"Grandpa Knud Enevoldsen, how are you still alive?"[1]
He turned around to see an elderly man with combed white hair and a white mustache sitting comfortably in a chair. He was wearing clothes that were fashionable, a century ago, and had an ashwood cane leaning against his leg.
In the Leighla Kingdom people could live 150 years as a normal person without any real strength and up to 300 years as a third rank being but even by the Leighla Kingdoms standards Knud Enevoldsen looked like and was an old man.
"Hmph as if I'll die before I'm done training my heir and don't try to avoid answering my question," he snapped at Chronos.
Chronos chuckled.
Grandpa Knud was over two centuries' old and had watched his parents, grandparents and possibly his great-grandparents grow up. He knew all of the tricks an Ulv might use to distract him.
"Last I heard my parents were dealing with giant type black beasts coming down from the mountain, but we still had enough leeway to send the Black Fang unit to fight on the eastern front. They should be going home in a couple of months once the main army arrives."
"Hm, good. I'm going to be stepping down soon so knowing your family's situation is important for me right now."
Chronos perked up at that, "You're stepping down!? Isn't this kind of a bad time to be changing who the viscount is?"
"You're right but I'm close to three hundred now with no chance of breaking through to the fourth rank. I won't live for much longer lad. I'll have to bother your family when it's time for me to step down," he sighed.
That was going to be a bit troublesome.
Since tears could appear anywhere there was no way to effectively defend against them, meaning that you needed a stable leadership in order to respond in the shortest time possible.
And with the old viscount stepping down Chronos was certain that the nearby nobles would be testing his heir to see what they could get away with.
"It's a shame to hear that you're retiring Grandpa and don't worry about the change in leadership. My family will definitely help the new viscount."
"Thank you. And send a message home your bratty mother keeps asking if I've seen you."
Chronos felt a cold sweat building on his back.
"Please don't tell her where I am Grandpa. She'll kill me if she finds me," Chronos begged him.
Grandpa Knud burst out laughing at his pleading expression.
"I won't tell her, but you should send a letter home. Otherwise, she'll track you down on her own once she's done killing black beasts up north."
That sounded even worse than writing a letter.
As the garden luncheon was drawing to a close the maids brought out honey-cream tarts with berry compote and spiced apple or pear cakes. They looked delicious.
Lifting his fork Chronos about to take the first bite then stopped lowering it back to his plate.
"Gregory, warn the girls that someone has poisoned the cream tarts."
"Understood," Gregory's voice came from behind him.
During the whole luncheon he had been pretending to be an assistant as he followed Chronos around the garden to avoid talking with anyone.
It had worked remarkably well as no one had looked at him twice or thought anything of him.
"You're not going to help him?" Asked Grandpa Knud as his ring flashed a poison warning over the tart as well.
He then set the tart down and motioned for one of the guards to check the rest of the tarts.
"There's no need to make a big fuss during a party. Besides Sariah's clothes have a poison detection spell built into them but it hasn't shown any reaction yet and I'm not sure if Lyla can be poisoned being an order priestess and all. I think it was only our tarts that were poisoned."
"Hmph," Grandpa Knud snorted. "Do you think it was someone who hates beastfolk or is it targeted at your family?"
He didn't even consider that he might be the target. And to be fair after being around for so long nearly everyone had given up on trying to do the old man harm, nearly everyone.
"Probably someone trying to embarrass me. If it was someone who hated beastfolk they would have known that werewolves can smell sweetthorn poison even when it's been baked into a tart."
Grandpa Knud chuckled as he shook his head.
Sweetthorn poison wasn't really lethal unless you took a large amount of it, but it would cause dizziness, loss of coordination, and eventually unconsciousness in its victims.
None of which would work on a werewolf.
At most it would give them a slight buzz before their bodies healed and removed the poison but for Grandpa Knud with his advanced age it could be lethal.
Worried that someone was targeting Grandpa Knud instead of himself, Chronos spent the rest of the luncheon with him. He didn't think the old man would be caught unaware by poison, he'd been a noble for too long to fall for something like that, but just in case it was better not to leave his side.
As the luncheon came to an end Chronos saw a maid being escorted down the hall and one of the guards carrying a small vial in his hand.
Bidding goodbye to Grandpa Knud he met up with the others and left the mansion on the same carriage they had arrived on.
"So, what was up with that maid?" Sariah asked.
So, she had seen it too. Normally she didn't pay attention to things like that, which meant the other nobles were going to be talking about it for a month.
"She was a new maid, one of the Enevoldsen's rivals paid her to poison Lord Knud Enevoldsen. I think they intended to embarrass him but with his advanced age he might have died from it. So, she's going to be punished and the noble in question is being interrogated by the Earl's men now." Gregory informed them.
"Haha, that was stupid. Did they not know that trying to sneak a poison past a werewolf's nose is almost impossible? Trying to poison him while Chronos was sitting right next to him is the worst timing," Lyla laughed.
She wasn't wrong. A werewolf's sense of smell was strong enough to detect most forms of poisoning; even magical poisons had a hard time sneaking past their noses.
They talked as the carriage went down the boulevard. At first, they thought it would take them back to the ship, but it turned into the drive of a mansion with wolf shrubbery and came to a stop.
Chronos, realizing what was going on, stepped down from the carriage first and offered his arm to Lyla who descended behind him.
"Welcome home Young Master," a line of maids and butlers called out.
With maids on the left and butlers on the right Chronos started walking towards his family's mansion in Malark city.
[1] Hello Readers, I have finally finished setting up my discord. It has character art, fan art, and chapter discussions amongst other things. For those that wish to join follow this link: https://discord.gg/KzykMRAbs