We relayed the gist of the situation to Lord Oliver just before his meal. After Asta investigated with his Appraisal ability, it turned out that the food the lord was about to eat had indeed been laced with a slow-acting poison.
"I apologize, but I find that rather difficult to believe on such short notice."
He furrowed his brows in bewilderment. From Lord Oliver's demeanor, he clearly did not believe a word of it. If anything, he seemed indignant that Rose would utter such insolent, disrespectful nonsense at a time like this.
"D-Don't mess with us! Are you saying we poisoned the master who took us in?!"
"That's right! As if any of us would ever do something like that!"
A middle-aged man with a crew cut in a chef's uniform roared in fury, prompting the other cooks to chime in one after another, hurling accusations of their own.
Every single servant in this mansion had washed ashore in this town after being driven out of other cities due to complicated circumstances. Without exception, they revered Lord Oliver for giving them a home. That was precisely why the mere suspicion of trying to murder their benefactor was something they could never forgive.
At any rate, the atmosphere made it impossible for anyone—starting with Lord Oliver—to listen calmly to reason.
How should we proceed? We had no concrete evidence, and above all, Rose and her companions had no idea who the culprit actually was.
As she deliberated, Asta stepped forward, wearing an unsettling smirk. Looking at him now, Rose could feel nothing but a terrible premonition.
"Then let those who are confident they did not poison the food eat from that very plate."
"Asta, wait! If you do that—"
Zack extended his right arm to hold Rose back as she raised her voice, shaking his head. He was telling her to leave it to Asta.
Kai showed no mercy to wrongdoers, but was relatively lenient toward those who lived honestly. Furthermore, while Asta was typically lazy and unmotivated, he obeyed Kai's orders without fail. In that regard, if he forced poison down the throats of the mansion's staff and killed them, Kai would hardly look upon it favorably. Therefore, Asta would never employ a tactic that simply left these people to die.
"Princess Rose, I am sorry, but they are my precious family. I will not doubt my family."
With a resolute tone, Lord Oliver flatly rejected Asta's proposal.
"Your desire to believe in them is truly admirable. But suppose that dish is indeed poisoned and you perish—what do you think will happen? Will not every single cook over there be sentenced to death?"
Asta strolled over to the table, picked up the plate, twirled it casually on his right index finger, and glanced sideways at Zack.
"First off, it's an automatic death penalty in the Holy Amelia Kingdom. Most likely, anyone even remotely suspicious will be executed. What's more, murdering a noble is high treason. The punishment extends to their entire families."
At Zack's warning that even their families would face execution, a wave of agitation rippled through the servants.
It was only natural. If there was even a single traitor among them, everyone—along with their kin—could end up on the chopping block.
"I, Astaroth, shall declare this: the dish in my right hand is laced with a deadly, slow-acting poison."
Amid the murmuring crowd, Asta paced across the room as he addressed everyone present.
"You claim that no poison has been added to this plate. Very well. Let everyone gathered here partake of the food upon it to prove your innocence.
If none of you die, our claim will be proven false. Conversely, if a traitor does lurk among you, that person will die, but their family will at least be spared the executioner's blade. Come now, is this not the best possible choice for you all?"
At Asta's honeyed words, the servants exchanged anxious glances.
"Cease this attempt to sow discord! Not one of my servants is a coward who would resort to poison!"
Lord Oliver's face flushed crimson as he shot to his feet, bellowing in rage.
"Master, it's fine by us," the crew-cut cook interjected, glaring fiercely at Asta. "All we have to do is prove we're innocent."
He marched up to Asta, aggressively stabbed a piece of meat on the plate with a fork, and shoved it into his mouth.
"See that? I'm innocent, aren't I?"
"Indeed. You are not the poisoner."
As a sigh of relief swept through the room, Asta's grin widened, and he gave a firm nod of confirmation.
"Hah!"
The long-haired young cook beside him scoffed and ate a bite without hesitation. One after another, the servants began eating the food to defend their honor.
Yet among them, one person acted completely differently. It was the red-haired maid, Jane. Though she had scooped up some food with her spoon, she had frozen entirely in place.
"What is the matter, Jane dear? Are you not going to eat?"
Asta approached Jane with a thoroughly malicious grin, leaning in to peer at her face.
