Editing Tales of Leo Attiel:Volume4 Chapter6 (section)

===Part 2===


When heard the word 'poison', Father Gemili started coughing furiously. The soldiers of the Holy See, disguised as priests, stared at each other in horror. As Leo watched, them, he continued speaking.

“How do you like the taste of poison, gentlemen? The speed at which it takes effect varies from person to person. Perhaps you're already feeling as though you're suffocating? Some of you might be getting dizzy. At this point, the Devil has probably already raised his gleaming scythe over some of your heads. Oh, but then some of you might be lucky enough to see heavenly messengers come for you, trumpets in hand. You should go through those gates to the sky,” he chuckled.

Gemili was clutching at his own throat. It looked like he had only realised he was suffocating after Leo had pointed it out. Some of the other soldiers were also clawing at their own bodies, while others were simply staggering around.

“What the hell,” screamed a soldier of the Holy See, his face scarlet. “Lord Leo... bastard, you plotted against us?”

Godwin seized the man by the shoulder just as he was about to rush towards the casket. The soldier was on the verge of loosing his sanity; he tried to shake Godwin off by force, but this was, after all, the 'colossal monk'. His feet seemed to have taken root, and he didn't budge at all.

For a second, it looked as though the entire place was going to be thrown into chaos.

“A prank.”

It was Neville who had spoken loudly to prevent the situation from getting worse. He then raised his empty cup, and tipped it sharply so that a few drops who remained at the bottom fell onto his lips. He licked them and said:  “Your Highness, I'd appreciate it if you put a stop to your prank. Is there some reason why you pretended to poison us, Lord Leo?” he laughed.

It was what you could expect from a man who had witnessed countless scenes of carnage. Even though he he had been told that he had drunk poison, he turned to face the prince with a nonchalant air.

“I have a reason,” opposite him, Leo wiped away his own enigmatic smile and glared at those from Dytiann. “Wasn't every single one of you here planning to murder me? So what further reason did I need? You should savour in your own flesh the reward for baring your fangs at Leo Attiel, second prince of the principality of Atall.”

“You damn...” Another soldier lunged past Godwin's side and tried to seize the casket.

“Wait,” Godwin stretched out his second hand and caught him by the shoulder.

“Let me go, Godwin.”

“I told you to wait.”

Although Godwin's expression was also one of desperation, he tried as much as possible to keep his voice under control. He didn't know how to take the prince's words, but Neville was still calm, and Godwin based himself on that to evaluate the situation.

An unnatural silence fell between the two groups.

For a while, they stayed still within this strange, uncomfortable silence thick with confusion, then... it vanished like the mist when Lord Leo's laughter rang out a second time.

“That's a man who's dedicated his life to God's teachings for you. You're so calm that there's no point trying to make fun of you. Yes, you're right. I lied about poisoning you. This wine is the finest in Atall. I had it brought in for your enjoyment to embellish this stage which I set up here. I needed something sweet enough to be plausible as the last thing you would taste in this life.”

“W-What...” The priest bowed his head with an air of heartfelt relief. His complexion was so pasty that it looked like he really had drunk poison. “My lord, that was atrocious,” whether from anger or relief, Gemili's tone was vociferous. “I am one who received sacred orders in Dytiann. This isn't some amusing joke; you made a mockery of me. I demand that you apologise right here and now and...”

“However, not everything I said was a lie,” Leo interrupted Gemili has though bashing past him with a shield and glared at the soldiers disguised as monks. He raised his right hand and held up to fingers to count. “There were two truths. The first is that you plotted to kill me.”

He bent down one of his fingers. Neville, Godwin and the others watched, their mouths dry, as he lowered the second finger.

“The second is that, five days ago, I drank poison,” he stated calmly.

Neville shook his head.

“We heard of course that Your Highness' health was far from good. And we were also aware of the rumours that you may have been poisoned. However, surely you cannot believe that it was we who...”

“The one who poisoned me wasn't someone from your group, and it definitely wasn't Lord Oswell Taholin, who is being accused of it by the rumours.”

“Then who was it?”

Leo's right hand was still raised and he used it to point towards himself.

“It was me. I, Leo Attiel, put poison in my own wine cup.”

The room once more erupted with noise and confusion.

