The two of them looked like they had been working together for years. Beatrice's champagne-colored dance dress fluttered, shimmering with graceful light and shadow.

"The dance is almost over, Louis, don't you have anything to ask me?"

She had been waiting for Louis to ask her about what happened between her and Qian, but that never happened. Seeing that the most suitable time for dancing was about to pass, she finally spoke.

"What's the point of asking?"

Then he felt Beatrice's hand tighten a little, and heard her say: "I thought you would be angry."

Louis blinked and said, "Actually, I know Qian was helping you organize your clothes."

Beatrice scolded: "You still said that then."

Louis was helpless.

Maybe it's the red madness~bah, Alice's bad habit.

In a serious occasion, it would feel like something is missing if I didn't make a joke.

I never expected that Beatrice would misunderstand me.

He paused and said, "The dance is about to end. Do you want a cool ending?"

"This time, you have to catch me." Beatrice said confidently.

"Of course, the Beatrice I know is the kind of person who will continue to be cool until the end."

As she giggled, her body spun and her skirt fluttered to the lingering sound of the dance music.

The glittering silver light from the crystal shoes and the sound of them hitting the ground precisely are sonorous and powerful.

At this moment, everyone's attention was focused on the two of them.

At the last moment of the rotation, the champagne-colored dress that bloomed like petals gradually gathered, and Louis held her waist just right.

For a moment, there was thunderous applause at the scene.

…

After the dance, the scene entered the social time.

When the ball was about to end, the servants who were already ready backstage served delicious food.

Beatrice blinked and told Louis that she was going backstage to change into more comfortable clothes.

Louis nodded, stood up and walked towards the direction of the Marquis of York.

As soon as I came here, I was teased:

"Your Highness Louis is truly radiant tonight. Would you like a drink?"

The Marquis of York said reservedly while holding a glass of red wine.

"certainly."

He looked at the servant beside him, picked up a glass of wine and drank it all.

But no one noticed that there was a dark shadow slowly crawling in Louis' shirt.

Louis said, "Lord York, wouldn't you like some snacks?"

York shook his head. "It's a social dance, so you young people can just eat. I ate something in the carriage when I sent you there. You can have some fruit tonight at most."

As he spoke, he pointed to some fruit on a beautiful plate next to him.

Apparently, the Marquis of York is quite picky and doesn't eat all kinds of fruits.

Louis walked over casually and brought a small plate of the fruits.

With a move of his fingertips, a shadow appeared on his cuffs and swallowed the fruit.

It’s Rimuru.

A moment later, Rimuru sent a message.

Non-toxic.

Seeing that the Marquis of York had no intention of eating, Louis hesitated.

Neither the red wine nor the fruit is poisonous, so it is impossible that the poison was in the wine glass.

The nobles of Enther like to be equipped with magic rings that can detect poison. Louis has one, Beatrice has one, and the Marquis of York naturally has one too.

If the wine glass had been poisoned, the magic ring would have been activated long ago.

Suddenly, Louis seemed to think of something.

He said, "Lord York, the flower cakes on your carriage are delicious."

The Marquis of York smiled a little proudly: "Of course, our chef is an expert in this area."

Louis' eyes lit up: "So, you have been eating this flower cake for many years?"

“Of course, each process is the result of many years of selection.”

Louis smiled.

Today in the carriage, Rimuru also secretly ate a lot of flower cakes.

Red wine is fine.

Flower cakes are fine.

Fruit is fine.

But that doesn’t mean…there won’t be problems when they are added together.

Louis let Rimuru combine these substances directly inside his body.

Perhaps because he had been standing for too long, the Marquis of York felt his mouth was a little dry, so he prepared to get some fruit.

However, when he was about to pick up the fruit, Louis reached out and stopped him.

"Lord York, you are being watched."

"I know. The princess told me so. But I am sure that what I ate was not poisonous."

He shook his ring.

That is the highest level magic ring for detecting poison.

But Louis smiled:

"No, Lord York, if you eat it, you will be truly poisoned."

"Um?"

Louis motioned for the Marquis of York to follow.

It wasn't long before they arrived at a room.

Beatrice, Qian, and several secret guards were sitting inside.

Seeing Louis coming over, Beatrice stood up and said, "Did you find any problems?"

Louis nodded, then said to the others, "Who is in charge of the red wine?"

