IWAEBS - Chapter 173 < All Desires Grow Bigger >




Moiya found all the poisoned strawberries in the salad and placed them on his palm.

“If I eat this delicious food all by myself, I'm a bad wyvern.”

Excluding the poisoned strawberries he had missed, there were seven poisoned strawberries left.

“Master, I’ll just feed this to you for a moment and come back.”

Moiya held the poisoned strawberries in his hand and flew through the window to Rosie’s room.

Rosie’s room was close to the room where the Emperor and his wife were staying.

Even if someone was looking out the window, it was so dark outside that Moiya would not be visible if he moved while sticking to the wall of the monastery building.

It was also raining continuously.

Fortunately, Rosie opened the window so that Moiya could come and go. As soon as Moiya entered the room, Rosie and Aoshi’s eyes were drawn to him at the same time.

“Where have you been in that state?!”

Rosie asked in surprise.

Judging from the shape of her mouth, it seemed like she was about to swear again, so Moiya quickly said,

“To the master. I was right against the wall, so no one saw me, really!”

Moiya quickly reassured her as Rosie picked up the pillow.

“Aoshi, eat this. Rosie, you come here and taste it too.”

Moiya approached Aoshi and unclenched his fist.

“Meow? (What is this?)”

“Eat it. It’s really delicious. I only ate one and brought it for you.”

It was a lie that he only ate one, but it was true that he brought it for Aoshi.

“Meow? (Where was it?)?”

Aoshi asked, his nostrils flared, and he sniffed the poisonous strawberry.

“It was in the salad that Her Majesty the Empress was going to eat. It’s precious.”

Rosie heard Moiya whispering to Aoshi and came closer with wide eyes.

“What? You’re saying you stole food that Her Majesty the Empress was going to eat?”

“I didn’t touch the meat! There was a lot of fruit in the salad, so I just ate a few of these, Moiya~?”

Moiya shouted as if making an excuse.

“That’s really... What kind of fruit did you steal?”

“Refreshing poisonous strawberries.”

“...Me, meow? (...What, what kind of strawberry?)”

Aoshi rolled the poisonous strawberry around with hia front paws and then spat it out again, falling flat on his face.

“Aoshi, you already ate it, right? You spat it out, right?”

When Rosie asked Aoshi while opening his mouth, Aoshi nodded.

“It’d be good if you ate some of the poison. It makes me feel good, doesn’t it?”

Wyverns are strong against poison. Moiya, who had never lived in a group, must have known this instinctively.

“You’re fine, but Aoshi is different!”

“Really? Cats are really weak, huh? Then I’ll have to eat them all.”

Moiya casually unloaded the seven poisoned strawberries in his hand at once.

“The poison is bursting in my mouth! Refreshing, refreshing. Intoxicating, intoxicating!”

Moiya, feeling refreshed by the poison, began to shake his shoulders.

“Whoa, thank goodness you didn’t eat it.”

Moiya said that Zelda had fallen asleep again and hadn’t touched the food yet. Rosie, who was sitting on the floor, suddenly stood up, relieved that Zelda hadn’t eaten the poisoned strawberries.

Who could it be? Who put poisoned strawberries in the salad that Her Majesty the Empress was going to eat?!

There was no way Sharon or Bonis would have done it.

There must have been some kind of mistake in the kitchen while preparing the food.

Someone in the kitchen might not have known that the strawberries were poisoned and had kept them while picking the fruit.

However, she felt uneasy for some reason.

“I have to find out.”

She vowed that if someone had done this on purpose, she wouldn’t let it go.

Rosie clenched her fists and left the room.

“Meow meow? (Where are you going?)”

“Don’t you know? Is she going to steal the salad that Her Majesty the Empress is eating? Wow, the poison is spreading through my body, you look so pissed off, Moiya~.”

Moiya’s cheeks turned red as if he had been drinking. He staggered around and lay down on the bed, frolicking, and spoke to Aoshi as if he were drunk.

“Hey, one more plate of poison strawberries!” 

***

“Sharon, Young Lady Bonis. You were just here.”

Rosie quickly approached the two who had just come out of the kitchen.

Bonis asked with a worried expression,

“What’s going on? Is something wrong with Her Majesty the Empress?”

“No, it’s not like that, Sharon. I wanted to ask you something.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Just a little while ago, when you were preparing the meal for Her Majesty the Empress, who was in the kitchen?”

“Me and...”

Sharon looked at Bonis next to her,

“The two of us. What’s wrong?”

