Chapter 8
The Male Lead Went Crazy for the Troublesome Villainess — Episode 8
Meanwhile, at the Ardena ducal mansion.
Three days after Rosana had departed with the expedition, the Duke of Ardena returned to the mansion. Until then, he had surrounded himself only with people he liked and spent his days steeped in drugs and debauchery.
The head butler bowed before the Duke of Ardena when he returned, looking exhausted.
"Welcome back, Your Grace."
The door to the Duke's office opened for the first time in three days. The butler, watching the Duke of Ardena's back, bit his lip, unable to hide his unease.
"What the hell is this!"
The Duke's shout echoed through the entire mansion. It had also been three days since the office safe had been shattered to pieces. The time had come for the hammer of wrath to fall upon the ducal household, which had been covering it up and pretending not to notice.
"Head butler! Where are you right now! Gather every last one of these damned wretches! Find out which bastard did this, now!!"
The head butler squeezed his eyes shut.
The office safe was not the only thing that had been cleaned out. Even the drug-addled Duke's sanity had completely collapsed. His flushed face, abnormally dilated pupils, and disheveled hair reeked of drugs.
"Head butler!"
The head butler, seized by the collar, bowed his head.
"It was you, wasn't it! You dared lay a hand on my safe!"
The Duke demanded, his eyes blazing. Only the Duke and the head butler knew the combination to the safe in the office. Faced with the wreckage of the safe, crumpled beyond recognition and gutted of its contents, the Duke lost all reason.
"I-I would never! I have served you faithfully for thirty years! Please, Your Grace, believe me! How could I ever dare do such a thing!"
The butler fell to his knees.
"Summon the guard captain at once! Seal the mansion and investigate every last person!"
The head butler, who had been prostrate on the floor, scrambled to his feet and ran out in a fluster. His desperate voice calling for the ducal guard captain rang out.
The Duke began checking every room with a fierce glare. His own bedchamber, the audience chamber, and even the dressing room.
The jewels that should have been in the dressing room had all vanished as well.
"Aaaaargh!"
They were things the Duke had spent his entire life collecting with great care.
The Duke of Ardena believed that only splendid luxuries displayed the dignity and standing of the ducal house. Everything he took pride in was gone. The Duke of Ardena could not shake the feeling of being stripped bare.
"Rosana! Where is that wretched girl!!"
The Duke shouted, out of his mind. The Duke of Ardena believed that every misfortune that befell him began with Rosana. He believed that the Duchess had died because of Rosana, and that darkness had fallen over House Ardena ever since.
"L-Lady Rosana has departed, Your Grace. She joined the expedition......"
"Ha!"
The Duke of Ardena ground his teeth audibly. His whole body tensed. There was no one on whom to vent his rage. Rosana, who had always borne the brunt of his anger and violence, had already left on the expedition. The Duke of Ardena asked in a sinister voice.
"Gather them all. Every last bastard."
Murderous intent glinted in the eyes of the Duke of Ardena, who had failed to take out his anger on anyone.
The Duke's order spread through the entire mansion. Before long, the spacious lobby was filled with people.
The Duke of Ardena swept a cold gaze over them.
Every one of them wore a terrified expression.
"Who is it? Who dared lay a hand on Ardena's property?"
Everyone held their breath.
But no one stepped forward.
"Fine. Search them all! Turn over every room and everything else! Whoever it is, if they are caught, they will not escape death! I will cut off the head of whoever dared disgrace Ardena and put it on display!"
A massive search began. The servants' quarters, of course, as well as the stables, the storehouses, and even the soil of the garden were dug up.
Naturally, despite all that, no culprit was found.
Not a single one of the vanished treasures surfaced either.
The Duke of Ardena sent men into the marketplace, and it was more than a week later that he discovered the whereabouts of the jewels he had so desperately sought. They were goods that had leaked out through the black market. Those who tried to trace their origin to the end all met with unpleasant ends.
And so the Duke of Ardena lost any way of ever recovering his treasures.
The Duke of Ardena's screams echoed through the capital for some time.
Of course, Rosana, on her way north, heard none of it.
* * *
And at that same moment.
We were diligently moving north toward our first destination, Greystone. Every day we marched from early dawn until sunset, pitched camp, and set out again at dawn the next day — a grueling routine repeated without end.
And now we were also standing watch in shifts each night according to our assigned squads. Even the young ladies and children who had whined at first that it was too hard to walk and begged to be sent home gradually grew quieter. Their tears dried up, and they shut their mouths as if accepting reality.
Non-combat personnel and combat personnel were clearly divided. The combat personnel trained repeatedly, preparing for the struggle to survive, while the non-combat personnel were left to fend for themselves.
Honestly, I understand Kael's choice. With limited time, limited personnel, and limited resources, there was a limit to how many troops could be developed. To fight monsters, they needed people of outstanding skill. Concentrating investment on those people would give them a better chance of victory.
I couldn't help sighing.
"Tsk, tsk."
I can understand how Kael feels, because...... how on earth are you supposed to fight monsters with people like that? It's impressive he hasn't abandoned them yet. Really impressive.
There was only one reason Kael could not abandon them and leave. They, too, had come as representatives of their respective houses. They were people obligated to represent their houses, to prove they had been present until the expedition ended — or until the moment their lives ended — and to leave a record of it. If they failed to do so and were omitted from the expedition, their house would be branded with the mark of treason.
That was not what the representatives of each house wanted.
Most of those people had probably taken these positions in exchange for compensation.
If they were abandoned, or if they gave up, their precious families or loved ones could be killed, or could pay an even greater price.
Kael knew that fact as well, which was why he was trying to lead them onward somehow.
This was a completely frustrating, maddening stretch in the novel too.
Seeing it in person, it really is.
And I also belonged to that "useless non-combat personnel." On the way here, I had been training little by little to revive my combat instincts, but they didn't seem likely to fully return before I faced real combat.
The one fortunate thing was that my physical strength wasn't a wreck like when I first possessed this body?
These days, I had found a training partner to work out with me.
"Vanessa! Get up! We have to exercise before departure!"
Vanessa groaned from inside her supply sleeping bag.
"Ugh...... Rosana...... can't we rest just for today......."
"You said that yesterday too."
"......I didn't get to rest yesterday either. You wouldn't let me rest, Rosana."
Vanessa lifted her head, on the verge of tears. This young lady, who had been tearful since the beginning of the expedition, had one fatal flaw.
She didn't know how to run.
Like most noble young ladies.
Walking for just thirty minutes a day was considered a lot for her. Taking mincing steps in small, uncomfortable shoes had been her only form of exercise. For people like her, an expedition marching dozens of kilometers was an unbearable ordeal. It was no different from the state of Rosana's body when I first possessed it.
So this kind of marching must be killing her. I had often dragged her along by force as she shuffled along.
"I really...... feel like I'm going to die just from walking all day....... My feet are completely blistered......."
"That's exactly why you need to exercise more. Do you want to be torn apart by monster teeth? You need to at least know how to run away, Vanessa."
When I gave the sleeping bag a slight tug, Vanessa rose, trembling.
"Now I'm more scared of Rosana than of monster teeth......."
That was easy to say when she had never encountered a monster. Since we had yet to meet any, some people in the party had started convincing themselves monsters were imaginary. It was just escapism.