“Rh-Rhylis!” Odetta gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Even she did not know if she herself was being genuine or not. “I’m sorry, I think a bug bit my foot. Your ring, I...” Her words drifted off to nothing as she gaped.

Rhylis wanted to press his palm against his forehead. ‘Great, even she would know that a normal ruby wouldn’t dissolve like this,’ he thought. He knew the red powder in the tea wasn’t especially harmful, so he decided to just play dumb.

However, Odetta spoke again before he could. “Rhylis… if that substance is poisonous in any way, could I please drink it?”

“Drink?” Rhylis blinked. “What do you mean?”

Odetta put her hand on her cheek, looking at him as if this was the most natural thing in the world to do. “I care so much about you, Rhylis. I would rather get poisoned in your place. That is, if it really is poison.” Somehow, she felt she had said something similar not so long ago…

If this was anyone else, Rhylis wouldn’t care in the slightest. He was never one to refuse a person’s desire.

“Rhylis… do you remember what I said to you two years ago?”

‘That’s right…’

Two years ago, when flames scorched the skies, shrouding the whole of Andalia in darkness for a month.

When Rhylis and Odetta barely knew each other, yet found themselves facing each other at the end of that month—when she danced through the hallways as her feet dripped with blood that didn’t belong to her, happening upon him standing so still and with such blank eyes that she thought he was a statue.

‘Ahahaha, so you’re my brother as well! I wonder if you know how to survive.’

‘Survive? That’s a strange thing to say.’ That was the first time Rhylis began to have certain thoughts as he looked at his hands where he wore multiple rings. ‘If you must know, I think you must strike your opponent when they least expect it. And only poison can do that…’

‘Hmm, but you have a history of being almost killed multiple times that way, no? I’m the only one who’s not resistant.’

Rhylis was lost in his own thoughts and Odetta, too, wasn’t thinking straight after the unimaginable horror she had witnessed. Neither of them remembered much of their conversation from long ago, but their last few words were unmistakable.

‘I would not mind being killed.’

‘Then, help me end this family once and for all.’

Even two years later, the sight of Odetta covered in blood as they made a deal was one of the clearest images of that month.

“Yes, you promised to help me in return for helping you survive.”

Odetta’s smile was soft and kind. It made her seem muted, although that was probably also due to her appearance in general. Rhylis had almost never seen her in anything other than white, extremely old fashioned clothing. Heaps of jewelry were also all the rage in Andalia, but she seldom wore them.

What Odetta said in response made him tense. “Mhmm. I know that the poison you gave me was from your own experiments, yet I still willingly took them. So please, let me protect you just this once.”

‘And you’ll be able to see how harder it is to kill me with poison.’

Somehow, Rhylis doubted that this was about her wanting to protect him.

When he didn’t say anything, Odetta decided to take that as a yes and reached out to take his teacup.

She considered dropping the cup, letting it shatter into multiple pieces and rendering the tea completely undrinkable.

But all the trust she might have once had in her siblings was now completely gone. She had built her sour reputation for a reason, and if she were to be regarded as weak to both Rhylis and the servants and she watched them warily from afar, worse things could happen to her than this.

Being Rhylis’ test subject was nothing compared to the doomed fate that arose in the distant horizon.

But once her fingers reached its porcelain handle, he only knocked them away. “Wait,” he said to stop her.

Without another word, Rhylis took her own cup of tea and dunked its contents onto the grass beside them. He then proceeded to carefully pour only half of his contaminated tea into her cup and return it to her. Odetta stared down at it, perplexed.

“Let’s share the burden, Odette. This way, you’re less likely to get sick.”

They both knew that only Rhylis was the only one who knew how poisonous the substance was. It was his first time turning venom into powder, to condense and cover it in a special type of sugar that made it look almost crystalline. Odetta had no choice but to trust him.

She figured this was also why he visited her when she was still delirious from that poison overdose days ago. He likely wanted to know why his carefully concocted experiment had failed like this. But that’s only what she thought of him.

And so, in the end, the second prince and first princess of Andalia picked up their teacups and sipped serenely. Neither of them lost their composure, even as the extremely bitter tea burned their throats and lungs.

Rhylis’ fingers clenched on his teacup’s handle. He knew that in a half hour at most, the uncomfortable ache in his body would disappear. Practicing mithridatism for years assured that, but he wasn’t so sure about Odetta. The way she paled ever so slightly didn’t go unnoticed by him, but by the looks of it so far, she should be okay.

‘Good. That means you won’t have to die yet.’ He let out a small exhale in relief. Odetta thought that he was doing that because the poison wasn’t so bad for him. She already felt sweat starting to drip down her back as her body became heavy.

If she was already feeling like this after half a cup of poison, what would have happened if she drank the full cup? She shivered at the thought.

After the two downed all of their poisoned tea, Odetta picked up a cube of dragon fruit whilst Rhylis continued eating his slice of honey cake. They both welcomed the sweetness that spread from their dessert and continued to make idle chatter that was easily forgotten about.

If you were to look at this scene from the outside, it would look like any normal tea time between civil enough siblings.