The Baron's Estate (2)
The Baron's Estate (2)
Boom!
I expected the window to shatter easily, but instead, a deafening explosion sent me flying backward.
This was no illusion.
Unlike the undulating, shifting floor, the window remained perfectly intact.
Along with the scent of mana, though, I could feel a powerful force and repulsive energy emanating from it.
Come to think of it, I could feel that exact same mana in the surging floor, the walls, and even the distorted hallway.
And that mana carried the same scent as the mana flowing from the girl laughing behind the wall.
"Wow, you almost escaped! They said you were knight-class, but you're even more than that!"
Her voice drifted from behind the wall, brimming with delight.
"Wow, amazing. I've never seen prey like this before. Can't I keep him as part of my collection?"
As she spoke to the Baron, she sounded just like a young girl begging for a toy.
But the Baron's reply was resolute.
"No. Kill him."
"What a waste..."
Bang! Bang!
Even as she spoke, I did my best to break the window.
Prepared to be discovered, I channeled mana into my dagger and slashed at the window. I tried to pierce the walls and even attempted to destroy the floor blocking my path to her.
But it was all in vain.
The window wouldn't yield to my blade, and the pierced walls immediately sealed themselves back up.
Beyond the shattered floor, more of it kept surging up, preventing me from taking even a single step closer to her.
"You really are amazing. But struggling is useless. This house is my kingdom, established by my Area Declaration. No one can defeat me here!"
As expected, all these absurd occurrences were due to her ability.
Was it some kind of 'Area Declaration' ability? It was an absurdly formidable power.
Just as she said, it seemed difficult to either capture her or escape this place.
The floor, which had been normal until then, began to undulate again, and the walls, ceiling, and every object in the room attacked me.
They even blocked my sword, which was coated in mana.
Just as she had said, this room—no, this entire mansion—moved as if it were her own body.
I had already been swallowed by her, nothing more than prey struggling inside her body.
The sight rendered all my past efforts meaningless, leaving me speechless, but I resisted until the very end.
Honestly, victory seemed unlikely, and I had no intention of winning right then anyway.
Yet I didn't stop fighting.
It didn't matter if I couldn't win now. Passing proper information on to my next life was far more important.
I had to find out just how powerful she was and whether she had any weaknesses.
"You fight well, and you're holding out well. But I have to listen to my father, so I think I'll have to end this now."
As she spoke, the mana enveloping the surroundings grew increasingly dense.
The air grew heavy, making it difficult to move my body.
Damn it, can she control the air or gravity within her domain, too?
As I forced myself to hold on, her declaration reached my ears.
"This house is now my kingdom. I am the ruler of this kingdom!"
Rumble!
At that exact moment, I collapsed to the floor. My limbs shattered, and blood gushed from my mouth.
It felt as though my internal organs had ruptured completely.
A fatal blow.
'Ah, now I see how it works.'
But thanks to that, I had figured out her ability.
Still, other questions remained.
"Gulp, why... why are you trying to kill me? Don't tell me... did the Duchess order you to kill me? B-but if I die here, the Duke will... will find out everything..."
I asked as I lay collapsed on the floor, spitting up blood.
In the room, which had returned to normal, the daughter shrugged her shoulders.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. I don't know what he's planning to do after causing a mess like this. It's so unlike my usually meticulous dad."
Despite her words, the Baron stared down at me intently.
And he approached me.
"Cover your ears."
"Yes, yes."
After making his daughter step back, he knelt on one knee beside me and whispered the reason he was killing me into my ear.
"What an absurd situation..."
I let out a hollow laugh as I looked at the Baron.
At the same time, my vision gradually faded to black.
[You have died. Restarting from the Automatic Save Point.]
"I will guide you to your room."
When I opened my eyes, we were back at the moment after we'd run into the travelers in the lobby the previous evening.
We all followed the maid who was guiding us to our rooms.
"Are you feeling unwell?"
A worried voice came from beside me.
"Ah... no, I'm fine."
My body wasn't actually injured, but the lingering aftereffects of the pain I'd suffered before dying were still with me.
A phantom pain, so to speak.
But that wasn't why my expression was grim now.
It was because of the girl who had just spoken to me.
The girl who'd addressed me with a smile was the very same young lady of the Baron's house who had killed me just moments ago.
Or rather, the one who would kill me shortly.
Perhaps my acting all this time had been nothing more than child's play.
She must have already heard the order to kill me by now, yet she wore such an expression.
If I hadn't known her true nature, I was certain that neither I nor anyone else would ever have noticed.
The ability to become near-invincible within a certain area—though I still didn't know exactly how large that area was—was terrifying, but right now, her acting felt even more frightening.
I'd also acted as normally as possible, but I was simply no match for a true professional.
After parting ways with the others, I spoke to the maid, who was about to leave, in front of my assigned room.
"You don't need to worry if I'm not in my room tonight. Whenever I have trouble sleeping, I often go out for a walk."
Honestly, I'd never done anything like that, but I needed to establish a solid alibi.
