The Safety Guidelines of The Duke’s Haunted Castle Chapter 63

Since I had made plans to look through the employment contracts with Edwin in the late afternoon after his work was finished, I got moving early in the morning to head to Monterre Village.

As usual, I was carrying a whole armful of bread today as well.

Especially the carrot cheese bread!

No matter how I thought about it, I’d received an enormous amount of golden carrots, and I felt terribly guilty about simply calling it even after just one delivery.

Besides.

‘Now that I know the Cash Shop has its limits, I need to make sure I have reliable outside suppliers too.’

Who would have thought I’d ever see the words “Out of Stock” in a magical shop?

I’d practically thought of the Cash Shop as a universal key, but after this whole ‘golden carrot’ incident, I’d become a little more careful.

‘I’ll make sure they like me while I have the chance.’

With that in mind, I arrived at the Luden Trading Company, but….

The scene before me once again left me completely bewildered.

“Huh?”

After following Carol’s directions to the warehouse, I saw the neatly stacked sacks and stared in shock.

“What is going on…? Why are the golden carrots restocked?”

Had I made a mistake? Or had I somehow not taken all of them last time? No, I had! I’d swept every last one of them into my inventory!

And yet, those gleaming golden carrots were still sitting right there.

Mr. Scrooge, who noticed me belatedly, shrugged awkwardly.

“Ah, actually… we were waiting for you to come, Lady Windsor. It seems the seller of the golden carrots liked the bread you sent, because they sent us more carrots without even being asked.”

Well, the bread made by the chef really was insanely delicious.

‘But even so, they sent this much again?’

Didn’t they say golden carrots were hard to obtain? That they were precious? Then just who were these suppliers that they could keep sending me sacks and sacks of these supposedly rare golden carrots?

While I was still confused, Mr. Scrooge finished organizing the sacks of carrots and approached me again.

“…They say they want to continue doing business with you.”

“Continue doing business?”

“They say they’ve sent all of the golden carrots they harvested this year, and they want you to send bread worth an appropriate amount in return. What should I tell them?”

They sent me all the golden carrots they’d harvested this year?!

The scale of it was so enormous that I was more bewildered than happy. With a dazed expression, I handed the basket I was carrying to Mr. Scrooge.

“For now, this and….”

Wait. It felt a little too shameless to settle everything with just some bread. Besides, if I wanted to keep sending bread, I’d have to buy more preservatives to extend its shelf life.

After racking my brain for a long time, I finally came up with a solution.

“Please wait a moment. I’ll write down some recipes for you. Let’s send those along with the bread.”

“Yes, understood.”

Right. No matter how much the chef loved baking, Belmont Castle wasn’t a bakery factory. And I felt bad about using the chef’s labor for my own personal(?) business deal.

So rather than constantly making bread and sending it over, I thought it would be better to simply give them the recipes themselves.

‘Wouldn’t that be a fairer price for all the golden carrots they sent me this year?’

And I felt like I needed to do at least this much to avoid feeling like I’d taken advantage of someone who had been so generous to me.

Since I could check the information of any items I’d already purchased at any time, I borrowed a pen and paper and began writing down several recipes, starting with the simplest salt bread recipe.

‘Hmm, it would be nice if I could send them the croffle recipe too.’

But I’d need the waffle iron I’d purchased from the Cash Shop to make those.

‘Right, I’ll leave that one out for now….’

After carefully writing out the recipes, I handed them to Mr. Scrooge and gave him one final request.

“Please let me know if they contact you.”

“Of course.”

Somehow, this seemed to be getting much bigger than I’d expected. This was okay, right…?

“I’ll help you carry them.”

“Ah, it’s okay.”

I politely declined Mr. Scrooge and Miss Carol’s help and put the enormous quantity of golden carrots into my spatial inventory.

Actually, I’d come to Monterre Village for a different reason today, so I quickly moved on to the main topic.

“There is actually something I’m curious about.”

“Oh? What is it?”

“The rules of conduct for the residents of Monterre Village. You know, the ones posted on the sign when you enter the village… I was wondering about those.”

Perhaps Mr. Scrooge hadn’t expected me to ask about that, because he hesitated for a moment before answering.

“Hmm, what exactly are you curious about?”

“Things like staying at home after eight in the evening or not entering the forest. I heard about the forest last time, but I’d like to know why people aren’t allowed to go outside at night.”

“…That isn’t really something Lady Windsor needs to worry about.”

Was he reluctant to tell me?

Well, that was understandable, but I needed to know what was happening if I wanted to solve the problem.

“That may be true, but I thought I’d ask just in case. If I know what kind of danger there is, I might be able to prepare for anything that happens….”

“I suppose that’s true.”

Mr. Scrooge finally answered me cautiously.

“After sunset, an unidentified being of unknown nature wanders around the village. We don’t know whether it’s a beast, a monster, or something else entirely. Everyone who encountered it was found in a terrible state, with roughly half of their bodies torn apart.”

“Every single one of them?”

“There were no exceptions. Other than the dead, there isn’t a single person who can say they’ve encountered the unidentified being and lived.”

So my theory that something was threatening the safety of the villagers was almost certainly correct.

…What on earth could it be? That strange forest, and the unknown being that appeared at night. Why were they threatening innocent villagers?

Several questions came to mind, but for now, I thanked Mr. Scrooge.

“Thank you for telling me. I’ll be careful from now on too.”

Just as I was about to wrap things up and return to the castle, Mr. Scrooge suddenly called out to me.

“…Lady Windsor.”

“Yes?”

“Please keep this in mind. There is nothing more frightening than a threat whose true nature is unknown.”

His voice was filled with a kind of anxiety I’d never heard from him before.

 

 

****

 

 

After returning to the castle, I went to Edwin’s office to keep my promise to explore the secret archives with him.

“…Dia.”

“…….”

“Nadia.”

“Huh?”

Startled by the voice calling my name, I suddenly snapped out of my thoughts and looked up a beat late. At some point, those red eyes had been staring straight at me.

“What are you thinking about so deeply?”

“What? Ah….”

“I heard you went to the village early this morning again. Did something happen?”

Since Edwin had already explained the rules of conduct for the residents of Monterre Village to me last time, I could get straight to the point without any further explanation.

“Yes. It seems there’s something that threatens people’s safety in the village every night. I want to solve it for them, but I can’t even begin to guess what it could be, so I’ve been thinking about it.”

“What?”

Edwin’s expression changed slightly at my answer.

He looked a little troubled, or perhaps surprised… It was a face I couldn’t quite put into words. After staring at me for a moment, he finally seemed to settle his thoughts and spoke.

“Why… are you trying to solve that?”

“What?”

“No one has asked you to solve that problem, have they? It isn’t your responsibility anyway, so why are you…?”

Huh? I hadn’t expected him to ask me that either…?