Chapter 99 - Power and Love (5)
Power and Love (5)
Translator: XZY
Chapter 99: Power and Love (5)
***
“Lady Elente, we ask that you remain inside your room until the Head of the House gives a separate instruction.”
The group of retainers who had escorted Elente wore heavy expressions.
Elente remembered each of their names. Montor, Briana, Revilin, Tion, Fior…
Every one of them were individuals who had been with Elente since her childhood, and she had been in the position of watching from the closest distance as they gradually headed for higher positions in the Belmeade mansion.
Therefore, the retainers also did not look pleased with the current situation of having to place Elente under confinement.
“None of you say a single word to me about the investigation results.”
Elente had no intention of blaming them, but she still wanted to leave one word.
As it was a room normally used for treating VIPs, it was luxurious and spacious. However, it could not compare to the private room Elente usually used.
Since Elente’s private room was currently under investigation, it was probably in an unusable state.
“We apologize, Lady Elente. We are…”
The old man standing at the very front of the group of retainers spoke in a hesitant tone. Montor. He was the guard captain who managed the squires, and also a figure who had been Elente’s personal guard during her childhood.
He was about to say something but closed his mouth again.
It seemed there had been a message among the investigators not to rashly give Elente any information.
It was obvious that the other retainers standing around were watching his reaction.
“…We must suspect Lady Elente.”
In that uncomfortable atmosphere, Briana, who was the most competent scribe in the Belmeade family, continued.
She had always been a blunt and business-like person, but Elente knew well that she was the owner of a warm heart.
“We will inform you of the detailed investigation contents in the future. However, at this point, we cannot give you a single word of hint. As you well know, Lady Elente, we must carry out what we have been instructed to do.”
Briana’s business-like tone made one expect that her heart would be cold as well.
However, even looking at such a Briana, Elente sent a warm gaze and spoke.
“Did some decisive evidence come out?”
“…”
Briana clenched her teeth as if in pain, then soon spoke as if vomiting it out.
“As I said… we are in a position where we must suspect Lady Elente. However, that does not mean we have betrayed our faith in Lady Elente.”
With an appearance still dripping with respect, Briana spoke to Elente.
“I believe this suspicion is a means to prove Lady Elente’s innocence. The fact that Lady Elente is not someone who would touch something like necromancy is something the retainers present here know better than anyone.”
“Briana…”
“Therefore, we must know why the situation became like this, and exactly who, under what circumstances, did this. What is necessary in that process is suspicion. To truly prove Lady Elente’s innocence, we must make them understand the fact that there is no reason for Lady Elente to touch such magic.”
All verification began from suspicion.
Because she was not unaware of that, the appearance of the retainers looking at Elente with complex and subtle feelings was more understandable than anyone’s.
Elente held her breath and looked at the expression of each and every retainer who had believed in and followed her.
Then, after biting her lower lip for a moment, she nodded her head.
“You may leave. I’ve been guaranteed time to be alone for the first time in a while, so I shall have to peruse Professor Pelo’s magic studies books.”
She said so, sitting by the window with a relaxed smile.
“I will trust you all.”
<><><>
‘I have to be calm.’
As the retainers left the room, Elente closed the book and walked to the window.
She could see servants with anxious expressions coming and going in the garden, which was full of warm spring sunlight. The Belmeade mansion was now in the very middle of a swamp of anxiety.
The circumstance that Lady Elente, the rightful heir of the Belmeade family, was involved in necromancy.
If that fact began to spread outside the family in earnest, this situation would become uncontrollable.
Whatever it was, this matter had to be concluded within the family.
Not even a year had passed since the madness of necromancy had swallowed the great star that was the Duplein family.
In this social atmosphere, the moment one was entangled in necromancy, their lifeline as a noble, even before being an heir, would be cut.
Elente swallowed dry saliva and tried to maintain her composure again.
In this situation without any information, the more she showed a wandering appearance, the more the situation would worsen.
