The Hidden Extra: The Lazy Prince Refuses to Ascend The Throne

”Big Brother!”

Eliza ran over with a bright smile and threw herself at Nolan, hugging his right leg.

”I missed you so much, Big Brother!”

She rubbed her cheek against his leg like a kitten asking for attention.

Nolan smiled and picked her up.

”How have you been? Have you been a good girl?” he asked, kissing her chubby cheek.

”Hehe...” Eliza giggled happily. ”I’ve been a good girl, Big Brother! I helped Sister Shion and did all my chores!”

She puffed out her little chest proudly.

Nolan laughed softly and ruffled her hair.

”Good girl. Since you’ve been so good, I got you a little present.”

He slipped a hand into his pocket and took out a purple bracelet.

”Here. This is for you.”

”Wow! It’s so pretty!”

Eliza’s eyes sparkled as she happily took the bracelet.

”Thank you, Big Brother!”

Nolan smiled and gently patted her head.

The two chatted for a while before Nolan finally asked, ”Where’s Shion? Why isn’t she in her office?”

He looked around but didn’t see her anywhere.

”Sister Shion is meeting with a guest. She’ll probably be back soon.”

Just as she finished speaking, the door opened, and Shion walked in with Luna.

The moment she saw Nolan, Shion smiled apologetically.

”I’m sorry, Master, for keeping you waiting. We’ve been getting a lot of complaints from customers.”

”Complaints?” Nolan raised an eyebrow. ”Is something wrong?”

Shion sat across from him and leaned back in her chair, as if she had just dealt with something exhausting.

”There have been several complaints about our products, especially the perfume sold to the nobility,” she said helplessly.

”What’s wrong with the perfume? Is there a problem with the scent?” Nolan asked.

Shion slowly shook her head. ”No, but it’s something far more serious. The perfume we’ve been selling has been causing skin irritation among the nobles. It hasn’t happened just once or twice—it’s happened with almost every batch. As a result, we’ve had to recall all of the affected products and issue refunds to our customers, costing us a significant amount of money.”

”Please.”

Luna walked in carrying a tray with two cups of tea and a glass of cold chocolate milk, then carefully set them on the table.

”Thank you.” Nolan smiled at her.

”You’re welcome, Brother Nolan.” Luna smiled back before stepping behind Shion.

Nolan took a few sips of his tea before asking, ”Have you found the cause yet?”

The products made by the Blue Moon Trading House went through a long production process. Take the perfume Shion had just mentioned, for example.

They had their own raw material warehouse and their own logistics fleet and even manufactured the perfume bottles themselves.

From start to finish, they managed the entire production process on their own without relying on any noble families, let alone other merchants.

The same was true for the food business. Every restaurant under the Blue Moon Trading House used the same source of raw materials and the same warehouse. The quality had never been in question.

So, if something had gone wrong, the most likely place was either the raw materials warehouse or the logistics department.

”Not yet. We’re still investigating,” Shion said, shaking her head as she took a sip of tea.

The tension in her shoulders slowly eased.

”Do you have a sample of the perfume?”

”Yes. Give me a moment.”

Shion stood up and left the room. A few minutes later, she came back with a ten-centimeter-tall bottle of perfume and handed it to Nolan.

Nolan took it and examined it carefully. Before the Blue Moon Trading House was established, the nobility didn’t use perfume.

They only used fragrances made by infusing various herbs.

However, after he created perfume and introduced it in a bottle, made from a blend of fragrant herbs, it quickly became a luxury sought after by the nobility.

It had been four years since then, and Nolan still remembered how excited the nobles had been when Blue Moon first introduced perfume.

”Eliza, step away from me,” he said.

Eliza nodded seriously and hurried over to Shion’s side.

Nolan sprayed the perfume onto the back of his hand. The sweet scent of lavender filled the air. It wasn’t overpowering, but it was enough to put anyone who smelled it at ease.

Second by second, time passed, and before long, a red rash appeared on Nolan’s skin. It happened quickly, only a few minutes after he sprayed on the perfume.

Shion’s eyes widened in shock. She was about to grab a wet cloth, but Nolan stopped her.

”No need. I want to see how much of an effect the perfume has on my skin. That’s the only way we’ll be able to figure out the cause.”

Shion opened her mouth to protest, but in the end, she held back and simply nodded.

As the seconds passed, the rash on Nolan’s skin grew worse. The skin around it had even begun to show signs of damage.

Nolan narrowed his eyes.

”So that’s how it is...”

Shion swallowed hard and asked, ”Have you found the cause? I already had a team of experts examine it, but they couldn’t figure it out.”

Nolan gave a slight nod.

”Yes, I already know,” he replied, taking a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping the perfume off his hand. ”There’s poison in it.”

The word ”poison” startled Shion, Eliza, and Luna.

”Poison? What kind of poison?” Shion asked seriously.

Even the team of experts she had hired hadn’t been able to detect it. Whatever the poison was, it had been hidden extremely well.

Nolan set the perfume bottle on the table before explaining, ”It’s poison from the Acidia flower. Have you ever heard of it?”

Shion shook her head.

”Sorry, I haven’t.”

Nolan smiled and calmly explained, ”The Acidia flower grows deep within the Southern Continent. It has no practical use because it’s highly poisonous. I once collected it and used it in an experiment with perfume. The flower itself has a pleasant odor and I was sure that I could neutralize its poison. Unfortunately, the experiment failed. I still remember my skin breaking out in a rash just like this.”

He glanced at his wrist, which was still red.

”The symptoms are almost identical, so I’m certain the Acidia flower is the cause.”

Shion’s expression turned grim. She didn’t even know what an Acidia flower was, so there was no way they had used it on purpose.

”Could someone have slipped the flower into our products during the manufacturing process?”

”It’s possible.” Nolan didn’t deny it. He took a sip of tea before saying, ”Or maybe someone working at one of our stores slipped it in without anyone noticing. Between the two, I think that’s the more likely possibility. Our production process is too strict. There’s no way anyone could add Acidia flowers unless they were ready to die.”

Nolan wasn’t trying to brag, but he had complete confidence in the people working in production. Every one of them had been carefully selected through a strict screening process.

Although he appeared to have left everything to Shion, Nolan hadn’t truly washed his hands of Blue Moon.

The production department was the heart of the Blue Moon Trading House. If a traitor ever managed to sabotage it, even the powerful Blue Moon Trading House could fall.

For that reason, he suspected the person who had mixed the Acidia flower poison into the perfume was working in either logistics or marketing. There was an eighty to ninety percent chance.

”I understand...” Shion took a deep breath, suppressing her anger. ”I’ll resolve this as soon as possible.”

Nolan nodded without saying a word.

Shion suddenly remembered something and asked hesitantly, ”Master, do you have a solution to this problem?”