Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

As they left, there was a silence over the room that was quickly broken by Hari, of all people.

“Who tried to kill Trevor? Where are they?”

Jen was, however, shivering. “Travelling that way was horrible,” she muttered.

Liane quickly explained. “Dead. They killed themselves after they hit him in the hand. I don’t think they realised he is immune to poison.”

Milo was taking a seat, just listening to everything, while Crisplet was creating an ash model of the dead assassin on the ground before it broke down and created a cloud of ash.

“Yeah, Crisplet brings a good point. The body of the assassin itself started to break down and become a poison cloud, which would have been in the middle of the room filled with kingdom nobles,” Liane said.

“So it was an attack on the kingdom, then?” Milo said.

Liane shrugged.

Lily, who had been pacing back and forth, was looking into the distance every now and then, clearly agitated.

“We’ll be okay with everyone here if you want to join Sylverith. You’ll hear and see through the scarf if we need help. Just don’t render everyone unable to speak,” I said, running my hand along her back.

“It might also be worth looking around to see if anyone is not where they should be. It was said that all nobles should be in the throne room and all staff should be collected together as well. If anyone is outside of these two spots, put them there,” Liane commented.

Lily seemed to take this to heart and vanished immediately.

“I feel sorry for anyone not where they should be,” Jen shook her head.

Hari, who still had a very serious look, pulled the conversation back. “Please focus. This isn’t a joking matter.”

Milo nodded. “He’s right. At best, they just wanted to kill Trev for some reason. Could be allies of the nobles who have lost their positions. It could be someone who is seeing you rise too quickly. It could even be the same group who tried to kill you last time.”

“Or it could be someone who wanted to kill you purely to cause Lily and Sylverith to react,” Hari added.

“Why would someone want them to attack the city? Innocent people would die,” I said, not comprehending why anyone would want that to happen.

Hari nodded. “That would be the point, Trev. To many nobles, and especially to kingdoms as a whole, life is cheap. They might have seen you as a way to get rid of a rival, but it also means unless we can work out who did it, it’ll happen again.”

“Won’t they think they got me, though?” I asked.

Hari shook his head. “Whoever it is, even if they have an insider here at the palace who gets caught, it won’t be too hard to find out if it was successful or not, and unless you want to go into hiding and secrecy again, which honestly we were useless at, it’s not worth pretending you’re dead.”

“That wasn’t the only thing to happen, either. Morlin showed up in the middle of the event, though no one could see he was there. Even as we had a conversation, no one reacted,” I commented.

Hari looked concerned. “Do you think he was responsible for the attempt?”

Milo shook his head. “No, not at all. For all the abilities and power he has demonstrated, he wouldn’t need to use an assassin to kill Trevor. He’d just walk up and do it himself. If anything, it’s more surprising he didn’t stop it. Surely he’d have been able to sense it?”

Jen, who was now curled into a ball with her knees to her chest, “It’s possible he knew it wouldn’t work, though, right?”

I shrugged. “He said he was there because it was a great way to get information, and left when Sylverith was on her way.”

There was silence as everyone seemed to be figuring out what happened and what to do moving forward, when Kathrine came through the door.

“Oh, good. You’re all here,” she said with a smile.

“Everything okay out there?” I asked.

Kathrine surprised me when she laughed. “Yes, other than Lily dumping guards into the throne room as well.”

I felt my cheeks turn red. “Sorry about that. She was pacing, so we encouraged her to see if there was anyone where they shouldn’t be and to take them to the throne room or the room holding the staff.”

“Oh, it’s fine. In the end, Father thought it was best anyway, in case it was someone posing as a guard,” she smiled.

Hari sat up. “Are all the guests fine?”

Kathrine nodded. “Yes. A couple were injured when the body fell, but showed no signs of poison. Your parents are also doing fine. They were not near the body and have already been cleared by Sylverith.”

There was a sigh of relief from Hari, though he tried to cover it pretty quickly.

Kathrine fell into a seat, letting out a breath. “There is never a dull moment during one of these dinners, though we’ve not had an assassination attempt this brazen in many years.”

“Who do you think was responsible?” I asked.

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She seemed to think for a moment. “Father is convinced it’s someone from another kingdom. He said he saw red tattoos on their body before they decomposed, and the clothing was not native to this kingdom. The cloak is a rare magical item, so someone put a lot of money into this attempt.”

“That’s concerning,” Milo muttered.

As the conversation went quiet, I couldn’t help but worry. It didn’t matter if I was immune to poison or if Crisplet and Lily could kill my attacker after the fact. Today showed me a weakness, and I would need to figure out how to fix that. Even the phoenix feather would only save me once, but would that even work against someone trying to remove my head?

I was thankful that the first shot they took seemed to bounce off the chest plate I was wearing, but I couldn’t walk around in full dragon scale plate armour. Maybe there was some leather that would be strong enough, though.

The room sat mostly in silence as we all waited. The mood was sombre, and how could it not be? But I finally got to have a good look around the room.

“Wouldn’t these windows pose a safety risk since this is a safe room?” I asked, looking to Kathrine.

“They would, but from the outside they are hidden and appear like regular stone walls. There is always the chance that someone can work out exactly where this room is, but it’s not so easy to scale the wall, then break the barrier and illusion to enter without alerting someone,” Kathrine explained, clearly proud of the security.

“Have you had to use it before?” I couldn’t imagine situations where the royal family would be under threat.

