Chapter 193 : Chapter 193
Chapter 193. Invitation from the Esven Marquisate (2)
Radel and Armandy unpacked in the guest room.
“Please rest comfortably.”
As soon as the attendant who guided them disappeared, Armandy rubbed his arms vigorously.
It was because he had goosebumps even though it wasn’t cold.
“Did you see while we were coming? It is indeed strange!”
“Why?”
“Does it make sense that there isn’t a single window in the hallway?”
Radel scratched his head.
“It wasn’t dark even without windows.”
“That’s because they lit a bunch of candles on the walls!”
At Radel’s nonchalant reaction, Armandy beat his chest in frustration.
“Common sense dictates who lights candles during the day. They intentionally removed the windows. So that people who come inside cannot guess their direction!”
“Armandy, isn’t your imagination too wild?”
Radel shrugged his shoulders.
“There is no need for that in a place where outsiders rarely come anyway. They must just like having an atmosphere.”
Armandy’s expression crumpled.
That was exactly the problem.
Why wouldn’t outsiders come in?
Hearing while coming here, they said that all the people working here were living as employees of the Esven Marquisate for generations.
The gardener, butler, coachman, cook, attendants, everyone!
No matter how much someone liked familiar things, there was no case of organizing employees solely with insiders this thoroughly.
They must be hiding something.
That was why the Ability Management Bureau was also struggling to obtain information on the Esven Marquisate.
Identifying the factions of the imperial family members was also one of the important missions of the Ability Management Bureau.
Because there was a possibility that the forces supporting the imperial family members from behind might harbor dark intentions and manipulate the Empire as they pleased when their supported royal became Emperor.
‘If by any chance it is related to heretics…… I must find evidence even at the risk of my life.’
In Armandy’s eyes, the Esven Marquisate looked very suspicious.
This place was full of closed and gloomy energy that heretics would exactly like.
“Oh, there is a dragon here too.”
However, Radel was looking around the room without any worry.
Seeing Radel admiring the dragon carved on the back of the chair, Armandy’s wariness seemed to soften a little.
“Don’t think too seriously. Wouldn’t they just be an introverted wizard family that likes dragons?”
Come to think of it, didn’t they say he could bring a friend while inviting the 8th Prince?
If there was something they really wanted to hide, they wouldn’t have allowed it.
Armandy felt a little embarrassed, thinking he had made too much of a fuss.
‘I might have been overly wary.’
* * *
‘It’s not!’
Armandy cursed himself for thinking his suspicion was excessive a few hours ago.
There was an ominous atmosphere here that was hard to describe with words like really suspicious.
Dinner time at the Esven Marquisate.
Only silence flowed in the dining room where Radel and Armandy were invited.
‘What kind of dinner is this gloomy?’
Even the dining room alone was like that.
Black candles hanging on the walls.
People dressed entirely in black.
The people of the Esven Marquisate, including Venus, were looking at their plates expressionlessly.
Around the time the meal was almost over, the final dessert came up on the table.
Seeing the dessert, Armandy’s eyes widened.
And he screamed inwardly.
‘It is strange as expected!’
On the white plate placed in front of them, crimson liquid was pooling.
Armandy trembled the hand holding the fork.
No matter what, to serve such a hideous thing as dessert when welcoming guests!
Venus said to Radel.
“We prepared specially because you said you were coming.”
Prepared? What preparation?
Armandy swallowed his saliva at Venus’s words.
And looked down at the table again.
A heart was on the plate.
Although they say raw liver is eaten as a delicacy in the northern regions, he had never heard of nor seen a place that served a heart whole like this.
It was when Armandy was stiff.
Radel, who examined the plate, nodded as if he understood.
“Ah, it is a dragon’s heart. Right?”
Saying so, he lifted the knife and sliced open the heart dripping with blood.
‘HIIEK!’
Armandy was appalled at Radel’s unstoppable action.
And checking the heart split in half, he opened his mouth unknowingly.
‘It was a cake?’
What looked like blood was strawberry syrup.
Inside the heart, a perfectly fine cake sheet was contained.
Venus smiled faintly.
“……Correct.”
As expected.
Radel inadvertently looked at the dragon embossed on the plate and asked.
“Do you perhaps like dragons?”
Then, surprisingly, the people of the Esven Marquisate showed a reaction.
They nodded with a flush on their pale cheeks.
Furthermore, the youngest of the Esven Marquisate even asked Radel in a small voice.
It was a child who hadn’t said a single word until now.
“Excuse me…… I heard a water dragon appeared in the Prince’s territory.”
At the youngest’s words, all the attention of the Esven Marquisate was focused.
“……Can you tell us that story?”
Radel could guess what happened when they said water dragon.
It seemed they knew that the Great Spirit that appeared at Raviedel Lake during summer vacation had taken the form of a water dragon.
“Of course.”
Only then did Radel realize what the interest directed at him was.
So he told them about what happened in the territory with a comfortable mind.
Although the youngest seemed a little disappointed to hear that the water dragon’s true identity was actually a Great Spirit, he soon took out a notebook and started writing down the appearance of the water dragon.
“It didn’t have wings, and the body was long like a snake.”
“……It is the same as what appeared in the records.”
The eyes of the youngest, which had been expressionless, shone.
With that as an opportunity, the other siblings also started asking Radel this and that.
