Chapter 175: Phantom Thief Magician
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 175: Phantom Thief Magician
I headed for the annex, holding Iris in my arms.
When I returned to our room, Sylvia was nowhere to be seen.
She must have sensed my presence and left first.
Well...
After what happened, facing me right away would be awkward.
I laid the sleeping Iris on the bed and quietly slipped out of the room.
Someone would discover the viscount’s assassination in three hours at the earliest, or by dawn at the latest.
When that happened, a massive manhunt would begin immediately.
Of course, if the viscountess—Lina Hessler's mother—hadn't cooperated, the body would have likely been discovered right away.
Sylvia will know the second I leave and come back, so I can stop worrying about Iris for a bit.
The moment I stepped out of the room, I cast an invisibility spell.
I wouldn't have needed magic if I were just moving within the annex, but my destination was the main building.
They say the culprit always returns to the scene of the crime.
I never thought that saying would be so accurate.
It’s a little unsettling that I’m the culprit in question, though.
I followed the magic emanating from the key and walked through the garden.
The party seemed to be over, as the garden was bustling with people leaving the estate. I spotted a few guards with formidable auras, so I moved with my presence concealed as much as possible.
Fortunately, I was able to use the commotion to infiltrate the mansion with ease.
It doesn't seem to be the viscount's office... The basement?
The key's magic was pointing toward the mansion's basement.
The blueprints Lina Hessler had given me did show a basement, but it was just a series of storerooms frequently used by the servants.
The viscount was serious enough about security to carry a magically treated key on his person; there was no way he would have placed the entrance in a place like a storeroom.
[Detection]
Just as I suspected, when I scanned the basement with magic, a space not on the blueprints was revealed.
Thanks to that, finding the entrance wasn't difficult. As I reached a corridor in a deserted corner of the first floor, I saw a wall that felt strangely out of place.
It was a subtle sense of wrongness I would have missed if not for the key.
When I reached out to the wall, my hand passed right through it. The entrance had been hidden by the wall itself.
If it could be passed through at any time, it would have been discovered long ago...
It must be an illusion that only becomes tangible under certain conditions.
I boldly stepped through the wall, and a staircase leading down to the basement appeared.
I tapped the stone walls. I had even imbued my taps with a bit of magic, but I couldn't even leave a scratch.
“...Who in the world created a barrier like this?”
It must have been made by at least a 3rd Circle mage, and it must have taken a considerable amount of time.
[Light]
With a magically created light, I descended the stairs.
I felt like I had gone down about three floors when an old iron door appeared.
It was an incredibly thick door with no particular pattern, and strangely, the keyhole was in the exact center.
I inserted the key I had taken from the viscount into the hole.
Click. With a sound that indicated a perfect fit, the iron door opened on its own, sending dust scattering in the air.
Beyond the door, a small room of about 33 square meters appeared.
“Whoa...”
I let out a gasp of admiration at the sight before me.
Just as I'd expected, the room was filled with a considerable amount of gold bars, jewels, and gold coins.
So this was the viscount's secret vault.
It was a substantial amount, but thanks to my inventory, collecting it all was no problem.
From what I knew, a single 1kg gold bar was worth about 100 million. There were hundreds of them, meaning the gold alone was worth tens of billions, and with all the various jewels...
“...I shouldn't have sold that Minotaur magic stone.”
I suddenly regretted selling the Minotaur's magic stone. Things like that were hard to come by, even with money.
It would have been the perfect medium for a barrier. Or I could have had a custom-made wand or staff crafted.
“Hah, can't be helped. I'll just have to go back to Earth soon and enter a high-level gate.”
I could buy one at an auction, but if I didn't want to see half my hard-earned fortune disappear, acquiring it myself was much cheaper.
As I was filling my inventory with gold bars, jewels, and gold coins, my heart filling with a sense of abundance, I felt another sense of wrongness from the right-hand wall.
It wasn't a magical feeling.
For some reason, it just seemed cleaner than the other areas. As if it had been frequently touched by human hands.
[Detection]
There was nothing beyond the wall. But my intuition was still telling me something was off.
My suspicion grew with each passing moment.
I tried tapping and feeling around the room, examining the walls, but I found nothing.
Just as I was about to give up and leave...
Click. The moment my hand touched it, the wall pushed inward with a small vibration.
Then, I heard the sound of machinery turning somewhere.
“Huh...?”
The unusually clean section of the wall opened, revealing a hidden secret space.
I was a bit flustered by the sudden development, but I didn't see any gold or jewels.
Instead, there was a small, old-looking box.
It was locked, but the key I had fit perfectly.
“What is this?”
Inside the box was a black orb.
It glittered like obsidian, looking just like a jewel.
I wondered what kind of expensive gem it could be to be hidden away separately, and as I was examining it...
Ting—
[Information on the newly acquired item is being collected.]
“...Huh?”
*
As soon as the sun rose, the estate was thrown into chaos.
A maid, searching for the viscount who wasn't in his bedroom, discovered his body in the office.
Every servant in the mansion, as well as the vassals loyal to the viscount's family, quickly gathered.
We, as guests, were no exception.
At the viscount's sudden death, shouts erupted among the vassals.
Opinions were divided between immediately summoning everyone who had participated in the previous day's auction and arguing that it was realistically impossible since many had already left the castle early in the morning.
