Chapter 46
Staring at the list that suddenly appeared in front of them, both Lisbeth and Stalos froze for a moment. Neither of them had expected things to turn out like this, let alone that there’d be a test after this.
But since it had already come to this, Lisbeth took a quiet breath and said, “Well then, Stalos, let’s see what’s on it first.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Even though the two of them were separated by a transparent Barrier, at least their voices could still pass through. So after seeing each other nod, they both stepped forward and started checking the list on the wall.
“Hmm, let me see. Strengthening Potion, Growth Potion, Stabilizing Potion… why are they all potions?”
“Huh? You’re right, they really are.”
The wall listed a lot of items, but without exception they were all the names of different potions. Lisbeth had actually been hoping since just now that she might find the Demon Eye Stone she needed. But seeing that everything was some kind of potion, she simply focused her attention on the Stabilizing Potion she needed most.
Meanwhile, Stalos seemed to remember something and asked Lisbeth, “Lisbeth, it doesn’t look like there’s a limit on how many we can pick. So maybe we can take a few different potions?”
“No, Stalos. Who knows what these potions actually do? Just in case, we should only take what we need.”
“Ah, you’ve got a point. Then I definitely need this Growth Potion, and you need that Stabilizing Potion, right, Lisbeth?”
“That’s right.”
Thankfully, the names on the list were pretty straightforward, so Lisbeth and Stalos quickly found their targets. After confirming, each of them raised a finger and lightly tapped the name of the potion they’d chosen.
“Whoosh.”
The moment their fingers touched the potion names, the wall suddenly burst into a strong light, then in a blink turned back into blue light and flowed back into the two doors on the stairs.
But the blue light had barely vanished when a Magic Array suddenly appeared in front of Lisbeth and Stalos. A small table quietly rose out of the Array and stopped in front of them.
“What’s this?”
As the table appeared, two potions that looked completely identical came into view. Seeing this, Lisbeth frowned in confusion and asked, “What’s going on? I clearly only asked for one potion, so why are there two bottles? Is the extra… free?”
“I-I don’t know. Maybe?”
Stalos clearly didn’t understand why there were two bottles on the table in front of her either. But before their confusion could deepen, Ovelia’s voice slowly echoed out again.
“If you can hear this, that means you’ve already chosen your potions, right?”
“No, what do you mean ‘chosen your potions’? There was nothing but potions to choose from in the first place…”
Hearing Ovelia’s words, Stalos grumbled and shook her head. At the same time, Lisbeth raised a finger to her lips and said, puzzled, “Don’t talk yet. Let her finish first.”
“Got it.”
After nodding, they both focused on listening to what Ovelia said next. Ovelia’s voice came right on cue, drifting over as she continued, “First, let me explain the rules of the test. Once you choose a potion, two bottles that look completely identical should appear in front of you. But only one of them is the real potion. The other has the exact opposite effect.”
“To put it simply, if you chose a Growth Potion, then the other one will actually shrink your body instead. If you chose a Stabilizing Potion, then the other one will age your body instead. So the test is very simple: once you leave this place, the potions in front of you will only keep their effect for four hours. During that time, you must figure out which bottle is the potion you actually want.”
“But these two potions only work on members of the Demon Clan. In other words, you can’t test them on magical beasts or animals. No matter which potion it is, it only works on demons. So, as for how you’re going to tell which one is real… I’m sure you already know what you have to do, right?”
After listening to Ovelia’s long explanation, both Lisbeth and Stalos fell silent for a moment. Ovelia’s meaning couldn’t have been clearer: they just had to secretly get someone to drink a potion and see what happened.
It sounded simple enough, but doing that would be pretty much the same as framing someone on purpose. So the two of them naturally started hesitating.
But soon, Lisbeth seemed to think of something. She frowned slightly, a bit on guard, and said to Stalos beside her, “Stalos, do you think that speech was really pre-recorded? Just now she was saying ‘you’ or ‘you all,’ like she wasn’t sure how many of us there were. But now she’s clearly saying ‘you all.’ And on top of that, the examples she gave just happen to match the potions we chose. What do you think?”
“Huh? Now that you mention it, that’s true. Don’t tell me that four-eyed jerk Ovelia is messing with us on purpose?”
——————————————————————————————————————————
“My my, looks like they’ve completely seen through it.”
Watching Ovelia awkwardly gripping the communication crystal in her hand, both Christia and Hilda showed a faint smile. Seeing their expressions, Ovelia knocked herself lightly on the head and said, “Wow, that really backfired. I didn’t think Lisbeth would be that sharp. Still, as long as I don’t admit anything, they shouldn’t have any proof~”
She wasn’t wrong. Even if they realized that speech wasn’t pre-recorded, there was no evidence. All she had to do was keep playing her role.
But more than that, Christia beside her chuckled and said, “So this is your testing method? I have to say, it really is a perfect way to test someone’s character. In that case, it makes watching the show much more meaningful.”
Hearing Christia’s words, Ovelia also smiled and said, “You’re absolutely right, Lord Demon King. Whether or not they manage to secretly make someone else test the potion… if they actually go that far, then that’s all their character really amounts to.”
“Hmph, exactly. Let’s see what kind of people they turn out to be. If they really dare to casually hand those potions to others to test, I’ll have to think very carefully about how to deal with them.”
Christia didn’t spell it out, but both Ovelia and Hilda understood perfectly. The scariest thing in a person is the lack of integrity. No matter what reasons Lisbeth and Stalos had for becoming Personal Maids, if their character really turned out to be that bad, Christia would probably just toss them into a cell and leave them there until they died.
“All right, let’s see what they do. I hope they don’t do anything that disappoints me.”
With that, Christia turned her gaze back to the glass panel that was showing their images.
——————————————————————————————————————————
“Now that you’ve understood the test, please leave this place.”
“Eh!?”
Before Lisbeth and Stalos could figure out whether Ovelia’s voice was real or not, the Magic Array under the table with the potions suddenly appeared beneath their feet. It flared with a blinding light, and by the time they came back to their senses, they realized they were already standing in front of the door to Ovelia’s lab.
“What just happened? Why are we suddenly outside?”
“I’m not sure either. I don’t know how it worked, but the test must’ve already started.”
After saying that, Lisbeth glanced down at the potions that had somehow appeared by her feet. Noticing her gaze, Stalos also looked down at the two bottles near her own feet. They each picked up their respective potions and showed a faint smile on their faces—but neither of them said a word.
“Hmph, boring.”
“Hmph, no fun.”
Soon, they both snorted coldly, then instinctively looked back up at each other. Lisbeth was the first to speak.
“Testing a potion’s authenticity by using someone who doesn’t know anything… I’d never do something like that, no matter how desperate I got. Especially with potions that have such nasty side effects.”
“Same here. I’ve got zero interest in that kind of low-life stunt, drugging someone just to screw them over. But, Lisbeth, if it’s you, you should already understand our situation now, right?”
“I do.”
Hearing Stalos’s words, Lisbeth’s lips curled up slightly. At the same time, her foot slipped back a step on instinct. Seeing that, Stalos also laughed and stepped back herself. Once they both finished that little move, Lisbeth and Stalos drew in a deep breath at the same time and shouted in unison:
“If we can’t use someone who doesn’t know what’s going on, then we just have to make you, who does know, drink it and test it!”