However, the cold gaze of a man she had seen in the corridor continued to float in her memory.
— ‘Lady Elente. Just a little more effort. You can do it!’
— ‘One more time…! Now is the time. Pushing yourself one more time when you’re so tired and exhausted you can’t move… that’s the secret to growth!’
The man who had encouraged her with overflowing energy throughout teaching her magic, the image of him giving Elente a sidelong glance with cold eyes was engraved in her chest like an intaglio sculpture.
For it to be Derek of all people who fell for Leonard’s persuasion meant that it was no different from him being hostile to Elente.
‘Derek is a person of deep thought and quick judgment. He’s not someone Leonard can so easily persuade…’
However, Elente knew about Leonard just as well as she knew about Derek.
He was a person skilled at persuading people, sometimes with cunning whispers, or with long-winded speeches, or if not that, by offering a deal difficult to refuse.
Derek was not someone who would be easily swayed, but Leonard might have used some kind of trick.
Continuously spreading rumors about Elente, emphasizing moral flaws, and promising sufficient compensation to Derek.
Especially if it was Derek, who was more sincere than anyone in the achievement of magic, he might have been persuaded by guaranteeing treasures related to magic, or by being guaranteed conditions that would help his achievement.
If he had lessened the guilt by framing Elente as a villain, then lured him with appropriate compensation…?
Since Leonard was a boy with a developed sense for seeing through people's desires, it could not be seen as a 0 percent possibility. He had probably seen through the fact that the person named Derek was hell-bent on achieving magic.
‘If he was just unilaterally swayed by Leonard’s words, I can make my defense by meeting him and talking. The problem is… it’s not a situation where I can meet Derek right now…’
Elente held her breath and steeled her heart again.
A will that burned like fire again swirled in her eyes as she tightly gripped the window frame.
Misunderstandings could be resolved.
She didn’t know what kind of tricks Leonard used to inject slander into Derek, but in the end, Derek would understand that all that intrigue was a misunderstanding.
Do not lose composure by being swept up in a momentary deception.
In this game of intrigue, the one who lost their composure first was bound to collapse.
Losing Derek might have been a bitterly regrettable move, but she could pick him up again.
Leonard’s tricks, at best, would only be creating false evidence to drive Elente into a corner.
There were bound to be flaws in fabricated evidence, and if she could just reveal them, the tables could be turned.
So, she just needed to know what that evidence was.
Elente was constantly calming herself, gathering her thoughts like that.
<><><>
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Dear Lord Valerian of the Duplein Family,
After receiving your last letter, I was lost in deep thought for a while. I have come to think once again about how dangerous the path we pursue is, and what kind of result awaits us at the end of it.
But when I think about the changes our research will bring, I believe that all these risks are worth taking. If we come to fully understand the secrets of necromancy, we will be able to cross the boundary between life and death. With that power, we will be able to change this empire, no, the entire continent.
The ancient text from the White Zone you sent was truly precious.
Especially the spell called 'Echo of the Soul' was amazing. As a result of experimenting in my underground laboratory, I was able to make the corpse of a small animal move for a short time. It is still incomplete, but I am confident that I can achieve greater results soon.
On the full moon of next month, I will be able to visit the Duplein family naturally at Lady Diella's high society debut party.
I hope we can meet at the promised place and talk in more detail. I also want to give you a few new spells I discovered.
Please be careful. I feel that you, Lord Valerian, have been too swayed by the influence of necromancy lately. Please take special care to ensure our secret does not leak out.
From your eternal comrade,
Elente
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The Count of Belmeade, who had read the letter from the underground laboratory to the end, sat on his office desk with a heavy expression.
He casually placed the letter on the table and looked at the faces of the retainers who had participated in the investigation one by one.
Among them, Advisor Levelton, who had led the investigation, closed his eyes gently and spoke.
