crimes so terrible that their families’ reputations would be damaged if they were to be punished by the law!” the director exclaimed.

Vandalieu paused his serving of the food, his hands stopping in mid-air. The other doctors and clerics saw this as a sign that there was hope for them yet, and they began agreeing with the director, one after another.

“I-it is true that Amelia Sauron herself has likely committed no crime! But for the stability of the Sauron Duchy, and for the peace of this entire nation, it was for the best that she and her daughter were made to give up on the struggle to succeed their house at an early stage!”

“We had nothing to do with her coming to our hospital! I swear, this is the truth!”

“Even if we didn’t do it, I’m sure some Church somewhere would have done the same thing! There are people in this world who meet misfortune, even though it’s nobody’s fault! She and the other patients are just some of those people!”

Vandalieu responded to these claims with a question. “I forgot to ask: Should I bring your desserts after your meal? Or would you like them to be served now?”

The question was entirely unrelated to the employees’ claims.

“W-w-w-wha–?!” the director uttered, unable to speak properly due to shock, bewilderment, and fury at being completely ignored.

“Master, it is possible that they will not be conscious after their meal, so I think it would be best to show them the dessert now,” said Luciliano.

“I suppose you’re right,” Vandalieu agreed. “Incidentally, dessert is a jelly made with seasonal fruit and pills.”

Taking no notice of the director, he ordered the Skeletons to prepare the dessert. Kühl was wobbling like jelly at the feet of the director and his employees, but they couldn’t see him.

“Ah, it seems that you’re making some kind of misunderstanding, so I’ll just clear things up… I’m not doing this to you people out of a sense of justice. Whether you’re good or evil, whether you’re necessary to society or not – I don’t care about any of that,” said Vandalieu. “You people have been giving Amelia Sauron and my new friends medicine that’s no different from poison and used that as an excuse to demand money from nobles. You’ve allowed patients to be raped and let the rapists go free. I’m doing this because I don’t like that.”

The Skeletons groaned quietly as they served the jelly, and Vandalieu poured syrup mixed with dissolved pills over it.

“So, whether you’re contributing to society, whether you’re necessary to the nation, it doesn’t matter to me in the slightest… ‘There are people in this world who meet misfortune, even though it’s nobody’s fault.’ If that’s true, then that includes you people now,” Vandalieu said.

Having caught a glimpse of Vandalieu’s eyes, the director had become unable to speak. He felt as if those dull purple and crimson eyes were an entrance to the abyss… He had seen a hallucination of a monstrosity staring at him from within.

Former doctor Hoover Tone, who was supposed to have been confined to a room in the hospital, entered the room along with some Skeletons.

“… We have strayed too far from the path to argue that we are contributing to society, to argue that there is value to our existence,” he said.

Hoover was not restrained, and his former colleagues began shouting at him.

“You! Could it be that you sold us out?!”

“How dare you! You’re no different from us!”

But Hoover responded to their vilification with a peaceful smile. “It is an unmistakable fact that I am also an employee of the Hospital of Psychotherapy. I am well aware of that,” he said, sitting down on the only empty seat at the table of his own accord. “That is why I must be punished as well.”

With proper manners, he tucked the edge of a napkin into his shirt. The eyes of the director and the other employees bulged in disbelief.

“Have you lost your mind?!” the director screamed.

“No, I am quite sane. And I am in quite a bright mood at the moment. With this banquet before me, I am certain that I am freer than I have ever been in my entire life,” Hoover said.

The director and the other employees were lost for words. But a single order from Vandalieu made them start screaming again.

“Dig in.”

Knochen’s split entities forcibly thrust the food into their mouths as they screamed and they cried. They tried to shake their heads wildly to avoid the food, but the Skeletons grasped their heads firmly. They refused to open their mouths, but the Skeletons pinched their noses and waited for their mouths to open.

Hoover’s hands were moving of his own free will. First, he ate the salad that was the appetizer. The dressing was so refreshingly fragrant and tart that it was difficult to believe that it contained crushed pills. It was the perfect accompaniment to the crisp texture and subtle sweetness of the leafy vegetables; the result was a dish that greatly stimulated his hunger.

When he drank the wine, he felt something similar to intoxication. Was this the effect of the pills, which were identical to the ones mixed by the director?

“Now that I think about it, although we have been giving these pills to the patients, we have never taken them ourselves,” Hoover said as he reached for his soup and bread next.