"Ah, you'd best not wander around at night. There... there have been times in the past when monsters took people away at night..."
At my words, the maid spoke cautiously, her expression troubled.
"Pardon? Monsters? This mansion is right in the middle of the Baron's territory. It's right next to the town, too."
Though it wasn't on the scale of a city like the Duke's estate, the Baron's mansion stood on the outskirts of a reasonably large town.
"No, no. That was in the past. The Baron dealt with it alongside the soldiers, so such things rarely happen now."
"What kind of monster was it?"
At my question, the maid shook her head.
"I didn't see it myself; the Baron only said he'd dealt with it. But since then, no one has gone missing because of monsters."
"But there were people who went missing for other reasons?"
When I said that, the maid tightly shut her mouth.
Her expression was answer enough.
"Don't worry. You've heard the rumors, haven't you? Even though I'm still young, I possess knight-class skills. If a monster appears, I'll slay it."
At my boastful words, the maid gave an awkward smile.
It was hard to believe the words of such a young boy, but it was also difficult to contradict a noble child who, despite being a bastard, possessed real ability.
In the end, the maid conceded to my words and took her leave.
I went into the room and opened the window.
Creak.
Unlike before my death, the window opened smoothly.
"Now then, shall I wait for the sun to set?"
Leaning against the windowsill, I gazed outside.
A crimson sunset billowed above the low mountain range in the distance.
Watching the sunset, I recalled the conversation from earlier.
A monster that kidnaps people at night.
"That 'monster' must refer to the Baron's daughter, right?"
Thinking back to what I'd heard from the Baron and his daughter before I died, that was the only logical conclusion.
"After awakening her ability, the Baron's daughter abused it recklessly, and when people started disappearing one after another, the Baron stepped in to cover it up..."
Why did she kidnap and kill people? Was she simply a homicidal maniac? Or was there some other reason?
My thoughts drifted there for a moment, but I soon shook my head.
Whatever the reason, it didn't matter anymore.
Both the Baron and his daughter were my enemies, and as long as they were, I just had to deal with them decisively.
It grew dark outside.
With quite a few clouds in the sky, it seemed an ordinary person would have difficulty making out their surroundings without a lantern.
After reinforcing my eyes with mana, I tapped the dagger at my waist and leaped out the window.
Last time, I died while running around trying to search the mansion, so this time, I planned to leave the mansion altogether.
Tap.
Though I jumped from the second floor, I made only the faintest sound.
I quickly dashed across the garden in front of the mansion.
It was a maze-like garden, but since I had mapped it out from the window before it got dark, I was able to find the right path swiftly.
After escaping the garden in an instant, I scaled the reasonably high wall blocking my path.
In my past life, there would have been security cameras or electrified fences, but here, there were only sharp iron spikes atop the stone wall.
After leaving the mansion, I took a wide detour around it and headed toward the hill at the back.
I assumed the Baron's daughter's ability only applied to the mansion, but if it extended farther than expected and included the town in her domain, that would be troublesome.
It was a relatively low hill covered only in grass.
But once I reached the top of the hill, the Baron's mansion and the town came into full view.
The clouds had cleared, revealing a night sky filled with stars.
The noble mansion and the town stretched out picturesquely beneath the night sky.
It was a sight completely different from the nightscapes of my past life.
I felt a brief pang of bitterness, but quickly snapped out of it.
Now, all I had to do was wait for time to pass.
Sitting on a low rock, I rested my dagger on my knees and watched the mansion.
Time ticked by.
One by one, the lights in the windows went out, plunging not only the mansion but the entire town into deep darkness.
It was now the time when I had died.
I felt a brief ripple of mana wash over the entire mansion.
It was a change I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't experienced it yesterday.
The mana started from the inner building—specifically, the Baron's daughter's room, where I had died—swept through the entire mansion, lingered briefly where my room was located, and then vanished.
"Did she check?"
I had my suspicions, but I hadn't expected her to envelop the entire mansion within her domain.
Slipping out beforehand had been the right call.
Afterward, there seemed to be a minor commotion in the mansion, but it quickly died down.
That was thanks to the warning I'd given the maid in advance.
With that commotion over, the mansion remained quiet until morning.
I returned to the mansion, bathed in the morning dew.
Avoiding the guards patrolling the mansion's walls, I scaled them once more, passed through the maze garden, and walked toward the main entrance.
Since they already knew I wasn't in my room, it didn't matter if I came in through the front door.
"Where have you been all night?"
The Baron's daughter stood in front of the door, looking tired.
It seemed she'd been waiting up all night.
"Ah, the bed felt unfamiliar, so I spent the night practicing my swordsmanship."
I tapped the dagger hanging at my waist.
"The guards at the main gate said no one went out, though."
"Ah, I didn't want to bother the guards, so I slipped out quietly. You must have been worried. I apologize."
"Sigh... No, it can't be helped."
She let out a sigh, tinged with both disappointment and relief.
Placing a hand on her forehead, she stepped inside first.
Just like in other noble households, morning at the Baron's estate started quite late.