Chapter 129
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 129
When I brought up Amaranth, Rico nodded with a resolute expression. Then, she looked at me in a new light.
“You truly love your mother, Lady Rohanson.”
But all I feel for Amaranth is guilt. It wasn’t my choice, but having possessed Evangeline’s body, I felt a certain responsibility toward her mother—even if I felt nothing for Count Rohanson. Rico must have misunderstood, either because I’d heard about Amaranth from the Duke or because I’d asked to use her room.
“I love my mom, too!” Mavka declared, hugging Rico as if not to be outdone.
I’m not the one who said I loved her, though, I thought, letting out a dumbfounded laugh.
Well, there was no helping it. I’d just have to bite the bullet and play exorcist for a while. I still needed to hear the rest of Amaranth’s story from the Duke, and with an unidentified traitor back at the Rohanson mansion, returning was out of the question. I had nowhere else to go.
Besides, I had already promised the Duke I would exterminate the rats. I wasn’t one to go back on my word. Honestly, my own life was hard enough, and I hated admitting that I was letting a child drag me into performing exorcisms for a ducal family. But what else could I do? I had to rationalize it somehow.
“In return, you’ll have to cooperate with me completely. You can’t just stand by and watch like you did yesterday.”
“Yes, Lady Rohanson. Thank you. I will do my absolute best,” Rico replied, her expression growing serious at my warning.
Hmph. I didn’t bother replying, focusing instead on petting Pudding.
I gently squeezed his belly. Fortunately, it was flat. If Pudding had eaten one of those rats, I would have abandoned the Duke’s estate immediately, Mavka and Agera be damned. But it seemed he hadn’t eaten any yet, and I was still perfectly fine.
They really should have told me sooner.
Pudding, currently going through a rebellious phase, seemed embarrassed by my touch. He tried to swat my hand away before curling up, but the fact that he didn’t leave my lap was incredibly cute. To calm my nerves, I diligently stroked his head.
The very same day as my conversation with Rico, the hunt for the ‘rats’ began in earnest.
“Pudding, could you go around the mansion and catch the rats for me?”
I left the task of dealing with the vermin to him, but I gave him a strict order: catch them on sight, but absolutely never eat them. Of course, I knew Pudding’s true form was a beautiful boy who could rival an imperial prince, but to me, he was just a cat going through a rebellious phase.
Even for a beastkin, a cat eating a rat was practically instinct, wasn’t it? If I didn’t warn him and he ended up eating one, becoming a host for the demon Agera had summoned… what then?
I might just burn this whole place down myself.
Of course, it was a needless worry. Pudding did his absolute best to fulfill my request.
Just as Rico had said, the rats Pudding brought back couldn’t be killed by normal means. They only died if they were immediately submerged in holy water or set on fire, just like the method the Duke had used.
Thinking that holy water cost money, I once steeled myself and burned one alive. The sound of the rat screaming in agony sent a shiver down my spine.
“Save me! It hurts! It’s hot! Mother!”
“Mother! Save me! It’s so hot, please save me!”
Listening to those tortured screams from within the flames, I felt as if I had become Bishop Marik. To put it bluntly, it felt like I was getting a glimpse into the daily life of a once-in-a-generation villain.
I had no idea how Bishop Marik could stomach her meals after burning an entire family to death. Even knowing the rats were demonic in nature, my conscience ached just from disposing of one. My hands trembled, and I even had nightmares.
This is why fanatics are so terrifying. Of course, in a world where the slogan was “Shocking! The Sun Goddess Actually Exists!”, it wasn’t exactly a cult, but still…
“Evangeline, you are killing your mother! I am Amaranth! Put out the fire, quickly! Get me out of here… No, I’ll burn you to death just like this! I’ll tie you up, set you on fire, and watch with joy as you die a slow, agonizing death! Once you are dead, Mother will surely return to me!”
“We shouldn’t burn them directly,” I said, shaken.
Rico, who was trembling beside me, eagerly agreed and drowned the next rat in holy water. The cost was no longer the issue. If this continued, my mental state would completely crumble.
Killing the rats with my own hands was exhausting enough, but having them scream and curse me as they died made me feel like I was actually being cursed. This was no time to be frugal. I would just have to think of it as paying for my peace of mind.
Duke Hosaquin hadn’t put those rats in the water tanks for no reason. I had thought the old man just had a twisted hobby, but it turned out he’d already been through all of this. That grotesque sight was simply the result of him corralling the rats to save on holy water.
At this rate, we’re going to run out.
My concern soon became reality.
Pudding, with his natural talent as a hunter, caught rats left and right, and our supply of holy water quickly dwindled. If I had known, I never would have poured out the water when I cleaned the greenhouse tanks.
I didn't know it was holy water back then.
This wasn’t my fault. It was the Duke’s for not telling me what was going on sooner.
“Lady Rohanson, what should we do? If we request a large quantity of holy water, it will leave a record at the temple. They’ll become suspicious…”
“Who procured the holy water that was already here?”
“…Sir Gabriel.”
“Then we have no choice but to ask Sir Gabriel for help again.”
Come to think of it, Gabriel was something else. Since he’d provided the holy water, he must have known about the situation for a while, yet he hadn’t mentioned a single word in his letters. I suppose not meddling in other people’s affairs was typical of the serious-minded Gabriel, but still, he could have given me a heads-up.