Kathrine nodded. “Twice, outside of today. The first was an attack on the city by an enraged behemoth of a creature around ten years ago.”

Milo perked up. “I remember that. A Gorostra. Giant, demonic-looking beast that was close to the height of the walls, with deep red fur, massive horns, and stands on two legs. It took a team of the highest-level adventurers we had to bring it down, one of the only times a city-level threat has hit the capital.”

I was shocked that such a thing could even assault the capital at all. “The demons attacked?”

Hari shook his head. “Demonic-looking, but it’s not a creature from the demonic plane, at least not that we know of, so it was likely evolved out of a location of extreme mana concentration, then when the source ran out, it looked for an alternative.”

Kathrine smiled. “Quite right. Then the second time was fairly recently, when a dragon visited the capital, and as a precaution, our father had us wait in the safe rooms till he knew it was safe.”

I felt embarrassed. “Sorry about that.”

Kathrine laughed. “It’s quite alright. It ended up being a boon, as trade with our kingdom has nearly doubled since, even if most of it is just people hoping to get hold of dragon.”

I continued to look around, noticing that a lot of the books in here seemed to be on monster classification, kingdom politics, and survival.

“This safe room is really useful. I don’t think my place is large enough for one, though,” I commented as I looked out the window.

Kathrine looked confused. “Your house does have one. Every upper noble manor has one or two.”

I just stared at her, stunned. I had a hidden room in my house this entire time?

“I’m sorry, Trevor. I thought I showed you on the tour, but it appears I didn’t.”

“This is probably a poor time to bring it up, but I remember you asking for fire potency food, and I noticed today you were bringing Crisplet some very expensive-looking fire-based items, like the ember core. If you get anything fire-related, I’m happy to try to cook a meal with it and see if you get the potency.” I offered.

A gleam came across her eyes. “Ah, so that’s how it works. I suspected, and we have discussed how it possibly works, especially when you removed fire immunity from all the jerky, but yes, yes, I can absolutely get you ingredients, though it may take some time.”

“Wait, you’ve discussed it?” I asked, surprised.

Kathrine laughed. “Of course we have.”

I was unsure how much time had passed in the room. In the end, Crisplet started to build a statue at Kathrine’s request, which was a knee-high version of Alira, though I don’t believe she was expecting the humanoid version of her, nor was she expecting a version where the feathers were actually made of fire.

But at some point, Sylverith, Marcus, and Lily all came through the door.

“We’re all done,” Marcus announced.

Kathrine leapt to her feet. “Did you find anyone?”

“Not exactly, no. We had a mage who couldn’t remember setting up the ward they were supposed to, and as Sylverith confirmed, they simply don’t remember anything from the morning at all, which is very suspicious,” Marcus said, taking a seat.

“Sounds like that was their way in, then, no?” Liane chimed in.

“I thought so too, but their ward was only to detect magical presences and wouldn’t have spotted the assassin, most likely, even if it was done correctly,” Marcus added.

“Morlin, then?” I asked.

Sylverith’s face frowned. “Be cautious around that individual, young Trevor. He is more than meets the eye.”

Marcus looked pained. “On the other hand, two more houses were outed for corruption. One of them admitted to working for Marie before the interrogations started.”

“There are others, young flame, but you’ll learn nothing from this unless you discover it yourself,” Sylverith said.

Lily, ignoring everything, had gone to the statue of Alira and was clearly unimpressed. Her tail was flicking, and she was talking to Crisplet, who was occasionally shooting off a single spark.

“Lily, don’t force Crisplet to add you to that statue. It’s for the princess. You wouldn’t want random humans seeking you out and interrupting naps, would you?” Liane laughed.

This seemed to do the trick, as she left the statue and appeared at my side.

“We can increase security at your manor and try to make sure there is not another attempt. I suspect that someone is using your reaction to Trevor’s attack, or death, to hurt us,” Marcus said, looking at Sylverith.

She only nodded. “It’s true. Whoever is responsible will find themselves a pile of ash before they know what has happened.”

Lily’s head snapped to her, causing Sylverith to chuckle. “Yes, unless Lily gets to them first, which is likely.”

Turning back to Marcus, Sylverith said, “It’s fine. I’ll ask you to remove your own guards, as I will protect it myself.”

Marcus looked at her with wide eyes, but eventually nodded. “Very well. Then I’d better get going. I’m sure my wife is worried sick. You’re welcome to stay in the palace tonight if you’d like.”

“It’s okay. We’ll head back. I’ll start setting up the protections immediately,” Sylverith said.

A moment later, there was a pressure around my waist, as it felt like something had grabbed me. Then the world went dark and cold, like chilled ice water running down my spine. I couldn’t even speak, as if there were no air. Then, as fast as it started, it ended, and I was inside my own kitchen.

Looking back, I saw Lily sitting there.

“What was that?”

The icy feeling had not left, and now I fully understood what Jen was complaining about.

“You better get Crisplet, or he’s going to be very upset he’s left behind,” I commented.

And again, I swear I saw an eye roll before she vanished again.

It was only a minute later that Liane and Crisplet arrived. Liane looked as though nothing had happened at all, still on her feet, as Crisplet let off a burst of sparks and threw some coal at Lily.

“Does it not bother you?” I asked Liane.

She shook her head. “Not at all. Lily has shown it to me a few times now.”

She didn’t collect anyone else, choosing instead to lay down for a nap.