This Overlord Doesn't Care About Anything - Book 5: Chapter 53: Poisoning, Arson, Kidnapping

Having heard Moon’s analysis, I now had a more comprehensive understanding of Lingwu Territory.

Specifically, it’s embodied in three words: unable to defeat.

For these two past days, I haven’t been able to sleep well as I’ve been keeping my lamp light on until late into the night. There was a pile of white paper filled with grotesquely shaped patterns and complex formulas as well as several already-translated grimoires borrowed from Felita spread out on my table. In addition to this, there was also a copy of《Eternal Heaven’s Record of Mountains and Rivers》lying around. This book, which gave some degree of introduction on each of the thirty-six Overlord’s feudal fiefdoms, was now covered in annotations, comments, and symbols. Within these two days and nights, I used up two bottles of rime ink. There were many ink marks on my clothes and countless ruined waste papers scattered all around me.

It was a scene like being surrounded by an ocean of ink and paper.

It was another clear, chilly morning that I was woken up by Aleya’s calls. When I sobered up, I realized that I had fallen asleep in my seat again and my saliva drenched the papers beneath my head.

Aleya’s eyes were brimming with concern as she quietly asked:

“Young master, what happened? Is there anything I can help you with?”

I opened my eyes with great difficulty and replied:

“Hoaah……nothing’s wrong. I’ve just been having a bit of insomnia lately, so I tried my hand at studying things pertaining to magic. There’s no need to worry, it’s already basically done.”

Aleya nodded, respectfully sat down by my side, and suddenly asked:

“Young master wants to eat roasted chicken drumsticks?”

“Why do you ask?”

I looked at her in puzzlement. Aleya pointed at the paper moistened by my saliva and I found that the drawing on the paper was similar in shape to that of a chicken drumstick. I chuckled in amusement and took out a handkerchief to wipe the saliva off. Then, I carefully organized the documents on the table, placed them on the side, and said:

“I’m a bit hungry. I feel like I haven’t eaten the food you cook recently.”

“That’s because young master’s been going out by himself recently.”

Aleya muttered under her breath, then stood up and told me:

“Aleya requests young master to wait a moment, Aleya will immediately go to cook.”

I stretched, then lay paralyzed on the floor and said:

“Remember to add extra barbecue sauce, it’ll be delicious once a fragrant scent starts wafting through the air.”

Aleya turned around and answered:

“Aleya will take note of that. Young master just needs to take more care of his body. The current young master has very obvious dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, a loss of color in his hair, and a dirty face. I will go boil some water so that young master can bathe himself, then get some proper rest. How does that sound, young master?”

Seeing me nod in reply, Aleya left the room in a somewhat happy mood.

Cold winds whimpered outside the window.

The charcoal fireplace in the room peacefully crackled away, keeping the surrounding atmosphere cozy and completely unlike it’s cold counterpart outside. I kept the silence going for a while, thinking about how frantically Shiloh ran away that day. I also didn’t know where she was now, whether or not she would be like she was back then, sleeping in some windswept corner with that thin, shabby blanket of hers.

I was also unaware of whether or not she was eating and if she was eating, whether or not she was eating her fill. Would she meet another kind person who would give her two copper coins and tell her to buy a steamed bun for herself? But she probably wouldn’t be able to buy any steamed buns since the entire city is now searching for her whereabouts. Besides, she isn’t willing to kill people to obtain the benefits she desires.

If she were really an emotionless killer, perhaps she wouldn’t have been reduced to what she is now.

Aleya came in carrying a wooden bowl with oily roasted chicken drumsticks.

I glanced at the roasted chicken and suddenly asked:

“Aleya, where did you find chicken drumsticks?”

“Young master, there are some refrigerated ingredients in the kitchen’s cold storage.”

I nodded to indicate that I would eat it later and made Aleya go busy herself with her own work. After she left, I held up the wooden bowl, used my fingernail to cut into the chicken drumstick’s meat, sniffed it, then placed the wooden bowl to the side.

There’s poison.

Even though it’s difficult-to-detect poison that I’ve never been in contact with before, I was able to clearly sense the toxicity inside. As for why I’m so skilled in detecting such a thing, it’s something quite sad to mention; there have been innumerable times that people have tried to poison me in both my previous life and this one. If I ******* Shennong, I would have tasted all the plants in the world by now. The poison hidden in the chicken drumsticks penetrate deep into the meat, so it clearly wasn’t added when Aleya was cooking it up. Rather, it was injected into the raw chicken drumsticks in advance.

That being said, isn’t there only one person able to sneak into my City Lord’s mansion without being caught?

The last sliver of heat from the chicken drumstick wafted through the air.

A shadow of a bitter smile appeared on my face. It seems that not only will I have to avoid those bigshots from Lingwu, I’ll also have to deal with the somewhat shaken Shiloh. In the past, she would rarely use a method like poisoning because it’s very hard to control and it’s very easy to be accidentally injured in the process of laying the poison. From the looks of it now, she must really want to kill me, even more than the first time.

As for the reason why, I can more or less guess, so I don’t blame her.

It’s just that things have become a bit troublesome again.

I carried the roasted chicken drumsticks outside, shredded the chicken, and buried it in the soil. Afterwards, I returned with the bones in the bowl to make it appear as if I had finished eating it. Then, I used tongs to grab a piece of red-hot charcoal, walked over to the kitchen, and threw it into the firewood piled up high like a mountain. Not long after I returned to my office, a peal of noise came from outside my door as many people were looking for water to put out the fire.

Although the kitchen was preserved, the heaps of accumulated ingredients were burnt to crisps.

I didn’t know how to convince Aleya and the others to throw out all of the possibly poisoned ingredients, so I could only use such a simple and crude method to destroy it all.

Perhaps it was retribution for playing with fire in the daytime since I woke up surrounded by flames that very same night.

At first, I thought that it was just a little hotter than usual, but I soon felt that it was a little too hot, like the weather had returned to summer.

When I opened my eyes to see what was going on, I almost had no time to react as the beam above my head was crashing down at me.

I forced myself to roll over and avoid it. The instant I left my spot, the beam smashed into my original sleeping spot. The ear-piercing sound that occurred as a result nearly burst my eardrums and the dust along with smoke clogged my windpipe, causing me to cough. In such a chaotic environment, I felt my way to the window and leaped out like an athletic superstar. One moment later, the entire building collapsed into a pile of rubble.

It was fortunate that I had already set fire to the kitchen during the day, so everyone was on alert. This time, Felita rushed over very quickly and immediately extinguished the flames using water-attribute magic, stopping the spread of the flames to the entire area of my City Lord’s mansion.

But I wasn’t the one who set fire to the building this time. As for who did it, it goes without saying.

Following soon after, Bai Huang rushed over in a fury and vowed that she would catch this slippery little thief and avenge me. I chuckled and retorted “don’t say it like I’ve already been sacrificed”, to which Bai Huang poked my chest and shot back “and you’re still able to laugh”. Aleya nervously pulled on my hand and inspected me all over to check for any injuries. But apart from me being caked in a layer of soot, I was fine everywhere else, so all of them relaxed.

I was thinking that this was probably what Shiloh had already imagined and expected to happen.

That was, until the next day when Aleya went out to purchase ingredients and didn’t return.

A stranger dressed in ragged clothes knocked on the door of my City Lord’s mansion. He appeared to be a beggar, but in his hands was a slip of paper, a note. He told me that someone asked him to give it to me. I received the note from him and saw only a few words on it.

“Tonight. City, south. Alone.”

I held the note in silence. After a long while passed by, I shook my head with a forced smile.