Dark Fantasy’s Extra – Chapter 98

Author: Dawn

The Marquis’s mansion was located about an hour away from the Order by carriage.

Through the carriage window, an enormous building was visible on a hill stained red by the evening sunset.

It looked more like a fortress than a mansion.

The hill was surrounded by stone walls with siege weapons positioned along them, and the massive iron-reinforced gate resembled a castle gate meant to block enemies during wartime.

Flying above the towers that rose higher than those walls was the blue flag of House Bluebeard, appearing purple as it waved in the crimson sunset light.

Our carriage entered onto the main road paved at the entrance of the village at the base of the hill.

“This entire village is House Bluebeard’s domain.”

Said butler Drian sitting across from us.

“Wow, amazing…”

“You might think it’s rather small though.”

“Huh? Small?”

Maia expressed confusion rather than amazement at the butler’s words.

Having lived on Swamp Island which wasn’t even on maps, she probably hadn’t seen many normal villages in the world.

I was worried about what kind of slip-ups Maia might make at the Marquis’s mansion.

If only we’d had time to coordinate our stories beforehand…

“Yes. House Bluebeard shares the royal bloodline of this country. In the past they had incomparably more vast territories, but when they formed deeper ties with the Hunting Order instead of the royal family, most were confiscated. So aside from a few small villas, this village is their only domain.”

“But it’s still a big village. There weren’t any neighborhoods with this many people in my hometown.”

“Thank you.”

Like the mansion of its lord, the Bluebeard domain village was also protected by walls and siege weapons.

It was quite large for a village, almost approaching the size of a city.

Perhaps because it was late, there weren’t many people walking the streets.

Nevertheless, when House Bluebeard’s carriage passed by, they removed their hats and bowed their heads toward us.

Their deep loyalty and respect for the lord who ruled this domain was palpable.

“…”

I felt conflicted watching them.

Though the Marquis’s character and abilities that they revered were certainly not wrong, his love for his dead wife was far greater.

Even if it meant sacrificing centuries of tradition and future prospects, even if it meant condemning the lives of his cherished domain and people to hell, his desire to meet his dead wife again was simply stronger.

If only that accursed witch who could make that desire reality didn’t actually exist, the daily lives of these people before us would have continued.

“What’s wrong?”

Maia asked.

“Hm? What?”

“Your expression doesn’t look good.”

Ah, it showed that much on my face.

I’ve gotten quite careless.

“Just worried about what to do when meeting the Marquis.”

“So a Marquis is like the boss here?”

“Ahem.”

Butler Drian cleared his throat to caution her.

“Call him Marquis here. He’s someone of extremely high status.”

No matter how ignorant she might be coming from an island, rudeness couldn’t be excused.

“Eh… he’s still just human though. And probably not even that old.”

“His Lordship is forty this year.”

“See? Still young.”

Maia said.

“Pardon my asking, but exactly how old are you, Miss Maia? You look quite young…”

“Around 200?”

“…?”

“I stopped counting properly after 100.”

The butler looked at me with a perplexed expression.

“Well… she won’t be meeting His Lordship directly, so don’t worry too much about it.”

I also said that since it would be awkward to explain.

The butler thought for a moment then nodded.

His gaze toward Maia became rather pitying.

Does he think she’s mentally unwell?

Well, that might be better.

“Yes. Then… I’ll tell the maids to prepare a special guest room for Miss Maia.”

“Thank you.”

I bowed to the butler.

Somehow I felt like a parent leaving their child at a nursery.

Though to Maia, we would be the children.

“Not sure what you’re saying but sounds like you’ll treat me well?”

“Yes. You can look forward to it.”

The butler said to Maia with a gentle smile.

Shortly after, our carriage climbed the hill and arrived at the Bluebeard mansion.

A man who appeared to be the head of security with a seasoned look opened the carriage door to greet us.

Normal nobles would have servants or maids receive guests, but as a family that had maintained close ties with the Order for centuries and now managed this country’s Order branch, they had to thoroughly verify visitors.

Indeed it wasn’t empty words – that head of security immediately noticed something odd about Maia.

“What is this?”

The head of security pointed at her.

It was quite rude phrasing, but neither Maia nor the security chief seemed to mind.

“She’s Mr. Eugene’s companion, why do you ask?”

Rather, the butler seemed somewhat taken aback.

“She seems dangerous. I sense magical power that’s difficult to describe.”

The security chief’s face showed no hint of joking or laughter as he said this, and rather displayed clear signs of considerable tension.

To my eyes, this security chief was no ordinary person, but likely a retired hunter for some reason.

And not just a lower-ranked one – probably at least mid-ranked.

“Pardon me, but could you explain your relationship, and about this magical power you sense?”

The security chief asked me.

“Well… she had talent for magic, but there was an accident…”

Mages store magical power in their brains rather than throughout their body.

