Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Forman Barony.
"Leo!"
Baron Forman's granddaughter, Sylvia, came running over.
"What in the world is going on here...... Oh my, Grandfather?"
Sylvia's eyes went wide and she jumped.
"Where in the world have you been until now! You said you were stepping away for a while by order of His Highness the Grand Duke, and you left nothing but a single letter! All this time without a single word!"
Baron Forman had not told even his family where he was going.
"I didn't know I would be away from the territory this long either, Sylvia. And Leo is here too."
Leopold appeared from behind Baron Forman. Leopold greeted her indifferently.
"Your lungs are as strong as ever, Sylvia."
Baron Forman lived with his son and daughter-in-law, and his granddaughter, and his one and only granddaughter was Sylvia. In other words, she was Leopold's only cousin.
"And your attitude is as bad as ever, Leo."
Sylvia shrugged and shot back as usual, then asked Baron Forman.
"Grandfather, so you've been with Leo all this time?"
Sylvia was a girl of fourteen, the same age as Leopold.
Baron Forman did not answer his granddaughter's question at all, and instead asked casually.
"Nothing unusual in the territory?"
"There is something unusual. It's been a full sixty-three days since I started pestering Father about wanting to get engaged."
Hearing Sylvia's words, Baron Forman let out a deep sigh.
His granddaughter, who would one day inherit this territory, was unlike Leopold in that she had no sense at all. She had grown close to a boy at the academy where she had been sent to study, and now she was pestering them to let her get engaged.
"Mathis and I are fated. I want to get engaged."
"Sylvia, get a grip."
"But if I don't settle it right now, I might end up marrying some man who only sees my background! Marriage proposals are already pouring in to Father! Good heavens, without even knowing my face!"
"And so you want to get engaged at fourteen?"
"It's the perfect age for an engagement! Brisa Sears got engaged when she was seven......."
Leopold cut Sylvia off as if it were nothing.
"And she broke it off safely. Sylvia, I'm against too early an engagement too."
"Really? You, you truly think that? On your honor and your face?"
"No."
Leopold corrected himself indifferently.
"Honestly, I don't particularly care."
"Well, I suppose you wouldn't. Why would you care about my fate?"
Sylvia crossed her arms and sneered.
"Since the great Leopold Nozen already has a 'fate' of his own."
"Is my uncle in the library?"
Leopold did not particularly engage with Sylvia, and strode into the mansion.
"I came because there's something I need to check in the library."
The library of the Forman Baronial Residence held an extensive collection. This was because Baron Forman's only son, Sylvia's father, was the director of the Nozen Magic Library.
There were about ten magic libraries in the empire. The libraries of the Capital Academy and the Magic Tower were among them.
And the Nozen Magic Library in the Forman Barony was also a magic library.
There were a great many ordinary libraries that simply collected books. But a magic library was uniquely special, because all books and papers were automatically stored in a subspace and could be searched by title and author.
"Did you bring two gold?"
Sylvia mercilessly demanded the library entrance fee from her cousin.
"You know there's no family discount, right? Especially not for family richer than me."
"I'm as interested in discounts as I am in your fate."
Leopold tossed out the remark and strode away.
"Of course. I suppose your fate comes before mine."
Sylvia stuck her tongue out at his back.
After Leopold disappeared into the library, Baron Forman lowered his voice and asked Sylvia.
"What? 'Fate'? What does that mean?"
"It just means fate."
Sylvia said with a giggle.
"The whole time he was at the academy, Leo was searching for someone like a madman. He kept going to the library to look for traces of that 'fate' of his."
She continued as if amused.
"If His Highness the Grand Duke of Nozen wants Leo to marry quickly, he'd better pray that the 'fate' Leo is searching for is a woman his age."
"What in the world are you talking about?"
Baron Forman stamped his foot and drew a sharp breath.
Sylvia shrugged.
"I mean it literally. There's someone Leo wants to meet. He doesn't know their face, age, or gender."
"What kind of person?"
"I don't really know either, but they seem to be the author of some paper. Rather than an author, a paper factory would be more accurate? They say they have an enormous number of papers."
"A paper factory?"
"Do you think Leo is the type to explain things in detail to anyone? It's only because it's me that I know this much."
"If it's someone like that, why can't he find them?"
"I heard the author of those papers uses a pseudonym."
Sylvia tilted her head as she spoke.
"So he said he absolutely can't find out their identity."
"What's the pseudonym?"
"How would I know? What if I asked just to be polite and actually got a proper answer? Honestly, I'm not that interested."
Baron Forman nodded. Indeed, they had a normal cousin relationship.
"But Grandfather, where have you really been?"
"Never mind that. Are there any potatoes in the residence?"
"There should be. Shall I have them prepared as a late-night snack?"
"Yes. It would be nice to have some small fish with them too."
"Yes!"
Sylvia fluttered off to the kitchen.
Baron Forman was anxiously waiting for the late-night snack and had just bitten into a potato, muttering, "This isn't the taste......." when—
"Grandfather."
At some point Leopold had returned from the library and was standing before him.
Leopold asked Baron Forman.
"You investigated Brisa Sears, didn't you?"
"You didn't waste any time asking."
Baron Forman answered as he took another bite of potato.
"I like that girl."
"Is that so."
Leopold answered that he had no interest in his grandfather's feelings, then added anxiously.
"I want to meet her as soon as possible."
Only then did Baron Forman lift his head from his plate. But there was a paper in Leopold's hand.
Southern wheat.......
"And this wheat isn't western wheat. I think it's southern wheat, but investigate it anyway."
When Brisa had said that, Baron Forman had also thought it was meaningful information. To leave aside western wheat and deliberately use southern wheat, which cost more to distribute.......
And on top of that, the southern territories were not even functioning properly right now.
In other words, the black mages captured at the western port were connected to the south. At the very least, they certainly had a major base in the south.
"Anyway, to investigate the south, we have to wait until the Warp is working."
Baron Forman finished swallowing his food and spoke.
"There's nothing we can do right now."
"Ah, I'm not talking about the southern wheat."
Leopold thrust the paper toward Baron Forman.
"A review paper on southern wheat seems like it would help too. <Characteristics and Study of Southern Wheat Varieties>. Anyway, it's the only paper that deals solely with southern wheat."
It was the paper Brisa had recommended last time.
"Surely you're not telling your grandfather, who has just returned after all sorts of hardship and is finally eating potatoes, to read this?"
When Baron Forman asked, Leopold quietly pointed to the author's name.
"Hm?"
Baron Forman's eyes narrowed.
The author's name was a single letter: 'El'.
"I am looking for this person."
"......What does that have to do with the young lady of House Sears?"
"Grandfather, this person's papers aren't easy to find because their name is only one character."
Every magic library had a magical search service.
Only then could Baron Forman grasp what Leopold meant.
There were an enormous number of names containing 'El'.
The Magic Tower automatically registered papers as long as the formalities were met. So even if you typed 'El' into the search bar, millions upon millions of results would come up.
"I didn't know Brisa Sears knew this person's papers."
Leopold said with a serious expression.
"If she knows more of this person's papers, I need to find even a small clue."