Burrow Duchy (4)
"When Joy told me, I half suspected it was a jest — but it seems you were quite serious."
Duke Patran let out a rueful chuckle as he surveyed the group I'd brought along.
And honestly, the visiting party for this get-well call was anything but ordinary. Phoebe, the mascot of the Church of the Main God. Arthur, who was distant from the throne yet carried royal blood all the same. Then stacked on top of those two, Duke Patran himself and Joy besides. Any noble on the continent would have found this lineup intimidating.
Which was another way of saying it was a lineup the Burrow Duchy could never possibly refuse. Who on earth would dare turn away a pack of terrifying VIPs once they'd come knocking at the very front door? The moment we arrived, that door was destined to swing open on its own. With this, entry into the dungeon was confirmed! All that remained was triggering it properly!
"I told you time and again that I'd delivered the message accurately, Father."
"Haha. Forgive my doubts, Joy. I simply never imagined the young lady would go to such lengths."
...Uh. Did I overdo it after all?
"I take it the Careless Duke finds even this much difficult to manage? I distinctly recall someone insisting there'd be no need for restraint on our end. Perhaps I misremembered."
"How could I have? I only thought the Burrow household would be caught rather off guard. I did give them fair warning beforehand, mind you — but hearing of it and seeing it with one's own eyes are two very different things."
The words slipped out of him so casually that I froze for a beat, but Duke Patran merely smiled it off and said nothing more. Consideration for his daughter's friend, I supposed. Had anyone from another ducal house heard him speak that way, they'd have raised their voice on the spot.
Keep your mouth shut once we're inside the Burrow estate. No telling what kind of commotion it might cause.
Once the introductions — beginning with me, then everyone I'd brought, and Duke Patran — were finished, we set off immediately for the Burrow family's domain.
The journey itself was not long. It was true that the distance from the academy to the Burrow Duchy was considerable, but Duke Patran's power as an archmage closed that distance in a matter of seconds.
As the Duke spread his magic, I braced myself for the nausea to come — and then found it strange that the scenery had simply rearranged itself around me with no ill effects at all. What gives? Why didn't I feel anything? Did the Face-Connoisseur Fox do something? Or had I finally grown strong enough to withstand the agony of teleportation?
"As expected of you, Duke. Such an immaculate teleport."
"Haha. It's a modest little trick, nothing more, Your Highness."
Sadly, every one of my theories missed the mark. The nausea-free teleport had simply been a product of Duke Patran's overwhelming skill, nothing more.
So even a batshit-insane mage is batshit-insane at things like this, huh.
"Welcome, Duke Patran. And... you all as well."
Shortly after our arrival, a vassal of the Burrow household emerged to greet us — and upon beholding our party, he stiffened for a long moment before barely recovering his composure. Apparently, he had never truly believed this many people would actually come.
"...For now, please allow us to escort you to the manor."
As I followed him, I scanned the streets of the Burrow domain. I had expected to find some trace of foul play woven into the town itself. But I could not find a single thing.
The same went for Halbae, the Face-Connoisseur Fox, Phoebe, and Adri. Not one of us detected anything amiss in the streets. The town of the Burrow Duchy simply carried a faint air of gloom over the Duke's illness, and nothing more.
The ducal manor proved no different. We couldn't unearth even the smallest anomaly within its walls. It felt rather quiet for a place where so many people worked — but then, the Burrow household had always been that sort of place.
It's just an ordinary noble estate. There's nothing strange to find.
'Tell me about it.'
Considering the Meddlesome Chief God had gone so far as to issue a quest, something was unquestionably unfolding in here — so why couldn't we find a single trace of it? Given the party I'd assembled, we should have been able to sniff out practically any anomaly by now.
Was I truly just making a fuss over nothing? Was this whole quest nothing but a mean-spirited prank by the Meddlesome Chief God?
"Our son's kindness has earned us great favor indeed. To think such distinguished guests would come to wish him well. Ah — though despite being told well in advance, our Jackal left for morning training and has yet to return, you see."
My suspicions only deepened upon meeting the Duchess. She was the one closest to Duke Burrow. If something sinister had gotten involved in his condition, she would surely be entangled in it somehow.
And yet I found no fault in her whatsoever. Through my eyes, the Duchess was simply an exhausted wife worn down from nursing her ailing husband and managing the family's affairs in his stead.
"Please, go on in to see my husband first."
"Is it truly all right for so many of us to enter together, my lady?"
"Thank you for your concern, Duke Patran. But it is quite all right. He is in remarkably vigorous health. He's been sulking daily, insisting he ought to be outside swinging a sword."
Just as the Duchess had described, Duke Burrow was hale and hearty.
"Come in, all of you."
The door had barely opened before he rose from his seat to greet us, sincerity radiating from his every glance. From that alone, I could tell. Duke Burrow's illness was not a grave one.
"Duke Patran and his daughter. The Saintess. The Prince. Even Lord Benedict's daughter, come all this way out of concern for me. Being ill isn't such a bad thing now and then, I find."
