Chapter 109 — Borrowing a Cat's Paw (1)
Chapter 109 — Borrowing a Cat's Paw (1)
On the side of the North White Territory, the magic orb grew noisy.
Even at a casual listen, the count's sudden disappearance had thrown his secretary into a panic.
The flustered secretary of the Lord of the West Blood Territory, as if waking from a dream, snapped out of Roan's 'Charisma' as well.
"M-my apologies, Your Majesty, Grand Duke! I shall return at once."
He swiftly snatched up the clamorous magic orb and fled the council chamber as though making an escape.
"...Grand Duke. May I ask what has happened?"
The chancellor's voice was bewildered.
The Lord of the West Blood Territory shook his head several times, then, realizing the chancellor could not see his appearance, answered aloud.
His words were tinged with consternation as well.
"The count has... vanished, it seems."
"Pardon? All of a sudden, where could he have..."
Aranya's words were left unfinished.
All at once, a tremendous alarm began to ring out, shaking the whole of Zeno Castle.
"...Hm?"
"What is that sound? Your Majesty? Are you all right?"
The urgent peal of alarm bells drowned out the voices of the Lord of the East Yellow Territory and the chancellor.
The Lord of the West Blood Territory shot to his feet. His large chair toppled backward in the process, but he paid it no mind, leaped clean over the table, and headed for the door of the small council chamber.
The moment he flung open the chamber door, begging Roan's pardon for the discourtesy as he went to retrieve his spear,
a soldier who had dashed into the council room to deliver an emergency report narrowly avoided a collision with the great lord and shouted in a ringing voice,
"Grand Duke! An unidentified mage has infiltrated Zeno Castle!"
The Lord of the West Blood Territory and Roan exchanged aghast glances.
...What?
**
"My word... Zeno's response system truly is magnificent. I absolutely must learn from you, Grand Duke."
"...You are remarkably unflappable. You."
"I shall take that as a compliment. Ah-ha."
With the laugh, a tail swayed softly.
It was a long, fluffy tail with dark stripes where gray and black fur mingled.
'...Cute....'
To confess something at this late hour,
I was a cat person.
Work had often required me to travel far from home, so I had never been able to keep one,
but cats had always been an animal I admired.
The beastman count was a borderline case for fitting into the category of cats, but those ears and that tail alone were enough to stir the heart of a cat lover.
"...Your Majesty."
As Roan silently stared at nothing but the North White Territory lord's tail, the Grand Duke addressed him to draw the emperor's attention.
"Mm."
Only then did Roan collect himself and ask the Grand Duke,
"So, when will this cell be released?"
"It will take approximately two hours and fifteen minutes from now."
"Hm."
Roan stared at the Lord of the North White Territory, who was locked in a magic cell in the farthest corner of Zeno Castle's underground dungeons.
When the count had heard the emperor's words, he could not bear it without coming here to speak in person. That was why he had used teleportation.
Curiously enough,
though this world was the fantasy setting of a game,
earth-shaking, large-scale magic never appeared.
Moving between cities via teleport,
casting magic that could kill hundreds in an instant—feats like these were so tremendous that only the greatest mages could achieve them after devoting all their energy.
In other games, things like meteorites that could shake the world were summoned without a second thought,
but in this game, mages were precious.
'That was why there was no such thing as a portal scroll, and you had to travel by marking every single waypoint....'
High-ranking mages were few in number, making them a truly strategic national asset.
In this country, only three people could wield teleportation magic, and the count was one of them.
He had willingly used that teleport, which he could normally cast only once a day, to rush to Roan.
"Even so, was it truly a matter that required you to come like this?"
"Ah-ha☆ I am truly sorry, Your Majesty. My passion for the experiment was simply too overwhelming. I simply couldn't help myself."
With an expression utterly devoid of apology, the count beamed brightly.
Watching this from behind, the Lord of the West Blood Territory stamped his foot as though seething with anger.
Zeno Castle possessed defensive installations far more formidable than Roan or the count had imagined.
Specifically, wards and barriers against movement magic.
Anyone entering or leaving Zeno Castle using movement magic had to be registered in the castle's magic circle.
