(The following day)

Waking up sore and groggy from last night’s endeavor, Winston recalled what happened yesterday night. The night was still young and his men, more than eager to please their lord thus he passed the order to kill or capture all the marauders that have been nothing short of a pest to the inhabitants of his territory. It had been met with great success, with no casualties on his part and only a few marauders who ran away at the start of the battle left with their lives intact into the wilderness where they would most likely die at the hands of the demon beasts that roam the area.

Now, he was having his breakfast consisting of soup, milk, hard bread coated in butter and a plate of 2nd grade demon beast meat served as a medium rare steak. Closing his eyes and feeling the minuscule amount of mana preserved within the meat entering his body turning into his own and revitalizing his sore body, Winston then opened his eyes and began to ponder over how his orders to Charles went.

“Damon, has Charles reported to you how the transactions with the slavers went yet?”

“No sir, though I do imagine you'll be receiving his report later this evening alongside the regular patrol report, sir.”

“Thank you Damon, clean up the table, you are dismissed.”

“Yes sir.”

Standing up he left the dining room as his head butler cleaned up the half finished plates and utensils he had used for breakfast with swift and practiced movements and then later left through a different door.

Walking out of the dining room and slowly heading towards his study to ease the throbbing of his head. As he was walking, he saw Darla, his wife's personal servant carrying with her some towels hanging on her arms and a tray with a teapot and cup with some milk and sugar on the side clearly meant for his wife.

He walked up to her and asked. “Tell me Darla, how is she?”

“She is doing alright Lord Winston. In fact better, she slept last night after breastfeeding young master Gabriel and then went to sleep with the child in her arms sleeping with her, and this morning she ate a full meal consisting of 2 boiled eggs, bread with butter on top, some tomato soup and a whole cup of milk. Right now I'm bringing her some tea for her enjoyment and the towels so that I can wipe the sweat and dirt her body has accumulated from yesterday and wrap the child in a new towel.”

“Hmmm. Very well, continue with your duties, if there is a need for me go to my study. And tell my wife not to stress herself, she may have completed the body compression stage and can lift boulders above her head in normal circumstances, but pregnancy takes its toll on all women who go through it, including her. I do not wish to see her collapse from exhaustion am I clear?”

“Yes sir, I will convey your words to the madam.”

“Good, be on your way then.”

“Very well, sir.”

Doing a slight bow to her master, Darla then left to serve her mistress who was waiting for her in her room.

After passing Darla, he continued to walk his study at a leisurely pace. Suddenly, as he was walking a wave nausea much stronger than the previous ones hit him causing is vision to blur and the world around him to spin. Unsteadily, he able to reach wall and use it as support as he leaned on it.

‘Ughh, my head, how could have this have happened to me? Could this be because stress? Fatigue? Impossible, I've trained for years in the art of war, learned to cope with stress and I've certainly do my best to get proper rest for both body and mind, so it can't be stress of the body nor mind. This can only mean one thing, poison.”

“It has been a long time since someone managed to poison me and caused me to be in such a state.” Winston mumbled to himself whilst trying to stand back up. Suddenly, from behind him a noise of someone clearing his throat entered his ears.

“Damon, perfect timing, call for the Doctor Xavier and have him sent to my room. Then go look for Charles and begin an investigation, I want answers by tonight. And have someone check on my wife and kids, I want to know their conditions. Afterwards, lock the castle down, nobody goes in or out, if this was the work of a intruder I want him captured and locked in the dungeon. Report back to me in my quarters. This is most likely the work of poison of some sort.”

“As you command!” And with that Damon dashed off as fast as he could go to search for Charles and have someone check on the madam and children.

Looking at Damon’s running figure, Winston sighed. He knew that his butler would do the job right, but he couldn't help but worry at his current state and the safety of his family.

