New law of Beast Taming

The next morning was quiet. A little too quiet if you ask Amane. And that made her suspicious of what was going on around her.

Such stillness in the air was not natural and it hinted that something was wrong with her environment. And it was most likely one of Elios's tricks that she needed to be careful of.

"Ugh, don't get up now. It's too comfortable. Come back to bed."

A pair of arms circled Amane's waist and pulled her back down. If Aqua would have been awake, she would have cringed after seeing her behavior. But since she was asleep, her behavior could be excused.

On the other hand, Sakura seemed to be up and she noticed the unnatural stillness in the air as well.

"Looks like Mother is planning something for us. Do you want me to help your 'friend' out before she gets caught up in mother's trouble as well?"

Sakura asked while gesturing toward Aqua. Sakura did not want Aqua to be in their house while it was dangerous.

'Huh? And here I thought Sakura cared nothing for Aqua's safety and well-being. But it seems like being close physically has made Sakura a little worried about Aqua.'

It was a curious thing for Amane to notice. But she could tell that the physical closeness had not forced real feelings to develop. It only caused empathy to form between the two.

"Sakura, you wait here with Aqua. I will go and deal with whatever Elios has planned out for us. Don't give me that look. I am confident in my ability to deal with your mother. Everything would be alright once more."

Amane pointed out as left the room. All this time, Sakura's concern-filled gaze followed her out of the room.

Elios Tsurugi was at the breakfast table when Amane arrived there. But nothing at the table had been touched by her.

'Hmm, there must be something wrong with this food if Elios Tsurugi has not even touched it yet. Does she not realize how obvious she is being right now?'

Amane could not help but find Elios irritating and unnecessary. Still, she was family so Amane forced herself to walk down and sat in front of Elios at the table.

All the food smelled off by a small margin. There was a sweet smell being covered by the smell of all this food, but Amane was not fooled.

She knew a poison when she smelled one and now, she was sure that her dear aunty was out to get her for real.

"Yoko, come and sit down. I was finished eating but I decided to stay back to accompany you and Sakura while you eat as well. After all, eating with family is the best feeling."

Elios dared to pretend as if she was concerned about Amane when she said all this. But she just wanted to make sure that Amane ate the poison she was given.

"Ah, so my aunt prepared this gift for me? I have to say that I expected better from you in this regard. Has old age started to catch up with you?"

Amane asked as she took some of the soup. As she expected, there was poison inside the food but it was mild and long-acting. It was easy for Amane's body to neutralize that poison and make it harmless.

"What are you saying, Yoko? Are you trying to insult me? I will have you know that I do not take kindly to insults. You might be my family but even I have self-esteem and feelings. You should not say such hurtful things to me."

Elios Tsurugi made the most betrayed expression she could on her face. She wanted to make Yoko feel bad about herself and what she was doing.

That had been the plan she had come up with in her mind. The maids and servants around her were already starting to pay attention to what was happening.

'Now what would you do, Yoko? I made sure that there were plenty of people around us when I acted this scene out. This way, you would not be able to avoid this hit to your reputation.'

Elios Tsurugi had planned everything out about this meeting. From the way, she would behave to the loud-mouthed servants that would serve in this room today. Everything had been planned out in advance.

The potential for things to go south had been zero in her opinion.

But Elios had forgotten about one thing - Yoko's involvement. She was the only person who refused to act according to Elios's wishes and prediction. And even now, she decided to stick her head in a place where she did not need to.

"Oh my. Do you have feelings that get hurt? Maybe those feelings should have acted up in concern when you tried to mix the poison into my food. I surely would have preferred that more over this lip service."

Amane's words drove gasps out of the servant's mouths. Elios also realized that she had messed up this time. And in an irreversible way this time.

She had chosen the maids and servants who had loud and loose mouths to take duty today. But it had only ended up making a fool out of her.

'Tsk, I will take care of these loudmouths once I have time. For now, I should control the damage a little bit.'

"Yoko, don't make such accusations. This food is perfectly normal and I ate it as well. Now come and sit down."

Elios patted the seat and took some soup. That soup was the only thing not drugged up. And even if it was, Elios had the neutralizer with her. She would be alright in the end.

Yoko did sit down in front of Elios but she had a humorous expression on her face. She looked amused as she sat down and looked at Elios with a blank expression.

"You know, nothing would happen to me even if I take this poison. Since I deal with beasts so often, my aura has evolved to neutralize most poisons as soon as they touch me. You would need something fast-acting and strong to kill me."

Amane spoke as she ate the food in front of her. As expected, the poison was neutralized as soon as it touched her tongue.

"What are you talking about? Why would I poison you? And didn't I eat this food with you as well? I would not have done that if I did something to it, right?"

Elios tried to do damage control as she crushed inside her mind at the same time. Your adventure continues at empire

Had she known about Yoko's special constitution beforehand, she would have prepared something different for her. But now, things had ended up being this way and Elios had to bear the burden of everything.

"Hmm, if you say you did nothing to the food, then I will believe you for now. But even then, this tastes off and we cannot serve it to our guests like this. We will need to have our chefs recook everything that was made here today."

Amane stood up from her seat and she could feel how everyone was paying attention to her. They wanted to see what she would do next about this situation.

The servants inside the room were looking for juicy gossip they could spread among each other. They could not help but take note of whatever was happening.

'Tsk, this Yoko is being such a problem right now for me. How dare she try and act all innocent right now. I will not forgive her for anything that is happening here.'

Elios was boiling from the inside but she was quite optimistic from the outside. But it was a good thing that Elios had been prepared for such an opportunity.

She had specifically planted one of her people as a chef and asked him to switch up the spices. The poison had been mixed in with a little bit of everything and it would be consumed by everyone.

If everyone was equally affected by this, then the blame would not fall on one person.

On the other hand, Elios was going to eat out starting today. She needed to pretend that she was busy for a week and that she would be done.

"Does the food taste funny to you? In that case, let's ask chefs to remake everything for us. I am sure you will not have any problem with that?"

Elios asked and Amane could not help but feel as if something was still wrong with the picture.

'Ah, she must have a spy in the kitchen who is helping her out. No wonder she is so confident about getting away with poisoning. Now, is it the seasoning that is poisoned or something else?'

Elios was underestimating Yoko in this regard. Yoko was going to get to the bottom of this assassination attempt.

"I would like to check the kitchen out myself if you don't mind. Now then, let's head down there. The worst-case scenario, I will have the antidote plant mixed in with everything we make."

It was more for the servant's benefit than Amane's own to mix the recovery plant. But those words did make Elios panic so Amane thought it was a plus in her book.

Elios was sweating bullets at this point but she pretended to be calm on the surface.

"Sure, do what you want to do. If you need me, then I am in my room. I need to head out for work now so I cannot stay here for long."

Elios made her way out of the house carefully.