Without registration, one was automatically thrown into a cell, just like the count.
"To think that I cannot meet His Majesty until two hours and fourteen minutes have passed because this cannot be released. How regrettable."
Roan's eyebrow twitched.
The count's words were truthful.
He had come here driven purely by a desire to see me and speak in person.
"The only one who can release this cell is currently patrolling outside the fortress. I have had him summoned back at once, so cool your head within in the meantime."
"Hmm, would it be faster for me to break out of here in two hours and thirteen minutes, or for the castle's chief battle wizard to return? I shall give it my best effort!"
The Grand Duke spoke coldly to the count, but the count merely replied in a lively voice.
Heaving a sigh, the Grand Duke escorted the emperor out of the dungeon.
That one cell, deep in the corner of the dungeon, which had always stood empty despite guards on watch—it was a space whose door,
for some unknown reason, would not open and which could not even hold a beastman. And within it, the Lord of the North White Territory had suddenly appeared in an explosive flash of light.
The intrusion alarm rang out, and the soldier carrying the report reached the council chamber almost simultaneously.
It became a fine opportunity to confirm that the soldiers posted on every floor protected the castle in an organized manner, but the commotion forced every soldier inside and outside the castle to shift to emergency footing.
"Even when the chief wizard returns, I am not inclined to have it opened."
"Grand Duke. What are you saying? We must put him to work."
"...Yes. I suppose so...."
As I'd thought, even if he had recommended the count, a compatible personality was an entirely separate matter.
Seeing the Grand Duke's expression, as though he felt greatly put upon, Roan smiled and patted not the shoulder he could not reach but his waist. It was near the point where the horse's body joined the human torso.
"In any case, it seems the bait worked nicely."
"I think so as well."
The Lord of the West Blood Territory looked down at Roan and agreed.
Roughly two hours after calming the count's frantic secretary through the magic orb call,
the Lord of the North White Territory, who had ultimately failed to circumvent Zeno Castle's defenses, was able to emerge from his cell only ten minutes before the lock was due to release thanks to the arrival of Zeno's chief battle wizard.
"...I never imagined I would one day have occasion to cast this spell. It is a cell that cannot be opened without the designated person... I am honored, Count."
Even as the chief battle wizard opened the cell door with deep reverence, the count merely nodded vaguely, his face still disappointed.
Immediately after, knights presented the Lord of the North White Territory before the emperor and the Lord of the West Blood Territory.
The chancellor was connected to the small council chamber via magic orb communication. The Lord of the East Yellow Territory, busy with his duties, had been unable to attend the North White Territory lord's hearing(?).
With a passionate attitude wholly different from what he had shown Zeno's chief wizard a moment ago, the count prostrated himself before the emperor.
"For so long I was lacking and failed to recognize Your Majesty's greatness properly. To have an opportunity, even now, to serve Your Majesty is a supreme honor!"
His tail swung restlessly back and forth in high excitement.
"The research will begin after I return to Basel. As I mentioned, the crystal does not harm those who possess holy power."
Roan resolutely suppressed the urge to let his gaze follow that tail and spoke solemnly to the Lord of the North White Territory.
"Therefore, I shall loan you my human priest for the research. She is the former Holy Knight convert you saw at the New Year Festival. If you will conduct the experiment in Dos, I shall have her stay there for a time."
But the count raised his head and looked at Roan. His eyes glittered excessively.
'That's a little unnerving....'
It was unnerving enough that Roan's frowning expression was filtered out by his shell.
The count, whose ears twitched several times, said,
"Your Majesty. If possible, might I be permitted to conduct the research in Basel?"
"In Basel?"
"Yes. Traveling between Basel and Dos every other day poses no difficulty."
"If that is your wish, do so."
"In exchange, there is a favor I wish to ask."
The Lord of the West Blood Territory's eyebrows shot up, but Roan nodded readily.
"Speak."
"From time to time, I wish to take some time to observe Your Majesty. And I also wish to carry out a few experiments with Your Majesty as the subject."
It was a brazen proposal.
Roan's head, propped at an angle on one hand, tilted slightly further.
"Count!"
The Grand Duke's rebuke burst out.