Slowly, Winston went back to his room, got undressed, put on more comfortable clothing then, laid on his bed. He laid there for what seemed to be hours yet, in reality only a few minutes had passed, until a knock sounded on his door.

“Master, it is me Sarah.”

“Enter.”

From the door Sarah came in, the same Sarah that had informed him of his wife's successful childbirth.

“How are they?”

“They are alright milord, the lady also expresses her worry over your condition sir. She asks if it is serious.”

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“Inform her that I am well, simply in need of rest. You are dismissed.”

“Very well sir.”

With that, Sarah left the room only for someone else to enter, a young man only slightly older to Winston himself and certainly quite young for his profession. The figure was none other than Dr. Xavier who he ordered for Damon to call for.

“Dr. Xavier, it has been quite awhile since we last met in these conditions.”

“Indeed it has, indeed it has milord.”

With their exchange pleasantries over, Xavier immediately went to work. He went to Winston’s side and inspected his body for any signs poisoning as he was informed by the servant Damon.

“Tell me sir, but how do you think the poison got to you?”

“Hmmm, possibly from the food, it is not an uncommon tactic to poison the food of a noble to kill them. Surely you seen or heard of this before, have you not?”

“I have sir, but from what I have seen you do not suffer from any signs of food poisoning, or from any poison for that matter.”

Frowning, Winston looked at the doctor with narrowed eyes for further explanation.

“Ehem, it seems that instead of poison, milord has been subjected drugs used to capture non-demonic beasts, a anaesthetic of sorts.”

Winston, upon hearing the words of Xavier went into deep thought. On the other hand, Xavier was inspecting his lord’s body that had small wounds and scratches covering it.

“Sir, are feeling any of this.” Prodding the areas around the wounds.

Frowning at the weird numb sensation, Winston wondered as to what Xavier was doing. “Yes, as numb and as slight as it is I can feel it.”

“Hmmm, it seems we finally have an answer to your situation milord. It is likely that the marauders that you had dealt with last night had their weapons coated in the anaesthetic drug. You probably did not feel the effects of it because of all the adrenaline rushing through your body. As for the after effects, it seems to only have taken hold now because of how strong your body is. That is probably why you are feeling so weak and disoriented, sir.”

“What do recommend I do to recover faster?”

“Rest sir, do nothing and rest for a few hours, the effects of the drug will naturally fade away. Afterwards, I recommend that you do not strain yourself too much, physically and mentally.”

Sighing at the answer given to him, Winston asked again. “Is there truly no other option?”

“There are, but I believe it is best that you recover naturally.”

Sighing again at the answer, Winston told Xavier that he was dismissed. With that, Xavier left the room to perform his other duties. Now left alone and slightly assured for his and his family's safety, Winston decided to finally get some shut eye. As he drifted to sleep, Damon finally found Charles who was at the northern training grounds training with the personal guards.

“Charles! Charles!”

“What is it? You are disturbing our training session.”

“Lord Winston says that he may have been poisoned, he ordered for an immediate lock down of the castle and castle gates no one is to go in or out. He also ordered for an immediate investigation. He wants answers by tonight.”

“This is very serious, let's get to work.”

““CLOSE THE GATES!!””

Suddenly, with his booming voice echoing throughout the courtyard soldiers began to move to carry out his orders, and not long after that both the east and west gates were closed, each with half a dozen soldiers guarding it.

““I WANT EVERYONE NOT ON DUTY TO FORM ONE LINE, SINGLE FILE! WE WILL BE CONDUCTING AN INVESTIGATION AND IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE ACCUSED OF TREASON I SUGGEST YOU FOLLOW MY ORDERS!!””

Without having to repeat himself, all those present not on duty scrambled to line up in front of him. Looking at the line Charles thought to himself. ‘This is gonna be a long one.’

(3 hours later)

*sigh* “To think this would happen to us.”