''Is he insane?'' Even Neville couldn't hide the thought that was written all over his face. Only the prince and the guards accompanying him had remained calm.

Neville gulped before speaking up again.

“And... why in the world for?” he couldn't help but ask.

A faint smile once again appeared on the prince's lips as he gave a small nod.

“The first reason was to buy some time.”

“Time?”

“I had intended to act according to how Oswell expected me to, but if I'd done that, then the enemy would have set the pace and I wouldn't have been able to find out anything about their trap. So I pretended that my health collapsed, and used that time to gather information.”

Leo suddenly directed his gaze towards the window. The soldier who looked like a boy reacted to the signal and headed in that direction. Leo turned back to Neville.

“I say 'pretend', but it wouldn't have been easy to deceive Oswell and  the others with a fake illness. So I decided to take a poison I'd received from one of my men, dilute it in wine and water, and drink it. And as a result, absolutely no one doubted that I was genuinely ill.”



''Honestly...'' The one who sighed in frustration from not knowing how to vent his own anger wasn't anyone from Dytiann, but rather the warrior monk at Leo's side, Camus.

They had probably forgotten how he had gone ashen when Leo collapsed, but that hadn't been an act. Leo hadn't told anyone except Kuon and Aqua about how he was going to poison his own wine. The poison itself was apparently something that Kuon had brought back from his native land.

Leo had received a detailed explanation about the concoction from Kuon. How much did it have to be dilluted so that the effects would be as weak as possible, but without being so weak that it become pointless? What was the right quantity to cause symptoms that would allow him to stay in bed for three or four days without attracting suspicion?
By all accounts, Kuon had strongly objected at first.

“I'm not a shaman, so I don't understand it all that well, but it's dangerous, Prince. It had different effects on different people. Even if you dilute it, you could die from suddenly swallowing it. And even if you don't, you can go blind, or lose the use of your arms and legs... the shaman who made Sarah drink it said so.”

Leo, however, was every bit as stubborn. The horned snake poison in Kuon's possession could not be obtained anywhere near Atall. Which made it perfect for deceiving the doctors, and if it looked like something which had been specially concocted, then the surroundings were sure to start whispering that Oswell might have been planning his assassination. And that in turn could be used to uncover the relationship between Oswell and Dytiann, which Leo was still unclear about at the time.

Which was why he ordered Kuon and Aqua to carefully observe how people reacted in the instant that he took the poison and collapsed. It was simple. Easy. When Leo fell, what would be the first thing that Oswell and the monks from Dytiann would look at? Oswell stared at those from Dytiann. And as for the party from Dytiann... on the one hand, there was Gemili, who seemed shaken and confused, whereas the rest of the group looked at each other. Not a single one of them turned to gaze at Oswell.

That didn't reveal the whole story, of course, but it provided a piece of the puzzle that allowed Leo to guess at the situation.

But when the prince told Camus about it afterwards, the warrior monk naturally flew into a rage.

“Why didn't you tell me about it? No... first of all, you must have been mad to take some unknown poison!” He shouted so fiercely that it made his muscles heave but, as the prince continued to weaken day by day, Camus' tone softened.

As he nursed the prince, who was losing his strength and growing increasingly haggard, Camus mulled over his thoughts.

''How amazing he is. God granted me as my destiny to meet this man'', the conviction which had come to him when they were entering Olt Rose flitted across his mind.

''Alright. In that case, I'll take poison too'', he decided. In other words, if Leo believed it to be necessary, then Camus would obey him even to the end. As long as Leo lived, Camus would not be a single step apart from him, and if Leo died, then he would choose to join him in the same grave.

Camus was prepared to live his life that way.

''So you need to be prepared as well, Lord Leo'', he whispered silently that night, as he wiped the sweat that was pouring from Leo's feverish brow. ''You are someone who will never be allowed to die alone. And even if, in the future, you want to live a peaceful and solitary life, I will never allow you to. I will always drag you back to the front stage, whether I have to cling to your legs and lick your boots, or prod you with a spear. So be prepared, Lord Leo, Your Highness....''



“It was Oswell who brought you gentlemen over here. Yet at the same time... you aren't aware that you're collaborating with him,” Leo's words had all the force of a spell, binding his audience. He continued his recitation while Neville and the others remained rooted in place.

