――The next morning.
“Kyaaaa-!”
Because of the sudden scream, Julia-kaasan jumped up and rushed out of the room in a hurry.
I also run after her hurriedly.
When I caught up with my uncertain *totetote* footsteps, mom was standing in front of a certain room.
――Yes, it’s the room where the men in black were locked in.
Mom and the servant of the village chief’s house were standing in front of the room.
When I tried to take a look inside,
“You mustn’t look Edgar-kun! ….well, even if I say this now”
Mom moved to the side and let me look inside.
Inside, the two men in black were dead on the floor, with blood flowing from their mouths.
“When I took off the muzzles from their mouths, suddenly…..”
The pale-faced servant said.
“…….poison, perhaps. Most likely it was hidden in their molars or something like that. This trick is frequently used by professional a.s.sa.s.sins.”
As expected of a former adventurer, mom is very calm.
Just to be sure, I try using [Appraise] on them.
《 Corpse〔of Ranzack〕. Cause of death: Poison (Tajicalis).》
《 Corpse〔of Elope〕. Cause of death: Poison (Tajicalis).》
“…..tajicalis?”
Mom caught what I unintentionally said out loud.
“Certainly, judging from its immediate effectiveness it could be tajicalis, but…… Edgar-kun, where did you learn about poisons?”
“Uhm, ah…… well, in the study.”
“…..hmm, where there any books on poisons there?”
Mom tilts her head.
That was when the village chief arrived.
After the village chief took a good look at the situation in the room, he deeply lowered his head towards mom.
“I am terribly sorry. To think we would simply let the perpetrators die…..”
“It can’t be helped. If you didn’t give them any food then that would certainly lead to their deaths anyway.”
As I was listening to the two of them talk without paying much attention, I recalled the [Appraise] results of the two from the day before from the [Database].
《Ranzack〈Yatagarasu〉Fifth Squad, Squad Leader）
Level 29
MP 19/21
Skills
[Discern] 2
・General
[Knife-throwing] 5
[Stealthy Steps] 5
[Shuriken Techniques] 4
[Keen Hearing] 4
[Sword Skills] 3
[Farsight] 2
[Fire Magic] 2
》
《Elope (Yatagarasu) Fifth Squad, Member)
Level 23
MP 13/13
Skills
[Knife-throwing] 5
[a.s.sa.s.sination Techniques] 4
[Shuriken Techniques] 3
[Keen Hearing] 3
[Throwing-axe Skills] 2
[Farsight] 1
》
〈Yatagarasu〉.
He said that lately, now that the civil war in Sonorato ended, they started to flow into Santamana.
Why are they abducting people in a place like this?
The answer to that was not found in the end.
All night last night, I looked back at the sequence of events that happened and realized something very important.
And that is,
――There is at least 1 person missing that should be here.
and that’s the problem.
Let’s look back at the incident starting from its beginnings.
First, the men in black kidnap Boyce-kun from Riverette Village and the others.
Next, one of the men in black disguises himself as a traveler, stops by the village and spreads the rumor of fairies kidnapping children.
This is probably a planned diversionary tactic.
However, the men in black also carried out an unplanned diversion.
The case where the woodcutter of Riverette Village was put under a spell.
Most likely, the woodcutter came across the men in black in the forest.
Perhaps he saw them as they kidnapped a child, or maybe he found the hiding place (cave) of the men in black, but one thing’s for sure, he saw something that would be disastrous for them.
That being said if they killed the woodcutter it could’ve become an uproar.
That’s why, one of the men in black put a spell on the woodcutter and sent him back, and as a bonus made him claim that is was 「the work of fairies」.
This diversion was most likely an unplanned accident.
But, as a precaution against such accidents, they stationed a person in the hideout who could use magic that influences the mind. Probably something like that.
That one person is nowhere to be seen.
The two who killed themselves (Ranzack and Elope) did not have any skills that they could’ve used to put a spell on the woodcutter.
They say, to influence the mind of a higher cla.s.s animal such as a human, quite a high level of magic skills are needed.
The men in black that were guarding their hiding place, I confirmed it with [Appraise] before killing them, had mostly the same Status as Elope.
Also, about the 「traveler」 that stopped by the village, we confirmed it with the innkeeper that neither of the two men in black who committed suicide was him.
There is a chance that one of the men in black guards at the hiding place was the one, but there is a strong possibility that the mage =「traveler」.
Therefore, there has to be at least one more person.
