‘Crazy, it’s Clyde!’
At the sound of the voice from behind, Beatrice turned around with delight, seeing a face that looked exceptionally welcome today.
Aide Sharon, who followed him into the meeting hall, quickly checked on Beatrice.
“Are you all right? Were you treated harshly or…?”
“Ah, no. I’m fine! I ate well and slept well, too!”
Showing the pillow marks still left on her cheek as proof of her deep sleep, Beatrice asked what had happened.
“When the outside suddenly became noisy, I visited your room, but Lady Ria was nowhere to be found.”
“Ah.”
“Just as I was gathering the attendants to assess the situation, Sir Dalton informed me of what was happening. He said he happened to be investigating outside the inn and was able to find out quickly.”
While Astrid shared the current status clearly like a capable aide, Clyde took a step forward.
“Marquis Downer, Your Highness Archduke Crawford. I am Clyde Dalton, a knight under the command of His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince. It is an honor to meet you.”
The first to respond to Clyde’s greeting was Archduke Alec.
“Ah, Sir Dalton. I was informed that His Highness received the report regarding the western borderlands and came in person to provide support.”
“Yes, we also received the message left by Your Imperial Highness at the gateway. However, the situation seemed more serious than expected, so His Highness dispatched us first to assess the situation and provide aid.”
“His Highness was always a thoughtful man. Thank you for coming such a long way.”
“Not at all.”
“His Highness’s business is a significant matter, but would you mind waiting for a moment? Marquis Downer and I were in the middle of a serious interrogation.”
“Sigh…. Fine. It goes against etiquette, but please wait a moment. Once the interrogation is over, I, as the master of this place, shall offer a proper greeting. It won’t take long.”
Despite the Marquis’s gesture as he drank cold water to cool his anger, Clyde did not move.
He gave the Marquis’s aide, who approached to guide him to a seat, a look asking him to wait, and then formed a soft curve at the corners of his mouth.
“Thank you for your consideration, but the reason I hurried to find you both was because of that very interrogation.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Because Ria Kruger, whom the guard arrested as the culprit, is one of ours.”
Clyde’s expression remained consistently soft and gentlemanly, but his voice showed not the slightest hint of backing down.
At the expressions of the two men, which seemed to demand a more detailed explanation, Clyde continued calmly.
“Ria Kruger is an attendant dispatched to the Marquisate with us as part of His Highness’s escort unit, and Nao Alminster, the head maid, guaranteed her identity.”
“Exactly what are you trying to say?”
“I am emphasizing that what she said is the truth, not an excuse.”
“…”
“I heard just now that the culprit has been continuously damaging dolls throughout the territory. However, we only entered the Marquisate on the very day Lady Kruger was arrested. Realistically, it’s impossible for her to be the culprit.”
“That is…”
The Marquis, who had been tapping the armrest with his finger while narrowing his eyes, answered while stroking his beard.
“If you can prove that girl is truly a member of the escort party, then your point is valid.”
“Our transit records should be at the gateway. You may also verify this with the residents of Brellin Village.”
“Hmm…. So you’re that confident? There’s no reason for His Highness’s escort party to lie, after all….”
The Marquis, who glared back and forth between Clyde and Beatrice for a moment, let out a puff of air and spoke.
“It seems we pointed at the wrong culprit. Was it Ria Kruger? My apologies to you.”
“Uh….”
As expected of the master of a practical and neat building, the Marquis coolly admitted his error in judgment.
After offering an apology to Beatrice with a hearty bow, he immediately poured out his frustration toward her the moment he lifted his head.
“But really, why on earth were you wandering the forest path in the middle of the night? Looking so suspicious!”
“Well, I went out because I wanted to investigate the dolls set up in the village and….”
“You should have done it during the bright day, or at least brought a friend along! Did you not hear the rules from the villagers? The Rules? I posted them all over the territory and told everyone to follow them!”
Ah, so that ridiculous rule was then….
