Chapter 43 – Case Investigation Record (2)

Having unexpectedly gotten the chance to wield a sword, I loosened up my body with a few swings before leaving the training ground.

Everett seemed a bit surprised, but thankfully, she wasn’t seriously injured. Considering she nodded along like a fool when I apologized for breaking her sword, she must be fine. Hookslaw, indeed—she’s strong. Her blade work is sharp enough that with a little more effort, she could probably take down a mid-rank monster like a Death Worm on her own.

In any case, feeling refreshed, I headed to the Ruhillen Viscount’s estate.

Now that I think about it, did Darling go to school today? I’d like to sneak over while she’s out.

Creak!

“Hm?”

But when I got out of the carriage, there was someone already there. A man of large build, wearing a slightly worn white royal uniform with a red epaulet.

He was talking with Bill, sighing deeply. Even from some distance away, I could hear their conversation.

“So, why exactly can’t I meet with the Viscount of Ruhillen?”

“I’m sorry, but the Viscount hasn’t left her chambers for a week.”

“Look here, steward. I’m starting to suspect that this entire situation is some sort of play orchestrated by the Rochear and Ruhillen families. What delicacy could the heads of both houses be sharing that they’ve both decided to stay cooped up? Was it pufferfish?”

“I don’t quite understand what you’re suggesting…”

What is this? Did something happen?

As I peeked around the corner, lighting a cigarette, the man with the wrinkled face glanced in my direction. Bill brightened up and bowed to me.

“Oh! Mr. Louis! Finally, you’re here!”

“?”

“I’ve been waiting for you. Please, come inside. You should see the Viscount.”

“No, I’m just here to order materials for the store repairs…”

“Oh, don’t worry, we’ll handle all that for you. Quickly, please come in!”

“Hey! Why are you letting him in…!”

Ignoring the stranger’s shouting, I walked inside the estate. Bill led me, unsurprisingly, to Darling’s chamber.

Unlike the other lavish rooms, her private room had no lights on, even from the short hallway leading to it. It was dark, despite it being daytime, situated in the deepest part of the estate.

I knocked lightly and entered.

“Ugh… You could at least clean up a bit.”

The place was as messy as ever. It didn’t use to be like this.

When I first met Darling, in the parlor of a much smaller house than this, when I came to purchase the land, she wasn’t the stoic and prickly girl she is now.

Back then, I was the tense one. I had buried the Holy Sword and Shield—sought by the Sacred Kingdom with eyes blazing—beneath that ground and couldn’t afford to leave for even a moment.

“Get up, Viscount. I’m here now.”

I stepped over the clutter and made my way to the pile of blankets where she was likely buried. Is that my shirt tossed over there in the corner?

As I got closer, I saw a small foot sticking out from under the blanket. I poked it with my finger, and it quickly disappeared under the covers.

“…What is it, store owner?”

“That’s what I’m wondering. The steward brought me here.”

“Leave. There’s no business here for you.”

“Is that so?”

That was quick. Just as I was about to leave, a pale hand reached out from the blankets and grabbed my ankle.

What’s the issue now?

“…Didn’t I tell you I wouldn’t leave Farencia?”

“That was when there wasn’t anything going on.”

“If you’re just going to leave whenever you please, why not sell the store and live here?”

“It’s too dirty here.”

“What if I clean it up?”

“Maybe. It’s more likely than if you leave it like this.”

“Merchants don’t gamble.”

“Then leave it as is.”

“…”

I crouched down beside the blanket and continued the conversation. The hand that was gripping my ankle soon moved to hold my palm.

It seemed she was very worried about me leaving for the North Sea.

After losing her parents to a sudden monster attack, Darling Tokarev had armored herself with a sharp and authoritative demeanor, like a hedgehog bristling with quills.

Was it just her personality? Her business acumen, her ability to read the market, and the cool, calculated judgment she projected in dealings always brought her profit.

Even if she wasn’t a prodigy in magic, Darling’s exceptional talents had brought the Ruhillen Viscounty to prominence.