A secret guard stepped forward and said, "It was me, but I have checked the drinks at the scene and I am sure they are not poisonous."

Louis nodded and said, "Of course it's not poisonous, but when mixed together, that may not be the case."

Although food incompatibility has long been proven to be a rumor, the possibility of combining the myriad of foods in nature to create a deadly poison is extremely low.

But, it is not impossible.

Louis pulled his sleeves and the chubby Rimuru squeezed out from his sleeves.

"The red wine is not poisonous, the flower cakes are not poisonous, and the fruit that Lord York likes to eat is not poisonous either."

“But there is a problem with the origin of the wine.”

Grapes are a sensitive, delicate and very plastic fruit.

Every decision a winemaker makes during the winemaking process—from where and how the grapes are grown to what they are done with after they are vinified—affects the taste and aroma of the wine.

There is a saying among winemakers:

“Making the best wine starts in the vineyard.”

Wine is not the source of the toxin.

It is a certain substance in the place of origin.

Even the substance itself is non-toxic, otherwise this batch of red wine would not have passed the test.

Louis mixed the red wine, flower cake and fruit pulp, and then handed it to the Marquis of York.

The Marquis of York brought his poison-detecting magic ring closer.

The ring didn't flicker.

He looked at Louis.

Louis put his hand to his lips and said, "Shh, let the boomerang fly again."

The next moment, the poison ring that had been unresponsive began to flash a faint red light.

The red light began to deepen gradually, and eventually turned into a blood-like light.

Louis laughed: "Obviously, this was a carefully planned murder."

"There is a top poison master who is proficient in synthesizing toxins in the dark side of the God of Love!"

Louis had not thought much about this before.

But when he was chatting with the Sapphire Dragon couple as Meyer, after hearing about the past experiences of the Sapphire Dragon King, he realized a terrible problem.

He has always regarded this world as a backward medieval world. Is he looking down on the race that has lived among the stars for endless years? Even though they don't know the principle of the dust explosion, Enther's grain storage department still locked the cause of the explosion.

Even without gene editing technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9, the Sapphire Dragon still mastered some methods of blood fusion.

So just now, when Beatrice said that the people on the dark side of the god of love were very good at poisoning, he was thinking: This method of poisoning does not necessarily require the use of extraordinary powers.

A series of operations performed by a top chemical poisonist may produce effects even greater than magic.

At this time, the secret guard on the side suddenly said: "The suspect has been controlled."

Louis: ??? No, bro, why are you here again? The decryption result just came out!

Beatrice looked at the origin of the wine:

"This is top-notch red wine sent by the Shepherds' Guild of the Amn Empire. Tsk, it looks like some old guy is itching for trouble."

"Louis, let me handle this matter."

"After my father fell asleep, some people became increasingly restless."

"good."

…

After everyone left, Beatrice pinched her brows and said, "It's a little more troublesome than I expected."

Louis rubbed her shoulders:

"Isn't it the dark side of the God of Love? Why is it related to the Empire of Amn?"

Beatrice hummed comfortably, "The Amn Empire's Council of Five has always wanted to open the door to Enther and let their goods dump in."

"As for the people in the Merchant Land, you might as well judge their methods with the worst attitude."

"Whether or not to cooperate with the dark side of the God of Love is not the point."

"The key is whether it can bring them sufficient benefits."

"They have often created wars in other countries to reap the wealth that they have accumulated over the years."

"And the Marquis of York is not only the backbone of our Imperial Party and the drafter of the trade laws, but also the leader of one of the most dynamic groups in Enther."

Beatrice said meaningfully, "The new nobility of the empire includes masters of all walks of life, and among them, there are naturally top businessmen."

"They are also part of the Enser Empire's trade defense system and are targets that need to be won over."

"The Marquess of York is their representative and the conduit for their messages."

"Now the Dark Side of the God of Love tells you that there is a chance to get rid of this backbone. If you were in the Amn Empire, would you do it or not?"

Louis narrowed his eyes subconsciously when he heard this.

"The Blackwater Merchants are merchants from the Amn Empire, but because of the Dragonbone Grassland incident, they have been turned into street lamp pendants by Lord York."

"It's possible that the Empire of Amn wanted to demonstrate to Unther."

For a moment, he felt that the whole situation was very confusing.