“Basing myself on that hypothesis, I had my subordinates gather information. Investigating at random is about the same as wandering aimlessly in a desert. So as a starting premise, that one wasn't too bad. Especially if we're talking about Father Gemili...”

Leo glanced sideways towards him, and the priest almost jumped out of his skin just from that. He – and he alone – couldn't understand anything about how events were unfolding. He was still worried even now about whether he might really have drunk poison.

“It was very fortunate that we were able to get closer to you,” Leo gave him a small bow.

Gemili still didn't understand, but I'm sure there is no need to point the identity of the 'young, high-class girl' who approached him while he was going out to have fun every night...

There, in Aconrey, where there were no eyes to strictly monitor the clergyman, he indulged in the wine he was so fond of, and talked about everything that the girl asked him about. About how Bishop Baal had suddenly ordered him to temporarily leave for Atall, and how, for some reason, the monks travelling with him were all unfamiliar faces to Gemili. About how the monks were carrying a large casket containing 'sacred relics,' and how Baal had strictly admonished him not to touch it...

Naturally, information was also being hastily gathered from other directions, including details about the schedule for this meeting. They also found out that they would not be allowed to bring weapons into the room. Moreover, they found out that soldiers would be defending the road to the mansion 'just in case', so they also collected information on how many guards there would be and where they would be positioned.

“I was able to guess quite a lot from all that. Maybe about eighty percent. As for the remaining twenty percent... well, there's no point being too greedy, and we just had to take a gamble on the rest.”

“A gamble, you say,” there was a faint sheen of sweat on Neville's forehead as he repeated those words.

What had happened was neither a prank nor an act of mockery. The prince who stood before him had fully realised that the group from Dytiann were a secret unit sent to assassinate him. Even for Neville, who was usually calm and collected, the situation was as unexpected as it was horrifying.

Yet at the same time, there were a lot of points that Neville found hard to understand. It was his first time hearing that Oswell Taholin was in on this, but setting that aside, it seemed that even though Leo had figured out the real nature of the 'relics', he had not confiscated the weapons. And his own guards were unarmed. Had the contents of the casket been replaced? No, Neville and the soldiers of the Holy See had never had it out of their sight. They themselves had carried it into the room, and they had checked the contents just before doing so.

''What is this? What's he thinking?''

When he had first seen the prince, he had felt compassion for his youth, but now Leo towered before him as an enigmatic and powerful enemy. He felt thirsty. Even when he had been in the middle of ferocious battles, and even during his long imprisonment, or his time as a fugitive before that, not a single ripple had ever caused a disturbance in his heart. As far as Neville was concerned, the world would always be easy to understand. The pope's enemies were his enemies. And those who fought those enemies and who risked their life to accomplish the same goal as him were his friends. A man who could draw the world along such simple lines was one who could remain strong even to the very end. Neville's boldness, as well as his calm, came from that. But this time, too many complicated things were jumbled together.

Neville swallowed again. It felt like his throat was constricted. Just when he finally managed to open his mouth again –
“Prince.”

By the window, the boy-soldier – Kuon, called out.

“They're making their move?” Leo asked shortly, his eyes still fixed on the group from Dytiann.

Kuon nodded. “About a hundred of them. They're divided into platoons, and they're using the bushes and the fountain as cover as they approach.”

“I see fire,” said Aqua, who was watching from another window. “They've probably prepared fire arrows.”

At that point, Leo's expression changed. The smile vanished from his lips, and his face took on a firm look.

“It's just as you heard. They will soon be attacking this place.”

“Attacking?” Neville was startled. “Are you going to kill us without even a proper interrogation because you think we tried to kill you?”

“Their target isn't you. It's me.” For a while now, Leo had been staring unblinkingly at Neville's face. “Oswell's soldiers have surrounded the mansion, and they will soon be shooting fire arrows. They think you've already killed me. But even if you hadn't, it wouldn't matter. The mansion would still be engulfed in flames, with armed soldiers waiting at the exits. All of you, as well as myself, are destined to end our lives here, as charred corpses.”



Around the same time as the events in the meeting room, the soldiers blockading the road to the mansion had lit bonfires and were keeping a careful watch on their surroundings by the light from them.

It was boring work. Normally, the happy-go-lucky soldiers would have brought liquor along, but this time, they had received strict orders from their domain lord to: “Let absolutely no one pass.” On top of which, Oswell had also insistently repeated to their captain that: “Even if something happens, you are not to leave your posts.”