Bonis asked Rosie directly.

“There were only two of you, Bonis and Sharon? Did anyone come in for a moment?”

“Oh, Princess Resilia and Her Highness Pecilini came in for a moment.”

“Why those two?”

“Princess Resilia asked for water, and Her Highness Pecilini kept looking at the fruit salad I was making because she wanted fruit, so I gave her an orange.”

“Really?”

Rosie rubbed her chin with a thoughtful expression.

“What’s wrong?”

Bonis lowered her voice, grabbed Rosie’s arm, and led her back into the kitchen.

“That’s it, Moiya stole some of the fruit salad that was meant for Her Majesty the Empress. He brought the fruit that he was eating to my room, saying he wanted to give it to Aoshi...”

Rosie paused for a moment, then furrowed her brow and whispered,

“They were poisoned strawberries.”

“Poison, poison? Were there poisoned strawberries? That’s ridiculous! Oh, I put strawberries in the salad... What do poisoned strawberries look like?”

Sharon took a deep breath and asked Rosie.

“They’re much smaller than strawberries and much redder.”

“There was no such thing when I put the fruit in. The strawberries looked like regular strawberries to anyone who saw them.”

Rosie was certain of Sharon’s words.

“Someone must have put them in on purpose.”

“Either Princess Resilia or Her Highness Pescilini. It must have been one of them. Or maybe it was a collaboration.”

Bonis crossed her arms in front of me and bit her lip.

“It’s presumptuous of me to ask, but I don’t think they were planning this together. Isn’t that what happened at the wine cellar that you two are not on good terms with? Princess Resilia ran off on her own, so I don’t think Her Highness Pescilini would have planned this together.”

“Yeah, I think so too. It must have been a solo crime.”

Rosie gritted her teeth.

“If Her Highness Pecilini was dragged up by Her Majesty the Empress from the wine cellar. It must have been the Princess, I’m sure.”

Rosie seemed determined by Bonis’s words and headed straight for the room where Princess Resilia was staying.

Sharon and Bonis followed.

On their way to Princess Resilia’s room, they met Melanie, Catherine, and Princess Jasper, who were out in the hallway one by one.

“Where are you all going, like angry bulls with horns on your heads?”

Melanie asked Rosie.

“To the pink head room.”

Rosie answered with a squeak of anger, looking straight ahead.

“I don’t know what it is, but I’ll go with you!”

Melanie immediately knew who Rosie meant by the pink head, rolled up her sleeves, and walked with them.

Catherine and Princess Jasper followed them, staying a little behind the group.

It seemed as if a fight was about to break out.

Knock, thump, thump.

Rosie knocked on the door assigned to Princess Resilia with her fist.

Before there was any reaction from inside the room, Rosie immediately lifted the hem of her dress, revealing her strong ankle, and lifted one foot as if she was going to break the door.

Just before Rosie could knock with her foot, Princess Resilia opened the door herself with an extremely unpleasant expression.

“What kind of rudeness is this? Hey!”

Rosie pushed Princess Resilia and went into the room.

“What kind of rudeness is this!”

The Princess made a slightly frightened expression, then consciously raised her head and questioned Rosie.

“I don’t want to have a long conversation with the Princess either, so I’ll ask straight. Poisoned strawberries, did you do it, Princess?”

“What, what...?”

“You put poisoned strawberries in the fruit salad for Her Majesty the Empress!”

Rosie pressed her with confidence.

“Oh my, you’re crazy. You’re crazy.”

Only then did Melanie realize why Rosie was so angry and came to the Princess's words, and she jumped up and down beside her.

Princess Resilia was taken aback for a moment, but soon answered calmly.

"What kind of a blunder is this? Poisonous strawberries? How could I, a Princess, have such fruit? I really have to make sense of it!"

"Before we arrived at the second villa, Melanie and Your Highness, oh, you're here, Princess Jasper. And don't you remember when we were looking for fruit to eat with the Princess, and we went to a place with poisonous strawberries?" 

"Well said. Was I the only one there? If that's the case, aren't these three people also suspects? Why am I the only one being suspected?"

“Huh, what’s the point of having a human image?”

Melanie chimed in sarcastically.

“Melanie. You’re the image of someone who talks nonsense whenever you open your mouth, so stop talking. Don’t ruin the image you have left.”

“What? Do you really think that’s all?”

Melanie grumbled as if she was going to attack her right away, but Princess Resilia ignored her and growled at Rosie again.

“So did the Empress eat the poisoned strawberry?”

