~Gasp~

The people in the hall couldn't help but gasp upon imaging the effect. Though they still didn't know just how much the stone wheat could expand.

"So basically the bread that he ate is currently of a size several times bigger?" Gabriel asked.

"From the tests I've done, it should be at least five times the normal size. Plus, depending on how fast his digestion was, the bread might have started expanding either in his stomach or his intestines.

If it is in his stomach, he might survive for a longer time, but if it's in his intestines… then he's rather unlucky, though it will be lucky for us." Lucius replied.

An image of a balloon expanding till it popped, appeared in their minds as they heard the description of Lucius. 

"Huh… Viscount Drew might be the first person to die from constipation I think." John suddenly spoke.

"That…" Alessa was a bit surprised upon hearing such awkward words from her husband's mouth.

They were rather rude for a setting of this kind and the company that they were with right now.

"Ahahahh!" but rather than getting angry, Gabriel laughed out loud.

"That roach deserves every bit of it! Not only is he a traitor, but he also disgraces the work of his ancestors." Gabriel added.

The others nodded their heads in agreement. But now another aspect was presented to them. What were they to do now?

"How do we progress from here, then?" Donald was the one to ask now.

So far, Donald had been less involved in these affairs and mostly took care of the situation in the city. Before, he was just the captain of the guards for the personal guards of the Inanis family, but ever since the bounty and reward initiative was launched, they needed someone closer and trusting to lead it.

John was already busy with the Brewery and his own work as a lieutenant, thus he could not be selected for it. But Donald was the perfect first for it and since Lucius also wanted to upgrade his gift while adding him to his own circle, he was the perfect candidate for it.

And because of that several things were revealed to him which he took without questioning. To him, he was doing duty and if he compared what the Inanis family was doing against the other nobles, then it was ten times better.

Thus he had no reason to reject nor detest what they were doing or the methods that they used. Him joining the meetings such as these was just natural.

"Why don't you speak your mind, Asher?" Gabriel gave the stage to him.

"The next few steps are simple, but also difficult at the same time. One thing we know for sure is that the Viscount will be dying. This will make them wonder how the viscount died and they will investigate.

The most common idea for them should be poisoning, as there would be no other reason why the viscount would get so sick so fast. They may even try to heal him, but I doubt it would work.

After all, it isn't really a poisoning, nor is it a direct illness caused by some disease. If they want to heal him, they would have to directly cut open his stomach and take out the swollen chunks of bread from it.

And this is 'if' they even know what is the problem. But I reckon by the time they discover the problem, the viscount would already be dead. Thus, I wouldn't worry too much about him surviving.

Thinking of poisoning, they would point their fingers toward everything the man had eaten recently and test it out. Wine is a relatively common way of poisoning and we've heard plenty of stories about it so that should be their first target.

From there on, they can take two routes. It can either be the fact that they realize the wine is just normal and move on to other avenues of suspicion, or just go ahead with the wine and blame the brewery or blame it on us, since the brewery is on our territory.

If it's the first option, they will still find other ways to blame us though. I'm quite sure this matter would reach the king and we might even need to meet him to settle this. But if we succeed properly, we will benefit a lot." Lucius explained.

It took everyone several minutes to fully understand Lucius's plan, but they eventually nodded their heads.

"I see. Guess we shall prepare for the backlash then. We'll pull the merchants on our side as well as the nobles of Viscount Drew's territory, will blame the retailer of the wine. More than that though, the person who gifted him the wine would get in trouble.

Whoever that is should be the first sacrifice for them to assuage public outcry. But after they verify that it wasn't really that noble, they will expand their range and get to blaming the merchant.

I wouldn't be shocked if they ask for compensation for the Viscount's death. The wife of the Viscount is especially vile and will come for the throat if given the chance. I reckon she would directly take everything from the merchants if given the chance." Gabriel replied.

Hearing about the wife of the Viscount Drew, Lita furrowed her brows. This was also the first time Lucius was hearing about this and wondered who the wife of Viscount was. He hadn't really heard much about her other than that she was a harsh woman.

"That woman is a vixen and will try to get any benefit she can. I can only imagine just how much more crazy she must have become after the change in Keith's condition." Lita spoke.

They didn't know that Keith's condition was also Lucius's work… or rather, his experiment. 

"Hmm… she might be a difficult person to deal with. But we shouldn't have as much problem since she doesn't have a direct heir to leverage power once the viscount is dead.

Keith is hidden away somewhere and thus won't appear in public. She will have to levy whatever influence she has on her own in the noble circle." Lucius analyzed.

With all this said, everyone discussed more plans about what they needed to do and were finally done after three more hours. It was midnight by this time, thus everyone directly went to sleep.

***

Only a day had passed and the news of Viscount Drew's death finally arrived in the kingdom. The response was relativity mixed, with most commoners being unconcerned about it.

The majority of responses were from the noble circle, though. Those who were against the Viscount directly expressed their disdain, while those that were in favor or have had dealings with the man showed a more neutral front.

Lucius took note of such nobles and decided to spend a little more focus on their actions in the future. If they were… problematic, he wouldn't mind making a 'permanent solution' for them.

"It has begun," Gabriel spoke while standing at the head of the table.

"Indeed. Is there any response from the capital or the king?" Lucius questioned.

"Not yet. The news is still too fresh and yet to reach them. But we should hear it in a couple of days." Gabriel answered.

"Alright. Until we get the official letter, there is little we can do. Hopefully, this goes in our favor." Lucius replied.

"Indeed." Gabriel nodded his head.

There were only the two of them in the dining hall right now as they were eating breakfast. Lita was away dealing with some things that would probably come across Alessa. The women's side of the noble circle thrived on gossips and backstabbing thus they needed to take some different precautions that only Lita could do.

Lucius though, already had several ideas on how to deal with things. There was even a rather overwhelming plan he had in his mind that could be used if things really went south.

Not only would it free them of suspicion, but it will also get rid of any other voices of dissent that speak out against them.

'Perhaps culling some nobles might be in the best interest as well…' Lucius thought to himself.

"We should prepare for a battle as well." Gabriel suddenly spoke.

"A battle?" Lucius asked.

"If the wife of the viscount really decides to throw caution to the wind, I wouldn't be surprised if she sends out their army to fight us." Gabriel said.

Hearing this, Lucius couldn't help but smile. While he preferred solving matters with other solutions than violence; oftentimes, a strong fist gave a proper answer than a written letter.

"Let her do it then. We will crush the entire opposition at once." Lucius said in a strong voice.

Hearing the tone of his son's voice, Gabriel nodded his head in approval.

"That's just what I wanted. I've been wanting to fight it out, but we couldn't do it directly, now this gives us the perfect excuse." He stated.