The next morning.
Sunlight streamed down, dispelling the gloom of the night.
In Aiven's room, Mukkuru's wings twitched. It slowly opened its eyes.
Seeing its unfamiliar surroundings, Mukkuru jolted and quickly scrambled upright, only then realizing it had been lying on a bed.
It looked toward the bedside. The first thing it saw was Petilil, resting in a flowerpot.
Then it saw Aiven asleep with his head on the desk. Mukkuru slowly relaxed and plopped down on the bed.
It touched its head with a wing and remembered what had happened the night before. Thinking back, Aiven must have arrived just in time and saved it.
It raised a wing to look at it, then casually lowered it again. It was already used to having bandages wrapped around it.
"Petilil, Petilil."
Basking in the warm sunlight, Petilil opened its eyes.
It instinctively looked toward the bed and immediately jumped in surprise. Then it reflexively turned toward the desk and sighed in relief.
At the same time, Petilil spotted Mukkuru sitting up in bed. Delighted, it jumped out of the flowerpot.
Aiven woke up just then, too. Seeing that Mukkuru was awake, he breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed the Potent Healing Potion he had prepared had worked well.
The inner district of City of Ambition.
Under cover of night, Sir Enzo returned home with Luxray and Great Wolfdog.
As soon as he arrived, Sir Enzo headed straight for the family's potion room, where all their potions were stored.
When he approached the potion room, a Great Wolfdog standing guard at the entrance looked up at the knight in black. It sniffed the air, then nodded.
Without wasting time, Sir Enzo entered the family potion room, quickly found an Antidote Potion, grabbed it, and ran out.
He went to his room and poured the Antidote Potion into Luxray's mouth. Only then did he breathe a little easier.
"Sir, what do we do now?" the two knights dressed in black asked in low voices.
Their operation that night had gone terribly. It had been a complete failure.
Not only had they failed to capture Petilil, but they had also left Luxray Poisoned, wasting a precious Antidote Potion.
Hearing them, Sir Enzo sighed and said helplessly, "I never expected that Petilil to have poison in its body."
Honestly, he still found it hard to believe. In their minds, Petilil had always been a valuable ingredient for making potions.
The leaves on its head had healing properties, but he had never heard that Petilil was poisonous!
Then there was the human's command. His skillful direction of Charge and Discharge had not only countered three Monsters attacking at once, but had also driven several of them back.
Taking advantage of that opening, Petilil had approached Luxray and poisoned it.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized how skilled his opponent was at directing battles. He felt powerless, and doubted he had much chance of capturing Petilil if he tried again.
On top of that, it was obvious his opponent had been waiting for him there. That meant the other man had some kind of detection method, making it even harder to sneak in.
"All right, you two should get some rest. I'll find a way to cure my father."
The two knights exchanged a glance at Sir Enzo's words, then nodded and left the room with Great Wolfdog.
Watching them go, Sir Enzo turned to Luxray. With the Antidote Potion taking effect, Luxray ought to be fine.
But when he saw that Luxray still had an unhealthy purple tinge, he froze. A moment later, his expression changed drastically!
The Antidote Potion hadn't cured Luxray's Poisoned State!
"Luxray, Luxray."
Luxray was lying on the floor, looking utterly exhausted. It gave Sir Enzo a terrible fright.
He didn't have time to think. He rushed out of the room and ran back to the potion room.
It was already daylight. The early-rising servants looked at the flustered Sir Enzo in confusion.
"Enzo, what happened?"
Just then, a stern yet pleasant voice called out.
Sir Enzo's steps faltered instinctively. He looked toward a woman in a purple dress not far away.
"Phyllis, Luxray's been poisoned."
After offering a brief explanation, Sir Enzo continued running toward the potion room.
Phyllis paused, her lovely eyes narrowing. She turned and headed for Sir Enzo's room to check on Luxray.
Sir Enzo's Luxray had been carefully bred by the family and was extremely important to them.
Now that Luxray had been poisoned, this was no small matter. She felt she needed to have a serious word with her unreliable younger brother, especially with their father ill.
When she reached Sir Enzo's room, she found the door still open in his haste to leave. As soon as she stepped inside, she saw Luxray lying unconscious.
At the same time, Sir Enzo hurried back, his arms full of bottles and jars—not just Antidote Potions, but other potions as well.
He set them on the table, took out a second Antidote Potion, and quickly fed it to Luxray.
After Luxray drank the second Antidote Potion, the pain on its face seemed to ease a little. Sir Enzo breathed a little easier and waited for it to take effect.
"What exactly happened..." Phyllis looked at her younger brother. Her voice was pleasant, but there was a chill in it.
Sir Enzo had always been somewhat afraid of his sister. He hesitated, then said quietly,
"Father's illness hasn't gotten any better..."
"So I wanted to find a way to cure him."
"So, so... I took some of the family's knights into the wilderness... hoping we might come across a Petilil."
"You know that Panacea made using Petilil can cure every illness."
Sir Enzo spoke softly. Anyone who knew the knight would have been astonished to see him acting this way.
"You went into the wilderness to look for Petilil?" Phyllis looked at her younger brother and sneered. "How naive!"
"Phyllis, Father's illness..." Sir Enzo began, unwilling to give up.
"The city's Apothecaries have already examined him. Father needs to rest and recover gradually. There's no way to cure him all at once." Phyllis shook her head.
Then she stood and walked toward the door. But just as she reached it, she heard an exclamation behind her. "Why? Why is Luxray still Poisoned?"
Phyllis spun around, her eyes returning to Luxray, whose body was still mottled with purple spots.
Luxray seemed a little better after taking the Antidote Potion, but the potion appeared only to suppress the poison, not cure it!
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