Chapter 130 — The Story Hidden From You (1)
All sorts of thoughts raced through Roan's mind.
She was a woman?
Why did her Affection suddenly appear?
Now, of all times?
And amid all that, a sound rang out.
Piyong-piyong.
He was suppressing Mihon, but
he couldn't seal it completely.
The basic principle was that skills were always active.
That was because skills were formed based on one's own actions, thoughts, and stats.
No matter how much one suppressed them, skills seeped into actions, just as a "presence" could never be perfectly hidden.
And as Mihon's description stated, the skill's effect varied with the target's affection and mental fortitude, no matter how minute the amount of influence.
Piyong-piyong.
Which meant,
the Count felt affection for him...?
Suddenly, toward him...?
But the instant his eyes met the Count's.
Roan abruptly came to his senses.
The Count wouldn't know what she had just experienced.
She might guess it was his skill, but she couldn't be certain.
And she wouldn't want her secret—that she was a woman—exposed. She had kept it hidden all this time, after all.
If so, what he had to do was
pretend not to notice.
Roan's judgment was swift.
In the split second when the sniffling Helen wiped her tears and looked with puzzlement at the Count, who suddenly pulled her hand away.
Roan, contrarily, looked back at the Count with a mildly surprised expression.
"...What's wrong all of a sudden, Count?"
Piyong-piyong.
"Oh, it's nothing, Your Majesty! Ah-ha, hmm. I suppose divine power just... doesn't agree with us demons!"
"Does that mean you'll abandon the experiment?"
"I can't do that! Anyway, I feel refreshed. How remarkable! Thank you!"
The affection level, which had been climbing for a good while, stopped at +40. Roan needed time to think as well.
"Then, Count, wrap things up for now and go back to rest. We'll discuss the details tomorrow."
He sent the dazed Count back to her quarters.
Roan then used a recording magic orb to capture the sight of the greenhouse.
He duplicated it, sending two copies via magic-bird post to the East Yellow Territory and the West Blood Territory.
And one copy was screened before the Small Council.
"Oooooh!!!"
"Your Majesty, good heavens, is this not magnificent!"
Minoreus and Shwikviena started, springing to their feet.
Aranya, not even finding fault with their breach of decorum, stared wide-eyed, intently watching the images emanating from the magic orb.
"Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoot."
Only Liron, his arms crossed, laughed contentedly.
What he had dismissed as merely lending a spoon was, in truth, Liron's amassed private fortune gathered over a lifetime more than two centuries long.
He had good reason to feel proud.
"Cherry blossoms, is it... If such things could be cultivated..."
The Chancellor was gazing at the tree in the image with a distant expression.
"It was well worth the investment of magic stones. Hoo-ha-hat."
"Indeed, Treasurer. Later, submit a report on the magic stones you used. Chancellor, see that he is compensated for it."
"Your Majesty. I am grateful, but I will accept only the sentiment."
The Treasurer, unexpectedly, declined Roan's offer of compensation.
"For I have secured an appointment to visit the Count's laboratory in return."
He stroked his jaw with his finger-bones, looking satisfied.
"Besides, is this not a lifelong boast? Later, when a forest grows in Evirgio, I will surely say: Without me, it would have taken far longer to nurture that forest. Hoo-ha-ha-ha!"
The Treasurer laughed loudly, his bones rattling.
Aranya, who would normally have reined Liron in, simply smiled indulgently and let it pass this once.
"When I heard you were collecting enough magic stones to sway a city, I was concerned about what you were planning. So this was it, twisting curse magic to use them in this fashion. I would expect nothing less from the Lord of the North White Territory."
The Chancellor had voiced her unease when she heard the Treasurer and the Count were amassing magic stones. Yet even she could do nothing but admire the sight of that verdant field, the result that lay before them.
It was still a field of only modest size, but,
the day after everyone in the Small Council marveled at the vitality radiating from the crops planted within it.
The Count, looking far more presentable, had a private audience with Roan.
