Chapter 5: Shadows, Poisons, and a Kiss Too Long

The morning air was thick with tension as I hurried toward Lucy’s brother’s house. My shoes slapped against the cobblestone streets like war drums, each step reminding me that things were only getting more complicated in this crazy isekai life. My brain buzzed: the witch was dead, the queen was poisoned, Lucy was missing, and I was about to walk into another storm.

“Hey Lily, tell me where your brother lives,” I asked, breathless but still trying to act cool like some noir detective.

“Okay,” she said in her usual calm tone, pointing the way. She didn’t even blink at my urgency.

I muttered to myself, “Weird… he’s not here. Obviously. Because villains never stay in one place waiting politely for you to knock.”

We reached the house, but the silence inside gave me goosebumps. My instincts screamed something was wrong. I turned to Lily. “Hey, I need your help.”

She straightened, her eyes fierce. “What? Anything for you, boss.”

Those words gave me a strange comfort. For a second, I almost forgot we were in the middle of a murder mystery. But then the scene shifted—cut like a movie reel—and somewhere else, Lucy was tied to a chair.

Her brother, Lucas, stood in front of her with a twisted grin plastered on his face. He laughed, a laugh that echoed off the stone walls. It wasn’t a happy laugh. More like the kind you hear in discount villain auditions.

“Why, brother? Why are you doing this?” Lucy cried, her voice a mix of fear and fury.

“Why?” Lucas mocked, pacing like a theater actor who’d waited his whole life for this monologue. “Because I want to be a potion trader! That witch always wanted to kill me. Now it was my turn. You thought she was good? No, no, no. She wanted to slow poison our aunt, the queen, and then blackmail her with the antidote. But guess what? She was connected to our neighbor capital. She was their spy!”

Lucy shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense—”

“Oh, it makes perfect sense!” he snapped. “I investigated, I found out her secret, and I thought: if she can blackmail the queen, why not me? I’ll blackmail both sides and take the money! But…” His voice cracked.

“But there was a problem, right, Mister Lucas Scott?” I finally made my entrance. Yeah, this was my cue. Hero entrance. I imagined an original background music playing behind me, something badass like James Bond meets anime OST. On my right, Lily stood tall. On my left, Urara shuffled nervously. And in the middle, me—Erik Thermos—the accidental isekai detective.

Lucas froze, his bravado leaking away. “Who are you?” His voice wavered.

Lucy gasped. “Lily… what are you doing here?”

“Saving you,” Lily said, walking toward her tied-up sister. Her hands shook as she tried to untie the ropes.

But Lucas panicked, pulling out a knife. It glowed in the dim light, runes carved across its blade, humming with dangerous magic.

“Stay back! No one comes near me or I’ll kill the queen!” He pointed toward the bed where the queen lay unconscious, pale as snow.

My eyes narrowed. Oh, so that’s his play. Threaten royalty. Big mistake, cousin-boy.

I didn’t hesitate. I pulled out my gun—the sweet system reward that had already saved my skin more than once—and fired. The bullet screamed through the air. Lucas’s knife went flying, clattering to the ground, and blood spurted from his thumb as if it had declared independence.

“AAAAAHHHH!” Lucas screamed, clutching his hand. His voice cracked like a teenager losing at an online game.

Urara gasped. Lily froze mid-step. Lucy, though, just blinked and said calmly, “Never saw a weapon like this before. You are amazing, mister.”

I smirked, trying to play it cool even though my heart was racing. “Erik. Erik Thermos.”

I swear, it felt like I’d just dropped my James Bond line.

Lucy finally got free and walked to her cousin. Her eyes were sharp, colder than ice. “Even though you’re my brother, what you did goes beyond crime. You’ll be taken to the royal prison.” She bound his hands with a rope, tying him as firmly as if she’d been practicing knots for pirate cosplay.

But then Lucy turned to me. Her expression softened, just slightly. “Erik… can we save the queen somehow?”

Urara’s big eyes fixed on me, full of desperate hope. She didn’t want another person to die in front of her. Lily clutched her fists, scared but trying to stay strong.

I exhaled, steadying myself. “Don’t worry,” I said, putting on my most serious detective face.

I pulled out a small leaf from my pocket—the same one Lucy had handed me the night before. I shoved it into Lucas’s mouth before he could protest. He gagged, but within ten seconds his eyes rolled, then blinked clear.

“Where am I? What am I doing here?” he asked in confusion.

“Welcome back, brother,” Lucy whispered.