The soup had a miraculous harmony between the savory flavors of the root vegetables and the bitterness of the pills, and it went well with the bread whose dough had been baked with the pills mixed in.

“Ah, delicious. So very delicious,” Hoover said.

As he reached for the pie that contained white fish and more pills, his vision began to blur. With some difficulty, he broke the pie’s crust with his fork. He ate it with the fish and tasted no bitterness at all. He could taste the fluffy flesh of the fish that melted in his mouth, certain medicinal herbs and powdered dried monster organs that were components of the pills, salt, herbs, the butter in the pie crust… It was likely that all of this had been balanced perfectly with just the right amount of milk, changing the unpleasant bitterness into a delicious flavor.

Or perhaps his sense of taste had already become twisted? In order to test whether that was the case, he reached for the meat that smelled of spices. With violently trembling hands, he thrust a knife into one of the enormous meatballs and, with great effort, put it in his mouth.

The meatball was surprisingly soft, crumbling as he chewed it and filling his mouth with meat juices. As expected, he couldn’t taste the bitterness of the pills at all.

I see. The cooking process has eliminated the bitterness, he thought.

“Hyooow… Delishaaas…” he managed to groan.

A chill had enveloped his entire body, and he was no longer able to move his arms. Like a dog, he buried his face in the rice, filled his mouth with it… but before he could start chewing, his consciousness gave out.

The now-quiet room was a miserable spectacle to behold.

Some had their mouths open, with liquids and sauces dripping out along with their own blood. Some were spasming violently with expressions that made it clear at a glance that they were in a serious condition. Some had their eyes rolled into the back of their heads and humming for some reason.

Knochen’s split entities groaned as they continued to feed the director and his employees despite their state. They cut the food into small pieces, put it inside their mouths, and made them swallow. They continued this until all of the food was gone, from appetizer to dessert.

“I suppose that will do,” said Vandalieu.

Knochen gave a questioning groan.

“Yes, I know that none of them have died yet, but that’s fine. I’ll have them work for me starting tomorrow… or their bodies, at least,” Vandalieu said.

The director and his employees were all still alive – a spell cast by Vandalieu was maintaining their biological functions.

“They look so pitiful that I am not sure which is worse for them, Master – continuing to extend their lives with ‘Death Delay,’ or simply letting them die,” Luciliano remarked.

“In this case, I think they would be more at ease if they died. After all, the reason I cast ‘Death Delay’ on them is to make sure that they wouldn’t be at ease,” Vandalieu said.

Vandalieu’s death-attribute spell known as ‘Death Delay’ did exactly as its name suggested – it postponed the death of its target. It did not heal the target’s wounds or remove poison from their bodies. It simply prevented them from dying.

Even if the target’s heart had stopped beating, or they had lost a tremendous volume of blood, or their lungs were emptied of oxygen and filled with water, or their brain had suffered a fatal injury, the spell would forcibly keep them alive and extend the time it took for them to die.

Originally, it was a spell for delaying patients’ deaths in order to buy more time for them to be treated and saved. But it could also be used to extend someone’s suffering, as in this case.

“All I need to do now is brainwash them and then leave them overnight,” Vandalieu said. “Elizabeth-sama left their fates in my hands, after all.”

“… You always refer to her with ‘-sama’ as the honorific when Mrs. Amelia isn’t present. Does she truly understand your position?” Luciliano asked.

“I haven’t told her yet,” Vandalieu replied. “But I’m sure she suspects that I’m hiding something, and I’ve already told her honestly that I am.”

“… I don’t think you worded it well,” said Kühl.

Kühl was referring to Vandalieu’s poor wording when talking to Elizabeth and Mahelia. He had told them: “I’m hiding something important from you. The reason for that is that I believe things will go better if you don’t know yet. Once I tell you, there will be no going back, either. But if you don’t want to learn it, then feel free to say so. Otherwise, I’ll tell you everything.”

At this point in time, Vandalieu couldn’t imagine that Elizabeth and the others would separate themselves from him. It was possible that they would decide not to come to the Demon Empire of Vidal inside the Boundary Mountain Range, and it was possible that they would go on an adventure with people other than Vandalieu after they graduated the Hero Preparatory School. But Vandalieu wouldn’t consider these things as ‘separation’ from him.

If they possessed ‘Vandalieu’s Divine Protection,’ that alone would mean that they would be his companions, no matter what they did or where they were.