Her ears and tail, which had been matted with tufts of fur everywhere, were now well-brushed and glossy for the first time in a long while, and
her gold-and-brown mixed hair, usually tangled and clumped with grime, was beautifully combed and neatly tied back today.
"Did you rest well?"
"Thank you, Your Majesty! My memory vanished the very instant my head hit the pillow, what do you know. Ah-ha-ha."
Watching the Count scratch her head sheepishly, Roan began to speak.
Though he was sorry to throw a new task at her the moment the previous one was done, this was a process he could never skip.
"The research being finished does not mean everything is complete. The more important processes remain from this point forward."
"Yes, you mean the stable mass production and the adjustment of the appropriate quantity!"
Her orange eyes gleaming, the Count nodded along, accepting Roan's words.
"Mm. Ideally, if the research could be finished quickly, it would be good to apply it in the spring."
"Then in reality, there is little time."
Arms crossed, one leg fidgeting,
the Count began to calculate something.
Roan waited for the Count to finish her thoughts.
It was the same as when the crystal research first began.
Rushing would not make the results come faster. What mattered was simply being able to help swiftly and properly when the need arose.
How much would be needed?
How long would production take, and what resources would it require?
After discussing those questions with the Emperor and working out the details, the count abruptly spoke.
"Research of this sort, truly, I have not done in a long while."
"Hm? This sort of research?"
"Work that spends my strength and time not for myself, but for the sake of someone else."
Roan gazed at the Count quietly.
Yet, from her words, he sensed no wistfulness or irritation.
"Once, when my predecessor as Lord of the North White Territory was still alive. The very first task I received after becoming the Chief of the Magic Division was an order to repair the facilities at Dos."
Was it because she knew this was Roan's sworn enemy,
or did she simply dislike the Former Lord of the North White Territory?
The Count still swung her legs, which didn't touch the floor, and spoke of the former high lord with a lightness that betrayed no trace of respect.
"At first, those words truly annoyed me. I had become the Chief of the Magic Division because I needed power, but I never expected that I'd have to oversee such trifling work. Anyway, since I had to get it done, I trudged on out to the docks! And then, what do you know."
It was unexpected that the Count, who rarely spoke of herself, was telling a story from her past.
Roan listened to her words with genuine interest.
"People came crowding over and said, can you believe— 'Baron. What will you show us this time?' 'Chief of the Magic Division. All our lives we've done nothing but smuggle in human goods in secret.' 'Now it's really all right to work the boats out in the open?'"
Lowering her voice to mimic the people's voices, the Count looked as though she were enjoying herself.
"At those words—something came over me. I remember shutting myself away and working excitedly for a good while. Then, after a year or two of that, another title was bestowed upon me before I knew it. Ah-ha☆"
Having casually bragged a little, the Count laughed and continued.
"Having someone place their expectations upon me—that is a joyful thing! Even more so, if that direction is not about taking another's life, but preserving it. I can even delude myself a little! That perhaps, in truth, even I am not merely made of wicked and venomous parts!"
And then, abruptly, the Count's expression grew composed.
The masklike smile vanished.
Leaving only a weary face.
"Though, in most cases, the moment people realize what kind of magic user I truly am, they flee far away."
"And yet, you were called the Hero of Dos, I understand."
At Roan's question, the Count smiled bitterly.
"That nickname... I gained it when I killed the most people at a single stroke. Ha-hat."
He couldn't offer her hasty comfort.
That she had used vicious methods to earn that position was true.
But it was also true that she had now, through her research, created the foundation to sustain countless lives.
And so, Roan spoke plainly.
"You carried out my orders faithfully. You kept your faith with me, and you found a way to open a new path for my people. Whatever sort of person you may be, the work you have accomplished is worthy of praise."
"......Your Majesty."
"So this time, it is my turn to keep faith with you."
The Count's eyes grew round, and she gazed at Roan for a moment without a word.
After a long silence, she managed to open her mouth again. Her voice had already sunk low.
"I do not know if it is my place to say such a thing, however."
The Count, who had tacked on the remark like an excuse born of diffidence, spoke.