“If villains try to attack, it's absolutely certain that they will create a distraction to divert the guards' attention. Do you understand? Spears would come raining down on you, so you are ''not'' to decide any kind of action on your own. Don't move even a single soldier. There are other units stationed closer to the mansion whose duty it is to protect the prince and the monks, so the only thing you should be thinking about is blockading the road. And don't forget it!”

That was how monumentally important their mission was.

The guards of course knew that Lord Leo was currently at the mansion. Up until a while ago, they had been exchanging comments on the sexy and beautiful landlady at a recently refurbished inn in Aconrey, but by now, they had used up their topics for idle chatter, and were keeping watch while fighting back yawns.

Just then, they felt the presence of a large group of people who had come from the direction of the town, and all of the guards quickly stood up, their weapons at the ready. Could there really be an attack on the mansion while the prince was in it... they wondered. But only for a second. Peaceful laughter was coming from the group. From their appearance, it looked like townspeople from Aconrey. Still, it was strange that they were headed towards a mansion in the suburbs at this time of day.

“Hold, hold,” the soldiers brandished their spears to stop them. “What's your business? You can't go any further than here. His Highness Lord Leo is here.”

After saying that, the soldiers tried to chase the group back, but the people – who included young and old, and men and women alike – looked displeased.

“His Highness is the one who asked us to come,” they announced.
It was the first the soldiers had heard of it.

Although the prince's collapse had been kept as hidden as possible, rumours about it had flown around the town at astonishing speed. Several well-known merchants had then apparently gone to the castle with gifts, claiming that they were get-well presents. For safety reasons, very few of the items actually reached him personally, but Leo Attiel was impressed by the warmth of the people of Aconrey.

“It was thanks to your care and to your prayers that I recovered. I would dearly like for you all to come and see for yourselves how I've recovered,” he had said, and had officially anounced that he could be found that evening at the mansion which was being converted into a church.

“We didn't hear about anything like that,” the soldiers were bewildered. Word had spread throughout the entire town, and more people were arriving behind this first group.

“Hurry up and let us through. Otherwise, we won't get to see the prince!”

“W-Wait. I told you to wait. We'll go and have it confirmed. Don't you dare move from here!”

Soldiers and townspeople were pushing and tussling in the street when suddenly, the towspeople stopped protesting in annoyance and instead all started screaming.

''Now what is it?''

The townspeople pointed towards the wall. When the soldiers turned back and looked up, they too all let out involuntary shouts. Of all possible things, flames were rising from the mansion which was currently housing Lord Leo. The blaze was already so big that it cast a glow on people's faces, and it seemed to be burning with particular ferocity on the second floor of the building.

Naturally, the soldiers were also thrown into a panic. “No matter what happens, you can't let anyone through, and you can't move from your posts” – those were the firm order they had received from their domain lord. Part of the reason for those orders was so that, when Oswell returned because he had 'heard that there was a disturbance,' he would be able to lead these soldiers into chasing after the 'criminals'.

However, in Oswell's plan, that was only supposed to happen after the mansion was completely engulfed in flames. He had not thought for a second that there would be townspeople there to witness the fire.

The townspeople shouted at the soldiers, anger and worry in their voices.

“Hurry up and go put that fire out!”

“No, before that, you have to save His Highness!”

The soldiers also lost a lot of their vigilance. Taking advantage of that, several people broke free of the soldiers and tried to get closer to the mansion. But the gates were shut fast and the walls were high and perpendicular, making them impossible to climb.

At that moment, a new group of armed soldiers came running up. Judging from their uniforms, they must also have been on guard that evening.

“What are you standing about for? We have to get in there right away and rescue the prince,” they exclaimed, and ordered the original group of guards to open the gates.

“B-But, we received orders from Lord Oswell. There are other people guarding the mansion else...”

“You fools!” roared one of the new arrivals. “What if those guards have already been defeated? If you just stand there without doing anything, Lord Oswell will have your heads!”

True, that was probably what had happened. The captain of the guards, who had the key to the gates, opened them from the outside.

“Follow us!”

Urged on by the newly arrived group of soldiers, the guards who had been sternly ordered not to move from their posts also threw themselves into the estate.