Chapter 51
Chapter 51
“I know. A disgusting piece of trash who struts around without knowing his place, thinking his sister’s influence will protect him.”
“…Ha. So you do know who my sister is. And yet you dare to say such outrageous things? Young Master Ban, I don’t want to have to speak harshly to you as well, so stop this at once. If we settle this here, I’ll let it go.”
Even with their crimes exposed, they still held their heads high.
They had shown just how powerful the Duchess who stood behind them was—
“I had no idea the Duchess’s influence surpassed His Majesty the Emperor’s.”
“…What?”
“These are the number of citizens who died because of your illegal activities.”
Ban took out another document and showed it to them.
The information Emily had gathered at his request: the number of citizens who had died in the capital over the past several years for unknown reasons after drinking the water.
There were more than a hundred of them.
“You killed more than a hundred of His Majesty the Emperor’s subjects.”
“N-no, that’s impossible… No matter how illegally we dumped the byproducts in the capital, we can’t be held responsible for those deaths…”
It was a sound objection, but—
“Do you have proof that it wasn’t your fault?”
“!!”
“You can plead your case to His Majesty if you wish, but I wonder whether His Majesty will take your side rather than that of his loyal Ecclesia.”
Viscount Conrad’s face went deathly pale.
He had realized what Ban was after.
Ban was giving them the very same treatment they had given Libel.
“Are you doing all this over some penniless student named Libel? It seems my son made a mistake. I’ll tell him to go apologize.”
“No, there’s no need for an apology. Once your family falls, your children will be properly punished for what they did this time, too. They’ll receive at least an indefinite suspension or be expelled.”
Their faces had now turned as pale as corpses.
I watched them quietly for a moment, then spoke.
“There’s only one way for you to avoid execution.”
“…What?”
“Testify that everything you did was on the Duchess’s orders.”
“!!”
‘They say you tried to turn Libel against me by telling him to insult me.’
I hadn’t deliberately set out to get revenge, but I must have been quite angry too. I could tell from how satisfying this felt.
“W-what nonsense are you talking about?”
“If you don’t want to, that’s fine. You can simply take the blame for all of it yourselves.”
They hesitated.
There was no way they would dare sell out the Duchess.
“If you don’t want to, then forget it. You must care a great deal for your sister. I wonder if the Duchess cares for you just as much.”
Viscount Conrad clenched his fist tightly.
He knew better than anyone that Duchess Beth wouldn’t protect him to the bitter end.
If anything, in the worst case, she might send an assassin to cut off the loose end.
“Well, I’ll be going now. The next time we meet, it’ll be in court. Still, I’ll show you some special mercy and petition for you to be hanged with the softest possible rope.”
“W-wait!!”
Viscount Conrad gritted his teeth and spoke.
“…Professor Ban, I’ll say whatever you want.”
Ban’s true objective.
The moment the noose was thrown around Duchess Beth’s neck.
At that very moment, Duchess Beth was sitting elegantly in the mansion of the Prestigious Magic Family, drinking tea.
She still hadn’t received the news, and her face was calm.
But when she heard a knock, the atmosphere around her turned cold.
“…Mother, may I come in?”
The only person in the world who could call her Mother.
Her daughter, Joanna—the child she had carried and given birth to herself.
And yet, even though Joanna was the daughter she loved so dearly, there was not the slightest warmth in Duchess Beth’s eyes.
Joanna’s demeanor was strange, too.
The arrogance she had shown Ban was nowhere to be seen. She stood there thoroughly cowed.
“Joanna, my beloved and only daughter. You know how much I love you, don’t you?”
“…Yes.”
“Do you know why I called you here?”
“…Yes.”
“What is this grade?”
Her voice was so cold it was chilling.
“This is your first exam since enrolling, and you managed only a tie for first place.”
“I-it’s because I wasn’t feeling well that day…”
Smack!
The blow sent Joanna’s face whipping to the side.
Her face flushed bright red, but perhaps this was familiar to her; Joanna didn’t even look surprised. She simply lowered her head and stood still.
“Is that pathetic excuse the best you can come up with? How much longer are you going to keep tearing your mother’s heart apart? Lift your skirt.”
Joanna’s face was stricken with fear.
But, as if she had given up, she lifted the hem of her clothes, revealing a horrifying sight.
Her shins and thighs were covered in hideous scars.
Scars layered over one another, new ones forming over wounds that had split open.
They were the marks of countless beatings endured over many long years.
“You know these are all because I love you, Joanna, don’t you?”
“…Yes, Mother.”
The Duchess picked up a wooden rod that had been specially treated with magic until it was harder than steel.
Just as Joanna squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the searing pain of the rod tearing her skin—
“Your Grace, it’s terrible!”
“What is it? Didn’t I tell you not to come in while I’m alone with Joanna?”
“I-it’s… because of Professor Ban.”
Beside her, Joanna’s eyes widened in surprise.
‘Professor Ban? Ban the Trash?’
He was the person responsible for throwing her into a slump lately.
—It’s okay to fail.
The words Ban had left her with continued to unsettle her.
“I know nothing about how you’ve lived your life.”
Joanna bit down hard on her lip.
“Why Professor Ban? Wasn’t my younger brother, Viscount Conrad, going to take care of it?”
“W-well… there’s been a problem.”
The butler whispered, and Duchess Beth’s eyes widened.
