I Tamed the Slave Male Lead Chapter 39

The only small window that wasn’t completely blocked had a telescope set up in front of it for observing the stars.

Even so, the room wasn’t particularly messy. The various magic research books and experimental equipment filling it were arranged in a fairly orderly manner.

After a while, a middle-aged man wearing a magician’s robe entered and set tea and refreshments on the table.

I was told he was the Master of the Magic Tower’s disciple, but he looked about twenty years older than his master, with an aged appearance and listless eyes.

“Thank you, Yuri. Lady Maiona, please have some.”

Duke Ameshika offered me tea in a strangely languid tone.

“Yes, I heard you saved my daughter from danger.”

He got straight to the point before I had even finished swallowing a sip of tea.

As expected, he seemed to be the type who disliked wasting time.

“I merely saw that she was in trouble and did what I could.”

“Hmm. But it is rather peculiar. Let us say I can understand how you came to suspect that Ririen was a vampire after reading the newspaper article. But you happened to bring the blood of a beast into the Academy on the very day she had her episode. As though you had anticipated exactly what was going to happen.”

He launched a sharp attack in that languid tone.

I had already prepared myself for the fact that Duke Ameshika was no pushover, so I replied with a composed smile.

“Are you saying I somehow foresaw that Lady Ririen would have an episode on that exact day? If that were possible, I would have quite an incredible ability, wouldn’t I? Hahaha.”

“……”

The Duke showed no particular reaction to my brazen answer.

But his eyes were still full of suspicion.

I met his gaze head-on rather than avoiding it.

“It’s true that I did a little investigating because I wanted to meet you, Your Grace. During that process, I happened to discover Lady Ririen’s secret, but I have absolutely no intention of using it to put either of you in a difficult position.”

“Hmm. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.”

“Father.”

Ririen, her face flushed red, interrupted her father’s sarcastic remark.

“That’s enough. Whatever the reason, Lady Arabella saved me. If it weren’t for her, I might not even be here right now. You should at least treat her with basic courtesy.”

“Did I say anything particularly discourteous?”

The Duke asked sincerely, as though he truly didn’t understand.

Seeing Ririen sigh deeply and press a hand to her forehead, the Duke lazily added,

“Get rid of the naive notion that Lady Arabella is merely a harmless benefactor, Ririen. Isn’t she the one who came all the way to the top of the Magic Tower immediately after saving you because she wanted me to meet her?”

“Father!”

“It’s all right, Ririen.”

I stopped Ririen with a gentle smile.

“It is true that I have my own goals, and that I need Your Grace’s help in pursuing them. It’s also difficult to deny that saving Lady Ririen was a great help toward accomplishing those goals.”

“……”

Ririen looked at me with a complicated expression, which bothered me a little, but at last I brought up what I had been waiting to say.

“I’ll get straight to the point. I want to enter the sealed labyrinth, Your Grace.”

“…!”

Ririen’s eyes widened in surprise at my words.

The Duke’s expression didn’t change at all, but strangely enough, the corners of his lips seemed to lift slightly.

“Oh? The labyrinth. And why do you want to enter it?”

“Because there is a fruit from a vampiric plant that can save your daughter there.”

“A fruit from a vampiric plant?”

A strange light appeared in his pitch-black eyes, as though he had never heard of such a thing before.

“Yes. The vampiric monsters that emerged from the labyrinth all became vampires after having their blood sucked by the vampiric plants that grow naturally there. Maro, who bit Lady Ririen, was the same.”

“……”

“But there is one way to escape that state. You ferment the fruit of the vampiric plant and consume it. If you take it consistently for several days, the condition will be completely cured.”

The three people other than me fell silent simultaneously.

They must all have been wondering the same thing.

Even if what you’re saying is true, how on earth do you know that?

I decided to kindly resolve their doubts.

“I actually learned this information from a diary left behind by my great-great-grandfather, the first Count Maiona. You must all know who I mean, don’t you? Count Erich Maiona, the founding hero and the greatest warrior of his era, who played the most significant role in closing the labyrinth.”

Of course, this was a lie I had prepared in advance.

I couldn’t exactly tell them honestly that I had come here after seeing the future of this world in the original novel, so I needed an explanation that the Master of the Magic Tower would find convincing.

“Oh? You mean a diary written by the first Count Maiona still exists?”

