“Oh, right! There might be some kind of proof down there.”
We all decided that we should head to the underground atelier. Van and I were surrounded by our royal knights, just in case something terrible happened. I thought they were being overprotective, but I let it slide, considering an attempt had just been made on Van’s life.
As we reached the door to the basement, we were greeted by a gruesome scene—a bloody magic circle had been drawn on it.
“What is that?” Van gestured at the ghastly sight.
I shuddered. “How disturbing.”
The butler accompanying us tilted his head in confusion. He mumbled that there had been no such circle drawn on the door this morning.
“My apologies. I will clean it up this instant—”
“Get away from that!” Van bellowed.
The butler was about to wipe the magic circle clean, but the moment his rag touched it, it began to emit a strange glow.
Van quickly grabbed the butler by the nape. “Get down!!!” he yelled—just as the magic circle exploded.
I ducked, and Parfeil covered me with her own body.
Blam! A thundering noise rang out. The explosion blew the basement’s door clean off, and the nearby walls and floor shattered from the force of the blast. I braced myself for impact, but it never came. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Van had put up a magic barrier to shield everyone.
I had almost let my guard down in relief, but it wasn’t time yet. “Stay on guard!” Van shouted. “There’s something strange going on!”
At the same time, red letters began appearing on the wall. Another magic circle appeared in the basement’s doorway.
“What’s going on?!” I cried.
Lady Opera’s voice trembled as she read the spell’s red letters. She warned us not to touch anything. “Offer... Sacrifice... Attack...?”
It would seem that this atelier had been the culprit’s base of operations. It was likely that they had put all these spells in place to deter anyone from entering.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of people running toward us. Before I knew it, we were surrounded.
“What?!”
The mansion’s attendants and people from the villages were all around us. They had scrolls attached to their faces and were brandishing weapons at us. They began attacking us indiscriminately.
“Everyone! They are being controlled by dark magic! You must not harm them!!!” Lady Opera shouted at the knights protecting us.
There were about thirty assailants, and all of them were residents and villagers from Diamant. The knights appeared hesitant to attack these people as they were clearly not fighting of their own volition.
Van, meanwhile, showed no hesitation on his face. He clearly had a plan for what to do next. He began shouting orders at everyone.
“Roche, I will leave this place to you.”
“Yessir!”
“Also, be sure to protect Opera. Bunny, I will leave Madeleine in your care.”
“Van, her name is Parfeil,” I corrected him.
“I’m aware,” Van said. “Mille-Feuille, you’re coming with me. We’ll be interrogating Fenetra.”
“Huh? Me? Won’t I just hold you back?”
“No, not at all!!!” Van declared loudly. Since he’d said it with such conviction, I felt that I should just go with him. However, people who were mind-controlled blocked the way out left and right. Right as I was about to ask Van what we’d do, a magic circle appeared on his back. The next moment, dragon wings sprouted from the same spot.
I had no idea that he could transform just one part of his body, I thought as I gazed at Van flapping his wings.
“You never told me that you could do that,” I said.
“Well, now you know. Mille-Feuille, I’m scooping you up.”
“I’m ready.”
Van lifted me into the air and took off. The hallway’s ceiling was quite high, so we didn’t need to worry about the villagers’ weapons reaching us as we flew past them.
“I’m glad none of them came with bows.”
“Even if they had, I’d block the arrows with my magic. I won’t let any of them reach you.”
I tightened my hold on Van to show my appreciation.
The second floor of the Noisette mansion was where the living quarters were. There, attendants who could use magic were lying in wait for us. While they were not as well trained as Van’s forces, they could still launch fireballs and water arrows at Van as we flew through. Van was able to block all the projectiles, but there were too many—getting anywhere took too much effort. The two of us were getting stalled here.
“Dragonkin, kneel before me!!!” Van bellowed out.
The air around us vibrated from Van’s roar. The scrolls that had been plastered to the attendants’ faces came off and fell onto the floor. I had no idea if their brainwashing had worn off too, but the attendants collapsed right where they had been standing. They had all fallen asleep and were breathing softly. It was best that they had done so since the mansion was in such a state of disarray.
Van swiftly flew past the sleeping attendants. “Those who use magic know the true value of words. That’s why my command reached them,” he explained.
“I see.”
While attacking at range with spells was certainly powerful, it also had certain weaknesses. For example, the people armed with weapons had been unaffected by Van’s voice, but those who wielded magic easily fell under Van’s control.
We arrived at Fenetra’s private quarters at last, and Van kicked down the door.
“She’s not here,” he said.
There was no sign of Fenetra inside. I peered into her bedroom and saw a number of dresses lined up like she had been about to put one on. Among those garments, an elegant dress that I had previously seen her wearing stood out. She must have really liked that one as I recalled her wearing it two or three times during our stay.