Chapter 43 – Incident Investigation Record (2)

I happened to have the opportunity to grab a sword, so I cooled off and left.
Everat seemed a bit surprised, but fortunately he was not seriously injured. It would be normal for him to nod like an idiot when I apologize for breaking his sword.
They say it’s Hooksclaw, but it’s definitely strong. If the tip of the sword is alive and you put in a little effort, you can take down a mid-level monster, the Death Worm, by yourself.

Anyway, feeling refreshed, I headed to Viscount Ruhilen’s mansion.
Now that you think about it, did Darling go to school today? She likes to sneak away when she is away from her house.

Squeak!

“Huh?”

But when I got off the carriage, there was a passenger. He was a handsome man wearing a somewhat tarnished white royal uniform with red epaulettes.
He sighed heavily as he talked to Bill. Even I, who was a little distance away, could hear their conversation.

— So why on earth can’t I meet Viscount Ruhilen?
— I’m sorry, but the Viscount hasn’t come out of bed for a week.
— Hello, Chamberlain. I am now starting to suspect that this whole situation is a play of the Roshar and Ruhilen families. What kind of specialty did the heads of the two families share so that they could live in isolation? Was it a puffer fish?
— What are you talking about? …

What? Is something wrong?
As I snooped behind the man who was lighting a cigarette and frowning, Bill smiled and bent her waist towards me.

“Oh my~ Louis! “You’re here now!”
“?”
“I waited. Please come inside. “I think you should go see the Viscount.”
“No, I’m going to order materials needed to repair the store…”
“Why don’t we take care of all that for you? Come quickly, quickly!”
“Hey! Why is the author being let in? … !”

I entered the mansion, leaving behind the shouts of an unknown man. The place Bill guided us to was, of course, Darling’s sleeping quarters.
Unlike other luxurious interiors, the lights in her private room were turned off starting from the short corridor.
The deepest part of the mansion has a fairly dark atmosphere even during the day.

I knocked lightly on the door and went inside.

“Ugh… “Let’s do some cleaning.”

It is a messy sight any time you see it. It wasn’t like this before.
When I met the previous head of the Lu Hillen family to purchase land, Darling, who I first saw in the drawing room of a much smaller mansion than she is now, was not the blunt and sensitive girl she is now.
Rather, I was sensitive back then. Seongguk buried the holy sword and shield he was looking for with his eyes open, and could not leave even for a single second.

“Wake up, Viscount. “Because I came.”

I widened my stride, avoiding her litter, and walked toward the blanket she was supposedly curled up in. Aren’t those my clothes thrown away in the corner?
As I got closer, I saw a small foot sticking out of the blanket. When she poked it with her finger, it went right in.

“… “What’s going on, canteen owner?”
“Iknow, right. “I don’t know, but the butler brought me.”
“Store. “I have no business.”
“Is it so?”

The solution is quick. As I was about to leave, a white arm came out from the blanket and grabbed my ankle.
What on earth is the problem?

“… “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t leave Parencia?”
“I’m talking about when nothing special happens.”
“If you’re going to be away whenever you feel like it, you should just sell the store and live here.”
“I hate it because it’s messy.”
“Will you come if I clean it up?”
“Well. “It would be more likely than leaving it like this.”
“Merchants don’t gamble.”
“Then why don’t you just leave it like this?”
“…”

I crouched down next to the blanket and continued the conversation. The hand holding my ankle immediately moved to my palm.
It seems she was very worried about my departure to the North Sea.
After losing his parents to a sudden monster attack, Daring Tokarev presented himself as sharp and authoritative as a hedgehog with thorns.
Perhaps it was simply his personality, but he always made profits from transactions due to his business acumen, ability to read market trends, and the classical yet cool-headed judgment that comes from the above-mentioned dogmatic atmosphere.
Even though her magic was not ready for great success, Viscount Lu Hillen stood tall thanks to Darling’s outstanding talent.

‘Well, anyway…’

In reality, it seems like I’m stuck like this just because I’ve been away for a while.

