Chapter 828: Auden
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 828: Auden
Well, putting aside why Alicia did what she did, first I needed to grasp the situation.
I questioned my girls to see how much they understood the situation, and as expected, they all seemed to have grasped that I’d intentionally gotten hurt to stop the Arachne Clan from descending.
But even so, they didn’t seem to know the exact circumstances—that Miriel was Sara’s half-sister.
Well, since it was probably Diana who explained why I’d suddenly gotten hurt, she must have judged it wasn’t the right time to speak rashly and deliberately kept quiet about that detail.
Yet, Diana herself was still huddled in a corner, saying nothing.
Normally, she’d be puffing out her non-existent chest and proudly declaring that she was the one who explained it.
Even so, her reaction was far too strange for just having given me Healing Sex.
…Wait a minute. The Healing Sex she gave me to heal me while I was asleep—it goes without saying that she would have performed it only after all the other girls had agreed.
It would be impossible for Diana to do something like that to me alone, behind everyone else’s backs.
And while Diana was healing me with Healing Sex, it’s highly probable that the other girls didn’t go anywhere and were waiting right outside the door.
No, they definitely would have. Given my girls’ personalities, there’s no way they’d leave me injured and go somewhere else.
In other words, it means Diana did that with me while all the other girls were waiting outside the room, wondering when I’d wake up… Did she perhaps have an exhibitionist relapse and do something weird?
This definitely seems to require a deep Q&A session.
“So, what are we going to do now? We’ve already obtained the monster penis, so we can’t keep stopping them from going. And even if that person doesn’t speak, she can’t keep pretending to be unconscious anyway.”
But yes. As Sara said, it’s right to deal with this problem first.
“Diana.”
“Hiccup! W-what is it?!”
Oh, wow. Look, she’s even hiccuping now. What did you really do?
What’s more, even with Diana acting like that, it was even stranger that the other girls weren’t reacting at all.
What in the world is going on?
“No. You two days ago… No, wait. Now that I think about it, how many days has it been since I fainted?”
I was about to mention the conversation I’d had with Diana before going to the Dungeon when I suddenly realized I didn’t know how many days I had been unconscious.
Since it takes a full day to get from that turtle’s den to the 4th Floor village, it meant I’d been unconscious for at least more than a day.
“A little over a day.”
And Leia, who was next to me, gave that answer.
So, it means I woke up not long after returning to the mansion?
No wonder. Even so, there’s no way Alicia would have stayed for days waiting for me to wake up.
And it’s not like my girls would have allowed that either.
But even if I woke up soon after returning to the mansion, the fact that I’d been unconscious for over a day remained unchanged.
It seems the damage was much greater than I thought. I was unconscious longer than when I got hit once by a wyvern.
Indeed. Even though a wyvern’s attack power is stronger, back then, it was just one hit and it was over.
I lost consciousness the moment I was hit, so the mental shock wasn’t as great as I thought.
On the other hand, the turtle was continuous damage, and feeling that vividly, the mental burden was immense.
Ugh… Just thinking about it makes there feel sore.
Well, that’s not important right now, though.
“Anyway, before we left, you said you had a way to reveal Miriel’s informant. I think we need to solve that problem first.”
“Uh, um! Th-that’s right! Vanessa!”
What? It wasn’t just that she had a plan; did she, by any chance, order Vanessa to do something before she left? When on earth did she get the chance…?
I don’t think she had a chance to speak to Vanessa separately.
Ah, did she perhaps speak through magic?
“Yes. I’ve looked into everything. However…”
And our perfect butler answered as if she had perfectly carried out whatever Diana ordered in that short period.
But without specifically saying what she found out, she briefly glanced at Sara.
Ah, I see. Because to talk about that, we inevitably have to start with Miriel’s birth.
“Huh? What’s wrong? …No wonder. You and Diana were whispering to each other. Guwon, you’re hiding something from me again, aren’t you?”
And quick-witted Sara seemed to have sensitively noticed that Vanessa was watching her reaction.
No. Not only did she notice Vanessa’s gaze, but she seemed to have even deduced why Diana and I were talking alone.
She’s incredibly quick on the uptake, anyway.
“No. That’s true, but… we were thinking of you…”
“That’s for me to decide. It’s fine, just tell me. What is it?”
If it comes to this, she’s really stubborn and will hold out until I tell her.
Honestly, it’s not a very good story, so I’m still hesitating whether to tell her or not.
“Guwon-ssi. Trust Sara-ssi. We talked about this before, didn’t we? No hiding things from each other.”
And Leia, next to Sara, even backed her up.
Angel-nim. If you say that, how can I not tell her?
“Haa… Can’t be helped. Listen carefully.”
I had no choice but to explain about Miriel’s birth, which I had discussed with Diana.
And as expected, as the story progressed, Sara’s expression grew colder and colder.
This is why I didn’t want to tell her.
“Hmph…”
After hearing all my explanations, Sara replaced her thoughts with a short sound like that.
Hey. Don’t make that contemptuous face. You already suit that kind of expression so well that its destructive power doubles.
No, I know that contempt isn’t directed at me, but still.
“Hmph. Is that all? Just that?”
“Then what more should I say? It’s someone whose face I don’t even know, anyway.”
No, that’s true, but…
“If I had to say more, then yes. I thought he was trash, but he was even more trash than I thought. To die after living a dissolute life, not even knowing his own child was born…”
“No. I don’t believe that’s the case.”