His vigor showed in more than his eyes. Though his frame lacked the superhuman musculature of Benedict, his body carried muscle exactly where muscle ought to be, leaving the impression of a warrior tempered to the very limit. At least to me, he looked like a man who could charge out of his sickbed at any moment without it seeming odd in the slightest.
Wondering if it was just my own speculation, I quietly asked the others — and their answers were all the same. Nothing strange to be seen. Everything was normal.
"As you can see, however, I am perfectly well. Well enough to return to my duties at once. If my lady hadn't pressed me to rest, I'd already be back at work."
"What bravado. Duke Burrow. When I visited this very place but two months ago, were you not on death's door?"
"That was then. This is now. Look at me, Duke Patran. Where do you see any lingering trace of illness?"
Thanks to Duke Patran steering the conversation from the front, our sick visit concluded without my saying a single word. Then the Duke declared that he and his fellow duke had matters to discuss between them and ushered the rest of us out.
And so we found ourselves obliged to wait in the parlor until the two men finished their talk.
Ugh. I honestly have no idea what's what anymore. Why is everything fine? We can't find anything off, can we?
As I sat on the parlor sofa racking my brain, Halbae spoke up.
At this point, I'm inclined to think thy suspicions may simply have been mistaken.
'...I mean, I'm leaning that way too.'
We had examined everything — the streets, the manor, the Duchess, the Duke himself — and found no anomaly whatsoever. And that despite the presence of such heavyweight talents as the Lord of the Forest, a Saintess, a mighty necromancer, a hero of the past, and a grand archmage, all gathered in one place.
Under circumstances like these, we ought to have been able to declare with certainty that nothing was wrong with the Burrow family.
'But the Chief God is still insisting something's off, you know.'
Why wouldn't the Meddlesome Chief God announce the quest complete? Why did the quest remain open even after we'd confirmed nothing was wrong?
He said that, did He?
'Yep.'
The Meddlesome Chief God declared a quest complete the moment His desired outcome was achieved. If His goal had simply been to mess with me, He'd have cleared it around now and tossed me some snarky little reward on top. Yet the Meddlesome Chief God remained stubbornly silent.
...I see. Then let us think on it in reverse, lass. Consider this: if something truly is amiss here, why can none of the people present detect it?
In reverse?
I turned the old man's words over in my mind. Magic. Black magic. Barriers and curses. Every manner of sinister means. Something that even our current roster — capable of catching all of that — would fail to notice.
The conditions are brutal.
Well, naturally they were brutal. We'd come prepared to catch practically everything under the sun, after all. Various methods surfaced in my mind only to sink back down, over and over. Devising a method that both leapt over those stringent conditions and could still take down a monster like Duke Burrow was every bit as difficult as it sounded.
A few possibilities did occur to me, but most were things that simply couldn't happen at this point in time. For example—
Yeah.
That posturing lanky bastard who took a beating from Halbae and fled. If he were behind this, the phenomenon would make perfect sense. The greatest of the Evil God of Darkness's powers was concealment. If that guy set his mind to working mischief, it would be only natural for no one to notice a thing.
But I had excluded him as a candidate for one simple reason: he lacked the strength to touch the Duke. Duke Burrow was a warrior powerful enough to be counted among the very top of the kingdom. He might fall short of Benedict, but he was hardly a target a mere Posturing Beanpole would dare entertain thoughts of. It might be a different story once the Evil God of Darkness fully awakened — but for now, the timing was far too early. That guy's awakening, at the earliest, wouldn't come until the latter half of sophomore year.
So setting him aside, if I considered other variables...
"To think so many people would come to see me."
Deep in desperate mental gymnastics, I looked up at the sound of the door opening.
"It has been a while, everyone."
Jackal Burrow finished his courteous bow, swept his gaze across the parlor's occupants — and the moment his eyes met mine, he furrowed his brow.
Does he seriously think I confessed to him? Is he thinking, 'that lunatic is still following me around'?
Ha. God, this is infuriating. How am I supposed to clear up this misunderstanding—
Whoosh.
Phoebe, beside me, abruptly shot to her feet, and every head in the room swiveled toward her. Phoebe herself seemed too preoccupied to register the attention, her eyes fixed solely on Jackal's face.
"Saintess? Is something the matter?"
"Ah. Um. That is. Well, you see—"
Watching Phoebe so visibly flustered, I could only think one thing. I had no idea what had thrown her into such a state. But I did know that Phoebe being this rattled was strange in itself. As a Saintess, she had traveled countless regions and met countless people. For someone so practiced at maintaining her composure to fail at even producing an excuse meant she'd seen something that genuinely unsettled her.
Which meant someone ought to smooth things over for her. And if it was a job for me, then there was really only one option.
"Oh, it's nothing at all, Inferior Young Master♡ It's just that our Sloppy Saintess here, who grows more scatterbrained by the day just like her dear friend, was spouting nonsense about how I supposedly have a crush on the likes of you♡"
Aggro-pulling.
"...Ah. That dogshit rumor."
At my words, Jackal's face twisted with a loathing that could not have been more sincere.