Chapter 51
Chapter 51
The man alternated his gaze between me and the metal ring as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, then slid the ring back onto my arm.
“Take it off again.”
What was this supposed to be, some kind of dog training exercise?
Frowning, I removed the metal ring and threw it with all my strength.
The ring sliced through the air toward Calix Krauvel. He caught it easily.
“…That’s impossible.”
Seeing that, the man muttered to himself.
“This shouldn’t be possible.”
When he looked back at me, his eyes sparkled like a child who had just discovered an interesting toy.
Danger.
A loud red warning signal blared inside my head. I felt like I needed to leave immediately, so I turned around—but my wrist was grabbed.
It was Calix Krauvel.
“It’s all for your sake, so stay still.”
After saying something absurd like that, he put the metal ring back on my wrist.
I didn’t know whether I really needed it, but wearing something that had absorbed my blood was extremely unsettling.
So I tried to take it off again.
“…?”
But this time it didn’t budge. Even when I swung my arm violently, it stayed firmly in place.
What? Why won’t it come off?
Panicking, I kept shaking my arm. The man seemed to sense something strange and approached.
He grabbed the metal ring and pulled on it, but it didn’t move at all.
“What the hell? Why won’t it come off this time?”
“Perhaps the magic finally activated properly.”
Calix Krauvel said in an indifferent tone.
“You didn’t even notice the magic hadn’t activated. Maybe you’ve lost your touch.”
“The magic was active from the beginning!”
The man snapped angrily, his pride clearly wounded.
“Of all mistakes, this is one I would never make!”
Calix Krauvel snorted and then looked at me.
“You can go now.”
I left the office as if being chased out and stood in the corridor staring at the metal ring on my wrist.
Judging by the situation, this was probably why he had called me here.
Which made it even more ridiculous.
The man who had been dumping sudden busywork on me, forcing overtime and weekend work, suddenly claimed he was looking out for me and gave me this thing.
No matter how I thought about it, it didn’t make sense.
But how does he know about Fabian Nogen?
I hadn’t told anyone.
My mind was filled with questions, and the fact that this had been forced on me without my consent made it even more unpleasant.
“Miss Aileen?”
While I was glaring at the metal ring with a frown, the Lord’s butler called out to me with a puzzled expression.
“The stagecoaches will stop running soon. Shouldn’t you head home?”
“Ah… yes. I should.”
Right. Let’s go home first.
That was what I thought, but the metal ring bumping against my wrist with every movement was so irritating that I stopped again before going very far.
Standing in the corridor connecting the main building and the annex, I grabbed the ring and pulled on it with all my strength again.
But the ring didn’t move at all, as if it had become part of my body.
“That woman has something.”
Rael slammed his hand down on the desk where Calix was sitting.
“The fact that the magic didn’t activate immediately, and the fact that she said Arcana looked red. She’s not an ordinary woman.”
“You said the magic seemed to activate late.”
Calix replied irritably.
“And she said the Arcana looked blue.”
“But she said it was red before.”
“She said that must have been because of the sunlight.”
Already overwhelmed with work, Calix found the pointless conversation irritating and waved his hand dismissively.
“If you’re done here, leave. I don’t need to open a portal for you, do I?”
“You asked me to make the collar, and now that it’s done you’re telling me to get lost?”
Rael refused to back down.
“If it were Rion, he wouldn’t just leave like this.”
“But you’re Rael.”
Calix said mockingly.
“And if it were Rion, he wouldn’t have come here in the first place.”
“…That’s true.”
Rael immediately admitted it, letting out a deep sigh before crouching down in front of the desk.
“No matter how I think about it, that woman definitely has something…”
“Should I call Zephyr?”
“I’m leaving, I’m leaving.”
Grumbling, Rael left the office.
Now alone, Calix picked up the documents on his desk.
But he couldn’t focus and soon set them down again.
Instead, he placed a cigar in his mouth and looked out the window.