Has it already been 7 years? If it were her usual personality, I would have either beaten her and rehabilitated her, or I would have rather coldly shooed her away when she sometimes became irritating and clingy to me.
However, the reason I couldn’t do that was because of extreme regret.

“How about the western forest?”
“… The search is underway starting from the low-lying area where the sediment washed away. “I need to finish that part before the grass grows any more.”
“Then you should come out quickly.”
“He’ll wake up right away even if you don’t urge him!”

Still haven’t found it.

“If you’re having a hard time…”
“I have no intention of giving up. Just as you never leave the stall, I also never leave the forest. And…”

The small hand holding me trembled.

“I will catch that guy who dared to destroy my father’s ruin and make him pay… !”
“…”

Like Earth, in this world too, the emotions of those left behind regarding the funeral and the dead were heavy. Perhaps especially since the long war has ended.

“Is it so…”

I don’t regret wiping out the hordes of monsters that invaded the hill where this mansion stands.
However, I should have been a little more careful back then. Even if a demonic statue worshiping the demon king was discovered in a nearby village, blood should not have flowed like that.

I held Darling’s hand and said with my eyes closed.

“You will definitely find it.”

The loyal butler was still keeping quiet for his master.

It was only a few years after I defeated the Demon King, and at that time, I was crazy.

***

“Huh, really. “I just can’t figure it out.”

For some reason, the investigation was sluggish as all parties involved in the case remained silent. The more I dug into it, the more confused my feelings became.

“Why on earth did you let the store owner in?”

After interrogating the butler, Gellerhart found out that the person who had passed him in was the owner of the academy’s cafeteria.
But I just couldn’t understand it even more. Do you have a personal relationship with Viscount Ruhilen? But a merchant pursuing utilitarian interests defeats the royal inspector and brings in the owner of a small local store?

It was to the point where I couldn’t tell if the world had turned around or if I myself had turned around.
Even though I am busy traveling this long distance, it is only because of this that I am able to get a promotion.

‘I can’t do it. Let’s go to the academy first.’

Gellerhart went to the Parencia Academy to meet Adela Sylvester, a clue he had heard from an old fisherman in Edanbury.
Given the circumstances, there was a high possibility that she was the key figure in this case.
As he passed through the front gate and walked through the grounds, Gellerhart noticed a familiar face. Everat of the Hooksclaw Knights was swinging his sword while muttering something incessantly.

“Hey, Everett! “It’s been a while!”

Gellerhart approached first and greeted him warmly. She and she had exchanged swords with each other several times when they were in the Ravier Mountains.
At the time, Everat Wind Guard’s swordsmanship was known for being beautiful, fast, and difficult to deal with, as seen in her rapier. Although she was busy conducting her investigation, she also wanted to see her sword once again if she had the chance.

“I-I…” …”
“Everrat… ?”

But when I saw her up close, I found her condition a little strange.

“For what have I been sharpening my sword until now…” … I couldn’t read it, not even a single second. It’s been a while since I put down my sword, at best… To the store owner…”
“Look, you. “Are you okay?”
“Gellerhart… ?”

Tears welled up in my empty eyes. Everrat held out her broken sword and lamented to her old friend.

“Gellerhart. I felt a wall. She looked up at Captain Wivlett’s sword as if it were a mountain she would climb one day, thinking it was the most beautiful sword, but that wasn’t true.”
“What do you mean by that!?”
“It wasn’t like black beauty! It was a black fear!! Without form or form… Not from above, but from an endless abyss, gazing here from beneath black hair… Kyaaaaa!!!”

Oh my god. Seeing her former comrade completely turned around, Geller Hutt was speechless.
Everett said that she thought there was something terrible underneath the kiosk, that the bread sold there was laced with hallucinogenic drugs, that she might actually be a doppelganger of herself, etc. She kept making unintelligible noises.
What on earth made her like this?

In the end, he escaped from Everat as if running away and finally arrived at the center of the academy. There was a half-ruined wooden building that he could believe was under demolition.
Just as he was about to pass by, Gellerhart’s eyes caught the sight of the daughter of Rochear he had been looking for.