The way she asked her question seemed to secretly hope that was the case.

“She almost did!”

“She didn’t eat the poisoned strawberry, so why are you all making such a fuss? Why are you chasing an innocent person?”

Princess Resilia shouted confidently.

Rosie had enough suspicion, but the problem was that she had no evidence, as the Princess had said.

“Aha? Everyone is upset because I left the wine cellar door first today, but don’t make me laugh. If I hadn’t gone out like that, we would have all died there!”

Everyone just rolled their eyes and kept their mouths shut, since Princess Resilia’s words weren’t completely wrong.

“Do you feel better if we were sacrificed for the sake of those insignificant lives?”

The Princess glanced at Sharon and asked the concubines.

Do you think that when you tell her to listen, she only has ears to listen and no mouth to speak?

Rosie, who was usually called innocent, finally exploded.

“Because of your devilish actions, the most precious person has been infected with the devil’s energy!”

When she escaped through the wine cellar door, her long pink hair must have flown wildly. Rosie grabbed Princess Resilia’s pink hair.

“Ahh! Is this really crazy!”

Princess Resilia also reached out and grabbed Rosie’s hair with both hands, shaking it violently.

The two continued to fight for several minutes.

“Rosie, calm down and let go of that hand. I told you to relax your grip a little bit.”

Melanie actively stopped Rosie, who was holding Princess Resilia’s hair tightly, by tapping her fist.

“Why!”

Rosie, unable to resist Melanie’s temper, let go of Princess Resilia’s hair and asked in a voice that was still angry.

“Why, why? I’m going to catch you! Let’s finish this off today!”

Melanie pushed Rosie away from Princess Resilia and ran straight to the Princess.

Melanie showed off her sense by grabbing Princess Resilia’s hair and wrapping it around her wrist.

It happened so quickly that no one had time to stop her.

Catherine noticed and then sneaked over to Princess Resilia, pretending to stop the two while pushing Melanie’s body away.

“You’re just siding with those who have no loyalty, right? Oh, yes.”

Melanie turned her head left and right and asked Rosie and Sharon to hold onto her arms tightly.

The two people held Melanie’s arms tightly from behind as she requested, and Melanie kicked Princess Resilia alternately while swinging her legs.

“Ha, how dare you kick me? Do you think I’m not doing it because I’m weak?!”

Princess Resilia, who lost her senses at that sight, shouted the same.

“Grab my arms, quickly!” 

When Catherine and Princess Jasper, who were next to her, grabbed Princess Resilia’s arms absentmindedly, the princess also stretched out her legs toward Melanie.

“Oh, this poisonous strawberry thing!”

Melanie shouted as she blew Princess Resilia’s hair that she had grabbed with both hands and thrown on the floor.

“What? That damn thing, that thing that looks like a skewer!”

“What? You want to get stabbed by a skewer?”

In the end, Melanie and Princess Resilia rolled on the floor, tangled together.

Rosie and Catherine also tried to stop the two, but ended up rolling on the floor, engaging in a hand-to-hand fight.

***

I must have fallen asleep again while waiting for the food.

When I opened my eyes, the smell of food wafted in.

I couldn’t hide my excitement when I got up and saw the food.

“They said earlier that when you get infected with evil energy from the magic tower lord, your appetite increases, and I guess that’s true...”

Linel muttered as he stared at me, eating lamb ribs like I had starved for days.

“Are you sorry?”

I said the question without realizing it.

He didn’t show any displeasure and instead burst into laughter.

“I’m saying this because I’m happy that you’re eating well.”

He said as he affectionately wiped my mouth.

“Would you like some too, Your Majesty?”

“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

I felt my heart change for a moment, so I laughed awkwardly while eating lamb ribs.

Linel smiled at me as if I were being too primitive, pretending to be more noble.

“What’s the magic tower lord saying?”

“Huh?”

“What else changes when I'm infected with evil energy?”

“He says that instincts that you’ve been rationally suppressing come alive. All human desires will increase.”

As soon as I heard that, an uncontrollable desire began to stir inside me.

His lips suddenly looked so delicious.

Was I doing this because I wanted to nibble on Linel’s lips, not like lamb ribs?

No. This wasn’t appetizing...

“By any chance... does my libido increase?”

I asked seriously, putting the lamb ribs I had nibbled on in his hand.

“...Why?”

Linel asked, tossing the lamb ribs out the window.

I swallowed without realizing it and spoke longingly, spreading his lips apart with my index finger.

“Because I want to eat you.”


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