That means we let an a.s.sociate of the men in black escape.
No, if we are talking possibilities, then it’s still possible that they had even more a.s.sociates that didn’t stop by the village and weren’t at the cave at that time.
If that’s the case, then it really hurts that we couldn’t get any information out of the men in black about that.
Maybe I should’ve interrogated them myself, even if it would’ve been unreasonable.
If it was me I would’ve prevented them from killing themselves…. is something I can’t really claim.
Although it ended with an undesired outcome, but now that there are no men in black here, Julia-kaasan doesn’t need to stay here anymore.
And since there were a few kids among the ones that were rescued who are from Trenadette Village, taking the opportunity we brought them with us.
The fairies that helped with soothing the children, accompanied by the grat.i.tude of the villagers, returned to the Fairy Village in the course of the morning.
Aside from Melby, apparently the other fairies can’t really spend too much time away from the Fairy Village.
Then, we traveled for a day after leaving Riverette Village.
We reached Trenadette Village around the time the sun set.
My personal maid, Steph, is apparently the daughter of the chief of this village.
Our party was heading towards the house of the village chief led by Steph.
On the way, there was a scene where the parents of children we brought with us rushed over and hugged their children tightly.
The children were understandably still scared, so they clung to their parents, weeping.
When the touching reunion ended, we decided to have them accompany us to the village chief’s house for the time being to report what happened.
“Well well, thank you for coming, madam. I hear you even rescued the children, so we really can’t thank you enough.”
The village chief is an about 40 years-old looking merchant-like man.
This is the first time I saw someone rub his hands together like that in real life.
“――Father!”
Steph said.
“Hey, Steph. You are someone serving the House of Viscount Chrebl. Mind the place.”
“Okaay―…..”
After getting rebuked in a soft tone, Steph looked like she started sulking a bit.
“Madam, is our Stephanie being helpful?”
“Yes, of course. She is doing well as the observer….no, not that, as the personal maid for Edgar-kun.”
She said observer just now, didn’t she!?
“Hou….the young master’s. It’s an honor to be entrusted with such an important duty, right Steph?”
“Eh, yesh! Tha-that’s right!”
Steph responds in a hurry.
It’s a job where she is looking over me half asleep as I’m reading books or raising my skills, but we can call it an important duty.
“In any case, you must be tired from today. You must be planning to depart for Fauno City as soon as possible, but please spend the night here comfortably.”
At night――
I don’t think I need to say it after all this time, but I don’t need to sleep.
Since Melby is also sleeping at night I don’t even have a talking partner, so I just keep silently repeating the routine of floating everything that I can see with [Physical Magic] and cancelling it.
That’s why I was able to notice the small voices from further inside the house.
When I strained my ears I noticed that apparently the ones talking are Steph and the village chief.
I’m not the kind to eavesdrop on a conversation between parent and child, so I kept working hard on the 「exercise」, but after a certain moment, suddenly I could hear everything clearer and clearer.
I thought maybe, so used [Appraise] on myself.
《Edgar Chrebl
Level 31
MP 2092/2092 (181↑)
Skills
[No Fatigue] –
[Instant Interpretation] –
・Legendary cla.s.s
[Database] –
・Master cla.s.s
[Enchant Magic] 3
[Letterless Invocation] 6
[Magic Language] 1 (NEW!)
・General
[Flying Sword Techniques] 2
[Throwing Axe Techniques] 2
[Fire Magic] 7 (1↑)
[Wind Magic] 6
[Light Magic] 3 (1↑)
[Mana Manipulation] 9 (MAX)
[Mana Perception] 1 (NEW!)
[Keen Hearing] 1 (NEW!)
《Blessing of a Benevolent G.o.d +1》
》
The other day I thought maybe I could use [Database] to indicate the extent by which my abilities have risen, and when I tried it I could.
It’s convenient so I think I will keep it this way in the future.
However, lately the number of my skills have increased so my Status started getting a bit jumbled.
Let’s try having it display only the relevant information when I have some free time after this.
Let’s see, I think there are few things that can be commented on, but the important one now is the one that has been added to the end of the General skills, the [Keen Hearing].
I tried to keep myself from hearing anything, but instead, it appears I got interested in it all the more.
Perhaps by confirming that the men in black had it, I become aware that there is such a skill and that led to the acquisition of the skill…. such things might be possible.
Leaving that aside, by acquiring [Keen Hearing] the voices can be heard much more clearly.
There should be a way to turn it on and off, but since I just learned this skill I don’t know how.
