「What… The fuck?…」

Straf gasps out, struggling to both speak due to overwhelming numbness of his lips, and finding it difficult to even turn his eyes back towards the woman.

Clink.

「Finally…」

Springflower says with a frigid face and equally cold tone as she sets the empty ceramic bottle down on the table with a soft clink against its wood.

《What the fuck is going on?… There's no fucking way some sake is strong enough to get me drunk- No, this isn't what being drunk even feels like!》

Straf thinks as he tries to furrow his brows. He forces his gaze to the corner of his vision, to the previously unnoticed status icon.

[Poison: Alcohol]

[Intensity: 21%] [Beneficial] [Status effect]

Target is poisoned by alcohol. Provides minor beneficial effects, as well as detrimental ones. Effects worsen with higher intensity.

[2+ CHA] [-3 INT]

When intensity reaches 100%, target will lose consciousness.

Intensity of 200% results in death.

[Poison: Moonbloom]

[Intensity: 103%] [Status effect]

Target is poisoned by a moonbloom extract. Severely lowers target's motor ability. Effects worsen with higher intensity.

[-15 STR] [-20 AGI] [-20 DEX] [-6 END]

When intensity reaches 100%, target will lose all musculoskeletal control.

Intensity of 200% results in the loss of control of cardio-pulmonary systems.

《Two poisons!? I didn't taste anything weird!…》

His eyes widen at the sight of a sub-screen listing the poisons.

《…Wait, cardio-pulmonary systems!?》

Straf tries to grimace, but can't.

「…For a while, I thought you were immune. The dose I gave you would be enough to down a horse… It's surprising you can still talk.」

She remarks, leaning over on one hand over Straf while he's lying on the woven mat floor with his back. His small cup landed upside down, tumbling off to the side.

「What… The fuck?… Why… The… Fuck?…」

He strains to ask, struggling while his tongue refuses to move right.

「Why?… Such a strange question. Or perhaps you're wondering why you're helpless, and can't move?…」

She tilts her head, gently raising her brows as a smug smirk appears on her frigid face. She leans over further, lying down next to Straf on her elbow.

「…Poison. The bane of kings and peasants alike. The girls keep asking me to share my perfumes… I wonder if they'd still want this fragrance, if they knew what it stems from?」

Springflower says in a hushed tone while she leans in closer, right next to Straf's face. She sits back up to her knees and tilts her head, smirking.

「What… For?」

Straf asks, just narrowing his eyes at her.

「Hm? Are you asking for the reason? Or do you still think I poison people for fun?…」

She tilts her head with a snide smile and shuffles herself closer, kneeling over Straf at his side.

「…I do find it fun, but it was not random at all, Straf Katastrof Vindict. I can't believe my luck that you would just walk into here, dear customer…」

Springflower replies while Straf looks at her smug face. It slowly becomes harder and harder for his eyes to track her. He glances at the poisons' icon again.

[Poison: Moonbloom]

[Intensity: 124%] [Status effect]

《Twenty fucking four!? It was three over hundred just a moment ago!…》

He tries to clench his teeth into a grimace, but finds his jaw too weak to do anything but press his teeth together. His eyes slowly drift away to their neutral centerpoint.

「…Poisons are such a fun thing. Men are very well aware of their weakness to poisons, and yet they are completely helpless against them…」

She remarks with a growing grin as she reaches for the ceramic bottle again.

「…After all, who would dare to tell a pretty face that they're afraid of being poisoned?… That's such an unmanly thing.」

Springflower says with her head gently tilted and her face frigid while hugging the bottle to her cheek, but taking on a sweet, warm, and welcoming tone of voice again. This time, it's seeped with disdain. The woman then sets the bottle back down on the table with another soft clatter.

…Clink.

「…As to why… The palace has marked you for death, Straf Katastrof Vindict. It's ridiculous that you act like you don't know who her Divine Embodiment is.」

She adds, turning her frigid face down to Straf's, speaking to him in an equally cold tone.

Straf tries to reply, but all it amounts to is to silent movements of his numb lips.

「Ah, it must have taken hold strongly enough to render you mum now. That's fine, I like men of few words… Don't worry, it won't kill you. You're neither young nor old enough…」

Springflower says as an amused smile appears on her face. She swings her leg over Straf and sits down on top of him.

「…I will. I've been expecting to find you here, eventually… But I didn't expect you'd simply walk in here, and with women, no less… What a depraved man you were.」

She says as she places her hands on Straf's throat and painfully tightens them. Straf tries to shake away his head, but his effort amounts to a small wiggle.

A small new icon appears in the corner of his vision, depicting lungs. Straf tries to look at it, but can hardly move his eyeballs. He tries to take a breath, but his throat is constricted.