In the past, Vandalieu had the attitude of ‘welcoming those who come, but not pursuing those who leave.’ But now, perhaps it was ‘following (haunting) those who leave.’

“By the way, how is Dr. Hoover?” Vandalieu asked.

“As you can see, he is unconscious, but he is otherwise fine,” said Luciliano. “After all, when he lost consciousness, you used ‘Disinfect’ to remove the excess compounds that would have made the doses fatal.”

Ordinarily, the medicine created by the hospital’s director would only take effect after it had been taken continuously over a long period of time. Taking it only once would not have serious effects as long as the dose wasn’t fatal.

Why had Vandalieu spared Hoover? If he had intended to save Hoover all along, why had he made him eat the same food as the director and the other employees? It was because Hoover himself had sought to be punished.

Like Hoover himself had said, he judged himself to be no different from the director and the others. That was why he had asked Vandalieu and his companions to receive the same punishment. But Vandalieu didn’t intend to treat him the same way as the director and the others.

That was why Hoover hadn’t been restrained by Knochen, and that was why he had been left to eat the food of his own free will, unlike the director and the others – so that he wouldn’t eat any more once he lost consciousness.

… Of course, although he hadn’t taken a fatal dose of the medicine, he certainly hadn’t taken it in the intended dose, either. There would be some effects on his health. He would likely spend a week to a month in an intoxicated state, as if he were suffering from a very terrible hangover.

“So, will you send him to Talosheim so that he can recuperate?” Luciliano asked.

“Yes. I’m sure that will be better than having him stay here. It doesn’t seem like he has any family or relatives, either,” said Vandalieu. “Now then, once I’ve created Demon King Familiars to brainwash the director and the others, I’ll return to the hospital to have Amelia drink a medical concoction. Everyone else, do your own work.”

“Understood, Master,” said Luciliano.

Knochen gave an affirmative groan.

The work carried outside the dining hall created by Knochen in the hospital’s courtyard continued late into the night.

It was the morning of the sixth day since Vandalieu’s hospitalization.

“So, why are Vandalieu and my mother still hospitalized?” Elizabeth asked Pauvina with a grumpy expression as they commuted to the Hero Preparatory School. “Those bas… Those people at the hospital, he’s already gotten rid of them, hasn’t he?”

Vandalieu had explained to her and Mahelia exactly what the director and his employees had done to Amelia, and who had ordered them to do it.

On top of that, Elizabeth had requested for Vandalieu to deal with the director and his employees. Or to be more precise, she had completely left the task to him. The only thing that she could think of was beating them senseless, and she detested Earl Reamsand, who had deceived her for years, far more than the director and the hospital’s staff. She was also certain that they would suffer a far crueler fate at Vandalieu’s hands than any that she could come up with.

… Incidentally, she was also aware that he had spared Dr. Hoover, and that he had sought punishment of his own accord.

“Could it be that he intends to flirt with my mother while I am not around…?!” Elizabeth muttered furiously.

“About that. He said that he’s staying at the hospital today and tomorrow because he wrote in his letters that he would stay at the hospital for seven days,” said Pauvina.

“Still, he could at least come outside the hospital, couldn’t he?”

“I think so too, but he said he can’t, because Duke Jahan is coming to visit him.”

“… Why is a duke going to visit him in person?! Normally, you’d just send a messenger or a letter and a gift, wouldn’t you?!”

A duke was planning to visit a facility that no person would normally visit by choice. Such a visit wasn’t forbidden, but it was something that would be guaranteed to start rumors. It was completely unheard of, unless the person he was visiting was someone that he was exceptionally close with.

“I wonder why? The duke told Darcia-Mama that he wanted to visit,” said Pauvina. “More importantly, for today’s after-school special training, do you think it’s about time you tried handling some Rank 6 monsters?”

“I wanted to ask you a whole lot more questions… like why I gained the ‘Great Demon King’s Daughter’ Title last night, why I’ve gained various things including a mysterious divine protection, and about these ‘Legion’ people who I can’t see but are apparently following me around for my protection,” said Elizabeth. “But I’ll give up on all of that, so please spare us from fighting Rank 6 monsters. We’d die if we did.”

“A wise decision, my lady,” said Mahelia.

And in the early afternoon of this day, Duke Jahan stepped inside the Hospital of Psychotherapy to visit Vandalieu.

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