Adela Sylvester de Rochoire.
The second daughter of the Rochear family and a woman who was once renowned in social circles as the flower of the North Sea.
Gellerhut approached her, calming her quivering heart.
She was so beautiful that it made me shiver just by looking at her back with her blue hair showing through, but a final confirmation was needed.

“Lady Adela?”
“Yes?”

When she finally looked behind her, Geller Hutt finally felt relieved.

“What are you doing now?”
“It kills ants.”

Adela was killing ants with a piece of glass that had fallen from the store window.

I’m so glad. She nodded as she thought, “You’ve come to the right place.”
The anecdote related to Adela Sylvester was spread all the way to Thessalon, and no one knew about her true identity.

During tea time, when the flowers in the vase I received as a gift looked dry, I poured the same tea I was drinking.
She borrowed a treasured magic book from another family and returned it covered in saliva.
While singing a magic song, she burned and ate the head of Viscount Cranhood, who was suffering from severe hair loss, and was sent to Farenzia Academy as if he was half kicked out.

There was no way to stop her eccentricities, which were spread through word of mouth, mixed with rumor and scandal.
If Lord Ice and Snow had complained that she was so frustrated with her younger sister that she destroyed her lord’s castle, she would have certainly believed it.

She was, after all, a fairly unreliable witness, but Gellerhut had no choice but to listen to her story.

“Do you know anything about the rebellion between the Rochear and Ruhilen families that took place some time ago?”

Adela looked like she was thinking hard about something when she asked his question.
Of course, in the meantime, one hand was continuously crushing the ants in the sand.

“Umm… “There is that.”

After hesitating for a moment, Adela opened her mouth.

“Actually, what happened…”

After hearing her story, Geller Hut packed her luggage and returned to the royal capital that day.

***

“So. “Are you going to close the investigation due to insufficient evidence due to the non-cooperation of both families and the possibility of a recurrence?”

When the head of the Inspector General’s Office took the document and asked again, Geller Hutt nodded his head.

“That’s right. “It appears that this is no longer a matter for the royal family to intervene in.”
“Are you sure? “If Ruhilen really decides to go to war with Roshoar, things will get worse.”
“I don’t know why, but it’s clear that neither side is willing to fight anymore. “I think we just need to make sure that future compensation discussions are conducted properly.”

The stamp of approval to suspend further investigation activities is bang! After being filmed, Gellerhart emerged from his superior’s office with a relaxed mind.
Although he missed the opportunity for promotion, he did not regret this decision.
If I were to copy exactly what I heard from the girl who was the only major person involved in the incident that I was able to meet, I could be dismissed from my official position, let alone promoted.
As he lit a cigarette, Gellerhart laughed to himself again, recalling what Adela Sylvester had said.

— We first met while stealing bread…
— Please scold bad people for me.
— Then I was about to go to the prom, and my heart started pounding!
— I was really scared, but the teacher saved me from being captured by even worse people! Who is your teacher? This is the owner of the building. It’s the only store in the academy.
— Her sister just used her magic, but it didn’t help. Yes, you are talking about the ice and snowball.
— So we just kissed… After spending the first night… I’m going to get married soon!
— But this is being published in the newspaper, right? Would you like to take a picture?

“Haha, what nonsense… “I must have read a romance novel somewhere.”

The prince on a white horse in a children’s fairy tale may be more likely than this. The academy’s canteen owner defeats the ruler of the North Sea and rescues the family’s forbidden jade leaf? Are you saying that I fell for the clumsy writing written by a second-quality spring novel writer?
He even fought with his bare body against Ice Snow Duke, one of the five great dukes, for a woman like that… Even if it were true, he would definitely be crazy.

Returning to his office, Gellerhut recorded his notes on this activity to be delivered separately to His Majesty the King. Letters written in formal handwriting filled the empty parchment.
On the very last page, he synthesized the conclusions reached so far and came up with a neat conclusion.

[There is no ember left in the unexplained conflict that recently broke out between the Rochear and Ruhilen families.]
[Because the minds and bodies of those involved were weakened and strange rumors were floating around about the incident, we requested that both families be given ten roots of red ginseng of the Cheonsam grade.]