《Son of a fucking bitch! I can breathe underwater but not with hands around my neck!?》

Straf chokes while looking at her robes' beautifully patterned sleeves stretching underneath his chin. Springflower is looking down at him with an eerily self-satisfied smile on her face.

「Straf… Isn't it a shame? You've made so many wrong decisions that led you here. You could have picked a different city, you could have picked a different pleasure house…」

She asks as her smile grows into a small grin. The discomfort in Straf's lungs grows.

《Pleasure house!?… I thought that shitty lantern said pleasant home!… Who the fuck wrote that shit!?…》

Straf tries to move his hand to rip her grip off his throat, but can only move his fingertips.

「…You could have done so many things that could have possibly saved your life. You could have simply not threatened our peace… Do you not feel stupid, Straf?…」

Springflower asks, tightening her already constricting grip further.

《…You don't need to rub it in my fucking face! It's the fault of whoever wrote the fucking thing!… Am I seriously going to get unceremoniously choked to death in a brothel!?》

Straf sputters angrily, unable to draw another breath. His vision begins to pulse dark at the edges.

「…Say, Straf… Don't you regret it? All the choices you've made so far? It couldn't have been an accident… Fate brought you to me. It must be her Divine Embodiment's will.」

She asks in a mocking tone and a snide grin on her face, tightening her grip as hard as she has the force to. Straf lets out only a series of morbid choking sounds.

《Fuuuuck! This is worse than the fucking turtle! Worse than the fucking turtle! This isn't even a legitimate death! She's some low-level fucking hooker-assassin!…》

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Straf feels the urge to wince on a reflex from the burning feeling in his lungs, but his face barely moves. The woman's expression slowly fills with growing glee.

《…I have plenty of fucking regrets! I don't need to show up disembodied in front of the dyslexiac cow again! I already know what she's going to say! I hate it!》

Unable to wince externally, Straf focuses on his internal feeling of cringeful discomfort and dismay at the situation.

「…I wonder what face you'll make when it's over. I want to see it. I know you'll break eventually… They all do. Come, show me how you really feel. 」

Springflower says while watching Straf's somewhat calm and neutral, if a little angered gaze directed towards the ceiling.

《Looks like you got choked to death in a brothel!… Gahhhh! I can already picture her smug fucking face!… While Lia and Lily are soundly sleeping right outside, too!…》

Straf's eyes fill with frustrated anguish. Springflower tilts her head while watching him with a smirk, leaning forward and placing her face into his direct field of vision.

「Come. Show me. Don't hold back and show me your most indignant look.」

She says while staring into his eyes with a gleeful grin, adding her rather small weight down onto her grasp. The borders of Straf's vision turn to pulsing black, obscuring what is there.

《…Dying is such a pain in the fucking ass, too! The transition isn't troublesome, it's a pain in the fucking ass!-》

Slam!

The door slides aside with a slam against its frame, interrupting Straf's internal grumbling.

「StrafcouldIjoinyoufor-?」

As soon as the door opens, Cycelia rapidly blurts out with a red face while clutching onto her silver medallion.

「Ah.」「Ah?」

Cycelia's eyes widen, and her chestnut head perks up at the sight of the woman sitting on top of Straf, who appeared to be overjoyed until the moment Cycelia had entered. Cycelia's face turns from a bashful, tight-lipped grimace into a look of deep, growing confusion, while the woman is looking up at her, still gripping onto Straf's throat. He can see both of their startled faces, though Cycelia is barely visible.

《Ah! Lia!… I don't have to be a fucking dirt farmer now! Fuck you, Dyslexia! Dumping points into luck saved my ass, and I'm going to make everyone regret it!》

Straf manages to find enough strength to open his eyes wide, and with a grand effort, even turn his eyeballs towards Cycelia's face somewhat.

「…You bitch.」

Cycelia growls out and reaches for the hilt of her sword in one smooth motion, and her emerald eyes begin to emit a golden glow.

《Fuck her up! Fuck her up! Go! Go! You've got this, Lia! Your stats are busted too! Kick her fucking ass!》

Straf screams internally, cheerleading Cycelia.

Springflower lets go of his throat and hops away onto her feet into a low crouch, with her eyes wide open in both surprise and panic. Though the golden-eyed woman's words are foreign, the meaning her tone conveys is very, very clear. Springflower's eyes dart to the woman's hands as she draws her sword into a slash, aimed directly at her neck. Springflower's eyes widen again, and she leans backwards to evade.

FWOOP!

The sword carves through the air just in front of her throat, close enough to feel the wind lick against it. Her backward lean extends into a backflip, and she hops away off her hands on the mat. Cycelia steps into the room, ignoring Straf entirely while looking at the foreign woman with a stone-faced glare and her sword at the ready.

「Is this what passes for entertainment here?」

Cycelia asks with her voice in a low growl, rearing her sword back for another slash.