From the chancellor's magic orb came rough breathing and the clicking sound of foreleg spines snapping together.
Aranya, having missed the timing to roar at his outburst, was surely swallowing her fury.
"What insolence is that! Do you mean to treat His Majesty's sacred person like some laboratory rat of yours!"
Roan smiled wryly.
His suspicion that the Grand Duke was trying to overprotect him was steadily hardening into certainty.
Roan waved a hand.
"Surely the count does not intend to cut open my body. I will hear him out."
"Were it possible, I would love to request that, but I still value my life, you see. A pity. Ah-ha."
A cold, deadly light flared in both of the Lord of the West Blood Territory's eyes.
But the count, showing not the faintest sign of being cowed, brightly continued his request to the emperor.
"I am simply dying to know how Your Majesty conceived of such astonishing ideas. The crystal, the stuff of legend, is certainly fascinating, but I am far more intrigued by Your Majesty's decision to use it for something like farming!"
Roan flinched, drawing back his body ever so slightly.
The enthusiasm he could now sense through 'Detection' and 'Attentive Hearing' was only a hair's breadth from madness.
"Even if I try to focus on the research, it is impossible as things stand. I am far more curious about the inside of Your Majesty's mind. Your Majesty, how did you arrive at such ideas?"
A question that carried the count's earnest sincerity.
Roan, however, gave no answer.
Perhaps he had not expected to hear one, for the count continued.
"I have always harbored curiosity about Your Majesty's power, but the transformation you have shown of late is even more stimulating. Is such a shift in thinking possible precisely because Your Majesty stands among the mighty? Or if not..."
The count's eyes glinted darkly.
"Truly, how can you possibly produce such startling opinions so suddenly unless your very soul has been exchanged?"
"...You give me too much credit."
Roan was wound tight with tension.
Lest his voice tremble without his realizing.
"I consider every one of those changes to stem from Your Majesty having grown another level stronger."
Fortunately, the count's hypothesis did not seem to be 'someone has possessed the game's Demon King.'
"Your Majesty once said that power is merely a means. But to our demonkind, power is our identity and the starting point of all things. From the awakening of our power at adulthood, we demons have our entire lives upended."
In The Legend of the Holy Hero, the wizard characters all, without exception, relished debate.
Within the game, of course, those profound debates always eventually shifted from matters of the mind to those of the body.
If the wizards had a common trait, it was that they loved to expound their opinions and wanted to earn authority or power by proving new theories.
The Lord of the North White Territory, whom he had never once encountered within the game, was ultimately not so different from those in-game wizards.
And Roan's specialty was 'Attentive Hearing'.
Even while the Lord of the West Blood Territory wore a look of disgust, the emperor diligently nodded along to the count's words.
"So, you wish to study me in order to learn how my power was able to develop further from such a pinnacle?"
"If you lump it together so bluntly, it departs somewhat from my precise topic... but yes. Something of the sort."
True to a wizard who must attend meticulously to every detail, the Lord of the North White Territory seemed mildly displeased by Roan's summary, but he affirmed it reluctantly.
After all, he stood before the emperor.
And his emperor was an exceedingly generous one.
"Hm. I understand. You say it interferes with your research, so I shall permit a certain amount of observation time. And if, before spring comes, you succeed in an experiment that uses the crystal to raise and protect soil fertility..."
Roan smiled.
"I shall grant permission for some among the experiments you desire."
The source of my power was game knowledge and quest rewards. Power that the people of this world had no way of perceiving.
Besides, if any element harmful to me did emerge, I was confident I could detect its signs early through 'Detection,' 'Attentive Hearing,' and 'Discern Lies.'
Level 4 'Discern Lies' was, after all, sharp enough to declare even Fiora's vague words false.
The count's ears pricked up in delight.
His expression brightened, and the Grand Duke's face darkened.
Aranya's cry sounded from the magic orb.
"Your Majesty?!"
"Provided, however, that the experiments remain within the bounds the small council shall permit."
This time, the expressions of the count and the Grand Duke reversed.
The sound of the chancellor heaving a sigh of relief came through.
And so, after many twists and turns, the Lord of the North White Territory began his research into the practical application of the crystals in earnest.