But in reality…

She shuts herself away like this just because I leave for a while.

Has it already been seven years? With my usual temperament, I would have either forced her to change or pushed her away when she clung too much, even to the point of annoyance.

The reason I can’t do either now is due to the deep regret I still carry.

“How’s the western forest?”

“…We’re searching the lowlands that were washed away by the mudslide. We need to finish before the weeds grow too thick.”

“Then you’ll need to get out there quickly.”

“I’ll be up soon, even if you don’t rush me!”

Still haven’t found it…

“If it’s too hard…”

“I’m not giving up. Just as you won’t leave the store, I won’t leave the forest. And…”

The small hand that gripped mine trembled.

“I’ll catch the bastard who dared lose my father’s remains and make him pay…!”

“…”

Just like Earth, this world also carries a heavy weight for the bereaved regarding funerals and the deceased. Perhaps even more so after a long war.

“I see…”

I don’t regret wiping out the horde of monsters that had invaded the hill where this estate now stands.

However, I should have been more careful back then. Even if a demon idol worshipping the Demon King was found in a nearby village, I shouldn’t have let my blood boil so fiercely.

Holding Darling’s hand, I closed my eyes and spoke.

“You’ll find it, I’m sure.”

The loyal steward still maintained his silence, waiting for his mistress.

It had been only a few short years since the Demon King was defeated. Back then, I had been driven to madness.

***

“Damn it, I can’t make heads or tails of this.”

The investigation was at a standstill because the parties involved were all keeping silent. The more he dug, the more perplexed and frustrated he felt.

“Why in the world would they let a store owner in?”

After pressing the steward for answers, Gallahad learned that the person who entered ahead of him was the academy’s convenience store owner.

This made even less sense. Did he have some personal connection with the Viscount of Ruhillen? But why would a merchant, who usually pursues practical interests, dismiss a royal investigator and let in a local shopkeeper?

He couldn’t tell if the world had gone mad or if he was losing his mind.

All his efforts in rushing back and forth seemed futile, and it looked like his chance at promotion was slipping away.

No choice. I’ll have to visit the academy next.

To find Adela Silvesta, the lead he got from the old fisherman in Edenbury, Gallahad decided to head to Farencia Academy.

From what he had gathered, she was likely a key figure in this incident.

While walking through the academy grounds after passing through the main gate, Gallahad spotted a familiar face. Everett of the Hookslaw Knights was muttering to herself while continuously swinging her sword.

“Hey, Everett! It’s been a while!”

Gallahad approached her with a friendly greeting. They had crossed swords a few times while stationed in the Lavierre Mountains.

Back then, Everett Windguard’s swordsmanship was renowned for being as fast and graceful as that seen in fencing, making her a challenging opponent. Though he was busy with the investigation, he hoped to see her swordplay again if the chance arose.

“I… I…”

“Everett…?”

But up close, something seemed off about her.

“What have I been honing my swordsmanship for…? I couldn’t read even a single move, not even a second. To think, defeated by a mere… convenience store owner…”

“Hey, are you okay?”

“G-Gallahad…?”

Tears welled up in her empty eyes. Everett extended her half-broken sword to her old comrade and lamented.

“Gallahad, I’ve hit a wall. I used to look up to Commander Wiblet’s sword as the most beautiful, like a mountain to be climbed one day, but that wasn’t the truth.”

“What in the world are you talking about?!”

“The sword wasn’t about beauty! It was terror! Without form or style… staring back at me from the bottomless abyss beneath that black hair… kyaaaah!”

For heaven’s sake. Gallahad was at a loss for words at the sight of his former comrade completely unhinged.

Everett rambled on about how something horrible lurked beneath the store, how the bread sold there contained hallucinogens, and how she might have been a doppelganger herself. None of it made any sense.

What on earth had happened to her to make her this way?

Eventually, he fled from Everett as if escaping a nightmare and finally reached the academy’s central area. There, he found a half-demolished wooden building that looked like it was being torn down.

Just as he was about to walk past it, Gallahad spotted the woman he had been searching for.