"E-Eating this won't prove whether someone poisoned it! My lord, please reconsider!"
Jane was drenched in a waterfall of sweat, her face turning from pale to an ashen gray, sparking renewed murmurs across the room.
"As I thought, I cannot permit this. To treat my family with such suspicion is—"
Lord Oliver tried to object once more, but the staff cut him off.
"No, Master. Our trust and our pride are on the line here. We have to settle this once and for all!"
"He's right! Jane, hurry up and eat. I'll take a bite right after you!" the gardener chimed in, backing the head cook.
Even so, Jane did not budge an inch.
"M-Master!"
Letting out a desperate, screeching plea, Jane clung to Lord Oliver.
"I am sorry, Jane. This is the consensus of everyone here. Once your innocence is proven, I will apologize to you properly."
"Damn it...!"
Her hand trembled violently around the spoon for a second. Then, with agility entirely unfitting for a demure maid, she sprang backward toward the door.
"Did you truly believe you could escape from me? That is a bit too presumptuous."
Asta caught her effortlessly by the neck from behind and hoisted her into the air.
Ignoring Lord Oliver, whose mouth hung open in shock, Asta slowly tightened his grip.
"Guh...!"
"Now then, I would love to hear your reason for running. Could it be that you simply disliked the meal?"
Asta questioned Jane in a tone dripping with chilling malice.
"T-That's right! I hate it! As if I'd ever eat something worse than leftover garbage! Don't screw with me!"
As Jane shrieked frantically with a manic expression, the head cook and his staff flared with fiery indignation.
The corners of Asta's mouth curled upward to an impossible degree. Forcing Jane down into a chair, he spoke:
"Being a picky eater is no good. However, it is true that I, too, have things I dislike. Therefore, I shall grant you a chance."
"W-What? As long as it's not that foul slop, I'll eat anything!"
Seeing a glimmer of hope in the word 'chance,' her face instantly brightened. But the moment she saw what Asta produced in his right hand, her expression twisted in sheer horror.
Resting on the plate in Asta's palm was a hemispherical, transparent dome. Inside, countless small, writhing creatures squirmed in a repulsive mass that triggered pure, instinctual revulsion.
"I care not either way. Will you eat their cooking? Or will you partake of my prized special menu? Come, choose."
Her entire body shuddered in violent tremors.
"Neither—"
She tried to voice a refusal, but Asta cut her off.
"Hmm? Do you wish to eat both, then?"
Taking on an even more sinister air, Asta thrust before her the very reality she dreaded most.
"N-No—"
To Jane, who shook her head frantically with tears welling in her eyes, he delivered his final ultimatum:
"A pity, but that is forbidden. You are permitted to eat only one plate. Come, make your choice."
A dish laced with slow-acting poison, or a live feeding of countless squirming insects. There could hardly be a more ghastly dilemma. It was, in every sense of the word, the devil's choice.
"I-I refuse!"
"Refusal is not an option. Thus, if you do not choose before the sand in this hourglass runs out, I shall cleanly sever your head right here and now."
Asta pulled an hourglass from his pocket and set it down on the table.
There was a limit even to bad taste. Just what kind of gruesome contingency plan had Kai prepared to make even Asta describe it as ghastly...?
"N-No..."
As she sobbed, tears and mucus streaming down her face while she pleaded, Asta leaned in.
"The world is not as soft as you think. If you take, you shall be taken from. That is the natural law of this world. You sought to take, and so you shall be stripped bare. You understand, do you not?"
With a grin stretching almost from ear to ear, wearing a visage that was no longer human, Asta laid down the truth.
Her eyes darting erratically in terror, Jane pointed a trembling finger at the plate of insects.
"Congratulations! With this, you earn your life!"
Asta snapped his fingers. Instantly, like smoke coalescing from thin air, two figures wearing pitch-black hoods over their faces materialized.
The man was clad in dark, foreign garments, while the woman wore a black breastplate over a short skirt and a dark overcoat.
The woman immediately pinned down Jane's thrashing, weeping form, while the man seized her jaw and grabbed a handful of the wriggling insects without hesitation.
"Sto-o-o-op!"
Jane's beast-like shriek echoed throughout the mansion as the hair-raising feast began.