They asked about Lizardmen and listened in detail about the techniques the water dragon allegedly used.
“That spirit has actually seen a water dragon.”
“……Right. Otherwise, there is no way it would be exactly the same as the literature.”
They exchanged opinions among themselves.
Although they had no expressions, it was felt that they were very excited.
They seemed to want to know everything similar to or related to dragons.
Radel thought their level of interest was similar to Venus’s interest in magical beasts.
‘Indeed, a wizard family is different.’
It’s fascinating that they can be absorbed in one thing from such a young age.
Radel put a piece of cake resembling a dragon’s heart into his mouth and finished the enjoyable meal.
* * *
“What are you doing, Armandy?”
Radel, who returned to the room after the meal, asked Armandy.
Armandy was busily preparing something.
“What do you mean what am I doing. I intend to do the mission from now on. Since I came in to do that from the beginning.”
“Mission? What mission?”
Seeing Radel relaxed as if he really came to play at the Esven Marquisate, Armandy felt his chest become stuffy again.
“Naturally, information gathering!”
At Armandy’s words that he would gather information on the Esven Marquisate, which was extremely suspicious, by going around the house using Illusion Magic, Radel did not hide his puzzlement.
“Well…… as you saw earlier, isn’t it just an ordinary wizard family that likes dragons?”
Then Armandy touched his forehead.
“Did it look like that in the Prince’s eyes? There were so many restricted areas from the moment we entered the mansion earlier. Surely it isn’t that you didn’t see a single one?”
“There must be precious family heirlooms or laboratories, well.”
Radel answered nonchalantly.
Since it was a family with a long history, it was clear that there would be that many precious items.
On top of that, the passion for magic overflowed enough for each family member to have one laboratory each.
What wizard would keep their workshop wide open?
Armandy sighed, realizing that telling Radel more wouldn’t work.
“Sigh……. Then please go to bed first, Prince. I will be back.”
It was the moment Armandy was about to leave the door like that.
“Oh right, there is one thing I want to ask before you go.”
“What is it?”
“Do you perhaps know a person named Kier among the Academy seniors? He used Imperial Swordsmanship.”
Armandy nodded.
As an elite agent of the Ability Management Bureau, he was a figure he couldn’t help but know.
“You mean Kier Iern. He is the second son of the Iern Earldom.”
It was because he was the 4th Princess Estina’s number one follower, but also a child of a family very close to the imperial family.
“Speaking of the Iern Earldom, it is a family that has produced the Imperial Knight Commander for generations.”
* * *
Late at night.
The executives of the Black Order gathered in a secluded place of the Academy.
It was a meeting held after a long time since Obsidian was caught before.
It was also a place to discuss Obsidian, who infiltrated as a professor at Helsington Magic School but got caught by Radel, had his black key taken away, and was imprisoned in the underground prison of the Supreme Deity Order temple.
The executives of the Black Order considered Obsidian very pathetic.
An executive of the Black Order wearing a black robe over their head opened their mouth as if angry.
“Obsidian, because of that stupid bastard, even our identities were almost revealed.”
Then, as if waiting, complaints burst out.
“Since then, we can’t do anything inside the Academy!”
“It is the same for me. The Dungeons inside the Academy are all blocked…… and the vigilance of the flying golems has been further strengthened.”
“How much we laid low throughout the vacation.”
They grumbled for a long time before returning to the purpose of holding the meeting this time.
It was about the whereabouts of the black keys Obsidian was collecting.
“By the way, is there no contact from the temple?”
“None. It doesn’t seem to have passed to the temple side.”
Since it was information given by a conspirator inside the temple, it was certain.
If it became like this, eventually only Obsidian knew the truth.
“What about Obsidian?”
“He is locked in the underground prison, so we can’t enter unless we are Inquisitors. We cannot find out information like this.”
At those words, the executives of the Black Order ground their teeth.
“Damned Obsidian!”
“Useless bastard.”
If only they could enter the temple, they were ready to take Obsidian’s head right away.
One of the executives asked in a sharp voice.
“Everyone is keeping the remaining keys well, right?”
The keys with which Hayden sealed the devils were scattered all over the Dungeons in the Empire.
However, information on which key was in which Dungeon was not accurate.
Although they were executives of the Black Order serving different Archdevils, their goal was one.
To collect the keys, undo all the seals, and make the Empire a world of devils again. And for themselves to be together in that glorious place.
For that, the keys of the seal were absolutely necessary.
The executives who had at least some of the keys nodded.
“Of course.”
“Me too.”
However, there was one person whose expression stiffened.
An executive who noticed his reaction asked coldly.
“Don’t tell me you, have you still not found the key you lost last time?”
“What? Is that true?”
However, even though other executives interrogated him, he just smiled with an ulterior motive.
“Do not worry. Since there is a place I suspect.”
“If there is a place you suspect, you should find it right away!”
“You aren’t saying you know when you actually don’t, right?”
Then he laughed and answered.
“Huhu. If it goes as I expect, signs will appear soon. Because just possessing it will make one intoxicated by the key’s magic power and become corrupted.”
A sword was tied to his waist as he giggled as if having fun.
His face without a robe was revealed in the moonlight for a moment.
“Indeed, would there be a human who could refuse that power?”
It was none other than Kier, Estina’s follower.