Adela Silvesta de Rochear.

The second daughter of the Rochear family and once known as the “Flower of the North Sea,” she had been quite famous in social circles.

Gallahad calmed his racing heart and approached her.

Even just seeing her back, with that blue hair shining, was breathtakingly beautiful, but he needed one last confirmation.

“Lady Adela?”

“Yes?”

Finally, when she turned around, Gallahad felt a sense of relief.

“What are you doing?”

“Killing ants.”

Adela was crushing ants with shards of glass that had fallen from the store window.

Thank goodness. I found her—he thought to himself, nodding.

Stories about Adela Silvesta had spread all the way to Thessalon, so there wasn’t a soul who didn’t know about her.

There were tales like how she poured the tea she was drinking into a flower vase because the flowers seemed dry during teatime.

Or how she borrowed a cherished magical book from another family and returned it covered in saliva.

Or how she sang about magic, burning off the hair of Viscount Krenhood, who was already quite bald, and got half-banished to Farencia Academy.

Her notorious escapades, mixed with rumors, were so widely circulated that none of them seemed unbelievable.

Had the Ice Duke lamented that she destroyed her own castle out of sheer frustration at her sister’s antics, she probably would have believed it.

In any case, she wasn’t a very reliable witness, but Gallahad had no choice but to hear what she had to say.

“Do you happen to know anything about the recent conflict between the Rochear and Ruhillen families?”

Upon hearing his question, Adela seemed to think deeply for a moment.

Of course, even then, one hand continued to squish ants in the sand.

“Hmm… well, you see…”

After a brief hesitation, Adela opened her mouth.

“Here’s what happened…”

After hearing her story, Gallahad packed his bags and returned to the capital that very day.

***

“So, you’re saying you’re closing the investigation due to insufficient evidence and the unlikely recurrence of hostilities due to the lack of cooperation from both families?”

The Head of the Inspector General’s Office took the document and asked, to which Gallahad nodded.

“Yes, sir. It doesn’t seem like an issue the royal court needs to be involved with any longer.”

“Are you sure? If Ruhillen really declares war on Rochear, things could get messy.”

“For reasons unknown, neither side appears to have the will to fight any longer. It seems all that’s left is to ensure proper negotiations for compensation.”

With a decisive stamp marking the suspension of further investigation, Gallahad left his superior’s office with a sense of relief.

He had missed his chance at promotion, but he didn’t regret this decision.

If he had written down exactly what the young girl involved in the incident had told him, he might not just have lost his promotion but also been dismissed from his position.

Lighting a cigarette, Gallahad recalled Adela Silvesta’s words and laughed to himself.

“At first, I met him while stealing bread…”

“He punished the bad people for me, you know.”

“Then, when I was about to go to the ball, my heart was pounding so much!”

“I was so scared, but the teacher saved me from the worse people who captured me! Who’s the teacher, you ask? He owns the only convenience store in the academy.”

“My sister used magic, but it was useless. Yes, I am talking about the Ice Duke.”

“So then, we kissed… and spent the first night together… I’m planning to get married soon!”

“But this is going to be in the newspaper, right? Do you want to take a picture?”

“Haha, what nonsense… She must’ve been reading some kind of romance novel.”

Even the prince on a white horse from a children’s fairy tale would have a more plausible story. A convenience store owner at the academy defeating the ruler of the North Sea and saving the prized daughter of that family? Maybe she’d fallen for a poorly written romance by a second-rate novelist.

And to think he fought the Ice Duke, one of the five Grand Dukes, barehanded for a girl like that… Even if it were true, the man would have to be crazy.

Back in his office, Gallahad drafted a report on the recent investigation to be delivered separately to His Majesty the King. The formal, neat script filled the blank parchment.

On the last page, he summarized his conclusions concisely:

No remaining embers in the recent mysterious conflict between the Rochear and Ruhillen families.

Request to allocate ten roots of Heaven-Grade Ginseng to both families, as strange rumors are circulating due to the weakened mental state of those involved.