novelraw Chapter 158 : Schemes in the Shadows
Chapter 158 : Schemes in the Shadows
Chapter 158: Schemes in the Shadows
There was a thing called the Eightfold Poison.
It was a concoction made by mixing eight different ingredients, each only mildly toxic on its own, but when combined, they transformed into a deadly venom—a truly cunning creation.
Its most lethal trait lay in the fact that, unless ingested in large amounts at once, the poison would only manifest its effects long after consumption.
That’s why it was considered a delicate and masterful poison for assassination—drip-fed over several days, only to let the target collapse later while the assassin slipped away unnoticed.
A woman dressed as a court maid had obtained it and, for a time, had been intoxicated by her own scheme.
Although she regretted not being selected as the new Royal Taster after the former experienced one had died, she still believed she could get past the poison-taster and reach the Princess.
She had been certain of her perfect poisoning plan.
Chomp, chomp.
Then, some damn eunuch had appeared and was ruining everything.
Through the window, the maid watched the quarters, her expression twisting with every passing moment.
‘Please, stop eating...’
But the young eunuch, ignoring her wishes, scraped the plates clean.
This wasn't even taste-testing anymore—it was just a full-on meal.
"Buurrp."
The palace attendants gave awkward chuckles, unsure how to react, while the Third Princess found the whole spectacle fresh and amusing, resting her chin on her hand and watching in silence.
As someone who usually enjoyed gourmet food but maintained a modest appetite, the Princess’s dishes had been laced with poison in carefully adjusted ratios.
And yet, some boar of a man had charged into her delicate trap and torn it all apart.
Finally, perhaps having ingested a lethal dose, the eunuch foamed at the mouth and collapsed with a choking groan.
"…That damn eunuch bastard."
Now that her plan had been ruined, she felt a fire rage within her. Her once-flawless scheme had crumbled in an instant.
As the young eunuch suddenly collapsed as if poisoned, several palace attendants rushed toward him.
One of them checked his wrist for a pulse, only to find none, and hurriedly reported to the Princess, panic etched on their face.
"H-He’s dead!"
The crowd’s reaction was one of utter shock.
A heavy silence descended over the chamber.
Cheon Sugong, in particular, stood frozen with his mouth agape, utterly dumbfounded.
"Wait, what? You mean he didn’t have some kind of countermeasure?"
He had thought the young man was devouring the food with reckless abandon because he had some sort of plan.
But now he was apparently dead—his heart had stopped, and he wasn’t breathing. Cheon Sugong turned to a young woman from the Tang Clan of Sichuan, glaring sharply as if demanding an explanation.
But she too looked startled, eyes wide in shock, repeatedly making a face that said, ‘Why is he acting like that?’
"Damn it…"
The maid watching through the window clenched both fists so tightly her nails dug into her palms.
The taster had died. That meant the poison she had painstakingly prepared never reached the Princess, and her assassination attempt had completely failed.
"What the hell kind of guy is that…?"
A gluttonous royal taster? In all her years at the palace, she’d never seen or even heard of such a case.
Dejected, the maid turned away, having ended up poisoning not the Princess, but an anonymous eunuch.
But that wasn’t even the end of the surprises.
"Cough!"
As if waking up from suffocation, the eunuch—believed to be dead—sat upright.
The palace attendants froze, stunned into silence, as the man who had just died suddenly came back to life.
"Ugh, I thought I was a goner."
The sheer absurdity of the situation left everyone speechless.
And in the distance, one maid stood stiff with a look of disbelief on her face.
‘H-How…?’
It had been the Eightfold Poison, no doubt. A deadly toxin smuggled from Nanman, said to fell even a great bear at lethal dosage.
"Is that bastard even human…?"
She muttered to herself in terror.
Meanwhile, Cheon Sugong approached the revived Muhong, his face filled with disbelief.
"What the hell are you? Was it indigestion? Some strange constitution?"
"Nah? It was poison."
"……!"
Cheon Sugong and the surrounding palace staff paled at Muhong’s calm response.
The Third Princess fell silent for a moment, then slowly scanned the dishes in front of her with a sharp gaze. They were the very dishes she had been tempted to taste just moments ago.
"Deliver a message to the palace chef."
"…What message would that be?"