Because of this, sometimes brain abnormalities occur causing permanent disabilities or in severe cases madness.

Of course none of that really applies to Maia but…

Here I can only rely on her discretion.

“Hmm…”

The security chief crossed his arms and pondered for a moment.

“…I see. Well, it happens sometimes.”

Fortunately Maia kept quiet, and the security chief seemed to accept that explanation as he nodded.

His cold gaze even softened slightly with sympathy.

“Please enter. I sincerely welcome you to the Bluebeard mansion.”

We got out of the carriage and went inside the mansion.

“Please wait in the guest room for a moment. I must inform His Lordship of your arrival, and he’ll need some preparation as well.”

Butler Drian guided us to another room.

It was like a waiting room for guests, filled with all sorts of luxuries to display the family’s wealth.

There were not only paintings and sculptures by undoubtedly famous artists, but also all kinds of rare antiques and creature taxidermy.

Though personally frugal, displaying an appropriately noble lifestyle was an extremely important duty for nobles like the Marquis.

“Hmph.”

Maia had an unimpressed expression looking at them.

“Then please wait here together for a moment. Ah, and I’ll have the maids prepare some refreshments.”

The butler left with those words.

“…”

Maia looked at a corner and frowned, then snapped her fingers.

“There’s some surveillance magic. I’ve blocked sound for now so we can talk freely.”

“Huh?”

She detected something like that right away?

Though her power has weakened, she’s still a first-class sorcerer indeed.

So the Marquis was using such magical tools too.

“That’s impressive… And thanks for staying quiet earlier.”

“Earlier? Ah, when they asked who I was? I’m not that lacking in sense.”

Come to think of it, Maia didn’t make any notable slips even under the Heresy Inquisition Department’s harsh interrogation as far as I know.

Though her actions and words are sometimes strange, she’s lived at least ten times longer than me after all, so she must have such wisdom.

“Wait, then what you said about being 200 years old…”

“Like you said, people sometimes break when they store magical power in their heads and have accidents.”

I see, so it was all calculated from the start.

That’s a bit chilling.

“How about I be your little sister? That might make it easier to move around together.”

“Well…”

But thinking about what to do next is the priority.

“You said you blocked sound earlier?”

“Yeah. Got something important to say?”

“Actually, the person who invited us…”

Still feeling somewhat uneasy, I brought my mouth close to Maia’s ear and spoke in a small voice.

“Is in league with that witch who cursed you.”

“…I see. So? What do you plan to do now? They seem to have extremely high status in this area. Moving carelessly would backfire.”

So she thought that far ahead too.

This will go quickly.

“I have evidence that the witch and Marquis are working together.”

“Evidence… the resurrection flower?”

“Right. There should be a black flower somewhere in this mansion.”

“If it’s Princess Bari’s curse, I know enough about those to recognize one immediately. But finding it might be difficult.”

“Difficult?”

“Like I said before, my power is incomparably weaker than before. I’m fairly confident in moving stealthily, but I’m not sure how much I can do in my current state.”

Think more.

We’ll never get another chance like this.

If we can find evidence of the Marquis’s betrayal here and inform the Order, we could greatly change the future.

Of course, I wasn’t entirely comfortable interfering with the story again.

Someone like me thoughtlessly taking action could end up ruining things later in ways I can’t predict.

However, the Marquis’s betrayal is too critical to let slide.

Plus the fact that he invited me is concerning.

Taking preemptive action might be better.

“…The Marquis kept that flower in a glass bottle.”

“Probably something to block the curse flowing from the flower. This will be tricky indeed.”

Where would the Marquis keep the black flower?

…Come to think of it.

“No, maybe not necessarily.”

“Hm?”

“You knew about Bari since you came from Swamp Island. But not here.”

“Not here?”

“Right. The Order erased all information and records about the witches. Even if they see the resurrection flower, they’ll just think it’s a regular flower.”

“What? Really? No one knows about the witches?”

“Yeah. Belle… I mean the White Witch controls the information. So as long as we’re not caught, finding it shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s probably displayed openly.”

At the Grand Conference, the Marquis boldly brought that resurrection flower to the Order.

The curse would be undetectable due to the glass bottle anyway, and normal servants and hunters wouldn’t know it was a witch’s flower.

“Alright. Then I’ll go look for the flower. We just need to escape with it after finding it, right?”

“Yeah… But hey.”

“What? Something else to be careful about?”

“No, not that… I just feel like I’m getting too much help.”

I hadn’t thought about it until now since Maia was cooperating so readily.

She had no obligation to help me this much in the first place…

“Are you really this stupid?”

“What do you mean?”

“I owe you a huge debt. This much is nothing. You seem unable to acknowledge when you do good things. Too much modesty is a bad thing.”

I had no words to respond.