In front of Charles and Damon 32 men who had suffered from the same symptoms as their lord laid in beds conscious, but suffering from severe migraines. One thing they all had in common with one another was that each and every one of them were part of the 50 men that their lord took with him to hunt down the marauders.

“It can't be coincidence can it?”

“Damon, if this were to be a simple coincidence then our lord must have contracted some serious bad luck.”

“How do you think this happened?”

“The marauders must have somehow procured some slow acting drug one way or another, luckily it was meant to incapacitate, not kill.”

“Do you think they have a backer? Drugs like this are expensive and hard to come by, it is not something a pack of marauders can just pick up or find.”

“It is highly likely, though why they didn't give a poison with a lethal effect does bother me. Regardless, our lord and the rest of the men aren't in danger and that's all that matters for now.”

“Hopefully this stays as nothing more than a coincidence. I'll report our findings to Lord Winston, do you have anything else to add to my report before I go?”

“Don't bother, I'll be going with you. There are other matters I wish to discuss with Lord Winston.”

“Very well then.”

(10 minutes later)

Outside the door to their master’s room both Damon and Charles hesitated to knock on the door as their lord seemed to be in deep sleep and they wished not to disturb his much needed rest.

Speaking in hushed voices they argued whether they should awake their lord or not.

“Forget it, we will just inform him when he wakes up.”

“Not, so fast Damon. You know as much as I how our lord is as a person, he is not so petty as to get mad at us for disturbing his sleep.”

“Yes yes yes I am much aware of that Charles, but you should also know how little he actually rests despite what he says and how he acts. It has been a long time since I last seen him without bags under his eyes.”

Looking back at Charles in the eye, Damon stood his ground as he firmly believed it was good opportunity for his master to properly rest his weary body, willingly or not. Just as Charles was about to open his mouth to refute Damon once more, the doors in front of them opened to reveal the slightly sleepy eyed Lord Winston.

“I appreciate the sentiments both of you, but you fail to remember that I have long since enhanced my senses with mana. I could practically smell they sweat coming off of you and your argument as clear as crystal.”

“”Lord Winston, we apologize for the disturbance.””

“Stand up straight, both of you. Your apologies have been accepted. Now tell me, what has your investigation brought forth?”

“Sire, it seems that last night’s marauders where in possession of a powerful, slow acting drug with no harmful effects other than severe migraines and loss of consciousness if the target is weak enough.”

“How did you come to this conclusion Charles, Damon?”

“There were 27 others who were suffering the same symptoms as you milord. All of which have accompanied you and myself last night to deal with the marauders. Other than that, we inspected the weapons taken from the fight and discovered traces of some unknown substance on the blades itself. We called for doctor to inspect the substance and received confirmation that it was indeed a drug that had no life threatening effects. We then proceeded to use one of the weapons and cut the palm of one of the slaves and have since placed the boy under strict observation. We will be able to confirm our conjecture by tomorrow.”

“Is that all?”

“No sir, we came to the likely conclusion that this maybe the work of someone else, some higher power, though whether this was a simple coincidence of marauders finding a powerful drug or they were purposefully handed the drug is still unknown to us. Whether this is a mere coincidence or the work of someone else, it will not hurt to have heightened security, sir.”

“Hmmm, it seems the findings of you two and those of Dr. Xavier are quite similar. As for the origins of the drug, I now recall Count Cerso had previously ordered a batch of sedatives to help in the capture demon beasts. Considering that the marauders also came from the south, it is possible that they stole the sedatives from Count Cerso before heading here. Have a messenger sent to Count Cerso and request an audience to ask about the sedatives.”

“What of the plan to tighten security, sir?”

“You may carry out your plan, have your men tighten security around the castle, have guards report suspicious activity in town and have patrol around town increase. Also, send word to the 2 villages to increase their vigilance towards anyone new that showed up recently.”

“”As you command!””

With that, Charles left to implement the orders to his men and Damon left for the servant quarters and homes to inform them of the new routines and changes to the castle that will be made.