Had she figured out who the culprit was?
Cheon Sugong asked, a suspicious look on his face.
"Tell them—it was delicious."
But Muhong’s words turned out to be nothing more than a sincere compliment on the taste.
"……."
There’s a saying: So good, two people could eat it and one wouldn’t notice the other died.
The seafood and bird’s nest soup had melted away on my tongue, leaving behind a mellow sweetness and umami.
And the burst of juicy meat, coupled with a smoky aroma that lingered between the muscle fibers…
It felt like one of those scenes from cooking manga where the character yells “Delicious!” with a shocked face.
I’d have shouted it too—if I hadn’t blacked out first.
"Unbelievable. Was it really that good?"
A deserted clearing late at night, where no one else was around.
Tang Yeo-hye had approached silently, arms crossed, mumbling as if at a loss for words.
"The palace chefs really are on another level."
Unlike street cooks who cut corners to maximize profit margins, these were dishes crafted solely for taste.
Made with the finest ingredients and skilled craftsmanship, the food felt far too luxurious for a mere troubleshooter like me.
"Well, they weren’t exactly made for you in the first place…"
She shook her head, amazed that my appetite was still going strong.
"So what? Thanks to that appetite, I ended up saving Princess Peach Blossom, didn’t I?"
After I passed out, Tang Yeo-hye had conducted a full analysis of the dishes and uncovered the poison.
She said it was called Eightfold Poison—a cunning and deadly venom used for stealth assassinations.
Most victims wouldn’t even realize they’d been poisoned until it was too late. But thanks to me pigging out like an idiot, the Princess was spared.
Cheon Sugong had been so dumbfounded upon hearing this.
He muttered something about how my ridiculous appetite had saved the Princess—though whether it was praise or sarcasm, I wasn’t sure.
"Anyway, how’s the Princess’s Palace doing now?"
I asked while slashing the air diagonally with both hands.
"Total chaos. Cheon Sugong and the Eastern Depot guards practically sealed off the place."
Tang Yeo-hye shrugged, saying a storm had passed.
“Did they catch the culprit?”
“Nope. But like you said, after filtering out everyone who was in the residence that day, the list of suspects got a lot shorter.”
It seemed Cheon Sugong was putting trust in my ability to sense the murderous intent of those nearby.
At the very least, no one inside the Princess’s quarters that day had wanted someone dead. There had only been shock and chaos.
“Then, after tracing the path of the food deliveries, a clearer picture of the culprit emerged. They’ve narrowed it down to about ten people.”
That’s quite the reduction.
“Aha.”
I nodded and once again twisted my waist, cutting through the air.
While I was on leave for having chugged poison, the others had been scrambling to root out the culprit.
“But… what exactly are you doing?”
Tang Yeo-hye finally asked, unable to ignore my odd motions of slicing through empty space.
“Just slipping in a bit of sword training.”
“...With that twig?”
You see, regular eunuchs weren’t allowed to carry blades or swords in this place.
So I’d picked up a stick that resembled one and started practicing the sword technique I’d learned.
“A twig? Anyone can see this is a fine-looking sword.”
It even had a handle and extended like a proper blade. It even had wrist guards on both ends!
As I showed it off like it was the coolest thing ever, Tang Yeo-hye let out a scoffing laugh.
“Men. Still into that kind of stuff even when you’re grown? So childish.”
Did she have any idea how rare it was for a tree to naturally grow like this?
Yet she looked completely unimpressed. Still as emotionally dry as ever.
“What’s wrong with it? It’s cool.”
I muttered dismissively and resumed practicing the Dog-Slaying Sword Technique.
Whoosh—the dull stick cut through the dawn air with a surprisingly sharp sound.
If I focused just a little more, I felt like I might see the lines again, just like last time.
Ever since I taunted Hwang Geolgae and danced on the edge of death, I’d occasionally caught faint glimpses of those lines.
It felt like hope being dangled just out of reach—close enough to touch but never quite there. It made giving up on training impossible.
Even now, dragged into this bizarre situation involving an assassination attempt on a princess.
‘Salseong, give me some advice like before.’
He used to get so excited whenever I practiced with a killing weapon, practically buzzing with energy.
But ever since I dug into his identity, he’d gone completely quiet. Now he wouldn’t even speak to me.
