Chapter 56
Chapter 56
"He died before any proper interrogation could take place."
Leopold spoke slowly.
If the time ever came for the black mages to take her life, Brisa would wear that same expression.
That face that simply accepted fear alone, without being able to ask anyone for help.
He never wanted to see that face again.
"But I've sent people to Sebon. My informants will bring back information. Just wait a little. I told you I'd find out what's going on one way or another."
Leopold said in a low voice.
"I'll promise on Nozen's glory and my own honor. Please believe me."
"I do believe your promises."
Brisa answered with a shrug.
"You did your best with our engagement too, after all."
It was effective at lightening the mood.
Leopold played along as well.
"That I did. I did my best when ending the engagement too. I'll have you know."
"I know full well. You picked the flowers nicely too."
A brief silence passed.
Brisa let out a deep sigh. Then she muttered self-deprecatingly.
"The situation really is bad. Bad enough that our engagement and its end are being used as joke material to lighten the mood."
"Right. I completely agree."
Leopold shook his head slightly as well.
"Let's try changing the mood in a different direction instead. Just say something pointlessly funny."
At that, Brisa replied coolly.
"'I'll promise on Nozen's glory and my own honor. Please believe me.'"
"What?"
"That was the most ridiculous thing I've heard recently."
Brisa shrugged once.
"I thought I was receiving a knight's oath or something. Why would you stake Nozen's glory and your honor on someone like me, who's nothing? It's literally the stupidest thing imaginable."
She rolled her eyes for a moment, then added seriously.
"Don't feel burdened. We're strangers now. I have no intention of causing you trouble."
"Wow, Brisa."
Leopold jeered.
"You really changed the mood wonderfully. Thanks to that, our mutual trust has risen and our bond has grown so much stronger, hasn't it? At this rate we'll even agree on your epitaph."
"Is there anything to agree on? Just write that this death had nothing to do with Nozen's glory or your honor."
Brisa refused to concede even a single point.
It was a strange thing.
Leopold thought he would have preferred it if he could simply pity her.
'If only I'd felt nothing but sympathy, with the heart of someone looking at a pitiful younger sister, everything would have been easy.'
They had unintentionally become entangled in each other's family affairs and had only just managed to undo that tangle.
If it had all just been one-sided kindness born of guilt, it would have been very simple.
But how to put it? Talking with Brisa was strangely enjoyable to him.
'That's the problem.'
She really was a pitiful child, and she knew it, yet she remained composed and self-assured.
Curious about that cynical reaction, he found himself trying to get even one more word out of her.
No matter what he said, she always answered with an unexpected retort and a sullen expression.
'But it's not good for our conversations to drag on like this.'
He had to be wary of becoming too close at this rate.
Their engagement was over, after all, and becoming friends didn't make sense either.
Just being peers from the Founding Five Houses, academy classmates, that sort of relationship was appropriate. Brisa knew that too, which was probably why she kept repeating that her danger had nothing to do with them.
Having sorted out his thoughts at that point, Leopold slowly turned his head toward Brisa.
"Anyway, I have something I want to ask too."
"What?"
"Do you know someone called 'El'?"
"......Huh?"
"The author of the paper you recommended to me."
The paper Brisa had mentioned when telling him to look into southern wheat.
<Characteristics and Study of Southern Wheat Varieties>.
Learning about its author, 'El,' had been by chance.
The title of the paper that caught Leopold's attention was as follows.
It was short and concise, yet offered a remarkably fresh perspective.
[At first, the Aphron Pig was classified as a monster. This was because it was highly aggressive and appeared during Monster Wave periods.
However, during periods without Monster Waves, it was discovered living in burrows, and humans slowly tamed the Aphron Pig.
After that, the Aphron Pig became livestock raised in the central region today.
Among the species currently classified as monsters, there will be some that can be domesticated, and upon analyzing them through the bestiary, the following species show potential.......]
After reading that paper, Leopold tried to find similar papers.
There was another similar one among the things 'El' had written.
<On Domestication and Feed>.
It also gave examples of animals people had judged to be savage beasts being turned into livestock through feed, and proposed that certain animals could be tamed into gentler dispositions with specific foods.
He wanted to see more papers with similar content.
If so, then even a beast that couldn't understand human speech and was driven by instinct might be able to coexist with people for a certain period through training.......
Ten days every three months. According to the imperial calendar, the ten-day transformation period began unfailingly on the first day of every third month.
So the next transformation period would begin tomorrow.
But at least he didn't turn into a monster. He just wasn't human.
So couldn't he look a little further into 'El's methodology?
He hadn't known they'd written a paper on southern wheat, but either way, 'El' clearly had expertise on this subject.
"Huh? Um."
Brisa blinked.
"Why...... that person? Why are you looking for them?"
"I'm interested in the papers that person wrote."
"They've probably written more than one or two, haven't they?"
"That's the problem. I can't even search for the author. Do you know how many people have 'El' in their names?"
"I suppose......?"
Brisa laughed awkwardly.
"But which of their papers are you interested in?"
"There are papers related to livestock. But I want to find more."
"Well...... what exactly do you want? Do you want to look into all the livestock-related papers 'El' wrote?"
"For now."
When Leopold answered firmly, Brisa let out a deep sigh. Then she muttered seriously.
"I didn't expect you and Alpheus to take an interest in livestock at the same time....... Are the two of you secretly kindred spirits?"
"I wouldn't know, Brisa."
Leopold, denying it firmly, raised an eyebrow and asked.
"But is Marquess Sears also very interested in livestock?"
"Not at all."
Brisa shrugged once.
"He just said he wants to get close to me. Since it's easier to get close when your interests align. Well, anyway, just wait a little then. I'll find only the livestock-related papers and give them to you."
"Huh?"
Leopold was rather surprised by Brisa's answer to his request.
"That's possible?"
"Why wouldn't it be?"
"I told you. Searching will be difficult."
"Who said anything about searching?"
"Then how would you find them? Would you ask directly?"
"Well...... something like that?"
At Brisa's ambiguous answer, Leopold's eyes widened.
"You...... know that person?"