Chapter 106: Hunting Tournament (7)
Chapter 106: Hunting Tournament (7)
Dan intended to follow the Calamity.
By his estimation, Deon Hart was the Calamity.
And so, Dan followed Deon Hart.
'What if Deon Hart is not the Calamity?'
Then what was he supposed to do?
While Deon Hart was away on a mission, Dan made many efforts on his behalf.
He changed his form of address from Master to Lord Count. When the butler said he must call him 'Lord Count' even though he followed the 'Calamity,' not the 'Honorary Count Hart,' he complied without argument.
He learned the sword so he could stick by his side without restriction. He reached a level capable of guarding someone.
To procure funds separate from the Count's residence's coffers, he set up a trading company. It was only natural.
'Once he began his activities as the Calamity, the funds stockpiled at the Count's residence would become difficult to use.'
Dan knew that nearly all of the Count's residence's servants were the Emperor's people.
I did all of this. And what about you?
'I went this far. What did you do? Are you truly the Calamity?'
The word of a senile shaman calling him so was no longer enough. The time for proof was once again at hand.
Thus, he offered an insult.
Did he truly think Dan didn't know to escort someone when they were getting out of a carriage? Dan wanted to see his anger.
'Anger befitting the Calamity.'
......Instead, he received his gentle consideration.
A rational suspicion raised its head.
'You, no, you.'
Are you really the Calamity?
And now, that suspicion had vanished.
What human could command a monster? This was impossible unless he was the Calamity.
In a moment of desperate crisis, a plant-type monster moved. It pierced the attacker, drank its blood to swell its size. Then, walking on its roots, its freely moving stalks finished off the remaining assailants.
It was a little regrettable that the arrows were handled not by Deon Hart himself but by some unidentified person who stepped up to save him.......
'Right now...... are those hands trembling?'
Like a beast nearly deprived of its young, the fingertips of the one holding Deon Hart in their arms trembled faintly.
Was there someone who treasured Deon Hart so deeply? From what Dan knew, his human relationships were extremely narrow and barren.
'......Well, it's none of my business.'
Dan's impassive eyes shifted alternately between the unidentified figure and Deon Hart before he turned his gaze to the bizarre lifeform, a faint smile touching his lips.
He felt a little sorry for deliberately pretending ignorance of the danger to see this scene, but he had seen the proof, so it was fine.
'Once all the work is done and we return.......'
He would follow him faithfully.
Never again would the day come when Dan doubted Deon Hart.
'Let's just watch until this is over.'
He observed the situation unfolding with great interest.
Reinforcements arrived, and the unidentified robed figure hid themselves. Emboldened, the self-styled 'real' Count Hart aimed for Deon Hart, and the plant moved.
It coiled around his ankle to restrict his movement, seized his hand to prevent an attack. It wound around his neck as if to kill him at any moment, and then ultimately, when blood burst from Deon Hart's mouth— it was killed by his hand.
Dan was impressed.
'To shake off suspicion like this!'
He made it look like it was attacking him and then killed it. A clean severing of the tail.
"No, I'm telling you! Deon Hart controls that monster?!"
"The monster you speak of attacked Honorary Count Hart."
"It's a staged act!"
"He even coughed up blood, which makes it hard to call it a staged act."
The suspicion was cleared.
Deon Hart, having neatly sheathed his dagger with an unembellished gesture, walked leisurely toward Dan. Their eyes met, and Dan froze.
Blood-red eyes, lips curled into a sneer. A gaze that seemed to look down from a great height, carrying a merciful question.
"Satisfied?"
"......."
You knew. Haha. Dan laughed.
Satisfied, he asked? Well, of course.
"Naturally, Master."
* * *
Deon turned his head and took in the sight of his idiotic and irritating collateral branch.
There was no bloodlust. No madness soaked in blood. Yet, instinctively feeling a sense of dread from a gaze clearly unlike his usual one, the collateral stumbled backward. Deon clicked his tongue— Tsk— and strode over, placing a hand on his shoulder.