From the office window, the corridor connecting the main building and annex was visible.
In the middle of that corridor stood Aileen.
She was twisting her wrist and leaning her body in every direction, desperately trying to remove the metal ring.
What a pointless effort.
Since the ring carried a special enchantment, no matter how strong someone was, it could never be removed.
Even Love—the wolf monster said to be ten times stronger than a human—had struggled desperately to remove the collar, but it had remained on until the creature died.
So why had it come off so easily the first time?
“….”
As that thought occurred to him, Calix’s eyes narrowed.
They had dismissed it as the magic not having activated yet.
But perhaps that wasn’t the case.
After all, Raelion Silbert—considered the greatest authority in magical arts—had insisted it wasn’t.
Of course, even he could make mistakes.
But it was strange that he would make such a mistake at a time like this.
Come to think of it, she couldn’t pass through the magic portal immediately either.
Just like Rael had said, did that woman really have something unusual about her?
While the question deepened, Aileen eventually walked away beyond the corridor.
The cigar he was smoking had burned down to the end.
“My Lord.”
Just as Calix took out another cigar, Noah Roheim entered.
“A magical communication just arrived from Nubiar.”
Using magical communication instead of mail meant it was urgent.
Calix reviewed the documents while holding the cigar in his mouth.
The message reported that the entire construction zone had been thoroughly searched, yet no tarantula habitat—or even traces of one—had been found.
They were asking for his advice as an expert: was it possible for a monster that usually lived in groups to move independently, or had they overlooked something?
Belheim had originally been a land overflowing with monsters and magical beasts because of Arcana.
But two hundred years ago, the first Duke Krauvel drove them out and built a city there.
Since then, the Krauvel family had fought them continuously for generations.
As a result, the Krauvel ducal house had naturally become experts on monsters and magical beasts.
At the very peak of that expertise stood Calix.
The moment he became duke, he launched a massive extermination campaign.
At the time, he was only fifteen years old.
Everyone believed he would never return alive.
But he returned proudly.
In fact, he drove away most of the monsters and magical beasts, and for the past ten years Belheim had been remarkably peaceful.
At least until the worm appeared during the drainage construction.
Even then, there was no habitat.
Worm-type monsters never strayed far from their nests and didn’t attack unless provoked.
Yet there had been no nest, and the worm had attacked first.
That detail had bothered him slightly.
Still, he had dismissed it, thinking that monsters evolved just like humans did.
But what if that wasn’t the reason?
If there was another explanation, then perhaps…
“Aileen.”
“Yes?”
When Calix suddenly spoke Aileen’s name while reading the document, Noah Roheim blinked in confusion.
“Should I call Miss Aileen? Though she’s probably already left work by now.”
Instead of answering, Calix looked out the window again.
Aileen was already gone, yet he stared at the empty corridor as if she were still standing there.
Determined to get rid of the metal ring somehow, I finally bought a pair of nippers from the System Shop.
Since I bought an expensive one, I thought it would surely cut through the ring.
But not even a scratch appeared.
Hammering it and filing it with a saw didn’t help either.
Instead, the slipping blade scratched and cut my arm, leaving it a mess.
“…Sigh. I should just go to work first.”
I wrapped bandages around my arm to cover the wounds and hold the dangling metal ring in place.
Then I pulled down my long sleeve so it wouldn’t be visible.
“I’m heading out.”
“Aileen, wait.”
Tabin stopped me as I was about to leave for work.
“The weather has gotten quite cold.”
Without another word, he wrapped a scarf around my neck.
The knitted scarf clearly didn’t look like something purchased from a shop.
I had noticed him visiting Margaret’s house frequently lately.
Had he made it himself?
“Have a safe trip. Take care of yourself.”
His kindness made the tip of my nose sting.
“Yes. I’ll be back, Fa—”
The word father rose to my throat.
But in the end, I turned away without saying it.