Crunch!
The wooden switch, harder than steel, shattered in an instant.
“How dare he!! That little upstart of a nobody!”
But then something happened that turned her temper even further.
“M-My Lady. There’s a visitor.”
“Send them away at once!”
“W-well, it’s Young Master Ban.”
“…What did you say?”
As soon as she heard what came next, the duchess’s face went distant with fury.
“He says he’s here to punish you as the ringleader of the illegal Magic Crystal affair that took place in the Free City.”
I looked around the impossibly lavish reception room.
‘How much are all these ornaments worth? Sell just one of them, and you’d be set for life.’
The reason I was entertaining such pointless thoughts was that I was that nervous.
‘Ugh. I’ve ended up here after all. This was the last place I wanted to come. Especially since I never wanted to so much as brush sleeves with Duchess Beth.’
The Witch of Cruelty.
Though she was a duchess, she was also a super-famous villain who openly held one of the seats in the Abyss.
‘But I have to settle this once and for all now. Otherwise, I’ll keep getting entangled with her.’
Meanwhile, Sir Gordon, who had come with me, let out an admiring exclamation, entirely unaware of my anxious and uneasy thoughts.
“Oh! Impressive. To have entered the tiger’s den and still look so calm. I’m impressed with you once again, Ban.”
“Senior Ban, you’re so dependable. So, could I just go back now? I still have graduate-school assignments to do.”
“Shouldn’t we just go back, like Assistant Linden said? Mother… I mean, the duchess, really is frightening.”
“I-I think it would be best if I went back too.”
My companions each made a commotion in their own way.
For the record, this time I’d brought not only Gordon, the head of the Guard, Linden, and Hans, but also Katrinne and Libel.
‘They’re the people involved in this incident, after all.’
Just then—
Bang!
The reception-room door flew open roughly.
“Well, well. If it isn’t the little upstart from the Ecclesia Ducal House. Have you come here to die?”
Duchess Beth appeared, her eyes gleaming wildly.
Perhaps because she was furious, she was making no effort whatsoever to conceal her aura.
‘An aura just as intense as Puppet’s.’
My body stiffened as if I were a mouse facing a snake, but the Black Flame Dragon came to my aid.
—The Black Flame Dragon is enraged by the opponent’s unjust persecution!
—It manifests an even more intense sense of oppression!
Fwoosh!
At the Black Flame Dragon’s fiercer-than-usual aura, even the duchess looked surprised for an instant.
I lifted my chin.
“Kill me, you say? Go ahead and try, if you can. If you want to see the Prestigious Magic Family reduced to ashes, that is.”
“…What did you say?”
“I’ve come here as an envoy acting on His Majesty the Emperor’s behalf. Duchess, no matter how incapable you are of distinguishing right from wrong, even you must know what a grave crime it would be to murder an imperial envoy.”
The duchess wore an expression of disbelief, but Sir Gordon stepped forward beside me.
“Professor Ban has been granted full authority to resolve this incident by Lady Mariam, the mayor of the Free City. The Free City belongs to His Majesty the Emperor, so Professor Ban can be considered to hold the same status as an imperial envoy at present.”
The duchess’s hand trembled.
She clearly wanted to grind me to death on the spot, but she seemed unable to do so.
Still, she was no ordinary person. She soon regained her composure.
“…It seems I underestimated you, Young Master Ban. Not bad. So, what do you want? Surely you don’t actually believe you can do anything to me.”
Her voice was arrogant.
Certainly, unlike that minor figure Viscount Conrad, it was impossible to bring down the duchess over something as trivial as this.
“I’ve come to make a deal. We don’t wish to tarnish the reputation of Duke Alfonso, head of the Prestigious Magic Family, either. If you agree to the terms I propose, we’ll conclude that Viscount Conrad acted on his own in this matter.”
The bastard would be sentenced to hanging.
Her younger brother was going to die, but the duchess didn’t so much as bat an eye.
“What terms?”
“I know you ordered someone to harm my students. Swear that you won’t repeat anything like this, and since the people involved are here, apologize to them in person.”
“You expect me to apologize? How dare you!!”
The duchess’s face flushed with anger.
But I had a different demand in mind.
“And from now on, do not interfere with the education of my student, Katrinne.”
“…What did you say?”
“I mean you must give up your right to educate Katrinne.”
The concept had come about because there were so many cases of children being ruined by misguided upbringing. If a parent was stripped of their right to educate their child, the child’s education had to be entrusted entirely to the Academy and public institutions.
‘She’ll use her right to educate Katrinne as an excuse to throw every obstacle she can in the way of her growth. I have to head that off in advance.’
“I’m Katrinne’s class professor. You may or may not know this, but if a parent is unfit, stripping them of their right to educate their child is the sole prerogative of an Academy professor.”
Of course, she wasn’t going to accept that quietly.
“You’re saying something absurd. I’m unfit? I’m a Master-class mage of the Seventh Star, and you’re nothing but Ban Trash?”
“Shall we make a bet?”
“…What?”
“I’ll cast a spell for you, Duchess.”
I twisted the corners of my mouth into a nasty grin and laid my wager on the table.
“If you can stop my magic, then I’ll take back what I just said. Of course, there’s no way you could stop my magic, madam.”
“!!”
“I’ll teach you what truly great magic is.”