The fellow's body shuddered as if bitten by a wild beast.
"If you are the head of House Hart, you must be residing at the Hart Count's residence."
Honorifics.
The collateral, caught off guard by the polite honorific that popped out amidst an atmosphere that seemed ready to drop formalities, raised his head for a moment before nodding.
Was it not only natural for the head of the family to reside in the Count's residence bearing such a long history? Besides, Cruel Hart and Deon Hart never set foot in that place anyway.
Was he trying to take it now? Wary eyes turned toward Deon.
Deon, meeting his eyes squarely, smiled brightly. It was a smile so beautiful it could steal one's wits.
"You've managed to clean it up properly, it seems."
"Wha... what?"
"I'd painted it so thoroughly with blood it was utterly unusable, and yet you cleared it away."
"......!"
"Might there not be resentful spirits roaming the corridors at night?"
So the rumors were true! The face of the collateral head went pale.
Deon Hart really had killed all the people of House Hart! And in the very mansion I am staying in now!
Seeing him drained of color and utterly stupefied, Deon smiled with satisfaction.
A pleasant laugh rumbled lowly for a moment before silence returned. Deon, his expression blank as if he had never laughed, was watching him.
"You'd better watch how much you mess around."
Unless you want to die.
* * *
[I... I want to live in a different mansion. Isn't there another villa nearby?]
[Pardon? No, my lord, what do you mean... The Hart Count's residence is nothing less than the symbol of the family head. The situation is already unstable without 'Hart Territory,' the core of House Hart, and now you say you wish to reside in another mansion.]
[I don't know...... I'm too scared and uneasy to live there, what does any of that matter.......]
[Pardon? What did you say? I couldn't quite hear you.]
[Nothing! Anyway, I'm staying in another mansion, so deal with it! If there isn't one, I'll stay elsewhere even if I have to build one!]
[Lord Count, Lord Count?!]
Deon roughly let the distant conversation between the collateral and his vassals flow in one ear and out the other as he chuckled to himself.
Seeing that terror-stricken face was immensely refreshing. Though it was a little puzzling why he was so frightened when Deon didn't think he'd said much.
"Honorary Count Hart controlled a plant-type monster, they say."
Ah, this one wasn't pleasant at all. Damned collateral bastard.
If you were going to be scared, you should have kept your mouth shut. But his lips were so loose that in the end, the fellow fabricated what he'd seen and blabbed it as fact.
Frankly, it was pathetic. The one thing even the demon-race couldn't handle was demonic beasts, that is, monsters. Of course, it wasn't a plant-type monster, just an ordinary plant, but anyway, since other people knew it as a 'monster,' who would possibly believe that....
"If it's Honorary Count Hart, it's quite plausible."
"So the rumors of him being a vampire are true."
They believed it?
"They say he summoned a plant-type monster and caught it to win the hunting competition."
"They also say he once used that monster to eliminate people who were an annoyance."
"They say he's been secretly handling a plant-type monster from behind the scenes for a very long time, could it be true?"
I was utterly dumbfounded.
No, it defies common sense. Why on earth would they believe this? The rumor even got blown up to absurd proportions!
Swallowing the hollow laugh that threatened to escape, he pretended otherwise and listened to their voices when an enormous presence made itself sharply felt.
"Ah......."
His shoulders flinched reflexively.
An intense presence. A heavy and sharp atmosphere. The owner of this oppressive presence was obvious even without confirming with his eyes.
A red cape flickered at the edge of his vision. Before his gaze could meet those fierce golden eyes, Deon hastily dropped to one knee and lowered his head. He felt the nobles, having noticed him belatedly, falling to their knees one by one.
"Glory to the Empire."
"Rise."
The Emperor, whom he hadn't seen in a while as he seemed to have been busy with many things, looked considerably haggard. Was it problematic or fortunate that the haggardness made his impression even sharper rather than stirring pity?
