Chapter – 09
“Who on earth could it be?”
At the time, I was wracking my brain.
That’s because the spy sent by Leviathan was so meticulous, it was nearly impossible to uncover them.
At first, I suspected the maid in charge of tea — since only the duchess’s tea tasted faintly of mercury.
But soon, I realized the mercury-laced items kept changing.
Some days it was cookies, other days soup, and sometimes no food at all contained any trace of it.
And the culprit’s tricks didn’t stop there.
From time to time, a faint mercury scent wafted from the duchess herself — but it was never from the same spot twice.
Upon investigation, I found the culprit had applied trace amounts of mercury to several of the duchess’s exclusive items — things like her paddle brush, perfume, and cosmetics.
Just as with the food, the object contaminated with mercury changed each time.
There was no pattern or timing to predict — all clearly designed to make it impossible to trace.
No wonder the food-tasting maids were fine.
In the end, the method was brilliant — slowly poisoning only the duchess while avoiding suspicion altogether.
If only I weren’t here, that is.
No one could have imagined that someone existed who could smell mercury thanks to intense training.
Still, it was a vexing problem.
Not hopeless, though.
The culprit could handle not only food but also the duchess’s personal belongings — even her luxury items.
That meant only one thing: the culprit was among her closest attendants.
Someone skilled enough to clean, serve meals, and even help the duchess dress and adorn herself.
So I narrowed the suspects down to the four maids serving directly under the duchess.
Irina, Anna, Vicky, and Sally.
They always worked in pairs, alternating weekly between cleaning duties and personal service.
And that rotation gave me my clue.
Sally and Vicky — it’s one of those two.
On the weeks when they were assigned to personal service, no mercury scent came from the duchess, but the food was tainted.
They must have slipped the poison into the dishes while pretending to serve.
On the weeks they were assigned to cleaning, however, faint traces of mercury came from the duchess’s body — from different areas each time.
That meant the culprit applied it while cleaning.
So the question was: which one of the two?
Thankfully, since we all lived together in the servants’ quarters, I had plenty of chances to observe them.
We ate, bathed, and slept at the same times.
After tailing Sally and Vicky for several days, a suspicious sign appeared.
“Ptoo!”
It was the sound of Sally spitting out her toothpaste.
The water was streaked with blood.
Her roommate Vicky had once gossiped about it behind her back.
“Sally brushes her teeth so hard she bleeds — so why does her breath still smell awful?”
It wasn’t because she brushed too hard.
It was because of mercury.
Bleeding gums. Bad breath. Classic symptoms of mercury poisoning.
If Sally was the culprit, she’d been exposed almost as long as the duchess herself.
And since she couldn’t be supplied with mercury often, she must have been diluting a concentrated form.
Which meant she’d been handling the pure toxin all along — slowly poisoning herself without realizing it.
After that, I focused all my attention on Sally… until I found the final, decisive proof.
A mark — branded on her scalp.
The mark of Leviathan.
It was a sigil given only to those who swore eternal loyalty to Leviathan — a serpent coiling around the letter L.
The placement of the brand varied depending on the servant’s role.
For agents like Sally, who had to live among others in plain sight, the mark was usually tattooed on the scalp.
That way, once the hair grew back, it was perfectly hidden — invisible even when undressed.
Who would ever think to check there?
But someone who knew — would recognize it instantly.
And I knew.
The problem was, I couldn’t show this evidence to anyone.
A six-year-old who somehow knew of the secret emblem of an underground organization — and even where it was branded?
That would be far too suspicious.
So, no matter how solid the proof was, it was useless.
I needed something undeniable — something tangible, like mercury in her possession or a letter proving her contact with Leviathan.
But to obtain that, I’d need authority — the power to search her belongings.
That wasn’t something a new maid like me could do.
Maybe the duke could…
Unfortunately, the duke was away on a long expedition.
I needed someone powerful enough to act — someone who trusted me — someone who could help bring Sally down.
And there was only one person like that.
Perhaps the most powerful person in the entire estate.
The one who adored me so much she didn’t scold me even when I dropped crumbs all over her carpet.
The duchess.
Everyone was asleep that night.
The lights in both the annex and the servants’ quarters were out when I slipped outside.
Thankfully, with the duke gone, the guards had been reduced — I managed to sneak into the annex without being caught.
But just as I was about to enter the duchess’s chambers—
“What business have you here?”
A knight — one I’d never seen before — suddenly grabbed me.
There had been no one there a second ago.
Where on earth had he been hiding?
He glared down at me with eyes so cold my knees nearly buckled.
“I-I-I w-wanted to see the d-duchess…”
“Come back in the morning.”
“P-please, I m-must see her, r-right now—”
“This is your only warning.”
He was firm.
But I was desperate.
This was my only chance to meet the duchess in secret!
Then—
“What’s going on out there?”
Click. The door opened.
The duchess stepped out in her robe, irritation creasing her beautiful face.
“You’re awake, milady.”
“How could I not be? You were shouting down the entire corridor.”
“My apologies.”
Her sharp gaze moved from the knight to me — softening considerably.
“So you came to see me, in the middle of the night?”
“Y-yes, ma’am…”
“Then tell me — what is it?”
I glanced at the knight and muttered, “I’d like to speak to you alone…”
The duchess snapped her fingers.
The sound was crisp — and just like that, the knight vanished as quickly as he’d appeared.
“Now then, speak.”
She gestured for me to come in.
As soon as I closed the door, I clutched the small bag I’d been protecting from the knight earlier.
From it, I took out a slender glass bottle containing a small white wildflower.
A bit of wet cotton kept its roots moist — it was still fresh.
“Milady, could you please take out any perfume bottle you have?”
“What for?”
“To see if it’s poisoned.”
A crack formed in her elegant composure.
Unease flickered through her expression.
“That’s impossible. All my perfume bottles have silver stoppers — any poison would’ve tarnished them.”
“No, milady.”
I met her uneasy gaze and spoke clearly.
“Silver can’t detect every poison.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mercury. You smell of it.”
The duchess frowned and sniffed her arm.
“I don’t smell anything.”
“You wouldn’t. Mercury is practically odorless.”
“What?”
“I mean, ordinary people can’t smell it.”
The duchess’s eyes silently asked, Then are you not ordinary?
I simply smiled and held out the flower.
“This is called an Evening Daisy. It can detect poisons that silver can’t.”
Her eyes swept over the plain little blossom.
“It’s just a weed.”
“It looks that way, but this flower absorbs moisture much faster than others. If it drinks poison, it reacts instantly.”
The duchess was silent for a moment, then handed me a perfume bottle and removed the stopper.
I dipped the Evening Daisy’s roots into the opening.
The flower drank quickly — stem, leaves, and all — soaking up the perfume in seconds.
The pure white petals turned crimson.
The duchess leaned closer in astonishment—
“…!”
The flower shriveled up and blackened, as though burned.
“What… what is this…?”
“As I thought. Someone’s been poisoning you, milady.”
I looked up at her stricken face.
“I can find out who it is.”