“Looking at the handwriting, it was written with the hydrangea-scented Velope ink that Lady Elente uses. It is also sealed with a wax seal engraved with the secret crest of the Belmeade family.”
“…”
“This letter was not sent and was just left in the drawer. It’s possible she wrote a new one because there was content to revise, or perhaps the situation changed a bit.”
Briana and the head maid, who followed after him, also recited the investigation results with heavy expressions.
“A faint scent of Lady Elente’s perfume also remained. We investigated directly through our watchdogs, so it is probably correct.”
“…”
The letter was about exchanging opinions on necromancy with Valerian, the eldest son of the Duplein family.
According to what was known, Valerian of the Duplein family had his mind slowly eaten away by a necromantic relic from the White Zone and eventually went berserk.
In other words, it was a trace of having researched necromancy together with that man.
Physical evidence and circumstances.
The two matched exactly.
It was a coincidence, but Elente had actually attended the Duplein family’s banquet on the day that Duplein’s great tragedy occurred.
Even in a situation where many people died or were injured, Elente escaped without a single scratch… and even though such a big incident had occurred, she did not hold the Duplein family responsible or demand any compensation.
Circumstantial evidence was hard to exert great power on its own, but coincidentally, there were cases where it became significant when several conditions overlapped and came together.
The reason Elente went to the Duplein family was truly purely to celebrate Diella’s high society debut.
The reason Elente did not hold the Duplein family responsible at all was simply because she purely did not want to burden Aiseline.
The reason Elente was able to come out of the Duplein family without any harm was because she had really dealt with it swiftly and well.
The truth is usually that simple and not a big deal. It was just that because Elente’s heart was wide, because she was personally mature and her compassion was deep, she had overlooked and moved on from everything.
However, the overlapping and overlapping circumstances were ironically making her actions suspicious.
Could it be that she was really in communication with the Duplein family and researching necromancy?
Just by planting a single grain of that seed of suspicion, all this evidence and circumstances were sufficiently fulfilling their role.
The Count of Belmeade pressed his brow and sighed deeply.
And while sitting at his office desk, he spoke to the retainers.
“I… do not want to suspect Elente.”
“…”
“That would be the same for all of you.”
The Count of Belmeade, who loved his daughter more than anyone, was being tested.
If it were up to him, he wanted to return his daughter’s freedom and encourage her, saying that her father believed in her, so she didn't have to worry about a thing.
However, he was the master of the Belmeade County and a person sitting in a position that commanded countless territory residents and retainers.
Rumors had already begun to circulate to some extent within the mansion, and if left as it was, the news might even be known outside the city or outside the territory.
When that time came, if the fact that he was hiding and concealing the enormous flaw of necromancy solely because she was his daughter was revealed… this would develop into a problem for the entire Belmeade County, beyond just Elente’s problem.
A father before being a count. A count before being a father.
In that gap, the Count of Belmeade had no choice but to writhe in agony.
<><><>
— ‘That story about Lady Elente touching necromancy. Do you think it’s real?’
— ‘Come on. You know what kind of person Lady Elente is. Would such a thing really happen?’
Suspicion is like an ember that blooms very faintly in a branch.
Usually, that suspicion does not have much momentum and often disappears quickly.
However, there were also many times when it stubbornly survived, burned the branch, and eventually grew in size.
Suspicion, if not clearly resolved, exerts its influence by surviving for a long, long time and just remaining. Rumors were things that were distorted, exaggerated, and fleshed out.
What breaks a person’s spirit is that fleshed-out rumor.
Those groundless rumors, neither logical, rational, nor reasonable, drive a person into a corner.
They break the heart and make it hard to get a grip on one’s spirit. The intelligent glint in the eyes of any sage becomes cloudy, and only a sense of injustice surges like a wave, making one lose their composure.
What is important is time.
What eats away at a person is not a very large and painful blow that comes in a short period.
It is that steady pain that gradually gnaws away at a person’s heart from the corners.
