Kal pondered for a moment, then turned his gaze toward Oberyn.
"I know some things about the Faceless Men, but I am not very familiar with their methods. Prince Oberyn, do you think this matter has anything to do with the Faceless Men?"
Faced with Kal's question, Oberyn — who would only feel pleased — had no intention of concerning himself with such trivial matters. He would only be happy to see it happen.
If this were not King's Landing, and if the current situation were not so unsuitable for celebration, he did not know how delighted he might have been.
So he simply spread his hands, then pulled his lover Ellaria Sand into his embrace.
And right in front of Kal, the Red Viper kissed her deeply for nearly a full minute before finally lifting his head. He wiped his mouth, then looked at the new King with contempt and provocation in his eyes.
He said, "Go investigate it yourself — it has nothing to do with me. And if you are certain you do not intend to take my head to secure the foundations of your throne, then I need an explanation."
By now, he was convinced that Kal was not going to take his head, and that what had happened was nothing more than a misunderstanding.
So he now dared to boldly demand an explanation from Kal.
Seeing him speak without reason, Kal chuckled, rose to his feet, lifted the wine cup on the table, and poured it all down his throat.
"I will give Dorne an explanation — so long as I truly confirm that this matter has nothing to do with Dorne."
After saying that, Kal set down the wine cup and turned to leave.
But just as he took his first step, he suddenly stopped in place. Then he turned his head again toward Oberyn Martell, who sat on the stool in comfort, his arms around his lover.
"Prince Oberyn, may I ask one more question?"
Thinking he was leaving, Oberyn tilted his head slightly. "I will decide whether to answer you depending on my mood."
Kal merely shrugged. "I only want to know — will we become friends, or enemies?"
Kal's question came out without preface, but Oberyn Martell was a clever man and naturally understood what he meant.
He paused for a moment, silent — then slowly broke into a smile.
"Originally, when you had your men storm my brothel, I was in a foul mood and did not want to answer this question. But after hearing you say Robert is dead, my mood suddenly improved."
"So I can answer this question."
"As long as you consider yourself our friend, then we are friends. If not, then we are not."
Faced with this ambiguous answer that seemed like no answer at all, Kal laughed.
"Then I will look forward to it."
After speaking, Kal lifted his foot and walked toward the door, reaching out to grab the door handle.
But in that instant, a sudden and unbearable twisting pain tore through the organs in his abdomen and his heart.
And right after that, dizziness spun before his eyes, waves of dimness crashing over him.
The pain and dizziness came so violently and so suddenly that even with Kal's physique, he could not hold himself upright. His whole body went weak, and with a muffled groan, his knees buckled and he slid to the floor.
Only by leaning against the wooden door in front of him did he avoid collapsing completely.
"Hm?!"
Oberyn, who had been wearing a meaningful smile after answering Kal's question, froze for a moment when he saw Kal's sudden, inexplicable movement.
"What is wrong with you? Do you still have something to say?"
Oberyn asked with clear irritation. If he were not certain that, in this place and so unprepared, he absolutely could not take this boy down, he would have surely taught Kal a lesson today.
He cared nothing about misunderstandings or anything of the sort.
Yet following his question, Kal — still turned away — forced out his voice as if squeezing it through clenched teeth.
"Damn it—there's poison in the wine!"
The twisting pain in his abdomen, the dizziness clouding his brain and his sight, and the indescribable tearing sensation in his throat all struck him in an instant.
And in that moment, Kal understood what had happened.
The unspeakable agony, the feeling of almost being unable to breathe, combined with the dizziness, nearly robbed him of speech.
Instinctively, he pulled up his character panel and looked at his status. As expected, a green skull glowing ominously was glaringly visible.
At the same time, his HP bar was ticking down drop by drop.
With no time to think, in the blink of an eye, a detox potion, a healing potion, and an energy potion appeared in Kal's hand.
He drank the detox potion first. The effect was immediate — the twisting pain in his abdomen slowly faded, and the tearing sensation in his throat gradually eased.
And finally, the waves of darkness and dizziness in his vision also gradually returned to normal.
Seeing the poisoned icon in his status bar fade away, Kal finally relaxed, then swallowed the healing potion and the energy potion as well.
The moment he realized he had been poisoned, he had already prepared for the worst.
If the detox potion had failed, then even at the risk of exposing his greatest secret, he would have immediately entered the game world to seek a solution.
He believed that at a time like this, whether he went to the Witch or the Priest, those two divine envoys would absolutely be able to resolve his problem.
But now it seemed that, compared to poisons in this world, the rule-level detox potions from his game world were clearly far more effective.
And as soon as he quickly resolved his own trouble and shouted that there was poison in the wine, Oberyn — who had been sitting there leisurely — instantly sprang to his feet and flung his Summer Red aside.
But after instinctively checking himself up and down, he strangely discovered that he had no symptoms at all.
Confused, he lifted his head and looked at Kal.
Kal had also stood up by now and turned back. His bloodshot eyes were fixed on Oberyn with a deadly stare.
"Oberyn, what is going on?!"
Kal's voice was icy, his gaze filled with cold light.
A streak of bright red blood hung at the corner of his mouth, blue veins crept across his face, and his entire complexion was flushed purple-red.
Although the symptoms were visibly fading, Oberyn — whose sensitivity to poisons was unmatched — could tell at a glance that Kal was not joking. He had truly been poisoned.
"You really were poisoned?!"
"Judging by the look of it, it's even the Strangler? Then how in the Seven Hells are you still alive?!"
"Wait—why am I fine after drinking the wine?"
After saying that, he turned to look at his lover. After all, he had poured her wine as well.
But when he looked back, aside from the panic on her face, she was completely unharmed.
"I'm fine too—" Ellaria Sand quickly said.
Seeing that the two people before him were unharmed, the three inside the room immediately realized that the only one poisoned was Kal.
Faceless Men!!!
That single thought flashed through all three of their minds.
"It was Scarlett—she is a Faceless Man!" Oberyn reacted quickly. "No—she must have been an impostor wearing her face!"
A Faceless Man would not kill someone they personally knew.
And a Faceless Man, when carrying out a mission, would never kill someone unrelated to that mission.
After all, the belief of the Many-Faced God held that death was the god's "gift," the ending of suffering.
Only when an offering was given would the god bestow that "gift" upon those in this world.
Therefore, assassination by the Faceless Men was regarded as a sacred ritual.
And the ones they killed were only the targets designated by those who hired them. They never chose whom to kill, nor did they judge whether someone deserved the Many-Faced God's gift.
Unless someone obstructed them — or unless that person was part of the mission itself.
Kal's brow tightened; he had realized the same thing.
Thinking back to the girl Oberyn had called Scarlett earlier, and to the way she trembled in fear while pouring the wine — which had caused some of the wine to spill onto her own fingers—
Without caring whether Oberyn had lied, or whether there truly had been a Faceless Man sent to assassinate him, Kal wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, then swung his elbow backward into the heavy wooden door.
With a sharp crack, the entire wooden door shattered into hundreds of splintered pieces under that inhuman strength.
And in that same instant, Kal had already rushed out.
Barristan and the others, who had been waiting not far down the hallway for Kal and Oberyn to finish talking, all looked up in shock at the sudden violent crash.
"Where is the girl from earlier? The one you let inside?!"
Sweeping past like a gust of wind and scattering the airborne splinters that had not yet fallen, Kal stood before Barristan Selmy and the others like an immovable wall.
"Your Grace, what has happened?"
Seeing the king erupt so suddenly, Arys Oakheart — now much recovered — instinctively asked.
But Kal had no time to waste with them. He shouted, voice like a whip: "Answer my question!"
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