“What’s wrong?”
“Though I didn’t make contact with that man, I did investigate him.”
“Janne, we agreed we wouldn’t have anything more to do with him, didn’t we? What if something happens?!”
“I know, sorry for worrying you. But I never got involved with him directly. I only gathered information from the people around him.”
“I see. That’s fine, then, but seriously, be careful.”
“I know. Now, about him, it sounds like he made contact with Maria Campbell.”
“Maria Campbell, you say?”
He was talking about that beautiful woman who was so close to Katarina I might have thought they were deeply in love. She was the foremost Wielder of Light in all of Sorcié. Perhaps the man’s encounter with her had something to do with that fact.
“A Wielder of Light poses a threat to anyone who wishes to commit wicked acts. However, if he only made contact with her, can’t we just wait and see what happens?”
“About that... He encountered her even before we met with him. After that, we provided the kingdom with information about the crimes of the nobles he was also involved with, and they were all arrested. The situation has changed. Maria Campbell knows a way to use Light Magic to influence people’s mental states, and encourage them to confess their crimes. That man surely must consider her an obstacle right now.”
That’s right. That mysterious spell that Maria used during the incident at that harbor town. She can render a criminal temporarily reformed, and make them confess their crimes. Indeed, if she were to use it under these circumstances, that would be extremely vexatious for that man.
A gag order was in effect for everyone who had been there to witness that magic at work. However, now that we knew not everyone involved in that incident was arrested on the spot, the chances of that information having been leaked seemed high.
“Sorcié still doesn’t know what that man has been up to. For the sake of Maria Campbell’s safety, we had better inform them,” said Janne. I agreed.
“You’re right. For starters, let’s contact the Magical Ministry, where she works, and tell them to be careful.”
“I thought you might say that, so I already contacted them,” said Janne with a composed look. I guess I should have expected as much from someone who’d worked alongside me for so many years.
As I was expressing my praise for Janne, a servant came to our room and brought us a response from the Magical Ministry.
“Oh, they sure act quick. That’s a big help,” I said, running my eyes over the message before burying my face in my hands.
“What’s wrong?” asked Janne, frowning.
“Of all the... Today, Maria Campbell has gone to visit her family home. They say that, unbeknownst to Maria herself, she is attended by bodyguards, so there’s nothing to worry about, but...”
Under normal circumstances, if she had bodyguards chosen by the Magical Ministry, then there wouldn’t be anything to fear. However, if that man was serious about taking Maria out of the picture, she might not be entirely safe even with bodyguards. My intuition, honed on the battlefield in struggles of life and death, told me so.
“Janne, do you know where Maria Campbell’s family lives?”
“I do, but are you planning on going?”
“Yeah, I can’t help but worry about her. Relax; if it turns out there was no threat, I’ll take another educational tour in town, then come back. But I’ll have to miss my next appointment. Can you cancel that for me?”
“Got it,” Janne eventually answered after remaining silent for a spell. “Leave that stuff to me. But you be careful. If anything happens to you, there’ll be quite the commotion.”
“Yeah, I know. Right, you take care of the rest,” I declared, before immediately setting about preparing to depart. As I got ready, I prayed that nothing bad would happen in the meantime.
★★★★★★
The day after our potato harvest, I heard that Maria had gone home for her day off, just as planned. Her unacknowledged bodyguards would be nearby, so I figured she’d be okay. But after what I’d heard from Cyrus yesterday, I was a little worried.
At this moment, I was in the middle of a session deciphering the Dark Covenant. Without Maria around, I worked alone, and I found it even harder to concentrate on a task that was already hard to focus on. My eyelids might begin to droop at any moment. The warm sunlight streaming into the room and my full belly worked together to summon the sandman.
Ahh, I can’t hold out any longer. My eyelids feel so heavy. I’m at my limit.
I saw a room with pink walls, and a bed with a metal frame and an azure duvet on top. In the center of the room was a black table. This was the room of my best friend in my past life, Acchan.
Ah, looks like I get to have this dream again.
Ever since I joined the Magical Ministry, I had suddenly had this dream a few times, and it had always proven very helpful. That was because I was able to watch Acchan playing Fortune Lover II in the dream. When I watched her playing the game, I got to infer all kinds of details about the game’s story, and start planning my own countermeasures.
All right, time to watch carefully! It looked like Acchan had already started playing, and Maria was displayed on the screen.
“Who might you be?” she said.
“Who the devil are you?” was the next line, and Cezar appeared.
Ooh, so this time she’s playing Cezar’s route. Cezar is here right now, so this is timely.
However, after the game progressed to the next scene, I was no longer able to maintain this attitude.
“My, though I may not know that man over there, you and I have spoken many times before, Maria. Have you forgotten?” was the next line, and a woman in a black hood appeared.
Her name was displayed as “???”
Eh? Isn’t that Katarina? Is Katarina an evildoer again?!
“Who are you...?” asked Maria.
“My, have you actually forgotten about me? I’m so devastated.” The woman threw back her hood, revealing her face...
“You’re...Lady Katarina Claes.”