Ch.89Delusion

I felt the blood in my entire body turning cold.

Charlotte must have noticed my reaction, because even though my regeneration ability had reversed the puppet magic cast on my body, she didn’t reapply the spell this time.

Silence hung in the air for a while. I unwrapped my arms from around Charlotte’s waist. Likewise, she released her arms from around my neck.

I staggered back a few steps. My head was beginning to throb with pain.

“…What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said, my dear.”

“You came here because of something related to the Black Blood Demons?”

“That is correct.”

The cause and effect began to fall into place in my mind.

Now I understood why everything in this building was excessively black, and why the building was empty.

The reason everything in this building was black was likely to make detection difficult, even if someone discovered activities related to the Black Blood Demons.

If a colorful place started rotting into black, it would naturally raise suspicion, but a place that was black from the beginning turning black with decay wouldn’t seem strange.

Of course, an explanation would be needed for why a building was suddenly rotting and crumbling. But that was far better than directly showing evidence of connection to the Black Blood Demons.

Especially in the current situation, where the Royal Knights, Royal Magicians, and S-rank adventurers—the kingdom’s greatest forces—were all mobilized to hunt Black Blood Demons with full power.

While Black Blood Demons were appearing all over the continent, causing suffering to low and mid-rank adventurers, if anyone were caught conducting business related to those creatures, no amount of power controlling a city’s back alleys would be enough to cover it up.

The pinnacle of the kingdom’s power would personally descend upon them.

And the reason this place was empty was probably because Charlotte, having noticed something suspicious, had arrived and rounded up everyone connected to this organization without giving them a chance to react.

That woman who was supposed to create a new identity for me was probably dragged to the underground prison of the royal palace by now, and the others would have been taken along as potential accomplices.

The muscular men at the door must have been dealt with somehow—either their memories erased by magic or they were illusions created as fakes. After all, everyone who had been active in this organization would need to be investigated.

The only one left was that blond man who had been with me for three days straight, but with Charlotte here, he wouldn’t be safe either.

Charlotte, who had been quietly watching me organize my thoughts, spoke up.

“Would you like me to explain?”

I nodded in response. Charlotte rose from her chair. Her long silver hair fluttered about.

“Rather than my explanation, it would be faster for you to see for yourself. Watch.”

Charlotte snapped her fingers.

Click. The sound of something turning. First from the table where we had been sitting until just now. Then from the chair next to the table. Then from the wooden floor.

The legs of the table were slowly sinking downward. The teacups that had been on it had disappeared somehow, and the chair, like the table, began to sink below the wooden floor.

Looking closely, I could see small grooves between the wooden planks making up the floor. It seemed designed to work when the table legs were precisely aligned with those four grooves.

The chair probably had a similar mechanism. I stared blankly as the table and chair sank downward.

When the four legs were completely buried beneath the wooden floor, and the chair legs were likewise completely submerged, the liquor display rack decorating one wall began to vibrate.

Charlotte’s hair rippled slightly. She appeared to be using mana. The wall resonated in response, as if in harmony.

All sorts of bottles on the display rack fell to the floor with a loud noise. Dozens of overlapping sounds of breaking glass rang out. Alcohol seeped through the cracks in the floor.

Now the liquor display rack began to slowly sink beneath the wooden floor. Watching this, Charlotte muttered in an annoyed tone.

“Slow, unstable, and utterly useless. What a pathetic locking mechanism.”

Charlotte clenched her fist. Simultaneously, the descent speed accelerated significantly.

Now the entire first floor was moving. The wooden planks of the floor spread apart, and all sorts of antique decorations disappeared behind the walls. The speed was incredible, likely due to acceleration magic.

When the process was complete, the first floor, which had felt like an expensive bar, had transformed into a desolate space with only a staircase leading down to a basement.

“What… is this?”

“What else could it be, my dear? Obviously, it’s the space where these brainless fools conduct their business related to the Black Blood Demons.”

“Is that even possible?”

Black Blood Demons were, by their very existence, as deadly as extreme poison to humans. As far as I knew, there was nothing that could be done using Black Blood Demons.

“Whether these are fools who think they can handle the byproducts of Black Blood Demons, or whether they’ve actually succeeded in handling such byproducts, we must verify for ourselves.”