But even while speaking as if it had nothing to do with her, Sara seemed quite angry.
It was Sara, properly spewing venom after a long time, but Vanessa denied her words.
“…What do you mean?”
“By Lady Diana’s order, I investigated Lady Miriel’s whereabouts before she joined the Arachne Clan, but it is rather peculiar.”
“Peculiar, how?”
“Lady Miriel appeared precisely after Lord Sauron passed away. Her whereabouts before that could not be ascertained, no matter how much I investigated—as if she never existed in this world. And when she first appeared and visited the Arachne Clan, the young Lady Miriel was already said to possess considerable skill. Furthermore, her appearance was not that of someone who had been wandering the streets. On the contrary, her attire was so neat that I even heard it was initially thought that a child of a fallen noble family had fearlessly come to become an adventurer.”
Certainly. Vanessa’s story was quite different from the conjectures Diana and I had made.
At the very least, the conjecture that she was abandoned upon birth because she wasn’t a Hero could be considered completely wrong.
No. Rather, if I put together Vanessa’s words just now…
“It seems Sauron Auden was deliberately hiding her.”
Yes. That’s the conclusion you’d reach.
Although her face was still bright red, Diana approached and said that, as if she couldn’t stay huddled in a corner even during such an important conversation.
Looking at Diana, I voiced the question that came to mind.
“The nobles were all watching him with keen eyes, weren’t they? Is that even possible?”
“It’s not entirely impossible. If two conditions are met, it is possible. First, the one who bore Sauron Auden’s child must not be a noble, but a maid—and one not sent from another noble family. And all the maids in Sauron Auden’s mansion must unanimously hide the child’s existence. If only these two conditions are met, it’s not impossible. Even raising and hiding the born child within the mansion. Of course, considering that most of the maids in Sauron Auden’s mansion were young women dispatched from other noble families for surveillance and to bear his child, I would consider it close to impossible. But since the results are as they are, it seems Sauron Auden succeeded in that near-impossible feat.”
In other words, that means he made all the maids in the mansion blindly devoted to him? And most of those maids were gathered with impure intentions?
…That’s totally awesome. He’s truly a Harem King. I want to serve him as a life mentor… Ah, no. My girls are enough for me!
“That’s ridiculous…”
“It means Sauron Auden was that desperate. At least, wasn’t his motive sufficient?”
“Motive?”
“Think about what happened after Sauron Auden was revealed to be a handsome Hero, and what kind of treatment he received.”
Huh? Well, he was literally squeezed dry until he died.
Why is that… Ah.
“It seems you understand. If that Hero’s daughter appeared, wouldn’t there be a high possibility of her facing the same fate?”
Certainly. Moreover, as a woman, there was a possibility she would face an even worse fate than Sauron Auden.
Of course, since my common sense from my original world and the sensibilities of the people in this world are different, it might feel a bit different by this world’s standards.
“No. But Miriel isn’t a Hero, is she? Didn’t you, Diana, also think she might have been abandoned by a noble family for that reason?”
“Hmm. That’s right. But perhaps Sauron Auden, who suffered directly at the hands of the nobles, had a different perspective than I, who only observed the situation from afar. Even if she wasn’t a Hero, nobles might pursue even a slight possibility and torment their own child who isn’t a Hero. Isn’t it possible he thought that and hid Lady Miriel’s existence? Or… perhaps Sauron Auden himself knew that even if the parent wasn’t a Hero, as long as they had Auden blood, the child could become a Hero.”
Indeed. Is that how it is?
Either way, I understood that Sauron Auden’s motive was clear.
And how much Sauron Auden must have strived for his child.
“But that he did so even for Lady Miriel, who might have been an unwanted child for Sauron Auden himself… Perhaps Sauron Auden never returned to his hometown until the very end for the same reason.”
“Gasp… St-stop it!”
Diana said that as if comforting Sara, but Sara, hearing those words, reacted with confusion instead.
Of course, that’s how it would be. She had just finished mentally categorizing him as trash and someone unrelated to her, and now she was hearing that he might have done it all for her, Sara.
“My apologies. Then, until Lady Sara’s feelings are sorted out…”
“No. Continue.”
“Hmm? But…”
“It’s fine. You have more to say, don’t you?”
But even while being so confused, Sara tried to continue the conversation, as if she didn’t want to waste time because of her.
Anyway, she’s incredibly stubborn too.
“Hmm. In fact, the reason I had Vanessa investigate Lady Miriel’s past was none other than this: If there was someone Lady Miriel had a relationship with before joining the Arachne Clan, I thought that person would be the one who gave Lady Miriel the information about the Dungeon and the Demon God being connected. In fact, I was speculating that the informant might have also joined the Arachne Clan around the same time and is still active with them, but it seems that is not the case.”
“Sauron Auden… The possibility that my father was the informant has emerged.”
Diana must have deliberately held back her words, but there was no way quick-witted Sara wouldn’t reach that conclusion after hearing that much.
“Hmm. It’s not just Sauron Auden. It means there’s a high possibility my grandfather also knew about the Dungeon’s secret.”
That’s true. If Sauron Auden really was the informant, that information wouldn’t have been in his head since birth.
Then the source of that information would, as expected, most likely be Sara’s grandfather.
But wasn’t Sara’s grandfather clearly an ordinary person? I clearly… Ah, wait a minute. Even if the parents aren’t Heroes, if Auden blood flows, the child can be a Hero.
Could this possibly connect like this?