The Duke’s eyes suddenly lit up.

As though desperate to get his hands on that diary immediately, he straightened his previously slumped shoulders and leaned toward me.

“Yes. It did, once.”

“What do you mean by that?”

I sighed sadly.

“Unfortunately, the diary was lost. When I was young, I happened to discover it in the country estate where I lived and hid it somewhere safe. But when I returned after entering the Academy, it had disappeared without a trace.”

“How unfortunate.”

The Duke groaned as though the world itself had come to an end.

“I never managed to find out whether someone stole it or a servant accidentally threw it away. At the time, I had kept the fact that I had discovered the diary a secret to myself, so it was difficult to ask the adults for help.”

I calmly laid out the story I had prepared beforehand.

“…Hmm. What a shame.”

As expected, the Duke was disappointed, but there was still a look of lingering regret in his eyes.

Then, in the next moment, his pitch-black eyes sharply scanned me.

“Was there any information about the labyrinth in that diary besides the information about the vampiric plants?”

“……”

I remained silent for a moment.

How I handled this moment would determine the outcome of my conversation with the Duke from here on.

When I deliberately took my time answering, the Duke began tapping his fingers anxiously before even a few seconds had passed.

“May I take that silence as a yes?”

Instead of answering, I merely wore an ambiguous smile.

The Duke seemed to interpret that smile as confirmation and suddenly began firing questions at me.

“Was anything unusual described besides the monsters? For instance, some strange phenomenon that might explain the reason magic was lost….”

“Father.”

Ririen subtly tugged at her father’s sleeve, giving him a look.

“Just a moment ago, you were being extremely wary of Lady Arabella, saying she wasn’t some harmless benefactor. How can you suddenly bombard her with questions like this? At the very least, you should listen to what she came here to say first.”

“Did I do that?”

After hearing Ririen’s words, the Duke straightened his posture.

Unexpectedly, he seemed to listen to his daughter quite attentively.

“My apologies, Lady Maiona.”

“Not at all, Your Grace.”

After exchanging elegant courtesies, we resumed our conversation.

“So, if I understand correctly, there is a fruit from a vampiric plant inside the labyrinth that can save my daughter, and you want me to allow you to enter the labyrinth to obtain it?”

“That’s correct.”

“And naturally, while you’re there, you intend to explore the labyrinth and verify the information you obtained from your great-great-grandfather’s diary.”

“I won’t deny that.”

I answered with a grin, and a flicker of interest crossed the Duke’s eyes.

“Is that really all?”

“Pardon?”

“Whatever your true reason for entering the labyrinth may be, obtaining a fruit from a vampiric plant and bringing it back is no ordinary task. In fact, it’s a place where simply returning alive and unharmed is difficult.”

“Of course.”

“Surely you wouldn’t go to such lengths out of pure goodwill for my daughter, whom you didn’t even know until recently. So what is the true reason you came all the way here to find me?”

It was the question I had been waiting for.

I calmly opened my mouth.

“I’ll obtain that fruit by whatever means necessary. In exchange, I want Your Grace to release one of the other-race test subjects currently being held captive in the Magic Tower.”

“…An other-race test subject.”

After a brief pause, he asked,

“Exactly what creature are you referring to?”

I was actually worried that Yusiliph might be provoked by words like ‘creature’ and ‘test subject.’

But there was a reason I deliberately used those terms.

I wanted Master Ameshika to perceive Alin purely as a test subject.

If he learned that I wanted to save Alin because she was Yusiliph’s sister, the Duke would immediately start paying attention to Yusiliph as well.

He would wonder why the daughter of a count would show such excessive favor toward a mere bodyguard who had once been a slave.

‘And if the Master of the Magic Tower somehow learns about Yusiliph’s ability, it’s all over.’

The thought alone made me shudder.

Duke Ameshika was the kind of man who would sell even his soul for the sake of magical research.

‘In the original story, he even went so far as to drug Yusiliph with an aphrodisiac in order to obtain his semen.’

The reason I had risked telling such a dangerous lie about the first Count Maiona’s diary was because I knew all too well how obsessive the Duke could be.

I wanted to plant the delusion in his mind that there might be a diary somewhere containing a wealth of information about the labyrinth and thereby divert his attention.

That way, the Duke would turn his attention away from me and Yusiliph and focus solely on finding the diary.