“Moreover, you said the stranger threw the tools at you, right? What if that person had lunged at you to kill you! What, are you some kind of brawler despite your appearance? Good grief, I swear!”
‘…What is this? Marquis Downer, unlike his scary appearance, is a bit like the grandfather at my house.’
Beatrice was reminded of the previous Count Hartwell, who would pile on all sorts of nagging every time she visited the Count’s estate.
The Marquis, who seemed to have said his piece, let out a loud snort and clicked his tongue as if he had a headache.
“Then catching the culprit is back to square one. Time is limited, and this has become problematic.”
“If it is a problematic situation, we shall also lend our strength.”
“You people?”
The Marquis, who had been stroking his beard in silence for a moment, spoke again.
“Now that I think about it, did you say His Highness dispatched you to assess the situation of the Marquisate and provide support if necessary?”
“Yes, that is correct. Therefore, if possible, we would like to hear about the situation in the Marquisate in more detail. Such as the reason you chose a sudden blockade, or those dolls you mentioned.”
“Ah, that is….”
“I think it would be faster if I explained that.”
While Clyde was representing Beatrice, the Archduke, who had been watching the situation wordlessly, naturally cut into the conversation.
“After receiving my sentence from His Majesty, I traveled through the western borderlands with the monks my daughter belongs to. We identified what was needed in each region and took charge of supplies and combat support. That is how we came to the Marquisate….”
The Archduke briefly withheld his words. It was an act of consideration for Marquis Downer, the master of the territory.
True to the rumors that people wondered how such a father could produce a world-class degenerate like Valoa Crawford, he appeared quite thoughtful.
“Why do you worry? It’s not as if we’re going to pretend what happened didn’t happen.”
The Archduke, hearing the Marquis’s answer not to worry, smiled awkwardly and spoke again.
“When I arrived, the state of the Marquisate was heading toward the absolute worst. The frequency of monster attacks was abnormally high, and strange occurrences never ceased in the territory.”
From people suffering seizures while staring into thin air, to people getting injured, and even an illness of unknown cause.
“We had to devise a method as soon as possible.”
And it was said that the method found in that way was the dolls containing Orichalcum.
“As a result of testing them, the number of injured people decreased significantly. After the Marquis and I confirmed they were actually effective, we decided to take the next step.”
“Exactly! That’s why I was so hell-bent on finding that damn culprit. We need to catch them to finish the purification as soon as possible and lift the blockade on the Marquisate!”
“Ah, right. Purification!”
“Eh?”
Beatrice, who had been quietly listening to the conversation from behind Clyde, reflexively cried out at the Marquis’s words.
The thought that she should lay low as long as Clyde or Archduke Alec were present flashed through her mind immediately after she spoke, but the milk was already spilled.
‘…Agh, whatever!’
Deciding to reflect on her stupidity later, Beatrice spoke while scrunching up her nose.
“Um, you referred to those dolls as purification tools, but was that also said by the person who first devised the method, by any chance?”
“Hmm? What does that matter right now?”
“Well……. Those dolls, or more precisely, the Orichalcum at the core of the dolls, do not have a purification function. Rather, as much as Orichalcum is mana-friendly, it has the property of trying to condense and gather the energy spread around…. Huh?”
“What is it? Why are you doing that?”
The Marquis spoke to her as he noticed her complexion turning increasingly pale, but Beatrice couldn’t answer.
This was because, while explaining that purification was impossible, she had realized a terrifying fact.
‘The Archduke said that monster attacks in the Marquisate had increased abnormally. And the presence of monsters inevitably spreads miasma.’
Since blood and corpses had increased more than usual in the process of dealing with the attacking monsters, that energy would have spread even more strongly through the earth and the atmosphere.
There was a high probability that the mana collisions, close to a natural phenomenon, coming to inflict harm on people was also because the unbalanced, broken energy clashed violently.
And if this energy mixed with demonic energy keeps gathering and gathering in the Orichalcum until it exceeds the limit and explodes…….
“…We’re all going to die?”
The Marquisate was finished.
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