He remained silent, like some Evil Star slumbering deep within me.
Back at the gambling den, we’d actually teamed up for once, and that had been nice.
Now that I think about it, maybe he’d gone quiet because I hit him in the back of the head back then.
‘Salseong, are you there?’
Still no response.
For better or worse, he had always brought a bit of mischief into my life. Now, even that was gone.
“What’s sulking?”
“Not you, Noona.”
Tang Yeo-hye flinched a little at my muttering.
“Anyway, Cheon Sugong says to quit fooling around and come to the Princess’s Palace.”
“But didn’t he say I could rest? Why the sudden call?”
I exaggeratedly played up my lingering symptoms from the poisoning.
When someone’s been through a big ordeal, they deserve some proper time off.
“I know you’re fine. No one who jumps up shouting ‘Delicious!’ the moment they wake up is still sick.”
I was absolutely the kind of man who could joke even while ill, thank you very much.
What a society, so lacking in trust.
“So why does he want to see me?”
I asked, wondering if I’d been assigned another job.
“Whether it was intentional or not, you saved the Princess’s life. Looks like he wants to reward you for that.”
“Let’s go now.”
The royal palace—the place where all the rarest treasures of the Central Plains converged.
I was dying to know what kind of reward they had in store.
“It’s the middle of the night, you lunatic. You’d get stabbed if you went now.”
“Oh, right. Good point.”
I stopped in my tracks, just as I was about to head toward the Princess’s quarters.
By now, the Eastern Depot agents must be on high alert, guarding the place like a fortress.
“But they still haven’t caught the culprit, have they?”
“Not yet. Whether it’s a careful bastard or a cunning woman, they’re still missing definitive evidence.”
Now that I thought about it, the request Cheon Sugong gave me was essentially to find the poisoner.
Since I hadn’t actually caught them, it was really only a half-finished job. That sat wrong with me—on both a personal and moral level.
Which meant… I couldn’t shamelessly demand a bigger reward just yet.
“If I bring the culprit along when I show up… I bet the Princess would double my reward, right?”
“Dou… ble?”
Tang Yeo-hye tilted her head at my strange phrasing.
A proper troubleshooter doesn’t leave a job half-done.
Since I’d already stopped the poisoning, I might as well catch the would-be assassin too and present them on a silver platter.
“Tell Cheon Sugong this—tomorrow morning, even if he has to make up an excuse, gather all the suspects in one place.”
That way, I could identify the culprit on the spot.
With full confidence, I delivered my request. Tang Yeo-hye stared at me with half-lidded eyes.
“You can really tell… who the culprit is?”
It looked like she still had doubts, even after seeing Cheon Sugong place his faith in me.
“If they’re nearby and I keep my mind sharp… yeah. I can tell.”
It was something that couldn’t be explained through martial arts or observation alone, but Tang Yeo-hye had seen it happen before.
“A natural ability, huh? Like that regeneration of yours back then… no, wait. I promised not to ask unless you brought it up first.”
She clearly wanted to know more, but kept her lips sealed.
Still, she was considerate enough, seeing me as the one who saved her life.
“Anyway, let’s lay a trap.”
Whoever ruined that exquisite dish with poison—
There was no way I’d let them get away. I’d drag them in front of Princess Peach Blossom myself.
“Yeah, alright.”
Reading the resolve in my eyes, Tang Yeo-hye gave a nod.
How did it come to this?
A palace maid murmured inwardly, hiding among the crowd.
Now that her poisoning attempt had been discovered, she needed to slip away quietly—but the Eastern Depot’s surveillance was intense, making it far from easy.
Still, she had cleaned up the evidence thoroughly, and she was a veteran maid who had worked here a long time.
If she just stalled through the meaningless questioning and suspicions long enough, surely an opportunity would arise.
Clenching her lips, she held on to that thought.
And then, in front of everyone, a young eunuch calmly stepped forward.
‘That bastard… he really survived…’
Even having witnessed his revival, she still couldn’t quite believe it.
He was the root cause of her plan’s ruin.
Her face wore a calm mask, but inside, she was boiling over with murderous rage.
And then, with a satisfied expression, the young eunuch pointed directly at her.
“It’s her.”
“……!”
All color drained from the maid’s face.