Deadly Poison, Part 1

On the morning of the next new day, Gerald went for a run around the city. His daily training routine was slowly starting to show some decent results. Now he could already run for more than half an hour at a medium intensity, without getting too exhausted.

"Huff, I'm slowly getting stronger, but my endurance is still not enough. I have to push myself harder than that to catch up to my peers. Move those legs, let's go!" He was giving himself some motivational words while running.

During training, he found a small exploit. Whenever a normal person trained, the muscles would get damaged slightly. Normally, a day or two of rest would be enough to recover, but Gerald had a rare advantage. He could use his healing magic to recover in minutes instead of days.

The same effect could, of course, be achieved with Healing Potions or Health Potions, it would just be really expensive. Having the ability to recover quickly allowed Gerald to train for the whole day and still be completely fine the next one.

This is how he progressed so quickly. Although he came up with this idea only a weak ago, the results were already such as if he trained for a whole month.

After the morning exercise, Gerald went to the Crystal Dragon Inn to get some breakfast as usual. As he was distracted by eating, he didn't notice two pairs of eyes staring at him from the table in the corner.

"He is eating it."

"Yes…"

"…"

"…"

"He ate it."

"Yes…"

A silence followed as the two pairs of eyes intently observed Gerald eating.

"He finished."

"Yes…"

"Should we report to the Lord?"

"No… Not yet. We observe…"

The two silhouettes stayed rooted in place until Gerald finished his meal and left the Inn. Only then did they move to carefully follow him.

Meanwhile, Gerald was completely oblivious to the shadows behind. He was in the middle of the city and there was no reason to be concerned about a possible attack.

"Hmm, I have nothing to do apart from training." Gerald put his hands deep into his pockets. By doing that he bumped his pouch with potions inside.

"Oh, maybe I should get more potions… I used quite a few Mana Potions this week. Doesn't hurt to have a few more."

He went back to his room, quietly whistling to himself. After a few minutes of rummaging through his belongings, a slight frown formed on his face.

"Tch, I am all out of Mana Root and Morning Dew. I'll have to get some more…" he sighed. "Oh well, I better get going…" He took a cloth sack and went back out, to the northern gates of the city.

At the gates, two silhouettes stopped as they watched him leave.

"He left."

"Yes…"

"To the woods in the north."

"Yes…"

"It's about time. We should report this to the Lord."

"Yes…"

The two mixed into the crowd of people and disappeared.

***

In the guest room in the Serell family mansion.

"It is done, Lord Green Fang. We managed to sneak the Purple Frog Saliva into his food this morning. He consumed it about twenty minutes ago and now he went out of the city to the northern forest."

"Yes…"

Lord Green Fang only spared a glance to the two spies bowing before him. "Northern woods you say?"

"That's right my Lord."

"Yes…"

"Excellent," Green Fang laughed. "This went even better than I imagined, now there will be absolutely no leads for his death. The wild animals will quickly devour his body and there won't be even bones left!"

He turned to look at the two spies and said, "You did a good job, I'll make sure you two get rewarded for your services, don't worry."

"Thank you, my Lord."

"Thank you…"

"Mn," Lord Green fang nodded and then waved his hand, "Now go, I have other things to take care of."

The spies bowed and respectfully left.

"Call in the next messenger," the Lord Green Fang ordered to the servant standing beside him, without even sparing him a glance.

"Yes my Lord!" The servant quickly responded to the order and ran to the door, to welcome the next person.

In came a middle-aged man, draped in a dark green cloak. His eyes were sharp and his face full of seriousness and respect. When he came in, he stepped forward and saluted the Lord, and at the same time, revealing the green-scaled full body armor under the cloak.

"Erovior, leader of the second division of the Green Scales is here to report, my Lord!"

Green Fang nodded and said, "What news do you bring? Speak."

"Yes!" Erovior straightened his back and spoke with a strong voice, "Yesterday, around noon, our division engaged the target. As per orders, we followed the group called Children of War and ambushed them near Ironhog village. There were no witnesses or survivors."

Lord Green Fang narrowed his eyes and sternly asked, "Are you sure?"

Erovior's face did not show any emotion as he quickly answered, "Yes my Lord. We even disposed of the bodies, nobody will be able to find any clues of their disappearance."

"Hehehe, excellent," Lord Green Fang laughed, "Make sure to stay low for the next few days. We will leave this dump as soon as we are finished here. You will receive the order in the next few days. Until then, dismissed!"

"Yes my Lord!" Erovior saluted again and then left the room. He then left the Serell family mansion through a secret entrance and disappeared into the city.