However, when the butler mentioned that the escort knight had disappeared, the culprit was quickly narrowed down to him.
Of course, very few among them were genuinely interested in catching the real killer.
“Everyone, please be quiet.”
As the commotion grew, Lina Hessler stepped forward.
Behind her stood the vassals who followed her, and at a glance, they seemed to be more than half of all the vassals gathered here.
“First, we will form a pursuit team to track the escort knight. Then, we will send death notices to the neighboring territories for my father's funeral.”
She skillfully took command of the servants, quelling the disturbance.
Just as everyone, seemingly mesmerized by her charisma, was about to move...
“It was you, you bitch!”
Henriot Hessler suddenly stepped forward, shouting.
He had vassals around him as well, but their number was significantly smaller than those following Lina.
“Sigh... Brother, haven't I told you time and again? Don't forget the subject of your sentence.”
The two glared at each other as if they wanted to kill one another. The half-blood siblings had long since become mortal enemies, desperate to see the other dead.
“How shameless of you, you patricidal monster!”
“...You've gone too far. Are you trying to frame your own sister without any evidence?”
“Ha, evidence? By process of elimination, who else could the culprit be but you! The escort knight had no motive to murder Father and flee! On the other hand, you have more than enough motive to kill him!”
Lina Hessler offered a faint smile at his words.
“I'd love to hear it. What is this motive you speak of?”
It could almost be mistaken for a sneer.
“You grew impatient, didn't you? Because if things continued as they were, the one to inherit the viscountcy would be me, the one you despise so much.”
“I don't know. To me, it just looks like a half-noble struggling to survive...”
At that moment, Henriot Hessler's face contorted.
Half-noble. It was a jab at the fact that his mother was a commoner.
“Stirring up trouble with mere suspicions... You haven't changed a bit, have you?”
Perhaps everyone gathered here had thought it at least once.
That the one who murdered the viscount might not be the missing escort knight, but Lina Hessler.
But that didn't matter now.
What mattered was getting on the good side of the most likely candidate for the next viscount.
Shouts were exchanged between the two siblings, but it was mostly Henriot who was yelling. From his perspective, he might not only lose the title but also be kicked out of the estate, so he had no choice but to be desperate.
Of course, regardless of their drama, Iris and I simply sat on a nearby sofa and observed the situation.
“Iris, how's your headache?”
“Ugh... I-I'm okay...”
Iris had been suffering from a hangover all morning. The drunkenness could be dispelled with magic, but a hangover was a different matter.
I should have brought a hangover cure if I'd known this would happen.
At times, we received suspicious glances, but no one here was gutsy enough to mess with us, Lina Hessler's guests.
“Wasn't it them you hired?!”
Of course, there was one person here who was not only gutsy but had completely lost his mind.
“A wandering mage couple not even affiliated with the Continental Magic Association! They were suspicious from the start! Didn't you hire them to assassinate Father?!”
As Henriot pointed a finger at me, veins bulging on his neck, the servants began to murmur.
“Guards, what are you doing! Take them to the prison at once—”
“Brother.”
Lina's voice was a low warning.
“Any insult directed at my two guests will be considered an insult to me. Guards, my brother seems to be of unsound mind due to our father's passing. Please escort him to his room at once.”
“"Yes!"”
“L-let go of me! Do you know who I am?! How dare you lay your hands on me!”
Henriot Hessler was dragged away by the guards.
They say the real legal battle isn't fought in the courtroom, but outside of it.
The moment he failed to prevent Viscount Hessler's assassination, he had already lost the succession struggle.
—We'll be heading up first.
After giving Lina a subtle heads-up, I returned to the annex with Iris.
Back in the room, I helped Iris lie down on the bed.
“Let me touch you for a second.”
I placed my hand on Iris's forehead and used my magic. My magic, which contained a faint trace of divine power, might have some effect on her hangover.
“Hah, haah...”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes... It feels cool...”
Thankfully, it seemed to be working. Iris let out a pleasant moan and closed her eyes.
I watched her with a satisfied smile, then opened my inventory and took out the black pearl.
[Bireciel's Essence
Grade: Epic
Contains a large amount of demonic energy.
Successful consumption will grant Demonic Eye (魔眼).
※Warning! Consumption may cause physical damage.]
It was the obsidian-like gem I had taken from the viscount's underground vault last night.
I had thought it was a jewel at first, but it turned out to be an elixir.
And an elixir containing the demonic energy I had been searching for.
With this, I might be able to find a clue to advance to the next realm.
It's about time I learned to create an Aura.
Right now, the Vajra Qi in my dantian was being forced to accommodate a mouse-tail's worth of demonic energy.
I needed to increase my demonic energy as soon as possible to balance the two energies, but I didn't know any internal cultivation methods related to demonic energy, so I had no viable solution.
I never dreamed I would obtain an elixir containing demonic energy in a place like this.
Why is my luck so good all of a sudden?
It seemed my harsh fate was finally starting to turn around.
As I was smiling at the elixir, I heard a familiar voice.
“What's so funny?”
Sylvia, who had been running away the moment she saw me just this morning, was sitting on the sofa.
“What is it?”
She still avoided my gaze, her arms crossed.
“The Witch of Malefis has disappeared.”