Each of those small twists that slowly drive a person into a corner usually mixes naturally into daily life.
— ‘Ah, it’s Lady Elente.’
— ‘Shh, shh…! We shouldn’t talk to her..!’
While going to a meal escorted by retainers, the servants who were cleaning in a corner of the garden were seen running away, sweating coldly.
Like that, a day passes, and two days pass.
— ‘By the way, where is Lady Elente?’
— ‘She is still under house arrest.’
— ‘For the one who reigned over Ebelstein’s Rosea Salon to be confined in her room so lonely… the investigation results must have been really serious…’
— ‘P-perhaps she really did touch necromancy…’
— ‘Shh. Watch your mouth.’
Late at night. If one opens the window and reads a book, it is the secret stories of the retainers that leak into the room.
Then three days pass, and four days pass.
— ‘What if, just what if Lady Elente really did touch necromancy?’
— ‘Haven’t you heard the story of the Duplein family’s tragedy? She will never… never be able to just get away with it.’
— ‘Th-then what happens to the position of heir of the Belmeade family?’
— ‘W-well… since Young Master Linus also refused, it would go to Young Master Leonard, but… Young Master Leonard said there’s absolutely no way that would happen, and he insisted he has no greed for power…’
— ‘As expected… he’s a transcendent person…’
It was a conversation that entered the ears of Elente, who was listening to the sounds of the next room with detection magic to gather information.
After five days passed like that, the weight attached to her heart slowly began to become heavier.
— ‘Lady Elente. I have brought clothes to change into.’
Briana’s cold gaze, gradually becoming more business-like.
— ‘Lady Elente. We will need to conduct some questioning.’
Montor’s confident gaze, from which even the appearance of feeling sorry was disappearing.
Each of those daily scenes accumulated in her heart like poison.
What was scary was that she herself was not even aware of it.
A person’s spirit being driven into a corner happens so slowly.
Like a water kettle placed on a fire, the temperature gradually rises, and by the time one comes to their senses, one is swimming in a heat that cannot even be handled.
When she commanded the heavens and held her head high in power, everyone looked up to her.
The retainers saw her as a being above the clouds, the servants and maids helped her carefully as if handling a glass craft, and her family praised her as beautiful as a flower.
However, when the suspicion accumulated over time finally reached a critical point… something like a line in the heart was bound to be broken.
“Ugh.”
How many days had passed?
Elente, who was sitting in a dark room with a candlestick lit, suddenly came to her senses. She almost didn’t feel the time passing like an arrow.
A gentle spring breeze was coming in from the half-open window. The moon in the mid-sky was bright, but it felt eerie for some reason.
Elente stood up from her seat and quickly shook her head.
“I was lost in thought for a moment. It’s not like me.”
Over the past days, Elente had made efforts in her own way to clear the suspicion. She tried to sound out the retainers to hear what the evidence was, and she also sent a letter outside to inform the Duplein family of this fact.
And she also tried to find nobles of the Rosea Salon who would defend her, but she could not find a person with a strong enough heart to easily step into such a grave matter.
As a result, she only found herself sitting blankly, staring at the candlestick in the middle of a private room where only a chilly night wind entered.
She was someone who did not easily lose consciousness. She was a person who did not lose concentration until the end, even in the most boring philosophy class.
Since it was the first time she had been so suddenly blankly lost in consciousness, she washed her face with her dry hands once and swept up her hair.
“Right. You’re going to drive me into a corner like this? It’s a sad thing, but reigning over people is no different from not being able to escape from suspicion and tests. Do you think I, who have commanded as the heir of the Belmeade family for so long, would be shaken by a mere trick like this?”
In the end, the Belmeade family could not easily cast Elente out.
Even amidst numerous pieces of evidence, there were plenty of retainers who wanted to believe in Elente until the end.
However, this dark room was still just quiet.