I start hearing the conversation between Steph and the village chief.
“You said you are the babysitter for the young lord, but how is it? Is there something out of the ordinary?”
“…..rather, there are nothing but unusual things.”
Different from usual, Steph didn’t use polite language.
No, this must be the usual for her.
“What do you mean?”
“It hasn’t even been a year since he was born, so what’s up with that size?”
“But you said it was because of the level up, didn’t you? Well, the fact itself that such a young child had leveled up is out of the ordinary, but that family has a lot of geniuses. Belhart-sama, Chester-sama, and David-sama too. No, to begin with, the Madam who was an A-rank adventurer and the Lord who is a soldier with a nickname despite being young, they are easily at the level of geniuses too.”
“…..even if he started using magic half a year after being born and now can normally read and write?”
“Wha-!”
“He should still be just a baby, but he spends more than half a day secluding himself in the study, enthusiastically reading books and apparently memorizing the important parts of books about magic in particular. Then in the other half of the day he goes to the courtyard and, I don’t know what’s fun about it, but the whooole time, the whoooooooooole time, the whooooooooooooooooooole time”
“Enough of the whole time”
“Anyhow, the whole time he keeps repeating these incomprehensible things.”
“Incomprehensible things?”
“One day, for about 5 hours, he kept throwing firewood at a target with magic. The whole time.”
“Firewood….?”
“The next day it was a needle, the day after that a tree branch. After that, a sword or a spear if I remember correctly. My mind went a bit hazy midway so I don’t remember it exactly….”
“Dozing off, huh”
“Uuh. Yeah, I did, but can you blame me? 5 hours!? The whole time, the whooole time, the whooooooooooole time,”
“Enough of that already”
“Anyhow, the whole time, with a nonchalant face he keeps casually throwing things. Do you know how hard it is for me who has to keep watching over him by his side!?”
“Uh…..sounds like you can go crazy from that.”
“Even during the night, it sounds like he is creeping around with something so I have to be on guard even then. Julia-sama is that kind of person so she is very composed about it….., but it’s not normal.”
“Oi, watch what you say.”
“Okaay~. But, I think that Julia-sama and Alfred-sama are also of the same opinion. Even this trip to the Capital, the goal is to report about the incident that happened at the Ranzrack Fortress, but I think having someone at the Samsara Temple take a look at young master Edgar is also one of the main objectives.”
“Hm…..”
A short silence.
“…..come to think of it, how did you turn out to be the young master’s personal maid? I find it strange that someone would leave their child in the care of a freshly hired maid.”
“That was because the young master said he prefers me.”
“Hou. And why was that?”
“I didn’t know at the time, but after I realized. It looks like the young master likes b.r.e.a.s.t.s.”
Pfu-!
“Because, when he is sitting in my lap he intentionally pushes his head into my b.r.e.a.s.t.s.”
“….are you alright, my daughter?”
“What are you worried about? He is a baby?”
Ahaha, Steph laughs.
“Mh. Then, in that case, you could use your charms――no, sorry, I asked something impossible.”
“I-could-do-it~. I could use my charms if I wanted to―!”
“Then try it.”
“Ah, aaah….uhhuun?”
“………….”
Even I who wasn’t there could tell that a painful silence has descended.
“We-well, I was just joking. You and the young lord are too far apart in age.”
“Ye-yeah, that’s riight―”
The amicable(?) conversation between parent and child still continued on after that.
It sounds like Steph’s dad――the village chief of Trenadette, wants to become a direct retainer of Alfred-tousan.
That being said, it’s apparently not because he is a lump of avarice, but because he wants to let his family have a comfortable life.
It sounds like he also has a good relationship with Steph,
“If it looks like the young lord wants to do something to you, you can come home.”
he even said something like this.
…..I won’t do anything like that.
Then, the next morning.
I started talking to Steph, who was preparing for the departure.
“Say, Steph, can you keep secrets?”
“Eh, eeh….? Why do you ask so suddenly?”
“No, just, you won’t spread rumors about me right?”
“E-, eeeeh……!? N-n-no way, why would…. ahaha…..”
“I’m glad. Hearing that, I’m now relieved. Let’s get along from now on too, Steph.”
Saying that I held my hand out, which then Steph awkwardly shook.
“――Ah, that’s right. I will properly tell dad that Steph’s dad wants to become his direct retainer so don’t worry, alright?”
From my words, Steph broke out in a cold sweat.