From the Emperor's perspective, it was probably fortunate not to look weak, but for me, it was a problem.
'He got scarier......!'
He was scary enough already!
His brilliant golden eyes, worn with fatigue, swept over the nobles. Though it was merely a gaze, everyone it touched recoiled like startled snails.
After a short silence, the Emperor broke the quiet.
"......Very well......."
It was a voice like a sigh laden with deep exhaustion.
"Though I was too busy to participate personally, it seems matters have proceeded properly. It appears the Crown Prince has done a commendable job."
"You honor me, Your Majesty."
"I shall take over from here."
Having smoothly received the baton from the Crown Prince, the Emperor raised his gloved hand and firmly pressed his persistently furrowing brow.
"Let us promptly announce the results and conclude. Hand me the results sheet."
A paper listing the form, size, and number of the demonic beasts passed into his hand.
What rank would I be? Since I couldn't return empty-handed due to the title of 'Hero,' I'd roughly caught two monsters on the way back, so I'd likely be about average. The nobles' average monster hunt count seemed to be around two, after all.
Since I had no intention of drawing attention, just not having tarnished the name of a Hero was satisfying enough.
The Emperor's mood seemed quite foul, so I should just stay quietly inconspicuous and disappear. In this situation, if I stood out unnecessarily, my neck might not survive.
"3rd place. Cruel Hart."
"?"
Shit, when did this guy even participate?
His hunted results were piled high before everyone's eyes.
Because placing all the hunting results in one spot was messy and lacking in space, at the hunting competition only the results for 1st to 3rd place were placed in the center to prevent suspicions of rank manipulation. In short, the message was, if you didn't catch this much, don't complain.
In that sense, irritably enough, Cruel's rank was understandable. Four monsters. Certainly, for an ordinary person, that was quite a haul. Considering he was a hero with a Hero's Fragment, he'd actually done a sloppy job. Annoying.
The rank announcement continued.
"2nd place. Elpidius Desert."
"......?"
This was surprising for a different reason. No, the Crown Prince participated, and there was a human who stubbornly took 1st place instead of conceding it? What kind of madman?
Five monsters. Even without intending to yield, it would be difficult to catch more than that. The Crown Prince managed it because he had four excellent aides, but it wouldn't be easy for an ordinary person without a Hero's Fragment to surpass that.
This was truly tooth-grinding effort; he was really curious who it was....
"1st place. Deon Hart."
It was me.
I was the tooth-grinding madman.
"......?!"
No, why? How?! I only caught two monsters....
Before my confused eyes, three monsters were piled up. Not two, but three. Spotting a familiar-looking monster among them, my expression collapsed into an indescribable shape.
"You caught a plant-type monster, I see. It was an entirely unprecedented type and likely quite troublesome; you have done well."
"It's... nothing......."
I barely managed an answer. It wasn't troublesome at all. Because this one died for me. I'd felt a pang of conscience and purposely left it there.
Which bastard brought this thing along?
The softened golden eyes glanced at me once before hardening again and facing forward. A step behind him, another pair of similar golden eyes looked at me and smiled softly.
'The Crown Prince.......'
Why is he smiling? At first glance, it seemed like a gesture of praise.
But I won't take it at face value! I learned that high society is a place where people wear the mask of a smile and exchange the knife of words.
So that smile must be a warning. Something like, 'How dare you beat me? Your future is going to be very tiresome,' or something.
'Incurring the Crown Prince's disfavor.......'
......If I really did incur his disfavor, I'll have to flee to the Demon Realm for good. The Empire, no, the human world is done for.
"Then, let the hunting competition be considered concluded, and I have something to announce."
The Emperor gathered attention once more.
Frowning as if there were flies about, he waved a hand once in the air, closed his eyes for a long moment, and then opened them with a shallow sigh. His eyes, made even fiercer by the deep shadows beneath them, turned precisely toward me.
"It seems we shall be waging war against the Demon Realm."
"!"