"...I am searching for a method to transform into a human."
"......What?"
Roan, who had unwittingly countered with a bemused voice, was himself flustered by his own words.
"...Ahem, ahem. My apologies. Continue."
"Ah-ha, Your Majesty's reaction is perfectly normal! For we demons have no need to become inferior humans, after all. One might even see it as quite moderate!"
Having recovered her smile and put her mask back on, the Count beamed.
"Using a disguise tool, one can make the area above the head appear human. But that is only an illusion.
As yet, no disguise tool lasts longer than three or four hours. It is useless in spaces where magic cannot be used. And it can't even conceal this useless tail."
"...Your tail is not useless."
Roan's words carried weight.
Sensing the sincerity in his voice, the Count looked at the emperor with a touch of surprise for a moment, then let out a soft, scoffing laugh.
"Yes, well. It does have its uses. Still, in the human world, it would be useless, wouldn't it? What meaning could it have beyond a diverting spectacle?"
Roan's eyes narrowed.
"Count. Were you... planning to go to the human world?"
Depending on how one heard it, this could be
a confession of potential betrayal.
Roan consciously tried to ease his entire body, which had tensed.
But sensing Roan's tension, the fur on the Count's tail bristled slightly. She spoke in a trembling voice.
"...Yes. I meant to possess a power that no human could surpass, and stir up the human world."
"...For what reason?"
"Because there is someone I must find."
Roan's eyes flew wide open.
The story was unfolding in a direction he had never imagined.
"To search for a person... by becoming human, you intended to go to a human country? And your position as high lord?"
"Is it not the best seat to amass power and wealth? Still, after struggling a few years, it rather fell into my hands quickly. Ah-ha-ha☆"
...Damn it, geniuses are so obnoxious.
What if I just gave that fluffy head a good smack...?
But Roan immediately realized that, to an outside observer, he himself would seem little different from the Count, and he reconsidered.
The Demon King was a genius with a diamond spoon, even greater than the Count.
"The person... you are searching for. Is this individual a human?"
"Ah, ah. No. She is my younger sister, a cat beastman like myself! She was abducted by pirates when we were young. I dragged every last one of those pirates out and asked them each, very kindly, but they had no particularly useful information."
"...Don't tell me, those pirates... did you..."
"Ah, ah. Yes. I merely wished to extract some information, but they started blabbering among themselves and got into a brawl and stabbed each other to death, you see? And after that, my title was created. Ah-ha-hat."
The Count laughed as though it were nothing, but Roan's heart grew complicated.
In the report Roan had received, a massive fleet of dozens of ships had suddenly occupied one side of a harbor, then abruptly fought a death battle.
The only person to walk out alive from that place was the Count.
Her age at the time was sixteen. It had been not even a full year since she completed her awakening.
Her ability to manipulate several hundred people at once already indicated that the Count's mastery, even at that age, was approaching the pinnacle of demonkind.
They had been a bunch who regularly raided the area, making frequent visits in and out of Dos. There were also beastmen among them who, like the Count's own family, had been abducted and sold.
Everyone began to hold her up as a hero.
Yet in the end, the Count hadn't discovered any trace of her younger sister.
Perhaps that was why she'd kept trying to amass power.
"I see. And so, you mean to go yourself."
"Yes. Because within Evirgio, there is a limit."
No matter that here, she was a high lord, in Merde she would be just an ordinary individual, skulking around in disguise, always fretting over when her true nature might be exposed.
To sit in Evirgio and search for a single someone, location unknown somewhere in the human world—
was nearly impossible.
Only then did Roan understand the Count's story.
If she melded into the human world with that power,
she would be able to acquire far more information than she ever could by sitting here and wielding the authority of a high lord.
Perhaps the expansion of the North White Territory's trade had been part of that effort.
"Very well. Give me the information on her."
"...Pardon?"
"I, too, shall lend my efforts."
The Count's eyes grew utterly round.
In her orange irises, the black pupils expanded as if they would fill her entire eyes.