Oh no, my head itches.

I don't want to do this kind of work that requires too much brainpower.

It would be better for Beatrice to handle this kind of thing.

Louis once again strengthened his determination to protect his number one backer.

But as there were only two people left in the room, the atmosphere between the two sides began to become awkward.

There were footsteps passing by outside the door from time to time. Louis rubbed Beatrice's shoulders, but he was a little distracted.

"Beatrice, you're not afraid of anything happening to you when you're in the same room with me!"

He leaned down, his warm breath spreading beside her ear.

Beatrice was already a little nervous, and now her heartbeat suddenly quickened.

She knew Louis, a man with a natural ability to stir up other people's emotions, but he always restrained himself.

There are people coming and going outside this room, so he can't possibly...

Thinking of this, she felt relieved and raised her head and said:

"You have been very restrained. What do I have to be afraid of?"

"restraint?"

Louis raised his eyebrows slightly, and repeated the two words with a bit of weirdness, his voice a little hoarse.

Before she could reply, he chuckled softly.

"Beatrice, don't forget that I arranged this room."

Beatrice's heart skipped a beat. "Wait, you arranged this?"

She finally reacted and turned her head, only to meet Louis's smiling eyes.

I could vaguely hear people walking by outside the door and talking to each other.

He gently picked up her hair: "Don't you have anything to say to me?"

"say what?"

Beatrice pursed her lips nervously, but felt as if all the air had been sucked away by him, leaving her dry and suffocating.

"I think before that, should we...separate ourselves a little?"

She spoke with a rare hesitation:

"It's not good to be seen."

With a thud.

There was the sound of something heavy hitting the ground outside the window, and in the distance I seemed to hear the barking of a groundhog.

But the two didn't care that much.

Louis jokingly said, "What's wrong with that?"

The occasional footsteps outside the door tugged at Beatrice's nerves, but he remained indifferent.

She felt the clothes behind her gradually becoming stained with burning heat.

I can't tell whether it's his or mine.

Louis said casually:

"What would your lady-in-waiting, Akane, do if she opened the door and saw us like this?"

He was almost about to say to the person outside the door, "Get out! How can you talk about love here?"

In an instant, the restlessness around him disappeared.

The next moment, the lights in the room suddenly went out.

Louis opened the curtains around him, and Beatrice realized that the room had been covered with transparent glass at some point, and the floor had become a mirror after losing its light.

The stars in the night sky were reflected at their feet, shimmering like waves, as if they were immersed in a sea of ​​stars.

——This was a room that he had troubled the Lord of the White Tower to build with the cooperation of Rimuru.

Beatrice's eyes gradually became dazed, and she looked at Louis, unable to speak.

"You're actually right, Beatrice... I'm a little jealous of your lady-in-waiting."

"Ah? You..."

Beatrice was about to say, "Didn't you say you knew?"

But the next second.

Louis drowned out the words before they were even formed.

The darkness magnified all her senses. In a world filled with only stars, she seemed to be bathed in the gaze of the stars.

She seemed to see a tangible fire in Louis' eyes.

"Beatrice, they know we are here and won't bother us."

Beatrice's face became more and more rosy.

The thought of saying "too fast" was blown away by the wind.

"I, I told him to release his greedy desires."

"Yes, that's right!"

"It's not just to help him become stronger..."

"He's so greedy..."

Beatrice couldn't convince herself, so she made up her mind and took action on her own.

The two of them tested each other's breathing for a long time, and seemed to have finally found a place to rest.

Although it was quiet outside the door, she still felt that someone was whispering outside.

She looked at Louis in panic, but she only saw the stars reflected in his clear eyes.

There is no flame of greed.

As the heat dissipated like mist, she could only see the light shining in his eyes.

She whined.

It was me who teased him at the beginning.

Why was she being killed now? But she was still mesmerized by the star, staring at him, feeling his fingertips brushing her hair apart.

In the ambiguous entanglement, every corner of the lips and teeth was eroded by him.

Finally, he bit her lips as punishment, and his voice was filled with devilish temptation: "Beatrice, I am very greedy."

【Flop Diary】

Louis got up, Louis A went up, and Louis tried to ask for monthly tickets and automatic subscriptions.

I updated nearly 13,000 words today. I've worked hard on this (wiping sweat)

(End of this chapter)