“You haven’t confirmed it yet?”

“More precisely, I was about to.”

Charlotte’s hand gently caressed my cheek.

“With you right here, how could I possibly dare to go ahead of you?”

“…Go ahead?”

“Isn’t this why you came here? That’s what I thought.”

Now I understood what misunderstanding Charlotte had made. I shook my head.

“No. I had a different purpose.”

“A different purpose? What business could you possibly have with such cheap riffraff?”

“I was trying to get a new identity.”

At my words, Charlotte’s eyes narrowed slightly. She seemed to be scrutinizing me.

It made sense. Charlotte had been handling my identity laundering from before, so she was naturally wondering why I would try to create a new identity through a place like this instead of going through her.

From Charlotte’s perspective, it was natural to ask what was going on.

“I had no choice. I thought you were still busy with Black Blood Demon matters at the royal palace. And I didn’t want to do this of my own accord.”

“Were you threatened?”

“Do I look like someone who would give in to threats?”

No threat would mean anything to me.

Money was something I could take or leave. If someone tried to steal my money, I could simply hand it over. The money I carried around was mere pocket change compared to my real wealth.

And most of my assets were concentrated in buildings near the capital, so it would be impossible for an underground organization like this to touch them.

As for threats to my life, that went without saying.

“Of course not. However, the mere fact that they attempted to threaten you is reason enough for me to personally slaughter those worthless creatures.”

“It’s fine. They didn’t do anything to me anyway.”

“They did nothing, you say…”

For a moment, Charlotte’s eyes changed. They filled with a terrifying killing intent. Even I, standing beside her, flinched.

“What’s wrong?”

“…It’s nothing, my dear.”

It didn’t seem like nothing, but when Charlotte deflected like that, it was essentially her indirect way of saying she couldn’t tell me.

I gave up and stepped onto the stairs leading down to the basement. Yes, now wasn’t the time to react to Charlotte’s behavior.

If they were really trying to do something with Black Blood Demons down there, we needed to destroy everything and leave no trace behind.

My footsteps echoed on the stairs. And not long after, another set of footsteps followed behind me.

Charlotte released the feelings of ecstasy she had been suppressing as she watched the boy descend the stairs.

The sensation of embracing him until her waist nearly broke, the feeling of him breathing with his face buried in her chest, the sensation of him holding her neck, even the feeling of him nuzzling his face against her head.

She stored every single sensation of that climactic moment in her mind.

It had truly been a dangerous moment just now. One wrong move and her heart might have burst with joy, leading to a pathetic death.

Above all, the euphoria that came from the boy believing her words without a shred of doubt was squeezing her heart to the point of bursting.

For Charlotte was a liar.

The claim that she had come here because of something related to the Black Blood Demons was a lie.

She had been watching the boy through magic and had come to punish those women who had been flirting and acting out of line around him.

The claim that she had tried to check what this basement was also a lie.

She had never intended to check this basement in the first place. Her only thought had been to see the boy’s face in person.

The claim that she had misunderstood the boy’s purpose for coming here and thought he came to investigate the Black Blood Demons was also a lie.

There was no way she could have misunderstood.

From the boy being refused a new identity at the Adventurers’ Guild, to him entering this place and meeting that cursed woman.

The horrific incident of his hand touching a woman named Latina due to that despicable woman’s tricks, his killing of five insects, and even how he spent the rest of his time—she had seen it all.

But the boy had also lied to Charlotte.

The absurd lie that he hadn’t suffered anything.

How could being in the same space as that cursed woman be considered “not suffering anything”? How could holding hands with a woman be considered “not suffering anything”? How could drinking tea laced with aphrodisiacs be considered “not suffering anything”?

So it was inevitable that Charlotte had lied as well.

Because the boy had lied first.

That’s why Charlotte had to lie too. It was truly, truly unavoidable.

Still, she could understand.

After all, a wife should graciously overlook a husband’s occasional lie and forgive it with a loving heart.

Charlotte followed behind the boy, holding her hands demurely in front of her lower abdomen.

Just for now, in this moment when the boy wasn’t looking back, she was not the ruler governing the kingdom but merely a woman.