On Lord Tibult's side, it was Shao, Carmine, and then Salicia. Shao snorted at my girls and then picked up her potion, looking down at it.
"This is not poisonous! Master wouldn't poison me! After all, of the three of us, I have done nothing to displease him. I won both of my rounds."
With those words, she gulped down the potion. As soon as it entered her stomach, her expression began to change. She let out a scream and then collapsed to the ground. The dark miasma began to glow around her, but the pain was from the inside, not the outside. She could only bellow and whimper.
"Not poisoned!" Carmine drank hers.
"Not poisoned!" Salicia also drank hers.
The Slave Master gave the girl on the floor an ugly look. "You stupid wench! If I gave the poison to the first person, then the others would clearly know! Even an idiot could figure that out. It assured me six points! Geh!"
The round went like lightning, and they had earned 5 points because of Shao's error in the way she thought. She expected leniency or fairness, and the Slave Master didn't think in those terms. She was pulled off the stage with the other two girls.
Meanwhile, my side had lined up a Terra, Miki, and Celeste. Terra had been eyeing her vile for a while now. It was clear she was trying to hype herself up. Although her vision was blocked from me on the outside so I couldn't give her a hint, she had seen the pain Shao went through.
"Master… has given me the poison!" Terra declared.
She picked up the vial and drank it. She waited for a few moments, and then nothing happened. She shot a look at the direction that I was, an uncomfortable expression on her face.
"Master… why…" Terra said, feeling depressed.
She had asked me to use the poison on her to spare the other girls. Since I didn't use it on her, it meant one of the other girls had to suffer. I lowered my head, a slightly guilty expression on my face.
"Okay… since Master didn't pick Terra, we must think realistically," Miki responded. "Since Master didn't choose you, it must be because he was worried about the damage you already faced. Master is fair, and wouldn't want you to experience more pain. Likewise, my constitution has always been weak thanks to my spiritual tails. Thus, he wouldn't pick me either! Master did not give me the poison!"
She took a drink, closing her eyes nervously. After a moment, she let out a relieved sigh. However, then she froze and turned to Celeste standing in the end. Celeste cocked her head in confusion. It was abundantly clear that with vials downed, the third would be poisoned. Celeste was the one he selected to feel pain. It made sense that I'd pick her, after all, she was uninjured and was a powerful Fairy Queen. Perhaps, I was even a little angry that she had failed her task earlier too. My eyes never looked more closely at Celeste than they did at this moment.
"Go ahead," Terra said nervously. "You must drink the poison vial. Be strong for Master."
"Eh? Drink this?" Celeste looked down on it. "But Master wouldn't give me the poison vial. See?"
The two other girls made noises of protest, holding out their hands as Celeste brought the vial to her lips and drank it. The blood drained from their faces. She had lost a point by being wrong about the poison, that brought the girls to four, and they lost this round. However, after some time passed, Celeste didn't bend over in pain. As time continued and nothing happened, the audience started to murmur in confusion. Celeste gave a giggle.
"Silly sisters, Master would never hurt us if he had a choice. Could you believe he poisoned any of us?"
Miki's confused expression flashed with realization. "Master… used Cure Poison on the vial!"
How would I ever hurt them? To the simple-minded Celeste, the question was that simple. Her trust in me was absolute, and even in the face of conflicting proof, she knew that Master would never harm her. Of course, I had used the spell. Even if I had lost the points, or this entire event as a result, I would still have made the same choice.
I didn't believe it was because the other girls didn't trust me, it was simply that they overthought it. The second Miki realized that no matter how she looked at it, she couldn't see me giving her a vial of poison, she felt like a complete idiot. As for Terra, she truly hadn't trusted in me when I said I wouldn't poison her. She was convinced there was no other way but her own sacrifice and believed in that instead of believing in me. In a single moment, Celeste had outsmarted Miki and gave me more trust than Terra.
"M-master!" Terra broke into tears and suddenly raced out and leaped off the stage.
"Oi! Oi!" I held out my hands desperately as she landed on top of me.
Boom!
As a golem, Terra was exceptionally heavy despite her size. Furthermore, as she leveled and regained her strength after years of being in a dungeon, her weight only increased. The ground cracked as I was flattened on the ground. A second and third girl landed on top of me as well. However, they all started kissing me, and their bodies were soft, so I decided it wasn't that bad after all.