The three girls gasped in unison. Their eyes wide, mouths open, expressions priceless. That’s the reaction I lived for. The spotlight was mine. Erik Thermos, the detective who makes sense out of chaos.

I stood tall, explaining like I was lecturing in a classroom. “First of all, Lucas didn’t commit the crime directly. He only wanted to blackmail the queen by forcing the witch to make potions. He thought he could expose her as a spy, then control her work. But he never realized that the witch was already poisoning the queen. Her recovery was fake—outwardly she seemed to heal, but inside she was dying. The poison came from this small plant… Wishper Dark Beam. Its leaves can both heal and destroy.”

I paced slowly, watching their shocked faces. “Lucas fell into the same trap. He got cursed just like the queen. The witch demanded ten times more money for the antidote. He panicked. Stole one bottle. Tried to clone it with help from shady alchemists. But the clones were fake, useless. He drank three or four bottles, hoping for a miracle. Instead, he gained a side effect: a split personality. One side—a loyal royal guard. The other—a killer. Killer Lucas murdered the witch. He also poisoned Urara. Then he tried to frame her by throwing the bottles in the basement.”

Urara gasped, hands flying to her mouth. Lily clutched my sleeve like she needed an anchor. Lucy’s jaw clenched.

“But—but now no medicine is left,” Lucy said, her voice breaking. “No formula either. How can we save the queen?”

“Yes, boss,” Lily echoed. “Is there no way?”

I turned to Urara. “The poem. Tell me the poem again.”

Urara blinked, then nodded. She recited softly:

“In silver light where shadows play, I sip the dew of break of day, Mix night’s whisper with clay…”

“Yes. Amazing. Marvelous.” My grin widened. “The first line, silver light, has two meanings: one, Lucas Scott; two, moonlight. ‘Where shadows play’ means Lucas was tied to darkness. And also that moonlight is essential. The second line, ‘sip the dew of break of day,’ means two things: one, to destroy Lucas’s false personality, and two, to mix morning dew with something. That something appears in the third line: ‘Mix night’s whisper with clay.’ Which means, we need to mix Wishper Dark Beam leaf juice, clay, and morning dew under moonlight. That’s the real formula.”

The girls looked at me like I’d just solved a sudoku puzzle on live TV. Urara’s hands trembled. “Yes, yes! Sometimes I saw the witch working late at night. But now it’s almost dawn. Even if we collect dew, we won’t have moonlight tonight. If we wait, the queen won’t survive.”

As if on cue, the queen coughed violently, blood gushing from her lips. Lily screamed, “Aunty! No, don’t leave us!” She tried wiping the blood, but her small hands were useless. Urara hugged her, whispering words of comfort. Lucy glared at her brother. “Even if your split personality killed the witch, you’re still a traitor. Greedy. I’ll never forgive you.”

Lucas hung his head, silent.

I stepped forward, shoving Lily gently aside. “Step back.”

Then, without warning, I bent down and kissed the queen. A deep, tongue-to-tongue kiss. Yeah, don’t judge me. I was saving her life. At least… that’s the excuse.

The reaction was priceless. Lily’s face went tomato-red. Urara fainted with a nosebleed, flashing back to that kiss from before. Lucy turned crimson, too stunned to speak. Lucas just stared, jaw hanging like a dropped drawbridge.

*The system popped up: “Trikula use 2 times: Remains zero.”*

I smirked mid-kiss. Whatever. I’d gotten the reward when I guessed the murderer anyway.

Finally, after four minutes—the longest kiss of my life—the queen’s eyes fluttered open. She blinked at me… and then pulled me closer, deepening the kiss. My brain exploded. Yummy lips indeed. But then reality smacked me—literally. A sharp slap across my face.

Well, expected. But hey, four-minute delay? Worth it.

I stepped back, rubbing my cheek, already planning my escape. If I stayed, the queen might drag me to court for interrogation. If I ran, they’d summon me anyway. I was stuck.

But then, the queen spoke. Her voice shaky but firm. “Sorry… but I am willing to marry you.”

“Whaaaaaat?!” All four of us shouted in unison.

Urara fainted again. Lily screamed. Lucy dropped her sword. Lucas’s jaw hit the floor. And me? My brain blue-screened. I, Erik Thermos, the broke delivery guy turned isekai detective… had just been proposed to by a queen I saved with a French kiss.

Yeah. My life officially stopped making sense.

NEXT CHAPTER TOMORROW