“I’ll send a letter.”
Since we couldn’t deal with the rats without more holy water, I wrote to Gabriel requesting a new supply. A massive order would immediately signal that something was wrong at the Hosaquin estate, so I had to use a more roundabout method.
Smuggling in a large quantity under Bishop Marik’s watchful eye would be difficult, so I came up with a cover story, taking a hint from how Viscount Hwikel had previously embezzled donations. The pretext was that Duke Hosaquin would be providing holy water to support the poor.
Perhaps the rumor that the Duke was ill had spread so rapidly because he’d tried to obtain holy water without such precautions.
The main point of the letter was simply, “Send a ton of holy water.” But just in case it was intercepted, I padded it out with pleasantries and vague language.
A letter sent from the Rohanson or Hosaquin estates would surely be inspected, so I had to use a different name. Gabriel had previously advised me to send any necessary letters under Misha’s name, just in case. The recipient was listed as Michel, Misha’s younger brother. Of course, that was only on paper; Gabriel would be the one to actually receive it.
“Artemisia?” Rico asked, tilting her head as she saw the fake names I’d written for the sender and recipient. However, knowing full well how dangerous it would be if information about the estate fell into the hands of other priests, she didn’t pry.
I handed the letter to Rico and took a brief rest.
“Pudding, you did great. Let’s take a break until we get a reply from Gabriel.”
Pudding was visibly delighted at the suggestion. Have I been working him too hard?
Thrilled that he didn’t have to go hunting for once, Pudding begged me to play with him. As I tickled him, I pondered our next steps.
At least the number of rats has decreased significantly. That’s a relief…
Once Gabriel sent the holy water, we could continue dealing with the rats, but the real problem was the people who had already eaten them.
Who are the hosts?
It was impossible to tell just by looking at them.
Take Nigella, for example. She was definitely a host, yet she acted completely normal, as if she had never shown any strange behavior. If not for Mavka and Rico’s eyewitness accounts, I wouldn’t have suspected her in the slightest.
This meant that the other hosts would be just as inconspicuous. No matter how much Rico and I racked our brains, we couldn’t come up with a way to identify them.
It was like wanting to burn the house down just to get rid of the mice.
It seemed Bishop Marik hadn’t committed arson and wiped out an entire family for no reason. She must have chosen that method because it was the easiest and most certain way. Perhaps, in this world, it was even considered the correct way to handle it.
But since I didn’t share Bishop Marik’s hobby of slaughtering people, I had to find another way. No matter how hard I thought, I knew nothing about demons, so no brilliant ideas came to mind.
In my frustration, I vented to Pudding. As a beastkin, I thought he might know more than an ordinary person.
“Pudding, is there any good way to do this?”
“A way to find demons… I can think of something.”
Pudding, who had shifted into his human form at some point, rested his head on my lap. His blonde hair, so fine it looked like it might shatter in the sunlight, tickled my legs through my skirt.
“When the paladin brings the holy water, you can have them drink it.”
“Everyone in the mansion?”
“Yes.” Pudding nodded and continued his explanation. “Holy water purifies everything that offends the Sun Goddess. If you cannot distinguish them with your eyes, you just need to borrow her power.”
Is my boy a genius? I ruffled his hair. Just as he said, all we had to do was give holy water to everyone in the mansion.
Normal people wouldn’t be harmed by drinking it. The problem was those who were already like cordyceps-infected insects… They wouldn’t just melt away along with the demon, would they? The thought made me uneasy, but it was still a much better option than burning down the entire mansion. Besides, if they were already fused to that extent, they could hardly be considered human anymore.
Now, I just had to hope Gabriel would bring plenty of holy water.
It looked like it was time to scrape together the last of my emergency funds. Fortunately, since our goal wasn’t to heal anyone, we wouldn’t need to use a full bottle for each person. Thinking about it that way, we probably wouldn’t need as much as I initially feared.
“Lady Evangeline, keep stroking my hair.”
My hand must have stopped while I was lost in thought. Pudding urged me to continue.
“Please? Hurry.”
He was so adorable I felt like I could pamper him for the rest of my life. I started stroking his fine, incredibly soft hair again.
Hmm… They say fine hair is prone to hair loss. Could my boy possibly…?
Three days passed after I sent the letter. No reply had arrived, and there was no sign of Bishop Marik invading the estate. But it was too early to let my guard down. As long as she had her eyes on Duke Hosaquin, she would try to make her move when the time was right.
While keeping an eye on the outside world, I gradually adapted to life at the ducal estate. I had even grown quite accustomed to Amaranth’s room.
“Lady Rohanson, it’s Rico.”
“Come in.”
I had gotten quite close to Rico as well.
Although Hazel had been assigned as my personal maid, we had no way of knowing who the hosts were. Furthermore, since we had to catch rats day and night—and it was hard to explain that they were actually demons that needed to be disposed of with holy water—Hazel had only attended to me on my first day. Since then, Rico had taken over. She was busy beyond belief, handling her butler duties, serving both me and the Duke, and catching rats with me.
Rico entered the room and bowed, offering her morning greeting.
“The Duke has requested your presence, Lady Rohanson.”