As a chilly wind came in and shook the candlestick, Elente’s shadow also swayed along with it.
Elente, in coming to this position, did not walk alone.
The word solitude was something to be found only in the dictionary. With so many who believed in and followed her, how could a person be broken by just this small seed of suspicion?
However, she did not know.
What protects a person’s heart is not the respectful gazes of those who follow her. Secular authority cannot protect a person’s heart.
If one heats it slowly with anxiety and suspicion for a long time, no fish in any fishbowl can help but eventually stop breathing.
It is only a difference of whether it takes a week or a month. Although it is different for each person, the time surely comes.
The moment Elente, who had stood up from her seat, looked at the mirror in the corner of the room, she flinched and held her breath.
Hollow eyes. Brittle hair.
Wondering if this was really her, she quickly rubbed her eyes and began to arrange her hair with a comb from the drawer.
“Keeping one’s appearance neat is the most basic of basics… what on earth has happened to me…”
Elente began to quickly brush down her hair with trembling fingertips.
But the combing was awkward. It felt like the ends of her hair were catching, and it was not easy to brush down to the end.
Only then does the girl realize. How long had it been since she had combed her hair herself?
The servants who had always followed her like a part of her body had managed her hair. She couldn’t even remember when she had last arranged it strand by strand with her own hands.
And only then does the dark room come into her sight again.
There was no one.
She was the one who commanded the world, reigned like the king of Belmeade, and was renowned as the flower of the boudoir, the noble lady of the Rosea Salon.
She was power itself.
However, next to it was only empty darkness.
There was no one. That fact did not change no matter how many times she gently closed and opened her eyes.
In this small room, there was no one.
<><><>
‘It seems to be a necromancy book from Rodentz Island.’
Since the necromancy book found in Elente’s room was a dangerous object, the high-ranking retainers seemed to have quickly collected it and cast a sealing magic on it.
However, the traces remained in that basement. Derek, who was standing alone in the basement full of the smell of blood, held his breath as he felt the traces of that magic power that still remained thickly.
‘Right. It was strange from when he suddenly turned to religion and left on a pilgrimage.’
Derek monologued like that and looked around the basement full of that damp air again. It was known as Elente’s necromancy research lab.
After informing the Ravencrow Barony of the news from Belmeade, Derek had visited again as a VIP. Looking at this chaotic atmosphere, it was strange in itself to receive an outside guest.
A head of a house with a sane mind would have no reason to let an outsider into the mansion in a situation like this.
Nevertheless, Derek was able to walk freely inside the Belmeade family as a VIP. It seemed as if there was some meaning to this situation.
‘…’
Derek propped his chin for a moment, then soon shook his head and trudged up the stairs leading to the ground floor.
— 'There's an intelligence report that low-ranking necromancers who escaped from Rodentz Island have hidden in Ebelstein. If we catch them and interrogate them, we might be able to get some clues about that 6-Star necromancer.'
It was the request Lady Trisha had made to Derek before he came to the Belmeade family. Derek had refused that request.
He was not very well-versed in necromancy.
Still, there was one thing he knew.
The existence of that faceless 6-Star necromancer whom the necromancers of Rodentz Island worshiped like a prophet.
She was a person almost unknown to the public, but the characteristics of those who followed her were all similar.
It was a deep longing for necromancy.
Thud, thud—
Derek, who was going up the stairs, was certain inwardly.
It seemed that Leonard was one of the necromancers of Rodentz Island that the Renuel Viscounty had subjugated.
It seemed highly likely that he was a survivor who had escaped when that island was subjugated.
The fact that traces of necromancy remained at a time like this fit too perfectly.
In short, he had never gone on a pilgrimage in the first place.
If one had to say, his holy land would have been Rodentz Island, the general headquarters of necromancy.
Derek, who was climbing the stairs, let out a smirk.
There was no evidence. But there was no problem.
Evidence could be created.
Just as Leonard had done.