An expression of fear appears on the stunned woman's face. She glances over her shoulder and quickly throws a window open, sliding it aside.

Clack!

Her wooden footwear clatters against the wooden railing as she hops outside onto it. Perched upon it like a bird, she spares Cycelia another quick frightened peek.

「I won't let you!…」

Cycelia shouts at her, charging up to the window.

She slashes her sword at the woman, who leaps out of the window. She narrowly dodges the blade and its golden trail that extends an arm's length beyond its tip, shining in the night outside.

Clank!… Clankclankclankclankclank!… Clack!

Cycelia leans onto the wooden railing and peers outside. The robed woman is running along the ceramic tile roof extending outside, before nonchalantly dropping down to an abandoned box left on the side of the street. She looks over her shoulder at Cycelia's scowling face and bared teeth again, then dashes across the street into a nearby alleyway. Cycelia's eyes spark with gold.

Thud!

「You man-stealing whore!… Don't you know who I am!? Don't think you can run away from me! Just because you're in a foreign land doesn't mean you'll be safe!…」

Cycelia slaps the railing in fury as she screams into the night towards the alleyway, though the woman is long gone.

「…If anyone in the world gives you shelter, I'll come there with an army and raze it to the ground! Nowhere is safe for you! Your days are numbered!… You bitch!」

She adds, still screaming as the golden glow in her eyes intensifies, and sparks fiercely shoot away off to the sides.

THUD-crack!

Cycelia slaps the railing again. It cracks, scattering splinters outside. She retracts back into the room and takes a large breath of the cold winter air.

《Ahhhh!… Liaaa! If I could fucking move, I'd pat you on the back right now!… Never mind that she got away!…》

Overjoyed and able to breathe once again, the dark tunnel vision obscuring most of Straf's sight clears, and he manages to turn his eyeballs a little towards the window.

「Straf… What is the meaning of this?」

Cycelia turns around and asks with an uncharacteristically cold tone, glaring down at Straf with a downturned frown and sparking eyes of gold as she walks up to his side.

《…Eh? Uh oh.》

With some effort, Straf turns his gaze to Cycelia's『Glimmermetal Longsword』shining beautifully in the moonlight pouring in through the window.

「…Well?」

She prods further while standing over him with a frigid face, and her grip on her hilt tightens while her blade idly hovers above Straf. Though Straf can't exactly see her eyes due to the golden glow and sparks hiding them, her facial expression is pure, unmistakable anger, and not just any anger. It is the anger of deeply-seated disappointment, the anger of being right against oneself and own's instincts, the anger of a confirmed betrayal, the hate of a woman scorned.

《Oh shit. I don't need this rollercoaster right now. Please just use your pretty green eyes, Lia! I don't want that cow to say, looks like you got stabbed in a misunderstanding!》

Straf's eyes widen as the two stare at each other. He tries to speak, and realizes he can move his tongue just a little, along with his mouth. Cycelia tilts her head at the unexpected reaction, or rather, the lack of reaction. She watches Straf's mouth move like that of a fish on land, tilting her head. Her brows furrow slightly.

「…Eh? Straf?… Are you okay?」

She asks as the golden glow from her eyes disappears, and she clumsily sheathes her sword with a worried look on her face.

《Oh thank fuck!…》

「Po… Son… Poi… Son… Poi… So…」

Relieved, Straf continues to repeat himself, but his voice never makes it past a soft rustle.

Confused, Cycelia kneels down and brings her ear closer.

「Poooiiii… Soonnnn… Poiiii… Sssoonnn… Poooiii… Soonnn…」

He redoubles his effort, straining greatly to make himself be heard. Cycelia perks up in shock.

「…Eh!? Poison!?」

She asks, furrowing her brows at his mostly neutral face. Straf tries to nod, but finds his neck muscles too weak. Instead, he begins rapidly looking up and down.

「Wh-!? Wha-!?… Oh no! What do I do!?…」

Cycelia stammers, recoiling back as her emerald eyes widen. She jumps up to her feet and begins running on the spot with her hands on her cheeks with her brows greatly furrowed.

《It's already wearing off so just stay here for an hour or two!-》

Straf thinks with a pleading gaze directed at her, but she looks around in panic while stomping her boots up and down.

「…S- Straf! Wait here! I'll see if I can find an alchemist and an antidote! I'll figure something out! Just wait!」

Cycelia says, and rushes out of the room towards the stairs in the hallway.

《No! Don't fucking-! Gahhhh!》

Straf turns his gaze up at the open door, then cringes internally. His eyes drift down towards the open window, and the glowing moon.

《Please don't be a recurring character, please don't be a recurring character, please don't be a recurring character, please don't be a recurring character…》

He repeats an assassin-warding mantra in his mind, lying on the floor right where he was…